Former Ranch kids describe tough treatment

PHIL DRAKE   | Great Falls Tribune

Dasha Springer said one thought immediately came to mind when she heard 27 children at the Ranch for Kids had been removed last week by the state amid allegations of mistreatment.

“I wonder what took so long,” she told the Tribune in a recent telephone interview.

Springer said she had spent two years at the ranch, from 2007-2009, and she described several incidents of mistreatment at the private adolescent treatment program, including a 5-year-old boy who she said was forced into a closet for two days for stealing a rubber band for his rubber-band ball. And she said there were girls who were forced to sleep in horse stalls.

Several camps have emerged in the aftermath of the license being yanked from the home July 23, when state officials, accompanied by law enforcement came to the ranch in Rexford to remove the children.

On one side, so far, are two former residents of the home who describe themselves as troubled teens who were in an atmosphere of tough treatment, sometimes overly tough. On another side are parents who say the program was effective for their children and are angry with the state as to how the children were removed from the home and the aftermath. 

Yet on another side is William Sutley, the executive director of the ranch, who agrees his methods are not traditional, but says they are effective in dealing with a challenging clientele.

And another side may been the be a host of parents, children and state officials now involved.

 The ranch offers a treatment program for children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and Reactive Attachment Disorder. It primarily provides services to adopted children from Russia. 

Montana officials removed the children from the youth treatment facility due to allegations of egregious, chronic and persistent child abuse and neglect. The allegations include physical and psychological abuse and assaults of children by staff at the ranch, including an allegation that a student was shot at with a nail gun, state health officials said.

Students, ages 11-17, allegedly were hit, kicked, body slammed and spit on by staff. The staff was also accused of inflicting persistent psychological abuse on children and using excessive discipline, including 15- to 20-mile walks on remote forest service roads in harsh conditions, with improper or no shoes. They were also accused of withholding food and prolonged isolation. The state said abuse allegations regarding the ranch have escalated in frequency and severity in recent months.

The private facility’s license has been suspended, but Sutley says he wants to reopen.

Springer said she was adopted when she was 10 and did not get along with her adoptive parents.

“I just didn’t follow the rules they had for me,” she said.

Springer said her parents told her one day they were going to send her to an “awesome place” in Montana where she could ride horses.

She said students were placed at certain levels at the school. That included one level in which the children had to sit in the corner, another level was isolation. She said those levels included little or no food.

Letters coming in and out of the ranch were read, they said. Springer said bungalows had no heat. She said hard-labor chores included digging holes that were never used.

“I wasn’t a perfect kid,” Springer said. “To get out, you had to be good -- you had to be good.

“You had to fake it so you make it to get out of there,” she said..

She remembers being in the school house and 5-year-old boy took a rubber band for his rubber-band ball. She said he was stuffed into a closet for two days without food or water.

“You have kids from another country, you know the things that we went through,” Springer said. “How are you OK punishing or traumatizing us more after knowing what we have been through?”

She said staff members who genuinely cared about the residents were let go.

Christina McCulloch, 27, said she was at the ranch from the time when she was 13 to 16.

She was adopted from Russia when she was 5.

McCulloch said she called her adoptive father when she heard the news the ranch had been raided by the state.

“I tried to tell you that stuff was going on,” she said she told him, adding he began to cry, before saying he just couldn’t believe her at the time.

Sutley said Monday he remembered the two females and said they were in a different program and different place.

"We have been a work in progress over the years, and we've learned a lot," he said. "Their experience would be different from today."

He said he would "love" to talk to them and hear their perspective.

"I want to be able to face people who do have issues, he said. "If it is painful to share, those criticisms allow us to get better and get closure on things."

He said he has talked with parents who have had children removed. He estimated 75% of those parents would bring  their kids back to the ranch if the license were reinstated.

Last week, the day after the state removed the children, Sutley said the ranch understands better than most clinicians this particular population of kids and their issues.

He said the accusations of abuse were “patently lies” and said people are treated with dignity, accountability and respect. He also said the building has 16 cameras, 24-hour surveillance.

“I have more experience with this population of kids than any other clinician on the planet,” Sutley said, adding he has been doing this for 15 years.

He said he uses various principles, such as the the Mandt System, which he said builds trust in relationships and helps parents de-escalate conflicts in the home.

“Unfortunately, society has boxes, and there is no model for what we do,” Sutley said. 

He said his team of about 15 understands the disorder and is trained in working in a specific area.

McCulloch thought she was experiencing what most girls her age go through.

“I was just a teenager,” she said. “I was 13 and my hormones were all crazy.”

McCulloch said when she arrived she was dressed down.

“One of the owners looked me in the face and said, 'You are here because you horrible and you deserve to be punished,'” she recalled. She said her bags were searched for candy and snacks, which were given to the staff.

She also remembers children locked in closets, verbal abuse, mental abuse and “them telling us you will never be good enough, it is horrible how you treat your parents.”

McCulloch remembers hard, manual labor, picking up boulders, being forced to hike up mountains. The work also included building structures, digging landscaping for one of the cabins they are building.

She remembers how she felt upon hearing the state had intervened.

“I was relieved. I was finally: ‘Thank God, these kids are going to be taken to somewhere safe.'”

“… most of kids there had emotional disorders,” she said. “We weren’t horrible, lying crazy psychos, we were kids,” she said. “We just needed somebody to listen to us, to say you’re a kid, you’re going to f**k up.” 

The story of the two young ladies who once were at the camp vary greatly from two mothers who had daughters at the ranch. On Friday, Clare Higgins of Pennsylvania and Tane Larrabee of Hawaii spoke with the Tribune.

Both said they understood the allegations against the home have to be investigated, but their daughters did not have a negative experience at the ranch.

“I found the staff to be unbelievably loving, patient and caring,” Higgins said. “The folks at the ranch never gave up on her and her behaviors were pretty extreme,” Higgins said, adding these are children require love not as traditional as you would expect.

“She is a completely different child than the child we sent. She is strong, brave, insightful,” she said. “The people there have changed her life and changed our life as well.

 “It was life-saving and life-changing,” Higgins said. “It’s probably not the right place for everyone, but it was the right choice for her.”

Larrabee agreed, saying she had never heard any negative reports about the ranch.

The Tribune received an email from one mother to DPHHS about the "miracles" the ranch had done for her son, Sasha.

"We had tried several different residential facilities to help Sasha over the years, and Sasha made the most progress by far at Ranch for Kids under Mr. Sutley’s direction and structured system of increased privileges for good work and behavior," Kathryn E. Kelly wrote. She said neither she nor her son had ever seen or heard of any allegations of abuse.

"I can’t imagine what prompted this turn of events to withdraw their license and take custody of these kids, but I hope you give Mr. Sutley the benefit of the doubt," Kelly wrote. 

She added her son had tried several programs over the years and had made the most progress with Sutley.

"These kids (and their parents) desperately need the help he and his staff provide these troubled youth," Kelly wrote.

McCulloch stood by her comments.

“I hope your children had a good experience, but some of us didn’t,” she said.

Springer and McCulloch said they eventually left the ranch and entered the Job Corps, a program through the U.S. Department of Labor Job Corps, which helps young people 16-24 complete their high school education, trains them for careers and helps them get jobs.

For Springer, who said she was channeled to Job Corps through the ranch, it changed her trajectory for the better.

“I have an amazing life,” she said, adding she has been with her fiance for six years, got her high school diploma, a college degree in medical assisting and now does property management.

“I don’t think I want kids, not anytime soon,” she said.

Springer said she is now grateful her adoptive family sent her away or else she wouldn’t be where she is now.

She blames her childhood behavior on the fact she was angry and felt abandoned. “We were not perfect kids, not greatest kids whatsoever,” Spring said. “I am very happy in Utah, this is my home.”

McCulloch now lives in California. She is a stay at home mom with three children. Her husband is in the military.

She said she had a lot of anger toward her family after she left the ranch for sending her there.

“I had a huge grudge,” she said. “God knows where I would be if my parents had taken me back. I could be in college.

“But I chose the life I have now.”

This was the first such action since the Department of Public Health and Human Services took over overseeing the Private Alternative Adolescent Residential and Outdoor Program from the Department of Labor and Industry as of July 1.

The change was prompted by a series of stories by the Missoulian that found the board charged with overseeing the program had seen 58 complaints, yet did not issue significant sanctions.

Sutley said Monday he has talked with his attorney about getting the license reinstated.

He said he was navigating through this stressful situation, and "I am looking for transparency and truth to emerge."

"I do not think criminal charges are in the works, but you never know," Sutley said. "I'm just taking it a day at time and try to add value to each conversation."

He said it is a battle on many fronts: spiritual, financial and legal and described it as anemotional rollercoaster.

"We're doing the best we can, and I am optimistic," Sutley said.

Phil Drake is our eye on the state capitol. For tips, suggestions or comment, he can be reached at 406-231-9021 or pdrake@greatfallstribune.com. To support his work, subscribe today and get a special offer.