11 Youths Removed From Ranch School : County Acts to Protect Boys During Probe of Abuse Allegations at Christian Facility

Sheriff’s deputies Friday removed 11 youths from the Rainbow Ranch private school here after complaints that boys at the 5-month-old Christian boarding facility were being abused, officials said.

The boys were taken to the county’s Hillcrest Receiving Home for children, where they are to be questioned by social workers about conditions at the ranch, said Lana Willingham, deputy director of the county’s Department of Social Services.

Willingham said her office contacted the Sheriff’s Department after hearing allegations from a friend of two boys who fled the ranch for troubled boys a week ago. But she said authorities took their action without hard evidence of abuse at the ranch.

“State statutes say if we have an allegation of child abuse or neglect we are required to do a face-to-face contact to investigate and find out if the child is in danger,” Willingham said. “Our concerns were substantial enough that we felt we could not ensure the children’s safety at that location.”

Deputy Sheriff Chris Christiansen, who headed the investigation, said the probe is continuing but that no criminal charges are being sought against the school. He said the boys were removed “on the basis of the allegations made by other boys. It’s something the court needs to take a look at--to see how appropriate or inappropriate the situation is.”

Willingham said the boys’ parents will be notified of the county’s findings. Some, perhaps all, of the boys will be returned to their families’ homes, she said.

Willingham would not comment specifically on the allegations but said the reports were similar to those made by two youths who called The Times after they fled the ranch March 8.

The boys, aged 13 and 16, described the school’s Christian education as “brainwashing” and said those who resisted were harshly punished.

One of the boys said he was often locked in what the school’s director called the “get-right” room, a 6-foot by 6-foot windowless plywood box in the corner of the school’s dormitory. The boy said he was once put in the room for most of three days. He was let out for several hours on the second day only to be forced to do push-ups until his knuckles bled.

Ray Swan, founder and manager of Rainbow Ranch, would comment only briefly when contacted after the county’s action Friday.

“It’s been a very traumatic situation,” he said. Christiansen said Swan cooperated with the sheriff’s deputies Friday and helped transport some of the youths to the receiving home in San Diego.

In a lengthy interview with The Times Thursday, Swan said he believed his discipline, while perhaps not the most popular method, was proper for the incorrigible boys who are placed by their parents at the ranch.

“We discipline and we are consistent about our discipline,” Swan said. “The structured environment is what the kids are here for.”

Swan said boys who misbehave at the ranch are first ordered to write hundreds of sentences, such as “I will not curse.” If they refuse, they are sometimes made to do physical labor or are locked in the “get-right” room. If they flail their arms or beat on the walls of the room they are handcuffed.

Swan said he has had 14 boys at the ranch since it opened in November. Six of them have run away from the school, he said.

Swan confirmed much of what the two boys told The Times but disputed parts of their stories.

He said that the “get-right” room, which the students called “the hole,” was used only as a last resort.

The boys alleged that one student had been put in a chair with his hands cuffed behind his back and then had his arms raised over his head while he screamed in pain. When he cursed, the boys said, the student’s mouth was gagged with tape. Swan said the boy was cuffed and gagged but not abused.

And while the two boys alleged that students were sometimes placed naked and handcuffed in the wooden room, Swan said that in some cases boys’ shoes and shirts would be taken away to discourage escape attempts.

One of the runaways is now with friends in Kansas City. The 13-year-old is in protective custody in Jackson County, Mo.

The ranch, which opened Nov. 1, is not regulated by the state or county because it accepts only children referred by their parents and does not admit boys who have been in trouble with the law, officials said.

Parents of two boys who have been at the school said in interviews Friday that they were aware of the discipline Swan meted out and approved of it.

“Our son is a brat,” said one woman whose boy was among those taken into custody by the county. “He must be under guard 24 hours a day or else he will rape, pillage and loot. You name it, this child will do it.”

The woman said her boy had been in several other institutions but had failed to show progress.

“He’s improving there,” she said of the ranch. “He’s not abused. He’s not starved. He’s not beaten.”

The mother of one of the boys who ran away from Rainbow Ranch told The Times that she sent him there because he was continually fighting with schoolmates, his stepfather and others.

“We know they were very strict,” she said. “We knew they had a room where they were put until they said they would obey the rules. What do you do? Most of them are there because they constantly defy rules.”

Although Swan contends the school is registered with the state Department of Education, state officials said Friday they could find no record of such a registration. A registration number provided by Swan was that of the New Life Academy in San Diego, but Janet McCormick with the department’s Office of Private Postsecondary Education said the Valley Center school would have to be registered on its own.

Officials of the New Life Academy could not be reached for comment Friday.

In any case, McCormick said, there is no penalty for running an unregistered school. She said local school districts may declare as truant students who attend such schools. In addition, even registered schools are not actually regulated by the state.

Although the schools’ owners or directors must certify that the schools keep attendance and other records and that they keep fingerprints of employees, none of that information is ever verified, McCormick said.

“The lack of regulation relies on the fact that there will be informed parents who expect a certain amount of rigor and a quality program,” she said. She added that the department plays no role whatever in the oversight of physical conditions and discipline at boarding schools.