Human Rights in US- Private schools abuse troubled kids

A network of boarding schools for troubled youths in the US state of Utah has closed nearly two dozen programs over claims of child abuse.

However, according to New York Times, Horizon Academy and at least half a dozen other schools with family ties to those who ran the network are still operating, and new such schools are newly opened.
The Times, which has conducted interviews with more than 30 former students, parents and current and former staff members, reports “a rigid system of discipline at the facilities, which are typically locked compounds, often in remote areas.”
Alexander Chomakhidze, a former student at Horizon Academy whose family moved to the United States from Greece a few years ago, told the US daily that instead of getting help he was roughed up by staff members.
He said he was severely disciplined at the school but received no mental health counseling.
Chomakhidze, who will be a college freshman this fall, recalled that staff members held him down and cut his hair as he arrived at Horizon Academy.
He said: “They didn’t help, they just punished me.”
School officials have denied Chomakhidze’s claims.
More than 350 former students and their parents have filled a class action lawsuit in a Utah state district court against the World Wide network claiming that “in many instances, the abuse could be accurately described as torture of children.”