A story in a recent edition of the
Bend Bulletin detailed the circumstances surrounding the death of Sergey Blashchishen, the 16-year-old Portland boy who collapsed on a day-long hike with one of the area’s increasingly infamous “hoods in the woods” intervention programs. Perhaps the only thing more disturbing than his final hours in which he reportedly faltered, vomited, collapsed and died while his councilors looked but did little to intervene was the circumstances around his “admission” to Redmond-based SageWalk Wilderness Schools. According to an official affidavit quoted in the piece, Blashchishen was unknowingly enrolled in the school for, among other teen ailments, being “uninterested in studying or thinking about his future.” The school contracted with a pair of “transporters” to yank the teen from his bedroom while he slept. After being dragged blindfolded across the state with no information as to where he was headed, he was sent out with little to eat, but a 40-lb pack on his back, for a grueling hike from which he would never return. It’s not an isolated case. Another “student” died at a now-defunct Bend wilderness school in 2000 after being pinned to the ground by a staff member.
So far no charges have been brought in Sergey’s case but the rest of the students/prisoners have, thankfully, been sent home from SageWalk and the lead investigator is treating Sergey’s death as a homicide. But there’s another crime here: the fact that these teen extreme boot camps are still operating anywhere in the state. How many more kids have to die getting an “attitude adjustment” from some wannabee drill sergeant before state regulators wake up to that fact. WTF.
This article appears in Oct 22-28, 2009.
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His his death is a tragedy for his mistwisted parents who choosed to solve a problem by the use of a inpatient solution which could have been solved 10 times cheaper and faster by an out-patient solution.
But for the society he is just a number on a long list of teenagers who have died in residential treatment:
http://wiki.fornits.com/index.php?title=Victims
A law which should have secured some level of protection for teenagers in residential treatment remains stuck in the Senate. HR 911 is waiting while the the teenagers continue to die. What a world we live in.
This article is a representation of an ignorant mind. Whoever wrote this knows very little about the situation or what wilderness therapy is. This article is a slam to both the parents and to those that did try laborously to save Sergey’s life. I hope that if something is published in this paper it would be done with some tact and intelligence. That is why I read the Source. Please understand that these programs are not concentration camps and not boot camps. Sagewalk has had a wonderful safety record up until this point and it sucks what happened to this young man. But for you to label outdoor wilderness schools as dangerous because of that you might as well label high schools dangerous or shopping malls dangerous, because don’t children die there too. Whoever wrote this did so with only emotion and no facts to write with. What does one do when you do everything you can to save this individual and they still don’t make it. Does becoming the town’s lashing boy solve anything? Think about what you write and investigate.
There seems to be a lot emotion here (as noted by Dean), and not a whole lot of fact. I don’t claim to know much about the situation, but if what I hear on the news is accurate, then the kid didn’t go out with “little to eat.”
KTVZ reported that he went out with “just 2 cups of granola,” which is actually quite a lot of food (near 1000 calories). Additionally, while a 40lb pack is fairly heavy, a healthy 16 year old should be able to handle that fine.
My guess is that something else was amiss here. It’s only a feeling, not a fact, but the paragraphs in question aren’t exactly fact-filled. I suppose that’s part of the appeal of a section called “WTF.” It’s only a rant.
Hopefully my comments don’t seem disrespectful to the deceased. It’s just that a lot people are treating the SageWalk folks and the parents as guilty until proven innocent.
Thank You Mike… I worked in a residential treatment program here,you people whom are so quick to judge the parent’s on placing them and the staff by transporting the out of control youth with out their permission are part of societies problem. These teens come to the programs without an ounce of respect for anyone or any concern about their bad behaviors which are causing them to fail in life miserably. It’s very tragic when things go wrong in the programs and the terrible outcome is death. How quickly you all have forgotten about the beating death in downtown Bend by these “poor mistreated teens”…. society has come to the far fetched conclusion that no discipline is needed with our youth. Why don’t you try and be part of the solution instead of the problem which is creating these individuals that have no regard for other people in any way !!!!
I have worked in wilderness therapy as a field staff. One of my biggest fears every single day was having a serious injury or fatality happen to one of the kids that I was responsible for. I wonder, what is the statistic for deaths in residential treatment centers? It would seem to me statistically that kids are safer in wilderness than in other treatment because when something does go wrong so many fingers get pointed. This is not to say that some deaths could not be prevented; however, please do some research before jumping to a conclusion that the staff revelled in punishing kids and that they would dare stand by and watch a student die. We were all out there for those kids, because we cared about them. Wilderness therapy has helped thousands of kids, and I can only hope that some of the people who have benefited, young people and parents alike, will stand up and defend these people who worked so hard to help them make their lives better. Please wait for more facts to become made clear, like the as yet unreleased autopsy report. According to the Bulletin article, it was this young man’s second day in the program and he had hiked a mile. My experience in wilderness therapy was ALWAYS safety before anything else. I’m sure Sagewalk is no different. I’m also sure that anyone who was responsible for this young man feels the tragedy more deeply than you can imagine, especially when our local media dramatize and demonize the circumstances before getting all the facts.
Wow. What a lousy piece of irresponsible writing!!! Since I don’t know who specifically wrote this, I can only assume that it is the opinion of this paper’s entire writing and editorial staff. An article on another paper’s article without bothering to do any research or interviews on your own. Pathetic.
It also demonstrates ignorance when it comes to wilderness treatment programs. I worked for many different types of programs for ten years and can tell you firsthand that none were “boot camps,” the students were not mistreated, and safety was always the first concern. This incident (and I only know as much as other readers know) is a tragedy for all concerned. Certainly if the program or the instructors were criminally negligent they should be held accountable. But to condemn all wilderness therapy programs because of this or even a few incidents is wrong. Thousands of young people are successfully helped each year by programs like these. I’ve worked for many programs where a student’s experience there is the highlight of an otherwise miserable life and they ask to return as alumni or return as instructors.
The problem is the media only picks up the tragedies. The good work these programs do and the lives they save are not newsworthy. After years working in this field I also know that the kids who die from drug overdoses, suicide attempts, or violence, or who end up in jail also do not make the news. I have had students who’ve had a very successful wilderness experience and who are working to turn their lives around who return home only to be killed by gang or domestic violence. Those deaths are only a blip on the radar of the media. These programs work. Good, highly skilled dedicated people are out there trying to help other family’s children. And the reasons for doing this kind of work certaily aren’t monetary.
Any death in any outdoor program is unacceptable. But as any outdoor enthusiast will tell you, just being in the wilderness brings inherent dangers. Even well known, well established programs and commercial outfitters have had tradedies but then not all commercial outfitters are condemned for the work they do.
I’m very disappointed with the Source because you even published such a piece of irresponsible drivel. Aren’t you aware that there are lots of past and present wilderness instructors in this town? Many of them that I know have sworn to never read the Source again. I don’t know about reading it, but I will continue to pick up a couple copies a week. Even terrible writing makes good firestarter for the woodstove.
I would like to start by saying I do agree that it is a tragedy for someone so young to lose their life,and it should have never happen.For those of you that claim The Source maintained a self righteous accusation when they wrote “Hoods In The Woods”, here is something to consider. Their progra( Sage Walk) possesses a terroristic approach when recruiting these young kids. With out their consent or knowledge they are abducted in the middle of the night. Bags throwen over their heads,restrained, and then tossed into the back of a van. This would be tramatic for anyone regardless of age. Then they are driven into the backcountry to a unknown location,and being forced to hike mile after mile before they are even given a psyhical exam. As for the counselors I know for certain that some of them or cocain,and heroin addicts, and live in the bars during their routations.Yea I didn’t hear any mention of this from those trying to justify the actions of this company. W.T.F these are the people that we are suppose to trust are kids lives with. I think not!
From my experience in the Woods with the Hoods, it was compassion and patience that was helpful. Judgement and saying WTF are disrespectful to this complicated situation. The disrespect in the WTF collum also has a ripple effect on the many people who have put a lot of hard work into other people’s (not hoods) lives. I think that the source could have put some more time and thought into the article in respect for the situation and everyone who has been involved whether that be directly involved or indirectly.
Wally Fox
SageWalk was not a concentration camp, and it wasn’t a adolescent jail either. I attended this very camp the same year, the same day the 16 year old boy passed. Everyones food portions are the same amount regardless of just arriving or going on your second month… And you receive a physical (at the doctors office) before you are blind folded… The staff did everything they possibly could that day, and the sad thing is the campers (hoods/detainees) are the only people who know they gave it their all to try and save his life.
So please before you talk bad about this subject, realize that it saves others life’s. Wilderness therapy works and I will contest to that and all of the staff that helped me.
Well this is an old topic, but since you posted this year i will also. I worked for sagewalk years before this happened, and not for that long due to my own health issues, and it was very emotionally exhausting. I loved my kids though! I do believe that I helped several of the kids i had the privelage to work with which is what brought me to this post today! I was hoping maybe there was some website where they were reconnecting. I saw beautiful relationships develop and kids realize they were in charge of their destiny and they could succeed, no matter what was going on at home. I worked with some very steller kids who just hadn’t realized it yet. To my kids out there, circa ‘2000 I hope you are all doing well, and I think of you often. By the way things are a bit different now, but back then it was not usually the kids who had the problem, it was the parents. I saw kids blossom and flourish in the program, and they felt it too, they had pride when they graduated!
I went to Sagewalk, and while it helped me in some ways, it hurt me a lot more. My pack was about 60 pounds – not 40. In the summer, it is devastatingly hot (I was there May-July), especially when you’re hiking 12 miles with a 60-pound pack. We weren’t allowed to take the packs off on hiking breaks, which were few and far between. We had to lean against trees when we peed so we wouldn’t fall over. For three weeks of my 64-day stay, we all drank disgusting green water because staff lost the big pot to boil our nalgenes in. I had to sleep with my mug tied around my neck once as a punishment for not cleaning it perfectly with only firelight to see. School work was an absolute joke. A 10-year-old could’ve done the work I was doing there at age 16. We were only allowed one roll of toilet paper each month. They taught us to never be “wasteful” with food, which meant forcing girls to eat everything they cooked, even when they were throwing up from being too full. There was one night half the camp was puking, and I was still hungry, but they wouldn’t let me help eat their food – it was all about cruel lessons and punishment, and not at all about wasting food. The therapist I had was cold and unhelpful. I think the staff and the drug/alcohol counselor had good intentions, but almost everyone who went there still ended up worse off anyway. The therapist brainwashed my mom into thinking I needed additional lockdown treatment afterwards. I spent 2.5 years in lockdown treatment facilities against my will, and it made me a worse person. It made me cruel and judgmental. It destroyed my social skills. It didn’t teach me to be a leader – it taught me how to keep my mouth shut and follow orders for fear of punishment. I missed basically everything you’re supposed to learn in high school. It taught me how to be a better criminal, how to get away with things under extreme supervision. I was sent away because I was grieving my father’s death, and everything somehow got even worse.