(CN) — A federal judge in Wyoming on Tuesday advanced labor claims against Trinity Teen Solutions, which is accused of tricking parents into sending their so-called “troubled teens” to ranches to receive advanced therapy and a quality education when in fact the kids were subject to harsh manual labor and inhumane conditions.
The dispute began in November 2020 when Carlie Sherman, Anna Gozim, Amanda Nash and an unnamed plaintiff filed a class action against Trinity Teen Solutions, a company whose website claims it offers a “Christian-based approach” for troubled teenagers in a “family-style atmosphere” where they can receive equine and other recreational therapies at the company's Wyoming ranches.
The teens claim their parents were lured to use the company’s services on the promise their teenage children would receive the therapy treatments and a continued education. The parents shelled out substantial fees and costs to get their kids into treatment facilities where their kids could grow “physically, academically, mentally, emotionally, socially, and spiritually” with treatment, according to the lawsuit.
But the teens say these promises were simply the cover-up for a blatant human trafficking scheme.
The teenagers say they were sent to one of two facilities in Wyoming, one for the boys and another for the girls. Once there, they underwent a jail-style strip search and were forced to sign a series of agreements that, among other things, stated the teenagers would agree to the harsh treatment policies and consented to heavy censorship on all communications with their parents.
Upon arrival, some of the teenagers were also forced to watch the 2003 film Holes, a film about a wrongfully convicted teenager who was sent to a brutal detention camp in the middle of the desert to dig holes. The film, according to the plaintiffs, acted as an “indoctrination video” that was shown to break the sprits of the minors before being put to work.
After this, the teenagers say they were given forced manual labor assignments on the ranch, regularly threatened with sleep and food depravation and even forced silence for entire weeks at a time. The girls say they were lashed together or to farm animals, forced to carry around a folding chair 24 hours a day for months and ordered to run up and down a massive hill covered in ragged stones and rattlesnakes.
The teens also complain of inhumane sleeping conditions. They say they were given a single pair of pants, one shirt, two pairs of socks and one pair of underwear, were forced to sleep in sheds without a heat source that were outfitted with alarms to prevent them from leaving and were given jugs to relieve themselves in overnight.
To add insult to injury, the teens say they were forced to write positive testimonials about their experience at the ranch and would not be allowed to leave until a positive review of their experience had been submitted. The plaintiffs say Trinity Teen Solutions used these testimonials as proof that no abuse took place in the event a teenager attempted to speak out on the abuse they suffered.
The company moved to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds the teens had not stated a plausible claim for relief. But on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Scott Skavdahl, a Barack Obama appointee, denied in part the request and allowed the forced labor claims to proceed.
While the judge agreed with the company that a series of racketeering, negligence and emotional distress claims against Trinity Teen Solutions should be tossed due to a failure to state a valid claim, the forced labor claims are a different story.
Skavdahl found the teens had plausibly alleged that forced labor violations were committed and that they had shown the company advertised an experience for the teenagers that did not line up with reality.
“Specifically, the amended complaint asserts TTS defendants advertised TTS as a therapeutic working ranch while in truth recruiting female plaintiffs (and others) to make them provide forced labor at the ranch and beyond with little return on the promises of therapy and education,” Skavdahl wrote, advancing the claims to the next stage of litigation.
Representatives for the plaintiffs and Trinity Teen Solutions did not respond to request for comment by press time Tuesday afternoon.
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