The New Yorker Magazine (№ 18th October 2021) by David Remnick (Editor In Chief)

Author:David Remnick (Editor In Chief) [Remnick, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: culture, politics, art, jounalism, magazine, non-fiction
Publisher: Conde Nast
Published: 2021-10-11T14:25:47+00:00

another, and that the Florida centers

do “not use this concept of ‘Silence.’ ”)

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office in-

vestigated Naomi’s death, but no charges

were brought. The current directors of

the center, a young couple, Dan and Holly

Williams, who had taken over after the

Del Valles left, responded to the death

by creating the position of medical coör-

dinator, which Holly, who graduated from

a program that prepares people for lead-

ership positions at Teen Challenge, is fill-

ing. Dan Williams had no comment on

the finding of medical neglect. Naomi’s

death was “an inexplicable tragedy,” he

told me, adding that he encouraged stu-

dents to talk about it during counselling

sessions. “Our hearts are encouraged that

she had a relationship with her Lord and

Savior, Jesus Christ,” he said. “Even

though her time on this earth ended pre-

maturely, our hearts are filled with grat-

•

•

itude for the time we did have with her.”

to trial, because staff and residents (or

In May, 2020, Naomi Wood, a stu-

their parents) sign a contract waiving dent at the Lakeland Teen Challenge, When I first began speaking with Emma, last spring, she assumed

the “right to file a lawsuit in any civil died. She had been throwing up, almost that she was the only student at Teen court.” Instead, the contract says that constantly, for more than twenty-four Challenge who had been forced to give their “sole remedy” for any dispute will hours. On the last day of her life, Naomi, a child up for adoption. But, in my in-be “Biblically based mediation” or Chris-

who was born in Liberia and adopted terviews with more than sixty former tian conciliation, a type of legal arbitra-by a family in Vermont, stayed in bed, students and staff, it became clear that tion. A Times investigation in 2015 found and the staff left her alone for long her story was not unique. Help Unfor-that religious-arbitration clauses, like stretches without checking on her, ac-tunate Girls, Inc., had been run by a

the one used at Teen Challenge, have cording to students and staff I inter-Republican socialite who, according to

created “an alternate system of justice” viewed. She was found in her bed, hav-a 1995 article in the Tampa Tribune, had

that is often “impervious to legal chal-

ing fallen into what appeared to be a often boasted about “how many babies lenges” and obstructs families not only coma. A staff member called an ambu-they had ‘saved.’” When Teen Challenge

from suing but from gathering facts.

lance, but on the way to the hospital she took over the property, it seems to have Teen Challenge has been in opera-died after having a seizure, though it’s continued the mission. (The lawyer rep-tion for more than sixty years, but there still unclear what led to it. “Medical eval-resenting Teen Challenge said, “The

is little public record of what occurs in uation is consistent with delay in seek-program has no records” of Emma’s being

its facilities. A kind of collective amne-

ing care and medical neglect,” a report forced to give up her child for adoption, sia is fostered not only by the contract by the Florida Department of Children adding, “Teen Challenge does not pro-but by the culture.

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