Youngstown Daily Legal News

Bill sets guidelines for wilderness camps

TIFFANY L. PARKS
Special to the Legal News
Published: December 11, 2013

In 2011, after growing increasingly frustrated with his youngest son’s behavioral problems, Chuck Ellis turned to therapeutic wilderness camping.

“Many families are struggling to parent ... and the involvement with the camp enabled many of us to examine and adjust our parenting style to our son’s needs,” he said.

Ellis, who shared his story with lawmakers last week, wants other families to have the same opportunity and has endorsed House Bill 352.

The proposed legislation, jointly sponsored by Reps. Bill Hayes, R-Granville, and Andrew Thompson, R-Marietta, focuses on the state’s regulation of therapeutic wilderness camps.

HB 352 would exempt such camps from certification by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and require that they certify with the health department that they meet specified minimum standards.

Ellis and his wife, Sally, who own and operate Pearl Valley Cheese Co. in Coshocton County, adopted their youngest son, Austin, when he was 5 years old.

“We believed we had much to offer to a child in need of a family,” he said. “It was clear that Austin had some emotional scars from some of the bad things he experienced as a young child before he came into our home. We were aware that there were some emotional outbursts and behavioral problems; but believed that the stability of a loving family could help him to overcome them as he matured.”

After years of getting good grades and participating in sports programs, Ellis said Austin began spiraling downward.

“... by the end of the seventh-grade year we were being called by school authorities for behavior problems and several times had to bring him home from school. Although very capable intellectually, he started to get failing grades in his classes and lied to us and school personnel about his work,” he said.

“He became more defiant at home and showed some signs of violence that posed a threat to other family members. We earnestly began looking for help from our church and the school, resources with which we were familiar, with very little success.”

In 2011, the family reached a breaking point and Sally began corresponding with Joe Thompson, director of Ohio Wilderness Boys Camp.

Austin ended up spending 18 months at the state’s camp.

“Austin has demonstrated a much greater degree of emotional self-control, while excelling in the classroom,” Ellis said. “He got all A’s and one B in his first grading period of this school year. Our family, and especially Austin, have found our involvement with the camp to be a life-changing experience.”

HB 352 defines a therapeutic wilderness camp as a structured, alternative residential setting for children who are experiencing emotional, behavioral, moral, social or learning difficulties at home or school in which the children are placed by their parents or another relative with custody and spend the majority of their time either outdoors or in a primitive structure.

Thompson said the Ohio program has been in operation for four years.

“While our therapy model is new to the state of Ohio, it began in 1949 and has been used for over 60 years in many states,” he said. “It has helped thousands of troubled boys learn to make better choices and enjoy the positive consequences that brings.”

OWBC, a tax-exempt corporation, is registered in Ohio and has raised more than $3 million since its inception.

“We do not refuse a boy due to his family’s inability to pay tuition,” Thompson said. “Collectively, our families pay less than one fourteenth of what is needed to cover our monthly operating expenses and obviously nothing toward development of land and facilities. We feel that the legislation as proposed would allow wilderness therapeutic camping to flourish in Ohio.”

The bill would require the health director to adopt rules establishing minimum standards for sanitation, shelter, fire safety, food preparation and storage, and emergency and disaster preparedness at therapeutic wilderness camps.

It also would permit the director to inspect camps and access their records or written policies. HB 352 specifies that persons responsible for a child’s care in a therapeutic wilderness camp are subject to existing criminal records check requirements.

The measure would require that administrators and employees of therapeutic wilderness camps report suspected child abuse or neglect.

Ellis urged lawmakers to push HB 352 forward.

“I know there are many other families facing similar problems with their children and are at a loss to find help,” he said. “It is my hope that this legislation can be passed and more camps like OWBC will be placed in operation to bring life changes to young people and hurting families in Ohio.”

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