Staff instigated fights among teens at ‘house of horrors’ youth facility, lawsuit says
An Alabama teen lived in filth and suffered abuse at a for-profit youth residential facility described as a “house of horrors”, a new lawsuit charges.
Brighter Path Tuskegee faces a negligence suit related to its treatment of a 15-year-old resident, a year after another resident died at the facility.
“No child should endure what our client experienced in this facility,” Tommy James, a lawyer representing the teen, said in a news release provided to McClatchy News. “He and other residents were treated worse than animals. It is sickening.”
The lawsuit, filed Aug. 31 in Macon County, says the teen “constantly feared for his safety” during his time at the facility. He was placed in the facility beginning Jan. 18, James said. He was at Brighter Path until March 24.
He left the facility when his guardian ad litem, an Alabama attorney appointed to represent his interests, found out about the conditions of the facility. She requested an emergency hearing so he could be removed.
The facility was formerly known as Sequel TSI. Sequel operates other youth behavioral facilities in Alabama, but it briefly shut down and rebranded as Brighter Path following a string of abuse allegations, WAFF reported. The company was also the subject of a nearly 70-page report by the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program detailing “deplorable living conditions.”
“Over and over, boys told us ‘I don’t feel safe here,’” the report says.
The 2020 report from the ADAP shows photos of residents’ rooms covered with feces and testimonials from residents who said they were physically and verbally abused by staff.
The state can place adolescents deemed delinquent by a court in a facility for young people with behavioral difficulties, according to the facility’s website.
“Even when staff was present, (the plaintiff) was frequently assaulted by other residents,” the suit says. “This was because staff frequently instigated fights among the residents.”
The lawsuit says the teen, who was “brutalized” by staff and other residents, did not receive an education and was bitten by bed bugs.
The suit names the facility and its parent corporations as well as the director of the center as defendants. It also will name other defendants yet to be identified.
Lawyers are seeking compensatory and punitive damages on their client’s behalf.
“It is heartbreaking to see yet another child being abused under the very roof that promises safety and care,” James said in the release. “The pattern of abuse in these facilities is alarming. The stories we hear are the stuff of nightmares.”
The plaintiff’s legal team has filed other suits on the behalf of the facility’s residents, including a pending wrongful death lawsuit for the family of Connor Bennett, who died by suicide at the facility in April 2022.
Tommy James, Jeremy Knowles, Walter McGowan and Caleb Cunningham are representing the 15-year-old in the latest lawsuit.
The facility’s website says “the treatment staff provides comprehensive, challenging, and therapeutic services for adolescent males ages 12 to 18.”
Brighter Path Tuskegee is licensed by the Alabama Department of Youth Services and the Alabama Department of Human Resources, according to the facility’s website. McClatchy News could not immediately reach either department or Brighter Path.
The state continues to place young people in these facilities, James says, despite a “pattern of abuse.”
“The stories we hear are the stuff of nightmares,” he said.
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