Eagle summit Academy is Dead!

Hey everyone. I thought i'd give a quick update to the community because there are a lot of people invested at this point and it's been months since any significant updates have been forthcoming.

A quick history to get you up to speed if you're not already familiar. The Utah Boys Ranch/West Ridge Academy is a residential youth treatment facility with a super long history of abuse against children going back to it's founding in 1964 with $50k from then president of the church David O. McKay. They've been in financial ruin since 2007 and eventually came up with a plan that would have the state take care of the education costs through the charter school initiative.

Me and survivors and former staffer have been fighting to make sure this didn't happen since last November when it came to my attention. I am a survivor of the program and want to see the place shuttered.

Up until now all the news had been bad. In january the charter board pushed it through, in March the board of education did the same, but narrowly. There had been a lot of debate, there has been excellent coverage from the Salt Lake Tribune but with very little positive effect.

Until now that is.

As of an hour ago the application is dead. In a letter to the board of education west ridge officially canceled their application. (I should have a copy of that letter soon for those interested) i've already been interviewed about it by the Tribune and there should be another article on it in coming days. I've talked with a member of the board and she believes they chose to cancel the application because of the upcoming agenda for the September board meeting which would be going into the restrictions that would be placed on the program.

This is awesome. All of our hard work has paid off. All the help and support I received from this community made this possible.

Without state money this program will either fold or change owners.

Our survivors group isn't done trying to educate people about how dangerous the facility and people who work or have worked them are but this news has me on cloud nine. We're not going to stop until this place is closed! Love all you guys!

*edited for spelling

**Update: Ben Wood at the tribune works fast. This article was posted 2 hours after my interview with him today and I completely spaced on sharing it here. http://www.sltrib.com/home/4292012-155/eagle-summit-academy-abandons-effort-to

***Second Update: Not to cause more controversy, but I just found this because I have a google addiction. This girl has been living on the streets since last november because West Ridge Threw her out. We need to do something to help her https://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=IYM17HTDwGoeHZ52f25Nwg