Parents and graduates rally to defend Re-Creation Retreat, condemn the sudden action by the Arizona Department of Health Services

In response to the Arizona Department of Health Ser­vices’ sudden closure of the Re-Creation Retreat (RCR) in Fredonia, parents and graduated students across the country have begun con­tacting local news sources in a concerted movement to defend the retreat, and rebuke the ADHS for their sudden, short-term action in closing the facility down.

Said one parent of an ac­tive student, “We had no time to adjust or prepare for this. This is a deeply trau­matizing experience. These are not typical children, they have special needs and the state is not respecting that … what happens to our children now? There’s no help. Randy and Toni are the first people, ever, that I could see my daughter with and say ‘she can get through this,’ not get rid of her mental health, but to be a part of her society. I can’t even begin to tell you what good Randy and Toni have done for our family.”

Said another parent, “Our daughter was there for about a month, after run­ning away from our home and becoming a missing person. She ran away from one other facility, she was declared a threat to her own life. That’s what’s be­ing misrepresented, RCR and its practices are saving lives. Our daughter went into RCR as a literal lifesav­ing measure and she started flourishing. She was taken and interviewed by the Department of Health with­out our consent, we never would have allowed such an interview, and when we filed a complaint they disrespected us and could not care less. All this was done in the name of help­ing these girls, and what the state has done is ir­reparable harm, it is tragic. What they’ve done is devas­tate nineteen girls and the livelihood of a family that is trying to help an already vulnerable population.”

These families, includ­ing prior students of RCR, condemned the closure of the facility in general, and the abbreviated nature of the closure in specific. One angry parent stated, “We feel our children were being treated very humanely … and then I had to drop everything and spend $4,000 I didn’t have on a plane ticket to travel across the country, then when I couldn’t get to her, they sent her to a facility I did not vet, without my consent, and made me pay $8,000 I didn’t have to do it … they displaced 30 girls in the middle of the desert.”

Some former graduates of the school consented, with their parents present, to interview with Southern Utah News, and each one denied the accusations leveled against the facility by the ADHS, stating there was no evidence of mistreatment or abuse.

While some parents of RCR residents who were active during the closure confirmed they were able to bring their daughters home, and some confirmed their daughters are safe and progressing in other facilities, some have reported their daughters fled custody upon arriving at a new treatment facility, and one was reported lost in transit with location still unknown.