Residential treatment school closes in North Carolina after deaths of 2 girls
A residential treatment school for girls in the North Carolina mountains has closed after a state investigation and the deaths of two of its students who took their own lives.
Asheville Academy announced Tuesday that it released all of its students from its Weaverville campus this past weekend, saying the decision to voluntarily close was difficult.
The closing came a few days after North Carolina mental health officials ordered the academy to stop taking in new students until the school could show it was protecting girls from harm, abuse and neglect and was properly supervising employees.
That order came after the launch of a state investigation into Asheville Academy that began May 8, five days after a 13-year-old girl killed herself at the school, officials said.
The letter from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services did not detail the problems the agency found, and officials have not released additional information, including the investigation's findings.
The state ordered Asheville Academy to stop taking new patients on May 27. Two days later, authorities said a 12-year-old girl killed herself at the school — the second death in less than four weeks. The academy said it released all of its students two days after that.
'We are utterly heartbroken by the loss of a young life and share our deepest condolences with the family and everyone touched by this tragedy. Out of respect for those grieving and in deference to ongoing investigations, we cannot provide further comment at this time,' Asheville Academy said in a statement Saturday.
The school has 27 girls and was licensed to hold up to 90 students, according to the last state report on the school released to the public in March.
The owner of Asheville Academy had a nature-based residential therapy program for boys closed by North Carolina officials last year. The license for Trails Carolina in Transylvania County was revoked after a 12-year-old boy was found dead in a cabin in February 2024, the day after he arrived.
Family Help & Wellness in Oregon, which owns both North Carolina schools, did not respond to a message Tuesday.
___
EDITOR'S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Wall Street Journal
20 minutes ago
- Wall Street Journal
Harvey Weinstein Found Guilty of Sexual Assault in Second New York Trial
Harvey Weinstein Found Guilty of Sexual Assault in Second New York Trial A jury found former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein guilty of one count of sexual assault and was acquitted on another charge in his sex-crimes retrial. Photo: Curtis Means/Associated Press
CBS News
21 minutes ago
- CBS News
Cook County jury awards $20.5 million to family of girl who died from toxic levels of morphine
A Cook County jury awarded more than $20 million in damages to the family of an 11-year-old girl who died from toxic levels of morphine. In October 2020, Ava Wilson was recovering from leukemia when she went for a follow-up appointment at Advocate Children's Hospital. During her appointment, she was crying from pain, and had difficulty walking, according to her family's attorneys. Lab tests revealed she had low platelet counts, low blood cell counts, high liver enzymes, and low blood pressure. She was discharged from Advocate Children's Hospital with instructions to take 15 milligrams of morphine every four hours, triple the amount of her previous prescriptions. A nurse practitioner also increased her gabapentin prescription. Approximately 36 hours after getting home, she died in her sleep from acute drug toxicity of several substances, including lethal levels of morphine in her system at the time of her death. Her family's attorneys said the hospital should have admitted Ava to the hospital to get her blood pressure under control and treat the cause of her pain, but simply sent her home with excessive pain medications. "Ava's body was yelling out to these clinicians, 'help me!', and they just ignored it," attorney Matthew Williams said. After a civil trial, a jury awarded her family $20.5 million in damages. "While nothing will ease the depth of Ava's loved ones' pain, the family appreciates that the jury recognized that Ava's death was preventable and that she should still be with them today," attorney Aaron Boeder said.
Medscape
23 minutes ago
- Medscape
Fast Five Quiz: Late-Onset Pompe Disease
Multiple genetic variants have been associated with LOPD. However, the c.-32-13T>G splice site variant is found in up to 90% of adults and 50% of pediatric patients. Patients with LOPD often have compound heterozygous genotypes, with one allele carrying the common c.-32-13T>G splice-site variant and the other harboring a more deleterious GAA mutation (eg, nonsense, frameshift, or large deletion). Other variants— such as and c.1935C>A — are more commonly seen in infantile forms of Pompe disease. Learn more about the pathophysiology of LOPD. Diagnosis of LOPD typically follows a two-step approach: first, measuring GAA enzyme activity (often via dried blood spot assay) followed by confirmatory molecular genetic testing to identify pathogenic GAA variants. Although once considered a first-line diagnostic tool for LOPD, muscle biopsy is no longer preferred due to its invasive nature and the non-specificity of histologic findings. Muscle biopsy may still be considered in rare, ambiguous cases when enzyme and genetic testing are inconclusive or conflicting. CK levels might be elevated in some patients but are nonspecific and primarily serve to raise clinical suspicion. Learn more about the workup for LOPD. Enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) has significantly changed the natural history of the disease by improving survival and stabilizing motor and respiratory function. However, key limitations in skeletal muscle uptake and variability in clinical response remain. This is due to low expression of the mannose-6-phosphate receptor in muscle tissue, which hampers enzyme internalization. As a result, patients might experience a limited or plateaued response. Newer approaches, including modified ERT and gene therapy, are being developed to address this issue. High toxicity to cardiac muscle, uniform patient response, and development of cardiac hypertrophy have not been reported as key limitations. Learn more about treatment options for LOPD. NBS programs have reshaped the understanding of Pompe disease, particularly LOPD. A significant proportion of screen-positive newborns harbor genetic variants associated with LOPD, including pseudo deficiency alleles and variants of uncertain significance. These individuals are often asymptomatic at birth and might not develop symptoms for years, if at all. This has raised important clinical questions around monitoring, counseling, and when (or whether) to initiate therapy; expanded screening has also revealed that the true prevalence of LOPD might be higher than historical estimates suggested. Learn more about the management of LOPD. Editor's Note: This article was created using several editorial tools, including generative AI models, as part of the process. Human review and editing of this content were performed prior to publication. Lead image: UCSF/Science Source
