Former campers describe North Carolina wilderness program where boy died last month

Former campers at Trails Carolina, a North Carolina wilderness program for troubled youth where a boy died last month, recall fear and humiliation.

The 12-year-old who died last month at a North Carolina wilderness program for troubled adolescents spent his first and only night there on the floor of a bunkhouse. His sleeping bag was inside a small tent with an alarm pinned to the zipper, rigged to go off if he tried to get out, a staff member told authorities. 

He had been “loud and irate” when he arrived earlier that day and had refused to eat dinner, the counselor told detectives, adding that the boy had a panic attack just after midnight. The counselor said staff checked on him twice before discovering him unresponsive at 7:45 a.m. with his pants and underwear lying next to his shoulder, search warrants stated.

Little else is known about the boy’s brief time at Trails Carolina in Lake Toxaway, and his cause of death is still under investigation. But interviews with 14 people who attended Trails Carolina between 2013 and 2022 and three former staff members, along with a review of state inspection reports and court filings, reveal that there have long been concerns about how children were treated at the camp.

For many of the former participants who spoke to NBC News, those problems began in their first days with protocols that left them confused and scared. They described strip searches, bathroom restrictions and having to read upsetting letters from their parents aloud.

“I know if I had died on my first night, I would have died believing that I was unloved and unwanted,” said Rebecca Burney, 21, whose parents sent her to Trails Carolina the day after her 14th birthday. “A 12-year-old boy does not deserve any of that.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trails-carolina-wilderness-camp-death-rcna139942

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