A South Carolina woman has sued Asheville Academy for Girls, its owner and 15 other related programs and entities, alleging abuse, humiliation, sexual assault, forced labor and false advertising during her mental health treatment as a teen.

The 51-page lawsuit, filed June 20 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, seeks more than $75,000 in compensatory damages for the woman, who it identifies simply as R.B. 

It refers to two residents’ deaths by suicide in May at Asheville Academy and another in 2024 at Trails Carolina in Lake Toxaway. Both properties were owned by Family Help & Wellness, and through a series of rebranding and mergers, Asheville Academy for Girls and other Family Help & Wellness programs evolved into Asheville Academy by 2024.

R.B., a Greenville resident, was 14 when she entered Family Help & Wellness’ North Carolina programs in 2016 for treatment for anxiety and depression, according to the lawsuit.

She initially stayed more than two months at Trails Carolina then transferred to Asheville Academy for Girls in Weaverville, according to the lawsuit, which alleges she experienced abuse and coercion at both programs. 

“R.B. was abused and humiliated; she was physically and sexually assaulted; she was forced to wear diapers and urinate on herself during long, arduous hikes in freezing cold and rain; and she was forced to perform commercial labor, cleaning kitchens, building stables, and laying railroad track,” the lawsuit states. “As to therapy, she got no more than an hour a week. What she got instead was untrained and unlicensed staff members punitively removing her access to food, water, and basic hygiene; commanding her not to speak; and shaming her into singing and dancing in front of her peers… .”

Family Help & Wellness did not respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit also alleges that Family Help & Wellness, which does business as Wilderness Training & Consulting, falsely advertised itself to R.B. and her parents, both before she became a resident at Trails Carolina and during her transition to Asheville Academy for Girls.

“Defendants marketed and sold AAG as the next step for R.B., convincing her and her parents that her treatment was not finished and that she would see no lasting benefit unless she enrolled for a long stay at AAG,” the lawsuit states.

The company knew its North Carolina programs had unqualified, abusive staff, the lawsuit alleges, and it had a responsibility to be transparent about that with R.B. and her family.

“Defendants knew well before 2016 that their staff had physically, emotionally, and sexually abused residents,” the lawsuit states. “From well before R.B. enrolled at Trails Carolina in late 2016, Defendants knew that its staff were unqualified to supervise, let alone treat, uniquely vulnerable students, like R.B.”

The lawsuit alleges all 17 defendants — which include Asheville Academy for Girls, Family Help & Wellness, Trails Carolina, Wilderness Training & Consulting, and others — were a “web of interconnected entities and investment entities that operated these facilities as profit centers while systematically failing to protect the children in their care.”

The lawsuit is the latest in a handful filed across North Carolina federal and local courts against Family Help & Wellness, which is based in Salem, Oregon.

Shortly after the deaths at Asheville Academy, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services suspended admissions at the Weaverville program. Days later, the facility removed residents and employees from the campus and voluntarily gave up its license.

Wilderness Training & Consulting was fined $45,000 for health and safety violations following the suicides, according to NCDHHS letters and a survey report issued June 5.

In February 2024, a 12-year-old boy died within 24 hours of arriving at Trails Carolina. An autopsy found the death was a homicide. Nocharges were filed, but the program lost its license and voluntarily closed months later.

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Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Andrew R. Jones is a Watchdog investigative reporter. Email arjones@avlwatchdog.org. The Watchdog’s local reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.

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