Operator of ranch was felon, DA says
By Larry Hartstein and Jennifer Brett, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
3/18/00
On the Internet, the Forsyth County Boys Ranch
promotes itself as a structured environment for boys
with attention deficit hyperactive disorder.
The Web site describes "a highly supervised family
living experience that teaches the students to
demonstrate responsible behavior."
A different image emerged during a GBI raid this
week. Authorities say seven boys, ages 6-14, were sharing one room in a filthy
house where guns, drugs and pornography were present.
The ranch's operator, Sean David Mask, 33, and associates Matthew William
Carpenter, 34, and Wayne Charles Carpenter, 27, were charged with seven
counts each of contributing to the deprivation of a minor.
Mask also was charged with six counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted
felon. Agents found four rifles, a shotgun and a revolver in the house at 4416
Canton Highway, which was littered with dog feces, authorities said.
"These people have no training, qualifications, nothing, and one guy with a
significant criminal record is handing out medication," Forsyth County District
Attorney Phil Smith said. "There was no supervision at all from what we can
tell."
The Carpenters, who are brothers, posted bond and were released, but Mask
remained in custody Thursday.
A man who identified himself as "Wayne" answered the ranch's phone Thursday
and referred questions to an attorney, who could not be reached. Parents were
paying $16,000 a year for their children to live at the ranch, which was also
known as About Face Academy, authorities said.
Since 1995, Mask has run similar military-style camps in Rabun County and
Telfair County, as well as one in Spring Hill, Fla.
Authorities released little information about the Forsyth ranch, which opened in
October. Mask left the Florida camp last year after the Pasco County Health
Department threatened to shut it down, said Becky Thomas, the department's
health education director.
"They didn't have a working septic system," she said. The facility also lacked
proper refrigeration, she said.
The Pasco County Sheriff's Office investigated allegations of abuse, but did not
make any arrests.
"They weren't real strong cases," said sheriff's spokesman Jon Powers. The
Sheriff's Office has an outstanding warrant, issued last August, for Mask's arrest
on a misdemeanor count of failure to register as a felon, Powers said.
Irene Bradbury of Port Richey, Fla., who worked for about a month at Mask's
camp, says kids were too afraid to talk to investigators.
Bradbury said she has two master's degrees and was hired as the camp's dean of
education. After taking the job in January 1999, she lasted only about a month
because she was appalled at the camp's conditions.
For a while, Bradbury brought in local newspapers to use in English lessons, but
when the papers started running stories about the camp she had to stop. She
also said 14 boys slept in one bedroom, and that a dirty garage crawling with
spiders was used as a classroom.
"It was horrible," she said.
News of the Forsyth arrests came as a shock to Christina Griffin of Lexington,
Ky. She found the camp's Web site while searching the Internet for facilities that
specialize in helping children with attention deficit disorder. She had been talking
to a camp leader who told her his name was "Mr. Cook" for about a month, she
said.
"It sounded really great," said Griffin, who was hoping for a scholarship for
her
10-year-old son. "I don't have the money to send my son to anywhere like this."
"Mr. Cook" told Griffin he would let her know about a scholarship next month,
she said. If she had been awarded a scholarship, she would have sent her
son--but not before visiting the facility, she said.
"I would have gone down there," Griffin said. "I wouldn't have just sent
him
down there."
The Forsyth camp drew boys from as far away as Connecticut and California.
They all have been picked up by relatives.