"Fight or Be Beaten": Chilling Lawsuits Allege Serious, Systemic Abuse at an Alabama Youth Camp

Rather, according to two recent lawsuits, Camp SAYLA, a child program in Henry County, Alabama, turned into something far more sinister, where suffering was the cost of surviving and brutality was the norm.

As part of a staff-run "bounty system," youngsters were compelled to fight for rewards in a heartbreaking setting, according to the complaints. A site where boys were allegedly tossed into trash cans like rubbish, hit with socks filled with potatoes, and beaten with broomsticks. where refusing violence meant you were the next victim.

It sounds unimaginable. However, it was just another day for the kids who came forward.

A Fear-Based Camp

Kenyatta Danzey, 46, a former employee who was charged with 17 charges of child abuse last year, is at the core of the claims. Although his criminal trial is set for September, the civil lawsuits imply that the system as a whole was the issue, not just one individual.

One child claims that after declining to join in a brawl, he was put in a janitor's closet. Another claims he was instructed to "man up" after reporting injuries from a beating. Others talk about everyday uncertainty and worry, which is a poisonous combination for children who are already at risk.

According to one lawyer working on the case, "they were not helping these youngsters." They were dismantling them on a psychological, emotional, and bodily level. Discipline was not practiced here. There was fighting.

From Second Chances to Scars Like many youth programs in the South, Camp SAYLA was promoted as a place that could set youths straight and as a tough-love substitute for juvenile prison. However, the complaints contend that it was not so much a fitness program as a battle zone.

Staff allegedly used the "bounty system" to keep the children under control. If you beat someone up, you got more food or favors. If you didn't, you ran the chance of becoming the next victim.

There was no structure here. The fittest were frequently the cruelest; it was survival of the fittest.

An Ineffective System from the Top Down

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect is that the lawsuits claim that adults were aware of it but did nothing.

The attorney for one plaintiff stated, "This was not just one terrible actor." "This was a case of institutional neglect." Supervisors turned their heads. On their watch, children suffered injuries. They are therefore complicit.

The civil cases seek accountability in addition to restitution. For the survivors, justice comes from being believed and ensuring that this does not happen to anybody else, not from creating headlines.

A long-overdue confession

These kinds of cases frequently end quietly because of small communities, weak plaintiffs, and an unfavorable system. However, the specifics of these lawsuits are too explicit, too graphic, and too vivid to overlook.

There is more than one camp or employee at risk here. It is the more general issue of how to care for kids who are already traumatized and what occurs when the environments that are supposed to shield them end up doing more harm.

These children were not the only ones let down by Camp SAYLA, if the accusations are accurate. They were betrayed by it. The individuals responsible will now have to answer for that in front of the public and in court.

Because broomsticks, bounty systems, and bruises should not be a part of childhood.

It ought to be safe.

And regardless of their background or experiences, every child deserves it.