SALT LAKE CITY ( ABC4 ) — When he was 15, Finn Pool says he was kidnapped in the middle of the night from his Washington, D.C., home and taken across the country to a teen treatment center in northern Utah.
The moment he entered Elevations RTC , located in Davis County, the teenager was stripped naked and made to bathe, Pool detailed in an article published Monday in Newsweek . The experience left him feeling broken and betrayed by his father.
Utah troubled teen center sued by former patient for alleged abuse, neglect
“I don’t think I’d ever cried more in my life,” he told ABC4.com.
Pool spent roughly 10 months at Elevations, only leaving through the interventions of his mother and a lawyer. In January, the now 18-year-old sued the treatment center , alleging neglect and abuse. He claims Elevations was more concerned about the paychecks coming from his father than his own well-being.
Since he left the treatment center, Pool has become an advocate for other survivors of what’s been called the “troubled teen industry.” For-profit care facilities operate across the country, but Utah has historically been known as the industry’s epicenter, with more teens sent to treatment centers here than in any other state, The Salt Lake Tribune reports.