Bhad Bhabie has made abuse claims against the teen residential facility, Turn-About Ranch, which counts Dr Phil as one of its supporters.
The viral star turned rapper, 17, made the allegations in an eight-minute video which she shared on her YouTube channel last week.
The social media star, real name Danielle Bregoli, used the hashtag #BreakingCodeSilence, as she made her claims at the facility where Dr Phil send troubled teenagers.
Turn-About Ranch in Escalante, Utah, prides itself on ‘help[ing] troubled youth develop into effective individuals’, but it’s now facing lawsuits for negligence.
In her video, Bregoli showed support for Hannah Archuleta who was a former teen resident of the Ranch who is suing the facility for negligence after allegedly being sexually assaulted by a staff member in 2019. The ranch has denied the claims.
Bregoli’s video outlined what she claims to have witnessed happening to other kids at the camp, such as some being forcefully restrained by the ranch’s staff.
She explained in the video: ‘While I was there, a lot of crazy things happened. I saw a kid being held down for just trying to leave.
‘Honestly, I don’t think he was trying to run away, I think he was just trying to walk out the door and get some time to himself and they restrained him and held him down.’
Bregoli added: ‘They had no problem holding kids down, which is against the law. You’re not supposed to touch the kids but they had no problem doing that.’
She also made claims about how the ranch would ‘take away necessity privileges’ such as sleeping in a bed, eating good food and being kept warm.
Bregoli alleged she was taken to the ranch by transporters who ‘come in in the middle of the night’.
She added: ‘They don’t tell them where they’re going. They just take them, they handcuff them, they put them in the car. It’s basically like kidnapping.’
The rapper claimed that upon entering the ranch, she was put in a teepee and forbidden from showering or sleeping.
‘You have to sit there for three days,’ Bregoli claimed. ‘They wouldn’t let me lay down for nothing. Like, I was falling asleep and they’re like, “Oh, get up, get up.” So I’m just sitting here like, “This is gonna be really bad,” when I see these people have no sympathy.’
The viral sensation explained why it was hard to speak up about the alleged abuse as she added: ‘That’s the thing about these places. You have no evidence. You don’t have a phone there. There’s no cameras there. There’s no evidence.’
Archuleta and Bregoli were both sent to Turn-About Ranch after appearing on the popular series Dr Phil, which sees Phil McGraw offer his advice on a variety of issues.
Bregoli asked Dr Phil to apologise to ‘any child that you sent to Turn-About or any other programme like this’. So far it is not clear if Dr Phil is aware of the allegations that have been made against the ranch.
Meanwhile, the ranch issued a lengthy statement to KSTU, “strongly denying the allegations put forward in Ms. Allred’s press conference.”
The statement read: ‘We at Turn-About Ranch strongly deny the allegations put forward in Ms. Allred’s press conference. Though Ms. Allred’s office has spent months soliciting a cash settlement, we were unaware that a suit would be filed. Upon learning of this young woman’s accusation, we took immediate action.
‘Unfortunately, her father removed her from our facility before we could conduct a full inquiry. Both she and her father were unwilling to communicate with us from that time. We interviewed other students and staff members and were unable to corroborate her story. We fully cooperated with the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office, but without further contact with the accusing party, our options were limited.’
It continued: ‘The next communication we received was a demand for cash payment in order to avoid litigation some months ago. We would never take lightly an allegation of mistreatment to any of our students. Now that this incident is the subject of litigation, we must withhold our full response for a later date. But it is important to note that these allegations were fully investigated and that the account given by opposing legal counsel to the media was incomplete, to say the least.’
Metro.co.uk has contacted reps of Dr Phil and Turn-About Ranch for comment.
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