Boy Dies at Boot Camp
P H O E N I X, July 3 -- A 14-year-old boy died at a boot camp wheretroubled youngsters were allegedly kicked and forced to eat mud.
Anthony Haynes of Phoenix died Sunday at the America's BuffaloSoldiers Re-enactors Association camp near Buckeye, where theregimen includes forced marches, black uniforms, in-your-facediscipline and a daily diet limited to an apple, a carrot and abowl of beans for the day.
The boy had been about a week into a five-week program.
The boy's mother, Melanie Hudson, said the camp director toldher that her son had eaten dirt and refused to drink water. TheArizona Republic reported that the boy had vomited dirt.
Abuse Charges Against Camp
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said he was treating thedeath as suspicious and awaiting autopsy results to determine thecause. "There have been some serious allegations of abuse at thatboot camp," he said.
Authorities removed about 50 children from the camp and returnedthem to their parents.
The organization that runs the camp did not return calls seekingcomment Monday and today. But camp director Charles Long toldKSAZ-TV: "Our camp is a rough camp, but we endure it. When thefacts come out about what happened, it's not the components of thisprogram that's the problem."
The camp is operated by a private organization and is fortroubled youngsters who are sent there by their parents.
The sheriff said detectives had learned that the children sleptoutdoors in sleeping bags on concrete slabs and that they had beenunder the supervision of 17- and 18-year-old staff members since atleast Wednesday. No medical personnel were at the camp, Arpaiosaid.
"If you do have this type of environment, you have to make sureit's humane," he said.
Unidentified former drill instructors at the camp told theRepublic that youths were kicked and forced to swallow mud.
‘I Thought I Was Doing the Right Thing’
The boy's father, Gettis Haynes Jr. of Hannibal, Mo., told thenewspaper that he blames the camp for his son's death and himselffor sending the boy there.
