Also known as

Anderson Academy, Vero Beach Ranch for Boys

Location

801 154th Ave., Vero Beach, FL 32966

Website

http://ranchforboys.com/

Accreditation

No legally recognized accreditation

• Description

This 15-month residential program for boys was founded in 2001 and is connected with the international Teen Challenge network. It is not licensed by the state and no longer has a religious exemption under FACCCA.

It has been investigated by state child care officials 20 times in the past 10 years, with credible evidence of abuse found in eight cases, the most recent in 2011.

The school’s director, Maynard Sweigard, denied the abuse, but said the school once used a more rigid format when it followed the model based on a Teen Challenge program in Bonifay (also known as Gateway Christian Military Academy).

Punishments still include hours of on-and-off exercise. But in recent years, Sweigard says, he has relaxed the way he handles children on the ranch. "Our boys are happy as pigs in slop," he said. "They love it here."

Sweigard told the Times about a child in state care who was transferred to his home by an agency that contracts with the state to place foster children. Florida statutes ban children in state care from being placed in unlicensed homes.
The state launched an investigation to determine how the child wound up in the home and how many others like him may have been improperly placed in an unlicensed facility.
The home has applied for accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools as a boarding school.
 

• Former residents

Nick Palmer, 20

"People just don’t understand the kinds of children that go to places like that. Mom and dad giving them their spanking and your grounding doesn’t work. You’ve got to get creative within the boundaries of the law and within your own morals. I think, by all means, 150 million percent, that they are very fair."

He says he benefited from the program when he was there from 2009 to 2010, and agreed with the forms of control, which included kids being shackled if they ran away or got violent.

Jordan Wilson, 19

“I mean, there was good times, and then there was really bad times. The first two weeks, I couldn’t talk to my parents at all. I wasn’t there for drugs or anything. I was there for personal things. My parents sent me there for being gay. I’m more of a people person. I kind of made my way through friends. It was a lot of times where I was bullied. A lot of the staff didn’t really care.”