How Could You? Hall of Shame-Fox Run Center for Children and Adolescents

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From St. Clairsville, Ohio, “Fox Run, one of Ohio’s largest youth residential treatment centers, is owned by Universal Health Services, a Pennsylvania-based Fortune 500 company. It’s a privately operated, 100-bed facility housing boys and girls as young as 5 from as far away as Alaska. Many of the youth are sent by their parents, foster care agencies, and juvenile courts. County governments across Ohio have paid Fox Run millions of dollars to house children who have complex mental health or behavioral needs, according to county contracts.

Kids were sent to Fox Run following suicide attempts or fights while in foster care. Others were placed by their parents at a doctor’s recommendation after a suicide attempt. ”

“To understand what was happening inside Fox Run, The Marshall Project reviewed hundreds of pages of police and state inspection reports between 2020 and 2025, obtained through public records requests, and interviewed seven women previously housed in the facility. These records and interviews told stories of children desperate to escape, fleeing into cornfields, sprinting into traffic, and attempting to hitchhike. Former Fox Run staff members said the youth turned violent inside the facility because they were pushed to their limit. Many eventually ended up in juvenile detention as their behavior escalated. They thought ending up behind bars, like facing the frozen woods, would be an improvement over Fox Run.”

“Over the five years of police records reviewed by The Marshall Project, law enforcement officials visited the facility, on average, once every 21 days. They went for 52 assaults and 17 sexual assaults; some of those cases involved allegations of physical and sexual violence by staff. Police also responded to calls for unruly behavior or kids running away, or went to the facility after family members called for wellness checks because they couldn’t reach their children, or because their children reported abuses.

In March 2022, a staff member reported to police that an 11-year-old “forcibly sodomized” a 9-year-old boy while several other youths barricaded the door with a mattress. A Fox Run nurse told a detective that understaffing meant staff frequently left the floor “leaving the juveniles unattended.” Others said workers might have been out on smoke breaks.

The child was initially taken to a nearby hospital, but the facility lacked anyone certified to conduct a forensic examination. A nurse ordered a transfer to a hospital with trained personnel, but the child was instead returned to Fox Run without receiving a forensic exam.

The next day, when the nurse realized the child had missed the appointment, she contacted the police, reporting significant bruising to the face and rectal area. She said Fox Run staff delayed the child’s exam while waiting for permission from an out-of-state guardian and expressed serious concern for the child’s well-being, according to a sheriff’s office report.”

“When an officer returned to Fox Run, they found staff members were unclear on procedures for handling sexual assault allegations. It was only when the officer ultimately contacted the child’s out-of-state caseworker for verbal consent that the process of securing the necessary exam moved forward — a day later than the nurse’s order.

Two years later, state inspectors found Fox Run mishandled a separate sexual misconduct complaint — with staff encouraging a girl to work on her “assertiveness skills” after a male resident exposed himself and touched her, instead of addressing the boy’s actions.

Police also documented cases of staff directly causing harm to children.

In 2022, a staff member “violently” kicked an 11-year-old and after she was fired, she admitted to police that “she had done wrong.” She pleaded guilty to assault and was sentenced to 180 days in jail. In 2024, another staffer was terminated when he shoved his elbow into a boy’s mouth, leaving a visible red mark, after the boy hit him with a broom and called him a racial obscenity.

Last year, state inspectors discovered a child with a chipped tooth was not taken to a dentist for more than two months, nor were they given their prescribed antibiotics. Fox Run management subsequently reported a staff nurse to the state nursing board over the incident. State records indicate several suspected abuse cases in which MacKendrick, or another manager, personally called police, fired employees or notified other authorities.

Abigail, who was placed at Fox Run in late 2020 after a suicide attempt and asked to be identified only by her first name, remembers hearing other girls, including Paitin, screaming while being physically restrained by staff.

Legally, residential treatment staff can physically restrain a child by holding them to stop them from moving, typically because they believe the child is a danger to themselves or others. Sometimes staff will hold kids on the ground, against a wall or bend them over from behind. The use of mechanical devices — like belts, straps or harnesses — to restrain anyone under the age of 18 is prohibited in the state of Ohio and The Marshall Project’s review of state oversight reports and police records did not uncover evidence of these kinds of mechanical restraints being used.”

It Was Supposed to Be a Haven for Troubled Teens. They Risked Everything to Escape.

[The Marshall Project 7/30/26 by BETHANY MOLLENKOF and Rachel Dissell]

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