Danielle Bregoli, also known as Bhad Bhabie, is presenting her experience at the Turn-About Ranch in Escalante, UT. She was placed on the troubled teen desert program after her viral appearance in Dr. Phil in 2016. In a YouTube video uploaded on Friday, she details how she was kidnapped in the middle of the night, handcuffed and taken to an isolated ranch, where she was denied “privileges of need” and witnessed disturbing behavior, including other children being physically restrained by the staff. Bregoli, who is now 18, was sent to the abusive program when she was just 13.
“I was taken there against my will,” says Bregoli. “[They] comes in the middle of the night, they don’t speak [the kids] where are they going. They just pick them up, handcuff them and put them in the car. It’s basically like kidnapping. “
The rapper says she was inspired to share her story after a fellow participant in the program and Dr. Phil Former student Hannah Archuleta accused one of the Turn-About employees of sexual assault. “When I had seen the punishments [Archuleta] it was given, I knew I really had to say something … because I really believe they did it, “she said in the video.
“It is just our word against the word of the staff when you are there, because there are no witnesses, there are no cameras, you do not have a phone, there is none of that,” explained Bregoli. “That’s why I was so scared to speak, because I was like, ‘No one is going to believe me.'”
There are hundreds of such programs across the country, and they have been under intense scrutiny recently. Bregoli’s claims are comparable to those of Paris Hilton, who was also sent to a wild teen program in Utah, as well as to Provo Canyon School, a boarding school for troubled teenagers. Hilton talked about the trauma she suffered last year in her documentary This is paris and also works closely with Breaking Code Silence, a social movement organized by Troubled Teen Industry survivors that Bregoli highlighted in his YouTube video description. Sending “troubled teens” to programs like this is “part of the entire Dr. Phil show,” according to Bregoli. In her YouTube video, the 18-year-old said that although her mother had threatened to send her away before, Bregoli never believed she would actually do it – until she ended up at Turn-About Ranch.
Bregoli’s video includes many worrying details about his time at the ranch, which is still in operation, including being forced to sit for three days in a row – lying down and sleeping comfortably was apparently not allowed. “This place is for taking privileges, like everything is fine, the phone and TV and everything, but it takes privileges out of necessity, like sleeping in bed, eating good food, not feeling cold”, he revealed. Program participants were required to do intense manual work and would be punished if they broke any of the ranch’s numerous rules – or if a team member was in a bad mood, Bregoli said. She also described being ignored after telling team members that another student was being bullied or mistreated by a classmate.
In a disturbing part of the video, Bregoli reported hearing about the death of James “Jimmy” Woolsey, a Turn-About Ranch employee who was murdered by a teenager enrolled in the program, via a counselor’s walkie-talkie, a experience that she calls traumatic and scary.
“I’m not sure why Dr. Phil still sends children here. It doesn’t really make sense, ”says Bregoli. “Are you trying to help them or are you trying to hurt them even more?”
Dr. Phil’s representatives did not respond to Refinery29’s request for comment, and Dr. Phil – who has not renewed his license to practice psychology since 2006 – has not yet publicly responded to Bregoli’s allegations.
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