‘Culture’ of violence: Maryland National Guard abused at-risk teens, records claim

MARYLAND (WBFF) — At the Maryland National Guard Freestate Challenge Academy, a residential boot camp and educational program for at-risk and troubled youth owned and operated by the Guard, staff abused the teens in their care, according to court records and criminal complaints The Baltimore Sun reviewed. The teens then, in turn, assaulted each other, even participating in an after-hours fight club.

The Sun reviewed more than 400 pages of documents, including two sets of criminal charges, a lawsuit and all serious incident reports filed since 2019 that documented allegations of cadet violations, as well as investigations into allegations of inappropriate staff behavior and subsequent disciplinary records.

In all internal documents provided by the program, the names of cadets and staff involved were redacted.

Time and again, staff members hit, humiliated or encouraged others to hurt the teens in their care at the Aberdeen Proving Ground camp, internal records indicate. Time and again, camp leaders fired the offending staff members, or cadre, as they are called in the camp’s military parlance; put them on administrative leave or “took them off the schedule,” the records said. At times, they referred the allegations to law enforcement.

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