The situation finally exploded in April when a brawl erupted at Red Rock Canyon School involving dozens of students and staff.
In all, 50 police officers responded, some in SWAT vests and armed with AR-15s. Kids were cuffed and some were injured. Seven youths and one staffer were criminally charged.
The mayhem had seemingly been building for months, the culmination of a string of altercations and violence, often inflicted by staff on teens at the St. George rehabilitation facility, other times resident-to-resident.
The kids at Red Rock range in age from 12 to 18 and are sent there — some by parents, some by out-of-state foster systems, some by judges — to get psychiatric treatment and schooling.