Fox Run Center for Children and Adolescents is a 100-bed residential treatment facility in St. Clairsville, Ohio, that houses children as young as five — many of them survivors of sexual assault sent there specifically to heal from trauma. Instead, a Marshall Project investigation published in July found a pattern of unsafe physical restraints, physical and sexual assaults, and medical neglect inside the facility. Dozens of emergency responses, including youth hospitalizations and arrests, showed up in local police records — but were missing entirely from Ohio's official database for tracking reportable incidents at youth facilities.

That gap matters. If the state agency responsible for licensing Fox Run can't see the full record of what's happening inside, it can't act on it. Former residents and staff have come forward describing what they experienced there, and at least one member of a state committee that oversees residential child placement has said he intends to press the licensing agency for answers about how it's responding.

Children don't choose where they're placed for care. The adults who license and oversee that care are supposed to make sure it's safe. Right now, that system missed years of documented harm to some of the most vulnerable kids in the state.

The Ohio Department of Behavioral Health has the authority to formally review Fox Run's license — and it should use it, now, before another child is placed inside a facility with this record.

Sign the petition to demand a full license review of Fox Run — before another child pays the price for a system that looked away.