This week marks the one-year anniversary of the passing of Kevin Johnston.

Kevin was in his twenties. He was loved by everyone who met him. People remember his bright personality, his kindness, and the way he always tried to help others. Even while struggling with his own challenges, Kevin did everything in his power to remain cheerful, loving, and responsible. Like so many young people navigating a turbulent world filled with temptations and escapes, he wanted to do better. He wanted to succeed.

And he tried.

Kevin followed the rules. He worked hard. Those who spent time with him at John Volken Academy (even people who have only spoken privately about their experiences in recent years at the Canadian location)  almost always mention Kevin. They remember his incredible work ethic and his determination to do everything expected of him.

Towards the end of February, I texted Kevin’s mother. She shared something deeply moving but also incredibly heartbreaking: she had recently received a letter informing her that Kevin’s organ donation had helped save someone’s life. Even after his passing, Kevin is still helping others. Someone out there has a second chance because of him.

That was Kevin.

This week, I ask everyone reading this to think about this bright light this loving young man who had his whole life ahead of him and ask yourselves a difficult question.

Did Kevin and his family deserve to be misled?

Did they deserve to believe they were doing the right thing, seeking long-term help, only to discover the reality was something very different?

Kevin and his family believed they had found a place that would help him heal and rebuild his life. Instead, what unfolded was beyond troubling. Day after day, Kevin was slowly worn down while trying to meet expectations and “pass the test.” He was 27 when he arrived at JVA and 29 at the time of his untimely crossover. 

After leaving the academy (a place where he had worked long hours of unpaid labor while enduring insidious emotional and physical abuse with no safe outlet to report it)  Kevin’s world had been turned upside down. He had gone there in pain, just like everyone else who enters treatment. But he was not given the help he was promised.

His gentle light was used and not treated with the care it deserved.  

There is little doubt that Kevin would not have reached such a tragic point (even accidentally) had he received real treatment and support instead of being placed in a coercive environment where communication with the outside world was restricted and parents/family members were often led to believe everything was fine. Any concerns, doubts, or resistance could be reframed as “rebellious addicts trying to cut corners,” and the most vulnerable moments of participants were used against them.

We can recognize the word abuse is sometimes misused today while also calling it out when we see the hallmark signs. For some people it may seem like the term has lost its meaning. But in this context it was real. And as a society we must not become desensitized to what abuse actually is, especially when it happens to people who are already vulnerable and seeking help for their health.  

This update is a call for accountability. It is also a call to wake up.

What happened behind the guise of help was not normal. Yet too few people have publicly supported efforts to bring the truth into the light. Perhaps it is because everything is still too recent, too raw, too uncomfortable to confront. Perhaps it is easier to remain silent and allow the scrubbed polished image the positive public relations contained within the recent disaster shutdown of early 2025 to go unchallenged.

But silence is part of the problem.

Many of us who speak up still feel a strange sense of guilt for daring to question what happened. As if challenging wrongdoing is somehow inappropriate or disruptive.

But ask yourself this:
If any of us tried to open a treatment center and treated vulnerable people the same way, would we be allowed to operate like that for years?

The answer is likely no.

Kevin is not the only person who lost hope after spending time there. There are others. But Kevin’s story stings deeply because it feels so preventable and also because of how young he was when this all transpired.

He deserved real help.
His family deserved honesty.
And his memory deserves the truth.

As we remember Kevin this week, we also remember the goodness he carried within him...the kindness he gave freely, the legacy of his loving soul that will be felt by many for years to come and the life he tried so hard to build.

May he be received with mercy and compassion.
May the wounds he carried be healed.
May he find the peace that so often eluded him here.
And may those who loved him feel comfort in knowing that love does not end.

May he rest in peace.

And in the words of an old Irish prayer:

May the road rise to meet him.
May the wind be always at his back.
May the sun shine warm upon his face,
and the rains fall soft upon his fields.
And until we meet again,
may God hold him in the palm of His hand.

RIP Kevin Johnston (June 23, 1995–March 9, 2025)