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WEST JORDAN — An employee at a school for troubled teens entered a plea in abeyance to a child abuse charge on Oct. 16 after he was accused of breaking the wrist of a boy who was acting out.
Tyler Haunga Feinga, 21, of West Jordan, was charged May 4, 2021 in 3rd District Court with child abuse, a class A misdemeanor.
Police say a 15-year-old boy at West Ridge Academy, 5500 W. Bagley Park Road, was being disruptive in class on Jan. 4, 2021. West Ridge is a residential treatment facility for at-risk youth. A search warrant filed by West Jordan police further states that the boy was being "loud" and was swearing and was "acting out by interrupting the class and being defiant to staff."
Feinga, a staff member of the school who was also in the classroom, removed the teen from the room by placing him in a wrist restraint also known as a "gooseneck hold" or an "escort hold," according to charging documents.
When the boy began to resist, Feinga said he applied a "bent wrist procedure" that involved him bending the boy's wrist back and applying pressure, the charges state. He told investigators that "the wrist bent is used for when residents are harming staff, harming peers, run risk or causing damage to the West Ridge property."
The boy told police that while in that hold, "he heard a pop, resulting in his wrist being fractured. (He) said he was in significant pain and could not move his wrist," according to the court documents. The boy "was crying really hard" at the time and told Feinga "he probably broke it."
Two days later, other staff members took the boy to a local hospital where X-rays of his left wrist revealed a distal fracture, according to the warrant.
West Ridge Academy Executive Director Bob Stubbs said Feinga has since been fired.
"We take allegations of any type of abuse quite seriously and we'll wait for the results of the case before we take any further action," he said in a prepared statement.
Feinga entered a plea in abeyance to a reduced class C misdemeanor child abuse charge on Oct. 16, almost two-and-a-half years after the charges were filed. According to the terms of the plea, the charge will be dismissed if he completes six months of probation and an anger management course and writes a letter to the boy.
In the letter, which was filed with the court, Feinga said using the gooseneck hold "definitely could have been avoided." He said he felt he was doing his duty, but realizes he could have waited for other employees to come and help. Feinga apologized and said he did not want to harm the boy.
He said he was happy when the hold was banned.
"You did not deserve to be put in such a hold and neither does any other client in any treatment facility," he said.
Earlier in 2021, Gov. Spencer Cox signed a new law that places more regulations on Utah's "troubled teen" centers. A ceremonial signing in April 2021 was attended by Paris Hilton, who earlier testified before Utah lawmakers about how she was abused in the 1990s at Provo Canyon School.
