Rite of Passage: Tampa Bay Girls Academy Shut Down Twice in Two Years over Youth Safety Issues

February 10, 2026

Tampa Bay Girls Academy, a psychiatric-based residential juvenile justice facility housing maximum-risk girls ages 12–21 was shut down in December 2024 for the second time in two years after the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice cited incidents jeopardizing youth safety, as a father filed suit alleging his daughter was forcibly drugged, repeatedly hospitalized, rendered mute, incontinent, and cognitively impaired, threatened by her psychiatrist with electroshock, and later assaulted by other residents while staff allegedly failed to intervene. The facility is currently operated by Rite of Passage, a contractor that lost its license to run a girl’s residential facility in Colorado in 2018.

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