Universal Health Services: Oak Plains Academy was Formerly Called Chad Youth Development Center, Where Two Teens Died

November 10, 2025

News is currently reporting on the arrest of a former employee of Oak Plains Academy, for child abuse. 

Oak Plains Academy is a juvenile psychiatric facility located in Ashland City, Tennessee (a suburb of Nashville). 

William Sturgill, 43, is charged with having grabbed and thrown a 10-year-old Oak Plains patient onto the floor. 

Sadly, such violence is not out of the ordinary for this facility.

Oak Plains was formerly named Chad Youth Development Center. It changed its name in approximately 2008 after investigations into the deaths of two patients (one of which was ruled a homicide), and the negative media that followed: 

• Linda Harris, 14, was a resident of UHS’ Chad Youth Enhancement Center for only four days when she died in September 2005. According to her medical records, Harris, whose developmental age was close to that of a six-year-old, had been raped by a 20-year-old who she’d struck up a relationship with over the Internet when she lived in New York. The perpetrator was never caught. According to a police report following her death, Harris had been “flashing” boys (exposing herself). A Chad counselor responded by pulling her arms behind her back and escorting her to a “time-out” room, where it was reported that she “became limp and fell on the floor.” After a few moments, they called 911 and started CPR. However, investigator’s reports made public in 2007 paint a different picture: The counselor, 260 lb. Charles Garner, was reported by another Chad resident to have been “body slamming” the asthmatic Harris. When other Chad staff arrived, Harris was unresponsive, her face was bloody and she had soiled herself. 

• Omega Leach, 17, a troubled teen from Philadelphia, was placed at UHS’ Chad Youth Development Center in May 2007. He died just one month later, on June 3. The coroner found that Leach had multiple hemorrhages of his neck muscles after a struggle with two Chad staff members. Tennessee child-welfare officials said staff should have given Leach space to calm down on June 2 when he retreated to a dorm after a fight with another resident. Instead, he was ordered to leave the dorm, sparking the confrontation in which police said he was pushed face-down to the floor with his arms behind his back. His death was ruled a homicide by the Tennessee medical examiner.

Oak Plains Academy is owned by Universal Health Services (UHS), a for-profit psych hospital corporation that is infamous for putting $$ over patient care and safety. Read more about UHS here.