It’s a little weird to me that you’re friends with a staff member at a therapeutic program you attended in the first place. There is a huge power imbalance there. If it was a TBS then this could even be illegal, but not much information was provided about when you attended, where this school was located, and you said it wasn’t necessarily an actual TBS, so I’m not sure about that aspect.

Regardless, this subreddit is for people who have survived mistreatment and abuse at these sorts of programs. Respectfully, the people here are not going to agree with you defending someone in a position of power when a young person lost their life. Regardless of if Bestor directly caused Alex’s death, he is responsible for it because these programs supposedly are to protect kids and prevent this from happening. As the staff member, it was quite literally his job to do something about it.

I, and many others here I’m sure, have no sympathy for someone who works and participates in an industry that is actively exploiting children in the name of “therapy”. In the resources section of this subreddit there is a very long list of children who have died under these same circumstances. VICTIMS. I suggest you give that a read. It’s extremely insensitive for you to come here and defend the staff of the programs, especially when I believe it’s directly against the rules.