Where youth leave worse than when they arrive
Sorensons Ranch School - Koosharem Utah
The truth about
Sorensons Ranch School
For over three decades, a small town in Utah has been keeping a dirty secret.
Sorenson's Ranch School quietly employs abusive control techniques sold to panicked parents as structure, support, and specialized
help for struggling children.
Abuse continues to go unaccounted for while the abusers hold the same status and commit the same crimes.
Latest News and Updates
Staff member at Utah troubled teen school charged with showing students pornography 2025
RICHFIELD — A former staff member at a school for troubled youth in Sevier County is facing criminal charges accusing him of showing students pornography.
Daniel Stoddard, 45, of Richfield, was charged Thursday in 6th District Court with four counts of distributing materials offensive to a minor, a third-degree felony.
On March 25, a sheriff's detective was told by three students of Sorenson's Ranch in Koosharem that Stoddard showed them a pornographic video on his phone while he was working, according to the charges. A fourth student "went over to see what was happening and witnessed what Stoddard was showing the students on his phone."
Two of the students were 15 years old, and two were 17.
During an interview with the detective on April 10, Stoddard at first "denied showing students pornography." But after a "voice stress analysis" — a test meant to detect changes in voice patterns — "Daniel admitted to showing three or four pornographic video clips to students," the charges allege.
Utah ranch for ‘troubled teens’ could lose its license for subjecting kids to forced labor, ‘repetitive walking’
2021
Sorenson’s Ranch School must retrain its staff and abide by state rules or close.
A Utah ranch for so-called troubled teens could lose its license for forcing kids to chop wood, shovel manure or walk for hours on end as a punishment.
Officials with the Utah Office of Licensing say that two years ago Sorenson’s Ranch School, based in the central Utah town of Koosharem, said it would stop using what it called “Mountain Camp.” School administrators described it as a “low level” camp where students haul wood, improve the land, and complete “therapy assignments.”
Sorenson’s Ranch didn’t stop, the state wrote in a “notice of agency action”
Ex-instructor at Utah ranch for troubled teens pleads ‘no contest’ to charges of sex with minor
2017
KOOSHAREM, Sevier County — A former instructor at a Utah ranch for troubled teens plead “no contest” to multiple counts of molestation at a court in California, according to the Visalia Times-Delta.
Utah resident Wendi Sorenson, 37, was charged with multiple counts of having sex with a minor in December 2015. She recently plead “no contest” to at least three counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a person under 18, four counts of oral copulation of a person under 16, contact with a minor for sexual offense, meeting with a minor for lewd purposes and arranging a meeting with a minor for lewd purposes.
Prosecutors believe the abuse began in June 2015 while Sorenson was an instructor at High Top Boys Ranch in Koosharem. The ranch for troubled youth was owned and operated by Sorenson and her husband, the Visalia Times reported. The school has since closed.
Sorenson’s husband reported the abuse to child protective services when he noticed Sorenson was “very close” to one of the boys at the school, the Visalia Times reported. The teenager was then removed from the school and went back to California.
STATE REGULATORS REVOKE LICENSE OF PSYCHOLOGIST ACCUSED OF ABUSE
1991
State licensing regulators have revoked the license of a psychologist accused of sexually molesting and assaulting male teenagers under his care, an order said.
Laurence C. Reiser, now living in Salt Lake City, was a therapist for the Sorensen Ranch and Rowlett Group Home in Sevier County when he had sexual contact with nine juvenile patients between 1989 and 1990, an order issued this week by the state Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing said."Given his relationship as a therapist to those patients, it is evident that (Reiser) exercised undue influence to exploit those patients for his personal benefit," the order said, adding that Reiser agreed the youths suffered trauma from the experience.
Reiser entered into a diversionary agreement with Sevier County prosecutors to dismiss criminal charges of forcible sexual abuse, stemming from his activities at the youth homes, if he meets certain conditions. Following the filing of those charges, licensing regulators suspended Reiser's license to practice last November.
Testimonials
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