July 30, 2026
At Fox Run, one of Ohio’s largest youth residential treatment centers, kids and former staff detail a litany of trauma.
ST. CLAIRSVILLE, OHIO – Paitin Pahoundis jolted awake, a siren blaring in her ears. Her friend Samantha Primeau was in her room. It was time. The other girls, Samantha told her, were gone. They had jammed a sprinkler, triggering the fire alarm and filling the hallway outside with water.
Their escape plan was working. But there was a problem: Paitin didn’t have shoes.
The checkered Vans and the white Jordans with the bright orange stripes that her father had bought her before he went to prison, the ones she meticulously kept in mint condition, had been taken by staff and locked in another room, along with the rest of her possessions. She was on “no personals” status for not following the rules.
But, Paitin wanted out, and this was her chance.
As they walked out of the building and into a snowstorm, Paitin remembers a staff member standing in a doorway. She looked at Paitin and said, “If you want to go, just go.”