In early August 2022, 17-year-old Nathanael Royal called his parents and begged them to bring him home before he got attacked. At the Freestate ChalleNGe Academy, an Aberdeen Proving Ground boot camp-cum-GED program for at-risk Maryland youth run by the National Guard, Royal thought he’d be getting a second chance after failing ninth and 10th grade. He had withdrawn from public school to attend the program, a requirement. But within a few weeks, Royal wanted out. Royal told his parents in his