In July and August 1980, the institution was the subject of a six-month undercover investigation by The Record of North Jersey, after Billy Kemner, boy from Emerson, Bergen County was murdered in one of the school's residential cottages. The Record series documented widespread negligence and physical and sexual abuse of AIMS residents by staff. The president of the school, William Smith, was arrested, charged with covering up instances of assaults upon residents. Two high ranking administrators, Thomas Lewis and Noble Prettyman, were arrested and charged on morals violations. The article, by reporters Henry Goldman and Valerie James, won several journalism awards. James, a reporter with an active license as a registered nurse, got hired into the institution's infirmary for two weeks May, 1980. The state of New Jersey took over operations for several months. The Elwyn Institutes of Media, Pennsylvania took the school over in 1981 to avoid it being closed.
