Is that not a tad bit of an overreaction? 

There is a fine line between a harsh punishment and an unacceptable one. I understand that teens can misbehave in a way that requires harsh punishment, but that doesn’t mean that their parents should hire strangers to kidnap them from their rooms in the middle of the night and live off the land with a group of other «troubled teens» and uncertified, shady counselors. Of course, not all wilderness therapy is bad. Still, there’s a significant difference between an adult participating in it willingly to improve themselves and parents forcing their children to sleep in the wilderness for over a year because they misbehaved. 

A lot of parents are okay with punishing their kids extremely harshly because they are comparing the severity of their punishments to the punishments they experienced growing up. They might think it’s okay to scream at your kids as much as you want, because at least you’re not hitting them! Parents also might be mirroring the punishments their parents gave them, just because they don’t know any differently. If they turned out alright, then their kid should be okay getting the same punishment!

Some parents punish their kids harshly because they’re not emotionally regulated themselves. They see their kids doing something that makes them mad, and they take it out on the kid instead of giving them a punishment that fits the crime after calming down. The mom in this story is one of these parents, and it’s going to ruin her relationship with her daughter more than it already has if she keeps it up.