section_path: Career
section_name: Career
paragraph_text: Career
  
  In early 2015, Franke created a YouTube channel called 8 Passengers in which she documented her family life in Utah with her husband Kevin and their six children. She originally posted five days a week at 6:00 a.m. As of June 2020, the channel had around 2.5 million subscribers and amassed 1 billion views.
  
  Beginning in 2020, when one of the Franke children, a 15-year-old boy, said that he had been banned from his bedroom and made to sleep on a bean bag for seven months, viewers became concerned about his mother's disciplinary methods. On another occasion, her youngest daughter was sent to school without a packed lunch because Ruby believed her 6-year-old daughter was old enough to prepare, and be responsible for, her lunch. When the school contacted her with concern over this, she refused to bring a lunch for her daughter. Some of the severe punishments Franke imposed on her children include sending a child to a wilderness camp for troubled teens, threatening to behead a stuffed toy, and telling two of her children that Santa Claus would not be bringing them anything for Christmas that year because they were too "numb" to respond to other punishments. A Change.org petition was launched reporting perceived child abuse and neglect. The Franke parents posted in defense of the discipline, saying the incidents had been taken out of context. The 8 Passengers YouTube channel declined in popularity in 2021.
  
  In 2022, the Frankes separated, and Kevin moved out of the house. After her YouTube channel was suspended that year, Ruby began working as a mental health coach at ConneXions, a company run by Jodi Hildebrandt, a counselor. They launched a new video channel together called ConneXions in 2022, and created a joint Instagram account called Moms of Truth, offering parenting classes. Neighbors and the Frankes' oldest daughter, Shari, a college student, called authorities to check on the latter's siblings after observing that their mother often left the children alone at home.
  
  In early 2015, Franke created a YouTube channel called 8 Passengers in which she documented her family life in Utah with her husband Kevin and their six children. She originally posted five days a week at 6:00 a.m. As of June 2020, the channel had around 2.5 million subscribers and amassed 1 billion views.
  
  Beginning in 2020, when one of the Franke children, a 15-year-old boy, said that he had been banned from his bedroom and made to sleep on a bean bag for seven months, viewers became concerned about his mother's disciplinary methods. On another occasion, her youngest daughter was sent to school without a packed lunch because Ruby believed her 6-year-old daughter was old enough to prepare, and be responsible for, her lunch. When the school contacted her with concern over this, she refused to bring a lunch for her daughter. Some of the severe punishments Franke imposed on her children include sending a child to a wilderness camp for troubled teens, threatening to behead a stuffed toy, and telling two of her children that Santa Claus would not be bringing them anything for Christmas that year because they were too "numb" to respond to other punishments. A Change.org petition was launched reporting perceived child abuse and neglect. The Franke parents posted in defense of the discipline, saying the incidents had been taken out of context. The 8 Passengers YouTube channel declined in popularity in 2021.
  
  In 2022, the Frankes separated, and Kevin moved out of the house. After her YouTube channel was suspended that year, Ruby began working as a mental health coach at ConneXions, a company run by Jodi Hildebrandt, a counselor. They launched a new video channel together called ConneXions in 2022, and created a joint Instagram account called Moms of Truth, offering parenting classes. Neighbors and the Frankes' oldest daughter, Shari, a college student, called authorities to check on the latter's siblings after observing that their mother often left the children alone at home.