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FORT LAUDERDALE `BOOT
CAMP' -- Slew of Calls Drew Police to School
By Carol Marbin Miller
cmarbin@herald.com
Miami Herald, June 3, 2005
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Fort Lauderdale police
confirmed they've joined welfare agents in probing complaints that
girls at a boot camp-style school were abused.
Fort Lauderdale police have
been called eight times since April to a Fort Lauderdale home
operating as a private military school, including two visits in
recent days to investigate allegations that a cadet had been beaten
by a school employee.
Since April 18, Fort
Lauderdale officers accompanied child abuse investigators with the
Broward Sheriff's Office five times to the military school, 3271
Glendale Blvd., said Andy Pallen, a spokesman for the department. In
Broward, BSO conducts child abuse probes under a contract with the
Department of Children & Families.
Of the three other calls by
police, one involved a May 13 trip by paramedics to check on a
17-year-old girl who had passed out, one involved a 16-year-old girl
who was suffering an asthma attack May 11, and the other occurred on
April 9, when officers were called to involuntarily commit a girl to
a psychiatric hospital, Pallen said.
Sister Soldier Military
Academy abruptly shut its doors Tuesday amid ongoing investigations
into reports that girls enrolled there had been physically abused.
Fort Lauderdale zoning
officials also had been studying whether the academy was in
compliance with the city's zoning code.
''I went into the hospital
the day I found out about my daughter,'' said Katie Bogle, a mother
of two from Winter Park, Colo. ``They thought I was having a heart
attack.''
Bogle's 15-year-old
daughter, Unyque, spent three months at Sister Soldier, and told her
mother she had been beaten twice by caretakers. ``She told me she
was not beaten as much as the others. She kept her mouth shut. She
kept her head down, and she did what she was supposed to do. She
didn't complain and she didn't whine.''
MAJOR FIGURE
Denise Smith, who is
identified in corporate records as president of Sister Soldier's
parent company, has not returned several calls for comment. Smith
insisted that parents and children call her ``Major Smith.''
The army-style school
enrolls girls considered behavioral problems ages 8-17 at a cost of
$2,800 a month. The students at the school are called `cadets.'
Reports on the military
school in The Herald have prompted calls by state lawmakers to close
a loophole in Florida licensing laws that allows private boarding
schools to operate without state regulation.
Two other parents, one from
Pembroke Pines and another from Tennessee, have told The Herald
their daughters told them they were beaten -- including blows to the
face -- by Sister Soldier's ''major''. The girls told their mothers
they were struck after trying to call home for help.
The most recent visits by
police to Sister Soldier were on May 28 and May 30, Pallen said,
when officers accompanied BSO child protective investigators looking
into complaints received by the state child-abuse hot line.
BEATING REPORTED
Sources have told The Herald
the May 28 visit followed a report to child welfare authorities that
a girl at Sister Soldier had been beaten by a so-called ``drill
instructor.''
A school instructor, who
asked not to be identified, said she had seen the girl the next day.
''She had swollen lips and
sores in her mouth,'' the instructor said. ``She had scars on her
face, scars on her arm, and talked about her foot being sore.''
The girl told the employee
that another drill instructor had dropped a ''log'' on her foot.
Cadets were forced to hold
heavy logs in their arms for extended periods as a form of
punishment, the employee told The Herald.
Bogle, the Colorado mom,
said she saw the log during a short visit to the home the day after
her daughter's birthday. When she asked another girl what the log
was for, the girl began marching in a circle with the log in her
arms. ''She said we have to carry this around for punishment,''
Bogle said.
WAIVERS REQUIRED
Murfreesboro, Tenn., mother
Kim Powers said her daughter, Jessica, claimed that she had been
injured by the log, as well.
Parents interviewed by The
Herald said they were asked to sign waivers giving up the right to
sue Sister Soldier's parent company, JAM Youth Connection, if their
children were injured.
A copy of the waivers, given
to The Herald by Powers, warned parents that their children could be
harmed if staff needed to restrain them.
''Physical action will be
taken against your child, and to whatever extreme the staff feels
necessary at that time, to protect anyone in harm's way,'' a
''disciplinary disclaimer'' states. ``Due to the level of force that
may be used, there may be bodily injuries to your child.''
Parents who signed a
liability waiver gave ``permission to physically handle and restrain
their child during any of the company's functions, as the company
feels needed.''
The parent ''understands
participation will subject the child to risk and injuries, and
companies will not be liable for medical expenses or other claims
for damages or death,'' the waiver states.
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