UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS

Questions Swirl Around Closure of Teen Centers

By Sandra Dibble and Anna Cearley

September 19, 2004

ENSENADA – Hundreds of American teenagers had barely begun their day when Mexican authorities descended on their sprawling walled compound overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Within hours, discipline broke down inside Casa by the Sea, a center for teens with behavioral problems. By nightfall, witnesses say, the situation was chaotic, as windows were broken, desks overturned and books torn. A television was thrown from its stand.

Many versions of what happened Sept. 10 have emerged, but on one point few would disagree: The situation grew out of control as state and federal officials moved to shut down the 538-resident center as well as two smaller facilities.

Now, questions linger about what was going on behind the compounds' walls before and after authorities arrived. The operation has also touched on sensitive issues of national sovereignty and the protection of minors in a foreign country.

Mexican authorities said all three centers were operating illegally in Mexico, without state and municipal permits. They found unmarked and expired medications at all three, and incomplete or nonexistent clinical records.

U.S. officials said last week that the raids were poorly executed, and that hundreds of minors were placed in danger unnecessarily. They also said Mexican officials have not adequately explained why the centers were closed.

These kinds of programs have been scrutinized in the United States and abroad since the mid-1990s because of their unorthodox "tough-love" measures. Many parents, however, credit the facilities with saving their troubled children.

Programs based outside the United States offer cheaper alternatives to domestic programs, but they typically have strong ties to U.S. organizations. For example, Casa by the Sea was a member of the Utah-based World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools.

The U.S. Consulate in Tijuana, which sent staff members to all three centers to monitor the situation, sent a letter this week to Mexican immigration authorities, requesting a list of violations.

"It's just unfortunate that there was a great deal of discomfort and the potential for real catastrophe," said David Stewart, the U.S. consul general in Tijuana. "Of course, the Mexican government should monitor these places. . . . Whatever the reasons for closing the places down, we'd like to know that and the parents would like to know that and the schools would like to know that."

Francisco Javier Reynoso Nuño, the top Mexican federal immigration official in Baja California and head of the operation, said the result is what counts: "What's most important here is that nothing happened. The minors were safely removed."

In interviews, Mexican state and federal officials said they were enforcing the law, and were concerned about the well-being of the youths inside unlicensed facilities.

Among the violations they describe: a pharmacy at Casa by the Sea that had never been registered; "punishment cells" at House of Hope Academy in Ensenada, which treated two dozen male teenage addicts; and an electric fence surrounding Genesis by the Sea, a religion-oriented behavior modification center for a similar number of girls outside Rosarito Beach.

Reynoso said neighbors of Genesis reported hearing cries in the night coming from the center.

None of the centers had a person properly licensed to run a rehabilitation center, said Dr. Francisco Vera, Baja California's health secretary. Though all three offered classes, none was registered with the Baja California Department of Education, Reynoso said.

Proper papers

Although Mexican immigration agents led the operation against all three centers, they found few immigration violations. Most of the teenagers had the proper documents or were in the process of obtaining them, Reynoso said.

But when Baja California health authorities ordered the closures, immigration officials had no choice but to send the youths back to the United States, Reynoso said. Evacuating the smaller centers was fairly simple, but Casa by the Sea presented a daunting challenge.

Daniel Katz, 17, of Scottsdale, Ariz., said he and other students realized something was wrong that morning when large numbers of police and immigration agents started fanning out through Casa by the Sea.

By about 8:30 a.m., he said, all the center's students were lined up so government officials could take roll. By noon, as Katz sat in a classroom with about 50 other students, control started to disintegrate.

"The cops were trying to lock off as many entranceways as they could, and lots of people were just all over the place," he said. "There were some kids calling other kids names."

Mykel Pyles, 15, of Carlsbad said some youths were starting to taunt staff members, "refusing to cooperate and flipping staff off." The rebellious attitude came primarily from those who had just entered the program, he said.

Utter chaos broke out around 6:30 p.m., Katz said, when a school administrator announced he was leaving: "He said, 'I have no control over the situation and they are the ones who have control,' " referring to the Mexican authorities.

But even as some celebrated the school's closure, other students broke down in tears and hugged staff members, employees and students said.

'Den of wolves'

Stewart, the U.S. consul, said Mexican officials underestimated the situation.

"Our security officer on the scene kept telling them, 'You need to put more police in there. If this turns into a riot situation, you do not have enough people controlling them,' " he said, adding that Mexican officials created a dangerous situation by separating the students from their leaders.

But Reynoso said it was the school's Mexican staff members who encouraged the disturbance. "They were trying to create disorder, in order to provoke a large problem," he said.

By nightfall, "it was a den of wolves," Reynoso said, and immigration officials decided to evacuate the campus as soon as possible.

While many of the students were picked up by their parents, close to 160 teens still unclaimed late Sept. 11 were bused to the border by Mexican immigration authorities, where they were turned over to Child Protection Services workers and taken to a San Diego hotel.

"We had a situation where we could no longer assure the control of the place," Reynoso said.

U.S. officials could have helped avert difficulties if they had been notified ahead of time that the centers would be closed down, Stewart said. "It was not explained to us before they had already launched it. We would have had some ideas."

In his Tijuana office last week, Stewart said he will keep pursuing answers. "We will do everything we can to help these schools find out why they were closed down."

Complaints of mistreatment

A statement issued by immigration authorities on the day of the raid said four residents at Casa by the Sea showed signs of physical and emotional mistreatment, and that Genesis residents complained of mistreatment. Reynoso said prosecutors are investigating.

Only one person was expelled from Mexico: Donald Lewis, the director of House of Hope, who was found to be working in Mexico on a tourist visa. Five other U.S. adults involved with the centers will be questioned about their documents.

Contacted by telephone in Los Angeles, Lewis conceded that he had been working without a permit. "We had some bad advice from someone," he said.

But Lewis said his center, which is based on the 12-step program used by Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, was fully licensed and accredited, and that Baja California health inspectors came by every month. "I have the paperwork and can prove it," he said.

Two rooms functioned as "time-out" locations: "Most of the time when a kid was in there, the door was left open; he could walk out as soon as he had had his time out," Lewis said.

Directors of Genesis by the Sea could not be contacted.

At Casa by the Sea, staff members said they had been working regularly with state and other authorities to make sure the school complied with requirements.

The school was operating without a school or rehabilitation center permit, said staff member Mayte Lastra, because it didn't fit the criteria for either. Staff member Karina Zurita said health officials kept changing requirements regarding pharmaceuticals.

Fine line

Opinion over behavioral modification programs is polarized, with critics saying such centers' discipline methods too often turn into abuse. But many of those forced out last week said they favored the programs.

Pyles, the student from Carlsbad, said Casa by the Sea's program taught him to appreciate his family and freedom. He said the staff was strict when necessary, but that he was never abused nor did he see other youths being abused.

Reynoso said his agency became involved about four months ago, after the Mexican Consulate in San Francisco forwarded complaints of mistreatment at Casa by the Sea.

Behavior modification programs typically work by eliminating a student's privileges and independence. For example, newcomers must ask for permission to speak. Students earn privileges through obedience, participation in seminars, and doing school work.

Most of the programs involve five or six steps that students must progress through, and some include a religious component. The idea is to get students to appreciate their lives at home, and to make them accountable for their actions.

But critics say the programs can go overboard with punishment, which is what some allege happened at a Tecate-based program shut down three years ago.

That program wasn't affiliated with Casa by the Sea or Casa's umbrella organization, according to Ken Kay, president of the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools.

But some parents and former staff said the Tecate program, known as High Impact, was sent students who were considered too problematic for Casa by the Sea.

One parent, interviewed in 2002 by The San Diego Union-Tribune, told U.S. Consulate workers that her son was sent to Tecate without her permission.

Maria Goodwin alleged that her son was treated inappropriately at Casa and then sent to High Impact, where a staff member kept him in a cage and fed him bread and water for three days because he refused to complete a requirement to run 2,000 laps.

She also said he was forced to march in hot weather in layers of clothes, that he was poked with a cattle prod, and that a staff member twisted his broken thumb when he wouldn't cooperate.

After a visit by U.S. Consulate officials, Baja California state authorities closed the camp on the grounds it didn't have proper permits.

The closure of the Tecate program sparked rumors that Casa by the Sea would be next. But U.S. Consulate officials and others don't believe last week's raid was linked to the Tecate investigation.

"This was clearly a well-organized, targeted, predisposed raid," Kay said. He said the action was unwarranted, and that he wasn't aware of any problems.