PACIFIC COAST ACADEMY
(Closed by Samoan Government)
Out of the mouths of babes: "Because of what I went
through at
Pacific Coast Academy I feel like the world is going to end
every day."
Children were forced to do excessive forms of exercise and were made
to
lie in positions such as these for hours on end, until their bodies
shook, their
muscles too weak to hold their arms and legs up any longer. This is
nothing
short of torture.
The brochures parents were shown of Pacific Coast Academy
were beautiful with
beaches, scuba diving, surfing, swimming - anyone would want to go. It
looked like
a tropical paradise. But, what the children experienced was far from
paradise. The
children were taken to the remote mountains of Western Samoa, away from
the
ocean, away from any fun activities, and isolated. Where they were abused
and
neglected. It was a rugged, dangerous, bug-infested environment. They
were
forced to eat horrible food, were forced to exercise excessively, some
were hog-tied,
others were forced to abuse their friends. The Samoans found it too
brutal, too
abusive. They finally shut it down, no matter how much money came their
way.
This is typical of what some of the children experienced while they
were at Pacific
Coast Academy in the remote hills of Western Samoa. Children have alleged
many
forms of abuse including hog-tying, excessive exercise, forced to lay in
uncomfortable
positions for hours on end, and many more.
During an interview with a child who spent two years
there, his final comments to
me about Pacific Coast Academy was: "Because of what I went through at
Pacific
Coast Academy I feel like the world is going to end every day." That
was two years
after leaving the program.
One of the girls said she remembers
what she felt the first day in Samoa: ``When
I first got there, I
hit the Bible, saying, ``Oh God, save me.'''
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here
for article.
``They go in
and find out what is important to you. If I'm a mother who cares
about academics, they talk about academics. If you
care about spirituality, they talk about spirituality. They tell you
whatever you want to hear.''
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Cartisano gained notoriety after founding Challenger Foundation,
a successful adolescent "wilderness therapy" program in the late
1980s. But charges of child abuse and negligent homicide -
16-year-old Kristen Chase died of heat exhaustion in 1990 while on a
forced hike in Kane County, Utah - closed the program.
Cartisano was acquitted of criminal charges. His name landed on
Utah's registry of suspected child abusers in 1992, barring him from
working for any state-licensed child-treatment facility in the
state. Cartisano also was linked to another center for troubled
American youths in Samoa.
He was hired by several Utah businessmen in 1998 to help start
the New Hope Academy. In the two weeks Cartisano ran New Hope,
company officials allege he wrote $23,000 in bad checks and ran up a
$10,000 cellular phone bill. In 1999, New Hope closed its doors,
reportedly stranding five youths in the South Pacific island nation,
located 2,300 miles south of Hawaii.
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for article.
A program that promised to help teens kick
their drug habits turned into a nightmare for students. Their
families sent them there hoping they would come home clean but many
of them almost didn't come home alive.
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The allegations from the teens at the Pacific
Coast Academy over the past three weeks "were very serious and were
coherent, credible and consistent," said James A. Derrick, the
charge d'affaires at the embassy ... "It was represented to be this
beautiful camp with excellent academics and therapy," she said.
"These kids received very inhumane treatment."
click here
for article.
Some unsatisfied parents traveled over, pulled
their kids out, and took them back to America. But as they went,
others came. Such is the expanding
market for rehabilitation among troubled American children. And
judging by the speed life is moving, it is clear this market will
continue to grow. And
as it does, more swindlers will be drawn over.
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