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COLORADO KIDS MAY BE HELD IN WESTERN
SAMOA
Rocky Mountain
News (Denver, CO); 7/25/2001; Kilzer, Lou
Byline: Lou Kilzer News Staff Writer
Two Colorado
children are believed to be among a group of American and Canadian
kids that the U.S. Embassy is trying to free from a Western Samoan
compound for troubled youths.
The names of
the Colorado children - a girl whose first name is Riley and a boy
named Evan - were on a list smuggled out of Samoa by a former
resident of the compound. Their parents, in Aurora and Lakewood, did
not return phone calls from the Rocky Mountain News.
A lawyer
representing some of the children in the compound confirmed that
Riley was one of her clients, but she had no knowledge of Evan.
Rusty Burns, a
15-year-old in California who recently left the program, said that
he knew both Colorado youths and that they had suffered abuse.
The program,
called Pacific
Coast
Academy,
was promoted by former Utah wilderness trainer Steve Cartisano.
Cartisano has
run afoul of authorities in Utah, Puerto Rico and Hawaii for
problems in troubled-teen programs he promoted. Another of his
ventures in Samoa ended when U.S. diplomatic personnel found
youngsters abandoned at a program called New Hope
Academy.
Pamela Elliott,
a California lawyer who placed her son in the program after talking
with Cartisano, said she received a surreptitious call 2 1/2 weeks
ago from a nurse at the compound warning her of her son's failing
health.
The nurse said,
``You have to get the kids out of here; they are in danger,''
according to Elliott, who then contacted the U.S. Embassy.
When her son
arrived home, Elliott said, she was shocked by his stories of abuse.
He said one girl was tied to a post for 48 hours and doused with
water when she talked. She was forced to sit in her own waste as
other kids watched, he said.
Neither
Cartisano nor the owners of the program could be reached for
comment. A recording at the Arizona-based
Pacific
Coast
Foundation, which runs the academy, said that officials could
not come to the telephone ``due to the high demand for our service .
. . ''
A spokesman for
the Pacific Coast Academy in Samoa said the
young people were lying.
U.S. and Samoan
government officials visited the compound last week. Twenty-two
American youngsters and one Canadian asked to leave and were
escorted from the academy. Fifteen decided to stay.
The kids have
remained in Samoa because the academy is asking a judge to
have them returned to the compound. A hearing on the matter is
scheduled for today.
The legal
tug-of-war is nothing new to the poor island nation, which has
welcomed controversial ``behavior modification'' programs sponsored
mostly by Utah businessmen. One program, called Paradise Cove, was
subject to criticism two years ago by U.S. diplomats.
Alleged abuses
at Pacific Coast Academy came to light earlier
this month after Arizona parent Bob DeLancy went to Samoa to pick up
his son. Delancy's son videotaped comments from several of the
youngsters telling of abuse.
Dalancy said
that when Academy officials learned of the videotaping, they
took out a writ to have him arrested and the tape confiscated.
DeLancy went to the U.S. Embassy and gave officials there the tape.
Later, he said,
Samoan government authorities at the airport searched him for the
tape but didn't find it. They confiscated his camera and asked him
to sign a nondisclosure agreement prepared by the camp and pay
$20,000 in damages. He was allowed to leave, with the help of the
embassy.
Katalaina
Sapolu, a Samoan lawyer representing the children, said she believes
that the young people who want to leave will be allowed to go.
She said the
program has received statements from some parents praising the
academy. Many other parents in the Western United States said
they were composing critical statements of their own and faxing them
to Samoa.
Cartisano was a
pioneer in wilderness programs. Challenger, one of his Utah
operations, was successful until Kristen Chase, a Florida teen, died
at the camp. Utah officials banned Cartisano from having programs in
the state, but he took up projects elsewhere.
He is part of a
growing industry serving American parents who are at their wits' end
over problems with their children. Many have sent their kids away
for years to programs that cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Many parents
say the programs saved their children. But others say they now are
convinced they made a terrible mistake by sending their kids away.
Lawyer Elliott
and others said they are considering filing lawsuits.
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