TB troubles very public
Monday 17th July, 2006 Posted:
14:47 CIT (19:47 GMT)
It is a shame to think that children
continue to be sent to Tranquility Bay even though TB has made
headline news with allegations of abuse and neglect and has been
featured in two documentaries; one that aired in France, Lost
Children of Tranquility Bay, and another that aired in Australia,
The Cutting Edge, Tranquility Bay.
People around the world have shared
their concerns and distress over what they saw.
In John Gorenfield’s January 23,
2006, article No More Nightmares at Tranquility Bay? Gorenfield said
that as a teen at Tranquility Bay you can’t call home and can’t walk
from room to room without a Jamaican chaperone.
You can be wrestled to the ground for
talking out of turn while they twist and pull your limbs and grind
your ankles.
Some of WWASP’s programs have been
shut down on allegations of child abuse and neglect. In one of
WWASP’s programs, High Impact, a WWASP affiliate in Mexico, which
closed in 2002 after “dark stories emerged,” teens said they were
kept in dog cages.
Two parents, Chris Goodwin and
Stephanie Hecker, told the Rocky Mountain News their children were
made to lie in their underwear for three nights with fire ants
roaming over them and were threatened with a cattle prod if they
scratched.
These stories are told time and
again. When will people start to listen? When will people realize
they must do their homework before sending their child away?
One child recently lost his life. He
was victimized at TB for nine months, during which time he was
pepper sprayed multiple times a day, every day, according to news
articles we have read and the Fox News report that aired in June
2005. It is easy to ask ourselves: “Could this really be happening
to children?” I asked that very question for months as I delved into
a research project that has, for me, lasted for years.
I have interviewed hundreds of
victims and their families and have seen there is a consistency in
their stories – a consistency that is impossible for me to ignore. I
would ask others to listen to these children with an open mind and
with an open heart.
Layne Brown is gone and many of us
who knew his family grieve with them. This child suffered at the
hands of those who were supposed to be there to help him. And though
it is hard to imagine that someone could abuse a child in this
manner – pepper spraying him every day, multiple times a day, then
at times putting him out in the sun causing chemical burns, taking a
toilet brush and brushing his private area. We ask ourselves, “how
could this happen to an American child by another American?” We
think of something like this happening in a concentration camp or to
victims of war – not to our American children – children who
experimented with drugs, stayed out late, weren’t excelling in
school, and a myriad of other reasons children find themselves in
programs like TB.
People generally do not want to
believe this sort of thing happens. But unfortunately it has
happened and children continue to complain of abusive practices in
residential programs.
For me it became all too real the day
I first saw the video of the man responsible for pepper spraying
Layne all those months – Randall Hinton. He admits that yes, the
child was pepper sprayed at least one time a day, and yes, it is
safe to say he was pepper sprayed at least two times in a day. Fox
News interviewed Layne and his mother, Terry Cameron, when he was
still alive. It was disturbing to hear him tell of the abuse he
suffered and of his mother telling about the negative way in which
his experiences there impacted his life.
Layne is one of many. We have heard
his story, and the stories of many others. Time and again we find
consistency – it is hard to turn a deaf ear.
Our organization, the Coalition
Against Institutionalized Child Abuse, strives to get the word out
about abusive practices in residential facilities for children in an
attempt that parents and those concerned about the well–being of
children will be informed about what can and has gone on behind
closed doors.
Not all programs are abusive. We
understand that, but it is critical that people know what to look
for, and more importantly, what to look out for. For more
information, visit
www.caica.org.
Isabelle Zehnder
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