Students at Tranquility Bay on their way to class. (Photo: Conroy Walker)

WESTERN BUREAU --Jay Kay, head of the Tranquility Bay facility in St Elizabeth where Americans send their errant teenagers for behaviour modification, has rubbished reports that four "feared" staff members from an affiliate -- Dundee Ranch in Costa Rica -- have been deported to his institution after an uprising there.

"Absolutely false," said Kay, who has been general manager of Tranquility Bay since its 1997 opening. "It was never even considered a remote possibility," he added, saying he knew nothing of the Jamaicans mentioned in recent wire reports originating in the United States.

"I have no idea. They don't work for me. I have nothing to do with the facility in Costa Rica. So I don't have a clue," he told the Sunday Observer.

Nineteen months after its opening, Dundee Ranch, the latest in a string of programmes which, like Tranquility Bay, are geared at reforming troubled American teens, reportedly collapsed, following a student uprising at the facility over two weeks ago. It was reportedly prompted by the visit to the institution by officials from the child welfare agency, PANI, who informed students they had certain rights.

"When PANI told some kids they had the right to speak to their parents and the right to private mail or even not to be held in that country, kids ran for freedom," 17 year-old Joel Snyder of Wisconsin reportedly said in an open letter to parents of Dundee Ranch.

Snyder was an eyewitness to the uprising.

Further reports are that in the wake of that revelation, a host of students fled the facility for a beachhead 20 miles away on the Pacific Ocean and for neighbouring hills.

Pandemonium is alleged to have ensued as staff members sought to detain students through force. Students, it is reported, were beaten in an effort to quash the uprising. And the beating is said to have continued even after officials had left.

The officials' visit to the institution came in the wake of complaints to them by former programme director, Amberly Knight.

Two months earlier, Knight reportedly wrote to the country's child welfare minister, alleging that the Ranch's operations should be brought to an end as it was poorly managed and took financial advantage of parents, even as it put students at "physical and emotional risk".

A number of students have since been pulled out of the facility by concerned parents. Head of the Dundee school, Narvin Lichfield, has been ordered to remain in Costa Rica pending an investigation and could be slapped with charges. Government officials there have also indicated that four "feared" staff members would be deported to Jamaica.

For its part, Tranquility Bay has come under scrutiny amid similar allegations of insanitary conditions and abuse of its teenagers who number about 290.

Tranquility Bay previously came under the public microscope following the death of American teen, Valerie Ann Heron who reportedly jumped 35 feet to her death in early August 2001.

Then in 2002, a Virginia woman filed a lawsuit to have her 13 year-old nephew removed from the facility and sent back to the United States. The case lasted some six months and saw Tranquility Bay receiving a bashing from three past students who had agreed to testify on the woman's behalf.

At least one of them claimed he had got scabies from the "dirty showers". Another reported that a director assigned him to do "5,000 jumping jacks, 3,000 crunches and 200 push ups three times a day". And if the exercises weren't done, he said, students would be forced to lie face down on the floor with their arms behind their backs and their feet held on the floor while staff kneeled or sat in their backs.

But commenting on the recent claims, Kay insisted the allegations against the school were untrue and said he had no fears of a similar uprising at his institution.

"Absolutely not, because the allegations that have been made are untrue, number one," he said. "I don't know where anybody gets the idea of insanitary conditions. There are people who come out and inspect the facility and have yet to find insanitary conditions."

The Health Department confirmed Kay's denial.

"We don't usually have a problem there (at Tranquility Bay) with sanitation," a Health Department official who requested anonymity told the Sunday Observer.

Added the official: "We do not have checks like monthly and so, but I would say once every three months. We look for wastewater disposal, sewage disposal, and pests. We look at the drainage, the canteen, and the bathrooms. And over the period we have never had any adverse conditions as such," the official said.

"You will find little things here and there that need to be remedied and we usually get that done. For instance, like at the canteen you would find a broken window or so and say, 'okay, get this put in place' and they usually comply."

Kay, explaining why he did not fear an uprising at Tranquility, said the student to staff ratio was higher than most other schools -- 220 staff members to 290 students who range in ages from 19 to 22.

Furthermore, he said, they had a proven track record of success with teens and the firm support of their parents.

"Staffing patterns reflect a higher staff to student ratio than most other schools like us that I know of, and based on that, the likelihood is slim to none that a similar event would occur here," he said.

"Parents know us and because we have been around for six years they have a lot of faith in us because we do have a proven track record with students and family," he said.

At the same time, he expressed reservations regarding the allegations about the Costa Rican facility, but said he would be outraged were they found to be true.

"If there are substantiated cases of abuses that have been alleged then I would not only be disturbed but I would be outraged. I fully support the government's investigation into such allegations. I think it's mandatory but I do feel the government could have approached things on a more proactive basis so as not to create such a chaotic situation at the school as has been reported," he said.

Added Kay: "I mean, I've been doing this about 10 years, and after dealing with thousands of kids quite often you'll find many embellishments in their report and that's not to say they are not accurate. But kids clearly operate on an agenda.

"A number of the kids that I have spoken to were at the facility in Costa Rica. First hand, they have not substantiated the allegations. But I haven't been there so it is hard for me to comment..." said Kay.

"Tranquility Bay is not abusive and I can supply kids who will say we are not abusive and who were there for two years..." he added.

Sunday Observer checks with the St Elizabeth police have revealed that since the suicide in 2001, they have not had occasion, save during patrols, to return to the facility.

"We haven't had any more incidents happening there since that one (suicide)," Corporal Allecia Stewart of the Constabulary Communication Network told the newspaper.

But she said the cops on patrol did not actually go on the compound. "They just speak to personnel from the outside of the gate to check to see if everything is fine."

Kay said the facility enjoyed a good relationship with Jamaican state agencies and he dismissed charges that his operation lacked transparency, saying he had no problem with people touring the facility, as long as the privacy of the teenagers was not compromised.