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January 23, 2005
Referral
Agency's Connection to Boot Camp Angers Parents
By STEVE ROCK
Several parents
who sent their troubled teens to Thayer Learning Center in northwest
Missouri were referred to the school by what they thought was an
independent agency.
In fact, the
Parent Help referral service is operated by the same people who run
Thayer, a military-style boot camp where a 15-year-old California
boy recently died. The death triggered a state investigation and
prompted former students and employees to come forward with
allegations of physical and emotional abuse of students.
The connection
between the two businesses, less than 15 miles apart, angered
several parents who spoke recently with The Kansas City Star. They
said the relationship was never disclosed during conversations with
Parent Help employees.
“I was very
emotional and desperate in a way,” said Vicki Young of Ohio, who
sent her son to Thayer in July 2003. “And I thought this was a
parent help group.
“I didn't have
any hint they were related.”
A leading
business ethicist said the relationship between the two businesses
is clearly a conflict of interest, while a child welfare agency
official said such a connection is not uncommon, but should have
been disclosed.
Three former
employees of Parent Help told The Star they were coached to send as
many children as possible to Thayer. Two of those former employees
said they never disclosed to callers that husband and wife John and
Willa Bundy ran both businesses, and one of them said a fellow staff
member said not to mention it.
The Bundys — who
opened Thayer Learning Center Boot Camp and Boarding School in
Kidder, Mo., in 2002 — have offices at the Parent Help building in
Gallatin, Mo., according to former Parent Help employees.
The Bundys
declined to take questions from The Star, referring inquiries to
their attorney, Ed Proctor. Proctor didn't respond to several
messages left with his office.
But Wally Kerr,
sales manager at Parent Help, said Thayer is one of about 15
facilities nationwide that Parent Help represents. The Parent Help
Web site last week listed eight in addition to two Thayer programs.
Kerr said no greater emphasis is placed on sending kids to Thayer
than to other schools.
“We try to get
the best program possible for (the children),” he said in a
telephone interview.
When asked
whether Parent Help employees disclose the connection between Parent
Help and Thayer to parents, Kerr said they only refer them to
Thayer's Web site. The disclosure, Kerr said, “comes through having
them look at the Web site.”
Separate Web
sites for Thayer and for Parent Help include an identical section
describing the Bundys as the owner of each. Each site briefly
mentions the Bundys' connection to the other business.
Some of the
parents contacted by The Star, however, either don't remember being
sent to Thayer's Web site or never saw the mention of Parent Help.
“We're proud of
the fact that the Bundys have established a school and that they've
established a parent help operation,” Kerr said. “There's nothing to
hide here.”
One parent said
she called the Missouri attorney general's office to complain that
there wasn't full disclosure but was told to put her complaint in
writing. Scott Holste, a spokesman for that office, said the
Consumer Protection Division hadn't received any formal, written
complaints about Parent Help. His office would look into any
complaints lodged, he said.
Thayer, located
about 50 miles north of Kansas City, houses about 100 teens.
At the request
of the Caldwell County sheriff's office, the Missouri Department of
Social Services is investigating the November death of Thayer
student Roberto Reyes to determine if abuse or neglect was involved.
Gus Kolilis, deputy director of the department's legal division,
said an investigative team has interviewed “numerous” people.
“We're not
leaving anything unturned,” he said.
No charges have
been filed in connection with Reyes' death. Caldwell County
Prosecutor Jason Kanoy said he was awaiting results from the state
investigation, which could come as early as this week, before
deciding whether his office would take any action. After Reyes'
death, a panel of county and state officials charged with reviewing
child deaths said earlier medical treatment “may have prevented this
fatality.” The Jackson County medical examiner's office said the
probable cause of death was a spider or insect bite.
The review by
county and state officials — coupled with police reports and
allegations made by former students and employees — painted a
disturbing picture of life at Thayer.
A Dec. 19 story
in The Star cited police reports and interviews with seven former
Thayer employees and students that alleged physical and emotional
abuse of students, such as one being forced to eat her own vomit,
medical neglect and another student being forced to sit in a tub of
urine.
In a written
response to The Star in December, Thayer officials called the
allegations “ludicrous and false.”
Since the story
was published, at least two children have been removed from Thayer
by their parents.
Now some parents
are raising questions about the manner in which their children wound
up at Thayer in the first place.
Parent Help hot
line
Some former
Parent Help employees said they were reluctant to publicly discuss
their experience there because they fear legal retribution from John
and Willa Bundy.
Thayer Learning
Center has filed at least one lawsuit against former Thayer
employees, alleging defamation and other things.
But
conversations with three former Parent Help employees, as well as
relatives of six children who have been at the school, offered
insight into the placement process.
Several parents
said they found the Parent Help hot line number on the Internet.
John Bundy is listed on an online site that registers Web domains as
the administrative contact for several sites, such as
www.troubledteen.com and www.teenprogram.info. Neither of those
sites clearly identifies their connection with the Bundys or Thayer
Learning Center, but both sites mention Thayer as a “featured
school.”
Both of those
sites, and others, encourage parents to call the same 800 number.
One parent said she called the number, then never went back to the
Internet to do further research.
“Why would I?”
the parent asked. “Parent Help said so many wonderful things about
Thayer.”
The 800 number
is answered by employees at the office in Gallatin, in a building
that has no obvious signs identifying Parent Help. Kerr said the
business, which has about six employees, gets from 50 to 150 calls a
day and additional inquiries via e-mail.
The employees
who answer calls to the 800 number are not counselors, two of the
former employees said, but salesmen who get commission for placing
students at Thayer or other facilities. They ask the parents, many
of whom are distraught about their child's behavior, various
questions about the child and tell them they'll find the facility
that best fits him or her.
According to the
former employees, though, the Parent Help representative recommends
Thayer, where costs can exceed $50,000 a year, to as many parents as
possible.
“If you called
and your kid was over 12, I was sending you to Thayer,” said one
former employee who did not want to be identified.
Matthew Turley,
who said he worked for Parent Help from July to October 2004, said:
“You would try to put the kid into Thayer, or suggest that one over
any other one.”
Turley said he
never felt awkward pushing Thayer.
“To me, it never
felt like I was trying to keep something under wraps,” he said. “I
just felt that Thayer was one of the better ones … from what I
heard.”
Besides, both he
and Kerr said, not every child is sent to Thayer. There are some
children — those younger than 13 and older than 17, for example —
that Thayer typically won't take.
So some kids are
sent to places such as Bonneville Canyon in Maine.
“They have been
very good to us,” Michelle Tibbetts, who works in admissions for
Bonneville Canyon, said of her organization's relationship with
Parent Help. Tibbetts said she was unaware of the connection between
Thayer and Parent Help.
Kerr said
employees aren't coached to send kids to Thayer but “to get them
into the correct program.”
“We don't follow
a script,” he said.
As far as the
connection between Parent Help and Thayer, Turley said that unless
asked specifically, “we would never tell (the parents) that.”
That infuriates
W. Michael Hoffman, executive director of the Center for Business
Ethics at Bentley College near Boston.
“I've heard of a
lot of conflicts of interest, but this is way over the top,” he
said. “To say the least, it's clearly unethical — especially when
you're dealing with children, children who obviously need help.”
Joe Healy,
director of residential services for the Child Welfare League of
America, based in Washington, D.C., said it's not uncommon for
agencies to operate a referral center and a placement facility.
“For those that
do, it would be typical that it's clear to everybody that they do
both and that the referral might be to one of their own programs,”
Healy said. “It would seem to me, ethically, that you would disclose
that.”
Angry families
All Young wanted
to do was help her son, now 18.
Her teenage son
had become defiant, and Young wanted a military-type school for him,
a structured and regimented environment that also had an educational
component.
Young scoured
the Internet, eventually finding the Parent Help Web site, which
states: “We help parents with troubled teens.” She filled out a
questionnaire and waited for a phone call, which she believed would
be from an independent referral service.
The person who
returned her call recommended Thayer.
“He said he had
actually been to that facility to see what it was all about and that
he was very impressed,” Young remembers. “He said there were several
programs, but specifically recommended Thayer Learning Center.”
Based on the
recommendation, Young and her husband drove their son from Ohio to
Thayer in July 2003.
The grandmother
of a different child also didn't realize there was a connection
between Thayer and Parent Help. Jacqueline Payne, a Texas resident,
desperately wanted to help her granddaughter. She found the Parent
Help hot line number on the Internet and said she spoke with a
Parent Help employee at least five or six times.
Not once did the
connection between Thayer and Parent Help come up.
“I was real
specific about what I wanted,” Payne said. “He just said, ‘It sounds
like Thayer is the school you want.' He really talked them up and
said the owner, Willa Bundy, had a lot of experience with kids. It
sounded like the perfect match.
“There was
never, ever any indication that they weren't an independent company.
There was a curtain of dishonesty there.”
Payne's
granddaughter was at Thayer for less than four months in 2003.
Parent Help Inc.
was registered in Utah in February 1998. John Bundy, 47, is listed
as the registered agent in Utah secretary of state filings. Thayer
Learning Center LLC was registered in Missouri in August 2002, and
lists Willa Bundy, 43, as the registered agent.
Ricky Parker
wishes he knew about the connection between the two facilities
before he sent his son to Thayer in November 2003. The Parent Help
representative he spoke with pushed Thayer “the whole way,” he said.
“I thought I was
talking to an organization that would help me choose, out of maybe
several schools, where to send my child,” said Parker, who removed
his son in January 2004. “It was like, ‘Hey, man, I worked there for
a time. They really know what they're doing. They're very caring.'
“I thought they
were advising me.”
His thoughts
now?
“I'm out about
$20,000,” he said.
To reach Steve
Rock, call
(816) 234-4338
or send e-mail to srock@kcstar.com.
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First glance
• A northwest
Missouri military-style boot camp and a referral agency that
recommends the school are run by the same people.
• Some parents
who sent their children to Thayer Learning Center are angry because
they thought the referral was coming from an independent agency.
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Finding the
right fit
Ruth Ehresman,
policy director of Citizens for Missouri's Children, a nonprofit
child advocacy group based in St. Louis, says parents need to ask
tough questions when looking for a home for their troubled teen.
If dealing with
a referral service, ask whether the service has any affiliations
with the schools it represents. When dealing directly with the
facility, Ehresman suggests asking questions such as:
• Is the school
credentialed, licensed or accredited? If so, by whom?
• Are staff
screened? What kind of training is required of staff?
• Is there a
written discipline policy?
• What's the
provision for medical care?
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