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Teen boot camp hearing targets
Missouri agency April 24,
2008
By Steve Rock and David Goldstein
In a hearing designed to expose
deceptive marketing practices in the residential treatment industry
for troubled teens, a northwest Missouri referral agency was singled
out Thursday on Capitol Hill.
The hearing, held before a House
committee, included testimony of examples of cruelty and neglect
used by officials at boot camps and residential treatment centers.
It highlighted what Greg Kutz
called “deceptive and other questionable” marketing tactics by some
referral agencies. Kutz, who is leading an investigation into youth
residential programs for the federal Government Accountability
Office, specifically named Parent Help of Gallatin, Mo., as one of
them.
For example: Despite online
descriptions that say Parent Help workers will “look at your special
situation and help you select the best school for your teen,” all
three GAO investigators who called Parent Help with fictitious
stories about their children were referred to Thayer Learning
Center.
Parent Help is owned by John Bundy,
while Thayer is owned by his wife, Willa Bundy.
“They didn’t disclose that to us as
parents,” Kutz testified.
Thayer Learning Center, where
Roberto Reyes of California died at age 15 in November 2004 after
his parents were referred to the school through Parent Help, is
located about 50 miles northeast of Kansas City in Kidder. Parent
Help is less than 15 miles from there.
Officials at Thayer and attorneys
for Thayer didn’t return calls from The Star on Thursday.
The GAO found that among the more
questionable practices were false promises of tax incentives and
insurance reimbursements. Monthly charges ranged from $2,800 to
$13,000, Kutz said.
In a recorded conversation
excerpted during the hearing, an official with Parent Help told a
GAO investigator that a “whole-grain diet” coupled with exercise and
sleep would cause a child’s bipolar disorder and depression to “just
go away after a while.”
An agent at a different agency told
an investigator posing as the father of a troubled teenage girl that
her mother would “freak out” if she knew what kind of place their
daughter was going to.
“I want you to tell her it’s a
college prep boarding school,” the agent said, according to the GAO.
“If she thinks that you want to send her daughter to a place where
there are drug addicts and people that are all screwed up, she will
look at you and say, ‘No way.’ ”
The hearing was designed to call
attention to lax oversight of such facilities. There is no federal
oversight, and state oversight is loose and inconsistent, according
to the GAO.
U.S. Rep. George Miller of
California, chairman of the House education committee, introduced
legislation this week that would set up minimum standards for all
programs.
“This legislation would take the
first step toward finally ending the horrific abuses that have gone
on far too long in private residential treatment programs for
teens,” Miller said.
In a January 2005 report, The Star
disclosed the relationship between Thayer and Parent Help and
identified several parents who felt deceived. They had called a
Parent Help hot line and were all strongly encouraged to send their
kids to Thayer — and only Thayer.
None of them was told of the
connection between Parent Help and Thayer.
To reach Steve Rock, send e-mail to
srock@kcstar.com
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