The Men Behind Teen Help

	The owner of WWASPS, Robert Lichfield, said it was "baptism by fire." Lichfield has no formal qualifications in education or child psychology and didn't graduate from college. On the job, he said, "you learn real fast, just as a [physician's assistant] learns doctoring skills by working with doctors." Today, Lichfield is one of the largest contributor to the Mitt Romney campaign. Robert Lichfield dropped out of college and began working as the director of residential living at the Provo Canyon Boys School in the late 1970's. There he met former President of WWASPS Karr Farnsworth. Authorities closed Provo Canyon due to abuse, neglect and mistreatment of children. The facility reopened and is still in operation today. Lichfield then moved to La Verkin, where he and Brent Facer opened Cross Creek Manor, Inc., (now Cross Creek Manor, LLC) an all-girls facility, in 1990. The next year he created Teen Help to market the school. After his associates began opening more schools around the country and overseas, WWASPS was incorporated in 1998.
	Ken Kay, told the Denver Rocky Mountain News in a 2000 interview before he rejoined Teen Help as Vice President, and WWASPS as president: "These people are basically a bunch of untrained people who work for this organization. So they don't have credentials of any kind. We could be leading these kids to long-term problems that we don't have a clue about because we're not going about it in the proper way. How in the hell can you call yourself a behavior modification program -- and that's one of the ways it's marketed -- when nobody has the expertise to determine: Is this good, is this bad?" Ken Kay met Lichfield while working at Brightway Adolescent Hospital, in St. George, Utah. Brightway was a WWASPS/Teen Help facility that closed after authorities discovered many of the patient care plans were identical and the staff had failed to report a case of abuse. During sworn testimony in the August 2004 case of WWASPS vs PURE, Ken Kay stated that in his opinion, sexual activity between staff members and students is "not necessarily" abuse.
In Jamaica - on video admitting to pepper- spraying Kerry Layne Brown daily Hinton - 2006 Soon after his arrest	Randall Hinton, who is currently awaiting trial in August 2007, was charged with abusing children at Royal Gorge Academy, fka Royal Peak Academy. Hinton agreed to an interview which was videotaped. He laughed as he described the abuse he inflicted on Layne. He talked about how he and Jay Kay pepper-sprayed Layne multiple times a day, every day, for nine months. He didn't know that just a few short years later, in the prime of his life, Layne would be found by his mother, dead in his bed, a death believed to have been a direct result of the abuse he endured at the hands of Jay Kay and Randall Hinton at Tranquility Bay. A documentary about Tranquility Bay aired Europe. The narrator said: "The man who tortured Layne was Randall Hinton. The following is an account of what Hinton said in an interview with reporters:" “Violence … as in violent kids? Violent staff? Violent programs? Ah, ya." ... he was pepper-sprayed by myself and by Jay Kay. I think we were the only ones who could actually pepper-spray students. I think I can remember Kerry Layne being pepper-sprayed more than once in a day. I know he was pepper-sprayed more than two times in a day. I don’t think it would have been more than three times.” “... And from somebody on the outside looking in I would say it was abusive. For somebody that stayed with him 24/7 I would say I received as much abuse as he did as a staff. But that’s what we’re getting paid to do.” “Restraints could be used - mechanical devices could be used - pepper-spray could be used to gain control of your child. It’s just a job that, that helps people. Instead of the pizza coming to you we’ll come and pick the pizza up and take it and let it get cook for a while, in a sense. Until it’s ready to come home and then you get a brand new hot pizza.” Randall Hinton is scheduled for trial in Colorado on
	Jay Kay, son of Ken Kay and Director of Tranquility Bay, wrote a letter to parents at Tranquility Bay, saying: "In order to alleviate any more rumors we felt it was time to notify everyone what is happening with Tranquility Bay. We have had a great 10 years and our staff has been tremendous. We could not have accomplished anything without your support and dedication ..." The letter was written on the heels of an Investigation launched by the Ministry of Education in Jamaica after they received complaints from CAICA that a boy there had thrown a letter to a visiting parent indicating he was being abused and wanted help from the American Embassy. On national television (Primetime, Diane Sawyer) Kay said this about the children in his care: "Do I have pepper spray? You bet I do! And I haven't had to use it in 5½ to 6 months." Jay Kay admits to being a college dropout who ran a gas station convenience store before joining the "business" of the for-profit children's programs. He also said, "if I have kids, and they start giving me a problem, well they are going straight in the programme. If I had to, I'd pull the trigger without hesitation." (Aitkenhead 2003)
	David Gilcrease, member of the Gilcrease family that founded Phillips Petroleum started experimenting with mind control/brainwashing in the early 1960's. He is founder of Resource Realizations, which has been sued along with the Worldwide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS) for mentally and physically torturing and brainwashing America's children. According to David Gilcrease, founder of Resource Realizations, people are to follow the new rules of the game which are listed as: power (accepting the will of those claiming authority), willingness to learn (ability to be brainwashed), choosing to change (never asking questions or demanding respect), respecting reality (accepting their version of reality), and seeing the world in terms of working/not working. The old rules of the game of life, according to Gilcrease are: control (of self), withhold (belief in privacy rights), victim (demanding redresses for being wronged), protection (expectation of safety from physical and mental distress), choosing to stay the same (refusing the brainwashing), denial of reality (denying the reality they wish to instate), and seeing the world in terms of right and wrong. The old rules being those that do not work or in plain English, are wrong for humanity. Many personal accounts describe the seminars "brainwashing," "humiliating," and "destructive." Several parents have reported that Resource Realizations staff members encouraged them to leave their spouse because he/she did not approve of the seminars. David Gilcrease, Founder and President of Resource Realizations/Premier Education, is a former Lifespring trainer. Lifespring has been classified as a cult.
	WWASP founder Robert Lichfield and former President of WWASP Karr Farnsworth met while working at Provo Canyon Boys School. This behavior modification facility has closed several times due to orders from the authorities, but continues to reopen and are in fact still in business today - primarily due to the demand. During the WWASPS, et al. v. Scheff, et al., trial, the father of a child who attended Cross Creek, another WWASPS program run by Karr Farnsworth, described witnessing duct-tape over the mouth of a female child at Cross Creek in LaVerkin, Utah on the day he removed his son. The father, Chris Goodwin, testified that the reality of being fraudulently “taken” by WWASP came crashing down on him the day he visited Cross Creek. The St. George, Utah Spectrum, writing about the arrest of two St. George residents in Brno, Czech Republic, for cruelty to children, quoted Karr Farnsworth, president of the Worldwide Association of Specialty Programs, as calling the charges absurd and suggesting there were "elements in the State police who hate Americans." He also asserted that the Czech's are influenced by their communist history. The Spectrum identified Farnsworth as head of "an umbrella company that represents Morava Academy and several other teen programs around the world".
	Brent Facer is the general partner of the other limited partnership that owns Teen Help and is a trustee of the nonprofit WWASP. He was vice president of Teen Help Inc. before it was dissolved. Brent Facer is a trustee and a partner and former vice president of Teen Help. He is/was involved with Peacox Enterprises and is affiliated with the company in some capacity.

Robert Lichfield - how he got his start:

Teen Help was started by Lichfield, now in his early 50s, a southern Utah businessman who lives on an estate in the spectacular canyon country near St. George. The estate features private trout ponds and a gymnasium.

Lichfield got his start in behavior modification two decades ago when he worked at Provo Canyon School in Provo, Utah. Provo Canyon is a strict punishment-and-rewards program for kids having problems getting along with their parents.

In the late 1980s, Lichfield attended encounter-group sessions organized by David Gilcrease. Gilcrease had been a trainer from 1974 to 1981 for LifeSpring, a company that perfected a form of encounter sessions called "large group awareness training."

Some psychologists call it "coercive persuasion." In December 1990, Lichfield incorporated a residential treatment center called Cross Creek Manor in La Verkin. He obtained a Utah state license to run it.

In 1993 Lichfield contracted to run Brightway Adolescent Hospital in nearby St. George. It became the receiving center for youths entering the Teen Help network.

About the same time, Lichfield developed the idea of placing teens in a compound in Western Samoa.

Teen Help's first foreign venture was Paradise Cove in the Pacific island nation. Kids would be taken from their homes by an escort service, sometimes by one run by Lichfield's brother, Narvin.

From Denver Rocky Mountain News

In March 2005, Robert Lichfield's bio (when he spoke for Families Under Fire at BYU):

                   Robert Browning Lichfield was born and raised in Utah in a large family. He has vast
                   knowledge and experience working with struggling teens and their families. He began
                   his career at Provo Canyon School, and after two years he became the director, a
                   position he held for the next eight years. He has been working with “tough” parenting
                   problems for over twenty-five years. He has founded and consults with more than a
                   dozen specialty boarding schools throughout the world. He is currently a Gospel
                   Doctrine teacher. He is married to Patti Peart from Randolph, Utah, and is the wonderful
                   father of seven children.

History of WWASPS:

The following was taken from the Intrepid Net Reporters website, a website dedicated to helping children and parents that was run by the late Donna Hendricks.

As part of our continuing series on the Teen Help family of businesses in Southern Utah, today we take a look at one of the newer groups, the WorldWide Association of Specialty Programs.

The St. George, Utah Spectrum, writing about the arrest last week of two St. George residents in Brno, Czech Republic, for cruelty to children, quoted Karr Farnsworth, president of the Worldwide Association of Specialty Programs, as calling the charges absurd and suggesting there were "elements in the State police who hate Americans." He also asserted that the Czech's are influenced by their communist history. The Spectrum identified Farnsworth as head of "an umbrella company that represents Morava Academy and several other teen programs around the world".

And Southern Utah is the home of this newly formed charitable group.

The WWASP is a non-profit voluntary association. As such it follows in the footsteps of others who have sought to bind together for a common and greater good.

Think:

International Federation of Red
Cross
and Red Crescent Societies.

American Cancer Society.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

While generally having a long and honorable history in the United States, voluntary associations have had their red-headed step-children on the glorious road to progress as well:

Think:

Children's Aid Society and the Orphan Trains.

Council for Tobacco Research

Tobacco Institute, etc.

We have been unable thus far to examine the Articles of Incorporation for the WorldWide Association and it appears to have as members only other Teen Help associates: Resource Realizations (David Gilcrease and the TASKS seminars), Tranquility Bay, Paradise Cove, etcetera, etcetera. As with other of the Teen Help Family of Businesses, the precise mission of the WWASP is unclear.

Information on their website is sparse holding only the legend:

CREATING FAMILY UNITY
through
EDUCATION, GROWTH and CHANGE

The offices are listed in LaVerkin Utah at 105 State Street and the telephone number is listed as 435-635-2327. If you view the color map of LaVerkin to the right, the Cross Creek Manor, WWASP, Resource Realizations and other of the L/F/A Enterprises are all clustered around the Post Office though their addresses appear as diverse as 590 North State Street and 190 South State Street. Sources in the town offices indicate those addresses are about 50 to 100 yards apart......."maybe"

Incorporated in Utah, January 8, 1998, WWASP is listed in the corporate records of the state as a domestic non-profit. Under Utah law a "‘Nonprofit corporation’ means a corporation which does not distribute any part of its income to its members, trustees, or officers, and includes a nonprofit cooperative association." Although hoping to be worldwide in scope they are less than a year old and largely unknown outside LaVerkin.

Typically a nonprofit will have a governing body vested with the management of it's affairs, often elected and diversely representative of the members of the charitable organization. For the record, the Executive Director of the WorldWide Association is Karr Farnsworth, former Director of the flagship Lichfield/Facer/Atkin property, Cross Creek Manor and the Board of Directors is J. Ralph Atkin, Robert Lichfield and Brent M. Facer.

Non-profits can be useful to their members in a variety of ways, not the least of which is a vehicle for charitable contributions. If the organization applies for and is granted 501(c)3 status in the United States that makes them a tax exempt organization and thus eligible for donations to them to be tax deductible for the contributing individuals and organizations. This is a good thing.

They can also be used as a way to write-off operating expenses that would otherwise be part of other entities annual expenses such as personnel, travel, printing, etc. With no more information than we currently have (although we have been promised more) it is difficult to make an educated guess as to which category this organization will fall into. Seeing the Board as comprised thus far is not an encouraging sign.

"At the entrance of Zion National Park, amidst seemingly endless panorama of beautiful scenery, consisting of tall mountains, rugged cliffs, painted rocks, lies La Verkin, the choicest spot in Southern Utah."

LaVerkin is a tiny "bedroom community" attached to St. George, a small town in Southwestern Utah close to borders with Nevada and Arizona. Known as part of "Red Rock" country, it’s moderate climate, clear air and multiple opportunities for rest, recreation and relaxation make it a haven for a large seasonal population of retirees and "snowbirds". The population of LaVerkin is 2,000 and the Teen Help family of businesses are the city's largest employer.

As grand as this sounds and as delightful as LaVerkin no doubt is, a resident described it to IntrepidNet as a "hiccup on the way to St. George."

Thus is the epicenter of the WorldWide Association of Specialty Programs.

The following was taken from the Wasatch Watch website:

WWASPS & Teen Help, LLC

Lichfield is the founder of the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools, or WWASPS. They function as an umbrella organization encompassing several "troubled teen" centers, or schools as they call them. They function worldwide, having had campuses in Jamaica, Costa Rica, Samoa, Mexico, and The Czech Republic. The principal component of this organization is Teen Help, LLC. They raise money, promote the schools, process payments and paperwork, and make political contributions. Teen Help was the top contributor during Utah state elections in 2001-2002 with donations totaling $215,290, and was the third leading "soft money" donor with donations totaling $175,500.

Here's is a who's who of people in this organization.

WWASPS

Robert Lichfield is a consultant and director.
Brent Facer is a trustee.
The current president is Ken Kay.

Teen Help, LLC

Robert Lichfield is the founder and partner.
J. Ralph Atkin (Owner of Skywest Airlines, Eurosky Airlines and Jet Acquisitions Group in Arizona) is also a partner.
Brent Facer is a partner and former vice president

All the sub-contracted entities for WWASPS including the accounting firm, the property managers, referral agencies, "escort" services (companies who physically remove children from their homes and deliver them to the "schools,"), real estate agencies, and the individual programs - which claim to be independently owned and operated - are also easily connected by family ties.

Affiliated Facilities and marketing arms

Academy at Ivy Ridge, New York - Jason Finlinson is the Director. He is thought to be the brother-in-law of Robert Lichfield.

Bell Academy, California - closed after state officials demanded that it comply with state laws. Although WWASPS claims this facility was not "theirs," children were transferred to Midwest Academy and Academy at Ivy Ridge. Owners were Karr Farnsworth, Dace Goulding and Jade Robinson. Bell Academy was also discussed on the private WWASPS message board. The phone number for the "school" was identical to that of Casa by the Sea.

Bethel Boys Academy, Mississippi, renamed Eagle Point Christian Academy, then later renamed Pine View Academy.

Bethel Girls Academy, Mississippi.

Brightway Hospital, Utah - closed by authorities in 2002 for providing inadequate care and abuse of teenagers. To the best of our knowledge, children "evaluated" at Brightway were placed ONLY at WWASPS/Teen Help facilities.

Camas Ranch, Montana

Canyon View Park, Montana

Carolina Springs Academy, South Carolina - Narvin Lichfield is the owner. Narvin Lichfield was banned from returning to Carolina Springs and went on to operate Dundee Ranch in Costa Rica, which closed on allegations of child abuse and neglect, and has since re-opened as Pillars of Hope. Children are being from CSA to Pillars of Hope as an experience "abroad".

Casa by the Sea, Ensenada, Mexico - raided and closed on September 10, 2004. Dace Goulding was the Director. Goulding was also employed at Paradise Cove.

Cross Creek Manor/Center/Academy LLC, Utah - J. Ralph Atkin is the registered agent. Karr Farnsworth is the former director.

Darrington Academy, Georgia - Directors Dusky and Dace Goulding previously supervised Casa by the Sea.

Dundee Ranch Academy, Costa Rica - raided and closed on May 22, 2003 after authorities confirmed child abuse. Director Narvin Lichfield and his wife were arrested. Many of the children were transferred to Tranquility Bay.

Eagle Point Christian Academy, Mississippi , previously Bethel Boys Academy, then renamed again to Pine View Academy.

Gulf Coast Academy, Mississippi is a new program developed in 2007.

Help My Teen, a marketing arm of WWASPS located in Utah.

High Impact, Mexico - closed after an investigation into abuse. Mexican police videotaped children being held in dog cages. The facility housed children who would not comply at Casa by the Sea.

Horizon Academy, Nevada - Jade Robinson is the director. Robinson was previously an administrator/owner of Bell Academy and Casa by the Sea.

Lifelines Family Services, a WWASPS marketing arm in Utah.

Majestic Ranch Academy, LLC, Utah - Children as young as 7 are accepted at this facility. Dan Peart, brother-in-law of Robert Lichfield, is the owner. CAICA reported on child abuse at Majestic Ranch in their report Majestic Ranch: A Living Nightmare for Kids.

Midwest Academy, Iowa -Brian Viafanua is the Director. Viafanua was also the director of Paradise Cove when the facility closed under allegations of abuse.

Morava Academy, Czech Republic - closed in 1998 after authorities confirmed abuse and arrested the directors Glenda (aka Glenn) and Steve Roach. Many of the children were transferred to Carolina Springs Academy in South Carolina. Was owned by J. Ralph Atkin.

New Beginnings Maternity, believed to be closed.

Paradise Cove, Samoa - closed after an investigation into abuse. Many children were transferred to Cross Creek Manor/Center/Academy.

Pillars of Hope, Costa Rica - formerly Dundee Ranch, raided and closed. Narvin Lichield, owner of Carolina Springs Academy and brother of Robert Lichfield, is the owner. Children from Carolina Springs are now being transferred to Pillars of Hope as an experience “abroad”.

Pine View Christian Academy borders FL, AL, MS - previously Bethel Boys.

Reality Trek located in Utah

Red River Academy is located in Louisiana and borders Texas.

Royal Gorge Academy, Colorado - Randall Hinton, who admitted to repeatedly pepper-spraying a teen at Tranquility Bay, is an administrator of the facility.

Respect Camp, Mississippi - Formerly known as Eagle Point Christian Academy and Bethel Boys Academy. The facility is owned by the Fountain family. Abuse allegations at Fountain-owned programs date back more than 20 years.

Sky View Academy in Nevada.

Spring Creek Lodge Academy, Montana - Cameron Pullan is the Director. Dan Peart, brother-in-law of Robert Lichfield, is the Vice President.

Teens in Crisis, LLC, another WWASPS marketing arm.

Teen Help, LLC, WWASPS marketing arm.

Tranquility Bay, Jamaica - Jay Kay, son of WWASP President Ken Kay, is the owner and director.

From Desperate Measures, click on the link below for full article:

http://www.denver-rmn.com/desperate/site-desperate/front-pg.htm