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What
Can Be Done to Protect Children and Families?
Some private children's programs in the United States and overseas
have a long-standing history of program closures, government
investigations, claims of abuse, neglect, and fraud. Yet, federal
laws are totally lacking. We have federal laws to protect our
children and families from dangerous toys, dangerous car seats, and
other products on the market. Isn't it time we protected our
families and children from the ‘business' of harmful private
children's programs too?
"(Congressman
George) Miller, (ranking member). . . Committee on Education and
Workforce . . . said his interest in the WWASPS system stems from
allegations of abuse from within the system. ‘The reports of abuse
of these children never stop coming in,' he said. The WWASPS has
schools in Utah's Washington and Rich counties, Jamaica, Mexico,
Montana and Canada. In May, the system once again came under public
scrutiny after the Academy at Dundee Ranch was shut down by Costa
Rican officials who alleged widespread mismanagement and abuse . .
. WWASPS has invited Miller to come to Utah to check out the
schools. Miller said he was uninterested, calling such tours ‘dog
and pony shows.'" The Salt
Lake Tribune,
November 8, 2003. (Emphasis added.)
Did you know:
·
There are no federal laws to protect children and families against
private abusive and neglectful children's programs?
·
Almost anyone, no matter how poorly educated, poorly trained or
profit-driven, can begin a children's program in the U.S. or abroad?
·
There are no legal requirements as to how much of your monthly
tuition must be used to feed, clothe, and educate your child within
a privately run children's program?
·
That abuse, neglect, and fraud of privately operated children's
programs have been a long-standing tragedy in America, resulting in
life-long trauma for some children?
·
That some children may receive little or no meaningful education
while in a private children's program?
·
That businesses sometimes seek locations for children's programs in
Third-World countries having high unemployment rates and corruption
in their governments to avoid accountability, such as Jamaica,
Mexico, and Samoa?
·
Our U.S. Department of State has only relatively recently issued
WARNINGS about enrolling children in out-of-country programs?
·
That our U.S. Department of State is very limited in its
jurisdictional powers to investigate, intervene and help children
who are abused in children's programs on foreign soils?
·
That children are moved freely across state lines and out of the
country, sometimes from one profit-affiliated program to another,
without any meaningful governmental accountability, making it
virtually impossible to track and investigate abuse and neglect
allegations?
What is
Congress doing about this?
Shouldn’t our
Congress enact consumer protection laws for children and families
who may be victimized by the fraud, neglect, and abuse of American
children being used for profit-making activities at home and
overseas?
"Lon
Woodbury, publisher of Woodbury Reports, which rates schools
and programs for troubled teenagers inside and outside the United
States, said one reason that American programs have moved abroad is
‘to avoid the laws and regulations of the States.' He added, ‘They
can hire minimum-wage staff and still charge stateside prices.'"
New York Times, 2003 (first of a series of news articles about
WWASP/S by the NY Times in 2003). (Emphasis added.)
In a news
article in The Rocky Mountain News, by reporter Lou Kilzer,
the current WWASPS President Ken Kay proclaimed, while "between
jobs," said that:
"These people
(referring to WWASPS) 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."
After making
this statement, just having left WWASPS' Teen Help, Ken Kay was
re-hired and is currently the President of WWASPS.
Jay Kay, son
of Ken Kay and Director of WWASPS' Tranquility
Bay Academy in Jamaica, said the following on national television (Primetime,
Diane Sawyer) about the children in his care:
"Do I have
pepper spray? You bet I do! And I haven't had to use it in 5˝ 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.
In 2003, on
Texas television station, Kens News, Cross Creek Manor
(another WWASP/S program) was described "like a prison, like you
would see in a prison . . . . ." Similarly, WWASP/S' former
President, Karr Farnsworth, now running Cross Creek Manor, has no
formal education pertinent to the children's programs he now runs.
A young girl
died at Tranquility Bay in Jamaica in 2001 (another WWASP/S
program)--a children's program located in a Third-World country
lacking in American standards in our opinion.
On January 6, 2006,
Academy of Ivy Ridge, formerly a WWASPS program, announced they will
no longer carry the WWASPS affiliation.
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/01-06-2006/0004244244&EDATE=
The question
parents should be asking is why? If WWASPS defends their actions
and believes they don’t do anything wrong, why would the Academy of
Ivy Ridge withdraw their affiliation with WWASPS?
"PLEA FOR
INQUIRY ON SCHOOL NETWORK Representative George Miller, Democrat of
California, asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to investigate a
network of 11 behavior-modification schools for troubled teen-agers,
citing accusations of child abuse, human rights violations,
deceptive advertising and fraud. The network, the World Wide
Association of Specialty Programs of St. George, Utah, oversees
programs for more than 2,200 young people in the United States,
Mexico and Jamaica...." National Briefing: Washington, Published:
November
5, 2003
New York
Times
(Emphasis added.)
It is time we
protected our families and children from the ‘business' of harmful
adolescent programs?
Shouldn’t our
Congress Do Something? –Yes it should!
In the meantime
– do your research prior to placing your child in any school or
program.
The unfortunate
reality is there are many desperate parents with out-of-control
teens or children in need of intervention. To make a blanket
statement that all programs are bad is simply not true; however what
it does mean is that you as a parent need to be aware of an industry
that can mislead you into programs or schools that may not be in the
best interest of your child or family.
At
P.U.R.E.
we advocate for children and families. We are
about bringing families back together……………..
Please visit our
Helpful
Hints and
Questions to Ask Schools sections.
(Updated May
2006)
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