Have you rescued a kid from a program?

[Anonymous]

I am especially wondering about people like spots, who rescued a kid who was not "legally" their own. I just got curious to know what it is that made you step forward. Many people in my "community" knew that I was in Straight. Many of them thought it was a bad idea. But no one stepped forward that I know of, except my friends did try to talk to my parents about how bad the program was that I was in. Grown-ups in the "community" remained silent, as far as I know.

Maybe you found out some information that really alarmed you, but to even go digging for that information, and then to get the legal help and be really committed, I am thinking you might have been made of special character, or had a different sort of value system.

[Anonymous]

She was 17 about to turn 18 in one month she was on a home visit she ask for help her B/F for help leaving the program. He got in touch with me and asks what can be done. So we up a former staff member on "visit" to the program on her 18th b-day, while we was waiting outside for the girl. The former staff member met with the girl inside the program and asks her if she still wanted to leave and she said she still wanted to leave. So the former staff member went to a current staff member and told her that the student wished to leave and told her to unlock the door. On the way out the former staff member told the office workers she was leaving the program, as it was her rights. A minute later they was flying down the road at high speeds, we all followed to a restaurant where we all meet up in the neighboring county. A day later i was informed by the former staff member she was receiving death threats from the girls family wanting to know where the girl was! That same day the girl?s sister saw her in a Wall Mart and grabbed her by the arm and tried to get her to go with her, she refused and her b/f told the sister to get lost. For a few months the girl was in hiding from her family. She now has a job and going to college. She is perfectly fine..

One footnote:

We later learned about one hour after we rescued the girl her family came up to visit her on her 18-th day (the program did not allow such visits). The only thing we can figure is that her family was going to take her to a facility outside the United States where she can be kept till she was 23.

[bandit1978]

What program was this?  Why was she sent there??
Is her family crazy? (death threats?)  How old is she now and is her family still stalking her?

[Anonymous]

i wont say the program name because if i said the name the girls idenity could be figured out. Also this rescue operation is still usable and i dont want to ruin future uses of it... The girls is 20 now she has a apartment and is doing well. Her family is nuts to answer your question. After a few months they gave up on her, and told her she was cut off. I dont know why she was sent there, but all that matters is that she is no longer in hell.

[spots]

We did not rescue a stranger.  The subject in WWASPS was our grandaughter who had stayed with us every weekend and all school vacations, totalling about half her life.  She was sent to Casa by the Sea when mom married Evil Stepfather.  

She came to live with us permanently when she was pulled from Casa by her mom, after almost a year in Mexico.  We wrote to her, Casa witheld many of our letters, and finally we were cut off because we were not supportive of the Program.  She came to us after 3 months back at home, which she spent in confinement to her room except for school times.  The move was at her request, and she worked hard to secure the "temporary" arrangement.

We worked hard at retreiving her when she was in Mexico, but found that no law, government agency, or circumstance can get a child away from a devoted cult follower (parent) wrapped up in WWASPS, even a close family member. She is almost 17 now, been here for 1.5 years, and will stay with us until/throughout her college career.  We still do not have legal custody.

Forget helping individuals.  Until they are released, the law is firmly on the side of the parents.

[OverLordd]

Have you tryed to get custody of her? She stays with you, that would be something I would try to do. But I would like to saulte those of you who have tried to help people in this situation. You guys are doing great things. Thank you for helping these youth out of their own hell.

[Anonymous]

I have never been so disgusted with Americans in my life. The Law is allowing CHILD ABUSE and yet people continue to bow down before it. Now go back to your televisions and your filthy American food and all the other ways in which you maintain your status as infants sucking at the over-sucked and starving breast of the rest of the world.

And please give me a break with your lousy "petitions". Americans SUCK.

[Antigen]

Check the laws in the state the kid is in. I know that one kid got rescued from a work assignment at a restaurant in Utah. Utah law requires that the kid (over age 16, I think) went willingly w/ the adults who go get them and that they contact the custodial parents/guardians within some number of hours (12 or 24?) So Aunt shows up, sees the girl, asks her if she'd like a lift the hell out of Utah and they're off. It took the family a huge amount of planning and prep to carry that off. They had to gain contacts within the group to find out where they sent kids on those work assignments and a bunch of other details. But it was perfectly legal.

It has ever been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues

--Abraham Lincoln

[Anonymous]

must be a canadian?

[Anonymous]

One possible way to rescue a kid from a program is that some European countries have an age of majority of 17, not 18.

So the trick would be to obtain visas for the rescuers and kid to live in such a country, or stay in such a country for a year or however long until the kid turns 18.  And have either the paperwork ready for a passport (somehow) or perhaps the kid already has a passport and its possible to get hold of it.  Then you could take off and enroll the kid in school over there and make very sure the kid looks like the perfect model of propriety, and the kid's an adult and the European courts are going to take a dim view of shipping him back against his will.  And the State Department and American courts are very reluctant to enforce the law otherwise.  I suspect they'd be even more reluctant if the kid was in school, getting good grades, and wanted to stay right where he was.

I don't know if this would work, but it might be worth looking into if you're trying to rescue a kid who's 17.

Europe is really harsh on religious nuts, and if the kid is a model citizen, making good grades in school, following all the rules, and actively learning the local language and can talk intelligently about the wonderful language and cultural opportunities in Europe and the cult brainwashing in the facility, well, you're not going to get the kid out of Europe with a crowbar.

One way to do it if the rescuer had lots of money would be to buy the kid citizenship in Nevis and St. Kitts and get a N&SK passport to get visas and travel on.  Belize and other countries that formerly sold citizenship don't do it officially anymore because the US gov't. hates it as a tax dodge, but it might be possible to still get it done "under the table"---especially if no tax dodging is involved and the Carribean nation can semi-credibly claim that the citizenship was issued to the kid as a refugee for humanitarian reasons and all that money was just a "donation" from a friendly individual.

If the kid has such a dual citizenship, you can avoid all the problems of getting the kid's US passport.  Drive to Canada or Mexico and fly to Europe.

Iirc, citizenship would probably cost in the neighborhood of $100k.  Cheaper to hire a good lawyer unless you've already exhausted all such means.

Timoclea

[Anonymous]

Oops, my bad.  Age of majority in most Euro countries *is* actually 18.

But you don't need a visa to enter France from the US (which would leave out N&SK passports), an immigrant between the ages of 16 and 18 can apply for a permit to work in France.

I still think if the kid had a job and was going to school in France and doing well and didn't want to go home to be put in a facility arguably run by religious nuts and doing brainwashing, you could keep the kid in the country.

I think the French would do it just to piss the US off.

But you'd have to get in the country first.

Timoclea

[Nihilanthic]

On 2005-07-19 08:21:00, Anonymous wrote:

"I have never been so disgusted with Americans in my life. The Law is allowing CHILD ABUSE and yet people continue to bow down before it. Now go back to your televisions and your filthy American food and all the other ways in which you maintain your status as infants sucking at the over-sucked and starving breast of the rest of the world.



And please give me a break with your lousy "petitions". Americans SUCK. "

 :wave: Hi, Im a 20 year old american.

Just imagine how I feel! Or everyone else here who knows whats going on. Our government has basically turned away from representing the people it takes taxes from and now exists as little more than a 'soverign corporation' with a military and the ability to take tax money and our rights away!

If youre actually overseas and not a troll, why not consider spreading the word around to do something about this?

Never in the history of any nation has an education system been so on the point of disintegration and decay as the education system in this country...We know that education in this country is as bad as it can be.  We know that it is old-fashioned, irrelevant, and not meaningful.
--U.S. Senator Abraham A. Ribicoff, 1970

[Anonymous]

On 2005-07-19 13:24:00, Nihilanthic wrote:

"If youre actually overseas and not a troll, why not consider spreading the word around to do something about this?"

Why would they care, remember, they HATE americans? So I assume they endorse locking America's youth up?  This crazy canadian poster contradicts themselves too many times to make sense.

Hey Anon- How do you feel ABOOOOT that?!

[mitzy]

people that write "americans suck"
yet go by anonymus,well those kind of cowards SUCK

[The Liger]

I'm pretty sure that children are considered emancipated at 16 in Canada.  That's why there are a lot of children's homeless shelters there.  They can't force them into foster care.  I think 16-year-olds have to sign something to be put in Canadian rehabs and stuff too.

But in some countries like Mexico, the age is 23.  That's one of the reasons why people liked setting up places in Mexico - they could threaten kids to keep them until 23 if they didn't comply.  Genesis by the Sea actually did keep a few girls there past 18 against their will.  One girl tried to get arrested so they would deport her, but the school owners bailed her out and took her back.