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Offline Anonymous

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« on: February 20, 2006, 02:08:00 AM »
This article came out on February 12th with a place for feedback. All the feedback they have, so far (except for 1) is all positive - for the programs. Please post your comments!

Here is the link to the article:

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cct ... 854442.htm

Here's the text of the article:

Posted on Sun, Feb. 12, 2006

Conduct Unbecoming
By Andrew Becker
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

As his mother dropped him off at Central Junior High School for a weekend "behavior modification" boot camp in late January, Rudy Foreman got his first order -- and a taste of things to come -- from an intimidating Jerry Jackson.

"Go get that sleeping bag," Jackson, a retired Army drill sergeant dressed in camouflage fatigues, said as he glowered at the boy.

Rudy, all 8 years and 4 feet of him and "no bigger than a minute" as Jackson later described him, turned to take his gear from his mother, Markisha Ashford. Rudy was one of 16 boys who would spend the next 48 hours locked in the school gymnasium to learn about respect, responsibility and discipline.

For some exasperated parents, the camp is a last-ditch effort to reach their children before they do something that could land them in, or return them to, juvenile hall. For the boys, it is a message to shape up at home, behave in school and respect others. Run by the nonprofit group Pittsburg Youth Academy, the boot camp has no affiliation with the city of Pittsburg or Pittsburg schools, said academy director and Pittsburg native Lonell Nolen.

The boys, most of whom were 12 to 14 years old, had been enrolled in the camp for various reasons. Pittsburg's Student Attendance Review Board, on which Nolen sits, had referred some. Principals, teachers and counselors had also recommended the boys participate.

The volunteer-run camp is not mandatory, and parents have the final say on whether their child participates, said Nolen, who has worked for the school district as a child welfare and attendance worker. If the school refers a student, the camp fee is waived. Otherwise, Nolen asks for a $250 "donation," which he reduces or waives for parents who can't afford it.

The youngest of the group, Rudy attended because he had been fighting at Willow Cove Elementary, where he's in the third grade. The oldest boy, Pittsburg High junior Jose Orta, 16, was sent by his father for repeatedly skipping school and because, as his aunt Maribel said, he needed motivation. Hillview Junior High eighth-grader Roberto Hernandez, 13, had been expelled from Central Junior High for fighting with a knife.

"You'll get him back better than he was, believe you me," Jackson, 48, said to one boy's parents before they left.

Jackson, Nolen and the Rev. George Johnson, a former Los Angeles Crips gang member turned pastor, try to do that in two ways.

One is through physical training, as they call it. The other is a counseling approach, with workshops on topics such as anger management, alcohol and drug use, teen pregnancy and gang intervention.

"In a weekend you can only get so much information in," Nolen admitted.

No warm welcome

As Rudy took his sleeping bag inside the building, the boys who had already arrived sat in a line of metal folding chairs in the gym's foyer. Jackson, a recovering alcoholic, and Johnson, who served a 10-year prison sentence, then searched Rudy's belongings for weapons, gang-affiliated clothing and other contraband, as they had the other students.

"There's nothing to stab? No blue or red rags?" Johnson, 50, asked, referring to gang colors. "You do not have Santa Claus pajamas coming to my camp."

"I packed those," Rudy's mother, Markisha Ashford, said.

In a theatrical style aimed at parents as much as students, their stentorian voices echoing down the hall, Johnson and Jackson then paced in front of the boys. They appeared ready to pounce on any student for whatever reason. Johnson and Jackson told the students that they had better behave -- that weekend and during the six-month after-care program, called Helping Young People Excel, or HYPE. If not, they'd be back at boot camp for as many times as it takes for them to change.

"You are our property for six months. You belong to us," Johnson said.

"Today is the start of a new beginning for you. If you don't want it, you'll have to deal with it until Sunday, 5 p.m."

After dropping off his son, Jose Orta Sr. watched from the doorway to see how the camp started. His son's mother died when the boy was 3, and although he had a good relationship with his stepmother and younger siblings, the younger Jose had become withdrawn, his aunt Maribel said.

"It looks like they have good drills," Jose Sr. said. "It's a good start. Kids need someone to speak (to them) like that."

The camp leaders believe that the students aren't the only ones who need to be sternly addressed.

Nolen and Johnson said they hope to meet with parents, too, as some of the students' behavioral problems stem from trouble at home.

"We let them know that we care enough to be (there with them) all weekend ... to help them change their life," said Johnson, who runs the nondenominational Holy Fellowship Outreach Ministries in Pacheco.

"Some come in thinking this is going to be Disneyland. But by the end of the night and a 6 a.m. wake-up call, (they see) this is not the case."

For the past two years the camp was held in space donated by a Sacramento church, but Nolen and Johnson wanted to bring it home in Contra Costa. They had tried to introduce the program in Pittsburg a little more than two years ago, but were unable to because of logistical issues, Nolen said. They launched the first local weekend boot camp in mid-January with 12 girls in attendance, Johnson said.

About 280 students completed the Sacramento camp and program, with nearly the same number of boys and girls, Nolen said. The program's success rate is about 80 percent, Nolen said, adding that he measures success on a sliding scale with monthly progress reports in areas like attendance and family functioning. Johnson and Nolen offered anecdotal success stories, but said past participants declined interview requests for this story.

Nolen said he is seeking grants to help fund the academy, as he and Johnson have spent at least $10,000 out of pocket, with some money coming from Johnson's church and businesses donations. Pittsburg school officials waived rental fees save for janitorial costs, Nolen said.

Pittsburg school Superintendent Reed McLaughlin said school board members did so because they thought they'd get a better payback with student success. School officials have requested a list of students -- only one camper was from outside Pittsburg -- to check their current academic standing and school attendance and to compare that to the end of the year to determine if the program had a positive impact on the district, McLaughlin said.

"They're pretty ambitious," said Pittsburg High Principal Tim Galli.

"But if you shoot for the stars and miss, you hit the moon. If you shoot for the moon and miss, you hit nothing. So you might as well aim high."

48 hours

Fifteen minutes into the camp, the boys sat in the bleachers in an otherwise empty gymnasium and listened to Nolen read off the camp rules. They answered "Yes, sir" and "No, sir" in unison to his questions, prompted by Jackson, who made his relationship with the boys clear.

"I am not your friend," he said before he made the first boy do push-ups as punishment.

"There's a better life for you gentlemen," Johnson said after describing how he'd been shot three times, the first time when he was 16. "I don't want to see you in prison. I don't want to see you at juvenile hall."

Aside from bathroom breaks, showers and a 6:15 a.m. run the next day around the quad outside the gymnasium, that was where they remained for the following 48 hours.

By 8:30 p.m., after a pizza dinner paid for by the First Baptist Church Men's Ministry in Pittsburg, the boys separated into three groups, with Jose and Roberto as team leaders. Each group was charged with a team-building task -- assembling a 500-piece puzzle.

"I can't wait to get out of here," Rudy said. When someone said it looked like the 8-year-old had a bloody nose, he asked, "Do I need to go home?"

By 10:15 p.m., most of the boys had showered, and they stood in front of their sleeping bags, which were arranged in three rows of five.

Nolen finally turned off the gym lights around 10:48 p.m., but less than 10 minutes later the boys were up running laps because one boy complained that the floor was hard.

"We can do this all night," Jackson said.

The next two days the boys followed a routine of workshops on anger management, drugs and alcohol and self-esteem with intermittent orders to exercise. Two Pittsburg police officers visited to talk about gang intervention.

By 5 p.m. Sunday, the boys were long ready to leave. As the end of the camp approached, the boys' parents arrived and filed into the gymnasium. Nolen instructed the students to line up across the gym and face their parents. He called them one at a time to greet their parents and apologize for their misdeeds. Then, each student walked out with his family.

Mixed reactions

Before they left, Roberto, Rudy and Jose shared their thoughts on the weekend. Roberto, who joined a gang when he arrived at Central Junior High in sixth grade because most of his friends were in it, said the program was what he needed.

"It's going to be good for me," he said. "It's going to help."

But less than two weeks after the boot camp, his father, Francisco Hernandez, said his son's behavior had only worsened. And Roberto was expelled from Hillview Junior High.

Rudy, however, didn't see as clear a benefit. The running, among other things, was "harsh," he said. The reason he had been fighting in school was because he didn't like people talking about his father, who was shot and killed a few years ago. His mother, Markisha Ashford, said while her son's behavior at school was better the camp didn't help his attitude at home. She also questioned the appropriateness of having her 8-year-old son spend time with older boys and being exposed to subject matter like teen pregnancy and drug use.

Jose, who wants to be a doctor so he can help people like his mother, who died of heart disease, said he didn't like the idea of going to the boot camp, and he didn't want to return. Still, it was not a waste of time, he said, and he expected to change.

"Some of the kids here, they are going to learn, and some will stay the same," he said.

The day after the camp ended, Jose was at school at Riverside High, where he transferred to try to catch up on missing credits, his aunt Maribel said. He was doing his homework. And he had started an after-school job working at his aunt's boyfriend's body shop.

Click on link below, then scroll to bottom of article to send your opinion:
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Nihilanthic

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« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2006, 03:30:00 AM »
http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?to ... &forum=9&8

Same shit different wrapper.

The United States of America should have a foundation free from the influence of clergy.".
--George Washington, Revolutionary War General and U.S. President

« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
DannyB on the internet:I CALLED A LAWYER TODAY TO SEE IF I COULD SUE YOUR ASSES FOR DOING THIS BUT THAT WAS NOT POSSIBLE.

CCMGirl on program restraints: "DON\'T TAZ ME BRO!!!!!"

TheWho on program survivors: "From where I sit I see all the anit-program[sic] people doing all the complaining and crying."

Offline Troll Control

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« Reply #2 on: February 20, 2006, 09:49:00 AM »
Quote
"You'll get him back better than he was, believe you me," Jackson, 48, said to one boy's parents before they left.


Wow, even non-profits use this sales pitch.  Must be really effective on shiftless, gullible marks, er, parents.

Seriously, this is the same old hackneyed "scared straight" bullshit that has been proven not to work at all.  How is someone from a gang and someone from the army going to "change" anybody in 48hrs of exercise and browbeating?  Answer:  they ain't.

Sure, they'll scare the kids by threatening them with violence, etc (you know the routine) and they'll shape up for exactly how long it takes until they walk out the door, then it's business as usual for these kids.  If six and twelve month bootcamps produce a recidivism rate just slightly higher than standard penal institutions, what the hell is some watered down 48 hour "program" going to do for these kids?  Answer: nothin'.
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Offline katfish

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« Reply #3 on: February 20, 2006, 10:03:00 AM »
so unbelievably sickening...sick sick sick !!!  did you guys see that pic of that 8 yo boy...ok, I'm beggining to wonder if, as a nation, we have lost any sense of the meaning of CARE!!!
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Offline Antigen

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« Reply #4 on: February 20, 2006, 08:59:00 PM »
Quote
On 2006-02-20 06:49:00, Dysfunction Junction wrote:

Wow, even non-profits use this sales pitch.


Know those ppl who say I hate ta say I told ya so? Liars! Every last damned one of em!

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys

--P.J. O'Rourke

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Offline Nihilanthic

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« Reply #5 on: February 20, 2006, 09:55:00 PM »
Quote
On 2006-02-20 06:49:00, Dysfunction Junction wrote:

"
Quote

"You'll get him back better than he was, believe you me," Jackson, 48, said to one boy's parents before they left.




Wow, even non-profits use this sales pitch.  Must be really effective on shiftless, gullible marks, er, parents.



Seriously, this is the same old hackneyed "scared straight" bullshit that has been proven not to work at all.  How is someone from a gang and someone from the army going to "change" anybody in 48hrs of exercise and browbeating?  Answer:  they ain't.



Sure, they'll scare the kids by threatening them with violence, etc (you know the routine) and they'll shape up for exactly how long it takes until they walk out the door, then it's business as usual for these kids.  If six and twelve month bootcamps produce a recidivism rate just slightly higher than standard penal institutions, what the hell is some watered down 48 hour "program" going to do for these kids?  Answer: nothin'.
"


Why be even that nice? Its a washed up grunt and a fuckin' Crip doing basically the only thing they know how to do and trying to make a buck on it.

Almost ALL programs are fucking losers and failures of various sorts. Wasnt one of the kays a gas station manager before getting their current job? (I think it was JAY Kay down in TB, actually!) and most workers in programs are uneducated fucks.

WTF were Gilcreases credentials anyway. ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING so he could peddle rehashed Erhard nonsense?

I am not a great believer in school. School is primarily an institution for the perpetuation of adolescence...The thought that school educates is not one I have accepted yet...Thank God I am not young. I could not survive this horror.
--Peter F. Drucker

« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
DannyB on the internet:I CALLED A LAWYER TODAY TO SEE IF I COULD SUE YOUR ASSES FOR DOING THIS BUT THAT WAS NOT POSSIBLE.

CCMGirl on program restraints: "DON\'T TAZ ME BRO!!!!!"

TheWho on program survivors: "From where I sit I see all the anit-program[sic] people doing all the complaining and crying."

Offline Anonymous

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« Reply #6 on: February 20, 2006, 10:02:00 PM »
Seeing the little 8 year old boy makes me sick as well. I can't believe what is now perceived as acceptable. He has a fight at school and immediately he's a candidate for a boot camp where the average age of kids is 12-16. What's up with that? And most of all, parents buy into it.

But, did any of you notice that if you scroll down, past the comments section of the article (please, by the way, post your comments!) that WWASP and others, including Red Cliff Ascent, are advertising there? At least they were yesterday, it might change daily. They make me sick.

So parents read the article, then read all these uplifting comments from, well, ignorant parents who are saying "rah, rah, for these programs"  :silly: , and they fall for it? Damn, what has happened to people's minds?

Really, think about it. You have a kid. OK, he's a pain in the butt sometimes, they all are. So were we. He or she makes a mistake, a normal teen mistake like taking his grandmother's car for a ride (Martin Lee Anderson - he was beaten and killed for doing that), or like the little 8 year old who got into a fight at school and who is being told "we own you for the next 6 months" by a guy who towers over him (there's a video clip just under his picture), or he/she is a kid with ADHD, oppositional defiance, depression, etc., all being sent to programs that are not qualified to deal with their issues and that take a harsh, cold approach. Makes no sense to me.

Parents who feel they can't or don't want to deal with them go for the easy fix. It's a very big mistake. There are no easy, quick fixes when raising a child. Parents, it is your responsibility to raise them, to guide them, to direct them, and to help them when things get out of hand.

One of the famous lines they feed parents is "if you don't do something NOW your child could die." They fail to tell you that if you put them in a program they could die as well, as we are finding out all too often.

But what gets me is how parents fall for their suggestion to hire an escort service to pick up their child. They tell the parents straight up that they are going to come in the middle of the night, that they don't want the parents in the room or anywhere that the child will see them, that they will wake them up, force them to get dressed, whatever it takes, and then forcing them to get into the car of total strangers. Many of these escort services are not regulated and have been known to handcuff and pepper spray kids.

What I don't get is how can anyone with even 1/2 a brain falls for that. Who, in their right mind, would have their kid abducted in the middle of the night, by strangers who come into their bedroom, instruct them to get dressed, the kid distressed, 1/2 asleep, confused, thinking he/she is truly being abducted, only to get into the car and get a note from mom and dad that they are doing it for their own good. Now come on. Who can really fall for this shit? They do fall for it, all the time.

I know a girl whose mom lied to her, told her she was taking her to lunch, and when she parked the car at a restaurant two strangers opened the girls' door, handcuffed her, threw her in the back of their car, and sped off, all while her mom stood and watched. The ladies explained she was being taken across the country to a behavior modification program. Hmmm.... and they say the kids are manipulators and liars. Hmmmm......

Parents, please think about this before you take that final step. Please. For your child's sake. Most of the kids who go to these programs do have some sort of problems, many times stemming from issues at home that are really the fault of the parents. Why should they be the ones to suffer, to be taken far from home and treated with disrespect and worse. Why? Why can't parents step up to the plate and start parenting their own children?
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Offline Cidsa

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« Reply #7 on: February 20, 2006, 10:24:00 PM »
These places suck and I'm tired of seeing or hearing about parents who totally fall for all the bullshit and then regurgitate all the lies to get other parents sucked in.

The fact that there is an 8 year old in a program meant for older kids isn't much of a surprise. Actually, when I was in secure treatment I remember there was a little kid there..I think he was around 8-10.
There was also a younger kid in TRACC, he was probably between 10-14. I think perhaps 12 or 13.

Anyways, secure treatment is a place they send kids if they "are a danger to themselves or others" under the mental health act I believe..I was sent there due to suicide attempts as were others. Some were there because they abused drugs and were very violent. With the little kid I never really found out why he was there. I remember someone saying that he was violent but I never saw him display any violence towards others. He might have been an attempted suicide case too, I'm not sure.

Then the other kid in TRACC was a loud, violent little kid. Although most of his behaviours never really went farther than most boys his age. I mean, I remember the boys in my class throughout elementary school acted just like he did and they never got sent to a place like these. Also TRACC was made for kids 14-18 or so. So it was really strange to have young kids in these places.

The only way you go to these places is if your social worker AND a judge thinks I want you to go and they aren't really abusive.

When I think of parents putting their 8 year old son into one of these abusive places on their own, it makes me sick. Kids always act out and if it's really severe you shouldn't be running to some crazy cultish programs for help. You should be running to someone like a social worker and/or psychiatrist.

Also, if an 8 year old child is severe enough to actually warrant these programs (in most cases they probably aren't) then you definitely fucked up as a parent. I can't think of any 8 year olds who are violent enough to actually hurt their parents and peers (and not schoolground fights, that happens a lot anyway) and get caught up in drugs and gangs. The only little kids I've seen do that are on the Maury show and their parents are obviously screwups.

Shame on these parents for being so stupid and gullible. I mean, these are your CHILDREN. It's not like buying something from amazon based on all the positive reviews, where if you get something overhyped and shitty you can return it.
If your children are abused and mentally scarred it won't go away and you can't return anything.

Oh yes also, if a program is costing you thousands and thousands of dollars wouldn't that be a deterrent for most people? Or at least some kind of red flag?
Bah. :sad:
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Offline Antigen

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« Reply #8 on: February 20, 2006, 10:32:00 PM »
Quote
On 2006-02-20 19:02:00, Anonymous wrote:

"Seeing the little 8 year old boy makes me sick as well. I can't believe what is now perceived as acceptable. He has a fight at school and immediately he's a candidate for a boot camp where the average age of kids is 12-16. What's up with that? And most of all, parents buy into it.

Well, parents ta' day are conditioned from before birth, right from their own childhood. You can't bear children without expert medical assistance! What's the matter with you?! You wouldn't know how to feed them, either, if you didn't reference the ever changing nutrition pyramid and the latest revisions from whatever agency won the last round of King of the Hill in DC. Don't even try! Get expert advice on every damned thing, or the child snatchers may come and take your kids and have you declared unfit! Do it now! Don't stop to think!

By the time the kid gets to kindergarten, most parents are so thoroughly demoralize and have so little faith in their inherent maternal/paternal instincts that they'll accept, w/o question, "proof" of disorder based on a list of normal childhood behaviors presented by the (mostly childless) child experts.

It's no wonder people fall for this con. It's the ultimate long con and they've honed it for a couple of generations.

Quote

But, did any of you notice that if you scroll down, past the comments section of the article (please, by the way, post your comments!) that WWASP and others, including Red Cliff Ascent, are advertising there? At least they were yesterday, it might change daily. They make me sick.

Yeah, Google ads. There's a long and heated debate around here somewhere about my use of them. My guess is that (so far) the industry doesn't know to block advertising on Arianna's site. That may change. Maybe not. Maybe Huffington Post will make some money from people clicketty clicking on those ads after reading Maia's work. That would make me happy :smile:

Quote
What I don't get is how can anyone with even 1/2 a brain falls for that. Who, in their right mind, would have their kid abducted in the middle of the night, by strangers who come into their bedroom, instruct them to get dressed, the kid distressed, 1/2 asleep, confused, thinking he/she is truly being abducted, only to get into the car and get a note from mom and dad that they are doing it for their own good. Now come on. Who can really fall for this shit? They do fall for it, all the time.


Same suckers who were posting to public forums not long ago, telling us all that we'd be schooled in the ways of the world and quite contrite once we got a load of the massive arsenals of WMDs our boys would be finding in Iraq any day then.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.inf ... e11924.htm

Really, is it any wonder?

God did not reward men for being honest, generous and brave, but for the act of faith. Without faith, all the so-called virtues were sins. and the men who practiced these virtues, without faith, deserved to suffer eternal pain.
--



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"Don\'t let the past remind us of what we are not now."
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