Well, I have some things to say about this one..
On 2006-02-03 16:32:00, Anonymous wrote:
The people attacking the Swan Valley Youth Academy do not care what happens to these young men who are trying to put their lives back together.
This isn't a place to start attacking everything for no reason. Whenever a place is brought up, usually there is proof of abuse and mistreatment.
Also, how can you just assume that every person there needs their lives put back together?
I'm sure there are/have been many kids who have been put in these places when they were just fine. I've heard of people with mental disorders being put into these places (maybe just so the parent doesn't have to deal with them), and by mental disorders I mean things like Autism and Bipolar Disorder.
Even the ones who ARE trying to get their lives back together shouldn't be there. Nothing will be "fixed", they will just be broken so everything *seems* to be fixed, of course that doesn't last forever.
Also, when a kid is getting into trouble and/or is very hard to deal with there is usually a reason. People don't normally start acting out unless there is a reason. Perhaps the kid has been abused or abandoned. Maybe the kid has social or mental issues.
I, myself, started acting out because things at home were troubled. My mother's new boyfriend moved in and he was abusive and confrontational and he also pushed everybody around to get his way. Living with someone like that is extremely difficult and it led me to do things that I shouldn't have.
They simply want the boot camp out of their backyard, they are mean-spirited and they all have past associations with the boot camp itself.
Think about this for a second. WHY would somebody who has had past associations with this camp want it to disappear?
If it's really some awesome place where people get genuinely helped, why would anybody want to have it shut down?
I mean sure, there is always a crazy nut out there that protests something good, but the people speaking out against this place ARE NOT crazy.
Nobody here is bashing this place because they have too much time on their hands and feel like being a jerk. They have legitimate reasons and those reasons are NOT mean-spirited at all.
The alternative setting for these young men is the state run cage, where they will learn even more bad habits. A boot camp is for change, not a vacation.
I have also heard of people stating that jails are less abusive and less scary than a lot of programs.
Also, if the kid's parents are putting them here and not courts, then jail ISN'T THE ONLY OTHER OPTION.
Many, many kids do end up going through the juvenile system but a lot of those kids have no help whatsoever. I've known a lot of these kids personally and most of them come from abusive backgrounds or have been living in foster care/group homes their entire lives. They get passed through the system and are never really looked after.
Many parents are able to help their children before they get to this point. Dealing with some children can be extremely difficult but it's when you give up that you lose them completely.
I think the worst behaviour can be prevented if the parent PAYS ATTENTION to what the kid thinks, wants and FEELS. However, most of the time a parent will only think of themselves and the rest of society and completely forget that the child has their own feelings.
Children shouldn't be treated like pets or possessions. Understanding your child and trying to help them through things is what is important. If you just ignore them and just yell and say "no" all the time, you aren't helping them at all.
Shoving kids into programs is also a form of giving up in my opinion. Sure a parents intentions may be good, but they are giving up their child to a place that is potentially abusive instead of trying to solve things themself.
My parents treated me this way too. They never seemed to understand how *I* felt, they just cared about what they felt and wanted. If I was upset or dispondant, they didn't care *why*, they just cared if I was doing my chores and acting "normal."
I would spend a lot of time on the internet and their answer to that was to scream, yell, hit and take my computer away for long periods of time. What they never seemed to realize is that I had no real friends and social situations were extremely uncomfortable and I would be very anxious. They just figured that the computer was a "distraction" or an "escape from reality", but what it really was was a connection to the outside world and to actual friends..At least to me.
Also, saying something is "not a vacation" is very, very annoying to me.
No shit a bootcamp isn't a vacation, it's a prison. Doubly so if it's an *abusive* prison.
I don't think people truly change in bootcamp. They are just broken down so they begin to mechanically react in ways people want you to.
If the bootcamp wants you to become a killing machine, that is what you will become. If they want you to act like a "normal" part of society, that is what you do.
But the problem is that they aren't willingly making this change. They are being *forced* to make this change and this can have profound effects on their lives later on.
I really wish I could put every person who defends these awful places, the staff, the owners, etc. into one of their own programs and give them a taste of their own medicine. Of course, that would be highly hypocritical of me, but it would be very, very vindicating.
People who profit off the abuse of children (or of anyone for that matter) are absolute scum. Anyone who defends these people with full knowledge of what they do (some people don't have this knowledge) are just as bad as the profiters, perhaps even worse because they aren't even profiting from all this, they are just defending them for some sick reason.
Anyways, enough ranting for me. Sleep time.
