Contraband communications
by John S. Adams
Children at Spring Creek Lodge Academy near Thompson Falls live highly supervised lives. They?re sent to the secluded backwoods boarding school from all over the country for ?behavior modification,? isolated from the opposite sex and warned not to exchange phone numbers or e-mail addresses. Posses-sion of a friend?s contact info is considered a major infraction; punishable by extra months tacked on to the time it takes to graduate the program.
?You come here alone, you leave here alone. That?s what they always told us,? recalls Scott Stewart, a 2001 graduate of Spring Creek. ?They think if you meet up with these people outside of the program your ?non-working? lifestyles start coming back.?
Stewart says students used coded Bible passages and tiny notes stuffed into the tubes of Bic pens to exchange contraband information at Spring Creek.
Now it?s getting much easier for those same students to get in touch on the outside, thanks to the increasing popularity of Internet blog sites and forums.
Online communities like MySpace.com and Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora (
www.fornits.com/wwf) now give former students of Spring Creek and other programs in the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS) a place to meet and share their thoughts and past experiences.
?I would say about 95 percent of the discussions are people talking about the trials and tribulations they had there,? says Stewart, a student at DeVry University in Dallas, Texas, and a member of the ?Spring Creekers? group at MySpace.com.
MySpace is host to groups with names like ?Spring Creek Peeps,? ?Spring Creek?s Worst Enemies,? ?Anti-WWASPS? and ?End Institution-alized Child Abuse,? to name a few. ?Spring Creekers? alone boasts 323 new members since it began in March, 2005, but that?s nothing compared to the 788 who have joined the ?End Institution-alized Child Abuse? group since it was started just five months ago.
?I have found friends I thought I would never hear from again,? says Stewart. ?It?s real inspiring. It?s great to touch base with some of your old family members, people you?ve grown close to.?
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Spring Creek's Short Leash
by John S. Adams, photos by Chad Harder
Montana?s behavior modification programs watch their troubled teen charges like hawks. Recent lawsuits and allegations of abuse raise the question: Who?s watching them?
By the summer of 2004 Janet Larson was at her wit?s end. Her 17-year-old daughter Christina (both names have been changed) was drinking, smoking, sneaking out, doing drugs and lying. Her parents were worried sick she would drop out of school, end up in jail, or worse.
So they made a difficult decision that summer, a decision they hoped would change their daughter?s life: They decided to send Christina to a private behavior modification program in Western Montana. Like thousands of parents around the country who send their children away in hopes of saving their lives, Christina?s parents were convinced they had no other choice.
Her experience at Spring Creek Lodge in Thompson Falls did change Christina?s life, but not in the way her parents expected. Less than two months after enrolling in the program, Christina was back home in southern California, dealing with what her mother calls the ?shock treatment? she received at Spring Creek, as well as the news that a bunk-mate and friend at the school had killed herself just days after Christina?s departure.
more....
http://www.missoulanews.com/News/News.asp?no=4970--------
Escape in Sanders County
by John S. Adams
No news is bad news for Spring Creek?s ?runners?
On the evening of Friday, Sept. 9, a 16-year-old boy was found approximately 30 feet below the lip of a cliff above the Clark Fork River west of Thompson Falls. The boy was a student at Spring Creek Lodge Academy, a specialty boarding school in Sanders County and member of the World Wide Association of Specialty Schools and Programs (WWASPS). Two sources close to Spring Creek told the Independent that Adrian Sanders was being transported from Spring Creek to an associated facility in Jamaica when he escaped his teen transport service, Second Chance Transport of Thompson Falls. He was later found by search and rescue personnel below the cliffs behind the Rimrock Lodge motel, one mile west of Thompson Falls on State Hwy 200. He was transported to Clark Fork Valley Hospital in Plains.
Details of the incident and the extent of the boy?s injuries have been hard to come by.
Queries directed to traditional sources of information including the local sheriff?s department, ambulance service and hospital, have turned up little or no information. It is still unknown if an investigation into the boy?s attempted escape and subsequent fall and injury was ever conducted.
The level of secrecy surrounding even minor details related to the incident is startling. Officials at the Clark Fork Valley Hospital refuse to confirm whether the boy was ever a patient. A Thompson Falls Volunteer Ambulance official refuses to comment on whether or not the ambulance company even responded to the incident. The local sheriff says there was no investigation into or documentation of the incident other than an EMS/Fire initial dispatch report, which includes 18 lines of frustratingly vague narrative of the response to the incident. The private company responsible for transporting Adrian Sanders refused to comment other than to say that their charge suffered a ?minor concussion? and that everything ?turned out fine.? Neither Spring Creek Lodge?s director nor the school?s principal returned phone calls regarding the incident. A spokeswoman for Spring Creek said the school is ?not authorized to give information on the student.? Information on where Adrian Sanders is from, why he was being transported, how he escaped, the extent of his injuries and the nature of the rescue have all been withheld from the Independent or were never documented.
more....
http://www.missoulanews.com/News/News.asp?no=5192----
Tragedy at Montana school
by Ken Kay - President WWASP
October 8, 2004
Spring Creek Lodge (SCL), the school for troubled teens close to Thompson Falls, MT, announced last night that a student had committed suicide at the school.
The identity of the girl and the exact manner of death are not being released at the request of the family.
?We are all in a state of complete shock,? said Chaffin Pullen, chief of operations at the school. ?Clearly we are deeply saddened by this event and are most of all devastated for the family.?
Pullen added that the girl, from Denver, CO, was under the supervision of a professional counselor and had also seen a psychiatrist since arriving at the school.
SCL was acutely aware of the girl?s fragility and had placed her on ?high risk? observation. She had recently been removed from ?high risk? after showing definite signs of improvement, a move that required the signatures of four SCL staff members who had direct contact with the girl, including the head of the school?s clinical mental health services.
http://www.strugglingteens.com/news/ken ... 41009.html---
U.S. Federal Probe of WWASP Requested
By Tim Rogers
U.S. Representative George Millar, Senior Democrat on the Committee on Education and the Workforce, sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft yesterday requesting a federal investigation into allegations of abuse by the WorldWide Association of Specialty Programs (WWASP).
One of Rep. Millar's congressional aids had told The Tico Times in September that the U.S. lawmaker was preparing to request a federal probe following the closure of Costa Rica's WWASP-affiliated Dundee Ranch Academy and allegations of abuse at other WWASP facilities in the United States, Jamaica and Mexico (TT, Sept. 12).
WWASP is the umbrella organization under which Dundee Ranch Academy, a behavior-modification program for troubled teens, operated here, before being closed last May following government interventions to investigate allegations of rights abuse (TT, May 23).
"I am requesting, in my capacity as Senior Democratic Member, that you initiate a formal investigation into allegations of child abuse, human rights violations, fraudulent and deceptive advertising, fraud and unjust enrichment under the Internal Revenue Code, and violations of other Federal civil or criminal laws by [WWASP] and its founders," reads the congressman's letter to Ashcroft.
Dundee Ranch was one of 11 WWASP programs in the United States and abroad. An estimated 2,200 children were enrolled in the residential programs, including 200 in Dundee Ranch.
"There have been serious allegations that hundreds of children have been mistreated or neglected and that their legal rights have been regularly flaunted. There are also hundreds of parents who assert that they were drawn into the program by misleading advertising. We believe that the Department of Justice should investigate whether federal laws concerning child abuse and neglect, interstate commerce or unfair or deceptive advertising have been broken by WWASPS or those operating these facilities," the letter reads.
The letter to Ashcroft mentions that "Dundee Ranch was closed after Costa Rican authorities charged the facility with violating children's civil rights," and quotes testimony of abuse by former Dundee Ranch director Amberley Knight, who first told The Tico Times last March that the academy "is poorly managed, takes financial advantage of parents in crisis, and puts teens in physical and emotional risk " (TT, March 14).
The letter concludes by asking Ashcroft to "please provide by Nov. 17, 2003, a written report on steps you have taken to initiate an investigation of all allegations."
http://www.ticotimes.net----
Investigation shows troubled school may be buying interest with lawmakers
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SALT LAKE CITY -- A family that runs a chain of troubled boarding schools has dumped bundles of money into Utah political campaigns over the past two years -- and may have been peddling influence with lawmakers to avoid regulation, a newspaper reports.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports in Sunday editions that lawmakers quietly killed a bill this year that would have allowed the state to regulate boarding schools. Since then, checks have flown into political coffers, and complaints surrounding the schools have swirled.
At the center of the storm are House Speaker Marty Stephens, who received a $30,000 check six days after the bill died from its biggest opponent, and the Majestic Ranch boarding school near Randolph, which has been has been investigated three separate times for alleged abuse, according to state Human Service officials.
That school is owned by Dan Peart, brother-in-law of World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools founder Robert Lichfield, who awarded Stephens the $30,000 check.
The ranch is among seven troubled-teen schools affiliated with World Wide in four states and two foreign countries. Several others have been shut down amid allegations of abuse or poor living conditions, including the Casa by the Sea facility near Ensenada, Mexico, closed last weekend by government officials.
more...
http://old.heraldextra.com/modules.php? ... &sid=34937---
Utah-based group under fire
Legislation targets association of schools for troubled youths
A Utah-based organization affiliated with schools for troubled youths is stirring controversy in at least three states and is the target of congressional legislation unveiled Wednesday.
At issue are the persistent allegations of child abuse and claims of questionable business practices surrounding the World Wide Association of Speciality Schools (WWASPS) founded by Robert Lichfield of La Verkin, Washington County.
Lichfield is one of three directors on the board of WWASPS, which officially claims affiliation with seven schools, including facilities in New York, South Carolina, Montana, Utah and Jamaica.
The organization uses behavior modification tactics to curb rebellious behavior in kids and often establishes schools in rural, out-of-the-way areas to deter notions of running away. Monthly tuition is several thousand dollars, on top of admission fees.
The allegations of abuse and questions about the facilities' credentials ? all of which WWASPS' president Ken Kay denies or says are overblown ? have sparked investigations in numerous states, prompted closures of some facilities and led Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., Wednesday to call for federal legislation invoking more oversight.
more...
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,600128053,00.html----
Tough-Love Schools Are Both Loved, Hated
LAVERKIN, Utah. ? Some schools sprouting up around the United States that are designed to practice tough-love with troubled teens are causing some communities to think twice about bringing one to their town.
The tough-love facilites, which aim to straighten out kids by teaching them how to be more responsible and make better decisions, can be a big help to parents.
The schools try to "decrease the desirability of unhealthy choices" and "increase the desirability of healthy choices," said Norm Thibault, a therapist at Cross Creek Academy (search), a tough-love facility in Utah.
"Here's a program where there's no swearing, no smoking, no alcohol, no drugs, no boy-and-girl interaction, go to school every day," said Cross Creek owner Karr Farnsworth.
At about $50,000, they're not cheap ? although Ken Kay, director of Utah-based Worldwide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (search), or WWASPS, which maintains six tough-love facilities including Cross Creek, says the cost is well worth it.
It's "barely the cost of a G35 Infinity ? the cost of a new car," Kay says.
But the controversial buzz among parents isn't over the price tag. The schools are strict, and students are not allowed outside the facility. They actually have to earn the privilege to see their parents.
When Julia Burton's daughter was spiraling out of control with alcohol, drugs and promiscuity, she felt the only way to rescue her daughter was to commit her to Cross Creek Academy (search), a WWASPS residential treatment center in Utah.
"I felt my only recourse was to give up my parental rights," Burton told FOX News.
Although Burton, who had to wait five months to see her daughter, said the center has helped her daughter, not every parent is happy.
Terry Cameron said her son, Layne, was abused at Tranquility Bay, a WWASPS center in Jamaica.
Layne says he was duct-taped and forced to sleep with his hands behind his back and says he was abused for minor infractions; pepper spray was often used on him.
?They had both of my ankles and ... they dragged me across the floor and it split my chin and knocked my tooth," Layne said.
The Camerons are among dozens of families planning a direct action lawsuit against WWASPS that includes allegations of fraud, assault and battery and false imprisonment. Kay said to be wary of abuse allegations, since they often come from troubled teens with a history of lying.
Although Layne's experience with the facility was a nightmare, his mother believes the WWASPS programs may be a way for some teens to turn their lives around but she wants parents to think carefully before placing their children in a residential treatment center.
"I totally blame myself," Cameron said.
Experts agree that parents should weigh all their options for helping their troubled teens and not rush into a program in desperation.
Many tough-love facilities appear to be the solution to all the problems the teens are facing. In fact, the schools sound so appealing, parents rarely realize that some programs may be trying to "take advantage of them when they're at their weakest moment," said Dr. Robert Johnson, a psychiatry and pediatrics professor at New Jersey Medical School.
The mixed reviews of the tough-love programs have the attention of New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer (search), who is investigating whether a WWASPS school in his state obtained the necessary academic accreditation legally.
"I think it's more about being sure that the academic program is accredited properly and operating properly, and we are a hundred percent in favor of that," said WWASPS president Kay.
But Spitzer is not the only person looking into WWASPS. Rep. George Miller (search), D-Calif., introduced federal legislation regarding oversight of residential treatment programs and wants the U.S. Justice Department to make unscheduled visits to WWASPS facilities.
Despite the prospect of economic benefits, the town of Boonville, Mo., took note of the questions surrounding WWASPS schools and rejected a proposal by the organization's founder to open a school there.
Families, politicians, doctors and government agencies are divided on whether WWASPS programs are successful and safe. But Johnson said the schools aren't even necessary.
"The best place for your children to get better is at home, and that's always the case," he said.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,159276,00.html---
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