JUST SAY NO!

[Anonymous]

teenadvocatesusa.org

PSA (Public Service Announcement) sponsored by TEEN ADVOCATES USA

PASS IT FORWARD ....

 :wave:

[Anonymous]

Oops, here's the link!

http://www.teenadvocatesusa.org

[Anonymous]

Representative Miller Introduces Legislation to Curb Child Abuse in Residential Treatment Programs    
 
Bill Would Affect Facilities both in U.S. and Abroad

Wednesday, April 20, 2005
   
 
   

WASHINGTON, DC -- Representative George Miller (D-California) today announced new legislation to combat child abuse at residential treatment programs in the U.S. and abroad.

?There is no excuse for placing children in unlicensed programs with badly trained and abusive staff members, which could lead to mental, physical, and sexual abuse,? said Miller, the senior Democrat on the Education and the Workforce Committee. ?It is truly frightening when the very people entrusted to care for and protect children are actually the ones who endanger them. Residential programs for children should be licensed and meet reasonable safety and staff training standards.?

In November 2003, Miller asked then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to investigate the World Wide Associations of Specialty Programs (WWASP), an organization with several campuses in the U.S. and abroad that provides ?behavior modification? programs for troubled youth, for allegations of child abuse and human rights violations.

Miller first requested the investigation after The New York Times ran a series of articles containing the allegations against WWASP. Despite repeated follow-up requests, however, the Department of Justice refused to investigate. Meanwhile, allegations of abuse continued to surface in published news reports. In December 2004 and January 2005, news agencies reported that five U.S.-owned residential treatment centers in Mexico had been closed by local authorities for numerous health violations and for placing children in punishment cells.

In an effort to deal once and for all with the problem of abuse at residential treatment programs for children, Miller today introduced the ?End Institutional Abuse Against Children Act.? The bill would:

    * provide $50 million in funding to states to support the licensing of child residential treatment programs. States would have to monitor the programs regularly to ensure their compliance with licensing requirements;
    * establish federal civil and criminal penalties for the abuse of children in residential treatment programs;
    * expand federal authority to regulate programs located overseas but run by U.S. companies and provide civil penalties for program operators that violate federal regulations; and
    * require the State Department to report any abuse of American children overseas.

Residential treatment (or ?behavior modification?) programs are intended to help children with behavioral problems, like substance abuse. Miller stressed that many of these programs provide safe, valuable services to children and their families. But he said that stronger legislation was clearly necessary to ensure the safety of all children in such programs ? and particularly in programs overseas, where organizations have moved their facilities to avoid existing U.S. laws.

?Parents are sending their children to these programs because of a promise that they will help resolve difficult behavioral issues, like substance abuse,? said Miller. ?But the way kids have been treated at some of these facilities would make any parent shudder.?

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month.

###

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ed ... 42005.html

[MightyAardvark]

Forget it. This bill has been waylaid in the comittee for international human rights and Africa. This bill is going nowhere.
The only hope for this bill is a truly massive landslide victory for the dems in the midterms later this year and even then it's hardly likely to make it though. At least two members of this comittee have recieved donations from WWASPS.

[Anonymous]

The bill is still on the table ... supposedly the GAO has agreed to investigate.

[Anonymous]

This is the latest press release:
http://www.teenadvocatesusa.org/martinanderson.html

Looks to me like Miller has a good chance of moving this bill foward.

Representative Miller Statement on Justice Department Announcement on Martin Lee Anderson Case  


Thursday, February 16, 2006

WASHINGTON, DC -- Representative George Miller (D-CA), the senior Democrat on the House Education Committee, issued the following statement today on the U.S. Justice Department?s announcement that it will investigate the death of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson at a Florida boot camp:

?The U.S. Justice Department today agreed to investigate the death of a 14-year-old boy at a boot camp in Florida. I am extremely encouraged by this decision. According to media reports, Martin Lee Anderson was beaten to death by guards at the boot camp, a nightmare that was captured on videotape. There is nothing more horrifying than the death of a child in the hands of the very people who are entrusted to help him.

?Today, hundreds of boot camps ? both public and private ? operate nationwide. The Bay County, Florida, Sheriff?s Department facility where Anderson died was publicly managed and operated, and it was licensed by the state. Hundreds of privately-run boot camps ? sometimes called ?behavior modification facilities? ? are not licensed or regulated at all, and a number of allegations of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse have been made against those programs by children and their parents. Deaths have also been reported. It is clear that where no licensing standards exist, they must be instituted; and where they are too weak, they must be strengthened. And no federal dollars should support facilities that fail to meet anything but the highest standards.

?This investigation should be the beginning of a serious, aggressive, and comprehensive effort by federal agencies and the Congress to make sure that children are totally safe when they are sent ? either by the state or by their parents ? to residential programs. No program should operate in the United States without meeting minimum standards, without regulations, or with poorly trained or abusive staff. Martin Lee Anderson?s death was a terrible tragedy. We must not allow his death to be in vain.?

Miller has requested a government investigation of residential treatment facilities. The Government Accountability Office has agreed to conduct that investigation. For more information, click here.  

Miller has also introduced legislation to help states create licensing standards for residential treatment programs. For more information on that legislation, click here.

[MightyAardvark]

That's broadly encouraging.