There has been a not bad rate of sucess in running programs out of foreign countries. Everywhere wwasp has opened outside of USA has shut except Jamaica. Campbell park in NZ lasted like 30 seconds.
Only Western Samoa seems to have embraced programs. I have drafted a proforma letter and hope get it translated by a spanish speaking friend. If Authorities are pre alerted hopefully they will take seriously complaints.
To whom it may concern
I am writing to express my concern about a school that has opened up in your country which you can find at the following website
www.ibicuy.com.
This school is based very closely on an American school for troubled and drug abusing adolescents called Elan. This school has been criticised by several ex students for following a model which isolates them completely from the wider community and severely limits any contact with their family and friends. This means that in the event of any abuse that may occur the student is unable to independently report it for proper investigation.
For 25 years the same school employed a disciplinary practice known as The Ring. This involved having all the students form a circle around the miscreant student while they each took a turn physically assaulting that student. It was only abandoned after the New York times did an expose on this. There has additionally been numerous reports of other extremely harsh and at time abusive practices that have involved public humiliation, deprivation of sleep and corporal punishment. Some of these practices were highighted by former students in a notorious American legal case surrounding one of Elan’s old scholars, a man named Michael Skatel.
There have also been concerns in the US about the fact that the school does not place enough emphasis on providing students with an adequate level of academic qualification to provide appropriate grounding for university study. Because most days are spent in what the school refers to as therapy students have been expected to mostly conduct academic lessons in the evenings after dinner. This only allows for around four hours a night to complete both lessons and homework.
Another concern expressed by many about the Elan school in the US is it’s admission criteria. Often students are not commited by doctors who deem them a danger to themselves or by courts who are penalizing antisocial acts but by parents, psychologists and educators. This means that students as essentially incarcerated without trial or due process for an indefinite period of time.
I strongly urge you to have the approprate authorities investigate the practices of this school and to fully inform parents of the allegations surrounding it’s American cousin Elan.
Yours Sincerely
