Author Topic: Ultimate Irony: Program Sues for Civil Rights Violation  (Read 5980 times)

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Offline Anonymous

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Ultimate Irony: Program Sues for Civil Rights Violation
« on: April 22, 2007, 08:24:44 PM »
School operators file civil rights lawsuit
Posted: Sunday, Mar 11, 2007

By KEITH KINNAIRD
News editor

 
SANDPOINT -- The operators of a former Cocolalla boarding school for troubled teens have filed a civil rights lawsuit against the Bonner County Sheriff's Office claiming they were wrongly accused of assaulting a runaway student and maliciously prosecuted.

Family Solutions Network's principals contend the investigation and ensuing prosecution damaged their business and marred their reputations.

John William Baisden Sr., John William Baisden Jr., Carl Spencer Baisden and their spouses filed the suit in 1st District Court on Monday. Sheriff Elaine Savage and former Deputy John Lunde are named as defendants in the suit, which seeks unspecified damages.

The suit comes about four months after the Baisdens filed a tort claim against sheriff's officials. The claim sought up to $8 million in damages. The county never responded to the claim, according to the suit.

 
The suit stems from a March 17, 2005 incident involving a 16-year-old student who fled Family Solutions Networks' Turning Winds school on Lake Cocolalla.

The student, according to police reports, made it to U.S. Highway 95 and hitched a ride from John Baisden Sr., whom the teen did not recognize as a school official.

The elder Baisden rendezvoused with his sons at the Westmond Store. Accounts of what ensued differ, police reports indicate.

The teen claimed he was dragged from the vehicle, handcuffed and beaten by the three men. The Baisdens denied battering the teen and said he attacked them before being subdued.

The Baisdens were charged with misdemeanor injury to a child, but the state later moved to dismiss their cases due to concern that forcing the teen to testify would undermine progress he had made since the incident, court documents show.

The Basidens' counsel, Coeur d'Alene attorney Susan Weeks, alleges the charges against her clients were dropped after Deputy Prosecutor Sarah Hallock-Jayne learned of Lunde's history of falsifying reports and manipulating evidence.

Weeks claims in the suit that Lunde intimidated witnesses into making false statements, failed to disclose exculpatory information and slandered the Baisdens with the intent of harming their businesses relationships and standing with the Idaho Department of Health & Welfare, which regulates schools such as Turning Winds.

Lunde was fired last April and is in the process of suing Savage, alleging he was forced off the job for blowing the whistle on corruption in her department. Lunde's Boise attorney, Joe Filicetti, insists his client was an upstanding law officer and a victim of workplace harassment.

The Baisdens contend their constitutional rights were violated and accuses the defendants of negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress and defamation.

Family Solutions Network has since relocated Turning Winds to Troy, Mont.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Anonymous

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Ultimate Irony: Program Sues for Civil Rights Violation
« Reply #1 on: April 22, 2007, 09:12:44 PM »
Quote
The student, according to police reports, made it to U.S. Highway 95 and hitched a ride from John Baisden Sr., whom the teen did not recognize as a school official.

The elder Baisden rendezvoused with his sons at the Westmond Store. Accounts of what ensued differ, police reports indicate.

The teen claimed he was dragged from the vehicle, handcuffed and beaten by the three men. The Baisdens denied battering the teen and said he attacked them before being subdued.


What a fucking nightmare, and I mean that seriously. He makes it to the highway, only to have the unlucky chance of ending up in a "school official's" vehicle to be dragged out and beaten. That reminds me of the cliche horror movie, when the person finally escapes and runs to to the highway, it ends up being the bad guy in the car. What a horrible thing to happen, talk about bad luck, shit.
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Offline Anonymous

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Ultimate Irony: Program Sues for Civil Rights Violation
« Reply #2 on: April 22, 2007, 09:27:35 PM »
Yeah - I agree. Total fucking nightmare but then again - the whole industry is like a Stephen King novel.

Blaisdell sounds like a name I've heard before. What's this guy's background?
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Offline Deborah

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Ultimate Irony: Program Sues for Civil Rights Violation
« Reply #3 on: April 22, 2007, 10:26:22 PM »
GLACIER MOUNTAIN ED. SERVICES TROUBLE
(March 10, 2002)  Susan Drumheller reported about Glacier Mountain Educational Services, Cocolalla, Idaho, owned and operated by John Baisden, in the Spokesman-Review on Feb. 23, 2002 and March 10, 2002. Her article stated their foster care license has been revoked by the state Department of Health and Welfare. Bonner County filed a complaint that his facility has been operating without a conditional use permit, and it is under investigation by the Attorney General for false advertising and by the Bonner County Prosecutor for failure to report a crime.

GLACIER MOUNTAIN ACADEMY CRITICIZED
(March 10, 2002)  Susan Drumheller, who has yet to write a positive article on any of the North Idaho Emotional Growth/Therapeutic schools and programs, reports that Glacier Mountain Academy, owned and run by Larry Bauer, , has a county complaint filed against him that “he is operating a school without a conditional use permit.”  Glacier Mountain Academy is licensed as a foster home with the state and is also accredited through the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges as a Special Purpose School.  Larry Bauer, for unnamed reasons, totally separated himself in 1999 from John Baisden, who now operates Glacier Mountain Educational Services, which has several problems currently. Even so, the Drumheller article quotes a critical parent letter from 1998, which was really against the old corporation.  Larry Bauer, on March 8, in response to county concerns, had moved academic classes to another location in Ponderay, “in order to comply with Bonner County Planning and Zoning.”

NORTH IDAHO YOUTH PROGRAM ADDS MSW
(December 11, 2003) John Baisden, Turning Winds/FSNI, 800-845-1380, Hayden, Idaho, www.fsni.org reports that Turning Winds, a program that focuses on rehabilitating troubled youth ages 12-17, has just added second therapist, Tracy Newton, MSW, to its treatment team, which is headed by Kirk Weaver, Ph.D., NCC, LMFT.

Dore Francis:
I agree with you about the sites that do not have a phone number. It is unprofessional and misleading. All of my sites have my direct business line. This week when I called Owen Baisden of Turning Winds, who purchased all of the Ryan Kohler's EMS sites under the name of Family Help 411, Inc., asking about what appeared to be inappropriate marketing efforts on their part, I was advised the information requests coming in to these sites since the purchase date of October 28, 2004, along with the www.MyTroubledTeen.com site, of which was part of the purchase, and are requests from parents asking for help, are just sitting …. They are not even being acknowledged. I was so sad, I cried. That means a parent needing help for their child is being discounted as unimportant. How can anyone in this industry disregard the need of a parent in this way? I am heart sickened.
http://www.strugglingteens.com/news/let ... 41118.html
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gt;>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Hidden Lake Academy, after operating 12 years unlicensed will now be monitored by the state. Access information on the Federal Class Action lawsuit against HLA here: http://www.fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?t=17700

Offline Deborah

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Ultimate Irony: Program Sues for Civil Rights Violation
« Reply #4 on: April 22, 2007, 10:59:01 PM »
SPOKESMAN-REVIEW EMOTES, NOT INFORMS  :rofl:
(September 10, 1999) In an front page article in the North Idaho edition of the Spokane Washington based Spokesman-Review, “Troubled Homes Academies For Wayward Youths Have Their Own Problems With Rules,” writer Susan Drumheller itemizes the complaints and repeats exaggerated rumors a few rigid critics are presenting against Elk Mountain Academy and Glacier Mountain Inc, schools for at-risk youth based outside Sandpoint, Idaho, while doing a limited and lack-luster job of presenting the schools’ side.~~

Haven't been able to locate the article mentioned. If you find it, post it.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
gt;>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Hidden Lake Academy, after operating 12 years unlicensed will now be monitored by the state. Access information on the Federal Class Action lawsuit against HLA here: http://www.fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?t=17700

Offline sick of child torture girl

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Ultimate Irony: Program Sues for Civil Rights Violation
« Reply #5 on: April 23, 2007, 01:24:34 AM »
is there anyway to locate this deputy who filed suit agasint these people and gove her our support?
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Offline Antigen

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Re: Ultimate Irony: Program Sues for Civil Rights Violation
« Reply #6 on: April 23, 2007, 07:15:45 AM »
Quote from: ""Guest""
The Baisdens were charged with misdemeanor injury to a child, but the state later moved to dismiss their cases due to concern that forcing the teen to testify would undermine progress he had made since the incident, court documents show.
:o
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Offline Deborah

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Ultimate Irony: Program Sues for Civil Rights Violation
« Reply #7 on: April 23, 2007, 08:48:17 AM »
Quote
Family Solutions Network has since relocated Turning Winds to Troy, Mont.
[/i]

How many programs will end up in Montana where programs self-regulate and there's no pesky state people to deal with?
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
gt;>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Hidden Lake Academy, after operating 12 years unlicensed will now be monitored by the state. Access information on the Federal Class Action lawsuit against HLA here: http://www.fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?t=17700

Offline Ursus

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Ultimate Irony: Program Sues for Civil Rights Violation
« Reply #8 on: April 23, 2007, 09:12:20 AM »
Quote from: ""Deborah""
SPOKESMAN-REVIEW EMOTES, NOT INFORMS  :rofl:
(September 10, 1999) In an front page article in the North Idaho edition of the Spokane Washington based Spokesman-Review, “Troubled Homes Academies For Wayward Youths Have Their Own Problems With Rules,” writer Susan Drumheller itemizes the complaints and repeats exaggerated rumors a few rigid critics are presenting against Elk Mountain Academy and Glacier Mountain Inc, schools for at-risk youth based outside Sandpoint, Idaho, while doing a limited and lack-luster job of presenting the schools’ side.~~

Haven't been able to locate the article mentioned. If you find it, post it.


Found it archived here... http://www.teenliberty.org/RMA.htm

Sunday, September 5, 1999
TROUBLED HOMES ACADEMIES FOR WAYWARD YOUTHS HAVE THEIR OWN PROBLEMS WITH RULES
Section: MAIN NEWS
Page: A1
Author: BY SUSAN DRUMHELLER STAFF WRITER
Illustration: Color Photo; Caption: SHELTERED LIFE. During a break in classes, the boys at Elk Mountain Academy play a game of volleyball on the court in front of the school building. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review

Parents across the nation spend thousands of dollars to send their misbehaving teenagers to private behavioral schools in North Idaho.  

Ironically, some of those programs seem to have a hard time following the rules.

Just months after vowing not to increase their numbers at Elk Mountain Academy, owners Carl and Loretta Olding have asked the county to allow the school to house up to 12 more students at their woodsy campus below Scotchman's Peak.  

And now, county and state officials are investigating Glacier Mountain Inc., a group home north of Sandpoint that may be violating the terms of its group home license and county code.  

Another group home for youths has expanded from Bonners Ferry to Sagle, Idaho, but doesn't have a foster care license with the state for either facility, or a special use permit with Bonner County to operate a school.

Neighbors of Elk Mountain Academy keep watch as that school now seeks approval for up to 36 students.  

The teenagers at Elk Mountain come from all over, but primarily from California. Their parents pay $3,375 a month to straighten them out and keep them from bad influences.  

It's a family model facility, where up to eight boys live in each residence with house parents, some of whom raise their own small children there, too. The biggest structure on campus, the Achievement House, has living facilities on the top floor, classrooms on the second floor, and a gymnasium and wood shop on the ground floor.  

Students help build the buildings, as well as the Oldings' new garage/ guest house at their private residence on the Hope Peninsula.  

To make the students feel more at home, the Oldings hauled in tons of sand for a beach volleyball court - perhaps the only beach volleyball court in the Cabinet Mountains.

These are not dangerous kids, the Oldings and their staff insist - despite the neighborhood rumors of gun thieves and worse.  

"We don't get crazies here," said Mark Rocha, a youth minister and Elk Mountain employee.  "We're talking about youth. We're not talking about a nuclear reactor here."

Education consultant Lon Woodbury sends a lot of kids to Elk Mountain - the type who "when in a safe environment, the decent kid comes out."  

He said that private behavioral schools have to launch aggressive public relations campaigns to overcome the fear factor in the community.  

"People assume they're criminals. Most of these kids aren't," Woodbury said.

But it's not so much the kids that concern the neighbors. It's the administration.  

"Until they learn how to abide by the laws, they shouldn't have more kids there," said Jeannie Roach, one of a coalition of neighbors near Elk Mountain.  

Neighbors have a running list of violations at Elk Mountain: building dormitories without the county's blessing or knowledge, exceeding its licensed capacity, housing students in incomplete buildings without proper safety inspections, failing to test water and even a poaching incident.

Most of the problems have been resolved, but any trust between neighbors and the Oldings has vanished.  

And some neighbors still grumble about the roar of Elk Mountain's dirt bikes in their peaceful outback.  

"Who's kidding who?" said Carl Olding in reference to one vocal opponent to the bikes. "We'll never be buddies."

Elk Mountain recently was licensed by the state as a children's treatment facility, which allows for more than 12 students.  But the license still is on provisional status.  

The school also persuaded the county to issue a conditional use permit that allows up to 25 students for two years, when the permit will be reviewed.  

But that permit didn't include the academy's Base Camp program, which houses as many as 12 additional students for six to nine weeks in an unfinished cabin on the heavily treed mountainside above the main campus.

It's those students that the school still needs permission to house. Two or three teens were up there this summer, cooking up Campbell's soup for dinner and sleeping on bunkbeds without mattresses.  

"They've flaunted the fact that they don't have to abide by the rules," Roach said of Elk Mountain. "If they get away with it, we'll wind up with 100 little schools around here that get away with breaking the rules."

One little school under scrutiny is Glacier Mountain Inc.  

Like the directors of many local teenage residential facilities, Glacier Mountain's directors got their start at another behavioral school in the region.  

"People learn how much money others are making, and they start adding it up on their fingers," said Brenda Hammond, former director of the now defunct Eagle Mountain Outpost. "But anyone who goes into that business, to be successful, can't be in it for financial reasons. It's very draining."

Olding started planning Elk Mountain Academy while working for less than $8 an hour as a counselor at Eagle Mountain Outpost. He and his wife started their family-based group home in Clark Fork in 1993.  

Their group home was allowed under Bonner County's zoning laws only after the county's legal counsel agreed that attention deficit disorder qualified as a disability. Olding claimed that all of his students had the condition.

Glacier Mountain markets to ADD support groups, according to Woodbury.  

"Since when does a delinquent teenager qualify as handicapped?'' wonders Marty Taylor, Bonner County's planner. "I'd be interested in seeing more review of that."  

In Glacier's case, both Larry Bauer and John Baisden used to work at CEDU Family of Services, which operates Rocky Mountain Academy, Northwest Academy, Ascent and Boulder Creek Academy in Boundary County.

Baisden was CEDU's director of admissions from November 1994 until July 1995. Now he and Bauer operate a group home in the Colburn area on Oliver Road.  

Baisden was reluctant to discuss the business, which is under investigation by the state licensing arm of  Family and Community Services and by Bonner County Planning and Zoning.  

Baisden said the home takes up to eight kids, but had no students as of the last week of August.

"We don't have any plans of being an Elk Mountain or a Rocky Mountain Academy," he said. Baisden would not say how many people Glacier Mountain employs.

But according to an inspection on Aug. 10 by Jean Hughes, an environmental health specialist at Panhandle Health District, the home had 12 teenage residents. She reported that the unfinished basement was being used as a classroom.

According to Glacier's state license, it can have only eight residents. And because it lacks a conditional use permit as a school, it cannot teach students there.  

"We did do instruction," Baisden said. "We're not going to do that anymore. We don't think that's the real world. When they go home, they go to real schools."

Glacier Mountain has provided inconsistent information to the county about the facility, according to a letter from Taylor that was in Health District records.  

Bauer has told Taylor that the students attend classes at the group home, but another letter about a week later said they would attend public school. In the first letter, he stated an intention to obtain a conditional use permit to become a children's treatment facility, which allows for 13 or more residents.

The Health District also is looking into the home's water and sewer systems. Hughes said the district could not approve either in a letter to Jim Puett, a state licensing specialist.

Like Glacier Mountain, the operators of Northwoods Trailside School like to keep a low profile.

The school was founded in Bonners Ferry in 1993 and is run by former CEDU employees David Yeats and Matt Fitzgerald. They have two homes, with up to four boys in each, in Bonners Ferry.

They recently started taking in boys at Fitzgerald's home in Sagle, too.

"We want it very small and very unobtrusive to North Idaho," said Fitzgerald, who left CEDU because of philosophical differences. CEDU's schools have more than 100 students each.

Fitzgerald said they don't work with "at-risk" kids as much as those who their parents fear will fail in a big-city atmosphere.

"We deal with kids who want to come here and like to be here," he said.

Northwoods has yet to apply for a permit from Bonner County to operate a school in the Sagle area. It is in the process of applying for a foster care license, which allows up to six unrelated children in a home.

Northwoods isn't the only facility expanding.

Elk Mountain is moving part of its program across the border.

"To be at Elk Mountain is to be in a bubble," Olding said. "How do you get loaded at Elk Mountain? If anyone smarts off in class, they're out picking rocks immediately. They live in this surreal world where there is no temptation."

So Elk Mountain has spawned Elk Creek, 86 acres the Oldings just bought near Heron, Mont., where they plan to build another home for boys who progress to their second year at the academy. Those students will go to public school in Noxon, Mont.

The Oldings already have four students enrolled in Noxon, but for now the teens still live at the academy north of Clark Fork.

Noxon High Principal Bob Goodrich has had students from other group home settings. Northwest Montana seems to be a magnet for the behavioral school industry, he said.

One well-known school is the boot-camp style Spring Creek Lodge near Thompson Falls, which is expected to soon have more students than the entire Noxon School District. Those students never leave the facility.

"It's one of the enterprises of Sanders County that's somewhat lucrative," Goodrich noted.

Elk Mountain's move to Montana was partially motivated by pressure from neighbors. Montana has fewer restrictions on group homes and private schools.

"We get a lot of, 'Well, we'll just move to Montana,'" said Puett, the Idaho state licensing specialist.

In Montana, Olding sees an opportunity to offer more services to students who aren't ready to leave the support system that Elk Mountain offers.

He also has 86 acres to play with - plenty of room for a dirt bike track that won't bother anybody, he said.

"No matter what happens," Olding said, "I'm going to continue to do this work, whether it's in Montana or Idaho."

All content © 1999 SPOKESMAN-REVIEW and may not be republished without permission.
All archives are stored on a SAVE (tm) newspaper library system from MediaStream Inc., a Knight-Ridder Inc. company.
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Offline Anonymous

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MATT FITZGERALD
« Reply #9 on: April 23, 2007, 11:30:26 AM »
MATT FITZGERALD

SHOW YOURSELF.

CODEWORD: is there really a Kalamazoo?
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Offline Anonymous

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Ultimate Irony: Program Sues for Civil Rights Violation
« Reply #10 on: April 23, 2007, 03:27:26 PM »
Wait.

A business has civil rights?

 :rofl:
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Offline exhausted

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Ultimate Irony: Program Sues for Civil Rights Violation
« Reply #11 on: April 23, 2007, 04:41:15 PM »
The more I read, the more I sit & think that if you told someone who has no idea about any of this stuff, they wouldn't believe you, they would think you are making it up, it's just so unbelievable - almost like you couldn't make it up

Nothing you guys come out with surprises me, yet i am always shocked evey time i log into this site, it's a contradiction I know, but that's how it is .. this is sick, something has to give here.
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Offline Ursus

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Ultimate Irony: Program Sues for Civil Rights Violation
« Reply #12 on: April 23, 2007, 05:18:01 PM »
I think in this situation it sounds like there was bad blood between Sheriff Elaine Savage and former Deputy John Lunde to begin with, and the Baisdens were just trying to capitalize on that dissipation of focus to win their case.  And the kid?... Well, hell's bells!  What are the odds of being in so wrong a place at such a time?!  Boy, do I feel bad for him!
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Offline longwoodammo

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Re: Ultimate Irony: Program Sues for Civil Rights Violation
« Reply #13 on: November 08, 2011, 12:37:32 AM »
i was a student at this school in 2008 and i hated it it was horrile
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Offline Ursus

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Re: Ultimate Irony: Program Sues for Civil Rights Violation
« Reply #14 on: November 08, 2011, 11:05:07 PM »
Quote from: "longwoodammo"
i was a student at this school in 2008 and i hated it it was horrile
Turning Winds, run by the Baisdens? Where was it located when you went. I believe they changed locations at one point...
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