Was Your Child the Victim of Abuse at Camp?

[Anne Bonney]

http://www.heardrobins.com/PracticeArea ... -Abuse.asp


Was Your Child the Victim of Abuse at Camp?

Only so many options exist for parents of troubled teens. One of them is rising in popularity: camps. A variety of camps exist to help teenagers overcome behavior problems or drug and alcohol addiction. These wilderness camps present themselves as therapy providers, and many parents turn to them expecting their child to return changed for the better.

Unfortunately, what these boot camps for troubled teens fail to mention is that frequently they are completely unregulated. There are no laws requiring them to be adequately staffed, to provide proper staff training, or to be effectively run. Unfortunately, this means that these places are frequently the sites of child abuse, serious personal injury or even wrongful death.

At Heard Robins Cloud & Black LLP in Houston, Texas, our attorneys are committed to holding these businesses accountable for their negligence.
We Want Child Abuse at Therapeutic Camps to Stop

The children that attend these camps are in a very vulnerable position. Not only are they essentially alone in the woods, many have been sent to the camp because of a history of poor behavior. This means that the staff will tend to place the blame back on the child for any abuse allegations that are made.

Our lawyers know how to sort through these matters. We know how to carefully research cases to present the truth. We can handle cases involving any type of child abuse, such as:

    * Staff members refusing to provide a camper with food or water as punishment for bad behavior
    * Staff members hiding medicine from kids, or simply failing to provide it when required
    * Staff members directly assaulting children

Our Attorneys Can Handle Complex Cases

We specifically make a point of taking on cases that others may find too challenging or complex. Our attorneys know how to find open doors even when it seems like there are none. We know how to research and dig deep to build cases designed to get positive results.

When you turn to us, you will not only have a team dedicated to getting results on your side, you will have a lawyer who truly cares about you and your child. We want to help.
Free Consultations | Bilingual Services | No Fee Unless We Win

E-mail us or call us at 1.866.713.9743 to tell us about your wilderness camp child abuse case and find out what we can do to help.

[Anne Bonney]

http://www.greene-broillet.com/CM/Perso ... -Camps.asp

Abuse, Neglect of Teens in Residential Treatment Programs

When parents cannot control their teenaged children, they sometimes turn to boot camps, "tough love" camps or wilderness therapy camps for help. These residential programs can take advantage of the vulnerability of parents who want to help their children at any cost and the physical vulnerability of the young people in their care. Sometimes the children pay with their lives.

A Bad Report on Therapeutic Camps

Reports of physical, sexual and emotional abuse of young people in residential therapeutic camps are commonplace. During 2005 alone, 33 states reported 1,619 staff members were involved in incidents of abuse in residential treatment programs, according to a report by the Government Accounting Office.

The same document reported multiple cases of serious injuries and fatalities at boot camps and residential centers for youth.

The attorneys of Greene Broillet & Wheeler, LLP, have successfully represented clients whose children suffered serious injuries or wrongful death due to the negligence of those who own and operate therapy camps.

Results for the Injured and Their Families

One case involved the death of a young man at a camp in Texas. Another case involved a camp resident whose arm was severely burned by boiling hot grease.

We have found that many of these camps are ill-prepared to protect the health and safety of their residents. If your child suffered a serious injury — or worse — at a tough love camp or academy for troubled youth, please contact our law firm to discuss your case. We will aggressively pursue maximum compensation for damages.

Our lawyers represent clients in the Los Angeles area and throughout Southern California and the entire state. We also consult with attorneys and clients nationwid

[Anne Bonney]

http://health-healthresources.caremark. ... c/bootcamp

Death Trip

Wilderness therapy programs claim they'll straighten out your troubled teen with tough love and survival training. Some kids never come back.


By Paige Bierma
CONSUMER HEALTH INTERACTIVE

The headline in the paper on that August 2001 morning made me recoil. Another young boy had died in a wilderness boot camp -- a victim, like many before him, of abuse at the hands of those in charge of helping him.

Tony Haynes, 14, drowned after employees at an unlicensed boot camp in Arizona, run by a group called America's Buffalo Soldiers, stuck him in a bathtub half-conscious and turned on the shower. They left Haynes unattended in the tub, even though the boy had been vomiting and delirious after being forced to stand in 115-degree desert heat as punishment for asking to go home. The Phoenix boy's tragic death -- and charges that other children were also abused by camp drill instructors -- were investigated. (Authorities shut the camp down briefly then allowed it to reopen. The camp's operator denied any wrongdoing. The camp continues to operate today. -- Editor)

To me, the story is all too familiar..............article continued at link above.




Further Resources

Youth Law Center
Children's Legal Protection Center
417 Montgomery Street, Suite 900
San Francisco, CA 94104
Phone: 415/543-3379
Fax: 415/956-9022
Email: info@cjcj.org

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
810 Seventh Street, NW
Washington, DC 20531
Phone: 202/307-5911
Fax: 202/307-2093
Email: Askjj@ncjrs.org

Michelle Sutton Foundation
(run by Cathy Sutton, mother of one of first wilderness camp victims)
Phone: 209/599-4692

[Whooter]

Personal injury law firms are not interested in keeping kids safe as, Anne Bonney, would try to lead you to believe with her posting of advertisements.  These predators profit off the hardships of other people and their families.  Their only interest is their majority % in a settlement.  They could care less if the industry is better off this year than it was last year.  They are not interested in any cause, they may be suing you next year if the price is right.  Once they get paid they move on.

I picked one of Anne Bonneys "ambulance chaser" advertisements at random:

GB&W

The attorneys of Greene Broillet & Wheeler, LLP, are skilled trial lawyers with a well-established reputation for success in bicycle accident claims. We have the knowledge, determination and resources required to maximize results for our injured clients. lol

One hundred nine cyclists died in fatal traffic accidents in California during 2007, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Many more suffered serious or disabling injuries from car-bike accidents.

Here is one recent case we are really proud of:

Doe v. Doe Restaurant: Settlement $4.5 million
Man fell into open fire pit on bar patio sustaining severe burn injuries.

It seems the bicycle industry is more abusive than Wilderness Camps!!!  Lol  Oh Wait your local pub is abusive too.  If you drink too much and fall into the pit with the lobsters we will sue them too!!!  You shouldn’t have to take responsibility for that.  What was that pub thinking serving you alcohol?  They need to be sued!!



...

[Pile of Dead Kids]

Oooh, looks like there's blood in the water. The fact that these guys are certain they can prove abuse to juries (otherwise they wouldn't be going for it) spells major hurt for programmies. What's that? The culture of silence has been shattered, with kids going to authorities left and right over this evil shit? Whoops, looks like the whole paradigm of programmie indoctrination has been made untenable. Wonder how that happened?

But for a short time, evil fucks of all stripes can send their kid away to an Aspen shithole for a couple of years, then use the kid's abuse testimony to pocket the cash for themselves! Free money and a beaten-down kid- best of both worlds!

[SEKTO]

Where the Emptiness Is
by Aaron Bacon

In the brief time after a desert rain
When the clouds still cover the sun
And the rainbow can't be seen yet
When there is a dim grey tint to the world
And the earth is a cold damp rag
That soothes the pain and keeps it constant
It lets you relax and settle down
But slowly freezes you like the dead

A bullet in the chamber
The swift automatic cock of the hammer
And the violent reverse in direction.
The explosion on impact, and the fire out of the barrel
The sudden silence after a gun shot
And the smell of gun powder in the air
The slow motion of movement
The flight on an empty nine millimeter shell to the ground
The dropping of a head, and expression

When the clouds cover the city low and thick
And dance their dance of the death around the third floor
And the wind chills the tips of your toes
In the glimpse of a starry sky through the eye of the storm
When the void of montage of grey ghost
Cast a solemn light into the branches of a tree
During the formation of goose flesh over your body
And the rush from the chills on your arms
When the cirrus clouds drift through the liefeless air like spirits

When the phone rang at seven a.m.
Announcing the last of the cowboys was gone
Wyatt Earp had left his family
The hawk wouldn't be returning to his nest
And the wrangler had left the Rodeo
Later in the day and the following day
An empty dial tone
And no messages or corrections

In the fresh grave of a child.

[Whooter]

But for a short time, evil fucks of all stripes can send their kid away to an Aspen shithole for a couple of years, then use the kid's abuse testimony to pocket the cash for themselves! Free money and a beaten-down kid- best of both worlds!

Great angle.  I didnt think of that.  This would reduce the financial risk.  If the child graduates and doesnt do well the parents can listen to little johnny on how the program abused him and then sue.  This will accomplish getting the parents money back and teaching the child that they should never have to take responsibility for their own actions.  If they didnt do well in the program it must be someone elses fault right? ... so lets identify them and sue them...lol

As a backup we could all ride bicycles and hope for some road rage and then start suing the auto drivers! lol.   That was classic.

The lesson here, to the kids, is if you screw up your life try to find someone else to blame, never take responsibility for your actions. Listen to that ambulance chaser and take his card.



...

[Che Gookin]

I liked the part about bicycles, good resources Femanon. It appears other attorneys have been watching Phil Elberg and his successes in delivering some well needed justice to the survivors of programs like KHK of Joisey.

Times are a changing and for the better, I hope.

[Whooter]

I liked the part about bicycles, good resources .....

Thanks, I just couldnt resist.  The ambulance chasers have noticed that programs have become such a lucrative business that everyone wants a piece of the action now.  But they are so few and far between and the economy is slow so they are chasing bicyclists until the next kid gets hurt in a program!! lol

I liked the drunk guy who fell into the lobster pit and sued the bar......

It was classic advertising.  We should start a lawyer watch here on fornits to see how many of these firms try to rope in parents who had kids who didnt do well in programs.



...

[FemanonFatal2.0]

Great angle.  I didnt think of that.  This would reduce the financial risk.  If the child graduates and doesnt do well the parents can listen to little johnny on how the program abused him and then sue.  This will accomplish getting the parents money back and teaching the child that they should never have to take responsibility for their own actions.  If they didnt do well in the program it must be someone elses fault right? ... so lets identify them and sue them...lol...

Ok, well I have to ask, what's the other side to that coin Whooter? Would you rather be the parent of a child who justifiably (in your mind) or not chooses to seek damages or of a child who goes their whole life believing they deserve to be abused. What kind of lesson would you be teaching your child then? That abuse is justifiable? That victims don't deserve justice and perps shouldn't be held responsible for their crimes? Just let it go and let them carry on abusing more people right?

If your daughter was in an abusive relationship, possibly one that left her physically injured and in thousands of dollars in debt would you seriously encourage her not to seek an attorney to receive compensation for her hospital bills? Would you be calling all your single girlfriends and set them up on blind dates with this guy?... would you troll a spousal abuse forum too?

Again I must call you out on this.... what exactly makes you assume that everyone who speaks out and in this instance those who choose to sue are those who "didnt do well" in the program? I know many of the plantiffs of the Turley suit personally and a substancial amount of them either graduated or would be considered to have done well in the program. Consider this, I was sent to High Impact, I graduated High Impact, doesn't that make me a success? Well that doesn't change the fact that I suffered a great deal of physical and psychological torture at the hands of inept and quite malicious staff members. If the owners of such a program are not responsible for these abusive acts against hundreds of children then who is? and if no one is responsible then how do I move on with my life knowing that these people are probably out there abusing someone else as we speak? How could I live with myself if another child died and I did nothing to stop it?... In fact, how do you live with yourself knowing your mind state is exactly what has cost too many children their lives?

[Anne Bonney]

Personal injury law firms are not interested in keeping kids safe as, Anne Bonney, would try to lead you to believe with her posting of advertisements.  These predators profit off the hardships of other people and their families.  Their only interest is their majority % in a settlement.  They could care less if the industry is better off this year than it was last year.  They are not interested in any cause, they may be suing you next year if the price is right.  Once they get paid they move on.

I picked one of Anne Bonneys "ambulance chaser" advertisements at random:

Spin it all you want.  We all know law firms have a wide variety of clients.  Some we like and agree with, some we don't.  Doing 'ambulance chasing' helps them afford to be able to take on other deserving cases pro bono.  We could also flip it around and  look into the history and clientele of the firms who have defended numerous programs for countless lawsuits for the abuse of children.

Spin! Spin!  Deflect!  Distort!  Dodge!  Parry!  SPIN!!

[Che Gookin]

Where you digging all this stuff up from Annie?

Is this is a fairly recent trend?.. I haven't heard of lawyers taking such an interest in the industry since Mike's legal beagles took a largish poo on Benchmark. Them and Phil Elberg and Tom McGowan.

[AuntieEm2]

These predators profit off the hardships of other people and their families.

Whooter, since when did you object to companies that profit off the hardships of families? So you're against programs now? Such a two-faced twit.

Auntie Em

[Anne Bonney]

Where you digging all this stuff up from Annie?

Is this is a fairly recent trend?.. I haven't heard of lawyers taking such an interest in the industry since Mike's legal beagles took a largish poo on Benchmark. Them and Phil Elberg and Tom McGowan.

Stumbled across it yesterday.  Googled 'wilderness therapy abuse' or 'wilderness camp abuse'..something like that, can't remember specifically.  Every once in a while I'll just google different phrasings of the TTI and see what pops up.

[Troll Control]

These predators profit off the hardships of other people and their families.

^^Whooter FINALLY admits how PROGRAMS operate??^^  Took a few years, but I guess now Whooter agrees with people here that programs do in fact prey on desperate families.

This is a big step for Whooter.  Now if he could just quit being an ignorant asshole...  :rofl: