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Pasadena Star-NewsWhen tough love turns dangerousMost boot camps operate with little oversightBy Brian Charles, Staff Writer
Posted: 06/26/2011 07:02:58 AM PDT
Keith "Sarge" Gibbs, center, of Sarges Community Base in Pasadena, directs youth during his Commit II Achieve boot camp youth program at Firestone Boy Scout Reservation in Brea Saturday, June 25, 2011. Parents, mostly single mothers, commit their children to the year long program that includes discipline based monthly camp outs and a parenting workshop. (SGVN/Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz)PASADENA – The parents who have crowded a Pasadena courtroom to support Kelvin "Sgt. Mac" McFarland claim the man accused in the kidnapping of a 14-year-old girl has saved their children's lives.
The dedicated group of parents and teens proudly wear Family First Growth Camp T-shirt and tell stories about redemption that learned by teenagers through sweat and tears.
Elpidio Estolaf, a parent of a Family First Growth cadet and a member of the organization's board of directors, called McFarland a "life saver."
"He has changed the lives of so many of these kids," Estolaf said. "He has saved them from the streets and gangs."
Many of McFarland's cadets attend San Gabriel Valley continuation schools, the last chance for students whose behavior has forced them off traditional high school campuses.
The students themselves call McFarland "a trusted friend" and "a mentor."
"He showed me how to have respect for myself and for my parents," said Fabiola Serna, a 16-year-old cadet from Montebello.
Like many of his charges Serna claims her grades and her attitude has changed since joining McFarland's boot camp.
But as parents and students rally around McFarland and the tactics used in his boot camp, lawmakers are looking for stiffer regulations of juvenile boot camps. Those lawmakers are pointing to a report that shows a history of child abuse and in some cases deaths as evidence that the camps need to be regulated.
"Parents send their kids to these facilities when they have exhausted all options," said Melissa Salmanowitz, spokeswoman for Rep. George Miller, D-Richmond, who sponsored bills in 2008 and 2009 to regulate boot camps. "They trust these facilities and what the Government Accountability Office found out is that these facilities were often abusing kids and in some cases kids were killed."
A GAO report studying boot camps was produced in 2007. According to the report, more than 1,600 cases of child abuse were reported and 10 teens have died in juvenile boot camp programs since 1990.
Many of the incidents are eerily similar.
For example, in September 2000, a 15-year-old boy died from internal bleeding after being restrained by a boot camp employee who held the boy's face down in the dirt for 45 minutes, according to the GAO report.
The boy died of a severed artery in the neck. The death was ruled a homicide, the GAO report stated.
The GAO report points to untrained staff members bent on discipline, and convinced that the children are "faking" injuries, who push children past their physical breaking points day-after-day. Injuries occur, go untreated and the children who often die slowly, the report said.
The report adds that its count of child abuse incidents was hampered by a lack of oversight from either the government or professional organizations. Such oversight could illuminate more incidents of child abuse.
Officials at Miller's office said the lawmaker was pressed to act after reading the GAO report.
In 2008 and 2009, he introduced bills to regulate the camps.
The bill calls for the Department of Health and Human Services to set minimum standards for operating a boot camp, establish a hot line for reporting abuse, train staff in conducting a boot camp and help staff identify abuse.
Both bills passed the House of Representatives with bi-partisan support. Both bills died in the Senate.
Miller has plans to reintroduce a bill calling for regulation of boot camps, but has not set a timetable.
Forced into handcuffsAs Miller continues to call for regulation of juvenile camps, Pasadena boot camp operator "Sgt. Mac" McFarland will to court June 29 to be arraigned on charges of kidnapping, extortion, child abuse, false imprisonment and unlawful use of a badge.
The charges stem from a May 16 incident where McFarland allegedly handcuffed a 14-year-old girl and reportedly extorted $100 from the victim's family.
McFarland declined to comment for this story. His attorney former Pasadena Mayor Bill Paparian said McFarland is innocent.
Since the kidnapping allegations surfaced, other girls have come forward with claims that McFarland pulled them out of bed and used handcuffs to restrain them as part of a training exercise.
In January Ray Travis' daughter was allegedly snatched from her bed, cuffed and forced to train.
Travis was not his daughter's custodial parent at the time of the incident and he did not approve of the tactic.
"Mr. McFarland takes the law into his own hands," Travis said. "He runs around acting like he is a cop."
The incident is under investigation by the Pasadena Police Department, according to Lt. Tracey Ibarra.
A 16-year-old Pasadena girl, identified as Stephanie H., who testified at McFarland's preliminary hearing June 14, said the boot camp operator took her from her bed by force. She alleged she was handcuffed and forced to engage in strenuous physical activity during one of McFarland's Saturday boot camp training sessions.
Parents defend the tactics as "shock treatment" necessary to scare the children straight.
During her testimony in the preliminary hearing, Stephanie H. said she didn't have a problem with the physical treatment.
Seeking a level fieldBut as parents and children continue to defend McFarland's tactics, local boot camp leader Keith "Sarge" Gibbs, who operates Community Based Training, said the descriptions emerging from court appear to show a heavy-handed operation.
"You can't just have a program that threatens and disciplines kids," he said. "You have to have a program that empowers."
Brandis Tovar, 15, of Covina, goes through the low crawl in an obstacle course during Commit II Achieve boot camp youth program at Firestone Boy Scout Reservation Saturday, June 25, 2011 in Brea. Tovar, who has been in the program five months, says the program is turning her life around after running the streets and using drugs. Parents, mostly single mothers, commit their children to the year long program run by Keith "Sarge" Gibbs, of Sarges Community Base in Pasadena, that includes discipline based monthly camp outs and a parenting workshop. (SGVN/Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz)Gibbs also wants the boot camp industry cleaned up and echoed Miller's call for rules.
"I think (regulation) would be helpful because everyone would be consistent and on the same playing field," Gibbs said.
Oversight for Gibbs Community Based Training comes from the Boy Scouts of America. His program works as a Boy Scout Post and undergoes annual audits from the BSA, which includes a site visit. All of his staff must be certified through the BSA, a process which includes a battery of test for staff members, Gibbs said.
Beyond the BSA certification, oversight of juvenile boot camps has been an informal process where groups look to a loose knit set of organizations for certification, Gibbs said.
Red Cross certified Gibbs' organization in CPR and a separates entity certifies the staff members in professional assault crisis training, which is similar to who work in foster care facility staffers.
But Salmanowitz said the hodge podge of certifying bodies is incapable of keeping up with all the boot camp operators and is rendered ineffective at setting industry norms.
"It's a weak patchwork of standards," Salmanowitz said. "There is not a minimum standard for this type of facility."
brian.charles@sgvn.com
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