Breaking News Story on Teen Advocates USA

[Anonymous]

CW and Spots - you are kidding yourselves if you think ed cons and independent referral agents aren't benefiting from the negative publicity surrounding this industry. In fact, they are laughing all the way to the bank.

Fear (like greed) is good.

Scaring parents is not going to shut down the industry any time soon, but it sure is helping to fatten the bank accounts of ed cons and independent referral agents who charge big bucks to give these "scared" parents a false sense of security about their program-of-choice.

 :tup:  :tup:  :tup:  :tup:  :tup:  :tup:  :tup:

[Anonymous]

It is NOT a waste of time focusing attention on ed cons and independent referral agents who have not just cashed in on the troubled parent industry, they helped to create it!  Ed cons do not just refer to therapeutic programs.  They refer to behavior mod programs, boot camps, faith-based schools, group homes, etc.  Skyline Journey was a wilderness program, not a therapeutic boarding school.  Independent Referral Agents operate below the radar, collecting placement fees from the programs, themselves.  Activists and advocates should be pushing to have this practice exposed for what it really is, not downplaying it, or dismissing it all-together as a non-issue.  

Troubled Parent Industry, indeed.  Ka-Ching!!!

[Anonymous]

FYI Spots, Sue Scheff (PURE) is not an educational consultant.  Read this:

http://helpyourteens.com/news/may_june_ ... etter.html

 :wave:

[Anonymous]

Spots Asks:

How many have to leave their home environment because their parents spent hours upon hours on the Internet, whining to other clueless people like the strugglingteens.com cronies?

-----------------------------------------------

Now, Spots, these clueless people you refer to would surely object to being called anything but what they call themselves -- professional parents (aka "parents helping other parents"). How many kids benefited from their sage (sic) advice, I shudder to even imagine.

[Anonymous]

How DO you find an ed con, anyway?

How do you find an ed con?  You find an ed con the same way you find most of these programs.  Just start typing in to your search engine phrases such as teen help, teen solutions, problems with teens, struggling teens, struggling teen help, help my teen....do I need to go on in order to help you understand?  If you do this you will find ed cons just as you will find programs.

 

FYI Spots, Sue Scheff (PURE) is not an educational consultant.

I though I remember reading somewhere on this forum that she was a self proclaimed member of a ed con group?

[spots]

For definition, would you all consider Teen Help (the WWASPS Party marketing arm) or John Bundy (ex-WWASP, refers anybody with a pulse to any program that pays him, and then double-dips by charging both parties) educational consultants?  Perhaps I'm being too generous by thinking of an ed con as somebody with at least a professional demeanor.  I certainly wouldn't consider a call to the night shift girls in LaVerkin, UT...the ones who read through the "do you have a candidate child?" forms over the phone and then FedEx's a copy (or several copies) of the WWASPS video of sobbing parents and teens as educational consultants.  If we're talking about anybody who recommends your child to a program as being an ed con (short of the lady standing next to you in the grocery store produce aisle and who is raving about the dramatic changes in her child's letters in the 3 months she has been away at XXXX) as an educational consultant, then you're probably right in that they should be targeted by activists.  

I'm probably at fault for giving parents more credit than to go with the recommendation of some guy without real credentials to decide the future of their child's life.  Of course, I do realize (like the very eloquent statement by Erik about his attempts to learn about Discover Academy before entering) that it's nearly impossible to find out what a place is really like.  

If you remove any ed con from the list who resides in St. George, UT, how many fly-by-night'ers are really out there, and how much money can one little podunk "professional" make in a year?

[Antigen]

This practice goes all the way back to the beginning. Art Barker used to guilt trip parents into trying to recruit everyone they knew. Straight used to give discounts to parents who recruited others. An old friend swears that, at the last open meeting before she pulled her son from Straight, Nancy Gettinger implored the parent group to go out and find some rich druggiekids.

Away back in the day, Bobby DuPont helped promote and fund a parents group called National Families in Action. This year, this little organization of whacked out, paranoid parents received some tens of thousands of dollars to set up parent corps pilot programs in a few key cities.

http://www.emory.edu/NFIA/

Just read through some of their own litterature and tell me if the rhetoric and tone is not boiler-plate Program stuff.

Indeed, the recruiters, whether motivated by cash or pure religious zealotry are key to this industry. Always have been.

In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution."

--Thomas Jefferson 1798

[Anonymous]

Spots when talking about ed cons and programs we are not talking about those with a degree in education who recommend teens to legitimate schools set up only for the purpose of a better education.  We are talking about anyone who is paid, whether in cash or credit, for promoting behavior modification programs that place restirictions on the child and the family.

[Anonymous]

and how much money can one little podunk "professional" make in a year?

I read on this site that one ed con in particular made over $300,000.00.

[Anonymous]

How many "struggling teens" (sic) were removed from their home, school and community and placed into a specialized school or program by the ed con who reportedly earned over $300,000,000 for their efforts?  

I'm serious! I really want to know how many kids it takes to earn that kind of money and what the names of the programs are that pay "finder's fees" in exchange for placement referrals.  

Not that I'll get a straight answer, seeing as Ginger has been asking this same question for awhile now and to date, those-who-would-know the answer still have not responded.

Why?

Well, ironically enough, I think we all know the answer to THAT question, now don't we?

 :roll:

[Anonymous]

I really don't think we give ed cons enough credit.

They're intelligent, thoughtful, articulate, sensitive, perceptive, and artistic people.

In tribute to their sensitivity and artsy side, I propose that from now on we refer to them as

"ed con artists"

Thank you.  Thank you verra much.
[insert "elvis" smiley here]

[Anonymous]

I've been searching the web for any news on this issue.  So far I haven't found anything. It seems as though the authorities have put a lid on this. I read that the other boys had been sent home. It's shocking that the testimonies of these boys has not been made public. What was going on at this school that led to this escape?

[broken doll]

People don't understand what it is like to be dumped into one of these programs where all freedom is take away. Most of us never committed a crime and were never in jail. Those of us who have been there know what it is like to have no way out and no one to talk to. If I didn't get out when I did I probably would have either killed myself or tried to escape.  Escape - why should we have to escape? Why couldn't they just let us go? If someone does not want to go along with things and get HELP (what a joke) then why not just let them go?  I know why they did this. They did it to knock this guy out and make a run for it.  They saw no other alternative other than suicide.  When someone is loosing their mind in a lock down they will do crazy things. This was wrong - no doubt.  But it is also wrong to lock people up who have done nothing wrong or illegal.

[Deborah]

Yes, Ian August was refered by an Ed Con. And on that note, would someone who hasn't commented yet, please go to this link at the Spokesman:
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/replies. ... d=r1430322

and rebut the last comment which was posted:

This is why parents need to hire an independent educational consultant to recommend a wilderness or any other therapeutic program. This program was negligent. No responsibile wilderness program would take a student who weighed 200 lbs. and 5'3".
edconsult@qwest.net
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Apparently the poster, an EC, did not read Adams' piece thouroughly, or hoped that other parents wouldn't remember that an EC was used.[ This Message was edited by: Deborah on 2004-05-20 17:06 ]

[Anonymous]

There seems to be a definite conflict of interest where independent referral services are concerned because they place kids in specialized programs who pay them a "finders fee". Not sure how much but would guess the fees to be somewhere in the range of $1-3k per kid.

Ed consultants on the other hand, claim they do not accept finder's fees (which they consider to be unethical) and instead, charge parents a fee for their services. (Here, I have no idea what an average "consultation" fee would be but perhaps someone else does know and can give us a ballpark figure?).

Either way, this business of private placement referrals seems to be entirely self-regulated unlike the specialty schools and programs they refer to which in most states must be licensed and comply with rules and regulations of some sort.  

How can a parent be sure they are dealing with someone who is qualified to properly assess the individualized needs of their child, especially given the very troubling revelation that most of these people don't think it is even necessary to interview the child in person?  

I honestly don't get this at all and think it is high time this cottage industry be exposed for what it is - a virtual slot machine that pays off in more ways than one given the complete lack of even minimal oversight to protect kids and parents from being exploited.

Anybody else have an opinion on this?  Shouldn't these people be held somewhat accountable for referring a child into a program with a history of serious injuries, and even deaths?  Skyline Journey stayed open for a whole year after Ian August was killed.  Were ed consultants and independent referral agents still referring kids to them?  

Who the hell knows, is the obvious answer.

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