Petition to close the abusive Provo Canyon School is gaining

[Anonymous]

Amy, spend a little time reading posts written by program parents over at Struggling Teens if you want to get an idea about how some parens make decisions on where, when and how to place their kids in residential treatment. It's a real eye-opener.

http://www.strugglingteens.com/cgi-bin/ ... 2;t=000794

 :wave:

[Deborah]

Amy,
Negative involvement with the industry breeds not paranoia, but skepticism and caution. If you hang around long you'll get used to it. Expect to show your card at the door.

It is my opinion that the role of Educational Consultants (EC) is unnecessary and appears to be a superfluous expense for parents, but often required by programs within the Teen Warehouse Industry. They market programs (broker placements) while perpetuating the illusion that they are objective third-parties, advocating for parents and children by ensuring an appropriate placement. Based on my experience, they do very little for the outrageous fees they demand, have little to no established guidelines or regulations and answer to no one. Many have come to consulting from inside the Industry, having previously been employed by the programs they promote. They do not investigate programs or provide important and accurate information in order that parent's might make informed decisions that will affect the well-being and safety of their young people.

My personal story: My ex enrolled our son in a Therapeutic Boarding School (TBS) that required a referral from an Educational Consultant (EC). The family therapist provided him with a name. He placed a call to the EC on Friday, flew our son to the facility on Saturday and officially enrolled him on Monday. She never even saw my son. I was notified of the placement by a phone call from my ex and the Head of Counseling at the TBS, who arrogantly and disrespectfully layed out the Orwellian nightmare that my son and I would endure for the next 22 months.

Under very suspicious circumstances my son was denied his first visit home and referred to the TBS's newly opened Wilderness Program (WP). Angry and concerned, this was just one of many unorthodox events that had occurred, I began to research the facility and discovered that neither facility possessed a license from the Office of Regulatory Services. In fact they had registered as a Private Boarding School to avoid protective regulations, but advertised to the public as a therapeutic facility and had operated as such for seven years. I filed a report and an investigation ensued. This did nothing to aid in my son's removal from the unlicensed WP, he remained the full 28 days.

ORS's hands were tied. They were required to follow a lengthy process in order to gain access to the facility, which was a private corporation outside their jurisdiction. This was very distressing as my research had also revealed that several dozen teens had died in similar facilities, and some of them were actually licensed.

I placed a call to the EC at that time. She was an Independent Consultant and officed from her home. She admitted that she had never met my son and was not aware of any psychiatric evaluation having been conducted prior to his placement to determine if this extreme and austere placement was in his best interest. She had simply provided a referral for my ex. She was not aware of the TBS's status with ORS or that my son had been denied his home visit and referred to their unlicensed WP. Her referrals to the facility were based on the "owner's reputation." I was appalled. I do not know her fee, but the Industry standard is $2- 3,000. I failed to see what she had done to earn a fee at all. She knew NOTHING about the facility and its policies and even less about my son. She didn't require an interview with him, an evaluation, or even a report card. She referred to a facility that was not licensed. She obviously had not followed up with the facility because she was not aware of my son's referral to the WP. She was not aware of the unorthodox "Restriction Diet" which consisted of limited calories for punishment or that we'd been allowed very little contact since he was enrolled. She ended our conversation by saying that she hoped it would be a good placement for my son!!! After all I had divulged, I was speechless. With all the dignity she could muster, she managed to stutter that her goal was to find appropriate placements so the child could get on with their education. That was the clincher for me. Had she known anything at all about my son, she would have know that he had no academic problems. He was an A/B student and was well liked by his peers and teachers. He was a thorn in his step-mother's side, that had to be removed.

Confused and disoriented by the blackhole I had been drawn into, I pressed on by investigating the requirements for ECs. Texas law requires individuals or organizations who place children across state lines to be licensed and follow the requirements of the Federal Interstate Compact on Placement of Children (ICPC) in out-of-state facilities. A call to the Dept of Protective and Regulatory Services revealed that the EC was not licensed to make out-of-state placements. The state official was confused as to who was technically responsible for my son's placement, as the EC did not physically deliver him to the facility. It was obvious that they had not dealt with this situation in the past and ultimately proved to be of no assistance. At this writing I do not know how the state's investigation of the EC concluded or how they ultimately classified her. They apparently didn't feel obligated to inform me of the results of their investigation, although I sent a formal request to be informed.

During the first parent workshop held by the TBS, the Headmaster strongly encouraged parents to employ an EC if they hadn't already done so and enthusiastically offered to provide a referral if needed. He informed parents that while it was unethical and inappropriate for his facility to provide kickbacks to ECs, the facility could reimburse all parents $250 if they provided a receipt from their EC. Parents could "do with it as they wished." His tone and expression clearly conveyed what he couldn't directly say. My thought- she hadn't earned the base fee, she certainly didn't deserve a $250 bonus? I later discovered that the TBS makes donations to the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA) in Virginia. A tightly woven web.

Parents should not assume that an EC will be an involved and trustworthy advocate for their teen, one who has thoroughly investigated the facilities s/he makes referrals to. This is a business. As with all referral businesses, conflicts of interest do exist, kickbacks occur, overtly or covertly. Unfortunately, there are many discrepancies within the Teen Warehouse Industry that may require legal action or legislation to remedy.

Given that ECs are not required to ensure that the facilities they refer to are operating above board, they are high paid recruiters. In two days time I knew more about the TBS than the EC.

My hope is that in the very near future all ECs will be required to be licensed and to comply with the ICPC. They should be required to ask for divorce decrees and speak with both parents as many parents have made placements to interfer with the other parents rights. They should also be responsible for confirming and documenting that every facility they refer to is properly licensed and consequently, held accountable and sanctioned for referring to unlicensed facilities. They should function as an advocate and maintain regular contact with the teen after placement. They should be required to inform parents of the inherent dangers associated with Wilderness programs. And educate them on the potentially damaging effects of the misuse of Behavior Modification techniques employed by all programs. They should provide parents with objective statistics regarding the success rate of Industry, compiled and analyzed by an independent organization. Further, they should divulge the number of accidents, suicides, and deaths that have occurred Industry-wide. And lastly, they should be able to tell parents if any given facility has ever been written up or received sanctions for violations of regulations, and as a protective measure, place programs with current violations on a blacklist until a follow-up inspection shows the program to be in compliance.

Now, that is a closed loop system that would assist parents in making a truly "informed" decision and provide a minimum of safety for teens. Then they would actually be doing something to "earn" their fee, rather than masquerading as objective third-parties for the Industry. Ultimately I say, do away with ECs or define their responsibilities, create regulations and consequences for violations. It's time for their free ride to end. Our young people deserve better !!

I am adamently opposed to the industry, but given that it's not going to go away, the realities need to be exposed and laws need to be enforced.

As for the fines for violations of regulations. They aren't nearly enough to deter violators. The facility I have experience with operated without an appropriate license for 7 years. Had the ORS fined them the $500 a day that they were within their rights to do, there would be less of this flying below the radar- identifying as a private boarding school yet advertising to the public as a therapeutic facility/hospital/etc.
They can't have their cake and eat it too. They must be forced off the fence. And state regulatory agencies need to do their jobs as well. I was sicken by the lack of interest and integrity I experience while interacting with every state agency in two states.

[Anonymous]

On 2004-05-26 00:12:00, Wildpony wrote:

"As a postscript - Because I have CONSIDERED at least checking out these programs, and because they have come up through the course of my job, my interest is intense.  "

Amy--my name is Julie Cochrane, and I post to this forum as "Timoclea."

My connection with this issue is that I'm a science fiction fan and author, fandom is a small world, and a teenage female fan who was friends with a lot of my friends got shipped off to one of these places last summer for trivial reasons, we were all worried about her, and I set myself to finding out as much as I could about what's going on.  Since I couldn't get a lot of information about her school, and since the people in this industry tend to have worked at multiple schools, I've tried to find out as much about the industry as I could.

My other connection is that I have bipolar (II) disorder (treated, extremely high functioning) and an undergraduate psych degree from Georgia Tech.  This gives me some background for knowing what good treatment is supposed to look like, and what the likely results of any particular behavior modification scheme would be.  (Georgia Tech was trying to train researchers, not clinicians, so we covered Skinner and behaviorism in a lot more depth than most undergrad. psych. programs would.)

I've never been in a program or put a kid in a program, but I've got a fairly good "big picture"   overview of the industry and the issues, and I'm online a lot since I work at my laptop.

I have an axe to grind, but I've just told you what it is, and it's limited.  My concern with the industry in general is that I think people should only be committed involuntarily if they've got a condition that needs residential treatment, and that the treatment they get should be *good* residential treatment.

What I want is considered regulation, licensing, and oversight to reduce the risks of abuse and make sure kids have the access to report alleged abuses to the state authorities.

So if you need quick and dirty background on anything, as opposed to an actual "source," send me a private message and I'll try to help.

(I'm also putting together an article---not for print publication, but for my website, because I think I might be able to reach a different audience and think the industry needs a closer look.)

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

On "education consultants" or "ed. cons."---the industry's story is that whichever consultants refer to  *their* group of schools are caring professionals trying to do good work to help troubled youth.  PURE at least heavily implies that WWASPS schools are abusive and "the problem" in the industry.  WWASPS says that schools PURE refers to pay kickbacks to PURE's ed. cons. and that that's unethical and "the problem" in the industry.  The unhappy program alums ("survivors") say that both PURE and WWASPS schools are too prone to taking kids into residential treatment based solely on the parents ability to pay, that the schools are rife with abuse and fraud, spend as little of the tuition on care of the kids as possible, and are primarily big cash cows for the owners preying on gullible, worried parents.  The "survivors" also allege that many programs (including WWASPS) turn program parents into recruiters for the programs by giving breaks like a free month's tuition for getting other parents to place their kid with that program---which would be a roughly $5k kickback per kid since that's the typical ballpark cost of monthly tuition.

PURE is Sue Scheff's organization, allegedly formed as a backlash against WWASPS.

WWASPS is the World Wide Association of Specialty Schools, owned by the Litchfield (spelling?) clan, headed by Narvin, in about the same kind of pattern of interlocking, confusing, changing web of ownership of bits of this and that as the infamous Kingston clan's holdings.

I'm *NOT* alleging the Litchfield clan does the same polygamous forced-child-marriage inbreeding stuff the Kingston clan is infamous for--that's not the point of the comparison.  The point of the comparison is the huge web of clan centrally-controlled assets with the shell game of who nominally owns what being quite similar.

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

Timoclea/Julie

[Timoclea]

Oh, my bias showing through--sorry.

WWASPS critics allege that Narvin Litchfield controls the whole WWASPS empire, and that other ownership is strictly nominal--that he's pulling the  strings.  They point to Narvin's alleged ownership of the grounds underneath all the facilities.

WWASPS side of that would be that it looks like a lot of people related to the Litchfields own different things in WWASPS because they actually, well, own different things.  Their side would likely be that all the family connections are because they're a close family, but it's largely coincidental.

WWASPS critics allege that Narvin can circumvent campaign donation limits by putting them nominally in the names of other family members, and is effectively allegedly "buying off" the elected officials that would otherwise be responsible for exercising oversight over the industry.

The Litchfields would allege that that's a coincidence and that a number of them just happen to have similar political opinions and are individually exercising their rights to participate in the political process.  They would also certainly deny any quid pro quo.

If the personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution inhibit the
government's ability to govern the people, we should look to limit those guarantees.

--President Bill Clinton

[Anonymous]

Be sure and read the DISCLAIMER on some of these so-called independent program referral agents websites.  Not all have one, but many do.

[Anonymous]

AMY:
There is a civil lawsuit filed by the parents of a boy who was referred to a program called The Ayne Institute (aka Alldredge Academy) in West Virginia.  The educational consultant is named in the lawsuit.

See Legal Watch
http://www.teenadvocatesusa.homestead.c ... erapy.html

What about ed consultants who refer a child to a program that tragically, ended up costing the child their very life?

This has most certainly happened.

[darkhunterhope]

On 2004-05-25 23:13:00, Wildpony wrote:

" :eek:

 So all of you are a bunch of paranoids because I refuse to identify myself. You bitch and bitch and bitch to each other on this website, questioning motives, while undermining your own.

 Well  here you are. Question mine. Check out the name Amy Joi Bryson on the Deseret News Website and see what I have done so far...some of it is on these threads.

   And Cherish, I am a SHE not A HE, and  merely was trying to keep a low profile while I collect information for a series of stories I plan to do this summer on the teen help industry, particularly how it relates to Utah, since it is so rampant here.

  And you can bash Ken Stettler all you want, but the ONLY reason I got onto this issue was while covering the legislature this past session and a simple little bill dealing with human services licensing failed to pass. When I called Ken about it, he said extreme lobbying  killed it because it would have roped Majestic Ranch under state scrutiny. I wondered why that would have been a bad thing and went from there with internet research. Do the archives research on our website.

  Like I said, I do not have an ax to grind, but I find it intriguing that a state such as ours that professes to love family and children is so ripe with an industry that so many others are accusing of being abusive.

  I do not discredit what Shane and the City Weekly may do, but check out who has been on this story the last four months and found the New York connection with Teen Escort and the alleged assault.

  And yes, we've already received one threatening letter from an attorney, but I am not deterred  in exploring the differing views associated with this industry and the controversy that exists.

  I found this forum by accident, found that it is helpful in what I am trying to learn (as well as many others) but I do not like my credibility called into question because I am trying to be cautious.

   I entered a log-in on this site simply to communicate because I felt there may have been some sincere postings. Since doing the first story on WWASPS and the related industry, I was bombarded with emailers who claimed abuse, wanted to know where to turn to help, phone calls, etc.

 It could have been easy to turn them into stories and run with it all without verification.

  It's not - unless you want to invite wrath and lawsuits and be someone's pawn.

 Everyone has a motive.

 I don't - other than to figure out someone else's  and be as fair and accurate as possible. Like I said before, I don't have an agenda - unlike many of you who, by the way, don't reveal their identity as well.

  Now you know mine.

     

   

  "

Fair is fair. I was not and am not paranoid about you. Just wondered who you were really, what paper, but I do respect the fact that you did not want to give out your identity, these people with such programs as Provo Canyon School can really be quite vicious to many people, including myself because I pose a hazard to them since I know so much info. on them and how everything runs, you get close to some staff in there and they just tell you EVERYTHING, o it's so much fun! Anyways, here, I'll yell ya who I am cause no one can do shit to me anyways, my name is Rachel Roberts, most just call me Hope or Hunter though. I am a Provo Canyon School survivor. I was imprisioned between October 11, 2000 thorugh December 20, 2002. So there ya have it, if you need anything, post here, I will find it and get you all you want.

[Antigen]

On 2004-05-22 03:31:00, Anonymous wrote:

that is all taken care of by the administator - phychiatrist Robert Crist - who has been there since 1974.

Any idea if this guy is kin to Florida Attorney General,  Charlie Crist? http://myfloridalegal.com/pages.nsf/0/1 ... enDocument

Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself
--Jimmy Carter

_________________
Ginger Warbis ~ Antigen
Seed sibling `71 - `80
Straight South (Sarasota, FL)
   10/80 - 10/82
Anonymity Anonymous
It is wrong to leave a stumbling block in the road once it has tripped you.

[Anonymous]

Here's the link to the court memorandum regarding the Giannone lawsuit against Ayne Institute.  The factual background of the case describes how they worked with an educational consultant and what allegedly happened to their child during the short time he was in the wilderness program.

http://www.paed.uscourts.gov/documents/ ... D0542P.pdf

[Anonymous]

Deborah, wasn't Ian August (the boy killed in a wilderness program in Utah) referred by an educational consultant?

[Deborah]

Yes, Ian's mom was refered by an Ed Con.
http://www.sltrib.com/2003/jul/07132003/utah/utah.asp

[Anonymous]

These ed cons who prescribe (and that is what they are doing) wilderness therapy programs as the cure for what's ailing unmotivated teens make me sick!  No child should have to face what this boy faced in the last hours of his life. The state of Utah should have thrown the book at the people responsible for Ian August's death and immediately jacked up the licensing fees to $50,000.00 per program instead of passing them out like candy for a couple of hundred bucks a pop.

[Anonymous]

Problems plaguing program for youths
By Amy Joi Bryson
Deseret Morning News

      Allegations of sexual abuse and assault, which have sparked recent criminal probes here and in two other states, continue to plague a Utah-based program for troubled children.
      The trouble linked to programs or services associated with the Worldwide Association of Speciality Programs and Schools (WWASPS) also has a California congressman demanding a federal investigation by the Department of Justice.
      Meanwhile, Utah licensing officials say there is little they can do about complaints that come in for programs like WWASPS, which remain unlicensed because they are "boarding schools."
      "Unless they are licensed, we do not have the right to go in unannounced, talk to anyone or interview the kids to see what is happening," said Ken Stettler, director of the state Department of Human Services Office of Licensing.
      Criminal investigations into abuse and assault have taken place in: :nworthy:  :nworthy:  :tup:

[Anonymous]

According to the article, Ian was taking several drugs to combat behavioral disorders while his Mom pursued her new-age interests and cult-like lifestyle seemingly trying EVERYTHING she could think of to help Ian *transcend* his difficulties.  But what about these drugs he was taking?  Could they have been part of the problem in a physical, mental and emotional sense?  

 ::

[cherish wisdom]

Ken Stettler knows very well what is going on. He promotes these programs.  He told me that Provo Canyon School was a residential program and the children were not protected by state or federal rules and codes as a result of this.  
I started to search and found that Provo Canyon School was listed as a hospital on several official government web-sites.  When I told him about this he never responded. No one has respondend. All the authorities want to do is silence people.  They are as much to blame as the actual programs.  

The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140440607/circlofmiamithem' target='_new'> Tacitus, Roman senator and historian (A.D. c.56- c.115)