POLAND (OH YEA LETS CALL THE STATE OF MAINE!)
State finds no abuse at Elan
By Lindsay Tice
Staff Writer
The Maine Department of Education ruled Wednesday that Elan School students are not being abused and that the school is complying with state regulations. Investigators recommended that Maine consider placing more students there.
In a five-page report released by the Department of Education, investigators found that the controversial residential school for troubled teenagers does not abuse its students and no longer forces them to fight each other as a form of punishment. They found that, in accordance with state law, Elan students are placed in wrist or ankle restraints only when a psychologist fears they may injure themselves or others.
Investigators also found that students spend more time in class than the minimum required by Maine law, but technology is very limited and there are too few hands-on activities in science class. They said there are no professional development plans for teachers, no handbook for residential staff and no written rules for students.
The Department of Education is requiring that the Elan School amend old policies on student discipline and submit new ones to the state. It wants the school to affirm that students have not been forced to fight each other since October 2000 and will not be forced to do so in the future.
According to the department, Elan officials have agreed to abide by these new requirements. In some cases they have already started to comply.
Ed MacColl, a lawyer for Elan, said the school was ?very pleased? with the Department of Education?s report.
?Hopefully, it will lead to the public and the press getting a sense of what a great job Elan does,? he said.
Elan became a focal point in the recent trial of Michael Skakel, who was convicted of killing his 15-year-old neighbor, Martha Moxley, in Greenwich, Conn., in 1975. Former Elan students testified that Skakel confessed to the murder while at the school. Skakel?s lawyer said Elan staff members taunted him and students beat him until he confessed.
A complaint by Canadian officials this winter alleged abuse was still going on at the school. Comments made by recent Elan graduates to the Sun Journal in June appeared to confirm that.
In mid-June, a School Approval Team from the Maine Department of Education began investigating the school. The goal was to ensure that the school meets state requirements today, not to scrutinize the Elan of the past, said department spokesman Yellow Light Breen said.
?We?re not trying to find out what happened in 1992 or 1982 or 1975,? said Breen. ?The school was obviously a different place 20 years ago.?
Elan, he said, is not abusing students and is not breaking health and safety rules now.
In fact, investigators recommended that Elan administrators begin talking with state judicial, corrections and human services officials about placing more Maine children in the school.
Said MacColl, ?I think that really is the strongest recommendation of confidence in the report.?
Investigators also recommended?but did not require?Elan to create a student handbook, create professional development plans for staff, make use of technology, consider improvements to the facility and work on assessing students? readiness for college. According to MacColl, the school is working on satisfying those recommendations.
The Elan School was co-founded by Joe Ricci and Gerald Davidson in 1970. Today it caters primarily to privately placed, out-of-control teens whose parents pay more than $100,000 for the 27-month average stay. The school has about 150 students.
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