Yeah, so I emailed the father who started the foundation CSLandre.org, here is what he said.
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I emailed:
Hi,
I am wondering if you are aware that your foundation is linked to by a WWWASP website. WWASP has multiple lawsuite against it with allegations of abuse. The abuse is not fictional, I saw it first hand when I was at one of their facilities. It has been 5 years since I was there, and it's taken a long time to process my experience. They are horrible places, and all the information on the internet saying good things about them is lies. Please believe me, I read the story about your son, and why you strarted your foundation.
I believe your funds should be used to help shut down WWASP, and build an alternative style of care. Or better yet use the funds to help kids by sending them to licensed psychiatric facilities. Obviously your son had a psychiatric problem inducing his suicide, but yet he received completely inadequete care. You don't want this happening to other kids do you? I hope not.
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He said:
I hope you are not offended by me asking for whom do I speak.
We have always been open to work with far more programs than just those affiliated to Worldwide.
You do make wrong assumptions regarding Christopher for which we can always converse.
I am very open and I hope that you are open enough to discuss with me your situations. We are active in helping in far more ways that you see us. We are community and psych based too. Did you also know that we are IEP based for local support programs (non-program) across the US?
I would enjoy speaking with you or via email but enjoy a more humanized direction than a bashing of one program or programs when we help sooo many more.I really hope we do continue with communication.
Sincerely,
Lance Landre
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I said:
You're right, I won't make any assumptions about Chris, I know nothing about him. My only concern, and why I wrote you an email is because of the association of your organization to WWASP. I know there are good programs out there, but sadly to say WWASP programs are not. I applaud your efforts to help teens get legitimate help for their problems. I sincerely hope you have given the allegations of abuse from WWASP serious thought, even though it is only a small part of your overall effort. Especially if you are in the position to give parents an alternative choice, I suggest opting away from WWASP facilities. Thank you for your time.
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He said:
Thank you for your follow up and in seeing a bigger picture about the foundation. Yes, we do give alternatives to families looking for assistance. Yes, there are good programs and there are some terrible ones too. I make my judgements based on law, facts, where and what's best for the child/young adult, etc. And, a big difference, we work for and with the family (not the programs).
We have been unfortunately tied into litigation regarding Worldwide even though we do not have a penny contributed to the foundation from them. Such litigation though bogus still takes time and action and and and.
But rest assured that the foundation is about children and young adults. If you remember back only 8 years you will remember that there were just a small number of programs all of which were behavior mod therapy (reactionary) now most programs are operating in positive peer response (even several of the Worldwide schools) which is the current best direction. There are several neat styles coming about that come from an Asian format that has stronger empowerment and self-esteem element. I look forward to seeing these newer styles implemented.
In the meantime (since you left the program I assume several years ago) there have been a gigantic start up of small programs using the same systems that Worldwide used which you are upset about. I hope that these folks change or not be involved with this critical business in helping children and young adults.
By the way the biggest program touted by the IECA world got shut down due to bankruptcy (and possibly corruption - who knows) was the CEDU organization. They got nailed for improper actions, etc. They were proved to be far worse that any claims about Worldwide (proved) so who do we believe in the educational consultant field? That's why the foundation will not take sides with any program.
My email is always open for conversation - meaningful type please. We all have lots to learn and in the process we can discover what really happened in a global picture to help. Remember we are about saving lives and that is too important when we both can agree there are too many children/ young adults going down a deadly path.
Enjoy
Lance Landre
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Obviously there is no denial of referring to WWASP programs in the emails. I'm not sure what to make of these organizations. :question:
