Boonville City council Meeting, Kemper, Golden PoldLtd. and

[Anonymous]

http://columbiamissourian.com/news/print.php?ID=13228

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Kemper school proposal unveiled
Five protesters denounce a plan to reopen the military school to serve troubled teens.
By SHANNON BURKE

BOONVILLE ? Sign-carrying protesters greeted a controversial educator who on Monday night publicly unveiled a proposal to open the shuttered Kemper Military School as a new school for troubled teens.

With messages such as ?Say no to child torture in Boonville? and ?All children deserve basic human rights,? five protesters stood outside the Boonville City Hall chambers as brothers Randall and Russell Hinton shared their plans with 75 spectators.

Golden Pond Investments Ltd., a Utah-based holding company, wants to lease the property from the city of Boonville, which purchased the abandoned school in 2003, one year after it closed.

The Hintons ? who would sublease the property from Golden Pond Investments and operate the school ? want to open another military school for male cadets in grades 7 through 12. Some Boonville residents are concerned because Robert Lichfield, a corporate officer of Golden Pond Investments, is founder of the World Wide Association of Specialty Schools and Programs, a company that operates schools for troubled teens throughout the U.S. and in several foreign countries.

A preliminary background investigation by the Boonville Police Department reported some of the World Wide Association programs have faced allegations of abuse, and Randall Hinton has worked at several of the World Wide Association schools.

Lesli Racker, a Columbia resident opposed to the project, read a sworn statement from the mother of a student who attended Tranquility Bay, a World Wide Association school in Jamaica.

The statement detailed ?daily torture? and physical abuse the student suffered at Tranquility Bay, some of it allegedly at the hands of Randall Hinton. Racker said she obtained the statement directly from the student?s mother, a friend of hers.

Randall Hinton did not address the charges, saying only that the meeting was not the proper venue in which to discuss the accusations. He did offer a defense of his work, though.

?I have never been charged with a crime,? Randall Hinton said. At the same time, he added that pepper spray ? which had been used at World Wide Association facilities according to the background check by the Boonville Police Department ? would not be used for discipline at the proposed school in Boonville.

Russell Hinton, who for most of the meeting remained in the background, said he has worked at boarding schools in Utah. He did not specify whether those schools were WWASP affiliates.

Randall Hinton also attempted to distance himself from Lichfield.

?I?ve been running my own school for a year and a half,? Randall Hinton said, referring to White River Academy in Puerto Rico.

Hinton does not have a college degree, and many residents expressed concerns about his qualifications to run the school.

?I think it?s wonderful that these gentlemen want to open Kemper, but I see no credentials whatsoever to run Kemper Military School,? said Tom Maxwell, a 1955 Kemper alumnus who lives in Boonville. Before its closing, Kemper was the oldest military school west of the Mississippi.

And the Boonville Police Department released a statement on March 24 expressing concern about the safety of the Kemper campus.

The school would enroll students with behavioral problems, and several residents echoed the Police Department?s concerns about Kemper cadets escaping the grounds and stealing cars to leave.

Ned Beach, president of the city Industrial Development Authority, said the advisory group will bring the proposal to the Boonville City Council meeting on Monday, April 18.

Copyright © 2005 Columbia Missourian

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 Kemper proposal draws a crowd
Gathering gives plan a mixed response.


By JOHN SULLIVAN of the Tribune?s staff
Published Tuesday, April 12, 2005
BOONVILLE - The would-be operators of a proposed military-style school in Boonville responded to questions, statements of support and pointed accusations about child abuse at a public meeting last night.

Randall Hinton, who would head the school that seeks to take over the former Kemper Military School campus, has said repeatedly that his school would have no affiliation with an international organization founded by Robert Lichfield, the wealthy businessman whose Golden Pond Investments Ltd. of Utah has proposed buying the Kemper campus from Boonville. Hinton would sublease the property from Golden Pond.

Lichfield founded World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools, or WWASPS, a group of boarding schools that has received widespread attention in news reports and from government officials for allegations of child abuse.

WWASPS President Ken Kay said Lichfield is one of three board members of the St. George, Utah-based organization, which has seven schools in the United States and two abroad.

At least eight of the group?s schools and programs have closed within the last decade.

Boonville has been trying to sell the Kemper property since the city acquired it for $500,000 in 2003, a year after the school closed. A contract by Lichfield to buy Kemper already sits before the Boonville City Council, although Boonville police are advising the city hold off on a decision until authorities investigate Lichfield?s organization.

Lichfield did not appear at last night?s meeting at Boonville City Hall. Mason Gardner, chief financial officer of Golden Pond.

Gardner repeated claims by Hinton that Kemper, if reopened, would have no affiliation to WWASPS, despite the fact that Boonville city officials confirmed last week that they received a $100,000 check signed by Lichfield as an intent of offer for the property.

Gardner said Golden Pond would front the full cost of the purchase price for Kemper.

The asserted lack of connection between Hinton, Golden Pond and WWASPS riled one speaker at the public meeting, attended by about 70 people.

"Someone who is affiliated with Golden Pond, who is affiliated with WWASPS, who is affiliated with the Hintons: Is that not an affiliation?" asked Jonathan Wilcox of Columbia, who spoke to oppose the sale.

Mark Farrell, secretary of the Kemper Military School Alumni Association, supported Hinton?s proposed school and lashed out at detractors.

"If I thought there was any merit to these accusations, I would be the first one to say ?no,? " said Farrell.

Concerns about Hinton included his credentials. He does not have a college degree, and none of his family members who would help run the school is a licensed educator or mental health professional. Missouri law does not require licensing credentials for teachers in privately owned schools.

Hinton said he would hire a qualified administrator to run the school. He said he would seek accreditation through the Boise, Idaho-based Northwest Association of Accredited Schools & Colleges.

As for the allegations, Hinton said: "I have never been charged for a crime."

Tom Maxwell, a 1955 Kemper alumni and Boonville resident, said he wants to see the school reopened,

"But I see no credentials for" the Hintons "to open Kemper," he said.

Columbia resident Lesli Rackers told Hinton she was a friend of a parent who tried to file a criminal complaint against him. She said the woman was told by the FBI that she would have to file her complaint in Jamaica, where the alleged abuse occurred.

Rackers read aloud from what she said was a notarized affidavit from a woman recounting alleged abuse of her son by Hinton and others eight years ago at a WWASPS facility in Jamaica. Hinton declined comment.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/Apr ... ews005.asp
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Posted on Tue, Apr. 12, 2005


Skeptical crowd hears plan for school

By STEVE ROCK

The Kansas City Star


BOONVILLE, Mo. ? Before a standing-room-only crowd of 75 or more persons, the prospective new operators of Kemper Military School found themselves on the defensive Monday night.

The setting was a public hearing at City Hall at which residents were invited to show support or voice concerns about a recent bid to purchase Kemper. The school, which closed in 2002, has been owned by the city since April 2003.

A group led by Robert Lichfield, the founder of a controversial association of boarding schools, submitted a formal offer in March to purchase the seven buildings and adjacent property. Lichfield's group would lease the facility to brothers Randall and Russell Hinton, who would operate it.

Lichfield was not at Monday's meeting, but Randall and Russell Hinton have moved to Boonville and attended.

Outside City Hall, protesters holding signs met the Hintons.

?Our plan,? Randall Hinton told the crowd inside, ?is to open the Kemper campus as Kemper.?

The secretary of the Kemper alumni association expressed support, saying the Hinton brothers should get the chance ?to do what's right for Kemper.? Another graduate reiterated that position.

However, Tom Maxwell, who attended Kemper from 1950-55 and has lived in Boonville for 12 years, said he had nothing against the Hintons, ?but I see absolutely no credibility whatsoever to reopen Kemper.?

After speaking, Maxwell received a round of applause.

?These guys are not qualified to run a military school,? Maxwell said after the meeting, which lasted nearly two hours. ?If they want to run a boys' school, that's one thing. But that's not Kemper.?

There were questions about Lichfield's organization, called the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools. The organization has been the subject of abuse allegations, which an official has denied.

Randall Hinton said after the meeting that the questions raised were fair and the concerns were valid.

He countered those who said he and his brother are too young and don't have the credentials to run a military school ? Randall is 30, Russell is 26 ? by stressing that both had a long history of working with troubled teens.

?That's where our experience is going to come into play,? he said.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascit ... 370876.htm

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have a copy of the statement from the child at Tranquility Bay? Post it if you can

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have a copy of the statement from the child at Tranquility Bay? Post it if you can

[Anonymous]

Register an account.

[Anonymous]

http://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/Apr ... eat001.asp

TRIBUNE COLUMN
Boonville needs to think twice before getting stung by WWASP


By TONY MESSENGER
Published Wednesday, April 13, 2005
The problem with Robert Lichfield isn?t that he breaks the law.

It?s that the law allows him to do what he does.

Lichfield knows about the law. He?s used the absence of laws in many states and Third-World countries as cover for a series of business ventures that by most accounts have made him a wealthy man. The Utah businessman is founder of World Wide Association of Specialty Programs, an umbrella group connected to dozens of tough-love teen rehabilitation centers all over the world.

Many of the schools connected in some way to Lichfield have been accused by parents and authorities of child abuse.

Some of them have closed.

Now Lichfield has his eye on Missouri. Specifically, he and his partners, Randall and Russell Hinton, want to buy the former Kemper Military School in Boonville and turn it into another of their behavior modification facilities for troubled teens.

Long before Missourians heard of this plan, Shelby Earnshaw was trying to stop it.

Earnshaw is director of International Survivors Action Committee, a watchdog group that keeps an eye on the kinds of facilities Lichfield owns. She?s not a fan of the growing industry that takes advantage of parents who are at their wits? end because they can?t seem to control their teenagers. The facilities are multiplying because many states, such as Missouri, have few laws regulating the activities at these so-called private schools. Parents sign over their rights and agree to confidentiality. Proving abuse is no slam-dunk. The Virginia woman?s Web site keeps track of the various facilities across the world that have been accused in one way or another of abusing teens.

Stories from media reports and parents on the Web site tell of children held in animal cages, teens sprayed with pepper spray and the kind of emotional and physical abuse that many of us would consider torture.

Many of the teen centers are connected to WWASP in some way, and wherever there is WWASP, Lichfield generally isn?t far behind. That?s why, when Earnshaw heard about his intent to buy the Kemper property, she started to let folks in Missouri know a little bit about Lichfield and his various companies.

Her actions earned her a typical Lichfield response.

He sued.

On Feb. 22, in Washington County court in Utah, Lichfield sued Earnshaw and her husband, William, alleging defamation, invasion of privacy and interference with prospective economic advantage. According to the suit, Earnshaw "contacted public officials in Boonville, Missouri, and Salt Lake City, Utah, and spread false, defamatory and misleading information about plaintiff with the intent to interfere with plaintiff?s business relations and with plaintiff?s prospective economic interests."

Earnshaw says the suit won?t stop her from letting anybody who cares to listen know how destructive she believes WWASP facilities are to children.

"A lot of folks are intimidated by the man and the money he has," she says. "I?m not."

I called Lichfield?s attorney to ask about the suit. He didn?t call back. It?s no wonder. He?s a busy man.

Earnshaw is hardly the first to be sued by Lichfield and/or his associates.

Before her, there was Sue Scheff, and her organization, Parents Universal Resource Experts, or PURE. Scheff was sued for defamation in federal court by WWASP after she set up her own watchdog group and accompanying Web site. A Utah jury ruled in her favor last year, and U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell denied a WWASP request for a new trial in November.

Scheff, who lives in Florida, had sent her teenager to one of the WWASP schools in South Carolina. It was Randall Hinton who sold her in an effective sales pitch on the phone, she says. "I was completely brainwashed," she says. "I completely fell for them."

Hinton talked about the school?s effective therapy programs. He played up the horses that were advertised in the facility?s brochure.

"Once she got there, I found out they didn?t have horses," she says. "They didn?t have therapy."

Scheff pulled her child and started researching Lichfield, the Hintons and everybody connected to WWASP. She put up a Web site telling her story, and soon parents all over the country were contacting her. She put up their stories, often under assumed names. WWASP sued. From the beginning, Scheff says, it?s clear they wanted one thing: silence.

"I was telling true stories," she says. "In the end, the jury decided everything I said was true. They weren?t out to do anything other than silence me. This is the way they do business."

In Boonville, Lichfield and his gang of pseudo-therapists want to convince a city in need of money and an alumni group that wants to preserve history that this time things will be different.

The paper trail says otherwise.

Like a parent with a troubled teen, Boonville has a choice. "WWASP preys on desperate parents," Scheff says. She knows. She was one. Now Boonville is in the same boat. The easiest solution would be to turn the city?s problem child over to Lichfield. Scheff made that decision once in her life, and she saw her child suffer badly. She knows that the tougher call - and the right one - would be for a desperate city to tell Lichfield to take his checkbook and go home.




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Tony Messenger is a columnist at the Tribune. His column appears on Sunday and Tuesday through Thursday. He can be reached at 815-1728 or by e-mail at tmessenger@tribmail.com.