Fornits
Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => The Troubled Teen Industry => Topic started by: Deborah on March 31, 2005, 12:52:00 PM
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Excellent Blog!!
http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/ (http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/)
Monday, March 28, 2005
In Pursuit of Happiness: Red Lake, drug company profits, Columbine, Jordan & Jimi Hendrix
The moment I heard about the tragic shooting in Minnesota the other day, my first question was, "What anti-depressant was that kid taking?" The moccasin telegraph supplied the answer immediately.
"The last time [Jeff Weise] saw a mental health professional at the Red Lake hospital was on Feb. 21, [his grandmother] said. She remembers the date because it was the same day he refilled his prescription for 60 milligrams a day of Prozac, which he had been taking since last summer." That's a hecka lot of Prozac!
But what else can we do when we see teenagers in trouble? What can we do to help teenagers like Jeff Weise -- who appear to be extremely troubled? Or even to help more normal teens like my daughter's friend Jordan? What are our options?
I got an e-mail yesterday from a concerned mother I know. "My son is having trouble in school," she told me. "Do you think I should send him to a military academy or a behavior modification program?" Or put him on Ritalin or Prozac or house arrest? Or just lock him in the closet....
Last week at a park located in a "safe neighborhood" in my home town, a teenage girl walked up to an older woman, pulled out a knife and slashed the woman's throat. The girl had never seen the woman before in her life.
It's time to stop talking about what car we're going to buy next or what breath mint is better or whether George Bush is eligible for sainthood and start talking about the mental health of our children.
Let's talk about Columbine and Red Lake and Fallugah and all the other places where American teenagers have gone crazy. Let's talk about Duwayne down the block from me who is back in juevie for the tenth time for -- among other things -- drugs, rape and armed robbery. And he is not yet 16.
And while we're at it, let's also talk about the millions of ADULT Americans who are on anti-depressants such as Paxil, Effexor, Wellbutrin, Zoloft, Lexapro, Celexa and Prozac.
Let's talk about the holy aura on the faces of the readers of the Left Behind series and the prescription bottles one inevitably finds in their medicine cabinets.
Why are all these people, living in a time and place that has more opulence than any other time and place in history, turning to violence and/or drugs?
Salt Lake City, Utah is the "Prozac Capital of the Nation". Their use of anti-depressants is three times greater than the rest of America. And their suicide rate is three times greater too.
I only make $15,500 a year and I have a standard of living that would make Queen Elizabeth the First or Julius Caesar turn green with envy.
In America, even the homeless on the street can get silk blouses out of the free box that, in historical times, would have made the Queen of Sheba or Emperor of China positively DROOL.
Yet we have more people on drugs, in prison and desperately unhappy than any country this side of Afghanistan.
Young Jordan's parents make 100K a year -- and they have home equity! Yet Jordan was shipped off to a behavior modification school in the wilds of Montana because his parents claimed that he was "unhappy". And, before that, they tried to get Jordan to take Effexor and Paxil. Jordan obstinately refused but his brother Nathan took them. Did this result in a happy childhood for Nathan? What do YOU think?
Young Eric Harris, one of the shooters at Columbine, was also taking anti-depressants. "Eric was forced onto these drugs," stated Mark Taylor, one of his victims, "and I feel sorry for him, like so many other kids who are put on these drugs. I don't have ill feelings against him since I don't think you can hold him accountable, because he didn't know what he was doing."
Young Jeff and young Eric were crying out for help before they shot up their school yards. Young Christoper Pittman was put on anti-depressants that were too strong for him and now he is spending the rest of his life in jail for murder.
With Bush sending all our money to his friends in high places, our children's schools, recreation centers and libraries are closing. These are the resources we used to rely on to help us when our kids got in trouble. Now we have to look for answers elsewhere. The rich solve their children's' problems by sending them "away". The rest of us just sit our kids down in front of the TV. Right-to-life types read Reverend Dobson and get out the paddle. But is anything working?
Actually, yes.
There are a lot of American kids who are turning out okay. And every single one of these Super-Children have the same things in common -- they are given respect, trust and responsibility at an early age. They are not spanked. They are not spoiled. By their parents' example, they are taught compassion and fairness and justice from an early age. They are given access to the finest teachers and education. They are not put on drugs at the earliest sign of creativity. And they are protected and loved.
Forget about spending our money on buying "empire" for the rich folks. Forget about buying all the stuff we see on TV. Happiness -- for ourselves and our children -- comes from Doing Meaningful Stuff. Everything else is a waste. The SUV in your driveway is a waste. The jockeying for position by the vultures in the halls of our Congress is a waste. Anti-depressants are a waste. Iraq is a waste. These things have obviously not made us -- or our children -- happy.
Instead, let's spend our money on Yellowstone National Park, Parkside School and seeking the ideals of people like Rosa Parks.
If we are going to spend our money creating "Million Dollar Babies," let's make sure that the millions we spend no longer go to arms manufacturers and drug companies.
And, speaking of drug company rip-offs, when it comes to vaccinating our babies, less is more. "But if we didn't vaccinate our children, they would die!" you may say. Sure, four or five vaccines are a good thing but giving 20 or 30 shots to a baby under the age of two? That's overkill.
Tattoo this on your arm, guys. "CORPORATIONS DO NOT HAVE AMERICA'S BEST INTERESTS AT HEART." Maybe that will get you to start thinking about what will make us happy.
So. I've covered just about every other subject under the sun. But what about Jimi Hendrix?
Jimi is my hero. Why? Because he had a terrible childhood -- yet managed to transform his anguish into creativity. Plus somebody just told me that the place I live in was built on the exact spot where Jimi lived when he was two years old. How cool is that? Me and Jimi Hendrix! I should go put a plaque in front of my house.
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More on 'Jason' mentioned in the first essay.
http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/ (http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/)
Monday, March 14, 2005
Brainwashing teenagers is easy. Just say "Jordan, your life is in danger."
I know a 15-year-old boy named "Jordan". He was just your normal American teenage kid but his parents didn't realize that his behavior was well within the range of normal -- and they hounded him until he ran off. But when, desperate and cold, he went back to his home and really really tried to live up to his parents' expectations of 24/7 perfection, they had him kidnapped in the middle of the night and dragged off to a "behavior modification" program somewhere in the wilds of Montana.
That was six long months ago, back when I was truly naive and didn't have a clue about what kind of program Jordan had been kidnapped of into -- or that such things even existed. "What the freak is a behavior modification program?" I said to myself. Then I started asking around. And I found out more about them than I ever wanted to know.
Even as we speak, tens of thousands of American teenagers are being held against their will in the various behavior modification "compounds" that you can find advertised on the web as "offering hope to struggling teens". As you browse their websites, you may notice that these operations all have one thing in common: They are always located out in the middle of nowhere, in places like Mexico, Jamaica, the Utah desert or the wilds of Montana; places where there is no governmental licensing, regulation or control.
Once children have been "disappeared" off into these programs, what happens to them? A strikingly similar pattern emerges. In every case, these children become isolated from everything they know and from everybody who might be able to help them keep a grip on reality as we know it. Once children reach these places, there is no way anyone can get in touch with them and they are held incommunicado for a period of approximately three to five months. No one -- not even their parents -- is allowed to communicate with these children during the first several months of these "programs'.
If any program EVER requests you to absolutely and completely sign off on your child in this manner, grab you child and RUN!
Want to know what happens to these children during this crucial three- to five-month period? Let's ask the ghost of Russian scientist Ivan Pavlovich Pavlov, the father of modern brainwashing. He will tell us about his experiments -- and how they used to apply only to dogs.
"So. Ivan. How did you develop this concept?"
"It was actually purely by accident," replied Pavlov Pavlovich. "There was a severe flooding in St. Petersburg one winter and I was not able to return to my laboratories for several days. When I finally got back there, many of my dogs had died and the rest of them were starving. Before this terrible tragedy happened, I had trained my dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell. But after surviving this catastrophe, they had forgotten EVERYTHING I had taught them! Everything they had learned just flew out the window." How do you say window in Russian?
"After this unexpected event," continued Pavlov, "I learned not only that I could de-program any dog's brain but also that I could re-program it again with whatever I wanted. It was easy. All I had to do was place a dog in conditions where it became convinced it was in danger of dying and Voila! It would do whatever I wanted it to do. And what works so nicely on dogs also works well on humans. I've decided to call this process 'Brainwashing'. Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?"
Thank you, Ivan. You have just handed me the key to understanding behavior modification programs. In the first three to five months of these programs, children that are held in them are being brainwashed!
I first got a hint that Pavlov's dog-washing process was being used on American teenagers when, during my research into the program where Jordan is being held at, I talked to an alumni of said program. "I loved it there," she told me, eyes still slightly glazed over. "I wish I could go back there...." At this point, her voice trailed off and she seemed uncertain for a few seconds...like she couldn't exactly remember her script...but then the light went back on in her brain and her programming kicked in again. "I would give my life for the headmaster. He would give his life for me," she recited. "He is the only person who can keep me safe...." Yeah, right.
Isn't this what happened in Guyana in the 1970s when 914 cult members drank cyanide Kool Aid because Jim Jones told them that was the only way they'd be safe? And wasn't Patty Hearst kidnapped, starved and kept in a closet until she too "saw the light"?
So. What kind of experiences do children have at these places that enables them to be "brainwashed"? The programs always follow the Pavlovian pattern. Like Pavlov's dogs, children are somehow convinced that they are going to die and that their life is truly in danger. Then some kind, loving, good-cop-type "Headmaster" suddenly shows up and offers to save them.
According to various eye-witness and survivor reports, at Casa by the Sea in Mexico, children were starved, whipped and kept in dog kennels. At the Bethany Girls' Academy in Mississippi, a disobedient adolescent girl's arm was broken. At Straight, Inc. in Florida, children were beaten, starved and raped. And at the Rocky Mountain Academy in Idaho, children were forced to dig their own graves, climb into coffins and be buried alive until they were scared enough to agree to be "complaint".
Other "programs" used forced labor camps -- like the one in the movie "Holes" -- to subdue children. One large beautiful chalet at a program in the mountains of Montana was constructed totally by "students" whose parents were paying $4,000 a month for the privilege of sending their children off to forced labor camps.
Recently, I saw a photo of Jordan. He was standing second to the right in a group photo taken for publicity purposes by Jordan's "program". The photo was displayed on their website. Most of the children in the photo looked glazed-eyed, complacent and "brainwashed". Jordan just looked angry, defiant and mad. But every child in the picture, whether they were looking angry or compliant, all had one thing in common. THEY ALL LOOKED LIKE LITTLE KIDS. Even Jordan. Whether they looked like good little kids or bad little kids -- they all looked like LITTLE KIDS. These children had all regressed back into earlier childhood; back to a time when someone else took care of them and they were "safe".
Jeez Louise. Does the "Headmaster" now help change their diapers?
Moving on to the next question. Now that we know what happens to children inside these programs, what becomes of them after they come out? What little research I was able to do on this subject produced some very surprising results. For one thing, the parents of these children are usually pleased and thrilled with the results. "My defiant teenager is now sweet and helpful. It is such a marvelous change. I feel like I've gotten my baby back again."
Guess what, Mom. You have.
Your children, when they emerge from these programs, will remain your "baby" for the rest of their lives. Better get their old bedroom ready again, guys. These "babies" are yours forever.
Forget your dream of raising another Einstein, Pop. Your children's mental growth potential has been stopped cold. They are really good about following orders but that's about it.
Take for example the case of the "graduate" I recently talked with. She had tried going to college when she first got out. That didn't work. Then she hooked up with this or that new boyfriend. That didn't work either. Then she tried living on her own. That was no good. Now she is 22 years old and back living at home with her parents. "But what I really want to do," she told me, "is go back to the program. Maybe they would let me work as a counselor there...." Sure. Go for it. You'd fit right in. You'd never have to think again. Plus you could help them dig the graves and build the coffins.
I wonder what will finally happen to Jordan. Will he somehow miraculously be able to resist or escape his behavior modification program's "brainwash"? Or will he simply return to the home of his parents and stay with them forever, happily remaining their unthinking clone?
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Brainwashing the ADULTS of America: Pavlov's little trick has worked here as well. Our "Headmaster" in Washington has convinced Americans that their lives are in danger -- and that only HE can keep them safe! Result? Americans too have become unthinking clones. Good job, Pavlov!
# posted by Jane Stillwater : 12:00 PM
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Deb
I think your very right about the fact that we spend too much time on materialistic things than on actually improving our lives or spending time with our kids. I think the issue of violence in our country is a complex one. Sure there are alot of simple things we could do to help our kids. Teaching a balance would be a good start. i think we all live in extremes and therefore go to extreme things when we are sad. Drugs (especially prescription ones) alcohol, violence, you name it. But our society is very odd. The margin between the rich and the poor is getting wider. I think you are right that you can make very little and still be happy. My husband and I only made 9,000 dollars the entire year last year. We are definettly living below poverty level. but we still manage and are still happy. I think the way a child "turns out" depends on nature and nurture. Parents have an important responsibility to teach their children about life about independance and about loving themselves. I know many people think it is one or the other but I think it is a combination. Now it is really hard to say what we can do to change the world we live in. I think we can start by teaching our children by living the way we want them to live. It is hard to tell a child not to smoke if you smoke. I think also that our children seem to have less compasion for their fellow citizens. Many children only focus on their own lives and never even think about others in their community. I think our society in general could use a good kick in the butt. It seems now like the rich get richer and the poor just take it and do nothing to stop it. People like George Bush Jr. are allowed to be president. What does that tell you about America. i mean the man cant even complete a sentance without making a complete jackass of himself. And the majority of this country voted for this pathetic excuse for a president. Its time to wake up and smell the insanity. I think you have it right in saying that we spend to much time on quick fixes when its too late instead of working from the beginning wiht our kids to prevent violent and abusive behavior.
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The truth is Ive met many kids who are dependant on their parents and dont do well in life who have never even heard of a treatment program. I also know that there are those it helps. Its hard to say based of of a few subjects that it works or dosnt work. It is extreme to say no one is allowed to talk to a child in a program. I am not sure about the montana program. If that is the case than yes it is an attrocity and should be shut down. I know the one I went to I could talk to as many people as I wanted. I know I was never forced ot do anything that I didnt choose was right for me. I trie dthe program and it worked for me. i know it is hard for you to understand because youve heard so many awful things about the programs, but lets not generalize here and say that they are all absolutly rediculous and abusive and suck and should be shut down. I think the one I went to worked for me and other friends of mine who graduated. The friends I know who it didnt work for may not like things about hte program like rules and what not, but they still understand that alot of things we learned there about ourselves were valuable life lessons and they still agree with the concept. Now alot of them didnt like the program rules because their parents gave them anything they wanted and never made them follow rules. i think it was quite a shocl to them that they had to actually follow a rule. I think you have it right in one important aspect. You have to spend quality time with your kids and teach your children and do your best as a parent if you want your kids to become responsible ad happy. Now alot of kids do turn out ok. Sure. Alot of them dont too. I know both angles. Ive known kids who struggled as an adolecent and are fine now without anything other than small reprocusions. But Ive known kids who have struggled as a teen and never recieved any help and are still very sick and unhappy. It is a complicated issue for sure. On the one hand it helps some peopel and you dont want to take that away from them because it dosnt help someone else. but on the other hand there are kids who dont need to have such an extreme thing happen to them to get better. But how do you determine that? I think it is fairly easy to say what harmful behavior is and isnt but I know that most all of the people I went to treatment with were not there for stupid petty reasons like they did bad in school. They were there for multiple reasons and extreme reasons. And many of the kids I knew there were not getting better at home. Many of them told me that had they not been sent to the program they most deffinetly ould have killed themselves. And the truth of it is many of the parents I met there were really good paretns. They did their best. The child just didnt care abvou tthemselves. i know that was the case for me. My paretns were not perfect but they did their best. They taught me abiut responsibility and loveing myself and all that. I just went nuts as a teen. i just couldnt handle life. I wa waiting for the day I would have the courage to just do it and end my life. I drank so much a s a teen that I probsably shold have died from alcohol poisining a couple of times. I went to the hospital alot for overdoses and what not. i was generally so unhappy that no one could help. Plus I drew away form my parents and drew closer to decietful, drug abusing teens I thought understood me. I realize now in hindsight that I was foolish to think they could be a good friend to me as I couldnt do the same for them either. I needed something extreme to happen to me to change. I hope you can kind of understand that in a way insted of jumping to hating the program. I understand that there are those who dont do well in it but I owe my life to that place. I am greatful to even be herew to write you this note. Please take into consideration those it helps before bashing all programs to smitherenes.
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I like what you had to say anon, but I have to say that being poor has made me miserable. There were many times in my childhood that I did not have enough to eat and it was not very happy times for me. As an adult I struggled a long time being a single parent. There was days where I had to go to food pantrys for help and twice I had my gas turned off. Not saying money is the answer to happiness, but it sure the hell would have helped me feel less beat down in this world. It also took a toll on my self esteem. Things are slowly starting to get better as I got a college degree and continue to get better as I continue to pursue higher degrees, but still there are many days where I wake up feeling like I have the world on my shoulders. If I did not have the constant stress of work and school 60+ hours a week and scraping money together to pay daycare, health insurance, housing and utilities I think I would be a lot happier. Hell I'm not even expecting to be rich, I just want enough to not live paycheck to paycheck.
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Why are all these people, living in a time and place that has more opulence than any other time and place in history, turning to violence and/or drugs?
'cause drugs are fun :smokin:
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Wow! Brilliant and insightful. Just one caveate...
On 2005-03-31 09:55:00, Deborah wrote:
"More on 'Jason' mentioned in the first essay.
http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/ (http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/)
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Your children, when they emerge from these programs, will remain your "baby" for the rest of their lives. Better get their old bedroom ready again, guys. These "babies" are yours forever.
Forget your dream of raising another Einstein, Pop. Your children's mental growth potential has been stopped cold. They are really good about following orders but that's about it.
That's not the usual case. I have met a few people who's lives fit pretty closely to this dire scenareo. But I've met a whole lot more who just can't stand the constraints and degradation. Most of us wind up striking out on our own w/o the necessary social/job skills, connections and self confidence to succeed and w/ the ghosts of that benevolent Headmaster Pavlov in their heads and hearts; chiding and shaming them them relentlessly.
Many don't succeed. Others pull it out of the lurch pretty well. I think a good many of us would have stood a better chance if we had only had the information necessary to understand WTF was wrong with us and to start undoing the damage earlier on. Unfortunately, many of us are scared shitless of any stranger offering to save us. So this kind of insightful reading material is like gold! I wish everyone in the world would take a few moments to read this lady's work. Thank you so much, Ms. Stillwater, for putting your heart into this as so few bystanders ever have. Here's hoping we're seeing the start of a trend. ::cheers::
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of it's victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busy-bodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those that torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
C.S. Lewis, God In The Dock
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Yeh, I thought you might link to that page or this thread in the resource section.
More and more people are starting to talk as kids they know and care about are incarcerated. I think we are seeing a positive trend. ::cheers::
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A February posting on 'Jordan' and the Industry. Wonder if she ever read/posted on Fornits?
Friday, February 11, 2005
You've been sold down the river, Jordan: Why child boot camps don't work
How do you explain to a kid that you are deserting him?
I have spent the last year trying to break through the code of silence that protects "behavior modification" schools from outside scrutiny. It is impossible to do and I am giving up. I have called senators, contacted child protective services, joined survivor group chatrooms and even enlisted the help of librarians, prayer lists and consumer hotlines, trying to find out what goes on inside these places or how to get a kid out of one. It's been no use.
Even if a child commits a MAJOR crime and is sent to the deepest bowels of Juvenile Hall, he or she is still allowed to make phone calls, receive letters and write to the outside world. This is NOT true of the places that my daughter's friend "Jordan" has been dragged off to -- without having committed any crime at all.
I talked with someone else who tried to extricate a boy from one of these programs. "I did EVERYTHING," he said. "I hired a lawyer. I took it to court. We went up to the federal level. We subpoenaed everyone we could think of. We cited examples, we cited case law, we cited the blooming 14th Amendment! Nothing. These boot camps have a LOCK on the kids they hold hostage. Our only hope is that the boy we tried to rescue won't be too traumatized by the time he turns 18."
If I COULD break through these programs' code of silence and communicate with Jordan -- who, along with thousands and thousands of other American teenagers, has been trapped in one or another of these secretive programs well-hidden in the backwoods of the USA -- this is what I would say: "Although we have tried everything that we could possibly think of to let you at least know that someone in the outside world still cares about you, we have not been able to break that code. You are on your own now. I'm sorry."
As of now, Jordan is in a completely unaccredited and unregulated "behavior modification" program in Montana. I suppose that's better than the boot camp horror he was in last summer. But, since these programs are totally unregulated and uninspected, I have NO way of knowing.
"I have discovered the hard way," I would tell Jordan, "that as far as the law is concerned, when one of those programs gets a hold of you -- let alone your parents' $4,000 a month -- there will be NO communication with the outside world. You might as well be on the moon. But, even despite all this, I would STILL keep on trying to find out if you are okay -- except that one law has finally stopped me: King Solomon's law."
Your father called me the other day.
He told me, "If you don't stop trying to contact Jordan, I will send him back to that boot camp." I don't know what the program he is in now is like, but Jordan has told us all about the so-called boot camps he has already been in. And I wouldn't do that to my worst enemy let alone someone nice.
"Even if your father is willing to destroy you just to prove he is right, Jordan, I am not willing to do that. King Solomon knew what he was doing." Jordan, I know that you begged us to protect you from him, but your father has won. I'm backing off.
"You used to be a great kid, Jordan. I just keep my fingers crossed for you and hope when you get out that you will have retained some of that spark of innocent puppy-dog joy that made you so unique."
I pray that somehow, of all the terrible programs out there that enslave thousands of kids each year -- of all those terrible programs that put our children in mental and physical cages like they were dogs instead of children of God -- I pray that you will have landed in a "program" that might possibly be kind.
But I will never know, will I? And neither will all the other grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, friends, teachers and concerned adults in my same position who, under law, have absolutely no say.
PS: Do "behavior modification" programs and boot camps work? NO. Want some proof? Here it is: Jordan's older brother Nathan -- another sweet kid who at age 12 finally dared to hit back -- has been shipped off to one "program" or another for the last five years. Finally, this fall, his father relented and allowed Nathan to come home. And now Nathan is in juevie -- for trying to rob a bank.
But what DOES work? All this effort, expense and craziness could have been easily avoided if Jordan's father and all the other parents of rebellious teens had just read John Gray's book, "Children are for Heaven." Gray maintains that children are born with an inherent need to cooperate -- and that there are loving, kind and FRIENDLY ways to make a child want to behave. Shaming, controlling, manipulating and beating children the way that Jordan's father did may be satisfying to the father but it kills forever a child's need to do what parents say.
# posted by Jane Stillwater : 11:14 PM
http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2005_0 ... chive.html (http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2005_02_01_jpstillwater_archive.html)
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And a January posting. Jason is at Monarch.
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Hard knock life: Tracking young Jordan through the snows of Montana
I'm beginning to feel like Little Orphan Annie these days. Or perhaps Oliver Twist. All I want to do is find out if a "behavior modification" school in Montana (where my daughter's friend "Jordan" has currently been sent to) is yet another snake pit boot camp or is actually on the up-and-up. But finding out ANYTHING about this sort of program for "troubled teens" is like trying to track down Fagin in a Charles Dickens novel. Or the Artful Dodger. These programs play their cards really close to the chest and don't want anyone to know what goes on inside them.
I know for a fact that Jordan is at Monarch School because he snuck in a phone call to us last October while being transported there from another "behavior modification" camp in the Utah desert. But Monarch School steadfastly denies that Jordan is there -- and they certainly aren't volunteering to let us speak with him. Despite all the wonderful descriptions of their program that one finds on Monarch's website, that's not a good sign.
So. Here's my question: Is this place the paradise that they describe or is it another New York City Municipal Orphanage run by Miss Hannigan?
As Daddy Warbucks learned the hard way, it's a good idea to be wary of behavior modification institutions where a child is not allowed to communicate with anyone. (If for no other reason than that Jordan might sign an Emancipated Minor form and Monarch would be out $4,000 a month! Fagin and Daddy Warbucks should take note -- these behavior modification programs are Big Business!)
According to Jordan Riak of Project No-Spank, there are several things that "should be absolutely avoided" by successful behavior modification programs. Among these are when:
---Parents are required to sign a "contract" that transfers to the school extraordinary rights over the child. The primary purpose of this requirement is to create the illusion that the school's authority over the child is absolute.
---Children do not have free access to a telephone. Periodic telephone conversations between parent and child are rigidly scheduled and are monitored by the school staff. Mail to and from the child is screened.
---The usual holiday visits home, e.g., Christmas and Thanksgiving, are not permitted.
---Parents are not allowed to drop in at the school for an unannounced visit.
Okay. Forget about Little Orphan Annie. Forget about Oliver Twist. Now we are going to become Sherlock Holmes!
While Sleuthing around for information about Monarch School, this is what I discovered:
---Parents and Teachers Against Violence in Education (PTAVE) checked with their nationwide network of educational professionals regarding Monarch School. PTAVE's resultant report to me listed various Monarch School staff members' connections with Rocky Mountain Academy, which, according to Idaho court records, has been sued by many parents, including for one incident where a child was forced to dig his own grave, crawl into a coffin and be buried alive. Eeeuuu.
---The Montana Office of Public Instruction has no listing for Monarch School, either as an accredited or non-accredited school or as a home schooling facility.
---According to a Sanders County librarian, government supervision of private schools in Montana is almost non-existent. "Any human being can start a private school here with no training whatsoever. Private schools are not regulated."
---The Sanders County Sheriffs' Department informed me there had been several instances where the department has been called out to help search for runaways.
---The child protective services of western Montana said there are 36 such unregulated schools in the state. They also told me that every child had to be in a school and if Monarch wasn't listed as a school, this might be grounds for removing Jordan from there.
---I talked with a representative of the Montana CASA program and she stated that CASA is working hard to develop legislation where there will be licensing requirements for behavior modification facilities in Montana. Currently there are none.
---The Montana child abuse hotline informed me that they do not do "welfare checks" on behavior modification schools and referred me to the licensing bureau. I am waiting for them to get back to me.
---The Sanders County district attorney's office said that no lawsuits have been filed against Monarch School and that, in this case, no news is good news -- but that in many cases, schools that are shut down in Idaho for child safety violations simply move across the border and open for business again in Montana.
---Monarch School has sent children to perform public service at the Camphill Community in Copake, NY. The Camphill Community gave Monarch School a good report.
---The Sanders County job hotline lists five teaching/supervisory positions available in Heron, MT. They gave Monarch School a good report also, stating that teachers at Monarch were required to have a college degree and the children appeared to be well-treated.
---The Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution outlaws "involuntary servitude" for everyone in the United States -- except children.
Because my sources reported such a wide spectrum of possibilities regarding the quality of education at Monarch School, I think you will understand that, as a decent human being, a Christian, an advocate for children and a friend of Jordan's, I would be remiss if I did not try to follow through and find out what Jordan's true situation is.
Okay. Forget about Sherlock Holmes. Now we get to play at being Jack London! In order to find out if "Jordan" is REALLY okay, I have contacted Monarch School and requested a tour of the facility. But what if it's 30 degrees below zero in Montana! Talk about your "Call of the Wild." Saddle up the sled dogs, Jack! Iditarod, here we come!
Does anybody out there know anything about Monarch School?
Does anybody out there have any snow shoes?
# posted by Jane Stillwater : 3:04 PM
http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2005_0 ... chive.html (http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2005_01_01_jpstillwater_archive.html)
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Anon, could you please separate what you have to say into paragraphs separated by blank lines.
This is not intended to be a grammar nag. It's really hard on a computer screen to get my eyes to focus in on all that text in a block. It would be much easier to read if it was separated into chunks of ideas, with either blank lines or indentations.
Timoclea
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Sorry, I'm going bacward through Jane's archives. Another from January that links Monarch to CEDU and cites Fornits.
Saturday, January 15, 2005
Behavior modification schools: What does it mean when a kid can't call home?
As most of you know, I am always just on the brink of thinking that young "Jordan" is happy and being well-treated at Monarch School, a "Behavior Modification" group home in the far-away mountains of Montana. Then I start to thinking, "If he's so happy there and it is such a wonderful place, then why isn't he allowed to talk to anyone? At $4,000 a month tuition, the boy should at LEAST be allowed the cost of an occasional postage stamp!"
So I asked Jordan Riak, the director of PTAVE (Parents and Teachers against Violence in Education) to get on the grapevine and see what he could find. And now I'm back to being scared for Jordan all over again!
When you go to their website, the school sounds wonderful:
School for struggling teens: The Monarch School in Heron, Montana Educational Program for life. The Monarch School located in Heron, Montana is a coeducational, residential school emphasizing the creative arts. ... http://www.monarchschool.com/ (http://www.monarchschool.com/)
Heron, Montana is home to Monarch School... Monarch School. PO Box 410 ? Heron, MT 59844 For more information call toll free(877) 955-2232 (406) 847-5095 Fax (406) 847-5014 email: generalinfo ... http://www.monarchschool.com/campus_setting.html (http://www.monarchschool.com/campus_setting.html) - 6k -
Jordan Riak wrote:
Jane, this just arrived.
Jordan Riak, Exec. Dir., Parents and Teachers Against Violence in Education (PTAVE), P.O. Box 1033, Alamo, CA 94507-7033. Web site: "Project NoSpank" at http://www.nospank.net (http://www.nospank.net) Telephone: (925) 831-1661
The founder of Monarch, Patrick McKenna, is a graduate of Rocky Mountain Academy, which is a CEDU program; Monarch's Admissions Director, Ranel Hanson, worked for Rocky Mountain Academy for six years and then joined SUWS. (Info pertaining to CEDU & SUWS are at the very end.)
Here are the 'connective' links for Monarch School showing that staffers do have past affiliations with CEDU and SUWS programs, followed by a link to posts concerning Monarch, that includes these comments,
"Unbelievable!!!! Monarch School in Heron Montana needs to know that Jane Habermann and Steve Rookey are BAD EGGS. They should not be around children!...I'm surprised Tim Earle has any brain cells left. ...Did you notice in their bios, at Monarch School, that they do not mention CEDU at all. That speaks a thousand words as far as I'm concerned. ...It is very important that Monarch School be watched for a repeat of CEDU programs. "
Monarch SchoolBoarding Schools in Idaho
Contact Person:Ranel HansonPhone Number:(877) 955-2232
http://www.strugglingteens.com/archives ... ews06.html (http://www.strugglingteens.com/archives/1994/10/news06.html) (1994 info)
SUWS ADOLESCENT PROGRAMby: Ranel HansonSandpoint, Idaho208-265-4616
(Ranel Hanson was the Director of Admissions for Rocky Mountain Academy for six years, and recently joined SUWS as Director of Enrollment Services. Her job is to work with referring professionals as well as to oversee the SUWS Admissions department.)
Academic Director, Ron Mendenhall, explained, ?creative arts are the backbone of the program.? This emphasis has resulted from Patrick McKenna and Tim Earle?s experience of the therapeutic value of the expressive arts. They understand the important role the creative process plays in building and living one?s dream, lessons Patrick feels he learned on the road to becoming the first Rocky Mountain Academy graduate. During this early education Patrick progressed from behaviors that would preclude his enrollment at Monarch School, to learning the discipline, accountability and communication skills that enabled him to inspire the creation of Monarch School.
http://www.rockymtnacademy.com/about/history.shtml (http://www.rockymtnacademy.com/about/history.shtml)
In 1982, Rocky Mountain Academy was established as the first CEDU emotional growth boarding school in Idaho.
http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:lM ... arch&hl=en (http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:lMLadM_CBJ0J:www.sandpoint.com/NewsArticle.asp%3FCMD%3DDetail%26ID%3D2645+%22Patrick+McKenna%22+monarch&hl=en)
Suits allege abuse at two schools
Private CEDU academies treat troubled teens
Kevin Taylor, Staff writer, October 29, 2004
More than two dozen parents and former students at Rocky Mountain Academy and Boulder Creek Academy - two expensive private schools for troubled teens - have filed four lawsuits claiming a pattern of neglect and abuse inflicted upon kids by staff or by other students running out of staffers' control.
The four lawsuits can be grouped into two categories, Todd Reed, attorney for the plaintiffs, said Thursday. Two of the suits recount allegations of misconduct and breach-of-contract issues from Boulder Creek Academy near Bonners Ferry in the mid- to late-1990s; the others concern students more recently enrolled at Rocky Mountain Academy, which is near Naples, Idaho. Boulder Creek typically houses 70 students. Rocky Mountain, which typically enrolls nearly 40 students, currently has 30.
Among the allegations listed in the lawsuits filed at the Bonner County Courthouse in Sandpoint:
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One boy was forced to dig a grave, crawl into a coffin in the grave and have dirt thrown on it by staff.
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A girl was called "fatty" by staff even as she was being counseled by other staffers for bulimia.
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Another girl was called a "whore" and forced by staffers to wear a derisive sign advertising oral sex.
Another suit alleges a student at RMA was hazed, beaten and insulted constantly and with impunity by other students because staffers were not in the dormitories and didn't seem to care enough to stop the beatings when they did find out. ...
CEDU is no stranger to such lawsuits. In November 2002, the company paid a $300,000 settlement to two former students who had alleged CEDU hired poorly trained, abusive staff. The students said the situation was what led to a student riot at Rocky Mountain Academy in 1997. Five students and staffers were injured in the riot. Reed said a second lawsuit against CEDU in North Idaho also was settled, but the amount of the award has been sealed....
According to the SUWS info pages - at the bottom of the pages - SUWS is amember of the ASPEN EDUCATION GROUP. Here's a link to one of the pages:http://www.suws.com/success.html Here's the main page for Aspen Education - with links concerning their MANY MANY programs: http://www.aspeneducation.com/ (http://www.aspeneducation.com/) Here is a link to some posts at FORNITS board concerning Aspen programs:http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?forum=14&topic=6233
FORNITS BOARD POSTINGS concerning MONARCH:
http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?to ... 1&start=20 (http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?topic=6505&forum=11&start=20)
# posted by Jane Stillwater : 11:38 AM
http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2005_0 ... chive.html (http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2005_01_01_jpstillwater_archive.html)
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Thursday, November 18, 2004
America's Most Wanted: After Jordan disappeared, they called the police on ME!
Two months ago, I wrote an article entitled "Calling the Police on your Own Child". Little did I know that the next victim of Jordan's parents' love affair with calling "911" was going to be me! Now I know how Jordan must feel. It's like being in an episode of "America's Most Wanted" Or, more exactly, like being in an episode of "As the World Turns".
If you have been keeping up with my serialized episodes of the "Jordan" soap opera, then you know that in the last four years this completely normal child has been regularly shipped off to mental hospitals, group homes, psychiatrists and rehab centers (and he doesn't even do drugs!). In the last six months alone, his parents have shipped this kid off to two "Behavior Modification" boot camps in the Utah desert and one of those "Schools for Troubled Teens" in the mountains of Montana.
Recently, tracking down Jordan's current whereabouts has been like being in the cast of "CSI".
Read the rest of this essay at:
http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2004_1 ... chive.html (http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2004_11_01_jpstillwater_archive.html)
October 2004
Press Release: I'm still trying to rescue my daughter's friend "Jordan" from one of those "Behavior Modification" programs out in the Utah desert. Someone else in my same postition has filed a Habeas Corpus writ to try to get another child released from one of these programs on the basis that the child is behing held in involuntary servitude in violation of the 14th Amendment. The hearing is in federal court next week. If the writ is granted, it will mean that non-guardians can have input into whether or not chidren can be carted away to boot camps by their parents with no repercussions from the community. (See Feldman v. Youth Care of Utah et al, Case No.: 2:04-CV-00933PGC)
Good Morning America is doing a segment on the Feldman case. Somebody want to do a segment on Jordan too? 100 years after adult involuntary servitude was elimintated, it's time we eliminate child involuntary servitude as well! Oprah! 60 Mintues! Jerry! Do you hear me! Give me a call. E-mail me.
The future that "born again" George Bush and his friends have in store for us and our children is endless war. Are we fighting for Jesus? Hardly. We are fighting so that rich men like Bush and Cheney can get richer. The whole Jesus con is a trick with smoke and mirrors. It is a cookbook designed for us -- and for our children.
Neo-cons and cult Christians are embracing the idea of boot camps for children in a big way. They appear to think that it's a good idea to have a supply of fresh meat available to the "Trib Force" -- brainwashed new recruits all psyched up for "Endless War".
"What exactly," your next question may be, "are these kiddie boot camps like?" Aside from being training grounds for future cannon fodder, they are prototypes of what life will be like during The Tribulation -- stark and hard places where no love is ever shown. One children's boot camp in Florida run by neo-con "Christians" has been accused of torture, rape and starvation. Images of Abu Ghraib come to mind.
Are these camps toughening our children up for when they miss The Rapture and have to stew in the cauldron of The Tribulation? You bet.
Part 2: Throw-away Children
Another sad thing about the new "send your child off to boot camp" movement is that it is creating a whole new generation of "throw-away children". Tired of being a parent? Buy your way out.
Affluent adults are now sending their children off to the Utah desert or the swamps of Florida as a response to normal everyday-life parent-child situations. Twenty years ago, if Junior broke the crockery, he would have been sent to his room. Now he is tortured and starved instead.
My daughter's friend "Jordan" recently disappeared down the rabbit hole to boot camp. We just found out that he will be there until he turns 18 -- THREE MORE YEARS. What kind of a person will he be when he gets out? One cannot even begin to imagine.
So much for happy teenage years. There will be no football games and proms for these throw-away kids. According to other teen boot camp survivors, "Jordan" will be lucky if he returns with his sanity intact -- not to mention the nightmares.
The new "Throw Away" concept of parenting: If a robust energetic enthusiastic boy is being a bother and the Ritalin isn't working, send him off to boot camp.
When I was a kid, we had girls in our school who would disappear -- allegedly to "visit relatives" for eight or nine months. They would always come back looking older and sadder.
Now it is our boys who disappear and come back looking older and sadder. Whenever a boy re-appears at my daughter's school with that "deer in the headlights" look in his eyes, we know there has been a boot camp involved. And that this child had not been "Left Behind" either.
Part 3: Send a letter to Jesse
Want to help? Please send a letter to a boy stuck in "Wilderness Therapy". His name is Jesse Collins Zipperman and he is at the Aspen Achievement Academy in Loa, Utah. Tell him the gossip, chit-chat about the weather and sign it Aunt or Uncle Your-Name-Here (Be aware that all mail is heavily censored). We just got a letter from Jesse; he is truly miserable and could use some cheering up! Address: Aspen Achievement Academy, Loa, Utah 84747. Or fax it to 435-836-2452 or 435-836-2477. Or e-mail him at http://www.leftbehind.com/channelbooks.asp?channelID=30 (http://www.leftbehind.com/channelbooks.asp?channelID=30)
International Survivors Action Committee: http://www.isaccorp.org/ (http://www.isaccorp.org/) Thousands of children are currently in privately owned "behavior modification" programs. Unfortunately, the "treatment" offered at some of these programs could be considered child abuse.
Kids end up in behavior modification programs, boot camps, wilderness camps, and drug rehabs for all kinds of reasons..... For the kids who end up in a harsh, abusive program, it can be the beginning of a life-long battle with nightmares, depression, rage, and thoughts of suicide.
Comments on the Aspen Achievement Academy:
Fornits' Home for Wayward Web Forum Index » » New Info » » Aspen Education Group: Any former students? Click here:
http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:1F ... demy&hl=en (http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:1F0v491BX9oJ:fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php%3Ftopic%3D6233%26forum%3D14%26Sort%3DD+%22loa,+utah%22+aspen+achievement+academy&hl=en)
Great new book: Iraq, Inc. A Profitable Occupation. http://www.sevenstories.com/Book/index. ... 2100484530 (http://www.sevenstories.com/Book/index.cfm?GCOI=58322100484530) "Pratap Chatterjee takes us into the fast-spinning revolving door between the government officials who attacked Iraq and the corporations who have profited so handsomely from the war. A powerful combination of investigative research and on-the-ground reporting, Iraq, Inc. is essential reading for anyone who wants to know what has really gone wrong in Iraq." ? Naomi Klein, author No Logo, columnist The Nation
# posted by Jane Stillwater : 10:28 AM
http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2004_1 ... chive.html (http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2004_10_01_jpstillwater_archive.html)
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Excerpt Sept:
There is only one country in the whole world that puts children first. Their education, well-being, healthcare? Top budget priority! How does our government feel about having this wonderful example being set? America has been at war with this country for 40 years. What country am I referring to? Come on now -- half of Miami will immediately know what country I'm talking about.
When Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, had a choice between negotiating with rebels or blowing up 1,000 children, which did he chose? As one father put it, "It would have been different if they had been Putin's children." Guess what? They are ALL our kids.
Maybe my daughter's friend Jordan is not being blown up in Russia (the rebels from Chechnya were apparently teenagers themselves -- coming from a place where having one's childhood playmates killed by Russian soldiers was everyday stuff.) Maybe Jordan wasn't working in a sweatshop in Haiti or living in the gutters of Baghdad. But he is an endangered child that I know -- an endangered American child. In a land of milk and honey, even among the rich, children are still abused -- psychologically if not physically. (Wouldn't you just hate to have a stern, critical and cold-hearted mother like, say, Joan Crawford -- or even our own Barbara Bush?)
Jordan's birth mother couldn't afford another child and gave him up for adoption at birth, hoping to give him a better life. "Money isn't everything," she was just about to learn.
The new parents were respected medical professionals. On paper, they looked very good. The new father was secretly abusive and the new mother was a secret drunk. But their bank accounts balanced and that's what counts.
By age 12, Jordan's father had put him in a half-way house for abused children and his mother was forced to have a liver transplant. BUT. Everybody admired this couple. They were career professionals. AND they owned their own home.
The father, told by child protective services to cool it with the hair brush, had turned to psychological abuse instead. It didn't leave a scar. Being a psychologist, he systematically tried to convince Jordan (and us) that his son was insane. "My son is severely disturbed," he told us, "and should be locked up." Not true. Jordan was normal -- only understandably suicidal.
I begged Jordan's father to read John Gray's book, "Children are from Heaven". It is my child-raising Bible! The father wasn't interested. Having a happy, well-adjusted and well-behaved kid? Where is the drama in that? No excitement. Not attention. No Munchausen Syndrome.
Finally, when the father sent Jordan away to yet another desert boot camp, I called protective services for help. "Sorry," they told me. "You are not the parent." I already KNEW that! The parent is the PROBLEM! "And," they also told me, "without evidence of actual physical abuse, there is nothing we can do." Nothing we can do? Nothing we can do? This child is being psychologically herded over a cliff and there is nothing we can do?
"Wait until the child turns 18."
"If he lives that long."
"I'm sorry. There's nothing else we can do. He has to show signs of RECENT PHYSICAL abuse." Oh. Only fresh blood will do?
I told all this to my daughter. "No problem," she said. "The last time his father sent him to one of those desert boot camps, he came home with scars all over his back."
We may not be able to save children in Darfur or Kabul but we just might be able to save the child down the street from us.
And that's money in the bank.
****
Acknowledgments: Wayne aka Punditman at http://www.punditman.com (http://www.punditman.com)
# posted by Jane Stillwater : 1:15 PM
http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2004_0 ... chive.html (http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2004_09_01_jpstillwater_archive.html)
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Friday, September 03, 2004
Calling the police on your own child: Another form of Munchausen Syndrome by proxy
Remember the famous story about the mom in Florida who was all loving and caring to her poor dear sick child? While this child was in and out of hospitals and enduring exploratory surgery, the mom was always so saintly and comforting. "What a good parent," the medical professionals all said. Until one day a nurse caught this perfect parent placing fecal matter in her child's IV.
"Why did you do it?" she was asked.
"I wanted the attention."
Recently, I think that I have had the unfortunate experience of running across another case of Munchausen Syndrome by proxy. A15-year-old boy that we know has a father who is a psychologist. And this boy has been in and out of mental hospitals, desert boot camps and mental health facilities all his life. He has been kidnapped by so-called "transporters" in the middle of the night and dragged off to the Utah badlands to be starved and force-marched "for his own good." He has been shipped off to half-way houses for juvenile delinquents and recovering drug addicts. And he has been going to shrinks since he was three.
This is a sweet child who doesn't use drugs, isn't sexually active, doesn't drink, can play sonatas on the piano and has a great sense of humor. What gives?
Two years ago, this boy made friends with my daughter. Immediately the boy's father started calling me and telling me how screwed up his child was. "You don't know his history," he'd say. "He spends too much time hiding in his room, is afraid to go to school and often runs away." The actuality of the child belied everything the father told me. I just didn't understand.
One day last week, young Jordan ran away -- again. "My father called the police on me!" he said. Meanwhile, the police officer involved in the incident called my house and told me that the father had done this sort of thing before. Many times. "The kid seems normal to me," said the officer.
I didn't know what to do. I sent Jordan back home. That was the law. Then we planned to go on a vacation. We were going to New York City! But Jordan ran again. The father started calling me again. "Has Jordan showed up yet?" At 3 am, Jordan finally showed up. He begged us not to send him back. Then the father started calling me and calling me and calling me and telling me in his most professional voice that, "We need to sit down and talk." At first I wanted to work with Jordan's father. After all, he was a psychologist. And he had such good arguments too. "You just don't know Jordan like I know him. He is a sick kid. He needs help!"
Then Jordan ran to another house but the father's calls kept coming to us. After several days of almost hourly calls at all hours, I began to feel like the father was stalking us. Finally we left for our trip, but he kept calling me and my daughter, even in New York. Then Jordan called me at our hotel. "I am in your house. My father is outside and he has the house surrounded by police! I'm so scared! What should I do?" Finally Jordan voluntarily gave himself up to the police.
Although I was thinking that probably this wasn't as severe a case as when the police in Milwaukee gave the Laotian boy back to Jeffery Dahmer because Dahmer was a smooth-talking man with a very good story, that's the way I felt when the police gave Jordan back to the father.
We have not heard from Jordan since -- except for one small phone call in the middle of the night when Jordan sadly told my daughter that he wanted to commit suicide. We talked him out of it but for how long?
It was then that I finally had the realization. This father had Munchausen Syndrome by proxy! And he was blossoming under all the excitement and attention that he was getting -- from me, from child psychologists but especially from the police. Sirens, uniforms, badges and everything! But perhaps the ultimate attention he craves will come only when, at Jordan's funeral, he will be the ultimate center of attention -- comforted by his friends as they as they say to him, "You poor man! What you went through! We realize what a wonderful father you were. We know that you did all that you could."
Is there ANYTHING that anybody can do to help Jordan? I myself feel so helpless. I feel like I am in way over my head.
PS: My daughter just got an e-mail from Jordan. It said, "My father has done it again. A new set of transporters have just arrived. They are letting me send this to you before they take me off to another boot camp program. Goodbye." My daughter is in tears.
http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2004_0 ... chive.html (http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com/2004_09_01_jpstillwater_archive.html)
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.[ This Message was edited by: ;) on 2005-06-04 07:37 ]
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no one knows how to protect anything, storm the fort of the enemy, etc.
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On 2005-04-01 01:15:00, formerly known as wrote:
"What else can we do to get Jordan out of there? I would really like to know, I didn't see Jane Stillwater's email on her blog, does anyone know how i can contact her?"
It's right at the top: jpstillwater@yahoo.com