Fornits
Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => The Troubled Teen Industry => Topic started by: Anonymous on April 11, 2005, 07:54:00 AM
-
Boonville police urge caution on Kemper
By JOHN SULLIVAN of the Tribune?s staff
Published Friday, April 8, 2005
Boonville police officials are recommending that the Boonville City Council hold off any decision to sell the Kemper Military School property until a more thorough background check can be conducted on a controversial potential buyer.
Robert Lichfield, founder of Utah-based World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools, wants to buy the city-owned Kemper property and turn it once again into a military-style academy.
In a study released yesterday to the public, however, police officials cite news reports and other records that indicate World Wide Association-affiliated schools "regularly engage in physical restraint of children including the use of pepper spray, handcuffs, duct tape and wooden boxes to isolate the children."
The study is dated March 25 and was given the next day to Ned Beach, head of the Industrial Development Authority, and Sarah Gallagher, the city?s director of economic development. Beach and Gallagher requested the report. The development authority is overseeing the sale of the property.
World Wide operates behavior-modification schools for problem children. At least eight World Wide-affiliated schools and organizations in two states and four countries have closed or been shut down amid allegations of child abuse.
The Boonville police report mentions Lichfield associate Randall Hinton, who has moved to the city to operate the school. "Mr. Hinton himself is on videotape freely admitting he used pepper spray on one student and more than once per day. He states he has picked up children and had them" taken "to the institution within five hours," the report said.
In an interview with the Tribune, Hinton described the pepper spray episode as a failed two-month experiment to safely subdue students. Lichfield has not returned calls seeking comment.
The police report, signed by Capt. Donald Smith and Lt. Bobby Welliver, recommends conducting a thorough investigation, including "speaking to people who have made accusations and verifying information, which has been provided to us." The report also recommends interviewing Hinton, his brother Russell Hinton and any other principal or partner in the proposed venture.
The police report also looked into a program called the Thayer Learning Center, a behavior-modification school in the Caldwell County community of Kidder. The school, which was incorrectly identified in the report as "Fair Learning Institute," is facing a lawsuit from parents of a child who the county medical examiner ruled died from a spider bite. The lawsuit alleges medical neglect.
Welliver said this morning that his department heard a possible connection exists between Thayer and World Wide Association, although details of that connection remain unknown.
An interview with Caldwell County Sheriff Kirby Brelsford found no serious problems at the facility, apart from "occasional runaways who steal cars in an effort to leave the area," the report said.
Police officials also expressed concerns about placing troubled teens, some of them potentially violent offenders, within close proximity to parks and recreational facilities where children play. The report notes that the YMCA is located on the Kemper property.
Beach defended Lichfield and his organization. A review two days ago of financial records provided by Utah?s Golden Pond Investments Ltd., the investment company offering to buy Kemper, proved credible, Beach said. Criminal background checks of Lichfield and Hinton also came up clean, he said.
City Administrator Selby Myers said he provided city council members with a copy of the report last night.
Reach John Sullivan at (573) 815-1731 or jsullivan@tribmail.com.
-
Police officials also expressed concerns about placing troubled teens, some of them potentially violent offenders, within close proximity to parks and recreational facilities where children play.
Well, if that is what they are worried about perhaps those who have already written in could follow up with the news of a riot at Eagle Point.
-
Were there articles written about the riot?
-
On 2005-04-11 06:18:00, Anonymous wrote:
"Were there articles written about the riot?"
Here's one:
http://www.gulflive.com/news/mississipp ... 314750.xml (http://www.gulflive.com/news/mississippipress/index.ssf?/base/news/1113128101314750.xml)
-
And here's another:
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/thesunhera ... 356940.htm (http://www.sunherald.com/mld/thesunherald/news/local/11356940.htm)
-
And another:
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/ ... 361327.htm (http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/politics/11361327.htm)
-
Thank you! :tup:
-
Monday, April 11, 2005
Boonville to discuss Kemper proposal
A company involved in the plan has faced abuse allegations.
By SHANNON BURKE
April 11, 2005
Kemper Military School in Boonville has been empty since 2002. A Utah-based businessman and his backers are proposing to buy the land from the city, and two brothers would then run the school. (JASON JOHNS/Missourian)
Meeting
What: Meeting to discuss proposal to buy Kemper Military School
When: 7 p.m. tonight
Where: Boonville city offices, 525 E. Spring St.
Honor is an important part of Mark Farrell?s life. As an alumnus of Kemper Military School in Boonville, he keeps a copy of the school?s honor code on a wall in his Columbia home.
?To anyone who has gone to Kemper, that?s something that follows you for your whole life,? said Farrell, who is secretary of the school?s alumni association.
So when Farrell said he trusts Randall and Russell Hinton, two men who are part of a proposal to buy the Kemper Military School property and reopen the school, he meant it.
?They?re men of honor, men of their word,? Farrell said. ?And I don?t hand out my trust very easily.? Kemper Military School opened in 1844 and was the first military school west of the Mississippi. It closed in 2002, and the city of Boonville bought the property in April 2003. Although the property is dilapidated now, its future is a fresh topic of debate. Robert Lichfield and his Utah-based holding company, Golden Pond Investments Ltd., approached the city several months ago about buying the property. The business plan submitted to the city calls for an all-male residential school for grade levels seven through 12.
Lichfield?s company would own the land, and the Hintons would lease it from him and operate the school. Randall Hinton would serve as the new school?s director, and Russell Hinton would be the business manager. The Hinton brothers have both moved to Boonville to pursue the project.
The plan, however, is drawing criticism because of concerns about past abuse allegations at schools managed by Lichfield?s company, World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools. The Boonville Police Department has also expressed concerns about the type of students the proposed school would draw. A public meeting about the proposal will be held at 7 p.m. tonight at the Boonville City Offices. The Hintons will answer questions about their plans, but there will be no official decision made regarding the proposal.
Lichfield and the World Wide Association have come under scrutiny from state and federal officials because of child abuse accusations in several of the schools it runs for teenagers with behavioral problems. Randall Hinton has worked at several of the World Wide Association?s schools. Dundee Ranch, one of the association?s schools in Costa Rica, was closed after its students revolted in 2003. The school?s former director later reported instances of physical abuse, food deprivation and rape at the school.
In a 2003 article from the New York Times, a former staff member at a World Wide Association school in Montana said that students at the school were taken to a bridge at night, blindfolded, pushed into a river and told to find their way back to the school, which was meant to test the students physically and psychologically. The school is still open.
Lichfield could not be reached for comment, but has denied such allegations in the past, saying that any program that deals with troubled teens sees its share of complaints.
Randall Hinton said the school in Boonville would not be affiliated with the World Wide Association, though the business proposal notes that similar schools to the one they are proposing would ?come under the classification of either behavior modification schools, residential treatment centers or specialty schools.? The plan compares the proposed school to two schools operated by the World Wide Association, including Tranquility Bay in Jamaica, where Randall Hinton once worked.
Steve Ortmann, now 16, spent 20 months at Tranquility Bay. His parents sent him there when he was 13 because of behavioral problems.
?Basically, the school was complete hell,? he said in an e-mail. ?I hated every minute of it.?
Ortmann said many students at the school talked of suicide to escape it. In addition, students were not allowed to talk to anyone unless they advanced to Level Three in the program, which took four or five months to achieve, he said. The school?s staff carefully monitored and regulated students? contact with their families, and Ortmann said he was limited to talking to his parents once a month for 45 minutes.
Punishments at Tranquility Bay were also brutal, Ortmann said. Students were sometimes forced to lie facedown without moving for long periods of time. When Ortmann refused, he said he was forced to exercise to the point of exhaustion.
?They made me do fitness until I was out of it,? he said. Ortmann said the program did help him, but not until after he left.
?While I was there, it didn?t do a thing for me,? he said in an e-mail. ?That should definitely not be the way to help teens out.?
Randall Hinton said the school he intends to open in Boonville will not be one like those run by the World Wide Association.
?Our intention is to open it as Kemper Military School,? he said.
Based on meetings with the Hintons, Farrell said he thinks they are genuinely sincere about restoring the school and its history.
?They want it to reflect how it used to run, with the uniforms and the standard of honor,? Farrell said. ?They want to gain as much information about Kemper?s past as they can.?
However, the Boonville Police Department has raised questions about Randall Hinton?s previous connections to the World Wide Association and his actions during that time after conducting a preliminary criminal background check at the request of city officials.
?It has been stated that the institution in Boonville would not be affiliated with WWASP or Mr. Lichfield, but the deposit check given to the city clearly has the signature of Robert B. Lichfield, so our assumption is there will be some connection to WWASP,? the Police Department wrote in a March 24 memo issued to city officials.
?After reviewing many documents and videotapes we were provided, it appears to us there are some concerns about the treatment given to children in these institutions,? the document states.
The memo also states that Randall Hinton is on videotape ?freely admitting he used pepper spray on one student and more than once per day.? The department?s report said Randall Hinton does not appear to have a criminal record.
Randall Hinton said such disciplinary techniques would not be used in Boonville.
The Police Department requested that the city reject the proposal from Lichfield and the Hintons because of concerns that the school would draw students with disciplinary and behavioral problems that could put Boonville residents in danger.
?It is clear this would be a huge public safety issue. As we have stated, there would be many troubled teens at this campus, and some could even be violent offenders. It would be a public disaster if a student on this campus hurt one of our children,? the letter says.
Randall Hinton said he is not surprised by such worries. He said the school would be marketed as a military school, not as a facility specifically for troubled teens.
The business proposal from the Hintons states the school would be for ?adolescents that need help in the areas of discipline, responsibility and leadership skills.? The school would help them ?get back on track academically and become responsible for their own choices and actions to become a disciplined, responsible family member and future, well adjusted contributing members of society.?
The school would not enroll students who are drug-addicted, psychotic, suicidal and sexually or physically abusive, according to the proposal. Students who have difficulty following rules and being respectful, those with academic struggles or experiences with minor drug and alcohol experimentation would be admitted.
Farrell said he thinks the students that would attend the new school would be no different than the students who went to Kemper before it closed.
?Many of them were rebellious and not necessarily bad kids,? he said, noting that he thinks many lacked the parental guidance to help them stay disciplined.
In a statement issued to The Kansas City Star last week, the Friends of Kemper Trust Foundation expressed opposition to the sale, saying the proposal does not serve the best interests of Boonville. The group added that it does not see the proposal ?as a solution to the city?s problem of what to do with the former Kemper campus, or a befitting end to the Kemper story.?
Despite the questions surrounding Lichfield?s and the Hintons? connections with the World Wide Association and concerns from the Police Department, people such as Farrell are hopeful that their proposal will restore Kemper.
?It means everything to us,? Farrell said, noting that many alumni have already volunteered to help clean the school and teach Kemper?s traditions and history to new students. Farrell also said he has received numerous inquiries from Kemper alumni and others about sending their children to the new school.
Related stories
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/ ... p?ID=13150 (http://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/story.php?ID=13150) -- Professors awarded Kempers 4-07-2005
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/ ... p?ID=13116 (http://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/story.php?ID=13116) -- Kemper awards given to two MU professors 4-06-2005
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/ ... p?ID=13097 (http://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/story.php?ID=13097) -- Surprise Show of Thanks 4-05-2005
Comments? Contact us or sound off on our message boards
The graduate with a Science degree asks, "Why does it work?"
The graduate with an Engineering degree asks, "How does it work?"
The graduate with an Accounting degree asks, "How much will it cost?"
The graduate with a Liberal Arts degree asks, "Do you want fries with that?"
--Anonymous
-
Farrell also said he has received numerous inquiries from Kemper alumni and others about sending their children to the new school.
Oh my god... these people actually think they're getting their good ol' alma mater back, don't they?
This is insane.
-
All we can do is educate them. Send letters to the editor and to the city council. That's the best think right now. I think that has been done and hopefully this information will be decimated to the public. We all know what type of a school it will be. Randall Hinton lacks any type of qualifications for being a director of a military school. This is a main issue,
In war, the stronger overcomes the weaker. In business, the stronger imparts strength to the weaker.
--Frederic Bastiat
-
What if Kemper was a highly abusive institution?
I've just been reading over here
http://www.kemper1844.org/ (http://www.kemper1844.org/)
Evidently, someone named LTC John Downs. Some of the other Alumni didn't care much for what he said, but we'll never know what he said because they deleted it.
Now we're reading that this Mark Ferral guy (who's all over the Kemper forums since around the end of last month) trust Lichfield and the Hinton's implicitly. Why? Do they go way back? Or are the WWASPies just singing them pretty lull-a-bys about military honor and the American way and they're buying it w/ no credulity at all?
How about we find out about that?
Theology: The effort to explain the unknowable in terms of the not worth knowing.
--H. L. Mencken, American publisher
-
Who's this? (goes back to 2003)
Domain ID:D96702921-LROR
Domain Name:KEMPER1844.ORG
Created On:06-Apr-2003 05:33:46 UTC
Last Updated On:18-Feb-2005 17:36:40 UTC
Expiration Date:06-Apr-2006 05:33:46 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Network Solutions LLC (R63-LROR)
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Registrant ID:34947895-NSI
Registrant Name:The Kemper School
Registrant Organization:The Kemper School
Registrant Street1:1523 North Aurora Rd., #115
Registrant Street2:
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Naperville
Registrant State/Province:IL
Registrant Postal Code:60563
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.63054818
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:broker@naperville-homes.com
Freedom has a thousand charms to show, That slaves, howe'er contented, never know.
William Cowper, a British Christian poet & hymn writer (18th century)
-
He who pays the piper....
http://kemper1844.org/officers.html (http://kemper1844.org/officers.html)
If you would like to become a Kemper Officer please contact Bill Richardson, Chairman of The Friends of Kemper Foundation at 630-803-6020. FOKF is a 501 (c) 3 corporation and contributions are normally tax deductible. We suggest that you consult with your tax advisor prior to making any major financial decision.
501 (c) 3 would mean open books, correct? Anybody care to dig up the docs and see who's calling the tune here?
Anybody want to lay odds on who that will turn out to be?
To seek out the best through the whole Union, we must resort to the information which from the best of men, acting disinterestedly and with the purest motives, is sometimes incorrect.
Thomas Jefferson Letter to Elias Shipman and others of New Haven, July 12, 1801.
-
One could ask; Why does 30 yr old Hinton not have any prior military /active duty experience? Gulf war etc.
I am not pro military,but if you intend to be a director of a "Military School" prior Military training would be useful.
He's a coward.
-
OMG General Litchfield
-
http://www.kemper1844.org/cgi-bin/anybo ... yVz-aO-hKz (http://www.kemper1844.org/cgi-bin/anyboard.cgi/anyboard9/forum?tK=hazing&yVz=mM&hIz=365&hJz=0&cmd=find&by=&xcfgfs=tK-yVz-aO-hKz)
Posted by: mikem ®
08/31/2004, 17:25:31
I attended Kemper for a couple of years in the early 80s. Hazing was quite rampant in many forms. Most involved r*at F***ing activities such as excessive pushups, little-red-chair (or something like that). Lots of verbal abuse. Unfortunately, the brunt of these punishments were dispensed to the weakest. Outright hitting was rare, and was normally not done in public, but it was done. Mostly oldboys used the tried-and-true method of punishing the whole for the mistake of the individual. This had the desired result of newboy beating newboy, rather than an oldboy having to resort to such undesired activity.
One event that seems to stand out somehow was the commandant's parcipitation. I forget the catalyst, but I recall standing at attention with the rest of the newboy class in the big conference hall for hours. I'd expect this from a kid, but this guy was a member of faculty. What a nut-case.
And what about bull-ring? C'mon. That is pretty much school-sanctioned abuse. Hours and hours of marching in a damn circle. I think most of those kids would have been much better off with some toughly-regimented study hall.. and would have probably disliked it even more! In any case, it doesn't seem that the school cared about these happenings. No wonder it's closed. It's a shame that a school with such a fine history deteriorated into a prison.
## #
Posted by: branson ®
09/03/2004, 13:16:16
Lemme tell ya...
What a great way to experience childhood. Verbal abuse, humiliation, getting punched, kicked, spit on, kicked in the balls, blanket parties... it goes on and on.
No, I didn't go through all the above mentioned, but I saw it on a day-to-day basis inflicted on my peers. (I remember someone (Matt Rich?) getting kicked in the nutz so hard they swole up to the size of baseballs!) I didn't think much about it while I was a cadet, but now I see it for what it really is: a dicked up school, corrupt traditions, irresponsible staff, and greed.
How many of you would gladly send your children somewhere to have the shit kicked out of them? Would you really? How about your business investments...would you invest (and expect a return) out of a company run in the Kemper fashion? Serious change needs to be looked at if the school is to re-open and remain financially viable and clear of lawsuits.
Ian Branson '96
## #
Posted by: Crabs ®
10/28/2004, 00:05:40
Hazing was really bad the part of the school year and summer i was in kemper. There were countless nights where the Buddy F+ck system really kicked in. That was in 99-00. Kemper sure got the best of most of us although going there taught me more bad traits then i once knew it really did help me get on my feet now i am in college doing well. Do you happen to have any good storys of hazing or any good horror stories of lil boy kemper or of that lake there? I was there in the summer that one kid, although i forgot many of the names of people, who was hazed after gettin caught by an old boy for using the old boy stall and later that night a cop was at the house and the kid was in the hospital. Its memories like those that keep me up at night sometimes still today. IF anyone knows that story let me know and I love talking about old stories that i may have convinced my self to forget
## #
Posted by: Bill Barber ®
05/11/2003, 22:30:14
I was dumbfounded to say the least when I learned that Kemper had closed. I have such fond memories of the place as do so many of you. I still remember my laundry number, it was 365. That was 43 years ago. Do you remember when they used to switch from AC to DC power at night? For a few seconds all the lights would go out. A great time for the Old Boys to pay a visit to your room for a little punishment. I remember my roomy screwed up during Sunday parade and when the lights went out poor Corey had a visit. Not really sure what they did to him; it wasn't too bad as I recall, probably a tongue lashing and a bent arm of so. It had to be fast as I recall, because the power was only out for about 15-20 seconds. Hazing then was very common and of course accepted. Guys being stuffed in laundry bags and hung out the second story window. I was falsely accused of "stealing" a Playboy magazine from an Old Boy; they first did the cigarette torture on me and then I think they pushed my head under the water in the toilet bowl. I survived as an eighth grader. Got caught smoking and had to march on Saturday and missed one of our football games; in fact I might have been booted off the team but don't think so as I still have my letter sweater. Remember the shoe polishing stuff we used? it was called Miracle Cloth; something like that. We didn't have the patent leather shoes but REAL leather and could we put a shine on those shoes. And then, remember how we removed the build up of polish.......lighter fluid. But you had to be careful or you would burn the leather. A grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the canteen was 15 cents. Oh my were they good. I remember getting caught for flipping butter on the ceiling of the dining room DURING DINNER. You could put the pad of butter onto your cloth napkin and stretch the napkin and the butter would fly. Not sure how I was disciplined. Remember how we would get extra food during dinner? We would actually put money into I believe it was the roll basket or something and pay the waiter to give us extra helpings. We got caught cheating on an Algebra exam; I don't think the instructor told on us otherwise we probably would have been booted out of school. Anyway, we snuck into the classroom (when I'm not sure as you could not roam around schools grounds on your own), got a copy of the test (this is awful) and we all got A's on the exam. Well, our teacher said: "Gentleman, I would like for you to take the exam again." Which we did and probably didn't do as well. Oh, and I was asked to escort Colonel Kralovek's (did I get the spelling right) daughter to a dance one year. Not sure why I was picked but it was sort of an honor as I recall. Always wondered what happened to Major Timberlake. He was really a cool guy as was General Cleland. Very distinguished. The student Corps Commander was named Richardson as I recall; sort of short. And standing next to him during formation were I think two cadets who were twins. Does anyone remember their names? Remember Trujillo? He actually had a bodyguard and was in our company ("A"). The bodyguard used to sit out in front of his room. This was of course before his father was assasinated. Well, this is getting too long. It would be fun to hear from others. One other note before I hang up here: I was very surprised to learn that since I was at Kemper there have been 11 other presidents since General Cleland's tenure from 1957-59. Very difficult in my opinion to run a top-notch military school with a turnover this high.
####
Dear, Bill
Now that?s one hell of a paragraph!
I too remember my laundry number, 19 and it?s been forty-two years. I also remember the number on my trusty nine point five one pound, air cooled, clip fed semi-automatic shoulder weapon. But what the hell! (I wonder what ever happened to ol' 194799? Or how about the four or five hundred other vintage de-pinned Garands, where?d they go?)
So your roommate Corey got his arm bent during the nightly hazing in the dark AC to DC interlude. He was not alone. The Boonville Edison Company was itself dark by the time I started Kemper in ?59, so there was no longer the nightly blackout and switch, however, the traditional evening hazing festivities continued as before. (Tradition! Tradition!) The methodology and timing didn?t change much, the cigarette torture, the little red chair, hitting a wicked, dunkin? the crapper, and many more that we have come to know and love ?lo these many moon. Since the lights didn?t go out, the Old Boys organized ?Rat F#*&s? after study hours and before taps. Tell you what you ought ?ta do; look up your old roommate Corey. (It?s not too difficult on the internet.) Talk about the times you had back in the day. Ask if he remembers the hazing when the lights went out. I?ll bet he does! I?ll also bet that he doesn?t remember it as benignly as you do. Ask him if he considered sending his children to Kemper.
My best guess as to the name of the handsome young twin cadets who stood side by each next to Col Richardson were the Melges brothers, known to we in the Latin Club as the Melgi. I was a New Boy the year after you graduated and the Melgi were upper classmen Old Boys.
Eleven headmasters in forty-three years does seem a lot considering that continuity is important for an educational institution; so too is change and introducing the best of contemporary methods and thought. The latter is especially central for success in academic organizations. Kemper was so hide and tradition bound that it was unable to change in any meaningful way to meet the needs of most prospective students. The headmaster turnover was high for many reasons, among them for certain was that any attempt to integrate the best of the contemporary was met with scorn and dismissal; and there were a few nincompoops in there too.
Kemper was not a top notch school when I attended. It was a place for hard cases, incorrigibles, and discarded children of wealthy middle aged parents. All cadets were not in that category, but enough were to make the place tough. Tough does not help once a cadet gets into a university.
Bill Richardson (Yeah, the guy standing betwixt the Melgi.) is making a brave attempt to resurrect Kemper from the bankrupt ashes. If he has the moxie and the money he might succeed. Presently he needs all the help he can get. If you have spare money, send it. Spare time? Donate some for restoration. Bricks and mortar? Ship it. Got a carload of Kiwi polish and Miracloth? Sell it on eBay. Spare equipment? How about a secure algebra test printer.
Dan Staffin
old Old Boy, KMS 1959 ? ?61
####
Hazing! Ah yes! Hazing.
I attended Kemper 1959 ? 1961. Back then Kemper had a reputation as a school for the most incorrigible boys. Hazing was de rigueur a part of the regimen of negative reinforcement that was purportedly designed to whip new boy cadets into military shape and academic excellence. Hazing was a traditional part of the program that was left up to the young experienced old boy cadets to perform.
The adults at Kemper certainly had to have known about it; who, what when & where. There was a resident instructor on each floor of the barracks. Each year I was there about ten new boys ran away from the place after the hazing became intolerable. There were also a few parental rescues during which parents would arrive and take their kid home on the spot.
The headmaster attempted to put a stop to hazing, but he was defeated by the cadets who simply turned up the heat on any cadet who snitched, ?till the kid either shut up or ran away. And of course, the adult residents never saw anything.
The adults were nowhere to be seen when the heat was on. There were late night on the halls hazing sessions called ?Rat F*#ks? during which one or more miscreant new boys were hazed with mini torts called ?Hit Ten!?, ?Hit a Wicked!?, ?Hearts?, ?Suck It up!?, ?The Little Red Chair?, and many more variations of painful pranks either handed down from upperclassmen, or told to those in the encore club by parents.
There were also private hazing sessions held in new boy?s rooms. These sessions were usually longer and the torts were more elaborate with fancy names like ?The Iron Cross?, ?Pants Afire, Hearts Afire?, ?Kiss the Bolt?, and a few more, the names of which I have lost across the decades. There was even one that was supposed to be a positive reinforcement, though it was invented after I left Kemper, called ?Signed and Crossed.? (Did any of the Jewish or Moslem cadets get ?Crossed? Were they excused or excluded? Or as when I was there, simply hazed and harassed?)
The fellow who responded somewhere down in the woodpile was honored to have his blood wings pinned to his bare chest. However, the ceremony occurred well after his formative years, and had he declined the informal, barracks ceremony, nothing more that a razzing would have resulted. I do recall seeing a video of a blood wings ceremony during an evening news broadcast. The ensuing furor embarrassed the Army into forbidding the ceremony, or at least driving it deeper underground. At my Kemper, new boys were as young as fourteen. They never were able to decline the honor of a ?Rat F*#&k?, personal service, or any other abuse.
Outright hitting? There was relatively little of that back in the day. I saw it only twice that I recall, though one episode was quite memorable. A new boy classmate was sent to Kemper to get disciplined and straightened out. He was tall, blond, athletic, and made the football team. He couldn?t make the team in public school because he was just a little epileptic and they would not let him play as he suffered from occasional petit mal seizures.
His dad thought that the rigorous military life and strenuous exercise would cure the kid, so it was off to Kemper for high school. A little seizure during a game or practice would hardly be noticed, but during a parade, or just marching in to mess, every stumble or loss of step infuriated our First Sergeant. One morning and one stumble too many and the First Sergeant simply wailed the tar (That?s a polite term for beat the sh#t.) out of the kid right there on the ground on the West side of ?D? barracks.
The question as to whether the hazing had any benefits does remain. I can say that before the end of each of the two years that I attended Kemper all shoes were based to perfection. The blotters were exactly in the middle of the desk. All laundry folded to military precision. All beds were tautly made with military hospital corners and an exactly nine inch fold.
I returned to Kemper?s bones earlier this year to reminisce and reify. When I arrived, to my surprise, what came to the fore was the hazing. I remembered too the comradery, the friends, the activities and the teachers, but first the hazing. Memories that I do not want to have and over the years I put them aside. But some memories emerge after a specific, even long forgotten stimulus. My experience I think is not unique. By comparison I have returned to the public high school from which I graduated and, while the memories are not all sweetness and light, I first remember those days, friends and activities with unreserved warmth. But my bed was often rumpled, my socks and underwear drawer in disarray, and my shoes, suede. (Except once, to win a bet, I have not polished a shoe since May, 1961.)
The legacy of hazing is among the reasons that the cadre of supportive alumnus has become so spare and the corps of cadets so small that Kemper just winked out.
### #
Posted by: Daniel Staffin
09/02/2004, 00:05:13
"I don't know that hazing really harmed enrollment, because it didn't really get publicized, and it was mostly limited to New Boys. And if a New Boy lasts the year, he's more often than not going to want to return so he can be an Old Boy."
That's what you wrote and I agree. Hazing was not advertized in the catalog, nor was it mentioned to the parents during the sales pitch. And it was almost exclusively new boys who got hazed. Also I quite agree that many new boys returned as old boys in part in order to get even via the next crop of new boys.
However, when the school needed help from the alumni, too many had hazing memories of the place that they just did not want to have. They simply declined to help and the group of people who were willing to help were simply too small to qeep the place open.
Years ago, when I called my classmates, my fellow old boys, and asked if they had considered sending their kids to Kemper, the most common answer that I received was "God no." or "Hell no." Hazing wasn't the sole reason, but it was always among the several.
### #
?It's a shame that a school with such a fine history deteriorated into a prison.?
Mikem
A shame, yes! Deteriorated into? No, Kemper always was a detention school. Walking area was simply detention for the already detained. The model was nineteenth century British boy?s school. When we attended, a dollop of mid-twentieth century military style and society was superimposed, but it was still a trip into the nineteenth century.
I didn?t think of my years at Kemper as a detention until my early twenties. After I left Kemper in 1961 I thought little about the place or my experiences there. I reminisced during the summer before I returned to public high school. Then again just three times while I was in college. First as I signed up for ROTC. Again, I was reminded of our old school early in the semester during an ROTC drill when I intervened to stop a hazing session. And lastly, I thought of Kemper when I received a passing grade from my Professor of Military Science after the open, public, physical intervention.
I next ruminated about Kemper when I was twenty-four and working for a regional airline. My captain had received two years of his secondary education courtesy of the state?s Juvenile Detention System. The residents were controlled via a system called ?Dukeing.? My captain was a Duke (Kind of like a company commander) after his first year and the Duke of Dukes (Corps commander) when he departed after his second year.
There was plenty of hazing. of course. The older guys hazed the younger. The old boys, the new boys, the strong lorded it over the weak.
Sound familiar? There were other similarities too.
There is a story behind each of the preceding paragraphs but this forum is not suitable to the long form.
### #
Posted by: Daniel Staffin
09/08/2004, 03:37:44
Sounds like assault to me too. It was the same in my day. It was the same before my day. It was the style of a tough military school. It still is.
Sounds like you had an episode or two yourself. Eye burns? Got kids? What would you do if your kids came home from school with corneal burns and abrasions resulting from a bunch of bullies throwing chemicals at your kids? Think about it.
The new boy hazing was not constructive criticism. The stuff that the old boys dispensed for cause was straight ahead negative reinforcement. It?s a concept that you can get introduced to, in an academic way, at your local institution of higher learning; Psychology 101. Most institutions of secondary learning avoid negative reinforcement except in the mildest way, because of the unpredictable destructive behaviors that often emerge long after the reinforcing event.
So you liked it when you were young and could do a lot of pushups. Well, you can reify. To do it again, hit ten right now! I?ll text message you once or twice a day, or maybe more frequently, like when you?re on the way to the grocery and order you to hit ten, till you?re back in trim. What the hell, it?ll only take a few weeks. Your friends and neighbors will get a kick out of it.
Didn?t like pushups that much, did you? You won?t drop a give me ten at a whim? But there was something back then that you did like. We all liked it. We were young.
Pushups, bracing, the little red chair weren?t all that bad, but what was it that we accomplished by doing those things? Yes you learned from your mistakes. We all learned from our mistakes, but I don?t recall learning much from hitting a wicked, or ten. In my day (1959 ? ?61) physical abuse was common, the norm. Long after I left Kemper I doubted my memories of the place. I called up several of my classmates to see if they remembered as I did. They remembered as did I; it was a tough, abusive experience.
My first year?s commandant was one Col George Graeb, a grey, over-the-hill old man. His nickname was ?the Commode?, or just ?shovelhead.? My second year it was the august Maj Tedsan S. Timberlake. His nickname was Major Timberlake. Enthusiastic and outspoken, a good leader, he had others do his bidding. Whatever he wanted to happen, happened. I interviewed Ted when he was an old-old man living in retirement in Pensacola, Florida. He may still live down there, but he?d be as old as Methuselah by now. He told me how he felt when he had to speak to the parents of cadets in his charge. It was interesting.
What was your ?nutcase? commandant?s nickname? What made him a nutcase?
If the Friends of Kemper or anyone else assembles the resources to resurrect our old high school, I hope that the hazing and other abusive traditions do not get resurrected too.
Dan Staffin
old, Old Boy KMS 1959 - '61
### #
Posted by: GNieto ®
02/01/2005, 21:41:38
My dad was in Kemper during 64 - 67 his opinion was that my years was a disneyland in comparrison. I believe every generation had it worse than the years after. But the kids these days have no clue as to what real leadership is. I work for an academy right now and have seen many cases of taking hazing or punishment way to far and doing things to new boys that you wouldn't do to an animal. When i was a new boy my cadre dealt with us fairly, but if we ever talked back or caused problems - well you better watch out. Fear is a great motivator
### #
Posted by: Ben Schwarz ®
10/29/2004, 14:55:52
I was thier pryor to the 90-91 year and in charlie company. I remmember an incendent were a company commander and a bunch of hawaiins beat up an old boy cadet in the middle of the night. We all had to testify to the facts of what happen that night. So hazing was still going on in full force.
## #
Posted by: Adam Herman
08/30/2004, 06:23:56
From what I was told at the time, the years from about 1988-1990, the hazing just became hazing for the sake of hazing, with no point behind it other than to abuse New Boys. It wasn't even all that creative, like the stuff you describe. Just straight out beatings or excessive PT. Lots of hospitalizations, one incident resulted in almost a dozen New boys going to the hospital for injuries.
I guess it was that sheer excess that resulted in a major crackdown just as I arrived. We always got picked on verbally because we didn't go through what New Boys before us went through. But the chain of command still had plenty of discplinary levers to pull, and we were just as disciplined as anybody else. What's even more interesting was that as soon as those tortured New Boys became Old Boys they just totally let themselves go. No discipline, crappy uniforms, dirty rooms.
It seemed that all that mattered to some of them was that they were Old Boys. They didn't earn it through anything they DID, they earned it simply by taking the hazing. Standard of Honor violations were endemic, yet no one ever got it taken away.
But the officers and NCOs were something special. Honorable, great teachers and mentors. They commanded respect by their very presence and the way they carried themselves. They didn't need to hit us, one word or look from them was enough to make us snap to and do whatever they told us with all possible speed. Capt. Metzger, 1st Sgt. Mammano, Lt. Cadwell, Lt. Claybaugh, Sgt, Hebert, and especially Sgt. MacFarlin and Sgt. Kelley, outstanding squad leaders. I just didn't have much use for most of the Old Boys who were privates, but I guess that's why they were privates.
Seems like the level of hazing really waxed and waned over the years.
The other thing I never got was the whole ethics and logic behing narcing. Okay, you get hit, you're not supposed to tell anyone. If you're a New Boy. But at least when I was there, if an Old Boy got hit, he'd tell every Old Boy who would listen. One Old Boy got thrown off the third floor balcony and had to go to the hospital. When asked who did it, he refused to tell anyone, neither faculty nor fellow Old Boys. Capt. Morrell laughed and said that narrowed it down, it obviously wasn't a New Boy because if it was he would have sang like a canary.
I don't know that hazing really harmed enrollment, because it didn't really get publicized, and it was mostly limited to New Boys. And if a New Boy lasts the year, he's more often than not going to want to return so he can be an Old Boy.
Posted by: Laura Williams
09/06/2004, 21:09:04
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edit
It just kills me to hear of some of the things that went on in the 90's. Doesn't sound like hazing, it sounds like criminal assault.
In 82 when I was a new boy and the daughter of the Asst. commandant, I had to put up with some extra "hazing" from some of the old boy females but never from Band Company, which I belonged to. The worst was the night of the Jody party, when we all got out of phase one. I had to stay in the female barracks instead of going down to Band Company. We were all herded together and terrorized and verbally abused for awhile, nothing serious or more than expected, but at the end, they were soaking us down with mud and water from the pond. They placed my sister and I at the end of the line and we had a different bucket of water thrown in our faces. Two girls had put Astringent in the water. My sister wore contacts and came out of it with a ruined pair of contacts. I had to get my eyes washed out and had pretty severe eye burns from it. Hurt for awhile but I lived. But... the kids that did it were disciplined and one of them was expelled. That kind of stuff just wasn't tolerated.
Most of what the hazing was more constructive criticism. A few blanket parties and shower parties for the unwashed. I'm glad I never had one of these but living in close quarters with someone with questionable hygiene made me understand the neccesity of a forced shower and scrubbing.
I also had to walk area, extra cleaning duties, etc. Boring yes, but I usually learned from my mistakes. I thought squaring my meals was kind of stupid when I was a phase one, didn't like bracing much, wish I could do pushups now like I could back then, and absolutely hated sitting in an invisible chair. None of these things physically hurt me though and I believe they were character building. Im sure there were instances of abuse when I was there but they were the exception, not the norm. Now the commandant we had then was a nutcase and he did more physical damage to cadets then the cadets did amongst themselves. He is a whole other topic.
Thanks for starting these topics, I am enjoying reading all the stories.
Laura Spice Williams
82-83
Posted by: Laura Williams
09/11/2004, 18:13:10
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edit
If one of my kids came up with the same injuries I did from my brush with hazing I would probably have done the same thing my Dad did. The one responsible for it was expelled. The others were punished.
My point was that the type of behavior that caused physical injuries wasn't tolerated if they found out about it. I'm not deluded enough to believe that bad things didn't happen there, they happened to me and my parents worked there. Having also gone to other schools besides military schools, I cant think of one that didn't have some sort of hazing or behavior of that kind in it. Kids can be cruel. In fact, I would much rather be told to drop do 10 pushups than have some of the things Ive seen happen in some of the schools I have attended (Being an army brat, I attended 7 different ones all over the country).
The name of the nut case commandant was Sgt. Major Hunt. We have discussed him previously here. Watching him leave after he was canned is one of my fonder memories. In some ways, his tyrannical behavior brought many of us closer together. He hated band company, probably because he didn't have as much control over us as the others. Chief Ignacio did his best to keep him off our backs. He also was very prejudiced against people of different races and thought females had no business being there. Just an all around jerk. He took pleasure out of hurting people, whether with his words or his famous paddle. He was rough enough with his corporal punishment that my Dad, who was also the medic, actually had to tend to some kids afterwards. He drummed several kids out just because they were different. This was a person that had no business around kids. He had a son that went there, he was pretty cool. Thank goodness he didn't take after his dad.
I do agree with you in that if the school gets resurrected, I hope the hazing and abuse stays dead and buried.
-
I just pulled up their 2002 tax form (the The Friends of Kemper Foundation is located in Dallas), but they have all of the contributors' names blocked out.
The officers and such listed are:
L.D. Burns
Bill Richardson
Cindy Tang
Ronald McCutchin
Richard Steed
Three of these guys are from the Dallas area.
-
Well you could've asked really......... M.Farrell
-
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 (http://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/Apr/20050412News005.asp)
__________________________________________________
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 (http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/11370876.htm)
-
I am a Kemper Alumni and have had some concerns regarding the sale of Kemper school to the Litchfield/Hinton (WWASP) group. I had not seen the newspaper article that started this thread, but I have done some of my own research, and I have some serious reservations.
I attended Kemper with Mark Farrel - and based on his comments on the Kemper forums - I am leaning towards the premise that he has had some contact with the Hinton's and that his motives can be questioned.
The abuse that you have documented on this forum (we called it hazing - and almost every alumni of the school can recall several instances that were on the verge of assault) got progessively worse during late 80's and 90's. Personally, I would rather the school stay closed that open under the cloud of this WWASP organization.
Kemper Proud.
-
Kemper school proposal unveiled
Five protesters denounce a plan to reopen the military school to serve troubled teens.
By SHANNON BURKE
April 12, 2005
printer-friendly version
contact us
e-mail this story
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.
http://digmo.org/news/story.php?ID=13228 (http://digmo.org/news/story.php?ID=13228)
-
On 2005-04-12 13:18:00, Anonymous wrote:
"I am a Kemper Alumni and have had some concerns regarding the sale of Kemper school to the Litchfield/Hinton (WWASP) group. I had not seen the newspaper article that started this thread, but I have done some of my own research, and I have some serious reservations.
I attended Kemper with Mark Farrel - and based on his comments on the Kemper forums - I am leaning towards the premise that he has had some contact with the Hinton's and that his motives can be questioned.
The abuse that you have documented on this forum (we called it hazing - and almost every alumni of the school can recall several instances that were on the verge of assault) got progessively worse during late 80's and 90's. Personally, I would rather the school stay closed that open under the cloud of this WWASP organization.
Kemper Proud."
Good. You SHOULD have serious reservations.
WWASP schools go far beyond "hazing" and into life-changing abuse, plain and simple. You send your kid in with some more or less normal problems and get back an abused, tortured, empty, vacant shell of what used to be a vibrant, if troubled, kid.
Be sure to raise concerns to your local government. You can get corroborating statements/affadavits/testimonials from people right here on this board to support action.
Please get involved. Get your neighbors involved. Do everything you possibly can to keep this from happening to more children...
-
Well, first of all, that person didn't even spell my name right.. They were, and you are good for a laugh however.. Like what on earth sort of connection can there be between the Hinton's and myself aside from the fact that I've met them, haven't met you, yet you come off as crazy folks, and they don't..Duhhhhhhh-! I call out this person who supposedly went to school with me. Coward can't even put their name down to back up their words, but it sure sounds like someone I do know.. Thanks for the entertainment though whoever you are.. Mark Farrell(note the 2 ls)
-
Nahhh I think you're just a coward is all..probably a liar too...Yep. M.Farrell
-
Mark, here's the thing. Your assessment about who's crazy and who's trustworthy seems a bit skewed. How long and hard have the Hintons tried to convince everybody that there will be no association between the new and improved Kemper and WWASP? Ok, except for the MONEY, the fact that Randal is claiming his employment by WWASP affiliated programs as experience w/ troubled youths and now that stuff about getting flight training for his would-be students through J Atkin's little airline.
Does WWASP have some alternative definition of the word "associated" that the rest of us are just too unenlightened to understand?
Look, your local law enforcement, media and even fellow Kemper Alumni seem disinclined to believe these guys. But you do. You're even quoted in the local press as staking your own name and reputation to their integrity "and I don't give that away easily" So... how much did they pay? Or have you been through a seminar or two yourself? Or are you just that gullible?
I don't know the nature of the connection between you and these people. But it's fairly evident that there is one.
I do not believe in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.
--Thomas Carlyle
_________________
Ginger Warbis ~ Antigen
Seed sibling `71 - `80
Straight South (Sarasota, FL)
10/80 - 10/82
Anonymity Anonymous
Some days, it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps.
-
On 2005-04-13 10:48:00, Anonymous wrote:
"Well, first of all, that person didn't even spell my name right.. They were, and you are good for a laugh however.. Like what on earth sort of connection can there be between the Hinton's and myself aside from the fact that I've met them, haven't met you, yet you come off as crazy folks, and they don't..Duhhhhhhh-! I call out this person who supposedly went to school with me. Coward can't even put their name down to back up their words, but it sure sounds like someone I do know.. Thanks for the entertainment though whoever you are.. Mark Farrell(note the 2 ls)"
Mark Farrell (note the 2 l's)
My name is not important. There was nothing in my previous post that requires you to "call me out" I attended Kemper Junior College from 1981 to 1983 - Yes I know who you are.
You have stated here, and on several other Kemper forums that you are a proponent of the Hinton's as administrators of a re-opened Kemper Military School.
I would think that any sensible person could look at the background of these people and have valid reservations of their qualifications to operate a Military Academy. If there is any rebuttal to the allegations - you have offered no explanation other than the fact that you have met with them and that you believe them.
To disagree with your statement in the newspaper "If I thought there was any merit to these accusations, I would be the first to one to say 'no'." - Well, I think that there is merit to the accusations - I say "NO".
As I stated earlier - after researching the allegations - I question your motives ????
Kemper Proud
-
Okay coward..My name is there...You must not have the conviction of your words to put your name there..So..You have zero credit to anyone who would be rationale......Anyways.. I'm getting zero from the Hintons.. I don't need or want anything from them. I wouldn't accept a dime period. Now or ever. I will say that the Boonville police were hit by a barage from questionable sources, and leaned on by council members with good nee jerk reflexes to hold off sanctioning till they can wade through what's bull and what isn't..And folks have been slinging a lot of bull. Had you stuck to fact, your arguement probably would carry a ton more weight. Again, I'm not closed, but no one's put in front of me what I consider to be facts...........And you condone the coward who posts annon against me, so, you all play nice. Till you can edit them out, or I know who I'm talking to, i woun't have further communications with any of you. Sweet job-! You just alienated the one person for this deal that would likely give you a fair shake.. M. Farrell.
-
On 2005-04-13 13:23:00, Anonymous wrote:
" Had you stuck to fact, your arguement probably would carry a ton more weight. Again, I'm not closed, but no one's put in front of me what I consider to be facts...........And you condone the coward who posts annon against me, so, you all play nice. Till you can edit them out, or I know who I'm talking to, i woun't have further communications with any of you. Sweet job-! You just alienated the one person for this deal that would likely give you a fair shake.. M. Farrell."
What have I posted that can be construed as non-factual? I am in no way trying to convict the Hinton's or Litchfield of any wrongdoing. I am not prosecuting or defending them. I am simply stating that I do not feel that they have the qualifications to open and run a Military Academy under the name of KEMPER. If you try to diminish the accusations against them, WWASP or Golden Pond as charges made by "questionable sources" then that is your misguided perogative.
I have seen plenty of evidence that warrants my decision to say that I would not like to see any association of my Alma Mater - KEMPER to these characters. And if you are so adament on your stance to defend them - then I would openly state that I would prefer that your association with KEMPER end as well.
Also, if alienating you eliminates me from getting a fair shake - That is a shake I will gladly pass on.
Darren L. Olson (JC 1981-1983)
-
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/Apr ... eat001.asp (http://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/Apr/20050413Feat001.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.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.Religion is just mind control.
--George Carlin, comedian
-
Mike, just out of curiosity, are you willing to tell us how you came to know Lichfield and/or WWASP or to state outright that you've never attended one of their seminars?
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark. The real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.
--Plato
-
On 2005-04-13 13:23:00, Anonymous wrote:
"Okay coward..My name is there...You must not have the conviction of your words to put your name there..So..You have zero credit to anyone who would be rationale......Anyways.. I'm getting zero from the Hintons.. I don't need or want anything from them. I wouldn't accept a dime period. Now or ever. I will say that the Boonville police were hit by a barage from questionable sources, and leaned on by council members with good nee jerk reflexes to hold off sanctioning till they can wade through what's bull and what isn't..And folks have been slinging a lot of bull. Had you stuck to fact, your arguement probably would carry a ton more weight. Again, I'm not closed, but no one's put in front of me what I consider to be facts...........And you condone the coward who posts annon against me, so, you all play nice. Till you can edit them out, or I know who I'm talking to, i woun't have further communications with any of you. Sweet job-! You just alienated the one person for this deal that would likely give you a fair shake.. M. Farrell."
What about what i told you before the meeting. Also what about the CD ROM i gave you before the meeting and the DVD ROM. I explained it all to you even. Did you even look at the stuff i gave you?
-
Well Devlin - he can't say he wasn't warned, can he.
I wondered if he had had access to any of the pertnint info. It appears you made sure he did.
Thanks for your efforts.
-
Nother question for M. Farell. Where did you get the idea that WWASP won against PURE?
Government can do something for the people only in proportion as it can do something to the people
Thomas Jefferson.
-
/bump!
-
Congressman raises questions about Kemper suitor
By JOHN SULLIVAN of the Tribune?s staff
Published Wednesday, April 13, 2005
A U.S. congressman from California says Boonville city officials should have "serious reservations" about selling the Kemper Military School property to associates of a controversial network of international boarding schools.
Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., warned that Boonville should "get the facts first" before accepting a purchase offer from Robert Lichfield, founder of World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools, or WWASPS.
"While many residential treatment facilities do provide good quality services for children, there is a long history of allegations of mistreatment of minors at campuses operated by the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs," Miller said in an e-mail to the Tribune. "The City of Boonville should have serious reservations about the sale of city property to an organization with such an egregious record of child abuse complaints."
Officials of Miller?s office said the congressman has not contacted the city of Boonville directly.
Lichfield and his associate, Randall Hinton, a former director of schools under Lichfield?s network, have proposed buying the Kemper property and opening a military-style school for difficult teens. A purchase contract sits before the Boonville City Council, and Boonville officials confirmed last week that they received a deposit check for $100,000 signed by Lichfield.
The council voted last week to delay making a decision on the sale until a public hearing. The meeting, held Monday night, drew a crowd of local residents who asked pointed questions of Lichfield?s associates.
Boonville police recommended a thorough investigation into Lichfield, his association and Hinton, who would operate the school with his brother, Russell Hinton. A preliminary investigation by the department found WWASPS schools appear to "regularly engage in physical restraint of children including the use of pepper spray, handcuffs, duct tape and wooden boxes to isolate the children."
Hinton acknowledged using pepper spray at a WWASPS school in Jamaica eight years ago. He described it as a two-month experiment that failed to subdue violent children.
Miller is the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. The Department of Justice has turned down repeated requests by his committee to investigate WWASPS.
Miller?s office has described the organization as a St. George, Utah-based umbrella organization that oversees seven behavior modification programs in the United States and two abroad. The schools, formerly known as Teen Help, treat about 2,200 children at a cost of $30,000 to $50,000 in tuition and fees. At least eight affiliated schools and related programs have closed or been shut down since the mid-1990s.
A 2003 letter from Miller?s office to former Attorney General John Ashcroft alleges the association engaged in "human rights violations, fraudulent and deceptive advertising, fraud and unjust enrichment under the Internal Revenue Code."
So far, only one allegation against a staff member or official of WWASPS-affiliated schools has resulted in a criminal conviction. And many parents whose children have undergone treatment at the schools vouch for their effectiveness in transforming often severely troubled children. These parents claim that had it not been for the schools, their children would be dead or in prison.
Groups who oppose the programs claim they indoctrinate parents and children to worship tough-love ideals that can transform behavior but leave psychological scars. No professional, long-term studies on the psychological and emotional impact of WWASPS programs on children have been conducted.
Ashcroft and his successor, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, have said they lack jurisdiction to investigate privately owned schools. Miller, however, cites an investigation by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer into an alleged assault of a teen at Ivy Ridge, a WWASPS-affiliated school near Ogdensburg, N.Y. "The powers of the U.S. Attorney General are hardly more constrained than those of" state "officials," Miller wrote in a May 2004 letter.
Justice department spokesman Bryan Sierra said his office does not comment on cases with no charges or public records of crimes.
WWASPS President Ken Kay said he does not oppose tighter regulation of his programs but that such regulation should be conducted at the state and local level.
Kay called his schools "specialty programs" that succeed where government programs fail. "The federal regulation of the juvenile system and public schools as a whole has been less than effective in dealing with the youth population we deal with," he said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reach John Sullivan at (573) 815-1731 or jsullivan@tribmail.com.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The nature of psychological compulsion is such that those who act under constraint remain under the impression that they are acting on their own initiative. The victim of mind-manipulation does not know that he is a victim. To him the walls of his prison are invisible, and he believes himself to be free. That he is not free is apparent only to other people. His servitude is strictly objective.
--Brave New World Revisited, Aldous Huxley, 1958
-
On 2005-04-13 10:54:00, Anonymous wrote:
"Nahhh I think you're just a coward is all..probably a liar too...Yep. M.Farrell"
Talk about a "coward" and a "liar." You don't have the guts to admit you have a connection to these folks, so you lie. Take a look in the mirror.
You're pretty brave when posting on the internet, but I think more-or-less, you're pretty weak-minded and gutless and probably wouldn't say "peep" to me if you were in front of me.
_________________
"Compassion is the basis of morality"
-Arnold Schopenhauer[ This Message was edited by: Dysfunction Junction on 2005-04-14 08:52 ]
-
Link to article:
http://www.showmenews.com/2005/Apr/20050413News006.asp (http://www.showmenews.com/2005/Apr/20050413News006.asp)
-
On 2005-04-13 11:26:00, Antigen wrote:
"and now that stuff about getting flight training for his would-be students through J Atkin's little airline."
Did I miss something? Where did you hear that?
-
"Hinton plans to offer courses in aviation, food handling, CPR and other areas of vocation training. "How great will it be for our kids to go home with a high school diploma and a pilot's license," he said. "That'd be awesome."
source: http://www.boonvilledailynews.com/artic ... /news2.txt (http://www.boonvilledailynews.com/articles/2005/04/09/news/news2.txt)
"J. Ralph Atkin, the founder of SkyWest Airlines, is listed in Commerce
Department records as the registered agent for Cross Creek Manor, Red Rock
Academy, the two limited partnerships that own Teen Help, R & B Billing (which
provides financial services for the programs) and Browning Academy. The state
also lists him as a trustee of WWASP, although he has denied that recently. And
he has been quoted by Associated Press as saying that he was a co-owner of
Morava Academy, the Czech Republic program that was shut down last year."
source: http://isaccorp.org/wwasps/wwaspreport.pdf (http://isaccorp.org/wwasps/wwaspreport.pdf)
-
And how about this little coincidence?
http://www.topflightacademy.com/index.php (http://www.topflightacademy.com/index.php)
Mailing address:
Top Flight Academy
PO Box 145
Mt. Pleasant, UT 84647
-
The same type of curriculum Randall Hinton proposed in his meeting last Monday night in Boonville. Positive Peer Culture (PPC aka Lord of the Flies) with the opportunity to earn an aviation license too!
Wow! :roll:
-
:idea: I have worked with children in a classroom setting, disabled children in a hospital setting and teens in a facility setting for a total of over fifteen years. I listened to what the Hintons said at the council meeting. I know what it's like for a teen to not have structure or feel that anyone cares about them. I've seen first hand what a setting like Kemper Military School & College can do to create a person we can all be proud to call friend, co-worker or family.
I'm asking that the Hintons be given a chance to open this boarding school and use the name of Kemper Military School. They can open it as any name and it will always be known as formerly KMS anyway. I've read their business plan and organizational plan and witnessed Randall Hinton tell the citizens of Boonville (that bothered to show up to the meetings) that they will not use duct tape, restraints or pepper spray. I hope the "affiliation" with wwasps and Robert Lichfield are no more than a "My hairdresser has a cousin that has a sister in jail" situation. From what I see the Hintons want to run a school that is NOT wwasps for a reason. Many businesses are started with one worker setting out to make a better business or in this case school.
Boonville already has Valley Hope and I know suicidal, drug addicted teens that were sent there. According to the Hinton?s plan they will not be accepting such teens. Does Boonville think its citizens will allow any abuse to go on at any school? The Hintons have promised an open door policy and I for one will be checking up on them often and I hope Boonville citizens have the same courage to do so for any school boarding ours or anyone else?s youth.
I saw a lady on my street just the other day tell a reporter she didn?t want anything to open at KMS. This is the kind of ignorance we deal with every day here. Do they think nothing is going to open there? Do they think we?ll have much of a say so? I hope if the Hintons open a school it will be something to be proud of and something that will bring jobs and consumers to Boonville.
As for the Kemper Alumni Association and it's secretary, Mr. Farrell. They should probably put it to a vote about the use of the name they are so proud of and let them decide.
-
On 2005-04-15 08:50:00, Anonymous wrote:
" :idea: I have worked with children in a classroom setting, disabled children in a hospital setting and teens in a facility setting for a total of over fifteen years. I listened to what the Hintons said at the council meeting. I know what it's like for a teen to not have structure or feel that anyone cares about them. I've seen first hand what a setting like Kemper Military School & College can do to create a person we can all be proud to call friend, co-worker or family.
I'm asking that the Hintons be given a chance to open this boarding school and use the name of Kemper Military School. They can open it as any name and it will always be known as formerly KMS anyway. I've read their business plan and organizational plan and witnessed Randall Hinton tell the citizens of Boonville (that bothered to show up to the meetings) that they will not use duct tape, restraints or pepper spray. I hope the "affiliation" with wwasps and Robert Lichfield are no more than a "My hairdresser has a cousin that has a sister in jail" situation. From what I see the Hintons want to run a school that is NOT wwasps for a reason. Many businesses are started with one worker setting out to make a better business or in this case school.
Boonville already has Valley Hope and I know suicidal, drug addicted teens that were sent there. According to the Hinton?s plan they will not be accepting such teens. Does Boonville think its citizens will allow any abuse to go on at any school? The Hintons have promised an open door policy and I for one will be checking up on them often and I hope Boonville citizens have the same courage to do so for any school boarding ours or anyone else?s youth.
I saw a lady on my street just the other day tell a reporter she didn?t want anything to open at KMS. This is the kind of ignorance we deal with every day here. Do they think nothing is going to open there? Do they think we?ll have much of a say so? I hope if the Hintons open a school it will be something to be proud of and something that will bring jobs and consumers to Boonville.
As for the Kemper Alumni Association and it's secretary, Mr. Farrell. They should probably put it to a vote about the use of the name they are so proud of and let them decide.
"
Flooding the forum will not buy you any friends here.
-
If the Hinton's are so entrusting to open the school. Let them do it with their own money, not backing from Litchfield and the connections to WWASP.
-
If you were a sixteen year old girl, and a teenage boy promised you he would respect you in the morning, and that he really loved you and wasn't just trying to get in your pants, and that if you took all your clothes and he took off his that he just wanted to lie down with you like that and didn't want to do anything else and wouldn't try anything else, would you *really* believe him.
You appear to have never even considered the possibility that Hinton may be lying through his teeth, or what your recourse (or lack of it) would or will be if he is.
He's saying, in effect, "Trust me." And you're buying it.
You are, in my opinion, a very foolishly gullible person.
If you were (hypothetically) sixteen, and your parents allowed you to date, with that level of credulity I wouldn't be the least surprised if you were pregnant and abandoned inside of two years.
"...the maid who mistakes my meaning will not be maid longer less things be made shorter...." -- Willy Shake Spear.
I strongly advise you to *never* answer any emails from Nigerians or that promise you chunks of Saddam's money.
"He says he won't use duct tape or restraints or pepper spray."
Well la dee da. Didn't you ever learn anything from the times people have lied to you in your life?
TimocleaWhoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. For when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.
--Nietzsche
-
If you stuck a clause in the sale agreement that said:
The city shall have the right, in perpetuity, to inspect the property at any time.
Neither duct tape--nor any other type of tape or adhesive or bonding material or device used for a restraining purpose, restraints, nor pepper spray, shall be used on any student in the facility at any time.
Should the city determine at any time that duct tape or any other type of tape or adhesive or bonding material or device used for a restraining purpose, restraints, or pepper spray, are being used or have been used on the property on a student, or off the property under the control of staff, administration, or their agents or assigns acting on behalf of staff or administration on a student at that time enrolled in the school, the property and all improvements thereon shall immediately revert in its entirety to the ownership of the city.
In the event of such reversion, the purchaser agrees that all monies or other valuable consideration paid for the property and the improvements thereon shall be deemed forfeited and neither the purchaser nor owner nor anyone associeted therewith shall have any right to any refund or payment of any amount of same.
This clause shall be a deed restriction, attached to the property in perpetuity, and shall be binding on any and all subsequent purchasers or any who obtain any ownership interest, in whole or in part, in the property or the improvements thereon at any later date.
----------------------------------------
If you put that clause in the contract, do you *really* think Hinton or his people would go through the sale? No?
If they're not willing to put it in writing, with teeth, they don't really mean it, do they?
It's just like negotiating a pre-nup agreement. If you agree with your prospective partner that you're going to have a contract, and your partner swears up and down that he/she will be faithful to you in your marriage, and is unwilling to put a punitive clause in the prenup specifying substantial damages if either of you is unfaithful----if you really care about fidelity, you'd be a friggin' idiot to still marry the schmuck.
So mister or miz "give them a chance"---unless you're willing to put it in the contract and put it in with *teeth* and see if Hinton and/or his people are willing to sign it and go through with the sale, then you are just sharing a wink, wink, nudge, nudge with Hinton over the restraints, duct tape, and pepper spray issue.
If you aren't willing to put it in the sale contract, with very sharp teeth, and tell Hinton to go to hell if he won't sign, then you're not just gullible as hell---you think *we* are, too.
If you *really* believed he wasn't going to abuse the kids in these ways, you'd be willing to stick it in the contract, with teeth, and tell him to go to hell if he wouldn't buy on those terms.
If you aren't willing to put it in the contract with teeth and to hell with it if it nixes the sale, then you don't really give a damn if he abuses the kids---you just want to lie to yourself and us that you give a damn. You just want the money in a way that lets you wash your hands of the consequences and lie to yourself about it so you can look yourself in the mirror each day and when and if it happens say, "Oh, we didn't know. He *lied* to us?! Who could have *ever* thought such a nice man would have lied to us?! It's not *our* fault, oh, no, it's not."
I hope you're a nice, sincere person who really believes him but will put it in the contract, and risk losing the sale, just to make sure.
But money can be a strong incentive for people to lie to themselves and others and look the other way while bad people do bad things.
Now, I don't know for sure that Hinton is a bad person or is going to abuse those kids.
But I *do* know for sure that if he is really sincere about keeping it from happening, he wouldn't even blink about putting a clause like that, with the wording cleaned up by the lawyers, in as part of the sale agreement.
And I *do* know for sure that if you are really sincere about keeping it from happening and don't just want to be able to plausibly wash your hands while taking the money and running, that now that the means of *ensuring* he's telling the truth---or fixing it at no cost to your city if he's not---has been pointed out to you, that you will insist on such a clause in the agreement.
So, which are you? Sincere, or money hungry?
You're one or the other. There is no more gray. You either are willing to make him suffer the consequences if he's lying to you---or go away before he pays you in the first place, or you want the money so bad you just want to pretend you care.
No gray. Where do you stand?
TimocleaVain are the thousand creeds that move men's hearts, unutterably vain, worthless as wither'd weeds.
--Emily Bronte
[ This Message was edited by: Timoclea on 2005-04-15 10:53 ][ This Message was edited by: Timoclea on 2005-04-15 10:56 ]
-
Timoclea, what about shipping the kids off to TB? How do you legally rule that out? How would you even know if they were complying w/ a measure like that?
There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is
proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in
everlasting ignorance- that principle is contempt prior to investigation.
--Herbert Spencer
-
On 2005-04-15 06:43:00, Anonymous wrote:
"And how about this little coincidence?
http://www.topflightacademy.com/index.php (http://www.topflightacademy.com/index.php)
Mailing address:
Top Flight Academy
PO Box 145
Mt. Pleasant, UT 84647
"
Isn't this the program Gayle Palmer-DeGraff worked for as THE ADMISSIONS REP? Check out this forum for other posts (e.g. Rembering Aaron Bacon) for more information about the background of Gayle DeGraff and also the PURE case where her name comes up.
-
On 2005-04-15 11:03:00, Antigen wrote:
"Timoclea, what about shipping the kids off to TB? How do you legally rule that out? How would you even know if they were complying w/ a measure like that?There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is
proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in
everlasting ignorance- that principle is contempt prior to investigation.
--Herbert Spencer
"
Well, I did say that the city would retain the right to inspect the facility at any time. They'd be able to go in and check.
On Tranquility Bay, you could stipulate that the school would not transfer the children anywhere, that they could suspend or expel students, but could not release them into the custody of anyone but the custodial parent or guardian, or social services. You could stipulate that neither the facility, nor any employee, administrator, owner, or agents or assigns of same could be the legal guardian of any child *except* the temporary in loco parentis custody inherent in schooling. You could stipulate that if the child was suspended or expelled he or she could never be released into the custody of any staffer, administrator, owner or agent or assign of any facility, even if such person had acquired legal guardianship of the student, but would have to be released into the custody of local social services instead pending a guardianship hearing in family court.
I think disallowing transfers without directly returning the child to custodial parent or (real) guardian, or release to social services and a guardianship/custody hearing in the family court with jurisdiction over the child.
I suppose if the family court hearing would have to legally be in a certain jurisdiction, by overriding existing law, that you'd need to have local social services transfer the child to the custody of social services in the appropriate jurisdiction.
I don't know what the lawyers would let you do towards putting that clause in--I don't know the legalities.
I do know you'd need to insert a severability clause so that if any clause in the contract was thrown out by a court, the other clauses would remain in force.
Part of the problem is that current disability law makes it so that if your kid is badly disabled, you may have to relinquish custody to the state in order to get treatment. This is one of the provisions in the law that organizations like CABF are trying to get changed.
I guess you could put in a clause making them agree to only accept children where the custody of the child rests with a parent, adoptive parent, or blood relative. That would keep them from getting hinky with the legal custody like BM schools sometimes do.
TimocleaA slipping gear could let your M203 grenade launcher fire when you least expect it. That would make you quite unpopular in what's left of your unit.
-- In the August 1993 issue, page 9, of PS magazine, the Army's magazine of preventive maintenance
-
I do know that if you really wanted to you could hem them in with enough deed restrictions that they would *have* to keep their promises or have the deed revert to the city and the city get to keep the money and the buildings on the land, etc.
You could also put in that if there's a lawsuit over the contract, the buyer(s) or the people they sell to have to pay legal expenses and court costs if they lose.
You could also put it in that non-enforcement of contract provisions doesn't waive the right to enforce them, or to enforce them at a later date.
To get that bit to hold up, you'd probably have to say the city would have a time limit on a specific breach of contract to pursue it for two years with the clock starting not when the breach occurred but instead when the city found out about the specific violation asserted as a breach.
It would probably be much easier to enforce all this if instead of selling the property outright the city insisted on a long-term lease with option to renew. Peg the lease renewal amount to the federally determined annual rate of inflation.
It probably makes more sense all around, if the city has concerns---which it darned well should have----for it to insist on leasing the property instead of selling it.
You could have the city able to terminate the lease if Kemper breached the terms.
You could have the city be able to refuse to renew the lease *either* if Kemper breached the terms *or* if the city paid a set fee, indexed to inflation, in lieu of giving Kemper the option to renew.
It's narrowly possible, barely possible, that Hinton wants to get out of the "troubled teen" industry and run a conventional military school.
But I doubt it.
If he does, though, he should be willing to ensure the city ongoing lease income while assuming legal, enforceable obligation to do what he's telling the city he's going to do.
If he means his assurances, he won't have any problem putting them in writing.
It's better for the city to get ongoing income from the property than sell it and get a one-shot infusion of cash, anyway. The ongoing income ultimately reduces the tax burden on the locals for the amount of services they get.
If I were a local, I'd want the lease option, anyway.
If Hinton really means what he says, why would he even remotely have a problem with that?
TimocleaI believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego will survive. I am not young, and I love life. But I should scorn to shiver with terror at the thought of annihilation. Happiness is none the less true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting.
--Bertrand Russell, British philosopher, educator, mathemetician, and social critic
-
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/Apr ... ews002.asp (http://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/Apr/20050415News002.asp)
Former student alleges months of abuse
School leader proposes campus in Boonville.
By JOHN SULLIVAN of the Tribune?s staff
Published Friday, April 15, 2005
BOONVILLE - A former student of a behavior modification school in Jamaica alleges that Randall Hinton, who has proposed opening a similar school on the former Kemper Military School property, abused him and others during his stay there.
Layne Brown, 23, of Kanab, Utah, told the Tribune by phone last night that he met Hinton at Tranquility Bay in Jamaica in 1997. Staff at the facility used excessive restraining tactics, including pepper spray, duct tape and painful holds, as punishment for not following rules, he said.
Brown said he was put in "observation placement," in which he and other new students were forced to lie on their stomachs for more than eight hours a day for days on end with only brief moments to stand and stretch. The goal was to break the will of the teens, he said.
When Brown resisted by standing up to stretch without permission, the staff jumped on him, he said. At least five muscular staff members subdued him, twisting his arms behind his back past the point where his wrists touched his shoulders, Brown said. The staff then used the pepper spray, he said.
Brown estimated such attacks occurred three times a day and for as long as three or four months. During that time, the teens were forced to defecate and urinate in black garbage bags tied around their waists like diapers, Brown said. Staff members dragged Brown across the cement floor facedown, resulting in a chipped tooth and scars on his shoulders, knees and chin, he said. One staff member used a hard-bristle toilet brush to "scrub" his body and genitals, he said.
"It was totally degrading," said Brown, who added that he eventually stopped resisting and was moved to a less restrictive environment at the school. "I couldn?t figure out why somebody would actually do something like that."
Brown named Hinton, as well as Tranquility Bay owner Jay Kay, as among five people involved in the acts in an affidavit Brown?s mother, Terry Cameron, prepared after learning about Hinton?s plan to open a Boonville operation. Cameron sent the affidavit, as well as videotape of Hinton admitting the use of pepper spray, to Boonville officials and media, she said.
The video was produced by an attorney whose child also claims to have been abused at Tranquility Bay. It is mentioned in a Boonville police report that recommends further investigation of Hinton, business partner Robert Lichfield and World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools.
Tranquility Bay?s Kay is the son of Ken Kay, the current president of World Wide.
Founded by Lichfield, a Utah businessman, World Wide consists of seven U.S. schools and two others abroad. Many of the programs are facing intense scrutiny from law enforcement, elected officials and journalists. At least eight affiliated schools and organizations have closed or been shut down over the past decade.
Many parents vouch for the programs? effectiveness, but opponents say they leave children with deep emotional scars.
Cameron said she was tricked into sending her son to Tranquility Bay for treatment of a drug addiction by officials at a referral hospital known as Brightway Adolescent Hospital in St. George, Utah. Brightway, reported to be owned by World Wide, closed in 1998 under pressure from Utah health department officials. Cameron said she spent about $30,000 in tuition during the nine months Brown attended Tranquility Bay.
Lichfield is helping Hinton revive the former Kemper Military School and its crumbling buildings. The Boonville City Council is considering a contract to sell the property to Lichfield?s Golden Pond Investments Ltd. of Utah.
Hinton would lease the property and operate a military-style school with his younger brother Russell Hinton. Randall Hinton denies Kemper would be an affiliate of World Wide, although Lichfield is fronting the money for the venture and is one of only three members on World Wide?s governing board.
Brown?s attorney, Henry Bushkin of Los Angeles, said the business arrangement between Lichfield and Hinton in Boonville is typical of other schools in World Wide?s network. Lichfield usually buys property through a limited partnership, then leases it to the school?s operator.
Bushkin said Lichfield typically creates one or several more limited partnerships that buy or invest in the company that owns the school property, thus making it extremely difficult for any attorney to trace any wrongdoing to him or his organization. The schools avoid criminal convictions by opening schools in states with little regulation of private residential treatment facilities for children or in other countries, where U.S. law enforcement has little jurisdiction, Bushkin said.
Ken Kay, president of World Wide, denies any connection between World Wide and Lichfield?s interest in private boarding schools. Lichfield?s investments in the schools are among many business investments, which also include grocery stores and office buildings, Kay said. Lichfield could not be reached for comment.
Hinton on several occasions has declined to comment on Brown?s allegations, saying only that he believes he and the staff at Tranquility Bay helped Brown overcome his problems.
Brown now lives with his mother, who said he is off drugs, but he said he still has nightmares about his experience in Jamaica. "I still have difficulty trusting people," he said.
He warned Boonville residents about Hinton. "He acts like a family man ? but there is something there deep inside of him that is evil," he said. "He can pull the wool over your eyes really easy."
-
On 2005-04-15 11:58:00, Timoclea wrote:
you could stipulate that the school would not transfer the children anywhere, that they could suspend or expel students, but could not release them into the custody of anyone but the custodial parent or guardian, ...
... who would then turn them over to Rick Strawn or someone like him for transport to the other facility.
No deal. These people can't be trusted. If the deal goes through, it'll be another legal nightmare trying to route them. And this after whatever personal nightmares they inflict on the kids.
The inspiration of the Bible depends on the ignorance of the person who reads it.
--Robert G. Ingersoll, American politician and lecturer
_________________
Ginger Warbis ~ Antigen
Seed sibling `71 - `80
Straight South (Sarasota, FL)
10/80 - 10/82
Anonymity Anonymous
Some days, it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps.
-
Welcome Old Boys and Kemper Alumni. Thanks for linking to our forum. For your convenience, here's a link to Anonymity Anonymous (http://fornits.com/anonanon)
Some days, it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps.
-
The Booneville City Council voted last night - to not sell the property to the Hinton's/Litchfield group.
One small victory for the City of Booneville - but where will they try next ?
-
They obviously need another facility - they'll use just about anything - even an old run-down motel.
You know, if Mama Cass Elliot would have shared that damn sandwich
with Karen Carpenter, they would both still be alive today!!!!!!!
--chongo
-
CW ~ That's their favorite, besides warehouse buildings.