HEADLINE: THE KIDS CONTROVERSY
PUBLISHED: August 7, 1986, Thursday;
Page A-25 (17 in.)
SECTION: OPINION TYPE: LETTER
COLUMN: LETTERS
TEXT: Editor, The Record:
We find the recent
accusations against KIDS of Bergen County ridiculous.
My husband and I traveled 2,500 miles from Salt
Lake City to place our 15-year-old son in this adolescent treatment facility.
Bergen County should feel fortunate to have a nationally acclaimed facility that
is being run by nationally acclaimed Dr. Miller Newton in its backyard.
We found KIDS of Bergen County in the past year
after placing our son in a seven-week hospital almost two years ago that cost
$17,000. Since that, time, our son has accumulated 39 charges against him,
ranging from petty theft to car theft and breaking and entering, all
drug-related.
To our dismay, our parental rights
have been overridden by the judicial system, which also boasts of protecting the
rights of kids. We, the parents, are morally and financially responsible for our
children until the age of 18. We are responsible for their actions, but they are
not accountable for their actions. We lived in constant fear after he made
threats of killing us in our sleep. He broke into our home on a regular basis
and stole us blind.
After much investigation, we
found KIDS. For the first time, our son is beginning to put on weight and looks
better than he has in two years. Because of his out-of-control behavior, the
state, county, and other medical facilities restrained our child on numerous
occasions in an effort to protect others.
The
people of Salt Lake City are in the process of putting a program together with
the help of Dr. Newton. If the people of Bergen County do not want the most
successful adolescent treatment facility in the country today, then we would
gladly welcome Dr. Newton and his staff to "brainwash" the kids of Salt Lake
City into becoming responsible adults!
WILL and SUSAN McCOY
Salt Lake City, Utah
Editor, The Record:
Dr. Miller Newton, by his
own admission and with the assistance of a marketing firm, situated his program
in an area that lacked a program for drug and alcohol dependency for adolescents
and lacked licensing requirements. Unfortunately, the continued lack of
licensing requirements has given Miller Newton the right to do as he pleases,
with the permission of parents who are desperate to prevent their children from
killing themselves.
The program spends much of its
time convincing parents that it does whatever it must in order to save their
children and demands an unconditional no-questions-asked behavior from parents.
It also permits no discussions with people outside the program, thereby allowing
the secrecy to continue. Most parents would agree to any terms and conditions to
save the lives of their children.
Although the
program claims that it follows the guidelines of Alcoholics Anonymous, it does
not. One of the major differences is that this program adds its own element,
which is fear and intimidation.
I maintain that
those parents whose children have survived the program and who are still in
favor of it continue to be under the influence of Dr. Newton, and their children
still live in fear of having to go back. Continued support of this program is
clearly a defense mechanism to override any guilt in subjecting one's children
to the type of mental and physical abuse that takes place in this program.
I am one of the parents who removed a child from
the program after seeing the physical deterioration of my son. I was not being
permitted to speak with him or question the program's staff for fear of
repercussions.
One would think that with all of our
concerns about human rights, we should most certainly consider the rights of the
children who are still in the program.
When are
officials going to stop ignoring the numerous complaints about the KIDS program
and do a thorough investigation? That would most assuredly lead to some strong
licensing requirements and put programs of this nature out business.
MARY
KEMPKA
Saddle Brook
<END>
TERMS: YOUTH. DRUG. ALCOHOL. ABUSE. CRIME
ORDER NUMBER:
1340036
NOTICE: Copyright 1986 Bergen Record Corp.