Tough-Love Schools Are Both Loved, Hated
Saturday, June 11, 2005
PHOTOS VIDEO
Click image to enlarge
LAVERKIN, Utah. ? Some schools sprouting up around the United States that are designed to practice tough-love with troubled teens are causing some communities to think twice about bringing one to their town.
The tough-love facilites, which aim to straighten out kids by teaching them how to be more responsible and make better decisions, can be a big help to parents.
Click in the box near the top of the story to watch FOX News' Carol McKinley report this three-part series.
The schools try to "decrease the desirability of unhealthy choices" and "increase the desirability of healthy choices," said Norm Thibault, a therapist at Cross Creek Academy (search), a tough-love facility in Utah.
"Here's a program where there's no swearing, no smoking, no alcohol, no drugs, no boy-and-girl interaction, go to school every day," said Cross Creek owner Karr Farnsworth.
At about $50,000, they're not cheap ? although Ken Kay, director of Utah-based Worldwide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (search), or WWASPS, which maintains six tough-love facilities including Cross Creek, says the cost is well worth it.
It's "barely the cost of a G35 Infinity ? the cost of a new car," Kay says. :nworthy: :nworthy: :nworthy:
It will be generally found that those who sneer habitually at human nature and affect to despise it, are among its worst and least pleasant examples
--Charles Dickens