Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Brat Camp
Redcliffer
Anonymous:
Has Red Cliff's been cooperative in sharing status information on your son? Since he is a minor, one would think that both parents should have same access to information about their son. If they haven't one would think you could make this a civil action in court. Guessing that there aren't any lawyers reading this forum who would care to comment.
Anonymous:
HA! I doubt there are any lawyers prepared to take on the booming Wilderness Therapy BUSINESS. Yes, Redcliff has complied with our requests for SOME information. We are still trying to get the facts on the child's "abduction"....which contract escort service was hired, where he was abducted from, his demeanor, his flight information, etc. For some reason, they are dragging their feet on this one. When we ask for anything from them, it takes a while to get a response, and in a few instances we were ignored altogether. Suddenly they are starting to question if we are "authorized" to receive this information.
Although it appears our hands are tied, I do have good news (No, I didn't save a bunch of money on car insurance). The child's assigned therapist is spectacular. We get to talk to her for 15 minutes a week, and she is just wonderful. She tells it like it is. She really cares. Her focus is entirely on the kids. I only wish the Redcliff organization as a whole followed her example.
Stay tuned for the continuing saga.....
Anonymous:
As it turns out, it's a good thing we were denied the court order to remove the child from Redcliff. My husband had spoken to their director this past Monday, and confirmed he could be released if we just showed up with a court order, and since the jurisdiction over custody is here in NH, we figured that would be it. The director promised to get back with my husband, once he was able to confirm the child's mother had signed a release to give him information (it's in the file)....and THEN he could tell us the name of the agency who provided the "escort". We waited.....waited some more. My husband finally called him AGAIN and now it's yet a DIFFERENT story. NOW he says (after consulting counsel again) that we'd need a court order from UTAH. One week before they only needed a court order....the week before that they didn't even NEED a court order.....but now we'd have to go file a petition in UTAH. My husband asked him if he would please put that in writing for our records. Declined. Nothing more in writing. So my husband asked him if he even checked in the file for the authorization, as he said he would. This just keeps getting better & better. Now he is not willing to even TELL him IF he is on the list of people authorized to get information. To tell him whether he IS or ISN'T authorized would be a privacy violation, I guess. But WHY is he doing this when I am sitting here looking at a COPY of the actual authorization, and my husband is listed there! :eek: So, he is not authorized to know he is authorized. Does this make any sense? We have tried to get information from the sending & receiving states' offices that handle the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children. They handle the paperwork required to send kids from one state to another for purposes such as wilderness therapy. Due to privacy matters, they cannot tell him if his son is on file anywhere. This is required by law, and it's my understanding from research that the receiving state has to approve accepting the child based on the information provided. And they must approve it before the child can be moved from one state to another. We will continue to pursue this issue until we are confident all laws were complied with. Redcliff gave us the number of their attorney, if we needed any additional information, and we called but got no answer. It just rang and then a mechanical voice said they couldn't take the call or something like that, and that "Your call will be terminated now". This is worse than hitting a brick wall. We still have not received any mail from the child, although we learned from his counselor that he DID send mail. Redcliff confirmed today that his mail to us IS going directly to the mother, and it's up to her to send it on to us, if she chooses. No exceptions for the OTHER parent to receive mail directly. I guess it would inconvenience Redcliff to make that exception. We aren't allowed to see him, speak with him, and now his mail to us is intercepted. One of the child's field instructors took photos of him and emailed them to the mother. We heard that he wrote his mother a very long letter, begging to be brought home. It's so sad, and we feel so helpless.
Deborah:
Dear lord.
I hope your husband will sue them into bankruptcy. The total disregard of parental rights is unconsionable. Show em what tough love and consequences looks like.
When I contacted the state ICPC office I didn't 'ask' for info. I filed a complaint stating my son had been placed in violation. They hemmed and hawed, and as it turned out, didn't even know how the law read or how to interpret it, much less enforce it. They defered to the receiving state who claimed that the facility was a private boarding school, therefore exempt. And it's not their role to go after programs that are wrongly classified.
Brings back some very painful memories.
Nonconformistlaw:
Anonymous said ----"HA! I doubt there are any lawyers prepared to take on the booming Wilderness Therapy BUSINESS."----
One day in the very near future, there will be at least one more lawyer out there (me) who is fully aware of and understands the illegal, unethical, and inhumane activites of programs like the one you describe. And I have ever intention of fighting them once I have enough experience to do so.
I realize this is no help to you now. And I dont know enough law in this area to be remotely useful to you. But I hope that information, that just maybe more lawyers ARE enlightened about the injustice occuring in these programs, gives you some comfort.
I've read all your messages on this thread and just wanted to wish you luck. And I also wanted to say...get the most experienced and aggressive attorney you can find, if you haven't already, and dont let up. ::rainbow::
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