TV TEARAWAY: Boot camp brat vows to behave
A TEARAWAY teenager has vowed to change her ways after she was booted off Channel 4's Brat Camp for her bad-girl antics.
Lucy Tyson shocked the nation with her shouting, swearing and temper tantrums on the prime-time TV show, in which six disruptive teenagers are packed off to a US wilderness ranch to learn self-discipline.
But her terrible behaviour proved even too much for the hardened cowboys who run the show's Turnabout Ranch.
[How might they have dealth with Ms Lucy if the cameras hadn't been rolling?]
This time last year, 15-year-old Lucy had been suspended from school three times, was known for her threatening behaviour and had run away from home countless times.
Her parents Rachael and Jeff finally had enough and signed their daughter up for the third series of Channel 4's Brat Camp.
But she tried to run away from the ranch 10 times and was eventually kicked off the ranch after punching a member of staff.
Despite the early exit, the 16-year-old, who grew up in Stamford, says she has turned her life around and is learning to control her temper through breathing exercises.
Lucy, who once held a knife against her mother's face during a tantrum, said: "I was relieved when I heard they were moving me, but it hit me that this was my last chance.
"I decided there and then to change. It's weird because the camp changes you and you have no idea how they do it, but I have learned that I can be a nice person."
Lucy's disruptive behaviour first began when she was a pupil at the Malcolm
Sargent Primary School, in Stamford, and continued throughout her time at Casterton Community College.
Her mother Rachael, who lived in Birch Road, Stamford, recalls Lucy's first brush with authority after her daughter broke her arm in a fall at Burghley Park when she was six.
She said: "We were called to the school because she kept on hitting the other children with her cast.
"She has always been a bit boisterous, and though she wasn't expelled, it was clear that she didn't really fit into the system."
Lucy's disruptive behaviour worsened when her family left Stamford to start a new life in Lancaster two years ago.
Angry at moving away from her family and friends, Lucy began to swear, punch and spit at her mum during their frequent arguments.
Her 18-year-old brother James even left home last year to live in a friend's shed after Lucy punched him in the face because he'd forgotten to pay her £2 he owed her.
But despite spending only four weeks on the Utah ranch, instead of the planned three-month stay, the programme has had the desired effect and Rachael says she has seen a noticeable difference in her daughter.
She said: "It's taken a while for the family to accept the old Lucy has gone, and though she's not perfect, she's nowhere near as bad as she used to be, and we can relax and treat her like a normal teenager."
23 February 2006
http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/View ... ID=1363725