Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS)
Majestic Ranch info please
Anonymous:
--- Quote ---On 2006-06-01 06:34:00, Pls help wrote:
"Hi guys
I have checked out the potential legal situation here. It is not looking great. A judge letting an American kid go to American relatives is one thing. letting a kid go to people who are not even citizens of the country, when the kids biological parent lives there is another entirely.
I think Aardvark is right. It will probably be better if i could speak to my brohter face to face though as emails and phone calls are somewhat restrictive they also get quite tense & I am sensitive to the fact that i may alienate and cause a snap decision This is actually my biggest fear. Especially after reading about those horror escort services. @ least i have a body of reading on WWAPS programmes for him though. I found a psycholigist view of Casa by the Sea which was closed down that may help. I think when i send my niece back home I might take the vacation time & visit the US that way I can sit down and talk about the other options. As to the public education system, my niece is enrolled @ a private school. In spite of not loving the academic side she seems quite happy & has many friends. (another rsn why sending her away seems wrong)
Buzz kill I am sorry i should have read your email more thoroughly. I copied the link though and the passage to show my brother. I hope your son came out relatively unscathed from the WWASP school. Which one was it? Not one of the offsure ones i hope.
I have read the Bill Bryson book, i think it was marketed as Down under here. i was hilarious. i think he is a bit of a baby though. Nothing ever killed me :wink: Just imagine Sanfrancisco or Oregon but with nicer weather & that is pretty much what Australia is like.
Just a final question and this may seem naive. If a kid goes willingly or even enthusiastically & is not there for behavoural issues per se, i would assume they would get through the levels more quickly. Dont the adults then have a hard time explaining why a child who has obviously progressed well is now "manupulating " or making up lies? I understand that here is a finanncial incentive to hold kids onto lower levels to some extent but sooner or later parents must question either why progress is slow or why if it is not a kid would lie?
Also do they not have any kind oof report card for parents? In Australia each teacher writes a different comment & gives their grade. This is an indicator of progress. Are parents not allowed to call & discuss results?
"
--- End quote ---
Up front, I strongly support the work of alternative programs, and my long experience with the WWASPS schools (Not Majestic) has been extremely positive. So watching this exchange that villifies all WWASPS schools, by folks who have little or limited experience of them, makes me roll my eyes. The fact is that at some WWASPS schools, parents drop in all the time for unscheduled visits, as do law enforcement, educators, and other gov't agencies. So don't swallow everything you see or hear. Frankly, the histrionic alarmist approach of MA and Buzz tends to put people off, which hardly serves your purpose. That said, there are two elements of your story that concern me.
One is that your niece is far too young to go so far, and she does not fit the average toubled-kid profile, in which all other options have failed. Either part of the story is missing, or your brother is terribly misguided.
To address your question regarding willing students, if your niece really doesn't belong there, she will naturally react angrily to assumptions that she is a troubled kid, has behavior problems, etc. I can't imagine at ten that she'd be mature enough to just make the best of things and skip on through.
You could write a hundred e-mails or plead with your brother trying to convince him of your viewpoint, but it comes down to each of you having only secondary information. Why don't the two of you go visit the school together? You can affirm his parental authority and concern, recognize he's trying to do the right thing, but also demonstrate to him that there are other options.
You can also enlist a health professional to support your suggestion of seeing the place first-hand; health professionals will all agree that unless the situation is dire, you should never send your child anywhere without seeing the place first, and talking with the other students--without other staff there if possible. You can do this by talking in a room with a window, so that staff can't hear but can see you, to maintain the kids' safety.
This approach avoids setting you up as the antagonist and clarifies that you and your bro are on the same team. I hope this is helpful. Good luck.
Oz girl:
Thank you for your post. Which WWASP school do you have experience of? I understand your concerns that there are many different schools possibly with different cultures and not being a citizen of the US I cant judge or comment. I absolutely agree that if my brother were to go through with this i would want to see the school and I would imagine that i could talk him into this if i were in the US @ the time.
I would also be happier if kids could write to anyone they wanted to. Could they @ your kids school?. I got the impression from the schools own website that phone calls were discouraged until the kid got to a certain point & it specifcally said that parents should not call before this point as it undermined the goals of the programme. The website also implied that kids could only write to parents and no nobody else. I assumed that if calls were so strongly frowned upon so would visits be. (particularly if you wanted to take the kid off campus) Was your experience of a WWASP school different?
My biggest worry is that after being pointed to other sites I have read some shocking things. The Isaccorp site mentioned some alarming things. The local media states & the links I have been provided with show that the principal was charged with sexual abuse. Having looked @ the schools website which was what lead me to do further research, I was surprised @ the lack of contact between students and parents and puzzled as to why children were not allowed to be sent treats or toys except on their birthday. Even if your child has severe behavioural issues it seems that this approach is harsh given that this is a school taking kids as young as 7 so I came looking to this site & others for genuine answers. It was then that I became more than worried and alarmed. I have read the newsletter that seems to cover all wwasp schools (provided on the majestic ranch website) and there seem to be some happy customers. Again though the emphasis seems to be on punishing kids till they see the light.
I dont think that this is what it takes to overcome a learning difficulty or to build a relationship with a stepparent. I have also become frightened by further research. I would be happy to hear your point of view & experiences although the alarming evidence against these schools is becoming overwhelming.
Anonymous:
--- Quote ---On 2006-06-01 12:09:00, Anonymous wrote:
Up front, I strongly support the work of alternative programs, and my long experience with the WWASPS schools (Not Majestic) has been extremely positive. So watching this exchange that villifies all WWASPS schools, by folks who have little or limited experience of them, makes me roll my eyes. The fact is that at some WWASPS schools, parents drop in all the time for unscheduled visits, as do law enforcement, educators, and other gov't agencies. So don't swallow everything you see or hear.
--- End quote ---
Talk about making one roll their eyes?!?! :flame:
Anonymous:
http://caica.org/zehnder-report/contents.htm
BuzzKill:
I'd like to know which WWASPS program allows parents to visit a child on the first three levels? Or even talk to them on the phone? Which ones exactly? It doesn't happen. It doesn't matter how long the kid remains on those first levels either. I do know. I recall well the BBS parents, from every school, talking about how if they (the kid) wanted to talk to mom and dad, and get a visit, they'd start working their program - and some of these kids had been level one or two for a year or more.
When has Majestic Ranch, specifically, ever let parents visit a child at will; or talk to them on the phone at will?
When has CPS ever arrived unannounced and interviewed the children privately - assuring the child knows it is confidential; and if they are being emotionally or physically abused, they will be removed from the program? When has this ever occurred?
Because to make an appointment for a welfare check is simply giving warning to hide the troubled ones; and clean up the compound. Send some of the kids off into the woods - so CPS can't see how overcrowded the compound is.
And also, to interview a few children with staff standing by, is worse than useless. The consequences of being negative are such, that few will risk speaking out, knowing they will be left there to suffer the consequences.
In My Opinion, CPS knows all this, and thats why they do it this way; so they won't have to actually do any work. If they did their jobs, they'd have to find a safe place for the kids, and it would take a lot of man hours and money - and these states do not have the men and money to do the job. So, they turn away, and pretend to have done inspections and interviews - and they can truthfully say we went, and we looked, and the kids said it was great!
So, am I wrong? Tell us, when has any state agency ever arrived unannounced, and conducted private interviews with the children? At Majestic Ranch; or at any WWASP Program in the U S of A?
It has happened a few times in your off shore programs, and it results in the closing down of the program when it does. But when has such a inspection and private interviews ever takin place here in the states?
And what child was ever allowed to call their parent or visit with them while still on Level One, Two or Three? Even if they are in the program for a year or more at level two - which WWASPS program allows the parent and child any kind of one on one, uncensored, communication?
Even the phone calls, when finely allowed, are censored. I've never, not one time, heard from a program teen or parent that they *ever* had a un-moderated phone call. How freely may a child speak in such circumstances?
Which WWASPS program operates any differently?
And By the By - I hear a rumor your Program dudes have severely limited parent access to your BBS. I hear there is no longer a general board. Parents may only interact with parents from their own childs school. Now, why might that be? (rolling eyes)
[ This Message was edited by: BuzzKill on 2006-06-01 18:59 ]
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version