This is a good start but we need to start contacting the media with this including the news networks to carry this.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascit ... 933547.htmBreaking News
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Posted on Fri, May. 23, 2003
Costa Rica Detains American School Head
Associated Press
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - Police detained the American owner of a youth behavioral management school in western Costa Rica after students alleged they had been held against their will and physically abused, authorities said Friday.
Narvin Lichfield was stopped on a bus late Thursday in Orotina province, 45 miles outside San Jose, the capital. He was traveling with some of his students at the time but it was unclear where they were going.
Lichfield has not been formally charged, but may face charges of wrongful imprisonment and child abuse, Patricia Baltodano, a spokesman for federal authorities, said in a phone interview Friday night.
Lichfield directed the Academy at Dundee Ranch, a rehabilitation center in Orotina where 200 mostly American youngsters between the ages of 11 and 17 lived in a former hotel and learned ways to improve their behavior.
Baltodano said the arrest came at the request of child welfare authorities who inspected the school Tuesday after the allegations of abuse surfaced in Costa Rican media.
Casa Alianza, the Latin American branch of the New York-based child advocacy group Convenient House, also complained to authorities that students were being held at the school against their will and subjected to cruel punishments.
Dozens of students took advantage of the health inspection to flee the school but were ordered to return by the officials.
The testimonies of some of those students and others led authorities to launch a larger investigation and to order the school closed until further notice. Its students were placed with foster families.
Academy officials have refused to comment on the allegations.
