An Engaging Game of I-Chess:
Who is Ginger Warbis of Fornits.com?
Written by: Paula Reeves
www.paulareeves.comAugust 10, 2007
The “Internet Wolverine” responds to threats by Sue Scheff, her company PURE (Parents Universal Resource Experts), and others in the private “teen help” business: “Hit me with your best shot, cowards! At the end of the day, I can take it. You can’t”
Ginger Warbis, living somewhere in Virginia, is no ordinary woman. She began her controversial electronic publishing site at Fornits.com over five years ago. Flanked and protected, pro bono, by Attorney Philip Elberg, Warbis is fearless in her exposure of the burgeoning and dangerously unregulated industry called the “troubled teen” or “teen help” industry.
If you dare enter Ginger Warbis’ Web World, you are forewarned that it is not for the weak of heart. The posts are crude and nasty at times, but most hit to the heart of a uniquely American tragedy.
“Oh, the irony of it all,” Ginger Warbis exclaims in a recent post on her site as she writes under the pen name of “Scarlett Chiclet.” In the span of a few years, this angry advocate has transformed herself from a rough hewn virtual-vigilante to a witty, raunchy publicist who isn’t afraid of anyone, anywhere, anytime. Whether you like her or not, one cannot help but admire the tenacity of Ginger Warbis and her band of mischievous Internet crusaders.
Warbis’ arch-enemy at the moment is Sue Scheff, a self-proclaimed “resource expert,” who places children in programs, sometime unsafe ones, that pay Scheff substantial sums of money. According to bloggers, Scheff recently tried to shut down the Fornits.com site and silence Ms. Warbis’ prolific criticism of Scheff and others like Scheff.
In response, Warbis moved her Internet presence to Canada. The Fornits.com site is now spawning anti-Sue Scheff sites too numerous to track, such as
www.sueschefftruth.com.
Why is Ginger Warbis so tenacious and tough? She characterizes herself as a “prisoner of war” who survived the now defunct Straight Program. As a child in the early 1980s, Warbis said she was held against her will for two years at Straight in Florida, deprived of a meaningful education, and forced to confess and engage in acts against her will.
Attorney Elberg, who defends Warbis’ right to speak, has won multi-million dollar settlements against those victimizing children in private programs. Elberg also criticizes Scheff and her practices of using her money to silence those who disagree with her.
In an apparent response to Sue Scheff’s attempt to take down Fornits.com, Ginger Warbis challenges:
“Sue me! I beg of you, bring this fight back into the public eye in any way you can. . . .”
With the help of Attorney Elberg, she won dismissal of a 2004 case that Sue Scheff, the wealthy heiress, and PURE, filed against Warbis for defamation and invasion of privacy.
Underscoring her determination, Warbis writes: “You spoiled yuppie scumbags think a civil suit or public embarrassment or the prospect of losing some of your precious stuff is too horrible to even think about. I'm made of stone . . . . tough, so far beyond the need for creature comforts and social acceptance. . . .”
It does not appear that Ginger Warbis will be folding Fornits.com anytime soon. In the meantime, Sue Scheff has hired a company to saturate the Internet with self-created positive comments and web sites about her and her company, in the hope of countering the mounting guerilla forces of Ginger Warbis and Fornits.com. ###
copyright 2007 Paula Reeves
www.paulareeves.com