Mother Claims Son Was Abused At S. Fla. School

[hurrikayne]

Director Says School Is 'Behavior Modification' Program

POSTED: 7:53 am EDT September 12, 2008
UPDATED: 8:33 am EDT September 12, 2008
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. --

A South Florida mother is outraged, saying her son was abused at an elite school in Fort Lauderdale at the hands of his drill sergeant.

Marilyn Johnson-Smith said she is haunted by her decision to send her son, Donald Hutchinson, to a school she thought was a private institution, a place where he would learn and be safe from altercations with other students.

"I was looking for a school with a small setting to help him," Hutchinson said. "But it's not a private school. It's an abuse school with boot camp."

Johnson-Smith said her son, a fifth-grader, was abused at the hands of a drill sergeant at Fort Lauderdale's Elite Leadership Academy.

"My son told me they forced him to the ground -- he forced him to the ground -- which gave him this scar on his face," Johnson-Smith said.

Hutchinson said the drill sergeant assaulted him after an altercation over a canteen, tossing him to the ground and digging his knee into the child's back.

Is this a case of abuse or simply standard procedure? Elite's executive director, Veronica Ruiz-Ashwal, said the school makes no pretense of its purpose, billing itself as a "behavior modification" program for students who have had problems in other schools.

"Whenever a drill instructor takes a child down, it's simply because the child is a safety threat to themselves or to someone else," Ruiz-Ashwal said.

It is not just the physical aspects of the academy that Johnson-Smith said she wants investigated. She said she did not know that the academy took a tough-love approach with students. She is angry that her son did not wear a uniform but instead a green jumpsuit issued upon arrival.

Ruiz-Ashwal said all students wear the jumpsuit for the first two weeks of the program.

Johnson-Smith has hired an attorney. Her lawyer said his client had no idea that Elite was designed for troubled students and is demanding that the school and the drill sergeant be investigated.

http://http://www.nbc6.net/news/17456209/detail.html

[Anonymous]

I found this on another message board

06-10-05: Sister Soldier, military style boardng schoold for girls in Fort lauderdale shuts down Sister Soldier, a boarding school for girls 8 - 17, closed amidst investigations of physical child abuse by state authorities. Denise Smith, the president of JAM Youth Connections of Fort Lauderdale, the company that operates the school, was arrested in 1991 for forgery and in 1996 for car theft. Prosecutors dismissed both those charges but she pleaded no contest to a 1997 charge of automobile theft. Producers on TV's Larry Elders Show sent one girl to the facility which has bars on the windows. Florida's juvenile court system stopped sending girls there when it learned that the program was charging families as well as the court. JAM also operates the co-ed Elite Leadership Military Academy in Fort Lauderdale. As in Straight JAM parents are required to sign a waiver not to sue JAM if their child is injured in the program. Private boarding schools in Florida are not required to be licensed so anyone can run one. State law merely requires that private schools register with the state and report the number of children enrolled in their programs each year

Are we talking about a pattern?

[Anonymous]

From the homepage of the program:

Toddler Camp: (Ages 04-09 CO/ED)
Toddler camp is a prevention program is for small children displaying at-risk, rude and disrespectful behaviors. The intent of this program is to help struggling parents with younger children tiring to find their way and resting to authority. This program will help gain respect and discipline in younger children that insist doing things their way. The program starts off with a 12 hour wilderness experience which is uncomfortable. The intent is to teach appreciation what they have and respect for those providing their daily needs.

Following the 12 hour experience, youth will be required to meet weekly with a drill instructor for one month.

They sure start young. When is their a program for pregnant women trying to discipline their yet unborn child?

[Antigen]

Check this out!
Google Leadership Academy ft lauderdale and you don't get much relevant stuff on the first page but this:

Elite Leadership Academy
maps.google.com

1527 NE 4th Pl
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
(954) 358-2000
Get directions

More information »

So I figure they must have some advertising w/ their phone number, WTH, right? So I

Google (954)+358-2000 and come up with this:

Broward County - Office of Management and Budget
Weston - 954-358-2000. Wilton Manors - 954-390-2100. County Garbage - 954-765-4697. Florida Inland Nav. - 561-627-3386. N. Broward Hospital Dist - 954-355- ...
http://www.broward.org/budget/obi00902.htm - 23k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

It answers "JAM Youth Connection" at this hour.

[Antigen]

I was hooked into the homeschooling movement in Florida back then. There was this cult called The Institute of Basic Life Principles* run by a nut case named Bill Gothard. They were infiltrating all the fundie churches and homeschooling organizations at that time. They're the ones who came up with the idea of Character First! indoctrination for schools, corporations and government agencies.

* Ref Little Soldiers in the Culture War in above linked article.

 I remember Leadership Training as a buzz phrase that came up in homeschooling circles about Gothard. So I thought, wth, I'll  Google Denise Smith iblp

Old  08-25-2003, 11:03 AM
Denise Smith
        
Posts: n/a
Default I just have gotta say that Sc
I just have gotta say that Scientology is the best thing that ever happend to me.

My life is so different now and I really am winning.

I just want to thank all the hard working staff members and sea org members for their hard work and dedication in helping to keep Scientology working.

Whoa! I wonder if this is the same Denise Smith?

[Anonymous]

A Denise Smith also appear on the contact us page of JAM

[Antigen]

From the homepage of the program:

Toddler Camp: (Ages 04-09 CO/ED)
Toddler camp is a prevention program is for small children displaying at-risk, rude and disrespectful behaviors.

They sure start young. When is their a program for pregnant women trying to discipline their yet unborn child?

Check out this ex cult member's take on Blanket Training.

http://princessjo1988.blogspot.com/2008 ... ffins.html

[Antigen]

A Denise Smith also appear on the contact us page of JAM

yes, she's the founder and president, I do believe. That's noted earlier on in this thread.

BTW, that you Peet?