I am of the strong opinion that if irresponsible, mentally unstable, selfish, and over controlling parents didnt exist, neither would these programs.
When a kid gets sent away for smoking weed and cutting class, or running away to escape their parents you can ONLY blame the parents for their lack of ability to raise children. Too many stupid people have kids when they are not aware what raising kids intails. I dont speak from an outsiders view either, I raise kids for a living and I am 10 times better at it then most. The problem is a lack of respect. Aaron's mother and father did not respect Aaron enough to realize that he was just being a teenager and if he needed help he would have asked for it.
Whoooaaaaa.. hold on..
Have you raised kids or even plan on raising kids? I'd be real careful how we attempt to paint two people none of us have ever met. The same two people we are judging based upon our own experiences.
When we get into this whole "parents get conned" issue there are several factors you need to consider before that excuse can be awarded. One, did you even care to do the research or were you sold by an Edcon and a fancy brochure? Two, was your child truly in need of help? (this I believe is where most parents are simply acting out of spite) Three, did you truly exhaust all options and do everything you could BEFORE you considered a program? The answers to these questions will most likely always be the opposite of the truth. Because most parents are blinded by their own emotions and pride.
That excuse doesn't fly anymore given the glut of information on the internet. I posted back in 2007 what I called my Revised Manifesto. To me the only thing parents are allowed to offer are apologies. They get no free passes or excuses for sending their kids to programs anymore given that all the information they really need to make a truly informed decision is right at their fingertips.
www.google.comjesus h.
Back in 1994 that information wasn't there. Most of you seem to have forgotten what things were like in 1994. That is ok it was 14 or so years ago. You've all forgotten the bloodbath that was going on all over California with the Crips and the Bloods. Yall forgotten the crack wars of the urban ghettos. People were scared during those days and they had a decent enough reason to be scared.
Those were frightening times to be alive and to have a kid.
I truly feel bad for the parents of Aaron Bacon. The only thing they knew was their kid got rolled in the parking lot a school, he was smoking dope, and changing right before their eyes.
They turned to what they thought was the best possible alternative that was around during those times and did so working under the prevailing conditions.
1) This what they knew: Juvies, psych hospitals, and reform schools= bad
2) Crips beat up their son in the parking lot= very bad
3) The mainstream American view of smoking hooch at the time= gateway drug to becoming a needle jockey=bad
Try not to forget this before you guys start tearing into these people. The media hype, the government war on drugs, the LA riots, and the whole culture of the 90's which went a long ways to kicking off the entire craze for programs in the first place was perpetuated not by incompetence but by the total vacuum of information.
I think there should be programs for troubled parents that kids could send them to against their will. I would utilized that service.
I actually offered to conduct a workshop for Astart to show those pansies how shit really rolls. I figured a dose of reality, or as close as I could get to it, might do them some good.
No takers so far.
