Here's an old newspaper article from the
Free Lance-Star (vol. 105, no. 263) out of Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Aside from the Kimball DeLaMare issue, there are a couple other items of interest, namely:
1.) Ken Stettler has been aware of program abuse for at least 20 years (yet still claims ignorance).
least one other Utah program/director familiar with Miller Newton's version of Straight methodology, i.e., Proctor Advocate/Layne Meacham. Newton must have had quite a sideline of training future program directors![/list]
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WED. Nov. 8, 1989
The Free Lance-Star'Tough love' may be child abuseBy
Mike CarterAssociated Press WriterSALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Matt Woolston's five weeks of drug treatment were spent mostly in a windowless room on a blue plastic chair.
"They wouldn't let you lean back. You had to sit forward with your back straight," often for up to 15 hours at a time, six days a week, and "rap" about personal problems, he said. He didn't see the sun for days at a time.
Woolston, 20, was held for 38 days after his parents placed him in KIDS of Greater Salt Lake, a drug and alcohol treatment program. He said he was coerced into going and was rescued only after friends followed a van heading to the "host home" where he was being held and called police.
Woolston's 19-year-old sister, Jennifer, has filed a $6.5 million lawsuit against KIDS, claiming she was held against her will. She says she escaped once by climbing down knotted bedsheets, was returned by her parents and a man with a badge who claimed to be a policeman, and broke an arm and a leg in a second attempt.
Police are investigating allegations of false imprisonment, unlawful detention and assault. The allegations are similar to those that closed KIDS of Southern California and KIDS of El Paso, Texas, earlier this year.
W. Kimball DeLaMare, director of the Utah KIDS, acknowledges that treatment can be severe. But so are the ravages of compulsive behavior, he says.
"We're not in the business to make money. We invite people to come in here. Our motive is to help kids get straight and live successful lives and develop coping skills . . . We want to give kids back to their parents."
KIDS is the third Utah "tough love" program to be investigated in a year. State officials worry Utah is becoming a mecca for unorthodox treatment centers that prey on desperate parents and use poorly trained "peer counselors."
"The parents want an answer and prevention, even an inoculation for these behaviors," said Wayne Holland, a Division of Youth Corrections investigator who believes Utah's religious and cultural background "tend to allow these non-traditional groups to fill that need."
It isn't unusual for parents to place children in a long-term program, which may take 18 months or more, for smoking cigarettes or having sex. Without proper admitting procedures involving professionals, too often kids who don't really need the treatment end up there, Holland said.
"A lot of times these kinds of programs promise miracles, and when they can't deliver they turn abusive," said Patricia Kreher, director of licensing for the Department of Social Services.
Another group, the Challenger Foundation, is fighting for its license after 17-year-old Elizabeth Zasso claims she was kidnapped into a 63-day wilderness experience aimed at character-building. A judge ruled that her constitutional rights were violated and she filed a $20 million lawsuit. The Garfield County Attorney has filed misdemeanor child abuse and witness-tampering charges.
And Proctor Advocate founder Layne Meacham faces charges he permitted the abuse of a 16-year-old girl by peer counselors. Meacham has testified he based his program partly on the teachings of the founder of KIDS.
KIDS in Utah is the non-profit progeny of KIDS of Bergen County, N.J., the subject of abuse allegations since it opened in 1984. KIDS now operates only in New Jersey, which has no licensing requirements, and Utah.
The three-month-old Utah program's conditional license has been extended to Jan. 31, and the state is awaiting the outcome of Jennifer Woolston's lawsuit and others contemplated by former patients, said Social Services' Ken Stettler.
Jennifer and Matt Woolston were put into KIDS by their parents. Jennifer and her attorney, Mary Corporon, say the reasons for her placement are unknown. Matt was placed into the 18-month program for drug treatment.
Because of the litigation, their mother, Marilyn Woolston, had no other comment but: "We feel real positive about it, and feel that it is very beneficial to the kids. Even Matt would tell you how he benefited."
DeLaMare said patients don't always know what's best and that parents have the right to intervene in a life out of control, even an adult child's. Adult patients sign a contract and can leave on 24 hours' written notice, he said.
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