Reposted to open discussion:
Here’s a particularly appalling variant of the transformation LE. (Learning experience) that pretty much devolved into pervs’ in the “helping professions” subjecting little girls under their care to act out blatantly sexualized humiliations.
Some variant of the “wear this to show us who you really are” (Psychodrama) abuses happened also in CEDU if I’m remembering correctly.
Excerpts from Ursus’ 17 Apr 2009 post of the following article:
An Oregon School for Troubled Teens Under Scrutiny
By Maia Szalavitz Friday, Apr. 17, 2009
On April 28, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case that has caused anguish in the world of special education and children's mental health.
The case, Forest Grove v. TA, centers on the question of whether the families of disabled children have the right to seek reimbursement for private school tuition from the state, if the child has not first received special education services in public school. The legal question is a narrow one, but the case raises larger, more troublesome issues about student safety and the quality of educational services that families should expect when they place their children in private residential care, because the school involved in the case, Mount Bachelor Academy, near Prineville, Ore., is currently under state investigation based on allegations of abuse reported by students and one employee.
A spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) declined to discuss the details of the ongoing investigations of Mount Bachelor, which include a second inquiry based on possible licensing violations. But according to 10 students, two separate parents, and a current part-time employee interviewed by TIME — some of whom are involved in the state inquiry — Mount Bachelor Academy regularly uses intensely humiliating tactics as treatment. For instance, in required seminars that the school calls Lifesteps, students say staff members of the residential program have instructed girls, some of whom say they have been victims of rape or sexual abuse in the past, to dress in provocative clothing — fishnet stockings, high heels and miniskirts — and perform lap dances for male students, as therapy...
Sharon Bitz, the executive director of Mount Bachelor Academy, denies the charges. In an e-mailed statement to TIME, she said the reports of abuse are "inaccurate representations of Mount Bachelor Academy's therapeutic approach for struggling or underachieving teens. Some of the accusations are demonstrably false, while others have been exaggerated for shock effect."
In response to the accusations of sexual humiliation, Bitz told the Oregon Bend Bulletin newspaper in a recent interview that school officials have never instructed students to act in a way that would "sexualize them," and that the students' costumes came from their own dorm rooms and were chosen by the students. "We would never ask a student to give a lap dance," Bitz told the Oregon paper.
PSYCHODRAMA — OR NEW TRAUMA?
Mount Bachelor's executive director, Bitz, says her school uses widely accepted psychological treatments to help children overcome their problems. "We also use a psychodrama treatment approach designed to do one or both of two things," said Bitz in her statement, "get a student to embrace qualities of their character (such as beauty or courage) about which they have doubt, or assist them in recognizing qualities that are unproductive (such as selfishness or conceit) about which they have little insight."
There are plenty of parents, including TA's, who say they are happy with the services provided to their children. Former students have also praised the school for turning their lives around, in comments on online message boards and in letters to regulators.
"All methods of therapy are done in a supportive atmosphere with trained professionals and the intent to raise self-awareness and self-worth," said Bitz.
But other students and parents describe a different experience. The students interviewed by TIME, who attended the school at separate times in recent years, said that humiliation, not support, was the foundation of much of the treatment at Mount Bachelor.
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