More on 20/20--UK

[Deborah]

This very interesting message was posted at "We've Been There" under Warnings and Red Flags
http://pub57.ezboard.com/fwevebeenthere ... D=24.topic

paulbloom
Registered User
Posts: 1
(9/24/03 12:31 am)
Reply  HELP REQUESTED FROM ENGLAND
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 HELP REQUESTED FROM ENGLAND

This summer an English TV company recruited 30 sixteen year old volunteers to spend four weeks of their school holidays experiencing ?1950?s style boarding education?. During this time they were forbidden to have any contact with the outside world.
As it happens, I was at boarding school in the 1950?s and could recognise that the regime they were subjected to was a complete sham. It was just an excuse for subjecting a group of naïve and vulnerable teenagers to assaults, abuse, malnutrition and humiliation.
I have lodged a complaint with our TV regulators about this programme but no-one seems interested. I think I must be the only one who feels that assaulting and abusing teenagers for entertainment is wrong.
However, now the company, ?Twenty Twenty? and the broadcaster ?Channel 4? intend to move on. They intend to send six ?troubled teenagers? to a ?leading American therapy camp? for six weeks at the end of October. The vestigial details they have provided can be found at channel4.com/troubledteenagers.
I have written to ?Twenty Twenty? and ?Channel 4? appealing to them not to do this but received no reply. When I posted a warning on the Channel 4 website it was quickly removed and I am now prevented from making any further posts. This means that the TV people know full well what these places are like and still intend to send vulnerable English kids out to them and also that they do not want the kids warned before they go.
I have been trying everything to get this stopped without any success; it?s like banging my head against a brick wall.
Is anyone out there able to help? Firstly by deluging ?Twenty Twenty? and Channel 4 with emails and secondly, by finding out where the camp is that they are being sent to.
Please help if you can; I am really most concerned one of the kids will come home in a box.
If you wish to contact me my email is http://www.channel4.com/life/microsites ... index.html
TROUBLED TEENAGERS


We are looking for teenagers to participate in a Channel 4 series that will see them take on a tough, exciting and maybe even life-changing challenge.

If you?re 16/17 years old and everyone says that you?re out of control and over-indulged but you want to prove them wrong, here?s your chance.

If you?re a parent who?s tried everything and still your teenager is going off the rails, then this could be just what you?re looking for.

The series will follow six 'troubled teenagers' as they travel to one of the leading therapy camps in America. They will undergo a course, devised by the camp?s expert team, that includes mountain trekking, outdoor survival, and psychological counselling.

For four to six weeks the group will live a basic outdoor existence between the desert and the mountains. The natural surroundings are beautiful; but this is no holiday camp. The teenagers who go will face a physically tough and emotionally demanding regime. The camp is not a boot camp either; discipline is strict but there is no military-style screaming and shouting.

There is nothing like this currently available in the UK, and the series will offer a truly exceptional opportunity to those who take part. If you or your teenager would like to participate, then fill in an application form for either parents or teenagers and e-mail it to tomcoveney@twentytwenty.tv.

Application forms will only be accepted by e-mail; if you don?t have access to e-mail then call Tom Coveney or Catherine Milne on 020 7284 2020.

[Anonymous]

Seems ABC Primetime had a similar idea and followed a group enrolled in a wilderness therapy program based in Oregon. Unfortunately, there was a death at this program's Nevada-based location not long after the segment aired.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/communit ... 20524.html

 :eek:

[Deborah]

Oh yes, Catherine Freer. So ironic... three teens died at CFW AFTER the release of their study that attempted to prove that wilderness therapy was no more dangerous than everyday activities like playing football and driving.

They were very successful at keeping these deaths out of the news.

http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?topic=654&forum=9

[Anonymous]

So far, there seems to be only 2 reported deaths at Catherine Freer, a girl who collapsed while hiking and a boy who was killed by a falling tree branch.  Who is the 3rd child and what happened to cause their death?

[Deborah]

ERIKA HARVEY in May 02
Unknown Teen Girl in Oct 02 (I believe it was)
COREY BAINES in Mar 03

I'll post more when I have access to my files.

[Anonymous]

That's interesting information. Last year Struggling Teens suggested Catherine Freer (sp)as an option for our child.

You gotta love the referral goes to the highest bidder.....

[Deborah]

Check this. Still has a five-star rating at
http://www.wilderness-programs.org/Programs.html

Skyline Journey, where there was a death due to medical neglect has a four-star rating.

http://www.fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.ph ... forum=9&31
http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?to ... &forum=9&2

RE: Skyline's Rating - Conner offers this important advice. (The link no longer works):
http://www.sltrib.com/2002/oct/10122002/utah/utah.htm

It reads:
Despite, the incident (Ian's murder), Skyline Journey still has a five-star rating, the highest available, from http://www.WildernessTherapy.org , and independent nonprofit consumer-information resource, which conducts research and gathers information on wilderness programs.

Michael Conner, an Oregon psychologist and wilderness program expert who oversees the Web site, said the rating system, "doesn't account for allegations or charges that are recently made." He recommends that parents do their own reseearch by determining if a specific wilderness program has any pending civil or criminal court cases.
*****************************

When the rubber meets the road, they make the "window of loss" arguement. Bottom line, no "therapy" should include the risk of death. Particularly without the informed consent of parent AND child.

There are a number of programs with good ratings that have less than good track records.

[Anonymous]

How do you rate a treatment modality that holds no one accountable for a consequential treatment approach that in the worst case scenario, results in death?  

http://www.teenadvocatesusa.org

 :flame:

[Anonymous]

On 2003-10-01 18:28:00, Anonymous wrote:

"So far, there seems to be only 2 reported deaths at Catherine Freer, a girl who collapsed while hiking and a boy who was killed by a falling tree branch.  Who is the 3rd child and what happened to cause their death?"

The girl collapsed when hiking?  Tell me more.  

Where was the the branch falling from the tree the "fault" of this program? I don't get it.  

I think it's great that this t.v. show is doing this, just hope it's not a huge sensationalized show, but done to actually help some of these families that have nothing to turn to.

[Anonymous]

The girl that died May 27, 2002 at Catherine Freer in Nevada died of heat-stroke with dehydration--totally preventable cause of death.  

The girl that died at the end of October 2002 at Catherine Freer Nevada was found dead in her sleeping bag--cause of death never conclusively determined.  

The boy that died at Catherine Freer Oregon March 26, 2003--well, even if the tree branch falling was an Act of God, the third such Act in a single program in ten months--you gotta ask, Who is God speaking to?

If you don't get it, somebody sure should.

[Anonymous]

Nobody can go undercover in one of these programs at this point and really see the truth about what goes on.  These programs are turned on to the media attention and are expecting undercover reporting to be going on.  They will be prepared for undercover investigations just as they are prepared for parental visits that are scheduled in advance.

[Antigen]

When Nancy Reagan brought Princess Di to visit Straight in Virginia, they took all the misbehavors out of group so they wouldn't be seen. When Nancy visited St. Pete, they actually had one kid bound and gagged in a back room to keep him from talking to reporters.

Obviously, this is a planned PR event. The treatment given these 30 British kids will be a walk in the park compared to what normally goes on there.

Child abusers hardly ever show their true colors when they know someone's looking.

What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying that
they don't like something to saying that the government should forbid it. When you go down that road, don't expect freedom to survive very long.
--Thomas Sowell

[paulbloom]

Ginger Warbis. Tried to email you but it came bouncing back as spam.

[Anonymous]

I really thought I had seen it all with these fucking places, but THIS is just downright fucking SICK!!.  Now these places are being used for the TV audiences ENTERTAINMENT!!!  Yay!!  Isn't it fun to watch teenagers get belittled and humiliated.  Wow, just fucking WOW.

http://abcfamily.go.com/bratcamp/home.html

http://forums.go.com/forums/abcfamily/f ... hread=true

[Anonymous]

"We have kids come through the program that have done things just as minor as being caught watching an X-rated movie all the way up to serious crimes, like drive-by shootings"

from clip 1  http://abcfamily.go.com/bratcamp/home.html

tracking the kids down with dogs, from clip 3

"They're (piercings) gonna come out whether you take them out yourself or they are taken out"  clip 4.....but listen to the girls response!!!