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Teen Mentor (Costa Rica) shut down by authorities

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BuzzKill:
A bit of History:

Subject: Experience of Dundee Ranch Academy from ex-Director

To the Minister of Child Welfare:


I worked as the Director at the Academy at Dundee Ranch from March to
August of 2002. During this time, Mr. Joseph Atkin was the Financial Director.

Mr. Kenneth Wilson was the Student Director. I replaced Mr. Ron Del
Aguila  (who replaced Mr. Randall Hinton). After I left in August of 2002, Mr.
Joseph Atkin replaced me. Mr. Atkin left in February of this year, and has
been replaced by Mr. Francisco Bustos.

I feel that Dundee Ranch Academy should not be allowed to operate
because it is poorly managed, takes financial advantage of parents in crisis, and
puts teens in physical and emotional risk.

Dundee Ranch Academy is poorly managed, and this is why so many
directors have left in the short 18 months that the school has been open.
Company policies and procedures changed daily on the whims of Mr. Narvin
Lichfield, the owner. While I was there, Mr. Lichfield and his wife (girlfriend at
the time) often made it impossible for my staff and myself to do our jobs.
For example, Mr. Lichfield and his wife often changed the rules of the
program without informing the staff. They would give kids special permission to
break rules, until it got to the point where the staff gave up trying to control the students. Mr. Lichfield and his wife often demanded that structural changes be made to buildings or that new buildings be built without obtaining the necessary building permits. Orotina authorities
visited several times and threatened to close the place if construction was
occurring when they returned. However, because the construction workers
were more afraid of Mr. Lichfield and his fits of rage than they were of
the local authorities, they would go right back to work as soon as the
authorities were out of site.

The purpose of Dundee Ranch is not to help teens in crisis or their
families. It is to make millions of dollars for the owner. Although
the profit margins are approximately 50% -75%, Mr. Lichfield is unsatisfied.
He continues to try to squeeze out every penny he can. This is achieved by
hiring unqualified, untrained staff, providing the bare minimum of food
and living essentials, and by adding huge margins to additional services.
For example, if a student needs a ride to San Jose to visit the doctor,
Dundee charges the parents $250 when it costs them $50. If a student sees the
Doctor, parents are charged $50; Dundee pays $15. If a student needs
medicine, parents are charged $30; Dundee typically pays $2 - $3.
Parents pay $95 per month for "incidentals" like toothpaste and deodorant.
These incidentals, while I was there, cost Dundee $15 per month.

While I was in the process of resigning from Dundee Ranch last August,
an American male staff member assaulted and raped a female staff member at
a location of about 100 meters from where all the students are housed. I
was not on the premises at the time, but was involved in reporting the
incident to the Costa Rican authorities and staying with the employee's mother
who flew in from the United States. The parents of students who were in the
program were not informed of the incident. Mr. Atkin, one of Dundee's
many Directors, dismissed the incident to a Tico Times reporter as a
"non-issue." One of the reasons that the incident was not made public was because
the employee who committed the crime was a recent "graduate" of an
affiliated program. The program claims a 92% "success" rate, and a drunken assault
of a graduate would not be seen as a success.

This leads to another issue-untrained, unqualified staff. None of the
staff members are trained to work with at-risk youth. The only reason we had
hired Mr. Andy Lamb, a young 19-year-old with a history of abusive
behavior, is because he knew the program, and was willing to work for the very low
wage offered by Mr. Lichfield. According to the Mr. Lichfield, "there
was not enough money in the budget" to hire trained, qualified staff. Here
are some other highlights:
* The owner, Mr. Lichfield, has been involved with these types of
programs for at least 15 years, but as the Marketing person, not as a clinical
person.
* The current director, Mr. Francisco Bustos, (as Mr. Atkin
recently got fed up with the chaos and also left Dundee Ranch) has no experience. If you
look at their website, it states that he has experience owning and
operating 5 pizza restaurants. The reason he was hired is because he was a
longtime friend of the owner's wife, Ms. Flori Alvaredo.
* The "Family Fathers", the staff who spend all day with the
students, give corrections and punishment to the students, and who are supposed to
teach and kindly correct the students, are minimum wage workers who do not
speak English.
* The "Family Representatives", the staff that hold daily
counseling sessions (called "Reflections") with the students have no training or
background in this area. They are also the only point of contact
between the program and the students and often find themselves in a family
counseling role, for which they are not qualified.
* They have only one trained psychologist on staff, who visits
once a week, but parents must pay an additional $75/hour for his services.
* I am the first to admit that I was not even qualified to be
there. I hold a degree in Secondary Education, but took only one class in working with
at-risk youth.In addition to this, when I was there, most of the staff were
disgruntled and frustrated with the way they were treated. Often their paychecks
did not arrive on time or with the right amount of money. They often took
their frustration at the administration out on the students. They treated
students poorly (yelling at them, giving them extra "consequences".)
Staff turn-over is very high. This creates additional instability with the
students. During the year 2002, there were four different Directors.
"Family Representatives" and teachers came and left monthly. This
created additional emotional instability in the students who were already torn
from their parents and allowed extremely limited time to talk with the other
students in the program. The only chance they often had to talk was
with staff, and those staff continued to leave the program.

As an employee, the only training I received was on how to manipulate
parents. I was told many times that "there is no reason for a student
to return home before 'graduating' the program". Once they are in, they
are there to stay. This process takes 12 to 36 months. There were many
students who had psychological, medical, or special education needs that
we could not meet. When I suggested that they be sent to another place
where they could receive the help they needed, I was told to "keep my mouth
shut and make sure that their parents kept them there." I was threatened
with my job. If there were students who would be better off going home or
entering another program, I was not allowed to suggest this to the parent.
Ironically, if the parents had concerns about what was going on, we were
told to tell the parents that their children were "just manipulating
them."

Students were not allowed to communicate freely with their parents, or
anyone else. They were allowed to write a weekly email and letter, but
the staff was instructed to read the email and letter and take out anything
they did not like, or write comments to the parents. The students were not
allowed to express their true feelings. Students were not allowed to
talk with their parents until they were "Level 3", which could take anywhere
from 4 to 24 months. At that point, they were allowed a 15 minute phone call
once a month. Staff was instructed to hang the phone up and terminate
their conversation if the student said anything negative about the program.

Students were not allowed to talk without permission. Typically, they
would be able to speak with their friends for about 15 to 30 minutes a day.
They were isolated from the outside world. They did not have a chance to
view a newspaper or the internet. Emotionally, this was very difficult for the
students, as many of them processed their emotions by talking about
them.

When I first arrived, "restraints" were common. This was when a staff
member would twist a student's arm around their back and throw them to
the ground or against a wall. I know of at least one case where an arm was
dislocated. I insisted that this stop, and I am fairly certain that it
did not happen while I was there. However, I have heard reports that this
was started again after I left. Further investigation should be done.

Another punishment was writing "essays" of 3000 to 150,000 words.
Students were required to sit in a dark room without proper back support, and
write these essays until they finished the required number of words. Often,
staff members, for no apparent reason, would rip up the essays and make the
students start over. Students were required to write for 8 hours a day
until their words were completed.

The worst punishment was "OP" or "Observational Punishment." In this,
students were required to stand, kneel, sit, or lay on a cement floor
without moving for 30 minutes at a time. They had to do this for 8
hours a day, until they had "served their time". When some of the kids accepted
this, the staff made them run 100s of laps around the pool, just to make
it miserable enough that the kids would want to comply.

Students had no voice. If they had a complaint, they were supposed to
write a "grievance" on a piece of paper. Often, these were lost or
confiscated by staff who did not want to look bad.

I stayed at Dundee because I wanted to make things run well, because I
believe that when administered well, the program can be effective for
some teens. However, many of the teens that were there at the time (and
probably still there) would be much better served somewhere else. This was not
an option because it would take money out of Mr. Lichfield's pocket. I also
realized that my efforts would never be successful. I could not hire
and keep trained staff. I could not spend money on things the kids needed.

Several times we ran out of toilet paper and the kids had to use
notebook paper. I could not get Mr. Lichfield to begin the dorms that were so
desperately needed, and that he promised to parents "were in the works".
Everything was focused on the profits Mr. Lichfield could make, not on
the health or welfare of the students. Some additional examples of this
are:
* The city water was disconnected and students were given well
water to drink, because the city water was "too expensive". Shortly thereafter,
approximately 40 students got diarrhea and eventually drinking water was
filtered. This may have been a coincidence. But even if the water did
not have any problems, they should have tested it before they began giving
it to students.
* The kids are crowded in their rooms. There are as many as 15
kids in what used to be a single hotel room. They were required to sleep from 8:00
pm to 6:00 am to save on staff costs. (We only needed 2 staff when the boys
were in their beds, versus 6-8 staff when they were awake.) Mr. Lichfield did
not want to spend the money to hire additional staff.
* For the first 10 months that the school was open, there were no
trained staff administering medicine. After several students were given the
wrong medicine, or were not given their medication, I insisted on hiring two
full-time nurses. Before that, the minimum wage staff members who could
not speak English were required to pass out medicine.
I did not have the resources or support necessary to provide what I felt
was a humane and safe environment for these teens. I was also concerned
about the "High Impact" extension that was a copy of a program that was shut
down in Mexico because of the death of students. For these reasons, I
decided to resign in early August.
It would be my pleasure to speak to someone about these issues. I can
be reached at this email address, or by phone at - during
the day, or at  -  during the evening.

Kind regards,
Amberly Knight

BuzzKill:
From: Martha Martin
Sent: Mon 3/3/2003 10:38 PM
To: suflowersincostarica@yahoo.com
Subject: Academy at Dundee


March 3, 2003

To the Minister of Child Welfare,

I am a parent of a former student at Dundee. My son was there from November, 2001 – August, 2002. I am very concerned for the children that are still there. I worked closely with the school while my son was there, but still did not get answers to the questions that I asked.

It started with the lies that were told to my husband and I. We were looking for a boarding school for our son. After looking into many schools, we thought we found the perfect one. WWASP explained to us that Dundee had an aggressive academic program, a program to work with the locals to learn a new culture and a strict environment where teens would learn accountability. We were never told of the “program”. We felt comfortable sending him to beautiful Costa Rica.

My son went through the first “levels” quickly so we were allowed to speak with him on the phone. He knew what kind of school we were looking for. He told us that this was not what we were told it was, that it was a program and not a boarding school. He said that the staff read his e-mails to us and when he had something to tell us, he had to wait and talk on the phone. When we addressed this with the director at the time, we were told that we were being manipulated by our son. Over time, I realized that this is the answer the staff gives the parents for any complaints that the students have. This was a red flag for me.

We decided to keep him there until PCI. This is the first time that parents are allowed to visit their children. This was one of the lies told to us from the beginning, that we would be able to visit our son after 2 1/2 to 3 months. We waited almost 6 months. I was concerned with what I saw. The staff was inexperienced. They were very nice people, but not one of them had the credentials to be able to speak to me about my son. The bottom line for them was to say anything they could so that the parent would not pull their child from the school. I knew that this was a rustic place, but the overcrowding was terrible. There were 12-14 grown boys in a small room. The beds were small and close together. The doctor even said that it was not healthy to have them so close together. When one got sick, they all did. The kids were really out of shape. Not enough organized exercise. Their diet wasn’t bad, but very little meat and vegetables. The academics were not what was promised. And the rules were somewhat scrambled. When I returned to the states, I wrote a long letter to the school with my concerns. I represented many other parents. We couldn’t believe how much of our money was being taken in, and how little was spent on the kids. I was granted a phone call from Narvin Litchfield about these concerns. He proceeded to tell me about all the great plans he had. He even sent me the blue prints of what the school would soon look like. To this day, with the quick growth of this school, I don't think that they have built the new dorms yet. It hasn’t changed much except for the building of the “High Impact”.

This brings me to a major concern. When I was there in August to pull my son from this school I saw “High Impact”. This is a place where children are taken to if they do not behave. Dundee already has a punishment system that I feel is very excessive. OP as they call it is a place of isolation. Some kids stay there for weeks at a time until they conform to every rule. The children often have to lie on a cement floor, hands behind them for long periods of time. You may end up there for a very minor infraction. This is something that I would appreciate someone looking into. I don’t know if the High Impact building is open yet, but it is something that really needs to be looked into. They closed the one down in Mexico, where a teen died. Once a child is taken behind those walls, I don’t feel that there is anyone there to be able to make sure that no real harm comes to this child.

Another event happened while I was there in August. A male staff member seriously attacked and raped a female staff member. They were both graduates of the program and returned to this school to work. This happens frequently in these schools, as grads work for very low wages. I was in Joe Atkins office while he was talking with authorities to try and find this boy. It was pretty serious at the time, but later Mr. Atkins shrugged the story off in the Tico Times.

I feel that there is both physical and mental abuse to these teens. Some of the children that are there may have been headed for jail back home but there are also many of them like my son, whose parents wanted them to have an opportunity. An opportunity to catch up in school, learn a new language and culture and get back on the right path. The parents are so manipulated that they don't really know how there son or daughter is doing, and would never get a call from the staff that they thought that this was to harsh for them and they need to go home. I don't believe this has ever happened in any of the WWASP schools. With vertually no screening of these teens before they enter the school, it is hard to understand that some one would not recognize that this is not the place for everyone. Once you enroll your child, you are pressured into thinking that he will only succeed if he "graduates the program". This can take from 18-24 months.

I do believe that there is physical abuse going on. I understand that there are times when a child may need to be restrained, but I believe it is happening to often. The mental abuse is worse. They are not allowed to talk with each other except in group to talk about their problems. They have absolutely no contact with the outside world. They can not read a newspaper or hear a newscast. Current events are taken away from them and my son had no idea what was happening in our world while he was there. I was told that there was a music department at Dundee. I had to fight to let my son have his guitar. They said that he needed to concentrate on other things. It was so sad when I left the school with him last August. So many of the kids were upset and crying because my son would play his guitar at night while they were trying to go to sleep. This was the closest thing to real life that they had.

Mr. Narvin Litchfield, his brother and friends own many of these schools, both in and outside of the U.S.. The ones in Cancun, Samoa, and The Czech Republic were closed down. Carolina Springs is often visited by child welfare in the states and has been cited with many violations. One important one is that the upper level children give out punishment to the lower levels. This is illegal in the states. Children can not dole out punishment to other children. There is also overcrowding.

I also have concerns about your organization interviewing the students. There are ramifications that can happen if the staff or owner do not like what the students say. The children don’t have any representation while at this school. If they say anything to their parents they are called liars and manipulators. From my experience, the parents are just as manipulated as the students in this program. You are told to “trust the program” and let them do whatever they feel is right for your child. Not a good concept when no one at the facility is really trained or qualified to be working with teens.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Thank you,
Martha Martin

BuzzKill:
K says:
Do you find yourself missing Dundee?
M says:
Sometimes,
M says:
I feel so free at home, even though I live with really strict rules in this house,
M says:
and sometimes I feel so alone, and when I was at Dundee, I always had someone there
M says:
you know what I'm saying?
K says:
  does too - even tho it was pretty awful in so many ways. I wonder how it differs for the boys and girls. Seems like the girls mostly complain of hygiene factors, where the boys starve and are knocked around.
M says:
I think it was the same on both sides,
M says:
just people have different pet peeves,
K says:
Sure, that makes since. Did you see the crocodile?
M says:
yes ma'am
K says:
That thing worried me. Its not like you can tame them.
M says:
And a lot of the kids were stupid, and they stuck their hands where it could easily bite them,
M says:
and then they would take it away,
M says:
and the teachers were always feeding it,
M says:
and when the boys went out on work projects,

K says:
where you ever sick while there?
M says:
Yeah,
M says:
I have endomietriosis,
M says:
and while I was there I had my first symptoms,
M says:
and so they said that I was manipulating,
M says:
and made me go to the group,
M says:
while in really bad pain
K says:
Thats awful.  was real sick once. I think it must've been when they cut off the city water and gave you kids well water.
M says:
I remember that,
M says:
I drank the water, and was fine with it,
M says:
because here in Reno, the water is kinda the same,
M says:
only they take out the dirt specs
M says:
heh
K says:
They never told me a thing about it. I have no idea what kind of shots they gave him. He said he got a bunch of shots. I think maybe it was to stop an allergic reaction. But because they told me Nada about it, I can only guess.
M says:
Morphine.
M says:
They injected you with morphine for a lot of different reasons.
K says:
Are you kidden me?
M says:
And gave you the same pain killer for all the same reasons too
M says:
No, I am so serious.
K says:
Did they tell you it was morphine??
M says:
They told us that it was morphine,
M says:
my friend Kri knows aboot that too.
M says:
The sad thing is nobody believes us
K says:
Well I do, but this is the first I've herd of morphine.
K says:
Damn - did they use sterile equipment??
M says:
Yes ma'am, I'm pretty sure they did,
M says:
I never really thought to look,
M says:
But I'm sure they did
K says:
Well thank God in Heaven for that.

Ursus:
Some more comments left for the above article, "Parents revile Teen Mentor, others claim program's value" (by Adam Williams; April 01, 2011; Tico Times), #s 11-13:


Emp MTR · Monday April 18 2011
As a volunteer who stayed 24/7 at the facility for several weeks, I can say there was no abuse or mistreatment.
I was there and the Therapist did not quit because there was abuse or mistreatment, they quit because there was
some policy changes requiring them to be more responsible and they didn't like that.

If there was abuse or mistreatment, the Therapist would have:

1. Never taken the job or quit immediately. They would never worked for months as a party to abuse and
mistreatment. No reasonable Therapist would do this,

2. Informed the Operators of the abuse or mistreatment. Never once in meetings, emails, or discussions did
they mention to the Operators that they had seen or had a concern of abuse and mistreatment. In fact, they
stated many times both verbally and in emails their support of the program.

3. At a minimum, the Therapist would have informed parents of any abuse or mistreatment. Never once prior to the closure did they inform
or notify parents of any abuse or mistreatment. In fact just days before they quit, in tours and phone calls from
prospective parents they recommended to the parents they enroll their Teen. No reasonable person would
or should have recommended Parents enroll their child in a program they believed to be abusive.

4. They would have Not told the Program lawyer ( after they quit ) that they didn't see any abuse or mistreatment, they just disagreed
with staff policy changes and wanted severance pay. When this wasn't agreed to, they then took action to close
the program.

The evidence is clear. the Therapist issues had nothing to do with abuse or mistreatment of students but was about
job requirements, pay and eventually severance. Otherwise, if it had been abuse the Therapist would not have worked
as a party to that for months, told parents and prospective parents that they whole heartily supported the program, and
sent emails of support to the operators.liz weaver · Tuesday June 07 2011
I find it very sickening that a few of the owners of the WWASPS facilities all of a sudden are accepting no responsibility for any/ most of the abusive programs that were shut down due to neglect, abuse, and many many other reasons. they say that they have nothing to do with their programs. what about high impact that was closed down years ago. they still are saying its not a WWASPS owned facility when it clearly was. all the payments were through the WWASPS billing process. they all seem to have the same type or new types of abuse being created. i went to cross creek and high impact. mind you ive been in quite a few facilities, but both of those facilities were the worst one ive ever been to. to be honest... i would wake up every day wondering if i would be alive to go to sleep that night. or if it would ever end. im not going to say some of the things that happened there. but i still suffer from major PTSD and flashbacks, nightmares and everything due to just these 2 places. my parents were lied to completely just to get me into these places. cross creek was telling my parents that i wasnt working the program. (well duh... i never got a chance because i was kept in their isolation rooms the whole time) the y told my parents of this gret place in mexico that has a realy good turn out rate, but denied my father the right to transport me to the facility. high impact. they knew that if my father saw it i wouldnt have stepped foot into that program. they tried to break me down by saying my parents hated me and that my father said it was ok to abuse me as long as it got me to cooperate. i spent days in their dog cages. im not sure why these people, Robert Litchfield, Narvin Litchfield any of these people that are part of owning the WWASPS facilities run when one of their programs get shut down. but i can almost assure that within time, all their places will eventually be shut down. and what links all these places together is their forms and techniques of abuse... enough said on my behalf.liz weaver · Tuesday June 07 2011
i forgot to mention earlier... i find it also odd, that most of the staff from the places are shut down, just go to other facilities that are still open. that proves that the abuse remains through these people that have the nerve to call themselves "staff". at high impact we had to call the females "momma____ or papa_____" i thought that was just sick.

# # #

depps:
ok i will give you the facts right here my name is dallin. i was in mentor. all the rumors of abuse are completly true. but see bob had plenty to do with the operations of the school what he said went. on multiple occasions it was robs decision on how long i was in the intervention room i spent upto 3 days in there at once. i also saw rob tackle a student who was following his directions he then came and talked to some of the students to make it seem as if it was necessary. this school cant hold u once ur passed 18 and rob did not like that he tried telling me he wont give me my passport when i left i replied with have fun in prison i will report it stolen my passport was suddenly on school grounds. rob thought i was going to cause hell to his school so 5 days before my b day they moved me to another town an hour away and on my birthday they gave me a trashbag of my clothes and 3 dollars. luckily i was able to work and gain enough money to return. o wait did i mention i have not seen my laptop we paid for my digital camera or the most important one my birth certificate. Rob you ruined my life and u knew u were doing it you fed us bullshit. you asked me personally what food i was allergic to and disliked ha i should of known u would pull something my meals for the next week consisted of the only two foods i named. after these other students made it home i was still stranded in another country. Rob told me i would not make it 2 hours on my own and said it is gonna be embarrassing when i came back hahaha guess what Rob i told u from day one im not doing ur bullshit and it worked out for me i worked my ass off mixing concrete for 2 dollars an hour but anything is better then mentor teen. btw Rob nina is a BABE haha

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