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Inculcated:
Biblical Reform School Discipline: Tough Love or Abuse?
Missouri Baptist Reform Schools Accused by Mothers of Harsh Punishment and Deprivation BY SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES April 12, 2011

This article covers the story of a woman who survived. What she survived was aided and abetted and concealed by her church for years. The Independent Fundamentalist Baptist Church. Some will recognize the IFB from their http://www.newbeginningsgirlsacademy.com/

The accompanying 20/20 news video which covers some of the abuses endemic to the IFB is a must view. “If you’re not bruising the child you’re not spanking the child enough”

Her entire life was the church. “It was the only world she knew”. A young girl was instructed by her pastor that god wanted her to go to the prison and announce forgiveness to the step-father (longtime IFB member) who severely beat and molested her—after he (Daniel Leif) was sent to prison a second time for molesting another young girl.  The instilling of guilt shame and subjugation of women by her abusive step-father and the adults who continually failed her caused her to be vulnerable to another perpetrator. At fifteen she was raped by Ernie Willis. She believed at that time that “a good Christian doesn’t press charges”. A month later, Ernie Willis raped her again. She didn’t tell until she found out she was four months pregnant.She says she still struggles to forgive herself. Her pastor “showed her a passage in Deuteronomy that said if a girl doesn’t cry out she obviously was a part of it” and that she was “lucky she didn’t live in old testament times or she would’ve been stoned”. Pastor Phelp’s wife Linda asked Tina if she enjoyed being raped and Tina was asked to write a statement asking congregation members to forgive her for “allowing the compromising situation to occur” (the rape) and to read it aloud as discipline before the congregation. She was humiliated. Some members of the congregation were horrified and disgusted to hear pastor Phelps read a statement about this child’s immorality. Eventually CPS was called in and the exploitation of the child was reframed again as a tryst. Her own mother (who is still married to the registered sex offender who also raped her daughter from ages 9-11) was complicit in the cover-up. Tina was then sent to live in the Pastor’s home—the so called prophet’s chamber. Shortly thereafter she was banished to live with another IFB family she had never met (The rapist Ernie Willis paid for her airfare). Here Pastor Matt Olson instructed her to write another letter in which she was to apologize to her rapist’s wife for betraying her trust.

The videos continue on to describe a culture of rampant sexual abuses inflicted on young women covered up by the IFB and church sanctioned physical violence

See also http://baptistthinker.wordpress.com/201 ... b-culture/

Inculcated:

--- Quote ---Preached:“That cry is the cry of the will and that will needs to be broken” “The nerves need to be affected without tearing down the tissue of the buttocks, how many whacks is irrelevant you might need a hundred” “There is a scripture verse that says the blueness of the wound drives away the evil.”
--- End quote ---

Ursus:

--- Quote from: "Inculcated" ---Biblical Reform School Discipline: Tough Love or Abuse?
Missouri Baptist Reform Schools Accused by Mothers of Harsh Punishment and Deprivation BY SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES April 12, 2011

This article covers the story of a woman who survived. What she survived was aided and abetted and concealed by her church for years. The Independent Fundamentalist Baptist Church. Some will recognize the IFB from their http://www.newbeginningsgirlsacademy.com/
--- End quote ---
Here's the full article for posterity's sake:

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abc NEWS / Health

Biblical Reform School Discipline: Tough Love or Abuse?
Missouri Baptist Reform Schools Accused by Mothers of Harsh Punishment and Deprivation

By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES
April 12, 2011

Anne's rebellion against her large Christian family -- she was one of 10 children -- began after she was gang-raped last year while jogging in her Maryland neighborhood.

"Because of that the trauma, she started spiraling in every way possible," said her mother, Jeannie Marie, who did not want their last name made public. Anne, now 18, said she numbed the pain with drinking and rebellion, which terrified her mother.

Desperate, Jeannie Marie turned to her church for help, learning about a Christian reform school that she says promised to "get right" her wayward daughter.

But neither was prepared for the ordeal they say Anne experienced from November to January of this year at New Beginnings Girls Academy, an Independent Fundamental Baptist boarding school in La Russell, Mo.

The school, according to its website, serves troubled teens so "through Jesus Christ, they can overcome their addictions, mend their broken relationships and get their lives on the right path."

Instead, Anne said she was told the rape was her fault and was subjected to harsh discipline -- ridiculed, restrained and deprived of proper nutrition and adequate clothing.

As punishment for misbehaving she says she was forced to wear a red shirt and stand facing a wall, sometimes for 8 to 10 hours a day with only 15-minute breaks for food. "I was so achy it hurt," said Anne.

She said toilet paper and sanitary pads were rationed, despite Anne's urinary problems after the rape. She also said no one offered to get her medical care.

"We thought maybe Anne would go there and hide out and pull herself together," said Jeannie Marie. "We thought it was a safe place to go and we wouldn't have to worry...We trusted our church."

Anne left the school in January, but said the punitive approach left her with no self-worth and anxiety attacks so bad she cannot breathe.

New Beginnings charges $10,300 a year, according to its admission application. On a signed form, parents agree to "corporal discipline," which is spelled out in their mission statement as up to 15 "swats" with a wooden paddle in each 24-hour period for misbehavior.

The school's mission also prohibits, "bringing civil lawsuits against other Christians or the church to resolve personal disputes."

Submission and obedience -- children to parents, wives to husbands and parishioners to "God's people," pastors and deacons -- are the tenets of Christian fundamentalism, according to Kathryn Joyce, author of Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement."

"These groups know what the outside world thinks of them and that some of it is considered abuse, but they consider it Biblical," said Joyce.

Missouri does not require its faith-based facilities to get a license and the state attorney general, "does not have any authority over them," according to AG spokeswoman Nanci Gonder. If there are allegations of physical abuse, parents are told to contact law enforcement.

Similarly, neither the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education nor the state board of education regulates or monitors faith-based schools under the home schooling law.

The Department of Social Services said the schools were not within their purview and only allegations of abuse and neglect that "meet statutory definition," are investigated.

The federal government, however, has shown concern about teen residential programs -- not all of them faith based -- and has pushed for more regulation.

In 2008, an investigation by the federal Government Accountability Office revealed thousands of cases and allegations of child abuse and neglect since the early 1990s at teen residential programs throughout the country. The report also found major gaps in licensing and oversight.

The report found untrained staff, ineffective management and operating practices in these facilities.

"In the most egregious cases of death and abuse, the cases exposed problems with the entire operation of the program," according to the report.

Congressman George Miller, D-California, introduced the Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act of 2009 to establish minimum health and safety standards, but although the bill twice passed the House, both times it failed in the Senate.

"You can't deprive kids of food and water," one Democratic aide to Miller told ABCNews.com. "You have to treat them humanely."

Just last year in Hiland Park, Fla., police removed 17 children from Heritage Boys Academy, a military school that taught fundamental Christian doctrine, arresting three, including the pastor, and shut down the facility.

Child welfare authorities said the children were often hit with sticks that were "nine fists long," and were sometimes choked or held down and beaten with fists.

The school officials plead not guilty to one charge of aggravated assault and five charges of child abuse, but the case has not yet gone to trial. A motion by the defense to dismiss is being heard on Friday, according to the clerk for the Bay County Courts.

Well-Dressed Girls Testified They Were 'Saved'

Anne's mother said she first heard a New Beginnings presentation at the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Churchville, Md. There, according to Jeannie Marie, neatly dressed girls confessed to bad behaviors and cried that they had been "saved."

"They told us it was a place that helps girls grow in their Christianity in a new life with Christ," she said.

She handed Anne over to school authorities while New Beginnings was on a fundraising tour in Virginia. "It really took me by surprise," said Anne, who thought she was going on vacation. "I freaked out and balled my eyes out."

The first night Anne said she slept on a church pew and was punished for cussing when she fell off and hit her head on a hymnal.

But when the group returned to their Missouri campus, Anne said the house was frigidly cold and girls were given only skirts and light sweatshirts.

The food -- often bologna on white bread, watered-down milk and canned eggs -- was either rationed or loaded on the plate, depending on the whim of the staff, she said.

Girls were told to keep monotone voices and never to talk to each other. Phone calls and letters were monitored, she said.

"They said I am bad and God doesn't love me," said Anne. "I was taught the exact opposite of that in the home. It was hard to believe that these people actually cared about me. You had to fend for yourself."

Two months later, after a dispute with school officials about the costs, Jeannie Marie said she withdrew Anne. When she arrived at New Beginnings, she said she was horrified by what she saw.

"She looked like the most pitiful thing standing in the little snow boots I bought her -- mud-covered with a thin skirt covering her knees with dirt on it...Her face was ghostly white, her eyes bugged out and hair was pulled back. My tiny girl had a horrible look on her face...the most awful expression I have ever seen on the face of my children. I gasped and held my breath."

Jeannie Marie said that when she held her daughter, "she was so weak and faint...and her body went limp. There was nothing left to her."

She said her former pastor at Tabernacle Baptist, Don Martin, had recommended the school as successful, but it was not as advertised.

Martin said that a previous pastor had financially supported the school in the past, but he never made such claims to Anne's mother.

"If someone in our congregation did, that's another thing," he said.

"As far as I know, they come highly recommended," Martin said of the school. "I know they have to be strict -- or it doesn't do much good to send wayward ladies to a school. But I don't know how strict or what they do."

He said allegations of physical punishment in these IFB reform schools were "pretty much nonsense" and the family's claims were "fabrications."

"My sense is people send children there and they want them to come back as model citizens, and if something goes wrong, they want to blame the school. I think they tried to help, but that doesn't mean a thing if there is not good support."

William McNamara, New Beginnings' director, refused to answer questions about the program and allegations that it was abusive.

"We love them," he said of the students. "I cannot speak to any of those things -- the truth will be known."

He referred ABCNews.com to his lawyer, Wes Barnum, who did not respond to written questions sent by email or a follow-up telephone call.

New Beginnings began as the Rebekah Home for Girls in Corpus Christie, Texas, in 1968, but was shut down by the state in 1985 after numerous investigations of abuse and its refusal to submit to state licensing.

Under changing names, the school moved temporarily to Devil's Elbow, Mo., before relocating in Pace, Fla., and eventually to its present home in La Russell, Mo.

The school was run by Lester Roloff, an independent fundamental Baptist preacher who broke from the Southern Baptist Convention in 1954 and founded a series of reform facilities, known as Roloff Homes, for what he called, "parent-hating, Satan-worshiping, dope-taking immoral boys and girls," according to a 2000 investigative report in Texas Monthly.

Some Former Students Report Post-Traumatic Stress

Brittany Campbell, now 25, says she was at Rebekah through its transition to New Beginnings from 2001 to 2005. The school moved to Missouri in 2007.

She showed ABCNews.com photos of the name changes from Rebekah Home for Girls to New Beginnings Rebekah Academy to New Beginnings Girls Academy.

Campbell said McNamara was in charge during that period. When ABCNews.com called him to ask about charges of abuse at the school, he would only say, "I cannot speak to any of those things -- the truth will be known."

Campbell had grown up in foster care, but went to live with her sister, who was a recent IFB convert.

At 15, after rebelling against the Christian household -- listening to secular music and wearing black -- she said she was sent to reform school.

"It was brutally psychologically and physically abusive," she said of both the Missouri and Florida programs.

"The worst part personally was during the first year through the process of breaking you down and getting you to submit to their way of life," she said.

Campbell said the staff pitted girls against girls, often having them pinned down by their peers for discipline -- "a tool to discourage camaraderie."

Cut off from family and friends for so long, Campbell said she had a hard transition back to the real world.

Today, Campbell lives in Massachusetts and is administrator of a Facebook group, NBGA: Proactive Survivors of New Beginnings Girls Academy, which has 65 members and writes a blog.

She is also the administrator of SIA-NOW, an organization that is planning a convention of participants of these boarding schools next year. Campbell said many of them reported post-traumatic stress disorder after their school experiences.

It was websites like those that Donna Maddox said caught her attention three months after she sent her 15-year-old daughter Kelsey to Circle of Hope Ranch in Humansville, Mo., in 2007, then returned to "rescue" her.

Maddox, 42, said she was hesitant to believe Kelsey's claims of abuse at the school, but saw testimonies from former students that scared her.

"We were told everything we wanted to hear, but nothing was as it was portrayed."

She provided ABCNews.com with photos of dirty facilities, beds made only of plywood with a thin foam cover and bruises on her daughter's feet from working the ranch in shoes so old the soles were tearing away.

She said the school charged $300 in uniform fees.

His antidote to these rebellious teens was anchored in scripture and included kneeling on hard floors, physical punishment with paddles or leather straps or the "dreaded 'look-up,' an isolation room where Roloff's sermons were played for days on end," said the magazine.

Roloff died in a plane crash in 1982, but his ministry still exists in adult programs as part of the People's Baptist Church in Texas and other adult facilities around the country.

"We do not tolerate child abuse of any form," said August Rosado, a spokesman for Roloff Homes.

He said the Texas church was no longer affiliated with New Beginnings and now serves only adults who are struggling with addiction.

Desperate Parents Look to Church For Help

Previously, Kelsey had been a good student, but was sent away because she began "getting involved in the wrong crowd," according to Maddox.

"I was really scared because my family has a history of abusing drugs and alcohol," she said. "I had seen so many horrendous things and how it tears up a family and I didn't want it to happen to one of my children."

Maddox found the school on the Internet and said a referral agency backed up their claims.

But Kelsey, now 18, said that from day one, she "felt like a slave."

"Every day I would wake up at 4 or 5 and start working the farm feeding animals, picking up the hay in barbed wire and walking five miles so you can make more money. I never did any school work."

Once, she said she was forced to do hundreds of push-ups and failed. As punishment, she said eight girls were told to jump on her and restrain her, smashing her face into the carpet.

After she returned home with her school books, Maddox said only 18 pages had been completed in three months.

"It is unimaginable in America," she said.

The director, Boyd C. Householder, said his lawyer advised him not to talk to reporters by telephone.

"We've been allegated on like most faith-based places and investigations have had no findings to the allegations," he said. "We have nothing to hide. We are up front and open and you are welcome to come to the property."

His lawyer Jay M. Kirksey later responded by email, saying the Maddox family were "bias[ed] and lacking credibility."

"There are unfortunately, disgruntled parents who address the school, instead of their children, in the private sector just as exists in the public school system," Kirksey wrote.

Shortly after Kelsey returned home, she moved away, but her mother said she calls and emails daily.

"This has been a living nightmare," Maddox, who subsequently called the attorney general with her consumer complaints about deceptive marketing.

"We have been trying to mediate (her) complaints," said Gonder, from the Missouri Attorney General Office. "The school has been cooperating in providing information, but their information is different from hers. Our efforts are ongoing."

Troubled teens often don't speak up for themselves, said another activist, Michele Ulriksen Tresler, who wrote a book, Reform at Victory Christian Academy," chronicling her own experience at the IFB school.

"They are called liars because they are labeled rebellious teenagers," said Tresler. "We had drug addicts, prostitutes and alcoholics among regular girls who didn't belong there, dabbling in regular teen rebellion. There were girls with some major issues who should have been in a place that helped them and giving them tools to have social skills. But when they go to the cops, no one believes them."

Tresler died of a drug overdose on March 17, just weeks after this interview. According to her ex-husband, Robert Ulricksen, "VCA was a demon that haunted her for many years."

Victory, run by Roloff disciple Mike Palmer, was shut down by California authorities after a student death in 1991. Palmer went on to run schools in Mexico and Florida that were also shut down.

As for Anne, she said she is now seeing a counselor and said she, too, has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress.

"She is doing terrible," said her mother. "She has no self-worth. They had her say a hundred times that she was the daughter of the devil with the tongue of the devil -- crazy destructive talk at New Beginnings. Now, I think she actually believes it."

Jeannie Marie has stopped going to the church she said "deceived" her.

"I did not lose my faith," she said. "But I know that many of these little girls will be terribly challenged to remember who God is, after this experience."


Copyright © 2011 ABC News Internet Ventures.

Ursus:
From the above article, "Biblical Reform School Discipline: Tough Love or Abuse?," emphasis added:

Troubled teens often don't speak up for themselves, said another activist, Michele Ulriksen Tresler, who wrote a book, Reform at Victory Christian Academy," chronicling her own experience at the IFB school.

"They are called liars because they are labeled rebellious teenagers," said Tresler. "We had drug addicts, prostitutes and alcoholics among regular girls who didn't belong there, dabbling in regular teen rebellion. There were girls with some major issues who should have been in a place that helped them and giving them tools to have social skills. But when they go to the cops, no one believes them."

Tresler died of a drug overdose on March 17, just weeks after this interview. According to her ex-husband, Robert Ulricksen, "VCA was a demon that haunted her for many years."[/list][/size]
See related thread:


* Michele Tresler-Ulriksen, R.I.P.
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=37040

Ursus:
Comments left for the above article, "Biblical Reform School Discipline: Tough Love or Abuse?" (by Susan Donaldson James; April 12, 2011; ABC News), #s 1-25:


Posted by: brin3m · Apr-12-2011
"Submission and obedience -- children to parents, wives to husbands and parishioners to "God's people," pastors and deacons -- are the tenets of Christian fundamentalism, according to Kathryn Joyce, author of Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement." wow! and people complain about the heiarchy of the Catholic Church....wow!Posted by: Margroks · Apr-12-2011
The parents have to accept blame ehre for shuffling their daughter off for "tough love" when her micbehavior was CLEARLY a result of a horrendous event-being gang-raped! That girl needed real love from her family and counseling not sent off to this appalling place. It was an outrageous idea to begin with and this awful camp/school needs to be sued out of existence.Posted by: Catherines_commentary · Apr-12-2011
It's interesting that adult prisoners are afforded more rights and protections than children in these schools. Everyone should contact their senator and ask why the h3ll hasn't Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act of 2009 passed yet. I don't care if it is a church based program. People in the U.S. have certain rights and this 'program' has clearly violated those rights.Posted by: Catherines_commentary · Apr-12-2011
The mother in this story and others like her need to get a Guardian Ad Litem assigned to their children and have the Guardian bring suit in the child's name. The mother may have signed a paper saying she wouldn't sue, but the child did not. Since children need an adult to bring suit in their names, the Guardian can certainly do this. This is how we need to take down these schools. I cannot imagine ANY reform type or residential school that does not have basic oversight for basic human rights by the government.Posted by: SearamblerOne · Apr-12-2011
"These groups know what the outside world thinks of them and that some of it is considered abuse, but they consider it Biblical," said Joyce. ------- That's because the bible espouses abuse like this, in the guise of 'obedience'.Posted by: NEwyoming · Apr-12-2011
Isn't religion wonderful...if its not Muslims stoning women for adultry its Baptists beating kids to correct their behavior.....When will we learn!Posted by: raggmopp1961 · Apr-12-2011
There was another story that Ch7 did about religion and child abuse. "If you ain't bruisin em, you ain't spanking em hard enough" was the saying. But what can we expect when we still believe that "our religion is better than their religion".Posted by: Sharrie55 · Apr-12-2011
What did you think would happen went you sent your kid there? Now you're shocked and horrified. She needed counseling and therapy AT HOME.Posted by: yaeger07 · Apr-12-2011
If there were allegations of abuse like these made by a child against a parent, the child would be removed immediately from his or her care AND THEN an investigation would begin. Why is that not the case with these schools? Shouldn't the remaining children be removed as well?Posted by: doloresb1957 · Apr-12-2011
Typical Baptist hypocrites, is anyone here really surprised?Posted by: Mystic_Redcat · Apr-12-2011
Part of the responsibility for this lies with the parents. No doubt the way this girl was treated was unacceptable. However, instead of dealing with the problems their daughter was having and getting her help where she could remain at home in a safe environment; They ship her off to a school that they did not properly investigate and follow-up on her "treatment" so that the school could "fix" her. Then they blame the school when it all goes to he$$.Posted by: WorkingClass · Apr-12-2011
Ah, Christianity, the religion of peace....Posted by: LIFETL · Apr-12-2011
Wow, some of you guys group all Christians like this. Its sad. I grew up Christian and I still am....and I was never beat or abused. I got swats, but nothing ever left bruises. In this case if my child were gang rapped I would not send them off b/c their behavior became uncontrollable. I would seek couseling, as this is probably what she needed. I live in MO and have never heard of this school at all....so I imagine they stay below the radar for the most part.Posted by: sybase40 · Apr-12-2011
Raped! I feel sorry for the girl but when anyone noticies an affiliation with a "Fundementalist Christian"... Run like hell!Posted by: kromelicious · Apr-12-2011
Why aren't these people in jail yet?Posted by: sybase40 · Apr-12-2011
LIFETL, we don't feel this way about all Christains, just most of them! My Aunt and Uncle live in Oklahoma and are far right ultra conservative Christains and when we speak via phone, I always get a scripture or 2 read to me. When my Grandfather died, they were in SC loading up everything that wasn't tied down before my Mother had to stop them. There quite good Christains though except for the fact there worship of $ superceeds God. The'll get it right one dayPosted by: jerrielynn · Apr-12-2011
Christianity isn't the problem - some religions and some off-balance people who disregard the real Christian message and instead substitute their own message - that's the problem. Two of my children had problems during their teenage years but I would have NEVER sent them off to any kind of boot camp, church camp or any other type of camp. Normal teenage rebellion is just that - NORMAL. I was blessed that neither ever got heavy into drug use and since we never gave up on them, they managed to come through those times and are today great people. Some young people require intervention but it just makes sense to turn to medical professionals instead of facilities that are run (for profit) by any group be it Christians, Catholics, whatever. And even then you have to monitor that as well. Prayer works wonders - asking God to watch over and protect your child and help the parents to get through it all. Too often today people are unbending and automatically think that any rebellion or bad behavior automatically warrants an intervention. This young girl needed a counselor to help her work through her feelings about what happened - not some nut job facility with little or no training and an obviously skewed view of their capabilities.Posted by: ModMom2010 · Apr-12-2011
Who in their right mind thinks my daughter's been gang raped and needs help, hey let's send her to a fundamentalist reform school?????? Especially if she's having physical problems because she was GANG RAPED???? Priscilla's 18 now she should sue both the so called school and her parents. And the senators who keep killing the Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act of 2009 should be ashamed.Posted by: KidsRpeople2 · Apr-12-2011
U.S.Congress Rep. Carolyn McCarthy introduced H.R. 5628 which would deny taxpayer funding to all schools, including religious schools, that use Corporal/Physical Pain as Punishment on Children. Please Demand U.S. Congress Enact Legislation to protect children from Pain as Punishment/Corporal Punishment in Schools. Visit Unlimited Justice dot com Nationwide Campaign to End School Paddling.Posted by: queenknitter · Apr-12-2011
Missouri is known among these IFB sorts for the perfect place to house these torture camps. They just sneak under the law and when one gets the attention of the police, they scurry to another location. For too long this has gone on. I remember hearing the threats of these camps in my IFB church growing up. I remember the Roloff "Honey Bees" coming to my church to sing. I've stayed overnight as a guest at Roloff's camp in Texas. It is a bizarre place. And yet, they continue.Thank you, Ms. James, for your work on this story. You did what up to this point has been impossible. I hope the whole world pays attention.Posted by: Marshalpmal · Apr-12-2011
I would never send my child to any boot camp or fundamentalist camp. I've read enough to know that my continued intervention and constant support is way better than any of the above. I think the mother was very misguided to send her daughter to such a camp for behavior modification when the girl was raped and needed therapy, not more abuse.Posted by: RohnertPark1 · Apr-12-2011
I think its very hard to really say what we would do and feel about such a horrific situation as a teenager's gang rape. However, based on the behavior events of this young woman after the incident, its obvious that she was acting out as a result of severe pain and trama. To send her to a place that would add to that trama just plain doesn't make sense. The church is not the only answer for human problems. Most denominations I have investigated have archaic views on sex; to say a woman 'asked for it' regarding rape is unconscianable. God created intelligent, caring people who practice phsychology who are much better equipped to handle such pain.Posted by: swoosie10 · Apr-12-2011
Sounds like my public grammar school that I went to in the 1960s. Corporal punishment was the norm--a big wooden paddle that was used by our principal. Teachers ridiculing their students at will. Teachers making kids stand for hours facing a fence instead of having lunch recess when they misbehaved, while having lines of kids walk past and ridicule them. Teachers yelling and screaming at their students and ridiculing them. Lots of fights in the open fields around the school where other kids held kids down and punched them. All in South San Francisco at a nice little public school. It was wrong then, but it was the norm. This was what it meant in the 1960s to be a product of public schools. But we did do well in reading, math, and science. You betcha.Posted by: kda_silva · Apr-12-2011
these so-called reform schools that tout Jesus is the answer and then turn around and abuse children...there is nothing Christian about them. That man who says the TRUTH will come out...that is the only true thing he said. I hope the TRUTH does come out. The poor girl. The poor girls that are still in there. I cannot understand the parent's decision to send their daughter away after something traumatizing happened to her. But i'm sure they have beat themselves up about it. I think they were willing to be criticized about their decision so they get someone to see what is happening at these schools. I don't understand people who think it's okay to punish someone physically especially children in the name of God. Those feelings of wanting to abuse and torture someone or something else does not come from God. I think it's sad how people will find a passage in the Bible and take it to conform to their own selfish desires, to justify their own demons.Posted by: konaehukai10507 · Apr-12-2011
Hopefully one day people in this country will wake up to the poison that is religion. Man CHristianity is an absolute joke. THe parents should have the kids taken away for sending them to a school like this. Disgusting.

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