Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS)

Lawsuit due to a stay at Casa by the Sea and High Impact

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Ursus:
A very short, probably abbreviated Associated Press piece was published in the Salt Lake Tribune a coupla days ago:

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The Salt Lake Tribune

Former student claims abuse in teen boot camps

By LYNN DeBRUIN · The Associated Press
First published Jun 02 2011 05:30PM
Updated Jun 2, 2011 11:13PM

A former student in a controversial Utah-based organization for troubled children contends in a federal lawsuit that its teen boot camp programs in Mexico traumatized him for life.

The lawsuit brought by 24-year-old Carl Brown Austin claims World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools subjected him to constant physical and emotional abuse over two years. The Washington state man was enrolled from age 13 to 15 in Casa by the Sea and High Impact.

The suit filed in U.S. District Court in Utah seeks at least $500,000 in actual and punitive damages. It alleges fraud and conspiracy.

A large federal suit brought in 2006 against the same organization with 300-plus plaintiffs is pending. An attorney for the program did not immediately return a call seeking comment Thursday.


Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.

Ursus:
Comments left for the above article, "Former student claims abuse in teen boot camps" (by Lynn DeBruin, Jun 02 2011, AP/The Salt Lake Tribune):


Babyboomer  · 2 days ago
I am assuming this was the only alternative and that is why you were
placed there, either by family or the state.(things had to have gotten out of control, for you to be there)
While no one should be physically and emotionally abused,  I wonder... did
this program save your life, straighten you out?
With 300 + plaintiffs, I will also assume, this organization could/should have
done things different!buddysdad  · 2 days ago in reply to Babyboomer
Here is one thing the program did for him...after 10 years of NOT changing or accepting his behavior, he decides it was the program rather than he himself.  Rather than sue for emotional and physical abuse, he is electing to sue for fraud and conspiracy... does that seem strange to anyone BUT me?Guest  · 1 day ago in reply to buddysdad
Comment removed.[/list]
buddysdad  · 1 day ago in reply to Guest
OK...here we go again...little do you know..I served, yes they got us up at anytime between 4:30 and 6 am..go run before breakfast..go run here, go run there, shots, medical, OK, go run here for this training, there for that training...8 weeks...did it make a better person out of me...YES...did I like it..NO..do I whine, bit*h and moan about it...NO...WHY you ask...because when it is time to MAN-UP...that's what you do...don't come back 10 years later and say "OH poor me, I must have been abused" I can't handle life, it's just too much for me, so I have to blame someone, because I am not man enough to take responsibility for my actions...I am not God, don't want to be one...(would give constant whiners (like you) tonsillitis)...buddysdad  · 1 day ago in reply to Guest
Trib censors did something to my post...said they will review it for posting and they kept it...NOT GOOD TRIB..not good at all..buddysdad  · 1 day ago in reply to Guest
What happened to my post?[/list][/list][/list]
Bill Medvecky  · 2 days ago
The "Chickens" are coming home to roost. Think of all those children CPS and CASA abused and hurt for all these years. Now, they are coming of age to sue the PANTS off the State and YOU will be paying for CPSs abuse and negligence. Keep in mind also, the abuse and neglect goes on as I type. What YOU allowed CPS to do will cost you BILLIONS.buddysdad  · 1 day ago in reply to Bill Medvecky
Being disciplined is NOT abuse.. The military disciplines to make people better,  to be able to take care of yourself, in any situation..
one lawsuit and one win, makes all of the "chickens" come out to claim they were abused and get a free ride.. for what?  Because they are unable to accept reality, because they think someone owes them,  because they fail to take responsibility for their own failures... GROW UP...be a MAN for once in your life..
This clown isn't suing for emotional or physical abuse .... because he can't prove it...so he is suing for fraud and conspiracy...I hope the judge laughs in his face and throws this frivolous lawsuit in the round grey file bucket[/list]
shewearsfunnyhat · 1 day ago
My main problem is that businesses like the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools are out to make money. They pray on parents who are at their emotional wits end and are desperate to find a solution to their teens bad behavior. The company sells a product. The product is a perfect child. They skimp on the counselors and only hire those that will work for peanuts. The counselors often don't have the experience to deal with the teens extreme behavioral and emotional problems. They don't know how to correct behaviors and use extreme methods are often abusive. The form of discipline they use is not legal at any institution under state or federal oversight. It is not  military style discipline.  The company allows this behavior because they think the extreme measures will produce their product.  The company gets away with it because their facilities are "private".

I also think that these programs only treat one symptom. They don't necessarily treat the roots of the problem. They don't look at the parents skills and often don't treat underling mental health issues in both teens and parents. Many times, the parent needs to learn how to be an effective disciplinarian and teen need to learn how to behave.  The teen should have go to a program within their own state. The parents and children should have weekly counseling sessions. The parents should take a class in being an effective parent. I see parents daily who don't correct their child's behavior. Not correcting the behavior of a child will lead to an out of control teen.LurkinLizard  · 1 day ago
If he was fed, watered, and sheltered I don't care if he had to get up early, walk or run long distances, or do push-ups.

If he was physically beaten or water/food/shelter was withheld, okay I can see a problem there. But learning discipline is a good thing.

I wonder if there was actual abuse, or if this kid just didn't like the hiking and the push-ups?

# #

Ursus:
What appears to be the full version of Lynn DeBruin's above article was also posted on the Sirens & Gavels blog associated with The Spokesman-Review:

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Sirens & Gavels

Man claims abuse in teen boot camps

By LYNN DeBRUIN, Associated Press
June 3, 2011 noon

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Spokane man has become the latest to sue a Utah-based organization for troubled children, claiming he was physically and emotionally tormented during its teen boot camp programs in Mexico.

Attorneys for Carl Brown Austin, 24, filed the lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City against World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools.

Austin spent nearly two years, starting at age 13, at the organization's Casa by the Sea and High Impact programs. He alleged he was a "virtual prisoner" in programs that meted out primitive punishment for hours on end.

The lawsuit said Casa by the Sea in Ensenada, Mexico, was never licensed by any state regulatory authority as a "treatment center" and that High Impact in Baja, Mexico, was shut down by government edict in 2002 after complaints from parents.

Austin claimed he was hogtied, given limited access to bathrooms and food and endured "The Big Green" — which meant having his head rubbed into an artificial turf until his face and mouth were bloody. It also claimed the organization and its officials conspired to conceal the abuse at its boarding schools.

"I'm just now trying to change my life around," Austin said. "I've been through so much. It's a traumatic thing to have to go through when I was just 13."

An attorney for the organization, which was based in St. George, Utah, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Thursday.

Austin said he wanted his own lawsuit filed rather than join a lawsuit pending in federal court after five years because "I would like to have my story heard."

The other lawsuit, brought in 2006 initially on behalf of a Texas man, now has 350-plus plaintiffs — mostly victims claiming abuse and parents who sent their children to various alternative programs run by the organization.

Also named as defendants are organization principals Robert B. Litchfield, of Toquerville, Utah, and Brent M. Facer.

Facer, reached in California on Thursday, said he was a board member of World Wide for four or five years but indicated it exists now on paper only. He said World Wide shut down because there wasn't a need for its programs any more.

He maintained that Casa by the Sea was "a well-run program" and that "safety and security were paramount." He said he had no knowledge of Austin or abuse allegations and knew only of "a few isolated incidents that got some attention." Asked why former students might bring such accusations, Facer said children brought to such schools have a history of misrepresenting the truth.

"That's why these kids need help," Facer said. "They lie to their parents, lie to their superiors, teachers, people who maybe they would consider an authoritative type of figure. That's not uncommon."

Austin's mother, Glenna Pierson, and her husband also are plaintiffs in his lawsuit. The lawsuit seeks to recover more than $50,000 Pierson spent for her son to be in the Casa by the Sea program, as well as actual and punitive damages for the abuse he suffered.

Austin said his relationship with his mother is still "on the fence" as he struggles with trust issues after being sent from home for being a troublemaker.

"It's hard for me to forgive but I'm trying," he said of his mother.

The 36-page lawsuit said Pierson pulled him from the program in 2002 but claimed he could not adjust to normal life after the abuse. It said he had trouble with the law and drugs.

The programs "wrecked the life of a very young adolescent that needed nurturing, patience, and love, not the foolish 'behavior modification' at which defendants excel," the lawsuit said.

Austin, who along with his girlfriend runs a babysitting service from his home in Spokane, said even smells can trigger flashbacks.

"They made this juice with syrup and water and I'd be out driving and have the window down and ... it'd take me right back again to where I was when I was 13," Austin said. He said he had been having recurring nightmares but that prescription medicine has helped him sleep better.

"Coming back from that environment, I was so angry," he said. "My head had been messed with. There was lots of brainwashing."

He insisted he no longer is in trouble with the law, and is trying to be a role model for the children he babysits. "But part of the reason I got this job is because I don't like to leave the house. I have this wall built around myself. I don't trust anyone," he said.

"I don't think these kids frankly ever get over it," said Salt Lake City attorney Thomas Burton, who filed the suit on behalf of Austin. "It's that bad, when they're adolescents and their psyche is just developing."

He pointed to other cases where children in wilderness or residential programs committed suicide or serious crimes against others "because they can't take it anymore."

"I know people who say the Army saved my life. But the Army has good food, recourse, oversight. It's rough, but it's fair," Burton said. "In these (programs), who knows? They're off in the wilderness and nobody's checking on them."

Tags: boot camps Carl Brown Austin Casa by the Sea High Impact lawsuits Mexico teen boot camps U.S. District Court


© Copyright 2011, The Spokesman-Review

Ursus:

--- Quote from: "LYNN DeBRUIN, of the Associated Press," ---[Brent Facer] said he had no knowledge of Austin or abuse allegations and knew only of "a few isolated incidents that got some attention." Asked why former students might bring such accusations, Facer said children brought to such schools have a history of misrepresenting the truth.

"That's why these kids need help," Facer said. "They lie to their parents, lie to their superiors, teachers, people who maybe they would consider an authoritative type of figure. That's not uncommon."
--- End quote ---
Classic denial.

Those ~100 or so lawsuits involving Casa by the Sea must also have been filed by such malcontents.

Ursus:
Alternate link for the above (full length) article:


KREM.com
Spokane man sues over alleged abuse in Utah teen boot camp

by Lynn DeBruin, Associated Press
KREM.com
Posted on June 7, 2011 at 1:58 PM[/list]

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