Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > News Items
WWASP Abuse Case to be filed in State Court
Ursus:
See also related thread about Carl Brown Austin's case; this former WWASPS student chose to file separately:
* Lawsuit due to a stay at Casa by the Sea and High Impact
viewtopic.php?f=44&t=37237
Ursus:
From the above article, "Utah-based troubled-teen schools subject of lawsuit":
Attorney Windle Turley, of Dallas, Texas, said he is hopeful that the restructured lawsuit will move forward in state district court and give his clients a forum to air their complaints.[/list][/size]
Here's more on that restructured lawsuit, actually a cross-post from another thread (originally posted earlier today by AtomicAnt):
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Courthouse News Service
Tuesday, September 06, 2011 · Last Update: 6:32 AM PT
Torture Alleged at Chain of Children's Homes
By JONNY BONNER
SALT LAKE CITY (CN) - Hundreds of parents claim a group of boarding schools tortured their children: locked them in dog cages, forced them to lie in feces and eat vomit, masturbated them and denied the troubled teens any religion "except for the Mormon faith."
The Utah-based World Wide Association Of Specialty Programs and Schools and its owners - Robert Lichfield, Brent Facer and Ken Kay - went to great lengths to hide the "torture," which began in the mid-1990s and continued for a decade, the 357 plaintiffs claim in Salt Lake County Court.
The plaintiffs say that 59 schools and owners tied to the company "jointly promoted, advertised, and marketed defendants' residential boarding schools as a place where children with problems could get an education while receiving instruction and direction in behavior modification for emotional growth and personal development."
But they say the children were subjected to physical, emotional and sexual abuse at the schools including, Cross Creek Center for Boys, Brightway Adolescent Hospital and Red Rock Springs. They say the abuses inflicted upon some children for years "could be accurately described as torture."
According to the complaint, students were locked in boxes, cages and basements at the schools, denied medical and dental care, and forced "to carry heavy bags of sand around their necks or logs throughout the day over many days."
They were sexually abused, "which included forced sexual relations and acts of fondling and masturbation performed on them," according to the 119-page complaint.
Students were "forced to eat their own vomit ... bound and tied by hands and/or feet ... chained and locked in dog cages ... forced to lie in, or wear, urine and feces ... forced to sleep on cold concrete floors, boxspring, or plywood," and put to forced labor, the complaint states.
Children were "kicked, beaten, thrown and slammed to the ground ... forced to eat raw or rotten food ... poked and prodded with various objects while being strip searched ... denied any religious affiliation, except for the Mormon faith ... [and] threatened [with] severe punishment, including death, if they told anyone of their abuses and poor living conditions," according to the complaint.
Their mail was confiscated, and personal visits and telephone calls were forbidden or discouraged, the parents say.
"At all times relevant, defendants did not disclose to the parents the physical, emotional, mental, and/or sexual abuse to which their children were subjected at their facilities and conspired, even to this day, to prevent them from discovering such abuse," the complaint states.
The defendant company still operates residential centers in Utah, South Carolina and Costa Rica, but has faced school shutdowns in Mexico, Jamaica and Samoa amid child abuse investigations, according to the complaint. It says that more than 2,100 students were enrolled in its schools in 2003.
The plaintiffs filed a similar lawsuit in Federal Court in 2006, which U.S. District Court Judge Clark Waddoups dismissed in August for lack of jurisdiction.The parents seek punitive damages for fraud, gross negligence, false imprisonment, assault and battery, and breach of contract, and a protective order to prevent spoliation of evidence.
They are represented by Windle Turley of Dallas, Texas and James McConkie II with Parker & McConkie of Salt Lake.
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PDF download: Complaint (119 pp).
Oscar:
Former students claim abuse in teen boot camps
CNBC, 8 Sep 2011
--- Quote ---SALT LAKE CITY - A Utah company that ran a network of domestic and international schools for troubled teens is being sued by more than 350 former students who claim they were denied food and medical care, lived in filth and suffered physical and sexual abuse that could be described as torture.
"Such abuses were inflicted on some children for several years," the lawsuit states.
Among the abuses detailed in the lawsuit include exposure to extreme hot or cold temperatures for extended periods, placement in isolation, including being locked inside small boxes or cages, being bound by the hand and feet, and being forced to eat raw or rotten foods or to eat their own vomit.
Some students also allege they were emotionally and verbally abused, were forced to wear unwashed clothing for weeks, were prevented from using bathrooms, deprived of sleep and deprived of any religious affiliations other than Mormonism.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of more than 350 former students and 150 of their parents in Salt Lake City's 3rd District Court last week. The students are from 38 different states, England and Canada and attended the residential school programs between the mid-1990s to mid-2000s.
Named as defendants in the lawsuit are World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools and it's three principles Robert B. Lichfield of Toquerville, Brent M. Facer and Ken Kay, both of St. George.
Also named are a network of nearly 50 other affiliated businesses and individuals, which the lawsuit claims were also controlled by the organization's principles through either family relationships or written management agreements.
No hearings have been set in the case and it was not immediately clear whether any of the 54 defendants were represented by attorneys.
The lawsuit alleges fraud, breach of contract and abuse by the organization and its affiliates and seeks a jury and unspecified damages.
The lawsuit renews claims in a 2006 lawsuit filed in Salt Lake City's U.S. District Court which was dismissed by a federal judge for jurisdictional reasons in August.
Messages left for the attorneys who represented the schools, Lichfield, Facer and Kay in that lawsuit did not immediately reply to telephone and e-mail messages on Thursday.
In court papers, attorneys for the students contend World Wide has operated more than 20 schools in seven states and in Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico, Samoa and the Czech Republic, although the exact number remains unclear.
Many of the schools were open for only short periods of time "because of their failure to comply with their respective state and country licensing and regulatory laws because of abuse and mistreatment of children and because the (organization's) principles drained excessive funds off the top," court papers states.
New schools were continually being created to take in students from schools that had been abruptly shut down, and the "directors and staffing at news schools were often the same incompetent and untrained" persons who had run those schools shut down by regulatory agencies or after allegations of abuse, the lawsuit states.
Attorneys for the students say the organization charged families thousands in monthly tuition, but then failed to provide adequate education or therapeutic treatment programs.
Windle Turley, a Dallas-based attorney representing the families says state and local authorities in some places have moved to shut down or investigate the schools, including the New York Attorney General's Office, which conducted criminal investigation of a school near the U.S. border with Canada. In addition, authorities in Costa Rica and Mexico have conducted problems, Turley said.
In June, a separate federal lawsuit was also filed by an individual student against the organization and its principles.
Carl Brown Austin, 24, of Spokane, contends he spent nearly two years at the organization's Casa by the Sea and High Impact programs in Mexico. Austin claims he was a "virtual prisoner" in programs that meted out primitive punishment for hours on end.
When Austin's lawsuit was filed, Facer told The Associated Press he had served on World Wide's board, but that the organization had shut down because there was no longer a need for its programs.
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 ---
Dysfunction Junction:
Jenny Dobner is a friend of mine and wrote this article, the first of it's kind IMO that gives real credence to survivor accounts:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/0 ... 55459.html
The comments section of the HuffPo is probably a great place to tell some of your experiences. Lots of readers. You never know who might pick up on it. Keep networking.
Cheers.
Ursus:
Here's that article from HuffPo that DJ linked to above... This is essentially the same article that Oscar posted just prior, save for some different wording here and there, as well as some additional detail regarding the Academy at Ivy Ridge. It also includes credit for the reporter, something that NBC (and most other papers carrying this Associated Press article) neglected to mention. For these reasons and more, I'm reposting it in full:
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H U F F
P O S T
World Wide Association Of Specialty Programs And Schools Sued By Ex-Students Claiming Abuse
By JENNIFER DOBNER · 09/ 8/11 06:32 PM ET · AP
SALT LAKE CITY -- A Utah company that ran a network of domestic and international schools for troubled teens is being sued by more than 350 former students who claim they were denied food and medical care, lived in filth and suffered extreme physical and sexual abuse.
"Such abuses were inflicted on some children for several years," the lawsuit states. "In many instances, the abuse could be accurately described as torture of children."
Among the abuses detailed in the lawsuit include being exposed to extreme hot or cold temperatures for extended periods; being forced to eat raw or rotten foods or to eat their own vomit; being bound by the hands and feet; and being placed in isolation, including being locked inside small boxes or cages.
Some students also allege they were emotionally and verbally abused, were forced to wear unwashed clothing for weeks, were prevented from using bathrooms, were deprived of sleep and were deprived of any religious affiliations other than Mormonism.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of more than 350 former students and 150 of their parents in Salt Lake City's 3rd District Court last week. The students are from 38 states, England and Canada and attended the residential school programs between the mid-1990s and mid-2000s.
Named as defendants in the lawsuit are the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools and its three principals, Robert B. Lichfield of Toquerville, and Brent M. Facer and Ken Kay, both of St. George.
Also named are a network of nearly 50 other affiliated businesses and individuals, which the lawsuit claims were also controlled by the organization's principals through either family relationships or written management agreements.
No hearings have been set in the case, and it was not immediately clear whether any of the 54 defendants were represented by attorneys.
The lawsuit alleges fraud, breach of contract and abuse by the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools and its affiliates and seeks a jury and unspecified damages. The suit renews claims in a 2006 lawsuit filed in Salt Lake City's U.S. District Court that was dismissed by a judge for jurisdictional reasons in August.
The attorneys who represented the schools, Lichfield, Facer and Kay in that lawsuit did not immediately respond to telephone and email messages Thursday.
In court papers, attorneys for the students say World Wide has operated more than 20 schools in seven states and in Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico, Samoa and the Czech Republic, although the exact number and how many remain in operation is unclear.
Many of the schools were open for only short periods because of their failure to comply with licensing and regulatory laws, because of abuse allegations, and because the organization's "principals drained excessive funds off the top," court papers allege.
New schools were continually created to take in students from schools that were abruptly shut down. But the directors and staff at the news schools were often "the same incompetent and untrained" people who ran the schools that had been closed.
The students' attorneys say World Wide charged families thousands in monthly tuition, but then failed to provide adequate education or therapeutic treatment programs.
Windle Turley, a Dallas-based attorney representing the families, says state and local authorities in some places have moved to shut down or investigate the schools. In New York, the attorney general's office conducted a criminal investigation of a school near the U.S.-Canada border. Authorities in Costa Rica and Mexico also have conducted probes, Turley said.
The New York case resulted in a 2005 settlement and the school was ordered to partially reimburse tuition costs to parents and stop advertising that it offered educational diplomas because it was not recognized by the state as an accredited school, the Deseret News of Salt Lake City has reported.
State attorneys also said the school, Ivy Ridge, was behind one of the largest education fraud cases in New York's history.
The newspaper also reports that Mexican officials raided and shut down a school called Casa by the Sea in 2004.
In June, an individual student who claims he attended Casa by the Sea filed a separate federal lawsuit against World Wide and its owners.
Carl Brown Austin, 24, of Spokane, claims he spent nearly two years in the Ensenada, Mexico, school and was a "virtual prisoner" in programs that meted out primitive punishment for hours on end.
When Austin's lawsuit was filed, Facer told The Associated Press he had served on World Wide's board, but that the organization had shut down because there was no longer a need for its programs.
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."
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