Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > The Troubled Teen Industry

Rare video of children being abused at Pasadena boot camp

<< < (4/9) > >>

Reddit TroubledTeens:
KFI radio interview with Keith Gibbs, head of Sarge's Community Base, Inc./Commit II Achieve Boot Camp, who is being investigated by police in the Pasadena boot camp abuse. He denies involvement, yet calls the tactics in the videos "borderline" abusive. The host, Bill Carroll, holds his feet to the fire and won't let him squirm out of answering questions.

http://www.kfiam640.com/cc-common/podca ... _26543.mp3

Oscar:
Boot camp abuses cited
By Brian Charles, Pasadena Star News, October 29, 2011

-+-+-+-


PASADENA - A man who attended Pasadena-based youth boot camps run by Kelvin "Sgt. Mac" McFarland said episodes of harsh treatment were commonplace. And the man's adopted mother said children of immigrants and the illiterate were targeted for membership.
William Edwards, 18, of Pasadena, said in one 2010 instance instructors at the Family First Growth Camp, which was run by McFarland, targeted a young girl for discipline by handcuffing her to a fence and kicking dirt on her.

Edwards also recalled camp attendees having to drink large volumes of water that caused vomiting and nausea.

"The drill instructors would say `we will be here all day until you finish that water and if you take too long we will just make you drink more,"' Edwards said.

Neither McFarland nor his attorney Evan Dicker of the Los Angeles County Alternate Public Defender's Office, returned calls seeking comment.

In recent days, questions have been raised about McFarland, his former employer Keith "Sarge" Gibbs and their respective camps after two disturbing videos were published on this newspaper's website.

In one of the videos, children - some as young as nine years old - are seen being forced to drink water to the point of vomiting. In the other video, a pre-teen boy is seen being screamed at by drill instructors, including McFarland, while carrying a truck tire around his neck.

At the time of the taping in 2009, McFarland was employed by Gibbs.

Gibbs can be heard on speaking on one of the videos.

Both men have denied being present during the videotaping.

Police investigating

The videos prompted the Pasadena Police Department to launch an investigation and the acts have been strongly condemned by politicians from Pasadena City Hall to the nation's Capitol.

Experts in the field of child development and child abuse laws have questioned both the efficacy and legality of the acts in the videos.

For Edwards, the images in the videos serve as a reminder of what he said he witnessed firsthand.

"(The drill instructors) would make you squat down with the tire around your neck," Edwards said. "It makes your neck and back hurt."

Edwards is one of four children adopted by Helen Edwards, a 74-year-old retired U.S. Postal Service employee.

Unlike many other parents who turn to boot camps, she said she didn't enroll her children to curb bad their behavior.

"I am raising them all by myself and I wanted to give them the experience of what a man's role in the world is," Helen Edwards said.

`A great, smooth talker'

She said she enrolled her two sons and two daughters in Gibbs' camp in 2008. After a dustup over training tactics and McFarland's failure to pass a background check, Gibbs and McFarland parted ways. Wooed by McFarland's charm, the Edwards family remained with McFarland when he branched off in 2009.

"He is a great, smooth talker," Helen Edwards said.

She said she was so taken by McFarland that she staked the operation, writing him a check for $2,000 to help start his camp.

McFarland promised to repay, but hasn't, the retired postal worker said. Helen Edwards said she has never filed suit to try to retrieve her money from McFarland.

For her investment, Helen Edwards served on the Family First Growth Camp's board of directors. For nearly a year she kept McFarland's books.

But, the relationship soured when Helen Edwards began to have doubts about McFarland's ability to manage money.

"In November of 2009, he went up on the monthly dues from $200 to $250 a month," Helen Edwards said. "And if you were late with the money it cost you a $25 late fee."

Immediately, 13 families left Family First Growth Camp. In March 2010, McFarland turned to a new "recruiting tool," Helen Edwards said.

"The third week of every month, he would come in with a child - who was skipping school - in handcuffs," she recalled. "And he would call the parents and make them pay $100 on the spot. And then $250 at the first of the month, as part of their dues."

`Walking-around money'

McFarland targeted some of Pasadena's most vulnerable residents, Helen Edwards said.

"He would go after the immigrants and the illiterate," she said.

Many of the parents who came in to pay McFarland for "finding" their children spoke little or no English and the boot camp used translators to help with the transactions, Helen Edwards said.

Helen Edwards said she would receive the $250 and deposit the money into a business account.

The $100 McFarland took from parents for capturing truant teens "was his walking-around money," Helen Edwards said.

On May 16 Pasadena police arrested McFarland on suspicion of kidnapping, child abuse, child endangerment, extortion and unlawful use of a badge.

McFarland allegedly handcuffed a truant Pasadena Unified School District student and told her parents, who spoke limited English, to pay him $100 or he would put their daughter in a juvenile detention center.

McFarland has pleaded not guilty and is out on bail awaiting trial.

Because of her financial dealings with McFarland, Helen Edwards said previous to seeing the videos she was reluctant to come forward with any information.

She and her family left McFarland's group after adopted son Tyrone and one of the drill instructors got into a fight, Edwards said.

A portion of McFarland's training forced children in the camp to wrestle adult drill instructors - at least one of whom as on active duty in the U.S. Marine Corps, she said.

A match between Tyrone and a man identified only as "Sgt. Ronnie," turned into a brawl, she said.

McFarland intervened and broke up the fight by reportedly using a choke hold on Tyrone, his mother said.

"Tryone, who is a big boy, almost 6-feet-tall, got free by flipping (McFarland) over his back," Helen Edwards said. "McFarland took Tyrone for a walk and told him not to come back to the camp anymore."

A month later Helen Edwards said she pulled all of her children from the camp.

Reddit TroubledTeens:
Pasadena women step forward with more boot camp allegations

By Brian Charles, Staff Writer
Posted: 10/31/2011 06:05:02 PM PDT


PASADENA - At least three Pasadena women say they witnessed what they considered abuse by drill instructors from Family First Growth Camp while the boot camp operated on Pasadena city property.

Pasadena residents Susan Lafferty and Nancy Rose and Sierra Madre resident Julie Unamuno said they forwarded their claims of abuse to the city by email in 2009, but nothing was done.

"I saw (someone) getting in their faces and screaming while the children were sobbing. Some of the (children) were as young as 8 years old," Lafferty said. "And I could not see how any of this could help a child."

"I would never even yell at an animal like that," Rose said.

There was "no formal investigation related to the tactics" but officials will review the 2009 emails, Pasadena spokeswoman Ann Erdman said in a statement Monday.

Erdman acknowledged that city officials were aware that Family First Growth Camp, operated by Kelvin "Sgt. Mac" McFarland, used the Arroyo and Hahamongna Watershed Park, both city properties, to train children. The camp was routinely ushered off city land for failing to have a permit, Erdman said.

"Anytime park safety officers encountered the operation on city-owned property, they ordered them to vacate the premises immediately," Erdman said.

Neither McFarland nor his attorney, Evan Dicker

Advertisement

of the Los Angeles County Alternate Public Defender's Office, returned calls seeking comment.
McFarland was arrested on May 27 on suspicion of of child abuse, child endangerment, kidnapping, extortion and unlawful use of a badge stemming from his encounter with a young girl in Pasadena.

His case is still pending.

In July, Judge Stan Blumenfeld decided to hold McFarland over for trial. McFarland remains free on $185,000 bail. He is due back in court Nov. 16.

McFarland's criminal record includes arrests and convictions for driving under the influence in 1991 and 2005, as well as a 2000 conviction for misdemeanor battery and a 2009 conviction for driving with a suspended license.

McFarland can be seen in two videos that provide an inside look at juvenile boot camps.

In one video, McFarland can be seen coaxing children to drink water to the point that several children began vomiting. In the second, he and several other adults can be seen taunting a child who has been forced to wear a tire around his neck.

Those videos were released by this newspaper last week.

The voice of boot camp instructor Keith "Sarge" Gibbs, who operates Sarge's Community Base/Commit II Achieve, can be heard on one of the videos.

Both men deny being present for the videotaping. Gibbs has not been charged with a criminal offense.

Lafferty, Unamuno and Rose all ride horses in the Arroyo and Hahamongna Watershed Park. They said the tactics employed by the Family First Growth Camp during their run-ins with the camp in 2009 bore striking resemblance to the scenes depicted in those videos.

Unamuno, who is a riding instructor in the Arroyo, said she first encountered McFarland in November 2009.

"I saw what appeared to be a drill sergeant was pointing his finger in a young girl's face while she was covered in dirt," Unamuno said. "She had been reduced to tears."

Lafferty, Rose and Unamuno came forward after seeing the videos. Rose, Lafferty and Unamuno said they didn't see any children being forced to drink large volumes of water, but they did see children being forced to carry truck tires around their neck.

During their horse rides, the women said they also saw children forced to scale steep hills during a heat wave in 2010 and also witnessed instructors regularly give obscenity-laced tongue lashings to the children.

"Do you think breaking them down to be nothing and using obscenities is going to make them any better? Rose asked. "They are not adults, they are kids and their minds are not even developed."

After a handful of run-ins with the camp, the women said they decided to report the acts to Pasadena City officials.

"We knew this was at the very least inappropriate behavior if not out-and-out abuse," Lafferty said.

Lafferty contacted the Pasadena Department of Public Works, directing many of her emails to Martin Pastucha, the department's former director, Lafferty said.

The women said they thought to call the Pasadena police, but were unable to make out a license plate on a car and were too afraid to approach the boot camp to ask for names, Rose said.

It remains unclear what happened to the email sent by Lafferty, but Pasadena Police Department officials said they had no knowledge of any of the activities in the Arroyo or Hahamongna Watershed Park.

"We do not have any prior complaints of child abuse against Mr. McFarland and Mr. Gibbs regarding boot camps," Pasadena police Lt. Tracey Ibarra said. Ibarra runs the Police Department's youth outreach program.

Despite not having a permit, the camps returned in 2010 and were spotted in the Arroyo as recently as last summer, Rose said.

The riding group began to alter its route to avoid the group, since Unamuno often takes her own children on the path.

"It's unnerving to see that type of drill going on in that setting and trying to explain that to young children," Unamuno said.

Meanwhile, no arrests have been made in the case, as investigators said they are still unsure a crime has even occurred, Ibarra said.

"The Pasadena Police Department has had discussions with the District Attorney's Office, but there has not been any cases opened," Ibarra said. "We are still trying to determine whether there has been criminal act with identifiable suspects."

The department has not contacted the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Service since it's unclear whether any laws were broken, Ibarra said.

The video contains episodes recorded during McFarland's time with Gibbs, according to multiple sources familiar with the camps.

Gibbs has not operated free of controversy.

In 2009, he was removed from Pasadena Unified School District campuses when accusations surfaced that his tactics were "too rough," according to district officials.

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/news/ci ... z1cTVAfT7o

Ursus:
Comment left for the above article, "Pasadena boot camp head defends operation" (by Brian Charles, 10/28/2011, Pasadena Star-News):


Patricia Pennant · Mental Health Therapist at I work in the mental health field · October 29 at 10:50pm
The way children were treated in this Pasadena Boot Camp is child abuse of the severest form. Far less cruelty would surely break a child's spirit. What parent or court system would ever send their child to a place like this? I wonder where these children pictured in this video are now and how they are coping with their lives after such a clearly traumatic event.

Copyright ©2008 Los Angeles Newspaper group

Ursus:
Comments left for the above article, "Boot camp abuses cited" (by Brian Charles, 10/29/2011, Pasadena Star-News):


Manuel Mackenzie · Fairfax High School · October 30 at 10:52pm
OUR YOUNG BROTHERS AND SISTERS DON'T NEED BOOT CAMP TO BE CORRECTED TO BECOME BETTER CITIZENS. THEY NEED TO BE CORRECTED ACCORDING TO THE BIBLE! DON'T YOU KNOW THAT THE BIBLE IS A BOOK OF INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO RAISE YOUR CHILDREN ACCORDING TO KNOWLEDGE. KNOWLEDGE ABOUT YOUR TRUE HISTORY NOT HIS HISTORY(WHITEMAN) BUT YOUR HISTORY SO-CAL NEGROES AND LATINOS OF INDIAN DESCENT. YOUR HISTORY IS SO RICH, MORE THAN ANY NATION UPON THE FACE OF THE EARTH, BUT THEY DONT WANT YOU TO KNOW! THATS WHY THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL A BLACK MAN SAIDS "MY PEOPLE ARE DESTROYED FOR A LACK OF KNOWLEDG (NOT BOOT CAMP, RELIGION OR MONEY BUT KNOWLEDGE!) BUT BECAUSE WE REJECT THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD (LAWS, STATUTES AND COMMANDMENTS AND OF COURSE OUR HISTORY) THEREFORE HE HAS REJECTED US UNTIL WE REPENT! (HOSEA 4:6.) SO IN THE BOOK OF JOHN 8:32 SAIDS "KNOW THE ...TRUTH AND THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE FREE." WHAT IS THE TRUTH THAT WOULD MAKE US FREE? LETS PRESET THAT WITH (PSALMS 119:142) "THY RIGHTEOUSNESS IS AN EVERLASTING RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND THY LAW IS THE TRUTH." AND WITH THAT YOU MUST APPLY YOUR FAITH IN CHRIST. YOU NEED BOTH! (REV. 14:12.) WHEN YOU SAY THE LORDS PRAYERS DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT YOUR SAYING? FOLLOW ME; MATTHEW 6:9-10. "AFTER THIS MANNER THEREFORE PRAY YE: OUR FATHER WHICH ART IN HEAVEN, HALLOWED BE THY NAME. THY KINGDOM COME. THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH (MEANING US), AS IT IS IN HEAVEN." WHAT IS THY WILL? FOLLOW ME; PSALMS 40:8 "I DELIGHT TO DO THY WILL, O MY GOD: YEA, THY LAW IS WITHIN MY HEART." THE LAWS IS ONE KEY (TRUTH) AND CHRIST IS THE OTHER KEY; JOHN 14:6. TIME TO WAKE UP OH ISRAEL. SHALAM ............ http://WWW.TRUENATION.ORG[/list]
Jasmine Velazquez · San Diego, California · November 1 at 9:40pm
I experienced this and worse at a camp called BUYA based out of La Puente, CA. Many other victims have found me on fb and shared horrible stories of torture...water boarding...knives held up to them..being beat for 30 minutes.. This program is still running.

Copyright © 2011 Los Angeles Newspaper group

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page