Building Unique Youth Alternatives (BUYA) which has been on Fornits Wiki for some time hit the newpaper headlines:
Woman recalls experience in Bassett-based youth boot campBy Frank C. Girardot, Pasadena Star News, November 6, 2011-+-+-
There was nothing about Jasmine Velazquez's youth boot camp experience she would consider uplifting or positive.
Taken from a warm bed in her father's Redondo Beach home at 5 a.m. one morning, Velazquez said she was handcuffed, screamed at and videotaped by representatives of the Building Unique Youth Alternatives - a program run from an office on the campus of Bassett High School in La Puente.
Things quickly got worse.
"They first took me to Bassett High School for intake," Velazquez recalled. "They strip searched us and forced us on a bus where we had to put our heads down so we wouldn't see where we were going."
Velazquez said she and a group of teens - many from foster homes or families new to the country - were taken to Camp Pendleton and forced to endure similar indignities for a week. Now, 20, Velazquez said she will never forget the experience - or the humiliation.
"We would wake up at 5 a.m. and do vigorous exercise all day. If you fell, you were kicked and pushed and yelled at. We were called fat, whores, stupid, bitches, maggots, etcetera," she said. "I was on the ground doing exercises and had dirt kicked into my face, eyes, and mouth. They tried to force me to eat my vomit."
Bassett Unified Superintendent Martin Galindo acknowledged the BUYA program has been operating at Bassett since at least 2005. He said the district has received no complaints.
Sheriff's Lt. Victor Sotelo said deputies in Industry have had no complaints about the BUYA camp.
"It pretty much runs independently. We don't give them a lot of oversight," Galindo said. "We don't have people there every Saturday looking at what they are doing.
"It's similar to any outside entity who uses our facility whether it be soccer or baseball, we count on them to run it properly," Galindo said. "But we can't monitor it."
Calls to the program's office on the Bassett campus went unreturned Thursday and Friday. Brian Der Vartanian, a Glendale accountant who did BUYA's books until about 2007, said several police officers and deputies associated with the program left about three years ago.
On its website, BUYA describes its program as "an intense, ten-week youth intervention program designed to change the destructive behavior of strong-willed, out of control or at-risk youth ... Our program begins with the eight-day camp component, focusing on discipline, responsibility, respect, and behavioral issues."
And, BUYA promises results.
"We have maintained a long-term, 85 percent success rate over our six-year history," the website notes. "The program is delivered by retired, active and reserve police officers, members of the armed forces and volunteers."
A community college student near San Diego, Velazquez said she came forward to recount her experience with BUYA after seeing videos on this newspaper's website. One of those videos, shot at a boot camp run out of Pasadena, depicted children forced to drink water until they vomited.
Another video centered on a young boy being forced to wear a tire around his body while a group of instructors - dressed in military garb - yelled and jostled him until he broke down in tears.
Dr. Harlan Bixby, an expert on the effect of fluids in the body, said bingeing on water can be deadly.
"Tap water is free of electrolytes, allowing it to penetrate cell walls without obstruction, he said.
The swelling of cells does little damage in muscle cells, but can induce stroke-like symptoms in the brain, Bixby said.
"That video of them forcing the children to drink water ... we had that three times a day. That was the only time to drink. After, you would have to hold the canteen above your head and if any water dripped, you would have to refill the canteen and do it again. Most of the time, we just threw it up, and didn't get any water in our systems.
As Velazquez recalls, the methods used by boot camp instructors were nothing short of horrific.
"They gave one teen laxatives, and made him put a (sanitary napkin) in his (rear end) and hike like that," she said. "One teen was overweight and they would taunt her telling her `imagine there's a burger up that hill."'
Velazquez, who had been in and out of foster homes, said she attended a few more sessions and was promised a leadership role.
"They would tell me to hit kids." she recalled. "I wouldn't do it, so they would hit me."
Joyce Burrell, director of the Juvenile Justice Program in Human and Social Development for American Institute for Research, believes boot camps are ineffective in dealing with troubled teens, many of whom, like Velazquez, have been exposed to trauma in their personal lives.
"We have to approach dealing with these children from a more trauma based approach," Joyce Burrell said about the effectiveness of boot camps. "There's a real split in terms of those who believe yelling and screaming at boot camps has it's place in treatment."
Burrell sides with child development experts who believe that boot camps do more harm than good.
Unable to deal with the experience, Velazquez said she overdosed on Ibuprofen and Tylenol which forced the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services to take action. Ultimately she was pulled from the program.
Since leaving, Velazquez has maintained contact with other teens forced to attend the camp and has become an advocate of sorts for teens forced into youth boot camps.
Velazquez, who describes herself as a "good kid" can't understand why adults would subject children to the extreme sort of punishment she endured.
"They tried to break me down, but they couldn't," she said. "I'm going to do what I can to keep the focus on this issue."
Staff writer Brian Charles contributed to this story.
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