It is finally here. The Fix My Kid fundraiser is live!
Please help us spread the word and finish this film. The pitch from the directors starts after the trailer. This is for all those
we have lost, all those who have been hurt, and all those who currently suffer inside these programs. You will not be forgotten.
Click here http://http://igg.me/at/fixmykidthemovie/x/3451105
Quoting the "Fix my kids movie" link above:
"The report on the hearing also states that "many programs and many people around the country [are] committed to helping improve the lives of young people and who do good work every day, but it is difficult for parents to tell the good programs from the bad. And that difference can be lethal."
I have always been interested in why no one has ever engaged in an open discussion here on fornits on this topic. Its seems to be taboo for some reason. The rest of the world understands and realizes that there are good and bad programs but, for the most part, no one is willing to discuss helping the young people and their parents choose the best path possible or help them differentiate between the good programs and the bad ones. The lack of discussion seems to lean towards allowing the status quo to continue.
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Whooter. Please stay on topic. This has already been discussed countless times on Fornits. The simple answer to your question is that because it is not possible to tell the difference between a good program (if one were to exist) and a bad program from the outside, for all practical intents and purposes there are no safe programs -- or rather there may be safe programs, but it's not safe to take the chance that a program might not be safe. As Maia put it, it's like playing Russian roulette.
Straight was supposed to be safe. Nancy Reagan and princess Diana among other famous celebrities endorsed it. Like many other cults and cult-like groups, Straight also used testimonials from current and freshly minted drones to "prove" that their program worked. Never mind half of them were coerced and the others were so far gone after straight's thought reform progress, they probably would have killed for Straight if the program asked them too. It was a cult. So was CEDU, or at least a cult-like group.
Many programs operate like this you cannot trust what the students, staff, or even the parents, have to say about the group. They may be telling the truth, but then again, they may be lying because they either do not know about instances of abuse, or consider it to be in the "greater good" that the public not know. After all, the program is "saving" the kids lives. And without the program they would all be dead-insane-injail!
It sounds crazy, but it's happened again, and again, and again with the programs of yesterday.
There is often little evidence of anything wrong until it all comes out in one big scandal. Straight was "saving" kids lives right up until the day they were closed for abuse. This has been the same story with WWASP, and CEDU, and CEDU clones, and the list goes on and on.
How is anybody to know that the programs of today are any different? There was no perfect way to tell back then and there is no perfect way to tell right now.
Even trusting "advocates" such as Sue Scheff who claim to know which programs are safe is not a good idea considering her referrals, for kickbacks, to the Whitmore Academy. That was supposedly safe according to her. She even got another "advocate", Isabelle Zehnder to go along with the story. People trusted her. Kids got referred to those programs. There, they were abused. Don't take my word for it. Read the GAO's report. Read about the criminal and civil cases against the Whitmore owners, Mark an Cheryl Sudweeks. You don't know when a referral agent, whether educational consultant or "advocate" is getting a kick-back from a program for referrals or has just simply made a tragic mistake.
This is the answer to your question and you know very well it's been answered before. Again and again. Please respect the rules of the forum and stay on topic. If the principle thrust of a post is off-topic, please create a new thread.