I was a student in the Dominican Republic at Escuela Caribe from 1990-1991, my name is Jon Burchel.
I am not afraid to say my real name, why are all the allegations of abuse made by anonymous posters, or are allegations of someone else's abuse? Or are vague, indescriptive? Because these people are pathological liars, some of them, I know first hand.
I was there, I was never abused, I saw one borderline incident which was promptly addressed and corrected, the house father was fired and disgraced. The system was largely useful to help us, who were some mighty screwed up kids. It saved my life. The staff were almost all loving and kind, and strove to adhere to a psychologically well founded and proven method of helping youth who are nearly beyond all help - this isn't someplace paretns send kids the first time they smoke a cigarette, ok? The kids, some of them were VIOLENT, sometimes needed subduing, I did see that, but never out of spite, always to subdue. They did give us a TON of structure, but these people over at their big forum, they think scrubbing floors is demeaning and abusive! They think a few swats on the bum (fully clothed) administered by several men as witnesses in a controlled, understood way, are abuse! And they have a few pointy head PhDs over there agreeing that this is abuse. But don't ever let that fool you. If you have a kid who is in dire need of help, I would reccomend New Horizons again, and again. They will be able to help them! It is not a first resort, it is a last resort, but it is a HELL of a lot better than Jeuvie, or other options that kids in those situations will face inevitably if something is not done.
So don't believe the hype... Couple of bitter tisted sick heads out there do not constitute abuse, ok?!
Jon Burchel
OUT THERE SPEAKING THE TRUTH UNAFRAID AND PROUD