Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > CEDU / Brown Schools and derivatives / clones

Brown Schools History

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Dr Fucktard:
This is very tedious to try to read. Someone please fix this, or just delete it.

Deborah:
And the vultures swoop in for the kill.
http://www.strugglingteens.com/news/ced ... index.html

Aspen wants everyone to know that they are in better financial shape than Brown was. Aren't you relieved?

Deborah:
http://www.strugglingteens.com/news/ced ... 50402.html

CEDU 401(K) Can Not Be Accessed
April 2, 2004
The Spokesman-Review reported that ex-CEDU employees cannot access their 401(k) accounts because there seems to be about $75,000 missing, contributions for January and February that had apparently not been passed on to ABM AMRO Asset Management company that handles the funds.
(The Spokesman-Review is a subscription only newspaper, and access to this story is allowed only to paid subscribers).

http://www.strugglingteens.com/news/ced ... 50402.html
April 2, 2005

The Spokesman-Review reported the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA), a primary lender for CEDU Schools, ?arranged for a $1.5 Million loan for emergency temporary operations of the schools through April 22.? Court documents indicate the reason for the emergency loan was without it operations "will cease immediately and the Trustee would be compelled to force the remaining students to vacate the premises immediately thereby causing serious and irreparable harm," Some staff say if they had known this Friday, they might have been able to remain operating, instead of sending all the kids home.
(The Spokesman-Review is a subscription only newspaper, and access to this story is allowed only to paid subscribers).

King George May Remain Open
http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... 003/NEWS02
School struggles to remain open

March 30, 2005

Associated Press
 
SUTTON ? A private boarding school for troubled youth is fighting to stay open after its parent company filed for bankruptcy.

The King George School was notified late Friday that The Brown Schools Inc. had filed for Chapter 7 liquidation in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.

Administrators were told Friday to send students home and close the school. But Dr. Karen Fitzhugh, head of the school, refused to close.

"These people need to know it's not all about money," Fitzhugh said Monday. "It's about human beings. We have an obligation to our staff, students, parents and vendors."

Fitzhugh said she was told by George Miller, a trustee in the bankruptcy case, she would have two weeks to come up with an alternative.

Fitzhugh moved swiftly, notifying staff members and parents Saturday. By the end of the weekend, a new company had been formed that plans to buy the assets of the school, she said, and lease the buildings to the new corporation so the school can continue.

The first hint of the financial problems came Wednesday when the 43 employees were told they would not be paid on Thursday. Checks were promised by Tuesday.

"Parents are amazed we are still here, working without pay," Jay Ramsey, a resource coordinator, said.

The King George School has 40 students enrolled this year. Fitzhugh said this is enough to sustain the school. While the school has had Vermont students in the past, this year all students are from other states and Canada.

The filing Friday from The Brown Schools Inc. lists at least $425,000 in legal settlements among its unsecured claims.

Until recently, Menlo Park, Calif., investment firm McCown, De Leeuw & Co. owned Brown Schools and its unit, CEDU School Inc.

Brown Schools operates boarding schools and educational facilities for troubled children in Texas, Idaho, California, Florida and Vermont, according to its Web site.

Anonymous:
http://www.strugglingteens.com/news/let ... 50403.html

CEDU closing
March 28, 2005
Gentlemen:
I write this with no thought of impressing upon you the impact your abrupt, insensitive and callous handling of the CEDU closure has had on hundreds of families across the country. If you were emotionally capable of being affected by this tragedy you have unleashed, you would have handled the incident compassionately - at least professionally. But then, CEDU, its families and staff have apparently always been just another business for you.

I was not surprised that Bob Naples and the revolving door of outside "experts" ran CEDU into the financial ground. However I was, and am, stunned by the total cowardice displayed by your organization in abandoning unpaid staff to safely see YOUR clients off the campuses and to their homes.

You may have firewalled yourselves from the financial ramifications, but you will forever be the objects of scorn, anger and - perhaps with the passage of time - pity.

Bill Valentine PsyD, CC
Bend, Oregon
http://www.strugglingteens.com/news/let ... 50403.html
************

http://www.bonnercountydailybee.com/art ... news01.txt
CEDU collapse stumps experts
Posted: Sunday, Apr 03, 2005 - 09:25:26 am PDT
By LUCY DUKES
Hagadone News Network
Excerpt:
BONNERS FERRY -- Industry experts are working furiously to figure out why CEDU suddenly closed down and declared bankruptcy on Friday, eliminating nearly 250 jobs in Boundary County, sending 301 youth home in the middle of uncompleted treatment programs and sending the county's economy into a tailspin.

Bonners Ferry Educational Consultant Lon Woodbury, who publishes a directory of top therapeutic schools and treatment programs in the nation, said he's never seen schools close this abruptly on this scale.

"I had no idea that it was this bad," Woodbury said.

CEDU had operated Ascent, Northwest Academy, Boulder Creek Academy and Milestones in Idaho. Milestones is in Coeur d'Alene, and the other schools are located in Boundary County. CEDU has a small office in Sandpoint and closed Rocky Mountain Academy in mid-February, saying it could no longer attract quality staff and therefore could not attract students.

"Crazy things from the top" and changes in decision makers --some who lost their jobs for no outwardly apparent reason, hinted at trouble, but the schools maintained excellent reputations, said Woodbury. The unsettlement at the top did make some consultants uncomfortable referring youth to CEDU schools for treatment. Woodbury said he told parents about the changes, but also that CEDU schools had great reputations.

Some disagreed with hiring people in top CEDU positions with financial, rather than program backgrounds, said Woodbury. For example, current CEDU Chief Executive Officer Pete Talbott has a background in many organizations, many of them banking institutions, according to articles on Woodbury's Web site, struggling teens.com.

Talbott replaced Naples, who also had a financial background, he said.

"I think the problem that occurred here is the financial people got ahold of the school and they were far away from the program," he said.

"I don't know of any of the schools in any network that have that kind of thing."

For example, Aspen Education Group, which provides educational and treatment programs for pre-teens, adolescents, young adults, has program people making decisions, he said.

"I don't think they (CEDU) allowed the program people enough say," he said.

"People gave them the benefit of the doubt because they've been around for so long."

Woodbury said he'd heard McCown and De Leeuw, the investment firm that owns CEDU, had to keep investors happy. After all, the academies are a business, he said....

Anonymous:
http://www.emancipationproject.org/
March 31, 2005
Boarding School Options Shift for Troubled Teens
by John Hechinger and Anne Marie Chaker
Wall Street Journal

Excerpts:
In a statement, Brown's controlling investor, private-equity firm McCown De Leeuw & Co., of Menlo Park, Calif., called the closure "unfortunate." Spokesman Sam Singer said that Brown's debt was incurred when the company bought the CEDU chain in 1998 for $78 million, which he said was too high a price. McCown officials expressed hope that buyers could be found for individual schools. The company's King George School in Sutton, Vt., remains open while Karen Fitzhugh, head of the school, tries to find a way to keep operating; she says a parent has made an offer to buy it.

Brown, in its court filing, cited a total of $1.4 million in legal fees and settlement costs, including a pair of $150,000 settlements paid to two former residents of Brown's Oaks Treatment Center in Austin, Texas, a facility for adolescents with behavioral and other problems that Brown sold in 2003. In a lawsuit filed in state court in Austin, the students alleged they were sexually assaulted in 2002 by an Oaks employee, who ultimately pleaded guilty to assault charges, according to court papers. The company denied liability.

Court papers didn't mention some other legal tangles in Brown's past. In 2002, Chase Moody, 17, died at a Brown wilderness program called On Track, in Texas, after being restrained by camp staff members. State regulators said that staffers used improper restraints, but a grand jury handed up no criminal charges.

Also that year, CEDU paid a $300,000 settlement to two former students after they were hurt in what students at the time describe -- and the company confirmed -- was a riot at CEDU's Northwest Academy in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. The company didn't acknowledge liability.

Last October two dozen parents and former students at two CEDU schools in Idaho, Rocky Mountain Academy and Boulder Creek Academy, filed four lawsuits alleging poor staffing levels that led to verbal and physical abuse by students and employees since 1998. The cases are pending in Bonner County District Court in Sandpoint, Idaho. McCown's Mr. Singer says the firm "believes the allegations have no merit whatsoever."

Another organization of these types of schools also faces scrutiny. Rep. George Miller (D., Calif.) has written letters to both State and Justice Department officials urging more investigations of seven programs in the U.S. and abroad that are part of the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools. Staffers say he is looking to introduce legislation in the next month to improve oversight of such programs, which he says have been involved in instances of abuse.

Ken Kay, president of the World Wide group, based in St. George, Utah, says, "There has never been any substantiated cases of abuse or mistreatment." But he added that two employees, each at different programs in Montana and Utah, were dismissed for endangering child safety. He said there were no serious injuries.

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