Fornits
Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => The Troubled Teen Industry => Topic started by: nite owl on January 27, 2005, 08:12:00 PM
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The National Enquirer has recently exposed the fact that Dr. Phil sent a child to the abusive Provo Canyon School. Go to http://www.nationalenquirer.com (http://www.nationalenquirer.com)
They know that it is human nature to take up causes whereby a man may oppress his neighbor, no matter how unjustly. ... Hence they have had no trouble in finding men who would preach the damnability and heresy of the new doctrine from the very pulpit.
--Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer
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:tup:
Hey, its a start.
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Way to go Angela, etal !!
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I couldn't get the artical to come up. Would someone see if you can do a copy and paste here so I can read it?
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yeh, the link on the front page took me to some other topic. kept pecking til I found it.
http://www.nationalenquirer.com/stories ... ceid=63059 (http://www.nationalenquirer.com/stories/feature.cfm?instanceid=63059)
DR. PHIL CAUGHT IN CHILD ABUSE SCANDAL
Strip searches, violent beatings & emotional torture alleged at 'tough love' school he recommends
Dr. Phil McGraw -- TV's titan of tough love -- is embroiled in a shocking child abuse scandal!
The advice guru arranged a troubled teen's enrollment at a residential treatment center. But The ENQUIRER has discovered that the center has been accused of abuses ranging from inhumane treatment to cruel and unusual punishment.
Three former residents have described the place -- Provo Canyon School in Utah -- as "pure hell" and even liken it to a "maximum security prison"!
"I can't even fathom the thought of Dr. Phil recommending parents send their children to Provo," former Provo Canyon resident Angela Smith told The ENQUIRER.
COLDHEARTED
"Dr. Phil is either oblivious to the horrendous acts of emotional and physical torment that go on behind Provo's closed doors, or he's so coldhearted that he simply doesn't care about the blatant mistreatment of children."
On November 24, a family appeared on a segment of "Dr. Phil" entitled "Afraid of My Child's Behavior." Parents identified as Terri and David claimed their 15-year-old daughter was obsessed with violence and murder, and exhibited destructive behavior that was beyond their control.
Terri even claimed she was marked for death on a "hit list" of 27 people her daughter wanted killed.
Dr. Phil's answer to this family's problem was to send their daughter to Provo Canyon School, which shares the tough love approach he espouses.
And not only did Dr. Phil recommend the school to the teen's parents -- he arranged her enrollment there!
Dr. Phil boasted about the program's "proven record of turning young kids' lives around."
But three former students of Provo Canyon were horrified to learn about Dr. Phil's recommendation.
'AS BAD AS PRISON'
"I've seen things happen to kids at Provo Canyon School that are as bad as anything inside a maximum-security prison!" Angela Smith charges.
At 15, Angela overdosed on pills in a failed suicide attempt that was prompted by a family member who she alleges sexually abused her.
In need of therapeutic treatment, Angela viewed a promotional videotape of Provo Canyon.
"The video made Provo look like some kind of Club Med vacation resort," Angela revealed.
"They painted the picture of a healthy healing environment with a staff of therapists available to help residents around the clock."
But from the moment Angela began her 8-week stay at the school in 1989, she says the facility was a far cry from what she saw on the video, she told The ENQUIRER.
"As soon as I arrived, the staff confiscated all my personal items and made me undergo a strip search.
"There was no privacy whatsoever and the residents were never out of the staff's sight.
"We had to get dressed in front of strangers, shower together and go to the bathroom in stalls with no doors.
'EXTREME TORTURE'
"I found out quickly that if I broke the rules I would be subjected to extreme forms of mental and physical torture.
"On my first night at Provo I was shown the proper way to make my bed. A few days after that one of the staff tore the blanket from my bunk bed and pointed out a wrinkle in the bottom sheet.
"For that small wrinkle I was given one week in a 6-by-6 concrete cell known as the Investment Area -- which residents quietly referred to as 'The Dungeons.'
"I had to stand in one place for 10 to 12 hours at a time and stare at the concrete wall the entire time without moving. The rooms were cold, damp, very unsanitary and usually infested with bugs.
"Even worse punishment came in what they called the Observation Room, which is nothing more than a cold, dark, empty room with no bed or toilet.
"I heard stories that the staff would ignore residents' pleas to use the rest room, forcing them to relieve themselves in a drain in the floor.
"I witnessed students being physically abused. One girl was beaten so badly she slipped into a temporary coma. She was later sent to an Observation Room to be disciplined, but returned with a broken nose, broken ribs and a broken arm.
"Another time a boy tried to escape. He was captured and brought back in a full body cast.
"I wrote to my mom and tried to tell her about the girl who was put in a coma, but my counselor intercepted the letter and threatened to inflict physical violence on me if I didn't tear it up."
Angela's mom Catherine Smith told The ENQUIRER that her daughter was barely recognizable by the time she left Provo Canyon.
"Within two months she had lost at least 35 pounds and was as pale as a ghost.
"I broke down into tears the first time I saw her because she looked like a walking corpse."
Angela, now a 30-year-old pre-law student at the University of Washington, started the Web site http://www.heal-online.org (http://www.heal-online.org).
"The main objective of our site is to expose Provo Canyon School and similar types of programs," she explained.
"It's beyond me how someone who claims to know as much about psychology as Dr. Phil would recommend a child be sent to Provo as a solution to a family's problems."
Angela Smith is not alone. According to court documents obtained by The ENQUIRER, former Provo Canyon student David Taylor successfully sued the school in 1995.
Years earlier, an appeals court in Utah ruled in favor of two former students who filed suit against the school, alleging cruel and unusual punishment, anti-therapeutic and inhumane treatment and denial of due process of law.
A representative for the school responded: "The majority of these claims concern incidents that took place years ago, prior to the current ownership."
But according to a student who left Provo Canyon recently, much of the abuse alleged in those court documents and claimed by Angela Smith is still going on.
"On my second day at Provo I broke my hand playing basketball," Jason Kan, 18 -- who was a resident from October 2003 to March 2004 -- told The ENQUIRER.
"It swelled up at least three times its normal size, but instead of letting me seek medical attention the staff accused me of faking the injury.
"Three days later, after my swollen hand turned several shades of purple, the staff finally agreed to take me to the hospital.
NEEDED SURGERY
"Doctors shrieked in disbelief when they saw the condition of my hand and said I immediately needed to undergo surgery!
"I can remember two kids who were so desperate to escape from Provo that they removed a drain pipe from the bottom of a sink and used it as a weapon to take the keys away from a staff member.
"They were eventually captured, brought back and tortured in the Observation Room for days."
Rachel Roberts of San Diego was discharged from Provo Canyon School in December 2002 after spending what she describes as 26 months of pure hell.
SOUR AND LUMPY MILK
"The food was so unhealthy that it wasn't fit to feed an animal. Sometimes the milk they served us was so old that it had turned sour and lumpy," Rachel, 18, told The ENQUIRER.
"I lost close to 30 pounds by the time I was discharged.
"I knew one girl who had her nose broken after staff smashed her face into a wall for not obeying an order.
"I've been out of Provo for two years and I am still haunted by flashbacks.
"I think Dr. Phil should be investigated for malpractice for recommending Provo Canyon School to parents on his show!"
-- RACHEL ROBERTS
Published on: January 27, 2005
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Everyone should make some posts on the http://www.drphil.com (http://www.drphil.com) message board
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I am so gratified.
Now if the more main stream media will just pick up on it!
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Well, I did it! I just finished emailing the Dr. Phil Show about Provo Canyon, and also about the whole industry that's out there. I gave him some info, and some web-sites to browse for more info. Hopefully someone on his staff will see this.
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he doesn't care, I've emailed several times regarding this matter since I first heard about this episode.
I never received a single reply.
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I'm glad the NE picked it up, but its the damned National Enquirer.
They basically just invalidated the story. If they told us rain was wet nobody would believe it :sad: One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the evils in this world are to be cured by legislation.
--Thomas Brackett Reed
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The NE seems to run stories first. Later a similar story will show up in people or Time magazine or on the evening news after it's been exposed first by the National Eng.....
It is wrong to leave a stumbling stone in the road after it has tripped you.
Hands Out Light
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I've noticed this trend. I've been surprised to see NI reporters giving commentary on Court TV as well. They are beginning to get a reputation for first strike reporting. Once they run the story, the old guard media feels they best look into it as well.
This really could become huge.
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I just obtained a copy of the Enquirer and I'm extremely pleased that this industry is being exposed and especially Provo Canyon School, since it is truly an abusive behavior modification program disguised as an up-scale therapeutic boarding school. There is nothing therapeutic about it. Everything in that article still happens today and the authorities are doing nothing to protect the children there. It is truly horrific that Dr.Phill sent a 15 year old child there.
The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.
-- John Muir
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Cherish - make sure you write and tell the NE Thanks.
Maybe they'll follow up and dig deeper if there is enough interest.
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I have the e-mail address of the author. Anyone interested?
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On 2005-01-30 10:53:00, Anonymous wrote:
"I have the e-mail address of the author. Anyone interested?"
Why not post it here? Maybe some SUWS survivors can email him about their program. He might do a follow-up. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, to refer to one abusive program is a misfortune, to refer to two looks like carelessness.
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Give me a break!! The Enquirer? Do you also believe in the frog boy and UFO's? People that read this paper are idiots!!!
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On 2005-01-30 11:39:00, Anonymous wrote:
"Give me a break!! The Enquirer? Do you also believe in the frog boy and UFO's? People that read this paper are idiots!!!
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Actually, It's BatBoy, and I believe you're talking about the Weekly World News?
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Hey - the National Enquirer is one of the most reliable of all of the tabloids - often they are first to run stories. I think you're confusing the NE with the Globe and some of the more outrageous rags.
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Here's an excerpt of the e-mail I recieved from the correspondent who investigated the story about PCS:
I am trying to squeeze the story into this week's issue, so it is critical that we speak asap if you or your son are agreeable to an interview.
Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Darryl C. Wrobel
National ENQUIRER Correspondent
[email protected]
866-205-2646 Toll-Free
561-330-2569 Fax
THERE YA GO........ You could drop him a line and thank him for exposing this program. :idea: :idea:
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This will not help. The Enquirer has the same reputation as the globe and world. Although not as bad as the other 2. This can onle discredit what dr.phil did. If you read this mag, you should only be reading it for it's entertainment value. Most of it is horse crap.
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Maybe someone with some investigative background could find the son that Dr.Phil sent there and talk to him. Maybe this kid could be the one person that the press would listen to?
Just a thought....
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Niles,
I have to disagree with you a little bit. I basically agree that those magazines are just gossip "rags," but the N.E. has really been cleaning up a lot of their image. Back 10-15 yrs. ago they were really hit hard by a bunch lawsuits and now they are fairly accurate with their stuff. If you ever look at some of the "reputable" papers, you will see they often credit the N.E. with information. I am not saying they don't ever publish rumors, but to be fair, I read a lot of different publications every month, and I swear the enquirer has most of the same stuff as the rest, only about a month earlier. I think it wouldn't be a bad idea for people to contact them since they are the ones willing to tell the truth about the "schools" and Dr. Phil. Hey, if I can find out the truth by myself with limited internet ability, then Dr. Phil needs to get off the stick and find out what is going on!
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Well, I'm not out there trying to put down the NE for covering this, far from it.
The opinion of *MOST* americans on the NE is that its disreputible. Thats the problem. They might think its BS because the NE said it.
Personally, I know its the truth, because I already did before they ran it. I have no prob with the NE, dont get me wrong, I'm just afraid others might have a misperception of it. Redemption: Deliverance of sinners from the penalty of their sins through the murder of their deity against whom they sinned.
--Ambrose Bierce
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Yeah, I agree. A lot of people do still think of N.E. as trash reading. Hopefully though, those that do believe it and the other publications who snipe their stories will run with it. The best thing I think to do is to keep innudating Phil and the N.E. and everywhere else you can think of with clear cut stories and true accounts. Try not to get off on too much of a personal rant or vendetta, just lay out the facts. If everyone here did just that, we could do more than you think.
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Well, the other thing is that with other journalists starting to pay attention to the stories NE breaks, even if someone thinks the story is trash when it's first published in the NE, when another paper picks up the story and fact checks it and does a further story on the same idea, people believe it.
So even if ordinary joes believe NE is trash, other journalists checking it as a place for breaking stories they can do good follow up pieces on still helps get the word out.
It's all good.
TimocleaAll penalties for drug users should be dropped...Making drug abuse a crime is useless and even dangerous...Every year we seize more and more drugs but the quantity available still increases...Police are losing the drug battle worldwide.
--Raymond Kendall ~ Secretary General of Interpol 1994
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I've had several people call me and others at work have also seen the article. As a result of the article - millions of people now know there is a problem with PCS. That article could save a few children or at least validate what current patients have been telling their parents. It is hard to believe that children can be treated with such disrespect and cruelty. Especially those who are mentally ill or depressed. Unfortunetly this is what is happening everyday and more than three hundred children are subjected to this at Provo Canyon School on a daily basis. How can anyone walk away unscathed after a year at PCS?
Step 1. We came to understand that the government is powerless over people's private use of drugs and that the War on Drugs was making the government's life unmanageable.
--Scott Tillinghast
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Ya' know, it's also about repetition. It takes a whole lot of contacts or impressions just to get someone's attention. If you hear about two case on Montel (and in the context of Montel) it's just a freak show. Then you catch sight of something in the newsstand while waiting in line to pay for your milk and bread. Then there's a story here or there in the paper. Eventually, it's not just isolated anectdotes, it becomes an accepted part of reality.
All I ask is that people begin to notice the troubled parent industry. I have faith that a little due diligence and garden variety public scrutiny will do the trick.
The government is much more interested in preserving the purity of its ideology than it is in allowing patients to get effective medicine.
-- Ethan B. Russo, neurologist at Western Montana Clinic
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Blasted in the New Republic too:
http://www.fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.ph ... &forum=9&2 (http://www.fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?topic=8114&forum=9&2)
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I've been reading the trial transcripts; and I read over something last night that I had not been in the court room for that pertains to this -
It had to do with the media - and how much exposure it takes for any subject to become widely known in a population. Ya know - like talked about at work and dinner.
For the purpose of the trial - it had to do with which might have most effected wwasps' reputation - Sue, or the media accounts (Prime Time Live/ 48 hours/ numerous newspaper articles and so on) But what interested me, was the way an issue reaches the point of saturation were the population in general is aware of it.
I have always felt this is what we somehow need to accomplish.
This story in the NE could be the wedge we shove into the crack to the flood gates.
So - they just had Doc Phil on Larry King. . .
Write and suggest to Larry that this is an issue - disserving of equal time; and suggest guests he could have to talk about it. Tell him about ISAC; and Cherish - if you have direct experience, you would be a good choice. Ginger is very witty and articulate - and might be a good choice. But keep on them at every opportunity to cover this issue. Now is a good opportunity.
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actually the enquirer has become much more mainstream, similar to People magazine. THey have taken their bizzare stories and publish them as satire under Weekly world news, another publication they own.
Sure, they are gossipy and so forth, but the stories are much better researched than they used to be...they have to because they have been successfully sued in the past for inacurracies.
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BTW, GREAT ARTICLE.
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I read the article in a paper (NE). This place is disgusting. A made for TV movie should be considered so that it would expose the story even more. Someone should contact one of the networks so that you can tell your story on one of the investigative program's like 60 minutes or 48 hours......
I am sickened to the core that Dr.Phil arranged for a troubled teen to be enrolled for treatment at this school (as stated in the article). If he does indeed know the truth about what happens at PCS he should be investigated.
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any updates on this?
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I was wondering if there's any news on this child. Is she still at PCS? Does anyone know what happened to her? Was the "therapy" successful?
The time appears to me to have come when it is the duty of all to make their dissent from religion known.
--John Stuart Mill
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I've tried really hard to forget about what Dr. Phil did. *groan*
Well, considering that girl is being held incommunicado and Dr. Phil worked over her parents, shes boned, and her parents are probably perfectly happy giving up responsibility (and deluding themselves into thinking it was hard to be so lazy, and stupid) like most program parents.
I might be wrong, but then again, what have I seen to indicate otherwise? NADDA. He who joyfully marches in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.
--Albert Einstein
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I'd really like to know what has become of this 15-year old girl at PCS....
Our friends and allies in the Middle East and Europe will soon be subject to forms of intimidation by an Iraqi government bent on dominating the Middle East and its oil reserves,
Project for the New American Century (were they talking about themselves?)
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cherish wisdom - do you REALLY want to know? :/ I'd hate to know what they did to that skinny little girl in that hell hole.
But I already know that its reasonable to guess its a bad thing. :/ I turned to speak to God, About the world's despair; But to make bad matters worse, I found God wasn't there.
--Robert Frost, American poet