Fornits

Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora
An open discussion about the troubled parent industry

A name change wouldn't be a big surprise seeing how that was how his brother just recently handled a public relations problem of his own at "Bethel Boys Academy"("I hope to put a new face on it...John Fountain"), changing their name to "Eagle Point Christian Academy". According to the article, even their father followed a similar approach when he ran into trouble with the initial "Bethel Home for Children"

http://http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/10869246.htm[ This Message was edited by: Curious John on 2005-02-18 20:55 ]

And now the liberals want to stop President Reagan from selling chemical warfare agents and military equipment to Saddam Hussein and why? Because Saddam 'allegedly' gassed a few Kurds in his own country. Mark my words. All of this talk of Saddam Hussein being a 'war criminal' or 'committing crimes against humanity' is the same old thing. LIBERAL HATE SPEECH! and speaking of poison gas... I SAY WE ROUND UP ALL THE DRUG ADDICTS AND GAS THEM TOO!
 
--Rush Limbaugh, November 3, 1988

"

While I am not a fan of Rush Limbaugh by any stretch of the imagination, I think it is only fair to point out that this is a fictitious quote that is the result of a 'Boondocks' cartoon from 2004.
http://http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/limbaugh2.asp

To start with, a name not yet mentioned is Chris Kocurek. He was the former CEO/Owner of Sagewalk (1)(2) who hired Mark Wardle (3). Chris Kocurek was a former CEO for a division of the Brown Schools and the developer of the On Track program (4). He is now the Executive Director and a lead educational consultant of Academic Answers (5), a referral service for teen therapy programs.

Another interesting person is Michael Conner. Although he is not listed on the current staff page of Sagewalk, I did see him on there as recently as a few months ago. Unfortunately I do not have a saved copy to back that up, but even he states he worked for them in his resume(6), as well as Obsidian Trails. He is the creator of InCrisis.org / InCrisis.net (same site) (7). This is a program that claims to be able to determine by just a few questions answered over the internet whether your kid needs treatment. Surprisingly (not really) Larry Solie is listed as one of the Acting Directors and Advisors(.

Sagewalk was the organization that got me started on my own personal investigation into this industry. Although my tangents have led me to several other programs to look at, I do have more to provide about these people listed here. I will post more if you are interested, or you can PM me.

And if you are a parent considering this school, at the very least please consider that upper management at Sagewalk includes staff members whose history is tied to CEDU, On Track, Obsidian Trails, and Trex Wilderness program. Please research these programs before even considering sending your kid to Sagewalk.


(1) http://http://www.strugglingteens.com/archives/2000/11/seen01.html
(2) http://http://www.strugglingteens.com/archives/2000/4/news02.html
(3) http://http://www.strugglingteens.com/archives/2000/5/seen03.html
(4) http://http://www.strugglingteens.com/archives/1999/9/seen02.html
(5) http://http://www.academic-answers.com/people.htm
(6) http://http://www.help-for-parents.org/Resume.htm
(7) http://http://incrisis.org/PressReleases/InCrisisFormed.htm
( http://http://incrisis.org/aboutus.html

I have finally lurked long enough, I guess, and decided to get my my own username. I have tried to search for the other programs you added and still have more questions.

Oak Ridge Military Academy & Reality Ranch both appear to be military schools, which I haven't looked into enough to question.

My quick search for Turning Point came up with a program in Australia. This isn't where they refer kids to, is it?

Summit Achievement, I don't know anything about but you have made me curious.

Skyline Journey to the best of my knowledge was closed in late 2002 due to death and license revocation, but if you know more details or what happened to the Wardles I would be very interested in hearing.

Glacier Mountain Academy, although being referred on http://http://www.teenprogram.info/recommendations/, appears to be non-existant when you try to follow the links at http://http://www.wilderness-programs.org/Programs/GlacierMtn.htm.

In doing my quick search though, I was wondering if some of the other programs that were listed at http://http://fornits.com/anonanon/docs/wwasp/WvPURE/Docket.htm were also recommended by PURE. They were:

The Whitmore Academy (From what I have read, I wouldn't neccessarily advertise this connection either)
Safe Harbor Haven
New Horizons Youth Ministries

Thanks in advance for your response,
John (Husband of a Straight Survivor)