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16
News Items / Re: DHS confirms another child death at Diamond Ranch Academy
« on: November 06, 2013, 01:41:36 AM »
Is Diamond Ranch Academy trying to cover up the recent child death?

We are seeing more and more indications that Diamond Ranch Academy wants to keep news of the recent child death hush-hush.

This comment was made on the above article confirming the suicide:

    My son currently attends DRA, and on balance, while there are issues, we have determined to leave him there until he completes his semester of work. I can confirm that a child from Colorado did, in fact commit suicide, my son personally discussed it with the staffer who found the body (before the DRA gag order was imposed), and I can confirm that the Diaz family has significant pull in the Hurricane community to keep these events hushed up. If my son was even in the slightest prone to suicide, I would have immediately brought him home.

When we first broke this story, these comments were made by four different people in a DRA facebook group. From these comments and others I have received privately, it appears that DRA told their students that a suicide was attempted, but did not tell them the child died.

        This Is the biggest load of bullshit I have ever heard. / I was at DRA during this last few months / Nothing Happened just some other Dumb ass thinking he can shut the place down

        No, As far as I know this is true. / It's heartbreaking, but I'm not sure if he died or not.

        [name redacted] tried commmitting suicide like a month agao there...

        I know [name redacted]..yes he tried to commit suicide but last i heard he was hospitalized and is still alive

Additionally, Diamond Ranch Academy deleted any mention of it on their facebook page, and have not responded to any tweets.
http://www.reddit.com/r/troubledteens/comments/1prewt/i_posted_news_of_the_recent_suicide_to_diamond

It's tragic enough that a child has been lost forever, yet Diamond Ranch Academy appears to want everyone to forget about him. We will not let that happen, we will continue to fight for the children that have no voice of their own.

17
News Items / Re: DHS confirms another child death at Diamond Ranch Academy
« on: November 06, 2013, 01:35:07 AM »
More recent quotes from the above article, including a parent who confirms DRA's "gag order" on the suicide and their attempts to hush it up (in red bold below):

AnonymousNovember 2, 2013 at 4:02 PM

I love the way you guys have no compassion for the kids themselves.. You are simply trying to shut down a school. Their "naivety" is their compassion and trust in those kids to treat them as kids, not psychopaths. The kids at Diamond Ranch Academy are just that, KIDS, and they have made mistakes in their lives but they are there to change and not let their past define their future. Yet you suggest that they go into a mental health facility, rather than being with kids their age going through similar things as them who can help them turn their lives around.
Reply
Replies

    AnonymousNovember 4, 2013 at 9:30 PM

    Seriously? Are you a low end marketer?
    Reply

AnonymousNovember 2, 2013 at 5:01 PM

This is yet another fine example of lack of security and reliability for our youth. I have heard far too many cases of abuse occurring at DRA and after each complaint, all i hear about is Rob and Sherri Dias doing whatever they can to ensure it doesn't leak out too far or ruin their stellar reputation. They should spend a little more time, money and effort on actually taking these counts of abuse, mistreat and self-mutilation seriously instead of Rob going out and buying himself a new car, watch or redoing many of their houses. It honestly disgusts me.
Reply
AnonymousNovember 3, 2013 at 12:10 PM

I went to DRA in 2008. This story is sad, but I never encountered any abuse. Sure it was not "fun" being there, but I was always safe. To the person who commented the staff chases their father out, when my mother decided she no longer liked the way the program was dealing with my therapy (my therapist quit and so I wasn't getting the correct amount of time due to the therapist getting extra kids) she took me home. Sure the staff told her I should stay but within an hour once my paper work was done and stuff was collected I was headed home.
Reply
AnonymousNovember 4, 2013 at 3:44 AM

My Husband and I also sent our beautiful and most precious Daughter to DRA. Unfortunately we were lied to so many different time by so many different people, it became hard to tell who was telling the truth anymore. When we were finally able to have visits with her we would drive for a day and a half, sleep in our car just so we could visit with her for a few hours.... then they started testing her without our permission and giving us these diagnosis about her having learning disability's .... then on one visit one of the Teachers goes to a meeting, telling us we (parents) dont need to be there when in actuality it was an IEP meeting with the School District and he didnt tell us that... We also carried a large file box of her records that we were able to get from the school districts (what they hadent lost) and since we only have a few things to show The people a the IEP meeting decided that we just had not sent Jessica to school and thats why there were no records??? What... Jess's Dad is a Cop and I am a helicopter Mom so there was never anytime that Jess didnt not go to school, well I guess except when she was cutting class maybe.... Her therapist also quit or had so many Children to counsel that it was a joke for our Daughter to get any physiological counseling of any value just because he was spread so thing and he was still going to school and wasnt even a full psychiatrist yet ....They finally kicked her out because they werent bright enough to figure out how to bill our insurance which would have paid them very well... I pray for the young Mans Family and I'm so very sorry he felt that despondent with no way out or no one to talk to... The MOM
Reply
biohazard cleanerNovember 4, 2013 at 10:31 AM

i had no idea places like these existed- pretty bad when you send your kid off for help and he dies.
Reply
AnonymousNovember 4, 2013 at 3:37 PM

My son currently attends DRA, and on balance, while there are issues, we have determined to leave him there until he completes his semester of work. I can confirm that a child from Colorado did, in fact commit suicide, my son personally discussed it with the staffer who found the body (before the DRA gag order was imposed), and I can confirm that the Diaz family has significant pull in the Hurricane community to keep these events hushed up. If my son was even in the slightest prone to suicide, I would have immediately brought him home.
Reply
Replies

    AnonymousNovember 5, 2013 at 7:28 AM

    I am disgusted with your attitude. Have you not seen drasurvivors.com? You son is being ABUSED and you are allowing it to happen. Parents like you disgust me even more than those who are oblivious to what's going on. You KNOW the facts and yet you choose to ignore them. You have absolutely NO IDEA what he going through right now, but I DO.

    How do you know your son ISN'T suicidal? Did they tell you that? Because DRA is enough to make ANYONE suicidal. Maybe you'll be getting a phone call next. I speak from experience.

    I guarantee that you son's mental health and well-being will be seriously damaged for the rest of his life because of what you've done. I hope once he is 18 he never has anything to do with you again, because you sound like a "parent" who deserves it.

    How many red flags do you need? If you know that things are being hushed up...then what else is being hushed up?

    I am so disgusted with you I cannot find the words.

    BRING HIM HOME NOW - AND KEEP HIM AT HOME.
    AnonymousNovember 5, 2013 at 10:26 AM

    seriously.....YOU have no right to tell someone how to deal with their child. You take care of your kid and let others deal with theirs. You are disgusting.
    JilliestakeNovember 5, 2013 at 10:52 AM

    Understandably, the Therapeutic Teen Industry for both child advocates and its surviviors emotes an atmosphere where emotions run high.

    It is difficult enough to tackle issues related to this abusive, fraud-based industry, when one allows emotions to detract from debate and facts, which we feel are far more proactive, though difficult to achieve, when factoring in the human spirit. All, please refrain from personal attacks in comments.

    If you have an experience that will help one gain knowledge, then by all means, please impart it, but respectfully.

    Thank you.

    Jilliestake Staff
    AnonymousNovember 5, 2013 at 11:06 AM

    DRA was not bad. I speak from experience. I was there for six months before my parents brought me home. The only reason I got to leave early was because my therapist quit and with the extra kids for each therapist I did not see a therapist regularly, which was half of the reason I was there. The kids who fought it had a bad time. Never once in my six months was I abused, either verbally or physically. We had benefits where they took us off ranch, if you were good. We had three square meals and two snacks a day. We had classes, homework, and rec time (sports ect). It disgusts me all of the rumors people say about DRA. I still know a few girls from DRA, even though I went in 2008. Half are still mad they went and those kids who are still angry are doing awful, on the flip side the girls who tried to work through DRA without spite are all just graduating college and having awesome lives. The only thing I hated about DRA was I missed my friends back home, that was it. I gained an awesome work ethic. I will admit when I was there of course I didn't love it, and I would rather be home doing what I wanted to. However, my life did a complete turn around once I went there. I thank my parents everyday for sending me there. If I didn't go I guarantee with the way I was heading I would be pregnant in middle school and into drugs. Instead I am a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. So, to the person who is calling DRA a terrible place you are wrong. I was there for six months. The staff were awesome. Ricky use to let us play football instead of doing calisthenics (basically hard cardio) for a treat. We got special gifts/meals on all holidays. After a long day we all went back to the dorms and played games and just laughed.The girls I made friends with are still my friends to this day. We laughed together, we cried together, we became sisters. DRA is not evil. DRA is not bad. When I look back at the girls from DRA I keep in contact with, the ones who still hate DRA are the ones who went back to their old habits. The girls who don't regret going there are the ones who are now very successful.

    I went Utah expecting to go to a different treatment program. When we got there there were bars on all the doors and windows. You could not leave through any door way inside the building because every door way was key card activated. My parents would not be able to see me for a year had they left me there. My mom couldn't handle that places secretive ways. The very next day I went to DRA. At first I was on suicide watch, but after a week they took me off, and it was never a problem.

    To the person who said they would not left them see their kid on a visit, there could have been a reason. Each level prompted a different level of visit. At the "supervisor" level, you got two days for your parents to visit, but you could not stay over night with them. At the "manager" level you got a weekend hotel visit. Then at the next level you got to go home for a week. The level after that it was about a week and a half. If you got enough citations (basically naughty points for things like talking back, being violent, or breaking any rules) you were temporarily dropped back to the first level ( for just a week , then you went back to the regular level). Chances are something like this happened. Never once did I see parents having a hard time. Many girls left early and i'm sure, just like with my mom, the staff tried to talk them out of it. However, they left the kids go.

    I apologize for this long post, but people need to know the truth, not an angry former DRA kid's view.
    AnonymousNovember 5, 2013 at 11:53 AM

    The above post exhibits naivete', among other issues in text that appear 'contrived' to say the least.

    No child experiencing suicidal ideations should ever be enrolled at DRA, period. The facility is obviously not equipped to handle the mental health needs of a suicidal child, which has been proven by suicide attempts and completions.

    DRA has a contract withan 'outside', 'adjunct'
    psychologist that is not on property as continuous staff, He is not a psychiatrist. DRA is not a Mental Health facility. DRA appears to be playing Russian roulette with chldren's lives.

    "Levels?" These are human beings, not Pavlov's dogs. This is not an experiment, or is it?

    How many suicidal deaths have there been at DRA... that have been covered up?
    AnonymousNovember 5, 2013 at 12:03 PM

    You are more than welcome to think my post is contrived, that is your opinion. I cannot comment on whether DRA is equip for mental health issues such as suicide, however they counseling staff are all licensed mental health professionals. I agree however at least one mental health staff should be on campus at all times. However, when you boil it down having that staff there would not necessarily stop a suicide.

    The levels were established to be positive reinforcement. With each level increase you were entitled to more privileges, its simple behavioral reinforcement which many programs use. Its truly tragic that this has happened, however I want to establish that not every experience from DRA is negative.
    AnonymousNovember 5, 2013 at 12:17 PM

    QUOTED FROM ABOVE: "However, when you boil it down having that staff there would not necessarily stop a suicide."

    Correct: What will stop child suicide, is not accepting students or keeping students with suicidal ideations. Period. Total negligence.
    Reply

AnonymousNovember 4, 2013 at 4:14 PM

What I would like to know is...... who's fingerprints are on the "supposedly" suicide belt!!!
Reply
Replies

    AnonymousNovember 4, 2013 at 6:46 PM

    Excellent point, although nothing rarely gets out of Utah, unless they wish it.
    Reply

18
News Items / Re: Tierra Blanca Ranch
« on: November 02, 2013, 06:38:38 PM »
Quote
How can we create a webpage which would be the obivious place for a parent to consult before they abandon their child at a program?

http://astartforteens.org is the best one I know of.

19
News Items / DHS confirms another child death at Diamond Ranch Academy
« on: November 02, 2013, 06:31:33 PM »
http://jilliestake.blogspot.com/2013/11/diamond-ranch-academy-confirmation.html

Friday, November 1, 2013
DIAMOND RANCH ACADEMY - CONFIRMATION - ANOTHER CHILD'S LIFE IS LOST - "SUICIDE COMPLETION"
DIAMOND RANCH ACADEMY
http://www.diamondranchacademy.com/
UTAH DHS LICENSE #  20018

"WE ARE DIFFERENT - BY DESIGN"

HURRICANE, UTAH - 11-01-2013
 
Recently, there have been several inquiries and testaments from parents regarding placement of their children in various facilities across the U.S.  Diamond Ranch Academy (DRA) is one such facility, as there have been numerous Internet postings alleging a recent death of a child at DRA.
 
 
The State of Utah's DHS Licensing Division has confirmed that approximately six weeks ago, there was another child's death at Diamond Ranch Academy.  This time, a young boy (name withheld out of respect for the young man and his family), perished after completing a suicide attempt.
 
Since prior postings have alluded to or described his suicide attempt, it has been confirmed by a Utah State Official that his precious life ended in a shower, hanging from a belt attached to a shower rod.
 
According to the State, the police and DHS investigations are near closure.  DHS recommended
corrective action at DRA, which has taken place.  One corrective act  was installing collapsible shower rods and shower heads, so that they remain innocuous.
 
Excuse:  "The staff gets complacent." Another word for negligent.
 
A State source conveyed, "the child that completed  his suicide attempt was taken off suicide watch by the tending Psychiatrist two days before."  Negligence?
 
Question:  Why was a suicidal child at DRA to begin with?  Why was he not transferred to a Mental Health facility?
 
DHS stated that their county receives "on average,  one call a year relating to a child's suicide."
 
Since the investigation is near finalized,  whether charges shall be filed remain to be determined.
 
Another quote from a State Official, who was very professional and kind, yet seemingly naive, "DRA is one of the better ones. I believe they can make a difference with these children."
 
 
Jilliestake response: 
 
 
DRA surely did "make a difference."
 
"We are different - by design" -  as in shower rods and shower heads? 
 
DRA appears in dire need of a fresh marketing campaign to bounce back from apparent, egregious negligence. One imagines, DRA  and its adjunct mental health care providers,  pray the death of this young man is kept "under wraps."
 
But, hey, they can always count on Dr. Drew Pinsky (aka Dr. Drew) for a stellar recommendation.
 
Quoted  from the DRA website, "As seen On Dr. Phil's Life Changers"
 
 
"I don't make this recommendation casually;
this is from years of experience in dealing
with people with behavioral problems.."
 
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v0YojzS9KU#t=37
 
http://www.diamondranchacademy.com/
 
 
It is more than evident, that the laws in Utah and across the country regarding Teen Residential Treatment Facilities, Wilderness Programs, and the like,  must change to protect our young.
There is no accountability.
Educational Consultants that send children and youths to these facilites, still do not fathom that they are mandated reporters.
This is not the first child's life that was lost or destroyed, nor will it be the last, if there is no accountability or humanity.
 
As advocates for children, DRA is not recommended for placement.
 
 
WE EXTEND OUR SINCERE SORROW TO THE FAMILY, UPON THE LOSS OF YOUR SON.
 
 
 
 
Notes:
 

According to Diamond Ranch Academy's website, they are a licensed youth "residential treatment center."

Owners/Founders:

Rob and Sherri Dias
 
Utah administrative code for Licensed treatment facilities.
 
http://www.rules.utah.gov/publicat/code/r501/r501-19.htm
 Definition of a licensed residential treatment center in Utah.

http://www.planning.utah.gov/Index_files/PDFs/ut3.57.pdf

UTAH DHS

http://www.dhs.utah.gov/

Hurricane, Utah Police Department

http://www.cityofhurricane.com/categories/departments/police-dept/
Posted by Jilliestake at 7:53 PM
Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook
Labels: Child Mental Health, Diamond Ranch Academy, Diamond Ranch Academy Child Death, Educational Consultants, Residential Treament facility, Therapeutic Boarding Schools., UTAH Diamond Ranch Academy Child Suicide

3 comments:

    AnonymousNovember 1, 2013 at 8:43 PM

    Thanks for your ongoing dedication to the truth and acquiring confirmation of this death. Suicide ideation doesn't just magically disappear. What criteria was used to determine that this young man was no longer 'suicidal'. One thing these programs do quiet efficiently is teach young people how to 'act', as in, how to pretend, or lie better.
    Blessing to the family. I'm sure they thought, like other families, that they were doing the best thing for their child.
    Another concern for me, is how programs have been increasingly successful in the past few years at keeping these stories out of the media. I hope you will forward these details to news outlets in Utah and elsewhere, in hopes that they will cover the story. Parents pay more attention to statistics, and when no one is keeping track of the stats, how can parents make a truly informed decision?
    DRA seems to have the same 'cream of the crop' reputation as did HLA. So if there's this level of inadequate care in the 'better' programs, one can only imagine what's happening in the others.
    I hope he's in a much happier place.
    Deborah
    Reply
    AnonymousNovember 2, 2013 at 1:58 PM

    Rob and Sherri Dias do not care about the children that come to DRA. They chased my father out after he realized I shouldn't stay there from their negligence for my bladder problem. They only care about money. I have seen Rob Dias abuse children at DRA. I went to DRA in 2004 and I can only image that it has gotten worse. Please, protect your children. This poor young man was driven to suicide.
    Reply
    AnonymousNovember 2, 2013 at 2:42 PM

    what do you mean they chased your dad out? how can they do that?
    Reply


20
Children of Darkness, the Elan segment starts at 17:00:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTCSfx47R1w&feature=player_detailpage#t=1022

Elan survivors had heard of this documentary, but it was only found recently. As of right now it has 385 views, it was posted to youtube 12 days ago by an account under the producer's name, Richard Kotuk.

Watching this burns me up. It was nominated for an Oscar in 1984, how was Elan allowed to operate after the film got that kind of exposure? I would love to know if any kind of investigation was done, and why the abuse was allowed to continue.

[Spoiler Warning]

I mean, kids living for two weeks in a dumpster? A boy in shackles and a bunny costume? A 'therapist' screaming at and berating the children? They even talk about The Ring where kids are forced to get beat up by other kids. I know it was 1983, but c'mon. Even by the standards of that day, this would have been unacceptable.

I think this footage is amazing. I doubt something like this could be made today, especially the filming of 'therapy' sessions. It's rare that abuse is actually captured on tape and documented. The entire film is incredible, I can see why it was nominated for an Oscar.

Please share this in your social networks. It's not enough that Elan is closed, an investigation needs to be done and the people responsible should be put in jail. The head honchos, Joe Ricci and Gerald Davidson are dead, but Martin Kruglik (shown briefly at 19:14, white shirt, on left), Jeffrey Gottlieb, Sharon Terry, and Bill Diamond (the Maine State Senator who protected Elan) need to be the subjects of an official investigation and held responsible for their actions.

21
Are you a graduate of a Utah school that tried to "cure" you from "sexually acting out" or viewing porn?

The Daily Mail newspaper recently wrote up Oxbow Academy in Utah as a school trying to deter teens from using porn. Anyone know about it? Or any affiliated or similar programs in Utah dealing with youth "acting out" sexually or other troubled teens programs using similar approaches? Among the possibilities are: Discovery Ranch, Redcliff Ascent, Discovery Academy, Medicine Wheel; also Gateway Academy in Draper and Salt Lake; and Birdseye Academy. A journalist wants to learn more and is seeking to interview alumni on or off the record about their experiences.

I started www.reddit.com/r/troubledteens to save kids from abuse by the Troubled Teen Industry. I have verified this reporter is 100% legit. If you'd like to participate, email me at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -porn.html

22
http://www.pressherald.com/news/nationw ... 04-15.html

Posted: April 15
Updated: Today at 2:40 PM

Skakel's trial attorney admits reluctance to call experts

The Kennedy cousin appeals his murder conviction by arguing that his lawyer failed to adequately defend him, including insufficiently challenging a witness who said Skakel confessed while at the Elan school in Maine.

By John Christoffersen / The Associated Press


VERNON, Conn. — The trial attorney for Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel said Tuesday he was reluctant to call experts at times during his murder trial because he worried about a "rich man's justice perception and we could just buy experts."
Michael Skakel
click image to enlarge

Michael Skakel listens during a parole hearing Oct. 24 at McDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield, Conn.

The Associated Press

Skakel's latest appeal trial began Tuesday with his former lawyer defending an accusation that he failed to competently defend Skakel when he was convicted of murder in 2002.

Skakel, the 52-year-old nephew of Robert F. Kennedy's widow, Ethel, is serving 20 years to life in prison for the 1975 golf club bludgeoning of Greenwich neighbor Martha Moxley when both of them were 15.

Skakel argues that during the 2002 trial, attorney Michael Sherman failed to challenge the state's star witness and obtain evidence pointing to other suspects, did a poor job with jury selection and closing arguments and didn't hire enough investigators and expert consultants.

Sherman, the first witness to take the stand in Rockville Superior Court in the appeal trial, said he had been confident before the 2002 trial that he would win. Sherman previously has said he did all he could to prevent Skakel's conviction.

Attorneys for Skakel argue that Sherman failed to challenge the state's star witness, Gregory Coleman, by finding witnesses who later rejected his claim that Skakel confessed to the crime. Coleman testified that Skakel confessed when they attended Elan, a reform school in Maine in the late 1970s, and said one of a few classmates he named may have heard it.

Sherman said Monday Coleman was "patently unbelievable so I never felt I needed a smoking gun to shoot down Mr. Coleman's testimony."

Sherman was also pressed by Skakel's current attorney, Hubert Santos, on whether he sought an expert to testify about Elan and whether he tried to get block Skakel's alleged confessions on the grounds that they were coerced. Sherman said he reached out to several people, including an expert on false confessions, but felt the expert wasn't needed because the defense contended Skakel never confessed.

"I didn't want to turn it into a rich man's justice perception and we could just buy experts," Sherman said.

Sherman also was pressed on why he didn't obtain a police sketch of a man seen walking near the Moxley property the night of the murder that Skakel's defense contends resembled an early suspect. Prosecutors say police concluded the sketch was of a neighbor.

Sherman said he did file motions seeking any sketches but didn't get them before trial. As Skakel's attorney put up the sketch next to a photo of the earlier suspect, Sherman acknowledged having the sketch would have been helpful.

Sherman also said he tried unsuccessfully to get a profile report on the suspect prepared by investigators, saying that also would have been helpful because investigators at the time backed up Skakel's alibi. Prosecutors say the report was hearsay and not admissible.

Santos questioned Sherman on why he didn't call witnesses to establish that the lead investigator planned to write a book on the case, saying that could have opened a broad new line of defense. Sherman said he tried unsuccessfully to find out about the book and acknowledged it could have been used in his defense.

Prosecutors say many of the issues were rejected in earlier appeals, including the book deal and issues related to the star witness.

Skakel, who lost a bid for parole last year, is hoping to get out of prison through a writ of habeas corpus arguing he was deprived of his constitutional right to effective legal representation when Sherman was his attorney.

Santos, Skakel's current attorney, argues his client's conviction is based on two witnesses of dubious credibility who claimed Skakel confessed to the crime. He contends the verdict likely would have been different if Sherman had conducted an appropriate investigation, obtained evidence and challenged inappropriate state evidence.

Prosecutor Susann Gill counters that Skakel's conviction came after more than a dozen witnesses testified that he made incriminating statements, including three direct confessions.

Skakel has lost two appeals before the Connecticut Supreme Court.

23
http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/RFK-Jr-could-testify-at-Skakel-trial-4408079.php

RFK Jr. could testify at Skakel trial
David Hennessey
Updated 11:51 pm, Sunday, April 7, 2013

1 of 2
View: Larger | Hide

    In this Oct. 24, 2012 file photo, Michael Skakel listens during a parole hearing at McDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, Pool, File) Photo: Jessica Hill, Associated Press / POOL FR125654 AP
   

One of Michael Skakel's most vocal and powerful supporters and a member of the Kennedy family is one of dozens of witnesses who could testify at Skakel's upcoming habeas corpus trial, according to an updated witness list.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., one of more than 50 names disclosed last week on the updated list, has maintained since Skakel's 2002 murder conviction that Skakel, a Kennedy cousin, did not kill his Belle Haven neighbor Martha Moxley in 1975. Skakel is serving 20 years to life at McDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield for the crime.

The witness list -- which includes investigators in the case, members of the Skakel family and former suspects -- was filed in state Superior Court in the Rockville section of Vernon.

Also filed in that court last week was a disclosure by Hubert Santos, Skakel's attorney, indicating that Santos will call an expert to testify about Elan, the Maine school and treatment center Skakel attended in the late 1970s. Skakel allegedly confessed to Moxley's murder to classmates while at Elan. The expert is another component of Skakel's defense strategy in an attempt to prove Mickey Sherman, Skakel's former attorney, did not competently defend Skakel in 2002.

The habeas corpus trial, a legal proceeding through which a prisoner can challenge their imprisonment, is the latest attempt to win Skakel's freedom. The trial, scheduled to begin April 16 in Rockville, will focus on the ways in which Sherman allegedly fell short in his defense of the 52-year-old Skakel, thus depriving Skakel of his right to effective assistance of counsel. Skakel is the nephew of Robert F. Kennedy's widow, Ethel.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attended Skakel's 2002 trial and testified on his cousin's behalf during a 2007 hearing.

He also published a lengthy piece in The Atlantic in 2003 titled "A Miscarriage of Justice," defending Skakel and arguing his indictment was the result of an inflamed media.

In addition to Kennedy, the latest witness list -- which has more than 10 additional names compared to a list disclosed earlier this year -- includes Skakel's brother Thomas, once a suspect in the murder, Mark Fuhrman, the former Los Angeles police detective who fingered Skakel as Moxley's killer in his 1998 book "Murder in Greenwich," Frank Garr, who worked as an investigator on the case, and Sherman.

The trial could also feature prior testimony by Tony Bryant, Adolph Hasbrouck and Burton Tinsley. Bryant implicated Hasbrouck and Tinsley in Moxley's murder in an interview with an investigator.

One of the new names disclosed in the updated witness list is Richard J. Ofshe, a California doctor and expert witness called to testify about the Elan School.

Ofshe was a member of a research group that won a Pulitzer Prize for an expose of the drug-rehabilitation program Synanon, which founded the tradition of "aggressive, residential treatment," in which Elan School partook, according to court documents.

Ofshe, who has qualified as an expert on interrogation methods in court proceedings on more than 350 occasions, has completed extensive work on the "extreme influence" organizations like Elan have on their students, according to court documents.

The Elan program was "psychologically intensive, brutalizing and physically assaultive," Ofshe states in a letter filed in court. That environment is one that jurors at the 2002 trial needed to better understand, he wrote.

"It [is] my opinion that the services of an expert on this sort of complex and unusual influence environment were necessary to educate jury members so that they could intelligently evaluate the significance of Michael Skakel's shift from repeated flat-out denials of his having any involvement in the death of Martha Moxley to his subsequent response that he might have killed Martha," but didn't have any memory of the crime, he wrote.

"Without fully appreciating the exceptionally coercive, highly organized and focused environment into which Mr. Skakel was placed it would have been extremely difficult if not impossible for a lay person to adequately comprehend the disorganized factual testimony about the nature of influence and control at Elan," he added.

Family members of Gregory Coleman, Skakel's classmate at Elan, are included on the latest witness list.

Skakel's defense filed a motion last week requesting that the court order attorney John Regan, of Rochester, N.Y., to testify about conversations he had with the now-dead Coleman, once his client.

Court documents indicate Skakel's defense believes Regan has information regarding Coleman's credibility, but that a court order is required to make Regan testify because of attorney-client privilege.

The period from April 16 to April 26 has been reserved for the trial in state Superior Court in Rockville.

[email protected]; 203-625-4428

********************************************************

More Information
Potential witnesses for hearing in Michael Skakel case

Tony Bryant (prior testimony)
Barbara Bryant (prior testimony)
Elizabeth Coleman
Mary Coleman
Vito Collucci (prior testimony and live testimony)
Peter Coomaraswamy
Esme Dick
James Dowdle
Kevin Edwards
Richard Emanuel
Wright Ferguson
Rick Fisher
Michael Fitzpatrick
Mark Fuhrman
Frank Garr (prior testimony and live testimony)
Cliff Grubin (prior testimony)
David Grudberg
Adolph Hasbrouck (prior testimony)
Margie Walker Hauer
Richard Hoffman (prior testimony and live testimony)
Everette James (prior testimony)
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (prior testimony and live testimony)
Len Levitt (prior testimony)
Michael Meredith (prior testimony)
Crawford Mills (deceased, prior testimony)
Charles Morganti, Jr. (prior testimony)
James Murphy
Ronald Murphy
Richard J. Ofshe
Dennis Ossorio
Rick Pagnani
Graham Pettingill
John Regan
Betsy Reis
Al Robbins
Stephen Seeger
Charles Seigan (prior testimony and live testimony)
Michael Sherman (prior testimony and live testimony)
David Skakel (prior testimony)
John Skakel (prior testimony)
Julie Skakel (prior testimony)
Rushton Skakel Jr. (prior testimony)
Stephen Skakel (prior testimony)
Thomas Skakel
John Simpson (prior testimony)
Jack Solomon
Burton Tinsley (prior testimony)
Michael Udvardy (prior testimony and live testimony)
Neal Walker
Susan Wandzilak
Carl Wold (prior testimony)

24
The Troubled Teen Industry / Re: Earl Sweatshirt - It was about the money
« on: January 16, 2013, 05:31:28 AM »
Great find, Oscar. This generated an interesting comment on reddit:

http://www.reddit.com/r/troubledteens/comments/16f9fv/video_of_odd_futures_earl_sweatshirt_leaving/

"I was in treatment with some kids who were in wilderness with Earl, and my wilderness therapist worked at CRA for 4 years before coming to Second Nature Blue Ridge. The first time I heard Odd Future's music was 10 months into my time away, when I was able to have a visit and see my brother, and we secretly listened to songs from their album Radicals. He was a person who I could identify with and look to when I wanted to make sense of how this could happen to people, and I still remember hearing Orange Juice for the first time and feeling something like hope. I was able to meet him a couple of months after I left treatment, and I told him that his wilderness buddies said hi, and that his music helped get me through my experience in treatment.

I don't know how he views all of this. I always heard that Samoa was a place you do not want to go, as they can keep you until you are 21 years old and have different laws regarding the treatment of children (corporal punishment etc.)"

**************************************************************

Also found a good interview with Earl Sweatshirt in the NY Times, it was linked in the hiphopwired article but the link was broken:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/arts/music/earl-sweatshirt-is-back-from-the-wilderness.html?pagewanted=all

   
After Exile, Career Reset
Earl Sweatshirt Is Back From the Wilderness
Damon Winter/The New York Times

Earl Sweatshirt in Los Angeles in April. More Photos »
By JON CARAMANICA
Published: May 2, 2012

LOS ANGELES
Multimedia
Slide Show
Earl Sweatshirt Returns

Follow @nytimesarts for arts and entertainment news.

Arts Twitter List: Critics, Reporters and Editors
Arts & Entertainment Guide

A sortable calendar of noteworthy cultural events in the New York region, selected by Times critics.

    Go to Event Listings »

Damon Winter/The New York Times

Earl Sweatshirt in Los Angeles. More Photos »

AT Coral Reef Academy, a therapeutic retreat for at-risk boys in Vaitele, outside of the Samoan capital of Apia, your progress is tracked on a map with a bus. Around the island the bus goes, until eventually it lands at the airport, at which point you’re finally free.

Get in trouble, as Thebe Kgositsile did from time to time, and you end up spending your time in a separate house — the bus barn — more or less alone, waiting to be allowed to rejoin the group. Mostly he would get into trouble for sneaking onto the Internet, trying to check in on his other life, 5,000 miles away. Before leaving his native Los Angeles he’d made a name for himself as Earl Sweatshirt, the most intense and talented rapper in Odd Future, the crew that in the last two years has helped upend hip-hop business models, remade ideas about the meaning of the rap underground and stoked the hip-hop culture wars as no act in recent memory has, thanks to its rowdy, outlandish and sometimes offensive content and its motormouth frontman Tyler, the Creator.

Much of the early Odd Future buzz centered around Earl Sweatshirt, whose video for “Earl” was a teen-rebel fantasia of drug use and other misbehavior. A provocateur with a dry wit and an outrageously dexterous gift for wordplay, he was a clear inheritor of Eminem’s macabre humor and Lil Wayne’s dyspeptic logorrhea. He was a savvy, schooled rapper: gross, entrancing and thrilling.

And also one of the only pop mysteries left. By the time Odd Future began performing and doing interviews, he was nowhere to be seen. In a time of Internet-speed information flood, Earl Sweatshirt’s absence — he was sent to Samoa by his mother — a striking rarity.

He returned to Los Angeles in February maybe more popular than he would have been if he’d never left. In his absence Odd Future had used the Internet to trump old ways of doing things. Earl Sweatshirt, by largely staying off the Internet, found himself benefiting from all that had happened and with a bully pulpit in front of him. What would he say?

IN EARLY APRIL Earl Sweatshirt was in California, spending his days finishing his final semester of high school at New Roads School, in Santa Monica, and spending the rest of the time regaining his footing.

“There’s so much in the balance,” he said one afternoon at Ohana, a Korean restaurant in Studio City. “ For me, for my mom, for Tyler, for everyone I care about.”

Mellow and thoughtful, he isn’t an introvert so much as slyly shy. The eight weeks since he’d been back had required constant calibration: spending time with his mother; easing himself into the rhythm of Odd Future, which has become a successful touring outfit; patching up his friendships with Tyler and others. Often doing one of these things meant ignoring another. Just as often they were at odds.

The relationship between Earl’s mother, Cheryl Harris, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Odd Future, which kept Earl Sweatshirt’s name alive while he was gone, was minimal at best. His music, Ms. Harris said, was part of a larger suite of concerns that led to her decision to send him away. “He was really very clearly going through a rough patch emotionally,” she said in an interview in the Beverly Hills office of her son’s manager, adding that it was “very evident that he was struggling.” That meant smoking marijuana to excess, having a serious falling-out with the Hwa Rang Do teacher with whom he’d studied for years, and getting caught cheating on an English assignment. Instead of memorizing a Shakespeare recitation, he relied on a hidden iPod.

“I’m my mom’s everything, so there was nothing else to distract her” from his troubles, he said. (Ms. Harris and her son’s father, the South African poet and activist Keorapetse Kgositsile, split up about a decade ago.)

The “Earl” video was posted online on May 26, 2010, and within days, Earl Sweatshirt was gone. First he went to Second Nature, a several-week-long wilderness program. But when it was clear he needed further time and attention, he was sent to Samoa.

As Odd Future became more popular, though, his absence was harder to ignore. While Ms. Harris remained largely silent, “Free Earl” became a slogan, a hashtag, a mantra. Odd Future fans began to see her as an antagonist. At one point a threatening note was left on her door.

“I could have never imagined in my wildest dreams that this decision to send him away to a school that had the kind of support for his emotional well-being that he needed would turn into a story about locking him away,” she said. To explain her son’s absence, she added, “I would’ve had to have talked about his personal life in a way that I think would’ve been really unfair.”

Still, she couldn’t ignore that Earl Sweatshirt had fans, and a future in music. David Bryan, the head of New Roads, put Ms. Harris in touch with Larry Brezner, a Hollywood producer and manager whose company represents Robin Williams, Billy Crystal and other entertainment giants. Mr. Brezner brought in Leila Steinberg, an activist with Alternative Intervention Models, a youth-oriented arts program, and a longtime friend. Ms. Steinberg had another advantage: she’d managed a teenage Tupac Shakur. Together Mr. Brezner and Ms. Steinberg took on the management of Earl Sweatshirt.

In Samoa he was taking courses and speaking with therapists. He swam with whales and earned a scuba diving license, watched every episode of “The Mentalist” on DVD, put his classmates onto Lil B, began learning how to play piano. He read Manning Marable’s Malcolm X biography and Richard Fariña’s counterculture fiction. He wrote rhymes. Most of his verse on “Oldie,” his one contribution to “The OF Tape Vol. 2” (Odd Future), released in March, was written while he was in Samoa, before he knew if he’d ever have a song to put it on.

Earl Sweatshirt arrived in Samoa resentful. “That’s why I was gone for so long,” he said, discussing the stages of acceptance most of the participants in the program go through: resistance, false commitment, then finally, actual growth. “When the kids that got there at the same time as me were all leaving, it was like, damn,” he said. “There’s such a clear difference between someone who’s faking it and someone who’s like, ‘O.K., maybe I don’t hate my mom.’ ”

He’d let his friends know where he was when he got to Samoa but was only able to communicate sporadically. Eventually his mother began sending him articles about the group’s success, and also a birthday card Tyler had dropped at his house in Los Angeles. He was soon communicating with Ms. Steinberg, who gave him writing exercises and perspective on what had been happening at home.

As part of the Coral Reef curriculum he also performed community service, spending time working at Samoa Victim Support Group, a center for survivors of sexual abuse, including children.

“That was a pivotal moment,” he said one afternoon at Bristol Farms, a supermarket near his manager’s office. One of the things Earl Sweatshirt had been prized for as a rapper was his extreme imagery, bordering on vile. “You can detach imagery from words,” he said, adding that he “never actually pictured” the things he rapped about. (“Lyrics About Rape, Coke, And Couches Will Be Blaring In Your Ears,” was how “Earl,” the album, was advertised on Odd Future’s Tumblr when it was released in March 2010.)

By the time he began working at the center, “I had already come to the conclusion that I was done talking about” that sort of subject matter, he said, but coming face to face with young people who had suffered in that way was overwhelming. “There’s nothing that you can — there’s no — you can’t evade the — there’s no defense for like — if you have any ounce of humanity,” he said, the feeling swallowing the words.

Tyler too was changing. The loss of Earl, his best friend, just at the moment when their dreams were beginning to be realized was deeply painful. “Tyler always treated him as sacred,” said Christian Clancy, one of Odd Future’s managers. “They all did.” On the group’s early tours, “at every stop Tyler would stop and say something, ‘God, I wish Earl was here,’ ” recalled David Airaudi, another manager.

But there was a disconnect between Tyler and Ms. Harris. They had met on a few occasions before Earl’s departure and had spoken about his creative ambitions. “She really genuinely cared about me, and then it all shut down” he lamented. “I don’t see how she sees me as a threat.”

According to Mr. Brezner, Ms. Harris was putting the interests of her son first: “She had tremendous anger at Tyler. He represented for her the friends that were going to drag him down that rabbit hole.”

Finally Earl Sweatshirt’s bus made it to the airport. “I started taking responsibility,” he said, “in my head, not just out loud.” Ms. Steinberg traveled to Samoa with a group of musicians to pick him up and conduct workshops that Earl organized. When he left to fly back to Los Angeles, Ms. Steinberg said, the girls from the center were at the airport to bid him farewell, tears in their eyes.

Earl turned 18 a couple of weeks after he returned from Samoa, but he’s not quite an adult yet. He returned to New Roads, from which he’ll graduate in June. Odd Future greeted him with a “welcome home check,” Mr. Clancy said. Earl Sweatshirt stays with Ms. Steinberg, or crashes with Tyler, or with Matt Martians and Syd the Kyd, the Odd Future producers who share an apartment. He’s easily fallen back into the Odd Future lingo — “tight” for approval, “sus” for questionable things and so on.

“He’s matured,” said Syd. “It’s weird to say that because in my circle a friend’s maturity isn’t necessarily looked up at. But he hasn’t changed.”

When Earl returned, he and Tyler were due for some long conversations, though it was difficult to break past their usual goofy, playful rapport, which Earl jokingly refers to as “A.D.H.D. farce.”

In order to discuss difficult topics, “I had to force it to be uncomfortable,” he added.

But even though their bond had been tested, it wasn’t severed. “It’s like we both don’t know how much influence we have on the other person,” Earl Sweatshirt said. “There’s times where I realize, like, damn, I matter.”

Initially the group assumed that when Earl returned, he’d simply rejoin the crew. But with separate management, and more than a year and a half of vastly different life experience, there were no guarantees.

Tyler, for one, was vexed: “I’m going to make sure when you come back I have a house built for you. And when you come home, all you have to do is walk in, and I’m going to make sure you have everything you want.” Tyler’s fear was that Earl would return and say, “Eh, never mind, I’m going to go rent a hotel.”

Tyler said: “I want to lie to you and say, ‘Yeah he’s here.’ But I have no idea. I just don’t.”

THE MOST ANTICLIMACTIC record deal signing in the history of such events took place in the front conference room at Mr. Brezner’s firm, on a blindingly sunny day on which Earl Sweatshirt was happily high.

An hour earlier he’d been at the Odd Future store, drinking a strawberry-lime soda and making jokes with some of the extended crew members. In the car on the way to the office he took a call from Ms. Steinberg. “I’m too high for this,” he said, equal parts miffed and mischievous. “I’m about to get sad. And then you know what’s going to happen, I’m not going to be glad. I’m going to be mad. Bad.” He’d learned that Ms. Harris was going to pick him up afterward to take him to meet André 3000 (with whom he shares a legal team), and he was frustrated.

After a stop at a 7-Eleven to pick up Clear Eyes to get rid of some weed-induced redness, he went to the office, perfunctorily signed a stack of papers in several places, then left with a laugh.

He’ll have his own imprint, Tan Cressida, to be distributed through Columbia. That places him in the Sony system alongside Odd Future, which was one of his priorities. He turned down offers with significantly higher advances and made sure that his contract allowed him to put the Odd Future logo on his albums. “I want it to look seamless,” he said. As for his mother’s concerns, “She knows she’s got nothing to worry about.”

There still hasn’t been any communication between Ms. Harris and Odd Future. “I don’t view me as being the relevant person in all this,” she said, though she remains a potent behind-the-scenes force.

There are still joint therapy sessions with his mother, to hammer out the dents in that relationship. “I don’t spend as much time at home as I necessarily should be,” he admitted. “I know I’m not as considerate as I should be.” The day after he groaned about traveling with her to see André 3000, he reconsidered his angst. “That was the prejudice I was talking about,” he said. “When I got in the car with her, it was, like, fine.”

Whether he’ll branch out as a solo star or become part of the Odd Future traveling road show remains to be seen. He made his live debut at the crew’s album release concert at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York in March.

His way of coping with re-entry has been decidedly low key: whiling away hours at the Odd Future store, skating, making music with everyone in the crew. At one point he joked that he has to stop wearing the five-panel camp hats that are something of a crew trademark.

He wants to work on three projects: his solo major-label debut, a collaboration with the producer Matt Martians and EarlWolf, a long-planned collaboration with Tyler. Of “Earl,” the song that made him a star, he said, “There’s not a time I want to listen to that,” describing it as sounding “like you skinned your knee.”

“You can listen to ‘Earl’ and be like, damn, he went in, that was really smart. But there’s no avoiding. ...” he said, trailing off.

When he first arrived in Samoa, he was taken to a waterfall, which some of the other boys jumped off, though to a newcomer it inspired fear. “If you didn’t jump off the waterfall, you felt” terrible, he said. “So then you started jumping off the waterfalls.”

Doing so, he said, had given him new perspective, a desire to be more bold, and to trust in himself more.

“I just treat everything like that,” he said. “If I don’t do this right now, if I don’t take this risk, I’ll never get this day back again.”

A version of this article appeared in print on May 6, 2012, on page AR1 of the New York edition with the headline: After Exile, Career Reset.

25
News Items / Re: New Lifetime TV show sending kids to scary RTCs
« on: January 14, 2013, 01:44:56 AM »
Thank you for the support, Che. And thank you, Oscar, I'm glad to hear that the information will be spread elsewhere. Are there any boards that are still moderated on fornits?

26
News Items / New Lifetime TV show sending kids to scary RTCs
« on: January 11, 2013, 10:11:12 PM »
There is a new show on Lifetime called 'Teen Trouble'. It is hosted by a famous teen coach named Josh Shipp; on it, he has sent 3 kids to 'troubled teen' chains that have been investigated for child abuse and deaths, and at least one more is likely.

This show is hot hot hot, and it's picking up speed. They are now airing repeats on A&E and have announced it will be shown on Canada's Lifetime. Josh Shipp is making the rounds to Anderson Live, Good Morning America and other national talk shows, the media is praising him. Parents are watching, and no doubt some will send their kids to dangerous RTCs based on his 'expertise'.

We need your help! Please sign & share this petition to let Lifetime and Josh Shipp know that they must stop putting kids at serious risk of ill-treatment and torture: http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/josh-shipp-and-lifetime-television-network-stop-placing-children-at-serious-risk-of-ill-treatment-and-torture

***********************************************************************************

MORE INFO:

Kids 1 & 2: Josh sent two kids to programs run by Aspen Education Group. Aspen has one of the worst records for child abuse, six kids have died in their programs, they are currently being sued by 31 people who say they were sexually and physically abused, and they have been the subject of DHS investigations and closures. One child was sent to Copper Canyon Academy against her will, here's what kids who went there had to say about the physical abuse, lack of medical attention and punishment if they told their parents what was happening: http://www.reddit.com/r/troubledteens/comments/13gugu/what_kids_who_went_to_copper_canyon_academy_had. Another kid was sent to Outback Therapeutic Expeditions: http://wiki.fornits.com/index.php?title=Outback_Therapeutic_Expeditions.
Episodes 1 & 2; Clip 1: http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/teen-trouble/video/season-1/episode-1/chelsea-to-rehab
Full Episodes N/A
In-depth article about Aspen: http://www.salon.com/2012/07/18/dark_side_of_a_bain_success/singleton
Article about lawsuit against Aspen: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/11/more_former_students_of_tough.html

Kid 3: Josh referred another teen to Axios Youth Community, which closed one of their programs in June 2012 under allegations of sexual abuse of minors and attempts by management to cover it up. http://www.reddit.com/r/troubledteens/comments/1667m1/would_you_believe_teen_trouble_referred_yet/
Episode 4, Clip: http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/teen-trouble/video/season-1/episode-4/asmaras-choice
Full Episode: http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/teen-trouble/video/season-1/episode-4/episode-4-asmara

Kid 4: Plus, they used the local sheriff to arrest and lock up yet another teen in a public jail. They kept her in isolation overnight, it looked like she was there for 24 hours all together. That same episode attracted the attention of the authorities for contributing to the delinquency of a minor: http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/tv/shock_treatment_ATdCCRNggbvd0f7bmhnnNP
Episode 3, Clip: http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/teen-trouble/video/season-1/episode-3/samm-in-jail
Full Episode: http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/teen-trouble/video/season-1/episode-3/episode-3-samm

Kid 5: I have found evidence online that another kid will be institutionalized by the end of the season: http://www.reddit.com/r/troubledteens/comments/168k6i/inside_scoop_it_looks_like_josh_shipp_will/

The show airs Friday nights at 10p ET, most episodes can be watched online later. Watch them soon...Lifetime has a habit of taking them down.



***********************************************************************



The site isn't letting me make another post, so I'm just going to add to this one.....the very first article that questions Teen Trouble's use of programs with a history of abuse allegations came out yesterday:
http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/tv/reality_show_told_school_stop_sending_eXSiyTY2aAh4J3Kpn3VvDM

'Abused' teens take aim at Lifetime reality show

    By SEAN DALY
    Last Updated: 10:59 AM, January 11, 2013
    Posted: 6:30 PM, January 10, 2013

The title of Lifetime’s new series “Teen Trouble” pretty much says it all — trying to bring out-of-control kids back from the brink.

But three weeks after its premiere, the show is under fire for sending kids to youth rehab facilities with histories of abuse allegations, lawsuits and even deaths.

In last Friday’s episode, the show’s host, a teen expert and author named Josh Shipp, arranges for a 16-year-old girl with a drinking problem to attend Axios Youth Community in Colorado.

A few weeks after the episode was shot last year, Axios was shuttered amid allegations a former employee had molested a 13-year-old student.
Courtesy of Lifetime
Host Josh Shipp (left) shows a teenager around a prison.

In another episode, Shipp sends a teen heroin addict named Chelsea — against her will, but with parental consent— to Copper Canyon Academy in central Arizona for a yearlong stay.

Since the show began, dozens of former students from youth facilities across the country have been flocking online to Web sites like ccaSurvivors.com and Reddit’s “Troubled Teens” forum to share their frightening experiences.

An online petition -- posted Wednesday -- asks Lifetime president Nancy Dubuc to stop sending teens to so-called “therapeutic boarding schools.”

Former students say CCA, which is owned by Aspen Education Group, deprives students of food, water and sleep as disciplinary measures and forces some to re-enact horrific events from their lives — including their own rapes — in front of peers.

“I wan’t allowed to talk for most of the time I was there,” former student Blayke Navon, 18, who was not on the show but is one of the school’s most vocal critics, tells The Post.

Navon, who had no history of substance abuse or illegal behavior, was 15 when she was forcibly removed from her home at 5 a.m.

“Two people came into my room, woke me up and told me I needed to go with them,” she remembers. “I thought I was being kidnapped.”

CCA “is like a Nazi concentration camp,” says Navon’s mother Laurie, who yanked her daughter out after just 6 weeks. “I thought I was sending her to a top notch boarding school. She still has nightmares about it.”

Laurie Navon says the school disciplined her daughter, who was battling anorexia, by placing her on food restriction.

On “Teen Trouble,” Shipp -- who has no formal license or training -- attempts to set wayward youth straight by locking them in jail or forcing them sleep with the homeless.

After teens appear on the show, they are often offered extended treatment at residential rehab centers.

The tuition for these facilities — $6,000-$8,000 a month — is waived in exchange for Shipp’s on-air mentions, the show’s producer, Bryn Freedman, confirms.

Aspen — which boasts on its Web site of being prominently featured on “The Dr. Phil Show,” Nickelodeon’s “Nick News” and “The Tyra Show” — owns 28 facilities across the US.

Several others have closed in recent years amid allegations of misconduct.

In 2011, CCA employee Randy Young resigned after being reported for sexually abusing a student, but the center remained open.

“There are a lot of people who are reporting that they have experienced significant harm from these types of treatment facilities,” says Mary Waldon, a licensed clinical social worker in Illinois, who dropped Aspen as a sponsor of her Internet radio show last year.

“There are enough allegations that I did not want to be affiliated with that,” she says.

Other parents who have sent their kids to the Aspen facilities swear by the treatment they’re received there — pointing out the kids who are sent there can be expected to complain.

“I just take (the allegations) with a grain of salt,” Chelsea’s mom, Debra Scott, tells The Post. “These girls just didn’t want to be there in the first place.”

Scott says Chelsea has shown great improvement since enrolling at CCA and defends the school’s strict policies.

“It is teaching my daughter there are rules and consequences,” she says. “I see a future now, where before I saw a casket.”

Freedman insists that sending Chelsea to CAA does constitute an overall endorsement of the school.

“We put her there because we felt it was the best place for her,” she says. “If they had ever said anything (was inappropriate), we would have yanked her out.”

In a prepared statement CAA director Paul Taylor denied the allegations of abuse and said the safety of students is “our highest priority.”

“The reality is that our students come to us dealing with a variety of behavioral health and addiction issues, at varying levels of severity,” he said. “We offer them a structured and nurturing treatment environment with professional staff who specialize in working with adolescent girls.”

Lifetime, meanwhile, declined comment.

*****************************
COMMENTS:

Reddit TroubledTeens
If you are outraged, PLEASE SIGN AND SHARE the petition mentioned in the article to tell Lifetime & Josh Shipp to stop placing children in serious risk of ill-treatment and torture: http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/josh-shipp-and-lifetime-television-network-stop-placing-children-at-serious-risk-of-ill-treatment-and-torture.
Reply · 8 · Unlike · Unfollow Post · 15 hours ago

    Reddit TroubledTeens
    Your message will go to:
    Nancy Dubuc, Lifetime Television Network - President and General Manager
    Susanne Daniels, Lifetime Television Network - President of Entertainment
    Mr. Sandy Varo, Lifetime Television Network - Vice President of Reality Programming
    Jessica Samet, Lifetime Television Network - Senior Vice President of Reality Programming
    Josh Shipp, Lifetime Television Network - Host of Teen Trouble Show
    Reply · 2 · Unlike · 15 hours ago

    Matt Hoffman · Wayneflete School
    I hope my comments here will also go to these folks . You know I've got a great idea for a television show! Who knows maybe they will get back to me , they are more than welcome to get in touch.
    Reply · 1 · Unlike · 14 hours ago

Tony Connelly · Top Commenter · Northern Kentucky University
I hate to send a mixed message but I really do like the show.... right up until the point that the kids are sent away to be "modified" in these private centers. Once the children are sent away on the show, I am OUTRAGED! The show is perfectly fine but these private (and secretive) centers are not regulated and lack oversight.

Children are permanently harmed and die in these programs. The United States Congress has investigated and proven these facts.

Abuses that occur inside cannot be reported in most cases. The psychological systems used in these facilities for youth to alter a child's thoughts hold the signature of illegal brainwashing techniques that are KNOWN to be damaging.

Positive testimonials of a teen program can be likened to that of a cult member offering praise for their cult. Especially when the parent offering the testimonial has not experienced the daily tortures associated with being brainwashed on the "inside".

My advice...Keep the show, scrap the private prisons for kids. And if you have time, take a look at the textbook practices these programs use to harm and split teen's personalities for profit : http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/brainwashing1.htm.
Reply · 2 · Unlike · Unfollow Post · 14 hours ago

Matt Hoffman · Wayneflete School
Sorry Josh Shipp, this is insane. I am outraged that you shill and send parent's children to these abusive Synanon based treatment centers. Your ignorance belies the fact that the money is worht far more , than doing the research into these hell holes and understanding what you are really doing. You are not saving lives , you are endangering children.

By your actions you are putting at risk children, in seriously dangerous situations.Putting children in coffins , you know Josh a lot of these programs have put children in real graves.What do you think it is a joke?

I am a survivor of a place called Elan. And Josh Shipp it was a brutal, sadistic, violent , soul-eating hell hole. It finally got shut down in April of 2011. Elan operated for close to 40 years. It should have been closed many many years ago, but ignorant people like yourself allowed it to destroy many, many lives.

It behooves you Josh Shipp to listen to what the survivors of these types of hell holes have been trying to tell you. You need to stop your madness and start exposing these hell holes that make money off of serial , criminal child abuse.

it is your choice and by your actions it seems like you condone and support child abuse.

Make the right choice Josh Shipp and stop endangering children by your ignorant actions.
Reply · 2 · Unlike · Unfollow Post · 15 hours ago

    Wayne Kernochan · Works at Author
    He knows and doesn't care. He's been inundated with e-mails and letters about this
    Reply · 3 · Unlike · 15 hours ago

    Matt Hoffman · Wayneflete School
    Wayne Kernochan so it is all about the money. Funny that was what it was all about at Elan. I reckon these ignorant fools care more about the money than really saving at risk children.

    Lifetime Network should be ashamed for this sick charade. To think an entire network is eye balls deep in the condoning of criminal ,sadistic ,serial child abuse. It is truly sick.

    The money must be staggering to pervert peoples values like this. The money that Elan made, made it a protected revenue generating cash cow for the state of Maine.

    Insane ,making money off of abusing children, just blows my little teeny tiny mind . Now thats a "true" story that should be told on every network. These places need to be exposed and closed, certainly not shilled and pandered.
    Reply · 1 · Like · 15 hours ago

Brian Lombrowski · Youth Involvement Specialist at New York State Office of Mental Health
It's not just that he sends kids to Synanon-based treatment centers, he uses Synanon and Synanon offshoot methodology on the show himself. It's as if his consultants are former employees of CEDU themselves.
Reply · 2 · Unlike · Unfollow Post · 15 hours ago

    Matt Hoffman · Wayneflete School
    It is sick and sad that the techniques/ methodology of a proven detrimentally abusive relic Synanon, is being used in the 21st century to treat children. It is nothing more than pure child abuse, no mater how anyone tries to spin it.
    Reply · 1 · Unlike · 14 hours ago

Bailey Guess
As an adult who is a mother of a teen now, I survived a 60 day inpatient treatment center which started in the adult ward of a hospital which resembled the old movie "One Flew Over A Cuckoos Nest" for the first couple of weeks. As a teen in the program I was never really told what was "wrong" with me. Ten years after the fact I requested my records which said I was a normal healthy adolescent on the first page! I wish I had known! I also found out that these places know the child or teen placed in the facility is the scapegoat of the familys problems! Usually they are reacting to their environment and are the healthiest one in the family. I saw things in this facility I could tell stories about for the rest of my life and watch all jaws drop as I told them. I believe getting some of these teens out of their sick environm...See More
Reply · 1 · Unlike · Follow Post · about an hour ago

Maura Curley
We must understand who runs these centers for profit. Matt is right on. He knows about Elan and the other places that offer so called " therapy."
I wrote a well researched book about Elan's founder, Joe Ricci who made approx $50 million from his center. Ricci, was ( in the words of his dying partner) a " bona fIde psychopath” who abused drugs, teenagers, sex and firearms. Ricci manipulated the media, a jury and even 60 Minutes and The New York Times, while continuing to act as a role model fro troubled adolescents.
Just look inside the free intro to " Duck in a Raincoat” on Amazon Kindle and you'll begin to understand how dangerous and manipulative people like Joe Ricci can be and the irreparable harm it can cause adolescents. Many treatments centers, like Matt said, are based on the Synanon model founded by another psychopath named Chuck Dederich.
Reply · 1 · Unlike · Follow Post · about an hour ago

Tracey Eanes Crouch · Follow · Works at Asbury Elementary School
Been in a similar place as a teen...23 years later I suffer from the abuse that happened there..I believe in helping troubled kids but there has to be a better way..
Reply · 1 · Unlike · Follow Post · 2 hours ago

27
That's odd, it happened at the end, around 47:00 or 49:00. It's really quick, the host tells him he's going to Outback then what looks like a legit theater camp. I can't access the video anymore, I wonder if they changed the ending...?

28
Aspen Education Group / New Lifetime tv show sending kids to Aspen programs
« on: November 20, 2012, 02:39:59 PM »
"Teen Trouble" has just been picked up for 8 episodes on Lifetime, it officially begins 12/28/12 at 10pm ET. They recently ran two "sneak peek" episodes where the host, Josh Shipp, sent kids to Aspen facilities. The first one was hard to watch, he sent a young girl to Copper Canyon Academy in Arizona for a year. She didn't want to go & was very vocal about wanting to be included in decisions about her treatment, but he and her parents forced her. In the second episode, he sent a boy to Outback Therapeutic Expeditions in Utah for 90 days.

The second episode is still up as of right now: http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/teen-trouble/video/season-1/episode-2/episode-2-jacob

It's a pretty big deal that a major network is running a show that is sending kids to programs with many online accounts of abuse, not to mention 6 kids have died in Aspen programs. We have to do something.

People are starting to organize on facebook in the various groups. Bipolar Nation is doing a series of radio shows spotlighting this. CAFETY is collecting data to file reports. Some survivors are developing CCASurvivors.com. OpLiberation has taken over the hash tag #TeenTrouble and is contacting the show's viewers.

I've put together some ideas on how people can help: http://www.reddit.com/r/troubledteens/comments/13affm/if_we_dont_do_something_about_teen_trouble_they/

One thing we really need is to gather as much info as possible about Copper Canyon & Outback. If any of you Research Wizards are able to pull some info together, that would be a huge help!!

I have a small start, but I know there is much, much more out there. Can anyone add to this list?
http://www.reddit.com/r/troubledteens/comments/13affm/if_we_dont_do_something_about_teen_trouble_they/c7281la

29
The Troubled Teen Industry / Infographic: Mitt Romney & TTI
« on: October 25, 2012, 12:45:08 AM »
See attached file for infographic illustrating Mitt Romney's connections to the troubled teen industry. You can also view it here: http://i.imgur.com/W9QzL.jpg

Includes Mel Sembler (Straight Inc.), Paul Babeau (DeSisto School), Robert Litchfield (WWASP) and Aspen Education Group.

30
News Items / Re: Teen on life support after assault at children's home
« on: August 20, 2012, 02:17:40 PM »
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/2012 ... ed-my-son-

54 days in jail? 'Oh my God. He murdered my son'
12:22 PM, Aug. 20, 2012  |  

http://cmsimg.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcsi ... ed-my-son-
LOCAL AUG. 20, 2012 Anthony Parker's adoptive grandmother, Anita Smith, holds a collage of photographs of Parker through the years. Parker, 16, was beaten to death by fellow One Way Farm group home resident Lance Tiernan on Dec. 19. / Sheila McLaughlin/The Enquirer

Written by
Sheila McLaughlin

http://cmsimg.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcsi ... ed-my-son-
Lance Tiernan gets 54 days in jail, probation and community service is the death of 16-year-old Anthony Parker at One Way Farm group home last December. / Enquirer file

HAMILTON — The man who considered himself Anthony Parker’s father burst from a Butler County courtroom Monday screaming “Oh my God. He murdered my son” after a judge gave the boy’s killer 54 days in jail, probation and community service.

“I will never forgive Mr. Tiernan. I will hate him for the rest of my life,” Frank Smith said before Judge Patricia Oney sentenced Lance Tiernan on a charge of involuntary manslaughter.

Smith, who never returned to the courtroom, has two teenage daughters with Parker’s mother from a previous relationship.

Jurors found Tiernan not guilty of murder in July, but they did convicted him of involuntary manslaughter in the Dec. 19 beating death of Parker, 16, at One Way Farm in Fairfield Township.

Tiernan was charged as an adult with murder but since the jury tossed that charge, the case will revert to the juvenile system for a second sentencing hearing on involuntary manslaughter.

By law, Tiernan’s case was automatically bound over to adult court because of his age – 17 at the time of the offense – and the seriousness of the charge. The case automatically is sent back to juvenile court for a sentencing hearing because Tiernan was not convicted of the murder charge.

Defense attorney Charles M. Rittgers said a Butler County juvenile judge will review the adult court’s sentence and is supposed to mirror it.

Tiernan could be held in a juvenile prison until he’s 21, but that’s unlikely, Rittgers said. As an adult he faced up to three years in prison. He has been in jail for 246 days awaiting trial.

Being sentenced as a juvenile means the conviction won’t follow him as an adult when he applies for jobs or college, Rittgers said.

The hearing in juvenile court has not been set.

Beside the 54-day jail sentence, Oney ordered Tiernan to spend one year on intensive probation and to be monitored for drug and alcohol use for four years. He will have to perform 500 hours of community service and either get his GED or finish high school. Tiernan was a student at Mason High School before being arrested.

(Page 2 of 2)

Tiernan told Oney Monday that he was sorry for what he did to Parker.

“Every day I ask God for forgiveness. I never wanted Andy to die. I never should have done what I did. It was stupid,” said Tiernan, who was placed at One Way Farm by children services because he had run away and none of his relatives would take him in.

Tiernan was 17 when he beat Parker in a violent attack at One Way Farm. Parker suffered a skull fracture and was later found unresponsive in his bedroom. He died nine days later when his adoptive grandmother, Anita Smith, removed him from life support.

Parker’s mother, Kathy Sulton, accepted the judge’s sentence.

“I guess he got what he wanted. I wanted more but … he got what the judge felt was right and I’m hoping he gets his life together and he meant what he said that he was remorseful. Only time will tell,” Sulton said.

She said she forgives Tiernan.

“The day that this happened in my heart I knew that he didn’t intentionally set out to kill Anthony. It’s just the grieving is very hard. Anthony was my first born and it’s just been a hard road,” she said.

Sulton said her 8-year-old son is in grief counseling and is having the toughest time dealing with his brother’s death. The boy has talked of wanting to kill himself so they could be together, Sulton said.

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