Fornits

Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => The Troubled Teen Industry => Topic started by: Carey on June 25, 2003, 03:53:00 PM

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: Carey on June 25, 2003, 03:53:00 PM

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/ ... 103220.xml (http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1056520530103220.xml)

Tough love school sent to timeout

Academy's doors closed indefinitely

Wednesday June 25, 2003

By James Varney
Staff Writer

OROTINA, COSTA RICA -- Now that the shouting from teenagers and police and prosecutors has faded, there is something almost pastoral about Academy Dundee, this hotel cum tough-love school near the sea.

Stone fountains gurgle among the hacienda-style buildings, the foliage is lush and green, and a brilliant sun burns on both the swimming pool and a pond with an elevated wooden walkway leading to a small island. In the cavernous dining center, some of the handful of remaining staffers eat with
parrots perched on their shoulders.

But the story behind this snapshot is anything but
serene. Academy Dundee never made it as the tourist spot its builder intended it to be, and it is closed not for the summer but possibly for good. The tumult began in October, when Carey Bock of Mandeville arrived and, accusing the behavior-modification program of being more brutal than beneficial, marched her twin sons out the door.

The saga grew even more bizarre at the end of May,
when Costa Rican authorities invaded the campus, told the roughly 200 American teenagers enrolled there they did not have to stay, and arrested the school's owner and founder, Narvin Lichfield.

The echoes of that wild day, which Lichfield said included outdoor orgies and vandalism, are still
reverberating. A criminal case is in motion against Lichfield, 41, in the nearby mountain town of Atenas, Costa Rica, an accusation of torture has been filed with the United Nations, and Dundee's supporters and critics are engaged in a battle concerning tactics at Dundee and at 10 other schools chartered by the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs, based in Utah. The brouhaha has thrust the company and its curriculum into an international spotlight.

All these developments come as no surprise to Bock. "I think the closing of Dundee was inevitable," she said. "I believe the only
reason that Dundee had remained open as long as they had was because they were operating under the radar of the Costa Rican regulatory agencies. The children at Dundee were subjected to cruel and inhumane treatment; there is no doubt about it."

Bock is not the only New Orleans-area parent in the fray, and not everyone shares her harsh view. In a recent letter to the Tico Times, a popular English-language weekly circulated in Costa Rica, Yvette Miller of Harvey said Academy Dundee had done wonders for her daughter.

"I am so happy with the school and what it has done for my child," she wrote, saying the girl had opened up in ways the mother never dreamed
possible. "Dundee Ranch did this for her."

The hullabaloo has prompted both the U.S. Embassy and PANI, the local child welfare agency, to claim they were on top of the situation and had been raising red flags for months -- claims greeted with skepticism in some quarters.

"I think what we're witnessing here is a real cover-your-ass scenario," said Bruce Harris, the executive director of Casa Alianza, a children's
advocacy group that last month asked the U.N. Committee on Torture to investigate Dundee.

Lichfield dismisses Casa Alianza as unqualified to pass judgment because Harris never visited Dundee or spoke with any of its staffers.

That criticism is a red herring in Harris' view. Though he conceded he hasn't seen the school personally, he said the group's complaint was
made on the basis of at least three sworn statements from parents and children about what went on at Dundee, and the agency is trying to
arrange for other former students to return to Costa Rica and testify against Lichfield.

"The reports we've gotten from parents and kids relate what we regard to be cruel and unusual," Harris said, mentioning physical restraints on
concrete floors, using food as coercion and lack of adequate health care. "They were breaking kids down, all right, but they weren't building them
back up."

Lichfield, meanwhile, says it's his reputation that needs to be rebuilt. Barred from leaving Costa Rica for six months while the case is
investigated, he is holed up in a San José hotel. He's no monster, he said, but rather the victim of a monstrous misunderstanding.

"As far as I'm concerned, Costa Rica came in here under spurious allegations and closed down a place that had operated without incident for two years," he said. "I know exactly what is abuse and what isn't, and there was no abuse at all at Academy Dundee. We never held any kids there against their will. I was like Uncle Buck to those kids."

Lichfield, who spent 24 hours in custody following his arrest, said he is unaware of any ongoing criminal investigation of him or his school and
hopes to reopen for business within two months.

But that may be overly optimistic. Prosecutors confirmed there is an ongoing probe of activities at the school, but no date for proceedings has
been set. Meanwhile, both sides are busy gathering depositions, statements known in Costa Rican law as "anticipated evidence."

"Tough-love" or "behavior-modification" programs such as Academy Dundee -- Lichfield is an owner or part-owner of similar establishments in New York state and South Carolina -- are controversial by their nature. With tuition and costs topping $2,000 a month, they're designed for troubled teenagers and make no bones about the rigors they impose on them. No one denies, for instance, that physical restraints were a part of the Dundee experience.

"But if it sounds like it was hurting people, it's not like that at all," said Antonio Cespedes, 16, a Costa Rican who essentially has been managing
the school since it was shut down. "It was used only to calm people down." Cespedes credits the school with saving his life after he turned to
drugs two years ago.

Dundee is not the only school chartered by the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs that is in the hot seat. In the past few years, a girl
committed suicide at the Jamaica school, and authorities in both Mexico and Czechoslovakia filed criminal charges against the couple who ran
WWASP schools in those countries.

WWASP officials say most of the complaints against them come from manipulative teenagers who are proven liars, a retort that Harris and Bock
dismiss as evasive.

In Dundee's case, some of the most stinging criticisms were made not by students but by a former director, Amberly Knight. Now living in Michigan, Knight wrote a detailed letter to PANI in March outlining what she said were scandalous conditions at the school, including severe overcrowding in triple-bunks; dubious medical care that included prescribing drugs without parental knowledge, double-charging for doctor visits and the like; and widespread reliance on physical punishment and restraint.

Both Ken Kay, the head of WWASP in Utah, and Lichfield have been scathing in their denunciation of Knight, whom they describe, variously, as
a disgruntled former employee and a woman spurned romantically by Joe Atkin, Dundee's acting director at the time Bock appeared.

Knight insists she never meant her letter to PANI to be made public and acknowledges it may have violated the terms of a nondisclosure agreement she signed with Lichfield, but she stands by her accusations, she said, and considers Lichfield's and Kay's assaults on her character as a base smear.

"Lichfield did not care, and the children could not complain to outside authorities," she said. "The children were imprisoned in deplorable
conditions that we would not tolerate for adult, death row inmates in America. The parents were manipulated and misled by this organization."

Some authorities said Knight's letter triggered PANI's investigation, but officials give different starting dates for the probe. Indeed, all the dates and claims made by groups are confused. For example, last October the U.S. embassy said it had made eight visits to the school since 2001, and that it forwarded concerns to PANI, but none of those concerns appears to have generated a response.

Whatever its starting date, the investigation's pulse quickened May 20 with the arrival at Dundee of Prosecutor Fernando Vargas and an entourage of police and PANI officials. The authorities told the roughly 200 teenagers there that, according to Costa Rican law, no one could compel them to stay at Dundee and they were free to do as they pleased. Pandemonium ensued, with some kids vandalizing cars and property and others engaging in group sex around the pool, witnesses said.

"We had police officers with years of experience telling us it was the most grotesque, pornographic thing they've ever seen," Lichfield said.

Some three dozen students bolted. Though most returned by the end of the day, a handful wound up in PANI shelters. Vargas and his team slapped Dundee with citations for 15 violations of Costa Rican law, ranging from sanitation issues to staffers working without proper permits or
students with expired visas. In addition, Costa Rica insisted that Dundee register itself with the Ministry of Education, something Lichfield says he
was told he did not have to do when he opened his doors. With the school effectively shut down until those problems are sorted out, Lichfield said his
staff worked with parents to fly students back to the states or to other WWASP schools in Mexico or Jamaica. More than two dozen of those students are reportedly enrolled at Tranquility Bay in Jamaica, which is widely regarded as the toughest WWASP institution.

Since then, another prosecutor has taken over the case from Vargas, who was substituting at the time for a prosecutor on vacation. Court officers
declined to comment on the case, but the chaotic and confusing nature of the investigation has led to some finger-pointing behind the scenes. Last
week, the government announced it had appointed an "ombudsman" to review the actions not only of the prosecutors and PANI, but also of the Ministries of Health and of Education.

Lichfield freely acknowledges he was not  registered with any of those agencies. Though that appears to support Bock's contention the school
deliberately flew under radar, Lichfield said Dundee was no secret to the government. In the past, he said, some PANI officials had dropped by
Dundee and there were no problems. Had they been willing to discuss the matter, rather than appear in force on the campus, he said he would have
rectified any alleged violations.

"I've got $2 million invested down here in Dundee, and do you think I'd let that all go down the drain because of some ticky-tack complaints that I
could easily fix?" he said.

. . . . . . .

James Varney can be reached at jvarney@timespicayune.com or by
international call to (506) 282-9246

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: Anonymous on June 25, 2003, 04:48:00 PM

Carey:  I'd be interested to hear how you came about bringing your sons home.

"Carey Bock of Mandeville arrived and, accusing the behavior-modification program of being more brutal than beneficial, marched her twin sons out the door."

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: Anonymous on June 25, 2003, 05:50:00 PM

UNCLE BUCK???? How's that for a Freudian slip?

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: Anonymous on June 26, 2003, 02:44:00 PM

Good article - sounds like the Costa Rican government has some heavy "explaining" to do for allowing defiant teens to "rule the roost!!"

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: Carey on June 26, 2003, 03:35:00 PM

Anon,

"Good article - sounds like the Costa Rican government has some heavy "explaining" to do for allowing defiant teens to "rule the roost!!""

It is not the Costa Rican government who has some heavy explaining to do.  It is "Uncle Buck" who has some heavy explaining to do.  

If you note in the article the accusations of "orgies" and the statement that was made as follows, "We had police officers with years of experience telling us  it was the most grotesque pornographic thing they've ever seen," were both statements made by Litchfield.  

If you beleive the used car salesman, "uncle buck", turned psych professional, then you must only have a pea for a brain.

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: FaceKhan on June 26, 2003, 04:26:00 PM

The Costa Rican government is obscessive about human rights and it is probably the safest and most libertarian country in Central and South America.

The fact is that the existence of a facility as a private prison for American teens violates Costa Rican law in and of itself.

I doubt very much there were orgies going on when PANI came. If there were I think it seems to imply that the therapy was not helping those kids very much. I thought therapy was supposed to build up self-respect not annihilate it. Not only that but in all honesty, what else do people do on their secluded tropical vacations?

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: Anonymous on June 27, 2003, 01:28:00 AM

Carey - Your real story is known by those that were at Dundee Ranch when you came to get your boys - you might want to come clean before your credibility on this board is damaged when the truth is told.  Maybe this is the only place that people will believe you??

The numbers speak for themselves of successful and healed families - this board is so full of scare tactics - you should do a movie - it would scare the hell out of me!! No periods??  Starving kids??  Abuse??  Tell ya what, when you guys have proof - any proof, just let me know.  I agree with ANON for the mostpart.  I don't experience her as believing everything WWASP says.  I experience her coming from her own experience.  That doesn't count for much here? Us against them...right or wrong is not my intention - so I think this will be my only post here.

You reap what you sow.

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: Anonymous on June 27, 2003, 02:40:00 AM

Yeah, these WWASPSians are a powerful loving bunch all right.  Mocking their own children every chance they get.  How impressive is that?

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: Anonymous on June 27, 2003, 03:08:00 AM

What's with this "my experience of your experience is ..." junk therapy talk?  I mean don't you folks have even the slightest idea how ridiculous you sound?

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: Anonymous on June 27, 2003, 08:45:00 AM

When the truth is told?? Carey did her research. Carey was brave and "took massive action". Carey didn't let anyone bully her or scare her away. Carey's boys are no longer under the control of WWASP. That is the only truth that matters. You think you can threaten her?? You think you have dirt on her?? Who cares!

You say the numbers speak for themselves but there are no numbers. Sure, we hear the numbers but there is no documentation to back them up.

"No periods??" Why does this surprise you? I know this is a common topic on the BBS. I saw it come up many times.

"You reap what you sow." I hope so.

Quote

On 2003-06-26 22:28:00, Anonymous wrote:

"Carey - Your real story is known by those that were at Dundee Ranch when you came to get your boys - you might want to come clean before your credibility on this board is damaged when the truth is told.  Maybe this is the only place that people will believe you??



The numbers speak for themselves of successful and healed families - this board is so full of scare tactics - you should do a movie - it would scare the hell out of me!! No periods??  Starving kids??  Abuse??  Tell ya what, when you guys have proof - any proof, just let me know.  I agree with ANON for the mostpart.  I don't experience her as believing everything WWASP says.  I experience her coming from her own experience.  That doesn't count for much here? Us against them...right or wrong is not my intention - so I think this will be my only post here.



You reap what you sow.  



"

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: Anonymous on June 27, 2003, 08:46:00 AM

The BBS I refered to is the WWASP parent BBS.

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: MORSEGLASS on June 27, 2003, 09:48:00 AM

does anyone know where ms joan davis is?? i would like to speak to her!   no no no i would like to speak to her face to face!! :flame:

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: MORSEGLASS on June 27, 2003, 09:50:00 AM

anon  :???: they wont let me on the wwasp bbs.

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: Carey on June 27, 2003, 10:47:00 AM

Anon,
Were you at Dundee when I came to pick up my boys?  Well if you were, then tell what you witnessed.  If you were not, then you don't know what you are talking about.

Go ahead, tell what you saw.  You keep making accusations claiming that what I am saying is not true.  Well then, tell the truth as you saw it with your own eyes.

Anon, is your name Joe Atkin?

Carey

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: scottT on June 27, 2003, 01:27:00 PM

i work with troubled companies everyday.  any outfit that changes managers 6 times in 18 months (like dundee) tells me everything I need to know about the relative credibility of incumbent ownership versus the "disgruntled" mangers who keep bailing out.  

Would you invest MONEY in a publicly held company that hired and lost 6 different chief financial officers in 18 months?  If you wouldn't risk your money there,  why would you risk your kids?

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: scottT on June 27, 2003, 01:48:00 PM

Dear morseglass:  If you're shut out of the WWASPs bulletin board,  take comfort that you aren't missing much.  To summarize about 90 percent of the WWASP parent forum content, it sufficient to know that WWASPs' detractors are invariably drug addicts, liars, drunkards, adulterers, and (worst of all) new york times reporters with "ethnic" sounding names.  Therfore,  you can't believe anything said against WWASPs,  no matter how many countries shut them down.

If WWASPs is so adept at spamdexing the internet search engines with redundant captive websites,  would it be a surprise if their bulletin board had a similar quotient of objectivity? just asking.




[ This Message was edited by: scottT on 2003-06-27 10:50 ]

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: Anonymous on June 27, 2003, 03:55:00 PM

i hope they close down ivy ridge in new york too.  my son was there for 3 weeks and what he told me goes on is truly horrifying.

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: Carey on June 27, 2003, 04:16:00 PM

Anon,

I can put you in touch with someone who is working very hard to have Ivy Ridge closed down. If you would like to talk to that person, contact me at Careycbock@aol.com

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: Anonymous on June 28, 2003, 03:21:00 PM

Scott T - If you have access to the WWASP bulletin board, you still have a child in one of the schools, or you have a graduate.  Maybe I'm reading it incorrectly, but that's what it sounds like.

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: Anonymous on June 28, 2003, 06:10:00 PM

Scott T sounds to me like he is trying to make a case about the need for parents to think twice about entrusting their kids to an organization with a high staff-turnover-rate.  This is the kind of fact-based advice parents can take to the bank with them!!
 :tup:

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: lynn on June 28, 2003, 07:42:00 PM

Anon.-
Stop and listen to yourself!  What is this incessant blather about "my experience" of this and that?  That's Jonestown jargon, and would really be kind of funny if it wasn't so damn scary.  We are free to walk away from robotic drones such as yourself and the revered Bill Dean, TASKS facilitator. But the kids still remaining behind those 24-foot walls have to either swallow this drivel or pretend to--because the alternative for them is too awful to contemplate. I shudder to think of the consequences of that kind of mind control.

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: Antigen on June 28, 2003, 10:38:00 PM

Quote

On 2003-06-28 16:42:00, lynn wrote:

We are free to walk away from robotic drones such as yourself and the revered Bill Dean, TASKS facilitator. But the kids still remaining behind those 24-foot walls have to either swallow this drivel or pretend to--because the alternative for them is too awful to contemplate. I shudder to think of the consequences of that kind of mind control."

Holy crow! Would that be the same TASKS program as in Bill Gothard, Institute of Basic Life Principles, Character Inn, Character First TASKS program? Please tell me if you know of any documentable ties between IBLP and WWASP orgs.

               The body of
        Benjamin Franklin, printer,
      (Like the cover of an old book,
            Its contents worn out,
    And scripts of it's lettering and gilding)
       Lies Here, food for worms!
     Yet the work itself shall not be lost,
For it will, as he believed, appear once more
                 In a new
         And more beautiful edition,
          Corrected and amended
                By it's Author!

Epitaph for himself.

--Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: Anonymous on June 29, 2003, 01:00:00 AM

TASKS - Teen Accountability, Self Esteem and Keys to Success.

I don't think there is any tie between Resource Realizations and Bill Gothard. Gothard is an extreme conservative Christian who uses the traditional Bible (and his interpretation of it) and WWASP/Resource Realizations borrows from everybody out there (Covey, Dr. Phil, etc.) to put their seminars together.

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: Anonymous on June 29, 2003, 02:15:00 AM

The TASKS training seminars are closely related if not identical to the LIFESPRING training seminars.  Follow the link below to learn more about Resource Realizations and their "staff" of former students and parents.  Pay particular attention to the growth of commercialized Large Group Awareness Training Seminars for non-WWASP youth.  Scary stuff.  Thank God their recent efforts to infiltrate the public school district in Washington state failed to win them any converts.

http:www.resourcerealizations.com

 :wave:

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: Anonymous on June 29, 2003, 02:45:00 AM

Here is a link to an article in reference to the above post:

http://capmag.com/article.asp?ID=1544 (http://capmag.com/article.asp?ID=1544)

See this link for more information about a group called The Northwest Family Visions Foundation.  Apparently, they were somehow involved in bringing the seminars to the school district.

http://www.nwfamilyvisions.org (http://www.nwfamilyvisions.org)

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: Anonymous on June 29, 2003, 03:04:00 AM

http://www.powerhour.com (http://www.powerhour.com)

A Few Of The Stunning Things
Happening In US Schools
© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com

5-1-2

Picture this: Your middle-school child is summoned to a special workshop. The kids are asked to form a circle. Your child is told to stand in the center, and is asked by a special guest from Planned Parenthood: "Does your church consider homosexual behavior to be a sin?" Ask the ninth-graders in Arcata, Calif., how they felt, when it happened to them.
If your child attends middle-school in Seattle, you may - or may not - know about "Challenge Day," facilitated by a for-profit outfit called "Resource Realizations," in which kids are coerced into confessing their wrongs. Incidentally, the kids also get a promotional brochure advertising the three-day extended session for only $295, and a week-long version for only $800.

At Aptos High School in Santa Cruz, Calif., 300 students are bunched up in the gym, on one side of a line drawn on the floor. Then a series of questions are asked. If the answer is yes, the kids are told to step across the line. Some of the questions asked: * Are you a good kisser? * Anyone in your family addicted to drugs? * Do you have a friend or relative who is gay or lesbian? * Do you currently practice abstinence? * Have you ever considered suicide? These are a few of dozens of deeply personal questions students are asked to answer publicly. What on earth is going on in our schools?

Freedom 21

Santa Cruz wants to know what is going on in their schools, and why. They are accumulating similar stories from around the country.

Santa Cruz is one of the first cities to adopt a "Local Agenda 21" program. For 10 years, a local group has been promoting the implementation of Agenda 21 recommendations. Almost every community now has some local group promoting Agenda 21 policies, but using names such as "St. Louis 2004," or "[your town] 2020." These plans focus primarily on planning, open space, zoning, land-use restrictions, heritage sites, and the like. They also contain educational elements, based on Chapters 21 and 25 of Agenda 21.

The function of American schools has changed. Once, the function of the school was to prepare each student to reach his maximum individual potential. Now, school has become a process to modify behavior, attitudes and beliefs in pursuit of a "tolerant," (read: obedient) society.

The transformation has been underway for much of the last century. In 1949, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization conducted a series of seminars for teachers, called "Toward World Understanding." This brief excerpt provides a flavor of the series:

"As long as the child breathes the poisoned air of nationalism, education in world-mindedness can produce only rather precarious results. As we have pointed out, it is frequently the family that infects the child with extreme nationalism. The school should therefore use the means described earlier to combat family attitudes that favor jingoism."

Robert P. Hillmann has produced an excellent study of how this transformation of our schools occurred. His 105-page report, "Reinventing Government: Fast Bullets and Culture Changes" documents the relationship between international organizations and school officials which has brought about the transformation in our schools' function.

The activities in Seattle, Arcata and Santa Cruz have struck a nerve, because the events probe deeply into personal and family affairs. School activities that seek to transform attitudes about the environment, about government, about freedom, about the Bill of Rights - have gone largely unnoticed by parents and the community.

The result of the transformation is becoming clear: prayer, freedom, corporations, liberty, the Ten Commandments, national sovereignty, property rights - and certainly, guns - are all terms and concepts that have been demonized. Tolerance, cooperation and equity, are values that supplant individual excellence, individual achievement and individual responsibility.

Most of the world is subjected to government-imposed-and-enforced education, and information. America has distinguished itself among all nations in history because government did not limit education and information, and celebrated individual achievement.

Those days are long gone. American schools have been transformed. Only individuals who recognize the threat, and are willing to invest their time and resources, can reverse this rush to homogenized mediocrity.

Left to its own agenda, the international community, assisted by professional education associations and enlightened facilitators, will continue to transform our children into pliable conformists who follow the party line, for fear of being different. ___

Henry Lamb is the executive vice president of the http://www.eco.freedom.org (http://www.eco.freedom.org) Environmental Conservation Organization and chairman of Sovereignty International.

© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com, Inc.

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: Anonymous on June 29, 2003, 03:08:00 AM

Oops, the correct source for the article is
http://www.thepowerhour.com (http://www.thepowerhour.com)

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: spots on June 29, 2003, 12:01:00 PM

Northwest Family Visions appears to be the Seattle version of the WWASP support group.  Their web site (very spiffy, with lots of fades, etc.) carries the same primary-colored blocks and photo background as several other WWASP sites, i.e., the web page producer is one-in-the-same. It would be interesting to know who pays for this high-quality expensive web hosting.  

"Links and Resources" leads one to a list of TeenHelp agencies in several locations, along with a smattering of other mental health sites.  Available for purchase is the WWASP video (parent and student testimonials, etc.) and catalogs featuring WWASP facilities.  There is even a wall-mount poster with testimonials for those who need to see these Words of Wisdom as they do their laundry, or for the local Girl Scout or Sunday School meeting room!

The Newsletters are interesting.  Apparently the group received enough flak from their Challenge Days at local middle schools that they recognized the need to "re-organize" their efforts.  Because they advertised the events as being in affiliation with Resource Realizations, and because local Seattle-ites recognized RR and bombarded newspapers and local talk radio with complaints, Northwest Family said their next venture would be more, what, discreet?  Beware Washington!

As to the daily doings...the group had planned a picnic/family day at a local park.  It appears to be about 15 or so families sort of active in the group, but only a couple wanted to do the "play day" thing, so it was cancelled.  Maybe next time ;>) Sort of another example of how parents can't seem to let go of their decision to "place" their children, but the kids seem to really want to forget the whole thing.

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: Anonymous on June 29, 2003, 12:31:00 PM

Read the bios of the board members -- some of whom have (or had) children in WWASPS programs.  What a racket!

http://www.nwfamilyvisions.org/whoweare.htm (http://www.nwfamilyvisions.org/whoweare.htm)

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: Deborah on June 29, 2003, 01:08:00 PM

David Gilcrease bio, and a mother's account of the seminar.
http://www.intrepidnetreporter.com/Teen ... eaking.htm (http://www.intrepidnetreporter.com/TeenHelp/breaking.htm)
http://www.bridgetounderstanding.com/cg ... l?read=208 (http://www.bridgetounderstanding.com/cgi-bin/bbs.pl?read=208)

Intrepid is down, but the page is cached at Google. It reads:

Resource Realizations
"Shaping a Partnership of Purpose"
That's What They Say
Photo of David Gilcrease

The fundamental "Training" or behavior modification approach utilized by Teen Help and it's various entities, is a seminar series called TASKS: Teen Accountability Self-Esteem and Keys to Success.  

The seminars were developed by David Gilcrease of Resource Realizations and they are based on a conglomeration of theories that have were first developed in the 1960's and gained currency in the corporate world as effective strategies for change.   Many of the theories are loose interpretations of the work of behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner, Fritz Perls and other icons of the Human Potential movement.

Gilcrease himself is an engineer by training and a software developer by work experience.  He segued into the "training" world through his participation in the LifeSpring series of workshops, first as a participant and then as a trainer.  His close association with all of the Lichfield/Facer/Atkin Enterprises is evidenced by his sharing offices in LaVerkin, Utah and having exclusive contracts to provide the seminars that are the foothold of the "Teen Help" programs.  

There are four seminars in the initial series, followed by three "Parent Child" seminars that focus on the reintegration of the child back into the family/community according to the Gilcrease model.   Parents and children go through the Discovery Focus Vision and Accountability seminars separately.  

What follows is one Mother's story of her seminar experience.  For the record, although Mrs. Lile chooses to refer to the primary facilitator of the workshop she attended as "Don", we have identified him as Duane Smotherman who is the registered agent for the corporate entity "Resource Realizations".  RR is registered in Arizona but lists it's office as Beaumont, Texas which is the home of David Gilcrease.   Prior names for the same company are Resource Enterprises, Inc. and David L. Gilcrease, Inc.  Duane Smotherman was raised predominantly in California and has been associated with Mr. Gilcrease since they were jointly involved with LifeSpring more than a decade ago.

One Mother's Experience

Under penalty of perjury laws of the State of Washington, I declare the following to be true and correct.

My name is Karen E. Lile (Bean). I am a resident of Clayton, CA and can be contacted through my business at 510-676-3355.

BREAKING THE VOW OF SECRECY

On January 9, 1998, I, Karen E. Lile, took a vow of secrecy at the request of a facilitator of the Teen Help Discovery Seminar at the Holiday Inn in Livermore, California. The next day, at approximately 4:30 PM, I left the conference room in a state of distress and emotional shock. Before I walked out of that room, I was told, by a seminar staff person, that I could not come back again while the seminar was in progress. The doors were locked on the room and the windows covered, so there was no way I could renter the room anyway. Today, I am breaking my secrecy vow and stating why I have decided the vow was not only made invalid by the actions of the facilitator/trainer, but is unethical and goes against my deepest personal values.

I am going to relate what happened to me, how it affected me, and what questions and actions the processes and substance of this seminar provoked. I am opening my actions and the actions of the facilitator and participants to public comment and feedback. I am hoping that people will take what I have written and compare it against their own values and standards. I want to know if others feel there is legitimate cause for concern about these events and their import to the hundreds of teens who are confined in the Teen Help residential programs and the parents who have placed them there.

Before beginning my story, I will tell you about myself. I am 39 years old, a law abiding United States citizen and resident of Clayton, California. I have been married to Kendall Ross Bean for almost 19 years and have two daughters. I have never been divorced.

I have shared ownership in a piano business with my husband, in Contra Costa County, California for 16 years and am also the President of a California nonprofit corporation currently applying for federal exemption status. I completed my college studies at Brigham Young University, The University of California at Berkeley and the University of Texas at Austin. In 1982, I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor?s Degree in English and Special honors in English. I am currently a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I value my religious freedom and support others in theirs.

As a teenager, my grandmother enrolled me in MENSA and the Children of the American Revolution as a member. I value freedom of the mind and the United States Constitutional freedoms. I have held membership in many professional and community organizations. I have been actively involved in the community, serving in leadership roles of various capacities. I have been involved in local government affairs, writing proclamations and resolutions that were later ratified by city councils and county boards of supervisors.

WHAT WE EXPECTED FROM THE DISCOVERY SEMINAR:

On April 20, 1997, my husband and I placed our daughter in a residential behavior modification school, Tranquility Bay, in Jamaica, West Indies. She had been missing for over a year and we felt at the time that this decision was an intervention to save her life. Details about why we made that decision and what has happened since that time can be found in entries posted between February 24th, 1998 to present, under mine and my husband?s name at the world wide web site http://www.bridgetounderstanding.com (http://www.bridgetounderstanding.com).

When my husband and I entered the Livermore Holiday Inn Hotel to attend the Discovery Seminar, we checked into the hotel expecting to stay for three days. We had been looking forward to this event because we had heard glowing reports of the seminar's significance to us and our family from other parents and from Teen Help. Teen Help is the organization that referred us to the seminars and to Tranquility Bay and we believed at the time that they were our advocates, representing our interests.

The full name of the series of seminars, of which this Discovery was the first, is called "TASKS", or "Teen Accountability, Self-Esteem and Keys to Success". On the first day of our Discovery seminar, we knew that our daughter had already attended all of the TASKS seminars with the exception of the Parent/Child Seminars.

Promotional Teen Help literature stated that: "These seminars [are] aimed at enhancing self-esteem, honesty, accountability, integrity, trust, agreements, leadership, communication and responsible decision making. The seminar series also strengthens a teen?s ability to overcome anger, peer pressure, and self-limiting beliefs."

This sounded wonderful. I was greatly interested in having my daughter learn these principals. I took these words at face value and expected them to mean what people in my culture understand them to mean. I had no idea that words like "accountability", and "integrity" had hidden meanings to "insiders"; that "outsiders", (those who had not been through the seminar) could not hope to understand.

Other literature I had read before signing the contract to send my daughter to Jamaica, had given me further expectations:

"As students participate in the seminars, they are immersed in a combination of educational, therapeutic and experiential activities, that give teens an opportunity to evaluate the negative results of their past choices, and begin making effective new choices"

I had participated in many progressive educational experiences, including activities as part of my honors classes at Brigham Young University, which had been labeled "experiential". I felt that I understood the scope of activities that might fall under the categories of "educational" and "experiential" activities. As a former associate member of the Association of Mormon Counselors and Psychotherapists and affiliate member of the International Society for the Study of Dissociation, I had studied a broad range of literature, reports and research and felt that I understood what types of activities might fall under the category of therapeutic activities. Even with my educational and research background, I could not have anticipated what my daughter was put through or I was about to enter into, as you will see by reading my experience as described later in this document.
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The next page of this account does not come up, due to it being cached. But here's that link:
http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:qs ... n&ie=UTF-8 (http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:qsbVLOuln3AJ:www.intrepidnetreporter.com/TeenHelp/breaking.htm+%22david+gilcrease%22+&hl=en&ie=UTF-8)

Also from Rick Rose
http://www.rickross.com/reference/teenb ... boot9.html (http://www.rickross.com/reference/teenboot/teenboot9.html)

Teen behavioral centers push 'tough love'
Utah-based network's program draws many cries of outrage
Scripps Howard News Service/July 21,1999
By Lou Kilzer
Denver -- A tall, crewcut 16-year-old boy stares into the video camera and tries to stifle a sob.

"Dad, I miss you," Eric Stone stammers, his chest heaving. "I love you, Dad. I love you a lot.

"I miss you, and I never want to go through this again." Eric is speaking from Spring Creek Lodge, a private behavior modification camp for teen-agers in a remote part of Montana. His mother sent him there.

A camp official taped the 11-minute video to persuade Eric's father, who is divorced from the boy's mother, to keep him there.

The tape has the opposite effect. Craig Stone barely recognizes his son. The once happy-go-lucky boy now seems distraught.

Armed with custody papers, Stone drives from his home near Seattle to Thompson Falls, Mont., and contacts the county sheriff. The sheriff calls Spring Creek Lodge, and soon Eric goes free.

Eric's story involves a Utah-based network of companies operating a far-flung chain of facilities designed to break teen-agers of behavior that has driven their parents to desperation. The companies are commonly known as Teen Help. Teen Help's style is not for the faint-hearted. It helps some parents arrange the seizure of disruptive teen-agers, even from their homes in the middle of the night. T Government regulation of these programs is spotty, and for now, teens sent to these facilities have little legal standing to challenge their confinement. Teen Help was started by Robert Lichfield, 45, a southern Utah businessman who lives on an estate in the spectacular canyon country near St. George.

He hired David Gilcrease to create a behavior modification program to all but guarantee parents would see a change in their teens.

Gilcrease had been trainer from 1974-81 for LifeSpring, a company that perfected a form of encounter session called "large group awareness training."

"Do I say that it's for everybody in the world?"

Gilcrease said. "No, but I don't think everybody in the world needs a psychological examination, either."een Help then ships them to far-off compounds where the message is simple: Cooperate or you won't see Mom, Dad and the outside world for a long time.

They can't do anything, including talking or using the bathroom, without permission.

The aggressive methods have spawned allegations of child abuse, prompting authorities to raid or investigate facilities in Mexico, the Czech Republic, Utah, South Carolina. Facilities in the first three locations closed. Parents pay the company $26,000 to $54,000 a year to modify the behavior of their children. The company does that with methods that include intense group encounter sessions run by "facilitators" who generally have little academic training in psychology or similar fields.

Teen Help has many admirers. Hundreds of parents and teens credit its programs with producing spectacular turnarounds in troubled young people, even saving their lives.

"If we could expose all of our children to this environment, there truly would be peace on earth," Marsha Mandrussow Gallagher, whose son, Collin, lived at Spring Creek Lodge part of last year, said in Teen Help promotional material.

Speculation has reverberated among parents, mental health experts and social commentators about whether Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold could have been helped before they murdered 12 fellow students and a teacher and killed themselves. The debate about Teen Help centers on whether its brand of "tough love" is appropriate for adolescents stumbling through one of the most emotionally vulnerable periods of their lives.

Several psychologists and psychiatrists expressed skepticism and alarm about Teen Help's methods. "There's something very creepy about this," Seattle psychiatrist August Piper said. "It's kind of frightening. It sort of smacks of brainwashing, doesn't it?"
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And http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/letters/ ... ty_bay.asp (http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/letters/html/20010828t000000-0500_13281_obs_against_tranquility_bay.asp)

Excerpt:
Ironically, it is the baby boomer generation that is sending their children, that generation of "sex, drugs and rock and roll". The most spoiled generation in history, they tend to like the idea of parenting more than the parenting itself and it is easier to send one's child off than to tend to the day-to-day chaos of the teen years.

Do some of these children genuinely need help? Of course they do. It is a "one-size-fits-all" solution. "Just go to our seminars," they say. All will be well. And their "seminars" are not original. They are just variations on EST (Erhardt Seminar Training) and Lifespring, which dismissed one of TB's main "trainers", Duane Smotherman, 10 years ago. The leader of the "seminars", president of Resource Realisations, is a man named David Gilcrease who is a former Hewlett Packard software engineer with perhaps one course in psychology over 20 years ago.

The tactics they used were never, ever intended for use with children who have unformed egos and are vulnerable to extreme trauma when subjected to long, exhausting days of being berated by their peers for their multiple failures.

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: Anonymous on June 29, 2003, 02:13:00 PM

Who is to blame for this absolute insanity? Stupid, self-absorbed, incompetent parents who could not care less about their children's physical, emotional and mental well-being. They are the ones fueling the growth of this grotesque industry.  Magical children my eye.  These people are delusional fools!!!!

 :flame:

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: Anonymous on June 29, 2003, 02:48:00 PM

THE DR. PHIL GET REAL CHALLENGE SERIES - As seen on Oprah -

"42 people...locked in a room...five long days...face-to-face with Dr. Phil! This is no game. Dr. Phil wastes no time. One by one, the walls come down...watch as the drama unfolds."

Same seminars - different facilitator - millions must have been brainwashed during this series!!

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: anon on June 29, 2003, 10:26:00 PM

[ This Message was edited by: KarenZ on 2003-10-16 20:23 ]

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: Anonymous on June 30, 2003, 12:44:00 AM

The third and last of the parent seminars is called Visions. As part of the seminar the group organizes different committees each with a different purpose. The group as a whole is required to do something to "make a difference". Most of the time they simply end up doing something to promote WWASP. In fact, most, if not all of the marketing videos were funded by Visions groups. Many of them do end up with web pages, again either funded by the group or, if any "visionaries" in the group has that knowledge, they will donate their time for the website project. The referrals from that website then go to the group as a whole. As part of the seminar the group also agrees on what to do with any money from future referrals. The Northwest Visions group wanted to bring seminars to schools as their "Make a Difference" project. The thought was that presenting the program to teens early could help them avoid being sent to the program later.

Hmm, how's that for breaking confidentiality?  :wink:

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: Anonymous on June 30, 2003, 01:02:00 AM

Quote

On 2003-06-29 11:13:00, Anonymous wrote:

"Who is to blame for this absolute insanity? Stupid, self-absorbed, incompetent parents who could not care less about their children's physical, emotional and mental well-being. They are the ones fueling the growth of this grotesque industry.  Magical children my eye.  These people are delusional fools!!!!



 :flame: "

Trust me, parent who "could not care less about their children's physical, emotional and mental well-being" are not willing to take out a second mortgage or obtain an education loan or spend their retirement money to help their children. They are certainly not willing to hand over the cash to deliberately hurt them.

We parents lose a lot of sleep over this and will carry the guilt the rest of our lives. There is no label you can put on me that I haven't already put on myself (stupid, incompetent, delusional fool).

But if we want to help these kids we have to reach the parents who are begining to ask questions and are coming here for answers. Reading these types of comments will send them right back to the WWASP BBS.

Title: Tough Love Sent to Time Out
Post by: Anonymous on June 30, 2003, 01:12:00 AM

The whole idea of modifying the behavior of children to make them compliant with the expectations and demands of their parents and teachers is out-of-control.  Toddlers on Ritalin and Teenagers M.I.A. from their school, home and communities. Welcome to Boot Camp America!!