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http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/ ... 17057.html

Survival camp for student
By LAURIE MASON
Bucks County Courier Times
Ticking off a list of labels assigned to 17-year-old Travis Biehn, anti-American terrorist among them, Juvenile Court Judge Kenneth Biehn seemed to implode on the bench.

"Let's talk about what this case is really about," said the visibly annoyed judge - no relation to the juvenile - during a tense hearing Wednesday in Bucks County court in Doylestown. "This case is all about a kid who was never held accountable."

Biehn of Buckingham will likely learn accountability and other skills next month as he embarks on a 31-day court-ordered wilderness survival program.

The sentence, which will be followed by community service, therapy and probation, is punishment for a bomb threat the Central Bucks High School East student scrawled on a school bathroom wall as well as charges stemming from a cache of potentially explosive chemicals subsequently found in his bedroom.

The June 1 incident forced the evacuation of the high school as police and bomb-sniffing dogs searched the building. The teen and his parents have yet to speak publicly about the charges, and have been called "aloof" and "uncooperative" by prosecutors.

Biehn was found delinquent of the charges last month and has been locked in the county's juvenile detention center even since.

At his disposition hearing Wednesday - the juvenile court equivalent of a sentencing - the judge chided both the teen, his parents and, to a lesser extent, the Central Bucks School District.

Had Travis Biehn received more than just a slap on the wrist for his earlier brushes with the law, which included making homemade napalm, shooting paintballs at cars and hacking into the school computer system, he may have learned his lesson, the judge said.

Yet his parents continued to look the other way, the judge said, allowing the apparently intelligent student to slide by with D grades in some subjects and act disrespectfully. He was even permitted to wear an offensive T-shirt to school with the logo "Jesus is a Homo," without getting into trouble.

"As a result of this overprotection, the juvenile did not learn that what he did was wrong," Judge Biehn said. "Perhaps if the parents, the school, and others had held Travis accountable, if they would have set some limits, perhaps we wouldn't be here."

Sitting with his attorney, William Goldman Jr., the stoic dark-haired teen nodded occasionally at the judge's words, but did not answer questions. In the courtroom audience behind him, his parents and about two-dozen supporters also remained silent.

But court records show that Brant and Annette Biehn have been busily working behind the scenes to steer their son's defense. They hired a psychologist - one of four who submitted reports in the case, court records show - and found an alternate wilderness program for their attorney to suggest to the judge.

Instead of the Boiling Springs, Pa.-based Tressler Care program, which is populated solely by juvenile delinquents, the Biehns wanted their son sent to Outward Bound, a North Carolina outfit with a more varied mix of participants.

The judge refused.

Court officials also noted that Brant Biehn brought his son several books to read during his stay in juvenile lockup, including two suspense novels dealing with chemical warfare and an anthrax attack by a disgruntled scientist.

 
Judge Biehn shook his head in apparent disbelief while reading from the report.

"I hope your parents learn from this," he told the teen.

During his stay at Tressler, Biehn will live in primitive cabins with other juvenile defendants. He will spend at least five hours a day in an educational or counseling setting, and the remainder doing chores.

At the end of the month, he will be brought back before the judge, who will determine if Biehn successfully completed the program.

If he did, the teen will then begin serving probation, during which he'll complete 100 hours of community service with Habitat for Humanity, write letters of apology and watch a film about victims of chemical burns. More counseling will follow, and the teen will not be allowed to have a computer in his room.

Biehn's parents must also pay about $8,000 in restitution, to cover the cost of the police search and added security at the school.

If he does not do what he's supposed to at Tressler, Biehn will go back to a juvenile detention center at the end of August.

Juvenile Court officials also suggested that the teen be required to correspond with American soldiers serving in Iraq as part of his sentence. The judge did not impose that, saying that despite news accounts in the United States and Canada, he didn't see any evidence that Biehn's actions were fueled by anti-American sentiments.

Biehn is a native of Newfoundland, Canada. He came to this country with his family in 1997, when his father took a job with Merck, a New Jersey-based pharmaceutical firm with a plant in Montgomery County.

No matter what the outcome of his juvenile sentence, Biehn will not be returning to the Central Bucks School District. Goldman said the Biehns plan to make arrangements for him to finish up his schooling in Canada.

Goldman would not say if he would appeal, but court records show that he filed a motion last week asking for the judge to reconsider.

Goldman said he was pleased with the sentence and reiterated claims that Bucks County District Attorney Diane Gibbons was using his client's case as a stepping stone to get re-elected.

"In the thousands of e-mails police found there is not one reference to terrorism by my client. This case was blown out of proportion early on," he said.

Gibbons countered that it was the Canadian press, not her, that used the word terrorist. She said she hoped this would be the last time law enforcement would have to deal with Travis Biehn.

"This young man is headed for trouble. If his behavior is not altered, it will become violent,'' Gibbons said.

As the hearing closed, Judge Biehn urged the teen to make the most of the wilderness program.

"You got to do the right thing. You're a good kid," the judge said. "But someone has to let you know that you're not going to get through life unless you deal with your inadequacies. Good luck, Travis. I hope you can handle this."
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This is a battle of ideologies. The court is insisting the parents are raising their child incorrectly. The parents offer Outward Bound as a better alternative adn are refused. This is a district attorney trying to get votes off a case blown out of proportion. It's the 'tough on crime' bullshit, again. The kid scrawled graffiti in a restroom; big deal. Make him wash it off.

On 2005-08-12 20:14:00, murley wrote:

"i was just reading through the web site to review individual feed back,

it is funny that soo many people still bitch about stuff from the past.

the past is the past and leave the anger behind, i attended a program with the same concepts (almost the exact schedule and names i.e. house in the dining room), however it was a 2 1/2 year program not a couple of months. these programs are NOT designed for youth to enjoy them...this is the whole point of the therapy....WORK ON YOUR SHIT, THEN YOU CAN GO BACK INTO SOCIETY.

and to the parents who read these sites, of course (some of these) youth are going to make their experience seem over the top, however you need to take into consideration, most of these youth are sent there for these same reasons...BEING MANPUILATIVE and GETTING WHAT THEY WANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

after going through a very intense 2 1/2 year program myself at the young age of 14, damn right i would send my child there if they were in need.

however...you can only help thoes who want to be helped"

It took you 2 1/2 years to get over being manipulative? Congrats.

Being manipulative is not a valid reason to be incarcerated. It is a valid reason for parents to look at how stupid they must be for allowing themselves to be manipulated by a kid.

http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/local/ci_2923498

Most local teens interviewed Friday slammed the show's deceptive tactics.

"I would be angry," said Ashley Leblanc, 15, of Gardner. "I would want (my parents) to talk to me about whatever the problem was before sending me off to this place."

-------------------------------------
These kids were tricked," Michaelson said. "That's probably not the best way to negotiate with an adolescent."

Michaelson said kids are likely to become angry about being put into a program like this without full knowledge of what it entails.

"They're fighting the betrayal and the lie," he said. "You set yourself up for a possibility of more problem behavior."

Also, while an experience such as that provided by "Brat Camp" may improve some teens' behavior, Michaelson said cameras shouldn't be there to capture it.

"It's such a personal experience," he said. "To be tricked and then to be taped is really demeaning to these kids. You're saying, 'You have no voice, and we're going to exploit you.'"

I didn't want to use too much space quoting the entire article, so I picked my top two that I thought were most relevant to the Brat Camp topic.

I was searching for studies and other evidence one way or the other regarding the effectiveness of wilderness therapy. I found a study done by a Juvenile Justice Deptartment in Nova Scotia that listed wilderness therapy and other tough love approaches in the section listing ineffective treatments.

Here is a cut-and-paste:
 
Interventions Shown to be IneffectiveThe following forms of intervention have been proven ineffective in empirical studies accordingto the US Surgeon Generalís Report (Department of
Health and Human Services, 2001) : BootCamps, residential programs in correctional or psychiatric settings, milieu therapy, tokenprograms, transfers to adult court, individual counseling, shock programs and wilderness retreats. Boot Camps are modeled after military basic training with a primary focus on
discipline. Mackenzie and Souryal (1994) concluded that boot camp programs do not reduce recidivism.When compared to traditional forms of incarceration, boot camps produced no significant positiveeffect and increased recidivism. Boot
camps focus very narrowly on physical discipline and donot address a broader range of skills and competencies. Residential programs that occur in psychiatric or correctional institutions show little promise ofreducing subsequent crime and violence in delinquent youth. Research demonstrates consistentlythat any positive effects of residential care diminish once the youth leave the facility.

 http://www.gov.ns.ca/just/Publications/ ... yStudy.pdf

On 2005-08-02 17:37:00, Anonymous wrote:

"I just hope one day they will develop the science or something where they can conclusively prove these medications negative effects. I feel like we are in the 50's and everyone is smoking ciggarettes, completely oblivious to the harm it's doing-- but instead of tobacco todays fad is prescription drugs. I've been at my low points and tried a few anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medication, I honestly didn't feel a thing. I just dont get it really.



Without a way to prove the effects of these medications, it would be almost impossible the child above who murdered the other child wouldn't have done it if he weren't taking the medication. I think every human being is capable of murder, so the question is, do these medications bring that dark instinct to the surface quicker?



Hopefully we'll have an answer soon."

What really bothered me about the twelve-year-old who killed his grandparents was that the judge refused to allow any mention of the drugs at his trial. The defense was not permitted to even mention the kid was taking medication! The boy states that his medication was helping him, but that his grandparents had given him a cold remedy that in conjunction with the medication caused a psychotic reaction. He described feeling that his skin was on fire and burning off of him and that he never felt that before or since. The medication he was on was one designed for adults, not children. It was prescribed by a pediatrician, not a psychiatrist.

The defense also pointed out that when the crime took place, the boy was 12 and weighed about 75lbs, but by the time he was tried, he was  6'2" weighed 160lb, was 15 and was brought into the courtroom wearing a prison uniform and in handcuffs and leg shackles. The defense argued that this certainly presented an unsympathetic image to the jury.

These programs are all about getting teenagers to behave, right? Have you ever met members of Reverend Moon's Unification Church? I have met several of them. They are all very well behaved, well groomed and respectful.

I doubt most of the parents would approve of sending 'struggling teens' into the Unification Church, but what they fail to see is that the techniques in the teen programs are exactly the same and have pretty much the same results.

The only difference between a cult and these programs is that the programs lack a specific religious affiliation.

On 2005-08-06 09:58:00, Anonymous wrote:

"?Brat camp? confidential: Wilderness school turned life around for Cumberland girl

By Craig Giammona



Ashley Hallett of Cumberland with the dish rack she built at New Dominion School in Dillwyn, Va., where she spent 18 months turning her life around.



Courtesy Ashley Hallett

CUMBERLAND ? On Dec. 15, 2002, Ashley Hallett was sitting in class at Greely High School. Christmas was just over a week away and the blond-haired sophomore didn?t have much on her mind. Then she got a call from her father, who said he was coming to pick her up for a doctor appointment. Hallett was suspicious. It didn?t make sense. She had been to the doctor a few days before and her father?s story was flimsy. She became agitated, but eventually her father arrived and forced her to leave school. She knew something was up when she got to the car and saw her mother sitting in the front seat.



?It didn?t make any sense,? Hallett, now 18, said.



Her parents stuck with the doctor story for about 20 minutes as they drove from Cumberland to Portland. But as the car wound around the Back Cove, Ashley?s parents came clean: They were enrolling her in a wilderness school.



The situation was somewhat similar to that being documented this summer on ?Brat Camp,? an ABC reality television show that premiered earlier this month (although Ashley said the kids on the TV show get away with much more disruptive behavior than she ever would have been allowed).



Ashley?s parents were fed up with her behavior ? she had run away for four days, was drinking, smoking marijuana and generally disrespecting them on a regular basis. They had opted for the last resort.



Ashley started yelling and screaming. There was no way she was leaving her life, her friends, her school. But she didn?t have much choice. The Halletts spent the next 15 hours driving to the Southern Urban Wilderness School in the mountains of North Carolina. When the family would stop for gas, one parent would stay in the car with Ashley while the other paid and bought water and snacks.



?They knew I would try to get out and run away,? Ashley said, ?so one of them had to stay there and watch me.?



Three years removed from the ordeal, Ashley has turned her life around. She speaks of the events in a glib, self-assured manner. Recalling vivid details of the experience, she tells the story matter-of-factly.



?Honestly, I don?t know if I?d be alive right now,? she said, when asked if she had come to understand her parents? decision. In the next beat, though, she admits it took her a long time to forgive them for sending her away.



?I hated them,? she said.



Ashley spent 43 days in North Carolina in a structured program that involved frequent hikes and physical labor. When she first arrived she was sure she?d be home for Christmas, a notion that quickly drifted away in the cold winter air. The first week, she said, was the worst.



At first, she was not able to talk to the other kids and had to write four pages every day that were read by supervisors. Then an ?impact letter? arrived from her parents, detailing their reasons for sending her away. She had to read this in front of the entire group.



The minimum stay at the Wilderness school was 28 days. When that day hit, Ashley thought she was going home.



?Just get me out of here, I?m fine,? was how she described her attitude at the time. Her supervisors ? who give no indication of when a student will be released ? had other plans. They kept Ashley there until Jan. 30, 2003. She had been there for 43 days, but was still apparently not ready to return to Cumberland.



Her next stop was the New Dominion School in Dillwyn, Va., where she spent the next 18 months. The school teaches respect, again through a rigorous program of physical activity.



?Every minute of the day you?re doing something physical,? Ashley said. There is not electricity at the school outside of the dining room where the students eat. ?Being fake? or ?acting like you?re fine when you?re not? is a major violation and one that afflicted Ashley for her first six months in Virginia.



?I still didn?t get it at that point,? she said. ?I still thought I was fine.?



About six months into the program, Ashley said she had a turning point. She can?t quite pin down a particular event that caused the attitude change, but she figured out she was going to be there for a while and should try to do something positive. She had seen friends leave the school and realized she had to change her behavior if she ever wanted to follow them.



She started behaving and earning school hours, one at a time. She eventually worked up to six school hours a day and when she left Virginia in June 2004, after 18 months, she was back on track to graduate with her class.



In fact, Ashley received her high school diploma, on time, in June. Now, she said, she has adjusted to a new life in Cumberland. She no longer sees her old friends, who she describes as ?part of the problem? and instead has reacquainted herself with some close friends she knew growing up, but distanced herself from when she fell in with an older crowd at the start of high school.



?I don?t have to impress anyone,? Ashley said. ?I just don?t care anymore if (my friends) get mad at me for not going out.?



The new-found confidence, she said, derives from having survived her 20-month ordeal. ?No one knows how it feels to go through this,? she said.



Ashley now holds down three jobs ? coaching sailing in Portland, working part-time at Rite Aid and teaching private sailing lessons. She is no rush to go to college, but has a nanny job lined up in the fall and possibly wants to pursue a career as a probation officer.



?I want to do what people did for me,? she says, ?only I don?t want to sleep outside every night.?



Craig Giammona can be reached at [email protected]."

A perfect example of the cult-like experience, they all say this:

?Honestly, I don?t know if I?d be alive right now,? she said,

They convinced her she was a fake and that something was wrong with her, it took six months to break her:

?Being fake? or ?acting like you?re fine when you?re not? is a major violation and one that afflicted Ashley for her first six months in Virginia.

This says it all:

survived her 20-month ordeal

Perpetuation:
 
?I want to do what people did for me,?

Bottom line: A child with issues blown out of proportion is sent to a brainwashing program to become a well behaved zombie with three jobs, and wants to share the love. The cliches never end.