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http://www.nbcsandiego.com/education/37 ... etail.htmlMexico Shuts Down School For Troubled Teens
Students Bused Back To San Diego
POSTED: 11:59 am PDT September 13, 2004
UPDATED: 12:53 pm PDT September 13, 2004
SAN DIEGO -- More than 500 troubled teenagers were bused to San Diego over the weekend after they were forced to leave a controversial school and treatment center in Mexico.
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Teens Evacuated From School
The school, Casa by the Sea, is located in Ensenada. It specialized in treating teenagers from all over the United States with severe behavior problems, including alcohol and drug addiction. Mexican authorities closed the school over the weekend forcing many parents to travel to Baja California to pick up their children. Those that were not picked up were bused to San Diego and taken to the Town and Country Hotel in Mission Valley to wait for their parents.
"(Saturday) night, about 11, we all got on a bus. About half of us, the other half got pulled," student Thomas Wilson told NBC 7/39.
School officials told NBC 7/39 that Ensenada police closed down the school because of "immigration issues." Mexican authorities have closed down three similar schools recently, including Genesis by the Sea, according to NBC 7/39. But there have also been reports that police shut down the school because of reports that students were being mistreated.
Some students and parents at the Town and Country Hotel had high praise for the Casa by the Sea.
"I made a lot of changes there and matured there. I learned how to make better decisions for myself," Wilson said.
"My daughter has graduated from this program as of Feb. 29 and has been home for six months and is doing extremely well," parent Rebekah DeFrancesco said.
But Dr. Roderick Hall, a clinical psychologist from Coronado, said he has received many reports of abuse from children who have been through Casa by the Sea and similar facilities.
"If you talk to the kids, a lot of them will say it saved their life. But when I talk with the kids afterward, they tell me that the reason they say it saved their life is because they know they would lose privileges and be subject to consequences if they did not say that," Hall said. "I think they need treatment. I don't think they get it. I think they have lots of awful consequences years down the road because of what happens when they're there."
The displaced students were being transferred to other similar schools or sent home, NBC 7/39 reported.
