Human Earth Animal Liberation (HEAL)

PO BOX 58502

Seattle, WA 98138-1502

heal@heal-online.org

(206)244-1894

 

 

HEAL

 

THE HEAL AGENDA

Teen Liberty

Prison Reform Human Liberation Earth Liberation Animal Liberation

Events

    

THE REAL NEWS

 

  This site is dedicated to passing on and reporting the real news.  The real news is

 

that which is often neglected by mainstream media and that which you must know to be an informed citizen.  We have organized the news by subject. Links to complete reports are in blue.  Please scroll down to view the stories or choose from the menu below:

 

 

MENU:  TEEN LIBERTY/TEEN TORTURE INDUSTRY NEWS,  PRISON NEWS,  HUMAN RIGHTS NEWS, ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS,  

ANIMAL RIGHTS NEWS,  MISC. NEWS

 

Click Here for News Archives

 

 

TEEN LIBERTY/TEEN TORTURE INDUSTRY NEWS

When Is "Tough Love" Torture?--May 4th, 2008--

"Last time this country witnessed somebody with a bag over his head and a noose around his neck, the world was horrified and the nation was embarrassed," thundered Rep. George Miller, on hearing testimony this April regarding abusive treatment of troubled teens in unregulated residential programs. "To be told [by these witnesses] that this is considered a valid therapy by someone in the care of someone else's child…It's hard to believe."

Miller—who chairs the House Education and Labor Committee—had called for the congressional hearings to introduce legislation to regulate the programs, which use such "tough love" methods in an attempt to discipline difficult adolescents. He'd also requested a Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation. At the first round of hearings last October, the GAO had released its initial report, finding "thousands" of allegations of child abuse, medical neglect and "reckless and negligent operating practices," in "boot camps, "wilderness programs" and "academies," which currently hold tens of thousands of American youth. Two additional GAO reports were introduced at the April hearings—with investigators describing the treatment of some of the youth as "torture." One youth was beaten for weeks and denied medical attention after a suicide attempt left him with an exposed bone from a broken arm; others were taunted, then ignored as they lay dying; some were even hooded and had nooses placed around their necks.

 

Hung Jury Declares Mistrial In Van Dragging Of 15-Year-Old Girl--May 3rd, 2008--

Almost a year after 15-year-old Siobhan McClintock was allegedly dragged behind a van at a church bootcamp for troubled youth, her named abusers are set free due to hung jury despite witness testimony, medical treatment and photos of multiple injuries.

On Friday, May 2, 2008, the Judge in the case of Charles Flowers, 47, and a bootcamp worker, Stephanie Bassitt, 21, declared a mistrial, as the jury could not reach a decision as to where the young girl sustained her injuries.

Last summer, Siobhan was entered into Love Demonstrated Ministries, International's 32-day Boot Camp for "at risk" youth. The program, founded in 1995:

 

...for teen boys through the Faith Outreach Center. The camp's aim is to "instill discipline, respect for authority, integrity, unity and morality," according to the camp's Web site. In 1997, he began to accept girls to the program.



While at the camp, Siobhan was said to have fallen behind in morning drill exercises and when she did, she was tied to a van and dragged along.

An eye-witness account of the incident was provided during court.

Two days after the incident, the troubled teen returned home, much to the shock of her mother. The mom took pictures of the injuries to Siobhan's legs, shins, chin, stomach, back, hands and feet. Her mom also had her treated as well as removed her from the program.

Flowers and the worker were indicted on felony assault charges less than two months later. Their trial began at the end of April.

Just a few days into the trial, the Judge reduced the charge of felony assault to a Class A misdemeanor, stating that a rope and van were in no way considered "Deadly Weapons".

In a hung jury decision of 9-3, in favor of a "not guilty" verdict for Flowers and an 11-1 vote in favor of a "not guilty" verdict for Bassitt, the Judge declared a mistrial in the case.

The main reason cited for their weighted decision towards not guilty was that their was no clear proof of where the evidence of the teen's injuries originated.

Although due process is every American's right, where does eye-witness account, injuries consistent with dragging and medical treatment not provide evidence? The teen was obviously troubled and many such teens placed in these types of programs are pathological liars. Moreover, there are often so many situations involving the parents that are not known to the public and these parents have a history of allowing such behaviours to occur and then in desperation, place their "troubled" children in programs like this one.

The children will do anything to escape and the parents will do anything to enable their children.

The whole case is "hung" as this young girl has probably skirted her own problems, the alleged abusers got away with it and the court system failed.

 

Shackled teen 'was running for his life'--May 2nd, 2008--

PORT ST. LUCIE — When her son ran away the first time from Victory Forge Military Academy, she thought she understood why.

It was a strict place, there was discipline and rules, she thought. Maybe he wasn't used to it.

But when he fled again from the boot camp-style boarding school - this time in leg shackles - the woman says she knew something was wrong.

The 16-year-old Port St. Lucie boy said "he was running for his life," his mother, who declined to give her name or his, said Friday.

Academy staff found the boy and called the police. Port St. Lucie officers who responded saw the boy wearing the shackles.

Police questioned whether using the leg restraints was legal, said Victory Forge school commander Alan Weierman. So police decided to contact the Department of Children and Families, he said.

As a result, both police and DCF are investigating whether the use of the shackles was child abuse.

Although police officials say they can't discuss the case because it is still open, the case has been forwarded to the state attorney's office for review, a spokesman said.

DCF officials also declined to discuss their investigation.

But DCF did contact parents last week informing them of the accusation and telling them to remove their sons from the school.

By Monday afternoon, all 16 boys had left the academy.

Weierman says the shackles are not abuse. They're used only to restrain the boys and are removed as soon as the student agrees not to run away again. The head of the academy also says parents are told what they could expect if their son ever ran away - he would be placed in shackles, and an extra three months would be tacked on to the 12-month commitment they make when they enroll their teen.

But the mother of the Port St. Lucie boy says she never knew her son was being shackled. She learned about the restraints, she says, when her son was found in early April.

By that time, Weierman has said, the boy had been wearing shackles on and off for 10 days.

The teen's mother called the shackles "child abuse" during an interview Friday.

"To shackle a kid, hey, that's abuse," she said.

The woman said she sent her son to the academy because, as a single mother, she was looking for a way to discipline the boy after he had been showing her disrespect.

A friend of hers suggested Victory Forge and since the boy had expressed an interest in one day joining the military, she believed the academy would be a good experience, she said.

The teen's first day at the school was Feb. 26. He ran away about two weeks later.

At the time, she thought he wasn't used to the discipline. Then the boy called and told her he had been called names, including a racial slur.

The mother says the boy returned after she talked with the school. But during his return, she says, she began having regrets.

The woman says she was about to pull her son out of the school when police contacted her on April 6 asking whether she had seen the teen. He had run away again, police said.

When she discovered her son had been shackled, she began to regret making him go back to the academy.

"Right there and then, I felt so guilty putting him there," she said. "It really hurt."

She says the boy later told her that while at the school he had also been punched in the face and choked.

The woman said she and her son both gave statements to police about their allegations. She says she's now talking with attorneys to fight the contract requiring her to pay the academy the rest of the $28,600 she agreed to pay for her son's enrollment.

On Friday, Weierman said the woman's claim that she didn't know about the shackles is a lie. He denies that the teen was ever punched or choked. Had it happened, he would have called police, Weierman said.

"To my knowledge, that never took place," he said.

Weierman says the mother is making the allegations because she wants to back out of her contract with the school. "To me, it's rather suspicious and convenient," he said.

But the woman says she's concerned about what happened to her son. "As a parent, as a mother, I'm still angry," she said. "I'm upset."

 

Breaking: 'They're just laying down, waiting to hear something. They're on high risk.' Several Students Arrested At Locked-Down High School 28 Apr 2008 (WA) Several students have been arrested at Mount Tahoma High School after officials put the campus under a "high risk" lockdown on Monday. Earlier, KIRO 7 reporter Kevin McCarty said students off campus heard from students in classrooms who were told the lockdown was a "high risk" one, requiring students to lie down on the floor behind closed doors until the school is 'clear.' Officials said a student who had been suspended was found on campus Monday with a loaded handgun.

 

Marketing of boot camps comes under congressional scrutiny--April 24th, 2008--

CAPITOL HILL (AP) - Emotions ran high during a hearing in the House on youth boot camps.

Lawmakers and witnesses compared the treatment of teens in the camps to the kind of torture faced by prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

Greg Kutz has led an investigation into youth residential programs for the Government Accountability Office. He says the programs use deceptive marketing practices when trying to persuade parents of troubled youngsters to enter the programs.

Kutz testified that investigators uncovered cases in which a pit bull was trained to bite students and where teens had bags placed over their heads and nooses slipped around their necks.

A visibly angry Congressman George Miller says "it's hard to believe that people would do this to somebody else's child." He has introduced legislation to prevent such abuses and boost oversight of boot camps.

 

Teen boot camp hearing targets Missouri agency--April 24th, 2008--

WASHINGTON | In a hearing designed to expose deceptive marketing practices in the residential treatment industry for troubled teens, a northwest Missouri referral agency was singled out Thursday on Capitol Hill.

The hearing, held before a House committee, included testimony of examples of cruelty and neglect used by officials at boot camps and residential treatment centers.

It highlighted what Greg Kutz called “deceptive and other questionable” marketing tactics by some referral agencies. Kutz, who is leading an investigation into youth residential programs for the federal Government Accountability Office, specifically named Parent Help of Gallatin, Mo., as one of them.

For example: Despite online descriptions that say Parent Help workers will “look at your special situation and help you select the best school for your teen,” all three GAO investigators who called Parent Help with fictitious stories about their children were referred to Thayer Learning Center.

Parent Help is owned by John Bundy, while Thayer is owned by his wife, Willa Bundy.

“They didn’t disclose that to us as parents,” Kutz testified.

Thayer Learning Center, where Roberto Reyes of California died at age 15 in November 2004 after his parents were referred to the school through Parent Help, is located about 50 miles northeast of Kansas City in Kidder. Parent Help is less than 15 miles from there.

Officials at Thayer and attorneys for Thayer didn’t return calls from The Star on Thursday.

The GAO found that among the more questionable practices were false promises of tax incentives and insurance reimbursements. Monthly charges ranged from $2,800 to $13,000, Kutz said.

 

Feds eye 'boot-camp therapy'--April 25h, 2008--

WASHINGTON — Boot camp therapy companies use deceptive practices in getting parents to enroll troubled teens in programs where they can end up abused and neglected, the Government Accountability Office has found.

The findings come at the same time House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller introduced the "Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act of 2008," designed to create federal oversight of wilderness therapy programs, also known as therapeutic boarding schools, boot camps and behavior modification facilities.

At a committee hearing Thursday, Gregory Kutz, GAO's managing director of Forensic Audits and Special Investigations, said the most recent investigation looked at eight closed cases of abuse or death, including abuse at the Whitmore Academy in Utah in November 2004. GAO found that "ineffective management and operating practices, in addition to untrained staff, contributed to the death and abuse of youth enrolled in selected programs."

Kutz told stories of teenagers being forced to lie face down on red-ant hills, being bitten by pit bulls, being forced to endure extreme physical endurance tests in 120-degree heat and other abuse.

Kutz also said the GAO found "examples of deceptive marketing and questionable practices in certain industry programs and services" after calling 14 programs with fictitious parents looking for information for fictitious children. He played audio tapes of phone calls made to certain wilderness programs.

One excerpt included a woman at a referral service telling the GAO caller to tell his wife that this was a "college prep boarding school," because she might "freak out" if she thought the caller wanted to send his daughter to a place "where there are drug addicts and people that are all screwed up."

Another example had a referral agent recommend a particular program to GAO because "the bipolar, the depression, those kinds of things, they just go away after a while" when the participants follow a special whole-grain diet and exercise program.

There were other examples of conflicts of interest, as one referral service kept directing participants to a Missouri boot camp that it owned. Other examples showed misleading information on health insurance reimbursement or encouraging tax fraud through charitable donations.

Thursday's hearing was a follow-up to one the committee held in October at which GAO released a report outlining 10 cases where teenagers died in such programs, including five deaths in Utah.

 

Police found teenage boy in shackles--April 25th, 2008--

PORT ST. LUCIE — The Department of Children and Families told parents of boys at a boot camp-type boarding school to remove them this week after police found one of the boys shackled, according to the school's leader.

Victory Forge Military Academy's board president and school commander, Alan Weierman, acknowledged Friday that the school uses shackles to restrain runaways and that an investigation was launched when a Port St. Lucie police officer saw a 16-year-old runaway being restrained.

 

Teen boot camps under scrutiny--April 25th, 2008--Washington - Lawmakers are calling for federal regulation of so-called "boot camps" for kids. They are all across the country, but alleged abuses at the camps were described as "sickening."

One case, caught on tape, got national attention. Martin Lee Anderson, 14, died after being roughed up by staff at a youth boot camp in Florida. Now congressional investigators say they have found thousands of other cases they say turned their stomachs.

"The abuses included staff members forcing children to remain in so-called stress positions for hours at a time, to undergo extreme physical exertion without food, water, or rest; and to eat their own vomit," said Rep. George Miller (D-CA).

Often modeled after military boot camps, the camps exist to straighten up troubled teens, but investigators said they were reminded of the
abuses inmates suffered at the Abu Graib prison in Iraq.

"A 16-year-old boy having trouble breathing and walking was tortured and humiliated for days. One staff member told the boy he deserved an Academy Award for faking it," said Gregory Kutz, Government Acccountability Office.

Kutz said the sales pitches often mislead. Camp officials were recorded telling an investigator posing as a teen's father what not to tell his wife.

"I want you to tell her it's a college prep boarding school," the official said.

One who was abused himself as a 13-year-old said he is still scarred by it.

"I have nightmares today of being back in that place and being told that I'm never gonna leave that things are gonna never change," said Jon Martin-Crawford of Hancock, New York.

Investigators said they found more than 1,500 cases of reported child abuse at residential facilities including boot camps, more than 100 of those were in Indiana.

Lawmakers are calling for federal standards for youth boot camps with periodic inspections.

 

Cook saw dragging at boot camp--April 26th, 2008--

A witness testified on Friday that she saw two Christian boot camp officials abuse a 15-year-old girl last summer at a Banquete ranch, including dragging her behind a van. 

Charles Flowers, 47, and Stephanie Bassitt, 21, of Love Demonstrated Ministries boot camp, are on trial for aggravated assault. They are accused of using a rope to tie trainee Siobahn McClintock to a van on June 12 and then dragging her behind it.

Barbara "Bobby" Greer said she was working as a cook on the ranch during a portion of the boot camp held on the property. After witnessing the dragging she wanted to call 911 but felt like she was under the control of the ranch owners.

"Every time she would fall they would drag her through the gravel," Greer said.

The day before, Greer said she saw a man pin Siobahn down with his boot on her neck while he sprayed water in her face.

The Floresville teen, who now is 16, has said she was pinned to the ground several times by Bassitt and Flowers at the camp when she could no longer exercise.

 

GAO cites concerns over wilderness therapy programs--April 25th, 2008--WASHINGTON (AP) - A new government report says some companies use deceptive marketing practices to convince parents to enroll their troubled teens into boot camp-style therapy programs where they can end up abused and neglected.  The Government Accountability Office looked at eight cases of abuse and death at the camps, including at the Whitmore Academy in Utah in 2004.  The agency's managing director told members of Congress on Thursday the review found ineffective management and untrained staff contributed to dangerous conditions at the camps. He told stories of teens being forced to lie on red-ant hills and being bitten by pit bulls.  The chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee has introduced a bill to create federal oversight of wilderness therapy programs.

 

Stop Child Abuse in Programs that Supposedly "Help"--April 23rd, 2008--

Rep. George Miller (D-CA) will introduce legislation tomorrow, aimed at reining in the billion dollar "troubled teen" industry, which, according to the New York Times, detained about 100,000 children and adolescents as of 2005-- a number which had quadrupled in 10 years.

Right now, many states regulate dog kennels and nail salons more assiduously than they monitor these "tough love" programs, which are essentially private prisons: the teens cannot leave or contact the outside world. And there is no federal regulation at all: in fact, the feds don't even know how many teens are incarcerated in these programs or how many programs exist. That question may begin to be answered tomorrow, in a new Government Accountability Office report.

At the last hearing, a GAO report finding thousands of allegations of abuse and ten deaths at these "boot camps" "emotional growth" or "therapeutic" boarding schools, harsh "wilderness programs and "academies," was presented to the house Education and Labor Committee. After hearing accounts of teens "forced to eat vomit, lie in urine and feces, forced to use toothbrushes to clean toilets and then on their teeth," the ranking Republican on the committee said that he generally opposes increased federal regulation, but "there are some times when it has to happen."

 

Fed study says troubled teens abused in some residential treatment centers--April 25th, 2008--WASHINGTON -- Troubled teens have been repeatedly abused, neglected and even subjected to clear cases of torture in residential treatment centers, such as the wilderness therapy programs that flourish in Utah, according to a two-pronged federal study that also uncovered misleading marketing practices used to sell these program to parents.
    A House committee received the findings of this General Accountability Office study on Thursday, hearing about one program where teens had bags placed over their heads and nooses tightened around their necks, similar to what U.S. soldiers did to prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. In another case, a teen was forced to lay on a red ant hill and was not allowed to remove the ants from his face or body.

 

Children Abused in Unregulated 'Boot Camps,' Critic Charges--April 24th, 2008--

“Your dog has more protection than your children,” says Maia Szalavitz, a journalist who has investigated so-called "tough love" camps and residential programs supposedly aimed at helping troubled teens.

Congress will hold a second round of hearings Thursday on problems highlighted by Szalavitz and others. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, is chairing the probe of widespread abuse in the programs.

There have been at least 10 deaths of children held in teen “wilderness programs,” “boot camps,” “emotional growth boarding schools,” and other residential facilities. The first round of hearings last October prompted bipartisan outrage at industry abuses that committee members compared to “human right abuses in third world countries.”

Several victims portrayed in Szalavitz' book, "Help at Any Cost," are scheduled to testify at the hearing. She has called the "tough love" programs "an industry out of control and answerable to no one."

“Most parents are unaware that in many states, dog kennels and nail salons are more highly regulated than the health and safety of children in so called 'tough love teen boot camp' institutions. Anyone, including ex-convicts, can open a program. No qualification or certification is required,” Szalavitz said.

Szalavitz is a fellow of the Statistical Assessment Service (STATS), a not-for-profit Washington, DC, group that highlights the use and abuse of science and statistics in the media.   (Webmaster Note:  See the hearing at:

 

Teen 'Boot Camps' Again in Spotlight--April 23rd, 2008--

Residential programs for troubled teens will be getting more scrutiny from Congress this week, where investigators will reveal the results of an undercover investigation.  Some of the outfits, which purport to help troubled children, have generated hundreds of allegations of death and physical, sexual and emotional abuse, ABC News reported last October.  

"Kids being forced to eat their own vomit, to eat dirt, to not be allowed to go to the bathroom...all in the idea that somehow this is building character," is how Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., described what congressional investigators found when they probed some of the programs.

 
Related

At a hearing before Miller's House Education and Labor Committee Thursday, investigators are expected to reveal alarming new details showing how deceptive marketing and conflicts of interest could lead good parents to send their children to bad programs, Hill sources say.

Miller is also expected to introduce legislation aimed at strengthening oversight of the programs.

At a hearing last fall, investigators told Congress that "boot camp"-style programs tend to be loosely regulated and are sometimes found to have untrained staff using reckless or negligent operating practices.

 

Foster care home faces probe--April 19th, 2008--

A Broward judge Friday ordered an investigation into a shelter for troubled foster children after court-appointed guardians for the teens complained the group home was unsanitary, beset by violence and failing to properly document incidents in which children ran away or were harmed.

Attorneys for the Broward Guardian-ad-Litem Program, which provides volunteers to represent the best interests of children who were abused or neglected, told Circuit Judge David Krathen they had uncovered about 140 Lauderhill police reports, including incidents of children running away, using drugs or harming each other.

''We are very, very concerned about the safety of all the children at the facility,'' said Howard Talenfeld, a Fort Lauderdale attorney representing the guardian program. ``What we need is a complete and thorough investigation to see that each and every child is safe.''

At the center of the dispute is a Lauderhill shelter, called Impact Community Services, that houses about 12 teenagers under the supervision of ChildNet, a private foster care agency that is licensed and funded by the Department of Children & Families.

Talenfeld said guardians had seen reports of children having sex with each other, including an incident involving a disabled teen who would not have been capable of consenting to sexual activity. Talenfeld said he also had seen reports of assault and battery, and more than 125 cases of children running away.

At the guardian program's request, Krathen appointed an attorney with Legal Aid Service of Broward County, Walter Honaman, to investigate the shelter and report back to the court. ''We must make sure none of these kids are in harm's way,'' the judge said.

Melissa Zelniker-Presser, a Broward attorney, said she represents a 17-year-old boy with mental retardation who lived at the shelter until recently.

According to a report, he ''was forced to have sex'' with another boy who already had shown signs of aggression. ''I am concerned for the safety of . . . other children who live there,'' Zelniker-Presser said.

 

Teens learn to face consequences at reform school--April 13th, 2008--...

"Kids typically are angry when they get here, angry at their parents for sending them away, angry at us for being here, just angry," McMahon said. "We address that on Day One, asking them why they are here and helping them with their initial treatment plan, then their master plan.

Though hundreds of families rave about residential programs such as this one, others have horror stories.

Julia Scheeres, author of a best-selling memoir, "Jesus Land," will beg any parent who'll listen to not believe slick brochures and a program director's word.

Scheeres, now 41, spent a year in a religious-based reform school in the Dominican Republic along with her adopted brother, David. Her parents sent them there from their Indiana home when Julia was 17.

At the school, she witnessed physical abuse regularly and lived in a constant state of fear and depression.

"Some kids, who are deep in drugs or other bad crimes, may find these places work," she said. "But for kids like me and my brother — who simply didn't get along with our parents and were doing normal teenage rebellions — they do far more harm than good. I no longer have a relationship with my parents."

Scheeres is quick to point out that she has no knowledge of Eckerd. She just wants to tell parents to fully investigate any program before sending kids away.

Eckerd has had hundreds of kids come and go through its program over the past 40 years, but its record isn't spotless.

In 2000, 12-year-old Michael Wiltsie died at the Ocala, Fla., camp after being physically restrained by a 300-pound counselor. Though Florida juvenile justice authorities were critical of Eckerd, no criminal charges were filed.

McMahon also has first-hand experience with tragedy. He was the camp director at the Appalachian Wilderness Camp in 2005 when Travis Parker, 13, died at the state-run camp for troubled boys near Cleveland. Six people were initially charged with murder in Travis' death. McMahon was never charged. He did testify in court that his review of the incident found all the workers properly applied a restraint hold on Travis and didn't use excessive force. Charges against everyone were dropped.

 

San Jose center for troubled teens closing abruptly--April 10th, 2008--

The region's center for emotionally disturbed children is abruptly shutting its doors, following scathing reports of unsafe conditions and multiple violations of state law governing locked treatment facilities.

Although owners of the Starlight Adolescent Center in San Jose said its closing was not connected to recent complaints, records show the facility was cited by state officials in recent months for 14 violations that placed children in "immediate risk" and 12 others that posed potential harm.

State records show one youth had his arm broken in January while being restrained; a bulimic teenager lost 15 pounds at the facility, and staff complained to state investigators of inadequate training.

In addition, in February, an outside agency charged the Starlight facility with "unlawful and irresponsible" behavior for its use of physical restraint and seclusion to subdue the teenage mentally ill patients, including 518 violations of state law. "Starlight must be sanctioned for its failure to protect vulnerable children," said the second critical audit of the facility in two years by the Mental Health Advocacy Project, which the county funds to monitor the rights of mentally ill patients.

The decision to close the facility in June comes amid a growing concern among experts about the wisdom of keeping mentally ill youth in locked facilities on a long-term basis. The average stay at Starlight is one year.

 

Parents of Killed Intruder: Wrong People, Wrong Time--April 9th, 2008--DURAND - A fourteen year old Durand boy is killed after a home invasion turned deadly Sunday. Today his family speaks out and Travis Castle's parents must have a lot of unanswered questions. At the top of that list is how could their child, their fourteen year old son, who does not have a criminal record could ever be mixed up in this deadly mess. 

Kimberly Britton & Clyde Castle Travis Castle's Parents
A love for horses and a passion for riding, it's the legacy Travis leaves behind. “There wasn't nothing he couldn't do. He could do anything,” says his father Clyde Castle. “He could drive a truck and trailer at fourteen years old and probably better than I can.”

In just two and half weeks, Travis would have turned fifteen, but his life was cut short Sunday. Ogle County Sheriff's police say Travis and two other boys broke into a home just outside Stillman Valley to steal guns.

“One of them told him, 'Get out of the car, Travis. You're going in with us,’” Clyde remembers. “He didn't want to go in,” adds the boy’s mother, Kimberly Britton.

But Travis did go in, and before he got out, the young teen was met by house guest in the hallway. Police say that man fatally shot Travis after the boy pointed a gun at him.

“I talked to him at 9:30,” Kimberly tells 13 News. “He was staying the night at his friends. He said, 'Mom, I'll be home in the morning. Love you and everything's going to be alright.’ But the next morning Travis never showed up. “We looked and we looked and we couldn't find him,” Kimberly says.

His family admits Travis shouldn't have been involved, but they say it was peer pressure. The boy recently started attending a school for troubled teens. That's where his parents say he got mixed up with the wrong crowd.

“The two things I told him growing up, 'I hate a thief and liar.' And Travis wasn't either one,” says Clyde. And he has message for the other suspects. “The boys who influenced him, I hope you have to live with this the rest of your life, the rest of your life that you killed my son.”

Those boys still have not been caught. Detectives believe they may be in Winnebago County.  (Webmaster Note: "Troubled teen" programs are not worth the trouble!)

 

8-year-old suspended for sniffing marker--April 3rd, 2008--

WESTMINSTER – Adams School District 50 is defending its decision to punish a third grader for sniffing a Sharpie marker.

 
Eight-year-old Eathan Harris was originally suspended from Harris Park Elementary School for three days. Principal Chris Benisch reduced the suspension to one day after complaints from Harris' parents.

Harris used a black Sharpie marker to color a small area on the sleeve of his sweatshirt. A teacher sent him to the principal when she noticed him smelling the marker and his clothing.

"It smelled good," Harris said. "They told me that's wrong."

Eathan's father, John Harris, says the school overreacted for treating Eathan as if he was huffing, or inhaling, marker fumes.

"I think it's outlandish," John Harris said. "It's ridiculous."

Eathan shyly shook his head "no" when a reporter asked if he knew about "huffing."

Benisch stands by his decision to suspend Harris, saying it sends a clear message about substance abuse.

"This is really, really, seriously dangerous," Benisch said.

In his letter suspending the child, Benisch wrote that smelling the marker fumes could cause the boy to "become intoxicated."

A toxicologist with the Rocky Mountain Poison Control Center says that claim is nearly impossible.

Dr. Eric Lavonas says non-toxic markers like Sharpies, while pungent-smelling, cannot be used to get high.

"I don't know whether it would be possible for a real overachiever to figure out a way to get high off them," Lavonas said. "But in regular use, it's just not something that's going to happen."

"If you went to Costco and bought 50 bags of Sharpies and did something to them, maybe there's a way to get creative and make it happen," Lavonas said.

Adams County School District 50 leaders were unfazed by the poison control center's medical opinion.

"Principals make hundreds of decisions everyday based on our best judgment. And in that time, smelling that marker, I felt like, 'Wow, that's a very serious marker,'" Benisch said.

Despite the medical evidence, Benisch promised to draw an even clearer line on markers.

"We've purged every permanent marker there is in this building," he said.

Eathan Harris says he's happy to be back in school after his suspension, but he did confide he worried the school's disciplinary action might hurt his dream of one day becoming a professional football player. (Webmaster Note: For more commentary on this story, see: http://onlinelunchpail.blogspot.com/2008/04/8-year-old-suspended-for-sniffing.html)
 

Development, Testing, and Findings of a Pediatric-Focused Trigger Tool to Identify Medication-Related Harm in US Children's Hospitals--April 1st, 2008--Glenn S. Takata, MDa,b, Wilbert Mason, MD, MPHc,d, Carol Taketomo, PharmDe, Tina Logsdon, MSf and Paul J. Sharek, MD, MPHg OBJECTIVES. The purposes of this study were to develop a pediatric-focused tool for adverse drug event detection and describe the incidence and characteristics of adverse drug events in children's hospitals identified by this tool.  METHODS. A pediatric-specific trigger tool for adverse drug event detection was developed and tested. Eighty patients from each site were randomly
selected for retrospective chart review. All adverse drug events identified using the trigger tool were evaluated for severity, preventability, ability to mitigate, ability to identify the event earlier, and presence of associated occurrence report. Each trigger and the entire tool were evaluated for positive predictive value. RESULTS. Review of 960 randomly selected charts from 12 children's hospitals revealed 2388 triggers (2.49 per patient) and 107 unique adverse drug events. Mean adverse drug event rates were 11.1 per 100 patients, 15.7 per 1000 patient-days, and 1.23 per 1000 medication doses. The positive predictive value of the trigger tool was 3.7%. Twenty-two percent of all adverse drug events were deemed preventable, 17.8% could have been identified earlier, and 16.8% could have been mitigated more effectively.  Ninety-seven percent of the identified adverse drug events resulted in mild, temporary harm. Only 3.7% of adverse drug events were identified in existing hospital-based occurrence reports. The most common adverse drug events
identified were pruritis and nausea, the most common medication classes causing adverse drug events were opioid analgesics and antibiotics, and the most common stages of the medication management process associated with preventable adverse drug events were monitoring and prescribing/ordering.   CONCLUSIONS. Adverse drug event rates in hospitalized children are substantially higher than previously described. Most adverse drug events resulted in temporary harm, and 22% were classified as preventable. Only
3.7% were identified by using traditional voluntary reporting methods. Our pediatric-focused trigger tool is effective at identifying adverse drug events in inpatient pediatric populations.
 

Kids in trouble for sexual harassment--April 3rd, 2008--

WASHINGTON, Apr 3, 2008 (UPI via COMTEX) -- A "zero-tolerance" approach to sexual harassment has led to increasing numbers of complaints in elementary schools and even in nursery schools.

In one Texas case, a 4-year-old received an in-school suspension for pressing against an aide's breasts while he was hugging her, The Washington Post reports. A kindergarten student in Hagerstown, Md., was accused of harassment for allegedly pinching a little girl's rear end.

Virginia reported that 255 students were suspended from elementary schools last year for sexually offensive conduct and in Maryland, there were 166 suspensions, including three from pre-schools and 16 from kindergarten, the Post said.

Ted Feinberg, assistant director of the National Association of School Psychologists in Bethesda, Md., said that accusing 6-year-olds of sexual harassment "doesn't make sense to me." He said that he worked for 30 years in the schools without a real case of sexual harassment in elementary school.

"Kids can be exploratory in behavior, they can mimic what they see on TV," he told the Post.

 

Nearly 200 taken from sect's West Texas ranch--April 6th, 2008--

ELDORADO -- After several anxious hours late Saturday, tensions appeared to be easing at the YFZ Ranch in West Texas as state troopers streamed past checkpoints and escorted another busload of girls from the secretive polygamist sect's compound.

Around 11 p.m., police scanner traffic indicated that authorities had "cleared" the church's temple and were moving to the compound's annex. There was no indication that authorities' search for children on the ranch was coming to a close.

Earlier in the evening, some of the sect's members refused to allow authorities to entering the church's massive white temple.

Allison Palmer, assistant district attorney for the 51st District, which includes Schleicher and Coke counties and part of Tom Green County, said that authorities "were preparing for all possibilities" and that ambulances and other equipment were on standby.

"This is a very sensitive area, and members of this church feel very strongly about nonmembers entering that area," Palmer said. "This is a very important to them. It is proving to be difficult to obtain their permission to enter that building."

Palmer credited Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran with obtaining the cooperation of the sect to allow the search to continue. She wouldn't say whether investigators had searched all the other buildings.

183 removed

Earlier Saturday, officials said they had removed 137 children and 46 women from the ranch. Investigators said they planned to keep searching until every child was accounted for at the YFZ (Yearn For Zion) Ranch.

The second full day of searching at the property had investigators going building to building in the hunt for more children. State officials have blocked access to the ranch since Thursday in response to a report of physical abuse of a 16-year-old girl, law enforcement officials said Friday.

Child Protective Services spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner said Saturday that authorities have removed 137 children from the ranch, which is an outpost of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, based in Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah. Of the 137 children, about 40 were boys.

Meisner said she didn't know whether investigators had found the 16-year-girl whose complaint of abuse reached CPS officials Monday.

"I can't confirm that we have even found that girl," Meisner said.

Eighteen of the girls have been legally removed from the ranch, and foster homes have been located for them, Meisner said.

The other 119 children remain under the care of CPS caseworkers at Eldorado's First Baptist Church, the Eldorado Civic Center and a local elementary school.

All the children have been interviewed, and some of the 46 women who had been removed from the ranch are mothers of the children being questioned, Meisner said at a news conference Saturday.

"We need to know if they are safe, if they have been abused, neglected or are at high risk of abuse," Meisner said.

She said CPS investigators' presence in Eldorado could continue indefinitely. Meisner said that she planned to be in Eldorado "for a while."

 

Sex abuse, violence alleged at teen jails across U.S.--April 4th, 2008--

JACKSON, Mississippi (CNN) -- Girls as young as 13 say they were shackled for weeks at a time in Mississippi.

 

Erica was 16 when she was forced to wear leg shackles at a Mississippi detention center, she said.

A Texas teen was allegedly offered birthday cake in exchange for sex.

A guard drove his knee into the neck of a frail suicidal Ohio boy after the youth was wrestled to the ground and held down by other guards who stripped him and covered his face with a smock, a state report said.

More than two dozen girls at an Indiana lock-up describe "networking" -- their term for sneaking into each other's cells to have sex, with no interference from guards.

This is a glimpse into what America's juvenile jails look like, according to lawsuits, criminal cases and experts who have spent years delving into what they call a broken system.

"It's a nationwide crisis that has been going on for years, one the public has never been told the extent of," said psychiatric social worker Jerome Miller, the co-founder of the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives, who has evaluated and helped reform juvenile jails for more than three decades.

This summer, Mississippi plans to close Columbia Training School, a juvenile facility that houses mostly minor offenders. They are often runaways from abusive homes.

Erica was 16 when she was sentenced to Columbia after running away, a probation violation of an earlier marijuana conviction.

She admits she was a girl quick to sass her parents, full of anger about the death of a relative that happened around the same time Katrina wrecked her family's Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, home.

Nervously touching a sparkly barrette in her red hair, she cries as she describes how guards forced her legs into tight metal shackles. She said she was cuffed and chained when she ate and used the bathroom -- and was even forced to play soccer that way against other girls.

Guards called her "Chain Gang," she said.

"I will always remember them things around my ankles, the way they cut into me," she said, pulling up her pant leg to show slash-mark scars on her ankles and heels. "They made you feel like you were nothing." Video Watch teen explain suicide attempt was cry for help »

Represented by attorneys with the Southern Poverty Law Center, Erica and nine other girls housed at Columbia are suing the state, claiming they endured a range of sexual and physical abuse, including shackling. Don Desper, a licensed therapist and former employee at Columbia who opposed the practice, told CNN it was used to prevent the teens from escaping.

In a handwritten affidavit, a 15-year-old girl described a male guard molesting her. She wrote: "He came inside my cell half way half of his body and he started touching me and he tryed (sic) to kiss me and then he left he came back with my snack in his hand and he opened my cell again and he started grabbing me around my waist and he tryed (sic) to stick his hands in my pants and I started crying."

When the lawsuit was filed in 2007, a U.S. Justice Department monitor was making periodic inspections at Columbia as part of a 2005 settlement with Mississippi in a previous case. The Justice investigation that led to that settlement found Columbia youths were hog-tied, forced to strip and eat their own vomit and were held in isolation in what was called the "Dark Room," a windowless room with a hole in the floor used as a toilet. Read the Justice Department report that describes girls being shackled to poles

Hundreds of youths have allegedly suffered similar abuse at juvenile detention centers across the United States, according to experts interviewed by CNN and court records checked for this story.

The U.S. Justice Department has sued nine states and two territories alleging abuse, inadequate mental and medical care and potentially dangerous methods like the use of restraints. The department doesn't have the power to shut down facilities -- states do -- but through litigation it can force a state to improve its detention centers and protect the civil rights of jailed youths.

Another facility under Justice scrutiny is Oakley Training School near Jackson, Mississippi, which was sued by the department at the same time as Columbia. Gov. Haley Barbour recently announced Columbia's inmates would be transferred this summer to Oakley when Columbia is closed.

But the Justice Department said Oakley has satisfied barely a fraction of requirements the department set for it years ago. According to a March 2008 Justice report, there is an "enormous amount of work" needed to make Oakley a safe and productive place to rehabilitate troubled teens.

Barbour would not respond to questions for this report. The Mississippi Department of Human Services, which runs Columbia and Oakley, refused to answer most of a CNN public records request citing pending litigation and also declined to be interviewed.

The U.S. Justice Department could not talk specifically about ongoing cases, but Lisa Krigsten, civil rights division principal deputy assistant attorney general, noted the department is going after double the number of juvenile jails for civil rights violations during the Bush administration than in any previous administration.

"We take this seriously and are committed to protecting the vulnerable children who are in these places," she said.

A CNN check of other juvenile facilities shows that, despite years of court wrangling, serious problems persist.

In Ohio, a dozen employees at the Scioto Juvenile Correctional Facility have been indicted since 2003 on charges relating to physical and sexual abuse of youth, according to a May 2007 Justice report. Five were convicted of various charges, including sexual battery and assault; six cases were dismissed and a jury found one employee not guilty.

In January, a state-hired consultant blamed a "culture of violence" in Ohio's juvenile jails for numerous abuses. The expert's report details examples of "egregious use of force" by guards and included a video he viewed of a 2007 incident in which a "frail" boy who was threatening to harm himself was restrained by guards.

The boy was wrestled to the ground, cuffed and stripped, with one guard seen putting his full body weight on the boy's back while driving his knee into the boy's neck.

A so-called "Suicide Smock" was placed "over his airways," the report said. "The youth actually screams that he can't breathe."

 

 

Authorities remove children from polygamists' West Texas compound--April 4th, 2008--ELDORADO, Texas — Child welfare officials Friday took custody of 18 girls who lived at a secretive West Texas religious retreat built by polygamist leader Warren Jeffs following an abuse complaint to state authorities.

A total of 52 girls, ages 6 months to 17 years, were bused away on Friday to be interviewed, but only 18 were immediately taken into state custody, said Texas Child Protective Services spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner. No arrests had been made.

Meisner said CPS was looking for foster homes for the girls, most of whom have rarely been outside the insular world of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They were temporarily being housed at a local civic center, she said.

"We're dealing with children that aren't accustomed to the outside world so we're trying to be very sensitive to their needs," said Meisner.

Authorities had interviewed about half the girls since arriving at the remote compound with law enforcement on Thursday evening, she said. Interviews were expected to continue over the weekend.

The investigation began with a call alleging physical abuse of a 16-year-old girl living there, Meisner said.

On Friday afternoon, Department of Public Safety officials began executing a search warrant at the compound.

The warrant is for records dealing with the birth of children to a 16-year-old and any records listing a marriage between Dale Barlow, 50, and the girl, according to the San Angelo Standard-Times, which cited court records released late Friday in Tom Green County. Prosecutors in Tom Green, a larger county north of Eldorado, were handling the case.

An arrest warrant was issued, but the individual DPS is looking for had not been located by Friday evening, said spokeswoman Tela Mange. She said she could not reveal whose name was on the warrant.

 

 

Doctor is sued in death of girl, 4 Her psychiatrist treated her with powerful drugs--April 4th, 2008--The parents of 4-year-old Rebecca Riley are awaiting trial on charges that they killed her in December 2006 with an overdose of psychiatric drugs.  A medical malpractice suit filed yesterday asserts that a Tufts Medical Center psychiatrist who diagnosed the girl as bipolar when she was 28 months old and then treated her for two years with a regimen of powerful drugs is to blame for her death.  "This child was subject to mostly telephone prescriptions and a slipshod diagnosis," said Boston lawyer Andrew C. Meyer Jr., who represents Rebecca Riley's estate and filed the suit against Dr. Kayoko Kifuji in Suffolk Superior Court.  Six weeks before Rebecca Riley was found dead on Dec. 13, 2006, in a Hull house shared by her parents and other relatives, a nurse at her Weymouth preschool warned Kifuji that she suspected the child was overmedicated because she was often too tired to participate in school activities and appeared like a "floppy doll," according to Meyer. Kifuji did not reduce her
medication after examining the child, he said.  "They made her a 4-year-old zombie," said Meyer, whose Boston law firm Lubin & Meyer specializes in medical malpractice cases. "We don't believe that she did suffer from bipolar or that this was the appropriate medication."  The suit was filed on behalf of a court-appointed guardian who is serving as administrator of Rebecca Riley's estate and is protecting the interests of the girl's 13-year-old brother and 7- year-old sister. It seeks unspecified damages for the wrongful death and pain and suffering endured by Rebecca, as well as the loss suffered by her brother and sister, who are in foster care and have been named the beneficiaries of her estate.  Kifuji could not be reached for comment yesterday. Since the child's death, Kifuji remains on staff at Tufts Medical Center, but no longer treats patients. She has voluntarily agreed not to practice medicine, pending an investigation by the state Board of Registration in Medicine. 
Tufts Medical Center released a statement yesterday saying: "We have not received any official notification of a lawsuit. We remain in support of Dr. Kifuji and the care she provided."  Kifuji diagnosed Rebecca Riley with bipolar disorder and attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder and prescribed clonidine, a blood pressure medication that is sometimes used to calm aggressive children, Seroquel, an antipsychotic drug, and Depakote, an antiseizure drug, according to court records. The child died from an overdose of the prescription drugs, and, by itself, the amount of clonidine in her system was fatal, court records indicate. Clonidine and Depakote are approved by the FDA for adults only.  A trial date has yet to be set for Michael and Carolyn Riley, who were initially charged with first-degree murder in intentionally overmedicating their daughter and knowing that it would be fatal.
 

Schools embrace fingerprint scanning--

The lunch lines in West Virginia's Wood County schools move much faster than they used to. After students fill their trays with food, they approach a small machine, push their thumbs against a touch pad — and with that small movement, they've paid for their meal.
 
For half the state's school districts, as well as hundreds more across the country, the days of dealing with lost lunch cards or forgotten identification numbers are over.
 
"A student cannot forget their finger," said Beverly Blough, the director of food service in Wood County School District, which in 2003 became the first district in West Virginia to use finger scanners.
 
But the emergence of finger scanning has also sparked a backlash from parents and civil libertarians worried about identity theft and violation of children's privacy rights. In several cases when parents have objected, school districts have backed down, and some states have outlawed or limited the technology.
 
A growing number of schools are using biometrics, or the science of identification based on physiological or behavioral features like facial or voice recognition, to have students pay for meals, log their attendance, board buses, check out books and visit the nurse's office. Administrators cite many benefits, chief among them efficiency.
 
Fingerprints are scanned, but the prints themselves are not saved; instead, a finger's ridges and arcs are turned into "data points," which are converted into a numerical identifier assigned to each student.
 
Pennsylvania-based identiMetrics, which offers biometric identification products, has sold fingerprint scanners to about 1,000 school districts in about half the states, mostly in the Northeast and South, said Anne Marie Dunphy, the company's chief financial officer. By the end of the fiscal year, she expects the business will triple or quadruple over the previous year.
 
Dunphy said rural districts seem to be taking the lead on implementing the technology. "You would think that it would be the technology-rich, wealthy districts along the Northwest corridor, and it's the complete opposite. We have installations in very rural areas in Indiana, where the backyard's a cornfield and there's an Amish lady working the cash register," she said.
 
But the technology's emergence has raised concerns for parents about whether their children's information is safe.
 
"It just opens a huge database out there that's just easy for identity theft," said Joy Robinson-Van Gilder, an Illinois mother who rallied legislators last year to place limits on the technology in her state. "I think it's against their civil rights, without a doubt, and it is an invasion of privacy."
 
Illinois is the only state that requires schools to get parental permission before scanning students' fingerprints. Iowa banned biometrics outright in schools, and Michigan doesn't allow fingerprinting because of a 2000 attorney general opinion that it would violate state law.
 
Arizona could join this group. Last month, a Senate committee passed a bill to ban the use of biometrics in schools.
 
Scanning opponents argue that districts don't have policies in place for what information to collect, how long to keep it, how to delete it when it's no longer needed and who should have access to the information. They also say that schools, unlike banks or major government agencies that also collect biometric data, don't have the financial resources to ensure that it is secure.
 
"The benefits certainly do not justify the privacy violations that we're seeing," said Alessandra Meetze, executive director of the Arizona chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. "I don't think collecting fingerprints from very little kids sends the right message…They're essentially treating (students) like criminals for the sake of efficiency."

 

Jewish family sues Jamaican reform school for troubled teens--March 25th, 2008--

A battle has erupted in the Orthodox Jewish community over a Brooklyn teenager sent by his prominent family to a behavior boot camp accused of terrifying abuse.  Isaac Hersh, 16, has been trapped since last summer at Tranquility Bay, a reform school on the island of Jamaica with a soothing name - and harsh discipline, according to the lawyer hired to try to get him out.  "It's a modern-day concentration camp," said Maryland lawyer Joshua Ambush.  Isaac's estranged parents sent him to the boot camp last year after luring him back to Brooklyn from his new home in Texas, court papers claim.  Isaac's twin brother, Sol, is panicked he's next to go.  "He's very worried about his brother. He's very worried about himself, too," said a friend of the family who asked to remain anonymous. Tranquility Bay offers the promise of turning bad boys into focused achievers, but the walled-off camp with barred windows has been called a nightmare.  Children have been beaten, forced to eat their vomit and made to stand in painful contortions for hours, according to a separate suit filed in Utah by former students against private boot camps, including Tranquility Bay.  The case has so riled up members of the normally insular Orthodox community that several are taking the rare step of publicizing Isaac's situation.

 

Sins against kids--March 20th, 2008--The General Assembly does not legislate based on facts, relying instead on perceptions, personal experiences and political pandering. And nowhere is that more apparent than in the way the state responds to juvenile crime.  Despite the fact that only 5 percent of youth arrests owe to serious offenses, legislators have toughened the juvenile system over the years in response to the myth of the teenage "superpredator." At the same time that lawmakers don't believe 17-year-olds are mature enough to buy cigarettes or drive past midnight, they maintain that teens are old enough to be viewed as adults when they break the law. In Georgia, a teen as young as 13 can face life in prison for some offenses.  Now, JUSTGeorgia — a coalition of Voices for Georgia's Children, the Georgia Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, and Emory's Barton Child Law & Policy Clinic — is offering up a new code. The comprehensive rewrite is based on four years of work by the State Bar of Georgia's Young Lawyers Division and interviews with hundreds of people across the state, including advocates, victims of juvenile crimes, foster children and law enforcement. Despite their varying perspectives, all those interviewed agreed that the Georgia statutes dealing with young people who violate the law or who are victims of abuse and neglect are not in the best interests of children.  Since its introduction in 1971, the Georgia juvenile code has wandered far afield from its founding principle that when a young person errs, the law should rehabilitate, not punish.

 

"Baby ASBOs" for children as young as 10--March 18th, 2008--

LONDON (Reuters) - Troubled teenagers and children as young as 10 would be hit with anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) under a government plan unveiled on Tuesday to fight youth crime.  About 1,000 of the country's "most challenging" children will be forced to sign good behaviour contracts under the 218-million pound programme, Children's Secretary Ed Balls said.  Under the expansion of the Family Intervention Projects, the troublemakers would be supported by "non-negotiable" workers.  But failure to abide by the contract will lead to a criminal record, and a behaviour order dubbed a "baby ASBO".  "The support is non-negotiable -- if young people don't take the help, or refuse to mend their ways they will face the consequences," Balls said in a statement.  "For example (they will face) an Anti-Social Behaviour Order to stop bad behaviour and an Individual Support Order to compel them to co-operate with support. These are court orders with criminal records and sanctions for those who breach them."

 

Judge orders California to enforce county juvenile hall standards--March 12th, 2008--A judge has ordered California authorities to set strict deadlines for bringing county juvenile halls up to state standards if they fail inspections.  San Francisco Superior Court Judge Patrick Mahoney ruled the Corrections Standards Authority has been giving counties too much time to correct problems that include overcrowding and excessive use of force.The authority inspects juvenile halls every two years.  The judge says counties must submit an improvement plan within two months. They then must make changes within three months or risk having their juvenile jails