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Area teen learns tough lesson through door-to-door sales: Pope spent six months in an industry under growing scrutiny for allegations that its young
sales people are encouraged to spin stories to meet quotas and are either induced or coerced to stay on the job by easy access to drugs, limited access to
their paychecks and mental and even physical abuse from managers. Earlene Williams, whose organization Parent Watch Inc. filed a racketeering lawsuit
against the door-to-door magazine sales industry in 1982, says she has been trying for 25 years to get Congress to end the industry's exemption from labor
practices laws.
High-powered therapy targets troubled teens, families : ...Unlike detention centers, boot camps or some other youth programs, multi-systemic therapy
doesn't isolate the teens. Rather, it deals with them in their own environment. Therapists visit the juvenile's family, relatives, neighborhood and school several
times a week, keeping the youths away from undesirable peers and making sure they stay in school. The therapists also help the parents set rules. It's a
tough job that puts them on call 24 hours a day. Sometimes they respond in the middle of the night, often in unsafe neighborhoods. In about 60 percent of
cases, officials say, a single parent is raising several children while overburdened with two or three jobs, leaving little time or energy to deal with a difficult
teen. "A lot of these children do not have good relationships with their parents," said Linda Baker, who supervises the four therapists in the Bergen County
programs...
ACLU lawsuits seek release of kids from immigrant detention center: The American Civil Liberties Union said today that it has filed lawsuits on behalf
of 10 immigrant children, challenging their detention at the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility, an immigrant detention center in Taylor. The lawsuits
filed in federal district court in Austin charge that the children are being held under inhumane and prison-like conditions while their parents await immigration
decisions. They name U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and five officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"There is simply no justification for imprisoning innocent children who pose no threat to anyone," Vanita Guptaan ACLU lawyer, said at a press conference in
Austin. "This is an affront to our core values as a nation. We need practical, realistic immigration policy, not draconian methods that are harming vulnerable
kids."
Police investigate claims of sexual abuse at 22 Texas youth prisons: AUSTIN, Texas — Police were sent to 22 Texas Youth Commission facilities and
the agency headquarters Tuesday to investigate claims that young inmates were sexually abused and that agency officials covered it up. Jay Kimbrough,
appointed by the governor to look into the allegations at a West Texas youth prison, said the officers would conduct interviews at the prisons and halfway
houses, secure equipment and collect documents if necessary. He also issued a warning to agency employees. "If you are part of this gig, you need to
move on or we're going to find you and prosecute you," Kimbrough said.
Claims
about 'orphans' key in shady adoptions:
...Federal authorities say the FOC scam
involved more than 80 children - eight to 10 of whom were placed in
Utah - and began
no later than March 2002 and operated until June 2005. The birth
parents believed the youngsters were being temporarily placed in U.S.
homes and would return when they
reached adulthood, according to the indictment. Instead, FOC placed
the children permanently with U.S. parents, the indictment says. Facing federal charges are Scott
and Karen Banks, of Wellsville; Dan Wakefield, of Utah; Tagaloa Ieti,
of Samoa; Julie Tuiletufuga, of Samoa; Coleen Bartlett of Evanston,
Wyo.; and Karalee Thornock, of Tooele...The defendants are charged with conspiracy, immigration
violations - including visa fraud - and money laundering. The maximum
prison terms for the offenses range
from five years to 20 years. Wakefield, who for years lived in Samoa,
will have an initial appearance Monday at 9:30 a.m. in U.S. Magistrate
Judge Sam Alba's courtroom.
FOC charged adoption fees of $13,000 for one child and $20,000 for
two. In addition, adoptive parents had to pay other expenses,
including the cost of traveling to
New Zealand to file immigration forms at the U.S. consulate there.
The agency reportedly persuaded Samoan parents to turn over their
children to FOC, offering money, food
and other "humanitarian assistance" and promises the
children would be educated abroad and later returned home. The
agency also allegedly claimed to be affiliated with
the U.S. government or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, the indictment said...At least one of those charged has ties
to another troubled venture. Wakefield
was a partner in New Hope Academy, a residential treatment facility
set up in Apia, Samoa, in mid-1998. It closed just months later,
stranding five teens. Wakefield
blamed the failure of New Hope Academy on a consultant it hired, Steve
Cartisano, who left Utah after a teen died in a wilderness therapy
program he founded. The
indictment alleges Wakefield lied to Samoans and adoptive parents
about the circumstances surrounding the adoptions, the conditions in
which the children lived and why
their birth parents would relinquish them. Allegedly, he and other
recruiters also actively solicited and pressured Samoan parents to
give their children up for adoption...
O'Malley criticizes juvenile officials: Gov. Martin O'Malley sharply criticized juvenile authorities yesterday for failing to respond to a school nurse's formal complaint last
year
about mistreatment of youths at the Bowling Brook Preparatory School,
where a Baltimore teenager later died. "It's just
unacceptable that a health professional would notify
authorities there were problems and they didn't follow up,"
O'Malley said...The Sun reported yesterday that Bowling Brook's nurse
notified the state Department of Juvenile
Services in August that a youth had been badly bruised and scraped
while being restrained by staff members. Five months later,
17-year-old Isaiah Simmons of East
Baltimore died after being similarly restrained at the privately run
residential program for juvenile offenders. Bowling Brook
officials responded to the publication of nurse Janis
Miller's complaint by imposing a gag order on the school's employees,
threatening to fire any who speak to the press...Nancy Forster, the
state's chief public defender, urged
Bowling Brook employees to speak candidly to police and investigators,
even if workers choose to abide by the gag order. "Whether
or not employees of Bowling Brook
speak to the press is inconsequential,
Three
Teens Arrested for Rape at School for Troubled Kids:
MOUNT
PLEASANT, N.Y. (AP) -- Staffers at a school for the
emotionally disturbed conducted their own investigation of a
13-year-old girl's rape and even tried to collect evidence before
reporting the attack, a police chief said Tuesday. "I'm not
certain it's criminal but it's certainly not
advisable,'' said Mount Pleasant police Chief Louis Alagno. "They
should be calling, notifying the police and calling in the
professionals.'' He said the school delayed calling
police for nearly four hours after the Monday night attack at the
Hawthorne-Cedar Knolls School in Hawthorne, about 25 miles north of
New York City. Three teenage boys
were arrested and charged as adults.
Davenport boot camp scrutinized for resident treatment: DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) -- A boot camp for delinquent boys is under scrutiny after a state investigation
showed its juveniles often went hungry, were subjected to corporal punishment and were sometimes denied timely access to the bathroom. SUMMIT's troubles come five
years
after former director John Bolsinger was charged with molesting
teenage boys under his watch. He was convicted and is serving a prison
sentence scheduled to end in 2012.
The camp's latest problems were documented in a state
report based on interviews and an onsite inspection last month.
Troubled indeed: In his State of the State speech, Gov. Martin O'Malley reserved just two words for Maryland's juvenile justice system - "deeply troubled" - and the
governor isn't usually a man of few words. The juvenile offenders in state custody deserve more than a mention, especially after the questionable death Jan. 23 of a
17-year-old boy at the private facility in which the state had placed him. The state's juvenile services system isn't only deeply troubled, it's dysfunctional, understaffed,
overwhelmed, inefficient, poorly funded, ill-equipped and, most alarming, impervious to change.
Sex Allegations Prompt Methodist Youth Home to Move Teens: VERSAILLES, Ky. (AP) - Officials said a central Kentucky church-affiliated home for troubled youth
has moved more than 30 teenagers to other facilities after accusations that a worker had sex with a girl in the home's care. The Rev. Alex Carmichel said the incident
between a male employee and the teenage girl led to the firing of that employee as well as another employee who did not immediately report "indicators" that something had happened. Carmichel is the president of the Kentucky United Methodist Homes for Children & Youth in Versailles. Janis Stewart, spokesman for the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services, confirmed that the state Inspector General is investigating the home.
Boot camp ordered to pay Seymour men $900G: A Mississippi military boot camp has been ordered to pay $900,000 in a case involving a Seymour man who said he
was tortured at the camp. Joseph Peter Paolillo and his son, Joseph Gabriel Paolillo, 25, sued the Bethel Baptist Church boot camp of Lucedale, Miss., in 2002 claiming
the younger Paolillo was tortured while at the boot camp in 1998. The claim states Paolillo was denied medical treatment for two weeks for a broken bone that was
protruding through his flesh. While injured, Paolillo was beaten, rolled through the dirt and interrogated until he could not remember who he was, the claim states. During
Paolillo’s time at Bethel, the claim states his Italian heritage and sexuality were repeatedly insulted, and that school leaders encouraged the abusive behavior. School
leaders owned a pit bull trained to attack students by biting them in their crotch area, the claim states, if they could not outrun the dog. The dog was also allowed to urinate and defecate in the student barracks, the claim states.
Youth
restraint challenged: The
head of a Maryland association of juvenile programs said yesterday it
would be "indefensible" for staff to sit on a struggling
youth for three hours
to restrain him - something at least four youths have told their
lawyers happened last week in the death of a teenage boy at Bowling
Brook Preparatory School. But Jim
McComb, executive director of the Maryland Association of Resources
for Family and Youth, said it isn't clear that such behavior by staff
at Bowling Brook - a private residential
program for juvenile offenders - would have violated state law.
"We have regulations that prescribe what is doable and not doable
in every private and public school, and
in treatment centers for children with mental and emotional problems.
But we don't have anything comparable for children's residential
programs," McComb said. The death
of Isaiah Simmons, 17, after being restrained by staff at Bowling
Brook has raised questions about state law governing privately run
facilities, the training required of their
staff and the way the state monitors and regulates such programs. The
Carroll County Sheriff's Office is investigating the death.
Staff
Thought Teen Was Faking In Prep School Death:
WJZ/AP) KEYMAR, Md. Staff
at a private residential school for juvenile offenders where a
17-year-old Baltimore youth
lost consciousness and died after being restrained, initially believed
he was pretending to be asleep, according to the school's report to
the Maryland Department of Juvenile
Services. As WJZ's Mike Hellgren reports, Isaiah Simmons was
pronounced dead at Carroll Hospital Center last week after staff at
Bowling Brook Preparatory School,
about 40 miles northwest of Baltimore, placed him in prolonged
physical restraint confrontation with staff. The death is being
investigated by the Carroll County's sheriff's
department amid allegations from some witnesses that staff restrained
Simmons inappropriately. (Webmaster Note: Just one of
hundreds of deaths in this industry. When
will the excuse "we thought he was faking" be revealed for
what it is? A rationalization for murder.)
The REAL School?: Brian was so doped up on something that he could not keep his head up. He slumped over the desktop. The bottom line was that he had taken too
many Valium before coming to the REAL School. "REAL" equals "Regional Educational Alternative Learning" and the building is located in South Windham, ME. That’s
where I tried to teach. The school’s director phoned Brian’s mother at her work. That meant she had to take time off, drive to the school, and somehow get her son to slosh himself into her car for a ride home. Was this the first time she had been called at her work about her son? No. Of course if Brian had been in his clear head, I had no teaching materials by which to see through another day at this alternative learning school. It was alternative learning all right. It was so alternative that it fell off the charts. As teaching staff, we had a shared stapler, some chalk, erasers, no textbooks, no teachers’ manuals, no supportive supplies, a meager stash of lined paper, pencils and pens. There were a few cast off computers that tried to work. No wonder the Superintendent of Schools praised the director for being the most outstanding alternative learning head in the state. That was even printed in the local newspaper. After all, he kept below budget. There was rarely a visit from anyone close to the Superintendent’s office. We basically were left to warehouse these troubled teens on our own. If one of the bureaucrats came into the school, it was a swift in and out. I would see the car drive up to the building, a well-dressed individual disembark, and then climb the stumps for stairs. (The school was a very old brick building buried in a residential neighborhood). Then that educator would click heels down the hallway, disappear into the director’s office, and in short order reappear for exiting. When I was hired at that school, I actually felt that I could make a difference in teen lives. So I gave it my all. It takes some time for naivete to strip away until there is nothing left but bald, needling facts. With that, I trudged on. Because there were no teaching supplies, I went to the shopping mall where homeschoolers bought their materials. I purchased the paperback math, English and spelling texts. Then I duplicated the pages on the school’s copy machine to use as handouts to pupils. That’s how I managed to get through lessons. When I presented the receipt for the purchases to the director’s secretary, she looked up with a scowl to ask if I really needed to spend that much. The amount was less than fifteen dollars. The director was an Australian. He sported quite the charming accent as well as packaged his own brand of vulgarity. Somehow his potty mouth did not seem to turn off the Superintendent’s office. With such charisma, he managed to hoodwink the officialdom, slip far below budget, and thereby hoist the teaching burden sans materials onto frazzled teachers. When I asked him one day how I could teach with nothing to teach with, director responded by saying that that was what made the alternative learning school so marvelously different from other schools. We were left with our own unique creative skills, our sparkly imaginations by which we could manufacture our own curricula. So it was that teachers daily bent their brain cells in attempts to create something from nothing. Most of the time it did not work. That’s why the police cruisers drove up to the school several times a week. When desks flew across rooms, doors were punched through and teachers were told to go to hell, there were occasions when the cops had to be called in. Yet this was the REAL School. There was no other school quite like it. We were the example for other schools to follow. The director reminded us that we were a model showcase. That’s when I drove out to Pineland estates to investigate their Collaborate School, another term for alternative learning. The director took me on a tour. There I noted rooms laden with supplies, teachers smiling as they went about their daily routines, nary a sound from the students, and well-lighted rooms, carpeted floors and a staff kitchen. The student population was composed of the same troubled sorts as those enrolled at the REAL School. We had a kitchen at the REAL School. The problem was that its sink was crudded over with mold. Dirty trays lined the counter tops. Pots and pans were left to clean themselves. Fill in the blanks. After three-plus years on the job, I appealed to the teachers’ union. I was told that my union representative would go to bat for me. In short, she did nothing of the sort. Nothing but stall. I provided her with copious detail as to what was actually going on at the school. She rarely responded to my appeals. Keeping hope alive, I believed that when it came down to the final push, she would be there to hold me up. Not. As finally the message was coming through loudly and clearly that I was standing alone in the middle of a dark warehouse for messed up adolescents, I prepared my voluminous copy for the governor’s desk. Then I mailed it to his office, telling no one.
Pregnant
Girls Attack Group Home Director, Escape:
Three pregnant teens living in a group
home in Utah
whacked the director in the head with a frying pan, tied her up and
fled in a minivan, police said. According to a report by CBS
affiliate KUTV-TV in Salt
Lake City, the girls, two 15-year-olds and a 16-year-old, are from
California, Texas and
Illinois. Police believe they left the state after restraining the
director with power cords Tuesday and tying up another pregnant teen.
The director "was able to break free and
then she went up and untied the 17-year-old female and then they
contacted the police," American
Fork police Sgt. Shauna Greening said. New Hope, a
privately owned
maternity home in Utah
County, is a place for struggling pregnant teens, 30 miles south
of Salt Lake City. Girls attend school in the area and are
taught prenatal care,
child birth, adoption and parenting skills. A call to a phone number
listed for New Hope went unanswered Thursday. But the owner,
Spencer Moody, tearfully told a Salt
Lake City TV station that he would close the rural home. He said about
two dozen girls had given birth after living at New Hope.
(Webmaster Note: Rumor has it that the
directors of New Hope are affiliated with WWASP. WWASP is
notorious for torturing children. No wonder these girls felt
desperate to escape.)
Troubled times at youth facility: The Berkshire Farm residential center for troubled teens is under investigation by the attorney general's office as former staffers and at
least one former resident claim the institution continues to be plagued by sporadic violence and, some say, poor supervision of the residents there. Among the problems:
One youngster's parents went days before they were told he had tried to commit suicide. In another instance, a grandmother didn't learn for months that her grandson had
run away from the facility. "I was worried sick. I thought maybe he was dead," said Elaine Fiske. Located in rural Canaan, Columbia County, Berkshire Farm has long been known as a progressive facility for young men aged 12 to 17 who have been sent there by family courts across the state. The farm includes residential and educational programs. Some of the clients are juvenile delinquents; some suffer emotional disturbances or were chronically truant. Others may come from unstable families. Approximately 150 youngsters live there, although there have been as many as 250. The farm made headlines in 2005 when the board of directors said it had hired a former federal prosecutor, Zachary Carter, to investigate allegations of drug dealing and sexual abuse at the center.
|
Straight to Pathway--Teen drug program has troubled roots: VALPARAISO | Rose Gagen said she was appealing to the court of last resort when she had her daughter arrested on drug charges so she could get court-ordered therapy for the troubled teen. Nine months and a lawsuit later, Gagen said she and her daughter, Nicky Lanpher, now 19, both suffer post-traumatic stress symptoms from their experiences in the Pathway Family Center teen drug treatment program in Indianapolis... "We were horrified to hear Pathway is perpetuating its terror tactics on teens in Valparaiso," Maia Szalavitz said, when she heard about the momentum for a Valparaiso Pathway Family Center. |
Officials step up search for dead teenager's friend: ... Ramsey and her mother appeared on a Dr. Phil show about runaways. It aired Oct. 16. According to the search agency, "The Dr. Phil Show put Kimberlee in their Aspen Achievement Academy for Wilderness Therapy, which apparently didn't work." A news release from the Aspen Education Group's Web site talks about Ramsey's appearance on the nationally syndicated talk show. "As much as you're seen as the rebellious teen who's angry and bucking the system, and bucking controls, the truth is, you're really in a lot of pain," Dr. Phil McGraw said to Ramsey, according to the release Gibson said Ramsey and Vanegas had run away together in the past. She did not know whether there was any criminal connection, and the Galveston County sheriff's deputy in charge of the case couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday. "We're based in Dickinson, so it's on our home turf," Gibson said. "If they have a killer on the loose (volunteers) just want to make sure their kids are accounted for." "Obviously Kimberlee is easy prey. She's a runaway. She doesn't have any money. She doesn't have a car. She doesn't have a cell phone," Gibson said. Ramsey was wearing blue jeans, a blue football jersey and black house shoes. Ramsey has brown hair with blonde highlights. She has green eyes, is 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs about 155 pounds. Anyone with information about the case is urged to call Texas EquuSearch at 281-309-9500. Vanegas will be buried today.
Foster parent pleads guilty to sex assault: Kenneth Charles "Ken!" Puhler, a Durango resident who trained adults who worked with troubled teens and took in at least 130 foster children, has pleaded guilty to sexual assault on a child in a position of trust. Puhler, 50, formerly sheriff of Dolores County, pleaded guilty to one of 10 counts and was sentenced Nov. 1 to 10 years to life in prison, according to court documents. If he is released, he will be placed on parole for 20 years to life. As part of the plea agreement, District Attorney Craig Westberg dropped the other nine counts, which alleged abuse of children younger than 15 as far back as 1993. In return, Puhler stipulated that he sexually abused a 14-year-old boy who was in his care as a foster child in February 2004, and that "there were various times, both previous and subsequent to this event, when the defendant had sexual contact" with the boy.
Teen Accused In Counselor's Death Finishes Testing: SALT LAKE CITY A teen accused in the rape and slaying of a youth counselor has completed his
psychological testing. However, 17-year-old Robert Cameron Houston's lawyer says he needs two more weeks to work out a trial schedule with prosecutors. Houston is
charged
with capital murder in connection with the February killing of
22-year-old Raechale Elton. She worked for an agency that housed and
counseled troubled teens. The teen
also faces rape and aggravated sexual assault. His next court
appearance is set for November 14th.
Teen referred to ex-officer as his girlfriend: The former Elkhorn boot camp officer accused of having a relationship with a teenage cadet had a reputation for being
intimate with cadets at the juvenile facility, the boy told police in reports issued Tuesday. Adriana Rivera pleaded no contest in August to a felony charge of accessory after the fact and a misdemeanor charge of obstructing police. She was sentenced to three years of probation and four months in a work-furlough program.
School operators seek millions in damages: SANDPOINT -- The operators of a boarding school who were accused of pummeling a runaway student are seeking up to
$8 million in damages against Bonner County and the sheriff's office for negligence and wrongful prosecution. The operators of Turning Winds, a school for troubled teens
which used to be located in Cocolalla, filed the tort claim on Oct. 25. The filing of the claim comes about 10 months after misdemeanor child endangerment charges were
dismissed
against John William Baisden Sr., John William Baisden Jr. and Carl
Spencer Baisden. The criminal charges stemmed from a March 17,
2005, incident. Police reports
said the 16-year-old from Walla Walla, Wash., fled school grounds by
forcing his way through a fence. The teen made it to U.S. Highway 95
and began hitchhiking as
school staff canvassed the area. A passing motorist reportedly
agreed to give the teen a lift. Unbeknownst to the teen, though, was
that the motorist was actually John Baisden
Sr., who joined the search for the errant student after learning of
the escape, police reports said. The elder Baisden kept the ruse
up until they stopped at the Westmond
Store, ostensibly for fuel. Baisden's sons then arrived at the filling
station and a struggle erupted. The teen told a sheriff's deputy
he was attacked by the trio, dragged
from the vehicle and held against the pavement while being handcuffed.
The teen alleged he was then dragged by the cuffs to a grassy area
near the convenience store
and beaten.
Parents of child-sex suspect ran youth home: TORONTO -- Michael Stratton knew how to identify with troubled kids -- he'd spent a lot of time around them. The Globe and Mail has learned that the man now facing almost 300 charges in connection with alleged sexual abuse of children spent several months living in a home for troubled children in Richmond Hill. Mr. Stratton, in his early 20s at the time, wasn't there because he was sent by an aid agency or because he was employed there, but because his parents ran the home and he needed a place to stay. Police now fear the 39-year-old may have learned how to build trust with troubled children from his time at the home in the 1980s. His mother and stepfather, who ran the Richmond Hill home for 14 years until 2000, were described by those who knew them as exemplary foster parents to children over the years. And those who met Mr. Stratton during his time at the home had no suspicions he may have been involved in anything criminal.
New claims of abuse at boys camp: GREENVILLE - Three separate state agencies are investigating whether caretakers used banned, excessive and harmful restraints at a camp for delinquent boys, some of whom are mentally retarded or have other special needs. At least one youth might have suffered a broken collarbone at the Greenville Hills Academy in Greenville just last week, according to records obtained by The Miami Herald. One 16-year-old claimed he was ``choked.'' And in another episode, guards also reported using a technique called a wrist lock that was banned two years ago by Anthony Schembri, secretary of the state Department of Juvenile Justice, an agency still reeling from the death of a 14year-old at another Panhandle facility earlier this year.
mandatory
homework class: A
junior high school in Indiana threatens parents with police and child
protective service involvement if they fail to pick up their
child on time after
mandatory Friday classes for missed homework. Outraged parents
forwarded us a letter from the Tell City Junior High School in Indiana
in which they were given a days
notice that their child had to attend a Friday class to catch up on
missed homework. The letter stated in bold that if a parent
didn't arrive at the agreed time to pick up their
child, "arrangements have been made with the Tell City Police
Department to have them housed at the police station." The
letter then states that intervention by the police
will also necessitate involvement of the Perry County Office of Family
and Children.
Supporters rally for teen who killed grandparents: A woman who says Christopher Pittman changed her life held a vigil on the steps of the South Carolina Supreme
Court on Wednesday night, the eve of the teen’s appeal of his murder conviction for killing his grandparents when he was 12 years old. “We’re going to show support to
Chris, and his family and the attorneys,” said Janet Sisk, director of the North Carolina-based Juvenile Justice Foundation. “It’s kinda like it’s coming full circle.” Pittman
was convicted last year of murder in the 2001 shooting deaths of his grandparents in their Chester County home and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Defense attorneys
argued that Pittman, who was 12 at the time of the slayings, was involuntarily intoxicated by the antidepressant Zoloft and did not know right from wrong.
State Supreme Court says no right of jury trial for juveniles: The Tennessee Supreme Court has overturned a 36-year-old ruling by a state appellate court that said
juveniles
can appeal their convictions to an adult court system and have the
case decided by a jury. The appellate court first issued
the ruling in 1970. A year later, however, the
U.S. Supreme Court opined that the U.S. Constitution did not guarantee
a jury trial for appealing juveniles. Despite that decision,
Tennessee's courts continued to uphold a
juvenile's right to a jury trial.
Finding The "Straight Edge" In Fiji: The $14 million psychological thriller "Straight Edge" starts shooting October 2nd in Fiji with Peter Stormare, Mila Kunis and Gregory Smith headlining reports Variety. Story's about a group of troubled teens sent to a rehabilitation program housed in a remote camp on the island of Fiji. What their parents believe is a state-of-the-art deluxe institution in a beautiful natural environment turns out to be a prison-like boot camp where they are abused and brainwashed.
(Webmaster Note: Art imitates life.)
Report: Girls Are Abused in Jail: A new report says girls at New York's two detention facilities for juvenile females are sexually and physically abused by staff members. They are also denied mental health, educational and other rehabilitative services. Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union released the report. The inmates, ages 13 to 17, are in for offenses ranging from shoplifting to assault.
Teens
Killed By Train Identified As Azleway Runaways:
Officials confirm
two teens, killed by a train in Hawkins, were runaways from Azleway
Boys' Ranch, a facility for
troubled boys in Chapel Hill. Officials say they were
Harry Rutledge, 15, of Bestrop and Chris Hill, 17, of
Dallas. Officials say the teens had been living at Azleway
for the
past few weeks, but ran away last Saturday, hiding out behind Hawkins
High School in a pine thicket.
Governor
planning a frugal campaign:
Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr...Since the last disclosure deadline, the special
projects fund reported raising $40,000 from Utah's dietary supplement
industry, $10,000 from Robert Lichfield, founder of a controversial
chain of schools for troubled teens, and $25,000 each from Ian
Cumming's Leucadia National Corporation and venture capitalist James
Swartz. Huntsman used the money to cover much
of his out-of-state travel, the cost of holiday receptions at the
Governor's Mansion,
a state dinner for outgoing Mexican President Vicente Fox and for
china plates and coasters emblazoned with the Utah State seal for
Asian ambassadors. After paying
more than $8,000 in accounting fees, another $6,100 for a business
summit at the Davis Convention Center and $15,300 to Huntsman for
Governor, the special initiatives
fund has $101,000 in cash on hand.