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REPORTING GUIDE FOR VICTIMS, SURVIVORS, AND WHISTLEBLOWERS:
In Arizona, the criminal statutes of limitation are 1 year
on misdemeanors, 7 years on most felonies, and no statute of
limitations on more serious felonies including rape and murder.
For civil suits in Arizona, the statute of limitations is 2
years. In Washington State, the criminal statutes of
limitation are 1 year on misdemeanors, 2 years on gross
misdemeanors, 3 years on most felonies, and no statute of
limitations on felonies including rape of a minor under age 16
and murder. The statute of limitations to file a personal
injury suit in Washington State is 3 years. Here are your options:
1. Report
crimes such as fraud, assault, battery, labor trafficking, and
child abuse to law enforcement in Arizona and/or Washington
State. You can call the Gilbert, AZ Police at (480)
503-6500 or e-mail Police Chief Michael Soelberg at
Michael.Soelberg@GilbertAZ.gov OR call the Kent, WA Police
at
(253) 856-5800 to inquire about filing an official
complaint which may provide the probable cause needed to get a
warrant for investigation and/or prosecution.
2.
File a consumer complaint with your home state's attorney
general against John Volken Academy and include your
request for compensation for any harm done to you. You can
find the easy online forms for filing such a complaint (which
may result in an investigation, prosecution, and/or civil
resolution on your case) under your home state's (state where
you currently reside) header at
https://www.heal-online.org/report.htm . If your home
state is Arizona or you'd like to file with the Arizona State
Attorney General as a non-resident, here is that link:
https://www.azag.gov/complaints/consumer If your home
state is Washington State or you'd like to file with the
Washington State Attorney General as a non-resident, here is
that link:
https://www.atg.wa.gov/file-complaint
3.
If you do not wish to file a consumer complaint, you can contact
a private personal injury attorney and look into suing in
tort/civil court. However, if you can't afford the
retainer, you should expect to settle out of court with a
non-disclosure agreement which may bar you from speaking
publicly about the incident because you've agreed (even if with
a grumbling assent) to the terms of the settlement. You
can find legal resources at
https://www.heal-online.org/legal.htm and legal causes
of action related to institutionalized abuse claims at
https://www.heal-online.org/legalarguments.htm .
4.
You may post a statement about your experience at your program
on our unmoderated message board at
http://pub40.bravenet.com/forum/show.php?usernum=3407841501&cpv=2
OR send a new e-mail to rev@cope.church with subject "Post My
Feedback" and we will post your feedback (e-mail printed to .pdf
disclosing your name and e-mail address and any information in
your e-mail with that subject) to
https://www.cope.church/feedback.htm and add a direct
link to those .pdf files to this page .
5. You
may also wish to provide a guest sermon. Guest sermons are
posted at
https://www.cope.church/sermons.htm , under Progress
Reports/Guest Sermons at
https://www.heal-online.org where appropriate, and on
program info pages when applicable. So, one provided by
you on your program would also be placed on this page .
Guest sermons should be written into the body of an e-mail and
sent to rev@cope.church . Your first and last name will be
disclosed (contact info will not be unless you expressly ask for
that). For sermons available on our site see
https://www.cope.church/sermons.htm (and sermon
archives linked on that page). If you have questions about
this option, please contact rev@cope.church. Please see
https://www.cope.church/givetoday.pdf to get an idea
what your sermon may be worth.
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THE TRUTH:
All segregated congregate care providers, including those
on our watch-list, are welcome to contact us to correct any information or
provide additional data that may assist with delivering the whole truth to the
public. We've found in many cases where this offer has been abused or
resulted in revealing additional basis for our concerns. For some examples
see:
http://www.heal-online.org/tcfl.htm,
http://www.heal-online.org/bolthouse.htm and
http://www.heal-online.org/abundant2.htm. Now, we are willing to
look at the facts and may have questions or require documentation backing up
any claims. We do verify licensing, academic backgrounds, and other
qualifications when investigating and researching programs on our watch-list
to assist consumers seeking additional information on such programs or victims
requiring assistance with getting corroborating evidence of their claims.
We do that in order to make sure the information we provide is accurate and
verified and cite our sources. In the event any information we've posted
is in error, we're happy to make a correction. And, for information on
how such requests are handled and have been resolved historically, see:
http://www.heal-online.org/requests.htm.
HEAL does not
support segregated congregate care for many reasons which include that many
such facilities are abusive, exploitative, fraudulent, and lack effective
oversight often as a result of fraudulent misrepresentation coupled with the
ignorance of those seeking to enroll loved ones in such facilities, programs,
schools, or centers without a valid court order and involuntarily. In
the United States such involuntary placements done without a court order are
apparently illegal as they either violate the Americans with Disabilities Act
community integration requirement or due process rights of those involuntarily
placed. Now, in regards to parents, in the United States parents have
the right to waive their own rights, but, not the rights of their minor
children. See
http://www.heal-online.org/legalarguments.htm for more information.
Now, most facilities on our watch list include waivers, indemnity clauses, and
sworn statements parents must sign assuring the program that the parents have
the right to make the placement involuntarily and without due process in a
segregated congregate care environment, however, California and federal
prosecutors as well as settled law appears to suggest that is not the case.
In fact, in the David Taylor case found at
http://www.heal-online.org/provocases.htm, Taylor sued Provo Canyon School
and his mother as co-defendants. His mother was found liable for 75% of
the damages awarded to Taylor as a result of multiple complaints including
false imprisonment, while the program was found only 25% liable because the
mother owed a duty of due diligence to investigate anyone to which she would
entrust care of her child and she failed to do so.
Now, HEAL
opposes segregated congregate care and we find most placements are happening
illegally in the USA which if the youth understood their rights would result
in unfortunate outcomes for the parents, particularly when they don't exercise
good judgment and support the fraud and abuse rather than their own children
when they need remedy and justice. And, HEAL supports all victims of
fraud and abuse in seeking remedies at law for any crimes or torts committed
against them. And, that's true whether or not the program or victims are
in the USA.
HEAL has a 5 point argument against segregated
congregate care we'd like you to consider:
a. Segregated care is
unconstitutional and a civil rights violation. It is only permissible if
a person is unable to survive independent of an institutional environment.
For more on this, watch the HEAL Report at
https://youtu.be/C4NzhZc4P0A.
Or, see:
http://www.ada.gov/olmstead/ which includes in part:
"United States v. Florida – 1:12-cv-60460 – (S.D. Fla.) – On April 7, 2016,
the United States filed an Opposition to the State of Florida’s Motion for
Partial Summary Judgment. In the Motion, the State had asked the Court
to rule, on a variety of grounds, that the United States could not recover
damages for unnecessarily institutionalized children to whom the State had
been deliberately indifferent."
b. Institutionalization is
always dehumanizing and coercive. Institutionalization always harms the
institutionalized and deprives them of protected civil rights. Dr. David
Straker, Psychiatry Professor at Columbia University's School of Medicine (Ivy
League) explains this in detail at
http://changingminds.org/disciplines/sociology/articles/institutionalization.htm.
"Many institutions, from prisons to monasteries to asylums, deliberately want
to control and manage their inmates such that they conform and do not cause
problems. Even in less harsh environments, many of the institutionalization
methods may be found, albeit in more moderated form (although the
psychological effect can be equally devastating)." (See website linked
in this paragraph for more info.)
c. Institutionalization is not
in the best interest of children. Institutions are not ever better for a
child than living with a loving family. Source:
http://www.unicef.org/cambodia/12681_23295.html
d. Reform schools, residential treatment programs, and other
segregated congregate care settings have been shown to be ineffective and
harmful. Best source on this currently is:
https://www.acgov.org/probation/documents/EndoftheReformSchoolbyVinny.doc
e. Boarding Schools, even the "good ones", result in a form of social
death, isolation, and cause both anxiety and depression. Therefore, it
is clearly not in the best interest of the youth subjected to those
environments. Sources:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jun/08/boarding-school-syndrome-joy-schaverien-review
and
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/secondaryeducation/11662001/The-truth-about-boarding-school-syndrome.html
Beyond the above arguments against segregated congregate care, we have
reports from the NIH, Surgeon General, Yale University Studies, and much more
showing the methodologies of behavior modification are damaging, harmful, and
ineffective. You can request these documents via
e-mail. In addition, for such programs offering academic services or
claiming to offer diplomas, certifications, or the like, it is important to
check to see if it is a diploma mill with no accredited academic services.
Please see article: "Avoiding
Scams: What You Need To Know" for important information on how to
avoid education/training scams.
If you'd like to see what HEAL
suggests rather than segregated congregate care (i.e. committing a crime or
tort against your child if done against their will without a court order),
please see articles: "Fix
Your Family, Help Your Teen" and "Emancipation
Guide".
If you have a complaint
against any facility, please file a complaint with the appropriate law
enforcement agency or your home state's attorney general. For reporting
resources see:
http://www.heal-online.org/report.htm. (Reporting guide is for USA
only at this time.)
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