Police: Boot camp girl dragged with van

[Peterk45]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070812/ap_on_re_us/girl_dragged

BANQUETE, Texas - Authorities charged the director of a Christian boot camp and an employee with dragging a 15-year-old girl behind a van after she fell behind the group during a morning run

Didn't see this posted so figured to do it. What is it with religious "boot camps" and this sort of thing recently? WWASP, this.. Has it just been going on for longer and nobody really cared?

 

[hypnotism]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070812/ap_on_re_us/girl_dragged

BANQUETE, Texas - Authorities charged the director of a Christian boot camp and an employee with dragging a 15-year-old girl behind a van after she fell behind the group during a morning run

Didn't see this posted so figured to do it. What is it with religious "boot camps" and this sort of thing recently? WWASP, this.. Has it just been going on for longer and nobody really cared?

Jail and a fine are too good for them. Let the punishment fit the crime. Lets tie them up to a police van and drag them.

 

[platzapS]

These camps are despicable, constant physical and emotional abuse.

Variety Magazine article

International Survivors' Action Committee

Randall Hinton, a former long-time staff member, has reportedly admitted to using pepper spray on students and spraying it in their eyes from a distance of about 2 feet.
At least one student was reportedly hog-tied when he was sprayed by Hinton.
Hinton also admitted to diapering a teenager with a plastic garbage bag after the child had been pepper-sprayed.
Hinton has stated that he had the approval of Director Jay Kay.
Randall Hinton is currently an administrator of Royal Peak Academy in Colorado. Royal Peak appears to be affiliated with WWASP.
ISAC has received statements alleging that Jay Kay has personally pepper-sprayed, restrained and beaten students.

A report from the Coalition Against Institutionalized Child Abuse says lawsuits against these camps accuse that the teens were:

• Forced to eat their own vomit

• Kicked, beaten, thrown, and slammed to the ground

• Bound and tied by their hands/and or feet

• Chained and locked in dog cages

• Forced to stay in isolation for long periods of times

• Locked in small boxes or cages

• Locked in basements

• Forced to lie in or wear urine and feces as a method of punishment

• Forced to clean and scrub toilets and floors with their toothbrush and then use the toothbrush afterwards

• Forced to sleep on cold concrete floors, box springs, or plywood used as beds – some had no bed linens

• Forced to assume distorted and painful physical positions for long periods of time

• Forced to live in unsanitary living conditions

• Denied adequate food

• Denied even a minimally sufficient education

• Denied proper medical and dental treatment and care

• Exposed to extreme hot and cold temperatures for long periods of time

• Forced to exercise beyond their physical capacity

• Forced to carry heavy bags of sand or logs around their neck throughout the day over many days

• Sexually abused, including sexual relations and acts of fondling and masturbation performed on them

• Emotional abuse by subjecting children to near total parental and societal isolation; personal visits, correspondence, and telephone calls were either forbidden or discouraged

• Because of near-total isolation, these children were totally unequipped to enter outside society

• Forced to work many hours a day violating child labor laws

• Confiscated and/or kept students’ US mail

• Deprived from using the toilet, and as a result, urinated or defecated on themselves

• Verbally abused by lying that their parents knew what was happening to them and were supportive of it all

• Subjected to buddy system where older students were allowed to physically, mentally, and sexually abuse younger students and manage them as part of “cleansing” process

• Deprived of sleep

• Forced to wear the same, unwashed clothes for weeks at a time

• In most cases. denied religious affiliation

• Forced to eat raw or rotten food

• Poked and prodded with various objects while being strip-searched

• Forced to write false confession letters to parents to justify being sent to the WWASPS schools

• Threatened severe punishment, including death, if they told anyone about the abuse or poor living conditions --

And this is also interesting:

A lawsuit filed in 2007 against WWASPS and its founder, Robert Lichfield, on behalf of 133 plaintiffs alleging physical and sexual abuse and fraudulent concealment of abuse has brought negative publicity to Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, because Lichfield is one of six co-chairs of the Utah state fundraising committee for Romney's campaign

Edit: There's a comprehensive article on these WWASPS at Alternet, which I didn't originally include because I don't know the veracity of the site. Regardless, it's an interesting read. Take it for what you will.

 

[Duffy70]

That's disgusting. Does anyone know what prompts parents to send their kids away to these camps? Presumably, they don't know about the abuse that occurs there, but surely they must have some kind of motivation to send their children away in the first place...

 

[platzapS]

That's disgusting. Does anyone know what prompts parents to send their kids away to these camps? Presumably, they don't know about the abuse that occurs there, but surely they must have some kind of motivation to send their children away in the first place...

Good question. These programs are for "troubled teens", often teens with criminal records, poor school performance, and drug use (but not always). The parents think there is no alternative, so they send their kids to these places. According to the Alternet article, here are the marketing tactics:

While a promotional website claims that "more than 80 percent of the graduates of these programs go on to attend some of the best universities and professional schools in the country," Kay didn't respond to a request for an example of a student at an Ivy League or other top school
...
So how are mom and dad talked into keeping their kids at a foreign detention center? The pamphlets for one Teen Help-affiliated school show kids playing basketball and wandering amid natural wonders, rediscovering lost innocence. As long as parents ignore the small letters warning, "Not all Photos [sic] taken at the facility," they can tell themselves they are buying a snooty private education.

And they are told it's this or death on the streets. "If your child needed a kidney transplant to save their life, you would come up with the money," Kay said. "If the value of your child's life isn't worth the cost of a new car " And they're warned not to believe teens who may spin tall tales of abuse. After a high school basketball player named Paul Richards was sent to Paradise Cove in Samoa, Szalavitz recounts in her book, his parents received a newsletter, "WHUTZ UP in Paradise Cove," offering a lesson in how to avoid being "manipulated" by letters from the front.

The lesson presents a sample letter reading, in part: "It is not the camp you promised ... The [program staff] are mean and beat me when I do something they don't like."

 

[fieldy]

Wow, that's crazy. I really don't know how the people thought it was ok to drag someone because she couldn't run enough.

 

[jsu5381m]

I think instead, they should send troubled kids to prison for a day to see what it's like and maybe they will think twice.

 

[JGL53]

I think instead, they should send troubled kids to prison for a day to see what it's like and maybe they will think twice.

Good idea. And keep them the Hades away from "Christian boot camps".

 

[Lynden1000]

There have been several fatalities resulting from abuse at teen boot camps (and, to be fair to Christians, most of the camps I've heard about in the news have not had any type of religious affiliation)

A few pocketbook-depleting, bankruptcy-inducing lawsuits should hopefully motivate the remaining boot camps to reevaluate their staff hiring procedures.

 

[.Sabre.]

Power corrupts.....and this is just one of the ways it comes out. It's disgusting.

 

[TheReasoner]

These camps are despicable, constant physical and emotional abuse.

Variety Magazine article

International Survivors' Action Committee


A report from the Coalition Against Institutionalized Child Abuse says lawsuits against these camps accuse that the teens were:
And this is also interesting:


Edit: There's a comprehensive article on these WWASPS at Alternet, which I didn't originally include because I don't know the veracity of the site. Regardless, it's an interesting read. Take it for what you will.

These camps are supposedly christian
????

How.... How on earth can anyone call this [wash my mouth][wash my mouth][wash my mouth][wash my mouth] Christian?

 

[Peterk45]

These camps are supposedly christian
????

How.... How on earth can anyone call this [wash my mouth][wash my mouth][wash my mouth][wash my mouth] Christian?

Actually the guy who runs Tranquility Bay is the main financial contributor for Romney's presidential campaign and has gotten his endorsement for doing a good job helping those teens earlier. I guess they're Christian by association, even if it not in spirit

 

[Vylo]

Wow. Pretty disgusting behavior here. This isn't isolated to Christian boot camps, but I wager a lot of the places use Christianity in their promotions to get parents to send kids here.

You think they are being taught Christian values, when really they are getting tortured.

 

[hypnotism]

Actually the guy who runs Tranquility Bay is the main financial contributor for Romney's presidential campaign and has gotten his endorsement for doing a good job helping those teens earlier. I guess they're Christian by association, even if it not in spirit

I am an Ewards fan, but I can't honestly hold Romney responsible for the actions of one of his suporters.

 

[Peterk45]

I am an Ewards fan, but I can't honestly hold Romney responsible for the actions of one of his suporters.

I wouldn't really either, but after leanring how Romney knew as part of congregation when he was bishop and declining to comment his actions when what was known was made public (There is a 1998 police report flowing around of the owner of Tranqulity Bay spreading mormon teachings through "boot camps" like that, so it was well known beforehands as well) and continuing to accept the money flow... That's different wouldn't you say? Though I am by no means Edwads fan