MAJESTIC RANCH NOT FORGOTTEN

[Anonymous]

Someone in another post said they wondered if Majestic Ranch has been forgotten. I don't think so. Let's not let it be forgotten.

Maybe former staff and current staff should come forward like the others.

From what I read on the report that was done and in the affidavits, there are still staff who did not have their voices heard.

Maybe if they came forward now they could start the investigation up again. If I remember right, the people at Emancipation Project said they talked to someone in the governor's office who said the governor will not take Lichfield's money. I wonder if more people would tell their story then maybe those people could go back and talk to the governor's office.

ALso, I heard that the governor's office said they will not talk any more money from Lichfield.

And the new bill was signed by the governor so these places will have to be licensed.

Everyone needs to do their part. If there are any parents or kids who want to tell their story I think it could help too.

The websites are emancipationproject.org and kidsincaptivity.com.

Let's remember there are kids as young as seven years old in there.

[RN on Board]

You should look into who Jon Huntsman is - that may give you an idea as to why he doesn't need Lichfield's money..........

More must be done and maybe we can change this one step at a time.  We need to insist that these kids have some contact with the outside world - they need to have pay phones available in all facilities for student use. Toll free numbers to report abusive conditions must be posted near the phone. Another thing that could help is to allow visitation one hour per day.  To keep these programs closed only contributes to the abusive conditions. Immagine having your child or loved one in a hospital and having the staff tell you that you can't visit or call at all.  This is essentially what's happening to these program kids. Research has shown that parental involvement is essential to the emotional well-being of hospitalized children -the same could be said for those in programs.

[Anonymous]

Amen!! I totally agree with you.

A pay phone available for the kids, that they are actually allowed to use, would be a great start!!

And you are right again about visitation. Wouldn't it be great to have "visiting hours" just like you do when someone is in a hospital? Why not? Sounds like a wonderful plan to me. Can you imagine the thousands of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and more who would be thrilled to travel to see their loved one - even if it was for only an hour. And none of this secretive stuff where families are kept in the dark about where their loved ones are. I could go on all day.

Maybe we can make a realistic "wish list" of things we would like to see changed in these programs to keep kids safer. There are going to be programs, we are never going to stop that so we might as well give that up.

What we can do is push and push and push until they listen and until things change. Another thing we can do is to educate the public of what goes on behind closed doors and get others involved in insisting on these changes.

So please do share - I like your ideas already  - the phone, the visition - you're on a roll!!! I am so glad to see a post on here that is productive! Way too much negativity lately. I just about gave up.

[Anonymous]

For those of you looking for the report that was done last February on Majestic Ranch exposing abusive practices there, it is no longer available at http://www.kidsincaptivity.com. Sadly someone shut this informational website down and it's owner has not been able to get it up and running again.

But, luckily Isabelle Zehnder's report is still available on http://www.caica.org (the Coalition Against Institutionalized Child Abuse.)

You can find it under CAICA reports. Sorry for any inconvenience this has caused.

[Anonymous]

FYI the http://www.kidsincaptivity.com website, including the Majestic Ranch report, is up and running again. Sorry for any inconvenience this might have caused.