ANOTHER WWASPS FATALITY?

[cherish wisdom]

Indeed - we are mourning the loss of another casualty of the teen-help industry. A young girl who was obviously mentally ill - a young girl who was  more than likely further traumatized by the torture of WWASP refers to as "observation."  Observation is more like isolation and solitary confinement. Something that is truly counterindicated for a child suffering from depression with suicidal ideation.  On top of this the girl was probably suffering from feelings of abandoment - since parents sent her to a facility with a horendous reputation for every type of abuse - including sexual.  It was a bad choice and the wrong therapy. And there will not be another chance with this child.  

When I started as a federal narcotics agent, the budget that we were working with, it was less than $5 million a year, and there was only 125 agents for the entire world to work the narcotic trade that we were fighting in those days.  Times have changed.  The gluttony has grown.
--Nick Navarro, former Broward, FL Sherrif

[BuzzKill]

Ya know Cherish, its really much worse than simple isolation. There is the ever present aspect of the forced "stress position" and silence an hunger and lack of rest room breaks - it amounts to "soft" torture; and if the kid is not willing or able to maintain the Stress position or silence then they get a dose of more concrete torture.  
This is emotionally traumatizing for even mentally healthy kids. Imagine how awful it would be for a boy or girl who is mentally ill??
Horrible.
I believe with all my heart wwasp is liable for this girls death.

[Honda Rider]

Cherish, what?s your point?  Maybe you?ve fallen down BuzzKill?s deluded slippery-slope.  You would?ve been much better served saying ?Indeed ? we are mourning the loss.?  and just left it at that.  It?s terribly, terribly sad that this happened.  My thoughts and prayers are with the parents and SLCA family members of this teen.

The facts are, one out of every twelve young adults (ages 15 to 24) attempt suicide.  Teen suicide is the third, or fourth depending on the year, leading cause of death over the last five years.  Should that be blamed on the Teen Help Industry as well?  You guys should be ashamed assigning blame without facts.  These pointless, baseless comments reflect who you really are.

[Antigen]

On 2004-10-15 13:01:00, Honda Rider wrote:

All the home contract does is eliminate ambiguity and makes kids AND parents accountable.

Really? Cause I've heard repeatedly of "exit" plans that include either disowning the kid--complete w/ chaning the locks on the family home--and/or return to the Program. The way you describe it it sounds just so sweet and sensible. But it doesn't always work out that way.

Here's how it works out sometimes.

Lost Boy
Painful journey through childhood ends with tragedy in Texas


EL PASO, Tex. ? It was nothing new for Corey Murphy and his mother Laura to argue. And it was nothing new for Laura to gain the upper hand.

But this time, the quiet 17-year-old boy was about to end the arguing forever.

Early in the afternoon of March 21, he strode into the family kitchen, grabbed a black .38-caliber handgun from the top of the refrigerator and bolted for his room.

A shot rang out.

At 1:01 p.m., El Paso fire department pumper 22 and paramedic van 11A got the call: "Suicide in progress."

Laura Murphy burst into her son's room.

He had fired a bullet into the wall. Now, he stood by a love seat in the back of his room, gun in hand.

Read on: http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/des ... esp1.shtml

What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying that
they don't like something to saying that the government should forbid it. When you go down that road, don't expect freedom to survive very long.
--Thomas Sowell

[Honda Rider]

Antigen, I have other things to do today so the exit plans discussion will have to wait until another time.  Exit plans and home contracts are two separate things.  Thanks for the compliment on my explanation of the home contract.  You?re very intuitive.  It is a sensible approach.  Although, I think the sweet part might be over the top.

I think your Sowell quote supports my point perfectly.  Just because you and others around you don?t like WWASP?s approach the Policy Makers shouldn?t be called upon to forbid it.  Wouldn?t that infringe on my freedom to choose what I and others believe is the right course of action.  Again, great quote.

[Antigen]

On 2004-10-16 09:04:00, Honda Rider wrote:

Just because you and others around you don?t like WWASP?s approach the Policy Makers shouldn?t be called upon to forbid it.  Wouldn?t that infringe on my freedom to choose what I and others believe is the right course of action.  Again, great quote.

"

Oh, you're mistaken about my position on new policy. I don't advocate for new regulations, new regulators, etc. I just want current law enforced. It's already illegal to torture anyone, including your own kid, even if you hire someone to do it for you. This has nothing to do w/ my or anyone else's preferences, it's the law.

What's more, I believe that, for the most part, people abide by the law because they agree w/ it. It's very clear if you look at the difference between laws that people routinely break and those that most people obey. You use your headlights and turn signals because you know that, if you don't, you're likely to wreck and hurt yourself and/or others. But waiters underrepot tips to save on taxes and around half or more of the population has, at some point, smoked a joint or a blunt or a bong.

Right now, it's considered normal and right to abuse young people who can't or won't conform to the latest arbitrary laws and regulations. That's what I'm trying to change.

Of course you "dont' have time" to discuss this. So, for those interested, here's the section on Exit Plans.

The 'exit plan'




Now came the "exit plan," Teen Help's final step for a child who has "graduated."

Until a teen reaches the age of majority ? 17 in Texas ? the procedure for handling "non-working behavior" of a graduate is to do what Laura did with Corey: send him back to Teen Help.

But after the age of majority, a more severe remedy is recommended.

Teen Help encourages parents of children who remain defiant to have little personal contact with them and to offer them almost no financial support for a set period of time.

It suggests that parents keep health insurance on the teen for six months and give their child $30 and three nights' lodging in a motel. Otherwise, teens are on their own.

The "exit plan" spells out the rules of banishment and the conditions, if any, for the child's return to the family.

The only way of re-entering the home is for the adolescent to agree to abide by the parents' rules.

David Gilcrease, who designed Teen Help's behavior modification seminars, hit upon the exit plan after he noticed that some kids in the program were merely going through the motions, trying to hold out until they reached adult age, when the program no longer could legally confine them.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DESPERATE MEASURES


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Series
Epilogue:

Lost Boy
From Sterling to Samoa
A mother's concern
An international network
The state intervenes
An Internet support group
Stuck in Samoa
On to Montana
The 'exit plan'
Over the edge
Epilogue
Share your thoughts



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 
"We do the exit plans because the exit plans work," says Teen Help's Kay. "We know it works. It works for thousands of families.

" ... If you have a set of rules in your home, and if that kid, if they are not living by the rules and if their behavior is really threatening to themselves and to others, you have to take drastic measures.

"Sometimes the only thing that you can do is tell them that if you are going to continue this behavior, that's up to you. You're a big boy or a big girl now. But you can't live in this home while you do it."

In the months before his death, Laura and Corey often talked about the "exit plan," Laura told the News.

Back from Spring Creek Lodge last summer, Corey still had a way to go in Laura's eyes.

Last October, a month before his 17th birthday, Laura was contemplating kicking Corey out of the house.

She told fellow Teen Help parents that Corey was "wavering ... His ability to walk the straight and narrow is still in question for me. He's walking close to the edge. If he ever makes the decision to jump over, he's gone from my house and he'll have to take what the world gives him with no help from me."

In another post, Laura wrote: "I've made it really clear to my son that if the law gets involved and he's back on the dope, I won't even bail him out ? he'll take the fall. The good thing is that he KNOWS I mean it."

When Corey turned 17 Nov. 23, Laura wrote:

"It's been a LONG haul through his teens (of course, they aren't over yet), but today is the day that I am able to insist that the STATE make Corey take his own responsibility," she wrote. "Today is the day whereby, in the great state of Texas, a teen is considered old enough to be accountable and no longer drags parents into 'juvenile' concerns.

" ... I take my son to dinner tonight to celebrate his 'majority.' And to celebrate my freedom to be involved ? or not ? as my parental judgment tells me is appropriate when my kids ask me to do something ... like help them out of a jam of their own making. Yaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!"

Necessity is the excuse for every infringement of human freedom.  It is the argument of the tyrant and the creed of the slave.  
-- William Pitt, 1763

_________________
Ginger Warbis ~ Antigen
Seed sibling `71 - `80
Straight South (Sarasota, FL)
   10/80 - 10/82
Anonymity Anonymous
Some days, it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps.

[Deborah]

***The facts are, one out of every twelve young adults (ages 15 to 24) attempt suicide.

Can you provide a reputable link to the stats you presented?

***Teen suicide is the third, or fourth depending on the year, leading cause of death over the last five years. Should that be blamed on the Teen Help Industry as well? You guys should be ashamed assigning blame without facts. These pointless, baseless comments reflect who you really are.***

Here are the facts:
2001 Suicides for 15-24 yr olds
3,971  2,130 or 53% from firearms

Suicides for 13-18
1,327  48% firearm   40% suffocation

Given that half of suicides in both age groups are from firearms, you think some blame might be placed on parents who leave firearms accessible to their children? In Corey's case the firearm was kept on the refrigerator. Good lord, an open invitation. Perhaps his mother should be serving time for ignorance.

The second leading cause is suffocation. With the promise of high security 24/7/365, which is a big selling point for the industry, "We can watch your kid around the clock, you can't". Yeh, there should be safeguards in place for kids who are extremely distressed and accountability on the part of the program. And I don't mean, being isolated in a small cold room.
And by all means, no kid, especially a highly distressed kid should be subjected to the 'treatment' provided in these programs. Humiliation, unrealistic expectations, unrealistic consequences, austere punishments are not what is called for when someone is distressed, and certainly not for one who is hopeless.

If these programs can not restore hope in severely distressed kids, they should not accept them.

Another ongoing argument is the 'one size fits all' approach does not work.

[ehm]

On 2004-10-16 09:04:00, Honda Rider wrote:<

I think your Sowell quote supports my point perfectly.  Just because you and others around you don?t like WWASP?s approach the Policy Makers shouldn?t be called upon to forbid it.  Wouldn?t that infringe on my freedom to choose what I and others believe is the right course of action.  Again, great quote."

You mean like destructive control and abandonment? You really think that parents turning their backs on their children to control their behavior by giving them that "choice," is freedom? You have a warped perception of unconditional love, HR. Meanwhile, your way of thinking is ruining lives, and has been for several decades, and will always be the worst "course of action."

That quote in no way relates to what you're talking about. However, I understand that sick-minded individuals, who make excuses for what is commonly known as abuse and neglect, have a way of twisting anything into their way of thinking. You may be fooling some, but you?re not fooling all.

It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life, that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

[Anonymous]

:wave: Hey, Brown---
There's a lot of genuine love out here for you. Judging from your posts, I guess some of our (SCL's) "cult" terms would include courage, integrity, and honor. Thanks for the staff acknowledgement. Blessings . . .

[nite owl]

It looks like SCL is doing some damage control here. I don't buy it.  I've read too many horror stories - and the fact that Ken Kay admitted to keeping a girl "on her face" for 18 months in an observation room is enough for me.  WWASP programs use abusive tactics. They must not admit children with diagnosed mental illnesses such as depression. Obviously this child was depressed. Keeping her in "observation" was enough to push her way over the edge.  Depressed people DO NOT NEED WWASP's version of tough love. They need compassion, love and understanding.  
Parents who place their children in these hell holes like SCL have problems.  Many of the children are survivors of divorse.  The parents just don't want to deal with the repercussions of their decisions to fracture the family. Or they are just too busy to give the child any time.  
Research has shown that over 60% of children who abuse substances have parents who abuse substances.  Parents who use these programs need to take a good look at themselves.  Harming their children in one of the WWASP programs will only cause more harm to their children.....

You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.
--Albert Einstein

[Anonymous]

If parents were given the TRUTH of the program's techniques than they could make an informed choice.

In my experience the program is presented in an entirely diffierent light than what was relly taking place  so I found out much later.

For example: quality education,not to be true,

No restraints take place not, to be true.

Medical care ,not to be true.......

Deceit and fraud is perpetrated upon parents.

[nite owl]

A thourough Inter-net search should be completed prior to enrolling a child in any school. Any program that limits the parent/child relationship should be suspect.  This is the biggest red-flag.
These programs could change if parents made the following demands
1. Complete access to their children
2. daily visiting hours (even if it's only one hour)
3. Unmonitored phone calls and an available pay phone for student use.
4. Use of the Inter-net for one hour per day
5. Frequent inspections by CPS
6. Video Survailance of halls, observation rooms for protection of students.  (Pediatric Units have them now) This would not only protect students it could protect staff from false accusations....

"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."
"Isn't your pants' zipper supposed to be in the front?"
--Hobbs to Calvin

[BuzzKill]

I think the suggestions nite owl has made are reasonable and would go a long way to stopping the abuse. I am not so sure about the internet use, but some use of the net - the ability to email family without supervision or editing would be a important improvement.

I don't so much trust state inspection - as these people are low paid, and prone to corruption as a result. It might only give an abusive program one more defense against the charges of abuse if they have paid off social workers claiming all is well. But, still, then there would be someone to hold accountable with the state; and that might be helpful.

As for doing an internet search. . .
This might be more helpful now than in days past; but not so long ago all I could bring up was positive sites - Lots of positive sites. I, in my ignorance, completely misunderstood what this meant. (Wow, these guys must be great; look at all the sites that refer to them!) What a fool. I know. Now, I know. But then? Had no clue.

And the anon poster suggesting parents would never go into this if they were told upfront what the real circumstances are is absolutely correct. It is as far as I am concerned a gross fraud perpetrated upon the parents. And then the cultic mind control sets in. Diabolically clever.

[Youllsee]

My 1st post.  Yes, blame it on WWASP.  You, my poor child are 100% (remember that term?) under the influence of mind control.  Just type in mind control in your web browser and READ!!  Just like i have been doing for 7 months.  I know of a child at Cross Creek in Utah.  Still at level 2, after 11 months!!  She is trying to "work the program".  I honestly feel she does not want to get up in levels as not to take on the new girls coming in daily at that place.  Amazing how she goes up and then comes down.  She will be turning 18 soon and they recently put her in Group B, with all the rest of the "soon to be 18 year olders".  Kind of makes you wonder what are they doing to those girls in Group B?  Mabey a little reflection, listening to Tony Robbins day in and day out, or going to more Discoveries?  We know what they are doing.  More mind control.  And you, you poor child, can't see it.  You cannot see one foot in front of you.  It's not your fault, you truly have no idea.  However, you're in college now and I'm sure you can read.  Just get on the net and READ, READ!  You need help, help to get your mind back.  I've read all your posts and feel so sorry for you.  The Discoveries did the job on your mind and continued therafter. If you keep staffing, you will never learn to think on your own again.  How wonderful,..the art of staffing.  The "giving back" of ones self.  Think about it!  They don't pay you!!  It's a brillant concept WWASP has put into place. You learned how to manipulate.  How ironic is that?  Was it not true that you had to manipulate the new girls coming in when you were at certain levels?  What about he "reflection" times?  Not manipulation?  Did you ever wonder why your parents HAD to go to the Discovery Seminars?  I agree, not all parents deserve to have children, but my s/o is the most giving man i have ever met.  I wish I had a father like him growing up.  He did all he could for his daughter and   it's too bad he listened to his former wife.  And for $4,000 a month, to make friends, give me a break!  I'm glad you graduated the program.  I do feel it was YOUR job to graduate high school, make friends, have a job and not do drugs.  Many of the kids parents did exactly that!  But then again, WWASP takes the desperate, guilt-ridden parents and make them feel it is their fault.  Keep working the program,..keep the money coming and one more girl is dead,..dead.  A loss so dear, it will certainly wake up thier "magical child" and when it does, they will need more help than thier child did.  Yes, blame it on WWASP and the number one culprit, David Gilcrese.  Go to Lifesprings on the web, type in his name..see where he came from.  He's been doing this for over 40 years,..that bastard!  Are you afraid of what you'll find out?
Good Luck & God Bless You
Youllsee

[Deborah]

There are some good threads here. For starters:
http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?So ... 9&start=10

http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?mo ... 9&start=10

http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?mo ... 9&start=20

http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?mo ... 9&start=30

http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?So ... 9&start=10

***
I like this quote from Derrick Jensen:
Fearing death, fearing life, fearing love, and fearing most of all the loss of control, we create social rules and institutions that mirror our fears and reinforce our destructive behaviors. Having surrounded ourselves with images of ourselves, and having silenced all others, we can now pretend that the false-front world we've created is instead the world we've been given. We can pertend the world is a very dangerous place, where dogs eat dogs, where children and others must be beaten into submission, where a fierce struggle takes place in which only the strongest, meanest, most unethical and hateful survive, and ultimately where we die alone and afraid. Any threat to this illusion must be annihilated before it reminds us of what we've lost, what we've destroyed, and of what could have been.
What do you do, how tired do you get, when each day you struggle against an entire culture [Industry] based on the normalization of trauma-inducing behavior? There is no sanctuary.
~~Derrick Jensen