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Athena

Buzzkill.
Your teen is mischievous. You've really done your best with him, but for whatever reason, he's got that wild streak, and every couple of months, you get a call from a cop asking you to pick him up and a court date notice in the mail a few days later.

At this point, the judge is tired of seeing you. Community service just hasn't worked for your boy, and now he's violated probation. The judge gives you a choice: Juvenile detention or boot camp. You know your son isn't a bad kid, and you're horrified by the mere thought of him peering out from behind bars, so you choose the natural option - boot camp.

The day has come. You tell him you love him and that this will be good for him. You give him a stern pat on the back and release him into the custody of your local sheriff's boot camp.

Only a few hours in, you're notified that your boy has been taken to the hospital. He's declared dead the next day.

This is what happened to the parents of 14 year old Martin Lee Anderson. When he complained of breathing problems while running the last of 16 laps, guards embarked on a campaign of "discipline" that included beating, ammonia and, eventually, suffocation. A nurse even stood by, interrupting only briefly to check the kid with a stethoscope before allowing the abuse to continue.

It's called "attack therapy". The theory is that, by forcing the child to "break", he or she will become reformable. It's a tactic similar in ideology to military torture programs. Despite the fact that this strategy would not be legal for the parents themselves to use, there are dozens of boot camps employing it, with somewhere between 10,000 - 100,000 kids being subjected to it annually..

This has resulted in roughly three dozen deaths similar to Martins, and thousands of reports of similar abuse.

I implore you to read the article, titled, The Trouble with Troubled Teen Programs - How the boot camp industry tortures and kills kids, which details both the abuse employed by these programs and the startlingly fascist supporters of these programs.

Then ask yourself this: What business does our government have honoring the co-founder of an entire CHAIN of these abuse camps?

While this entirely un-American technique for reform needs to be criminalized, our government is busy applauding it.
 
While I have had much appreciation for most of these camps. This was just plain murder in my opinion.

From what I have seen it's not just "mischevious" children who are sent there. They are usually hardcore kids who commit more violent crimes. Not that a teenager should be murdered while there, regardless of what he or she has done.

I feel for his parents, these people running this camp went way overboard. I wouldn't have made it 2 laps without falling over.
 
If I ever had to send my daughter or any future kids to a boot camp, I would expect them to experience something similar to what I went through when I went to Basic Training for the military, I would not expect them to be tortured, or beat to death.
 
I think these boot camps are just short term answers to solving behavioral problems. I think it works for kids that have been having problems for a short period of time, but I don't think they are at all effective for minors that have had long term issues.

I don't care if the counselors slap them around a bit, chances are most of them need it, but in this case it obviously has been taken a step too far.
 
I remember the Martin Lee Anderson case. What happened there was assault, plain and simple. It's abuse. If parents did these things to their children, they would be arrested. So why the hell is it legal to run programs where children are abused? Because they call it therapy? I can beat the shit out of someone with a bat and say it's therapy, but that doesn't make it so.
 
I'm on the phone with my best friend right now, and I read her bits of that article. She says he cousin went to one of those places in Arizona, and a kid died, after being forced to continue exercises with a known heart condition. She said her cousin was never quite the same after, and wouldn't talk about the things that were done, just said they were really bad. Her cousin was sent there for running away from home, at the age of 16.
 
Okay-- this topic makes my blood boil. After much research, many discussions with EVERYONE under the sun, school, doctors, references and much soul searching...I sent my son to one of these camps when he was 12.

My son was diagnosed ADHD, he has never been a discipline problem, he's in fact a very sweet kid. Just lacked focus and drive. The specialists he saw recommended this course of action for him. It would be "good" for him. I asked one of his doctor's if they would send their child to this camp. She said she would.

Also, since my son's Father was MIA, they also convinced me that male bonding at his age would do him much good.

Sent him 3,000 miles away to a very expensive "camp" in Georgia (hear the banjo music playing yet?) I was "guaranteed” the staff ratio was one staff member for every 3 students. The camp was to be a mix of military brand discipline and fun activities.

Do you know why most of these “camps” are in the South? Because they are not regulated, or only VERY loosely regulated at all. No criminal background checks are preformed on either the owners or the kid’s counselors. Yet, this is not what you are told when inquiries are made, they even presented false paperwork to the contrary.

My son was to attend the camp for 9 weeks. We brought him home within two weeks, brought him home to be hospitalized. He was severely burned and spent 4 days in the Augusta Burn Center, before we could fly him home to Harborview.

During the session he attended just some of the following happened:

1) My son and another child were severely burned. 2) An unlicensed staff member drove a car off the rode, injuring two other children.
3) Camp owner was seen filming the boys (all 12-13 yo) naked in the showers.
4) Owner later busted for drugs.
5) A child drowned on the river raft trip.

http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we...page=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM

http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we...page=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM

http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we...page=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM

It took 5 years and two attorneys- one in Seattle and one in Georgia to finally win a $70,000 settlement for my son.
 
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I'm quite surprised by some of these responses. Every day, we call for the heads of individuals who abuse their own children. Here is an industry that has worked torture into its standard operating procedure, and we're okay with it so long as they don't kill the kid? Most of these kids are NOT violent offenders. Most of them find themselves there as a result of drug use.

I'll say it again - three dozen deaths, thousands of complaints of abuse.

The vast majority of kids in these places are put there by parents who are too busy leading their own lives to discipline their children. Boot camps are using deceptive marketing to convince parents that these establishments create a structured but safe environment when, in reality, their goal is to break the child by any means necessary.

WASHINGTON - During an emotional hearing in the House on Thursday, lawmakers and witnesses likened the treatment of teens in youth boot camps to the kind of torture faced by prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

Investigators uncovered cases in which a program employee's pit bull was trained to bite students in the groin and where teens had bags placed over their heads and nooses slipped around their necks, testified Greg Kutz, who has led an investigation into youth residential programs for the federal Government Accountability Office.

Source

The report detailed evidence that teenagers were starved, forced to eat their own vomit, and to wallow for hours in their own excrement.

In one instance, a boy was so dehydrated that he ate dirt to survive, according to witnesses and an autopsy.

Investigators also found that owners and employees were seldom sent to prison, even when teenagers died in their care. Five of these programs are still in operation, some under new names or in other states.

...

Lawmakers heard from the parents of Aaron Bacon, who died at 16 while at the Northstar Expeditions in Escalante, Utah. Speaking before photographs of his emaciated son taken an hour before his death, his eyes dark pools of pain, Aaron's father, Robert, said the boy had been starved, with his weight falling to 108 pounds from 130 in just three weeks. He was 5 feet 11 ½ inches tall, and wrote poetry. His parents said they saw Northstar as a place that would distance Aaron from negative influences at his high school, where he had begun dabbling in drugs.

But a "bloody and tattered journal" he was forced to keep as part of his therapy contained, instead of poetry, "an unbelievable account of torture, abuse and neglect," Mr. Bacon said. Aaron had spent 14 of 20 days "without any food whatsoever," while being forced to hike 8 to 10 miles a day. "On the days he did have food, it consisted of undercooked lentils, lizards, scorpions, trail mix and a celebrated canned peach on the 13th" day, Mr. Bacon said.

...

Mr. Kutz said that because no agency or registry tracked the industry, it was impossible to say how many programs existed, how much money they collected or how frequently abuse occurred. But in 2005 alone, his report found, "33 states reported 1,619 staff members involved in incidents of abuse and neglect."

Source

These are not isolated incidents. These establishments, many of which are like profitable versions of the Stanford Prison Experiment, aren't regulated at all in most states. This is simply unacceptable.
 
What they are doing is completely despicable. They are nothing more than bullies and murderers who are using their position of power to torture and humiliate, under the guise of "helping". I'm just not in the mood for an angry rant at the moment. It reminded me of a friend who went to a boot camp, before I knew him, he died last year, either suicide or accidental overdose, neither seemed likely, and they aren't sure, anyways, I'm just sad now, but I don't know that the two are related, I just remembered him is all. Anyways, I believe most parents are sending their kids to these places, thinking that they are helping thier kids, and doing something good for them, and getting some military instruction, which these kids probably need. Boot Camp changes a person, but in a good way, the kids that survive these hell holes, didn't get a damn thing from them, except for mental, emotional and physical problems. They need to be regulated or shut the fuck down.
 
If things went as everyone was told, it would be all roses for everyone. There are too many instances of the only roses being on caskets or in hospital rooms.

I am behind the parents that totally trust the system and place their faith there. Often this is the choice of last resort or just before jail.

What I do not understand is the people that work in these places. Is this mentality similar to the other 3 Things thread about the shock-treatment tests or are evil people purposely hired?

Are these enterprises set up with the purpose of helping kids and then go horribly awry? Do these people just fall into whatever mentality that lets them behave like demented pack animals?

Even if the intention was just a money making scheme, I would think that keeping kids (at minimum) on the brink of whole, healthy, and alive would cost less than suits for death and injuries.

I don't get why it happens and I don't get why we allow it.

Every parent wants to smell the roses - those in a happy homecoming bouquet and not any others.
 
Even if the intention was just a money making scheme, I would think that keeping kids (at minimum) on the brink of whole, healthy, and alive would cost less than suits for death and injuries.

My son was lucky, in that the camp's insurance was still in force at the time of his injury.

Sean Mask, owner of the camp re-opened under a different name and without insurance. The AG's office in Atlanta told me that they could not require him to post insurance and could not shut his operation down.
 
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Christ, JMLS... I can't believe you had to go through that. I'm so very sorry for you and your son, and am glad that you were able to get some sort of compensation.

I first started researching the issues with youth boot camps several years ago. My little sister had a friend, Angela, who was sent to one of those. Her mom was trash - had a good job and lots of money, but partied all the time, brough strange men home and would just leave Angela with money to support herself for days at a time. Whaddya know? Angela began to mold to the example with which she was presented. Drugs, parties, promiscuity... I wasn't yet in child-saving mode (or I'd have taken her in myself), but my heart bled for this girl.

Then she tells us that mom's going to send her to boot camp. No one realized it was a bad idea, at the time. She was gone 6 months. The one phone call she made home during this time, she plead with her mother to bring her back. She complained of everything from extended solitary confinement to rape. Mom assumed she was being fed a line. Not so.

Angela came back "fixed". No more drugs or partying, but she was a shell of the girl she once was. For a long time, she wouldn't even speak of her experience, and if you asked, she'd get visibly uncomfortable. Sadly, she was such a different, bland individual, she and my sister went their own directions. It was sick, like her soul had been extracted.
 
What I do not understand is the people that work in these places. Is this mentality similar to the other 3 Things thread about the shock-treatment tests or are evil people purposely hired?

Are these enterprises set up with the purpose of helping kids and then go horribly awry? Do these people just fall into whatever mentality that lets them behave like demented pack animals?

Even if the intention was just a money making scheme, I would think that keeping kids (at minimum) on the brink of whole, healthy, and alive would cost less than suits for death and injuries.

Well, like in that other thread, it's not hard to find people who will perform evil jobs because they're told to. Many probably honestly believe they're helping kids.

These programs are successful, depending on your definition of success. They will break kids of destructive behavior. But at what cost? Is it worth it to break a kid of a drug habit if you must employ soul shattering torture to do so?

To me, these programs are like lobotomies without the scalpel.
 
...These programs are successful, depending on your definition of success. They will break kids of destructive behavior.
But at what cost? Is it worth it to break a kid of a drug habit if you must employ soul shattering torture to do so?

To me, these programs are like lobotomies without the scalpel.

I would have to agree with this statment.

My sons are both very young right now, 5 yrs. and 16 months. I'm not looking forward to the days of rebellion and back talk that will take years off of my life. Regardless, what ever is in store for my husband and I, we would never, under any circumstance leave discipline of this type in the hands of virtual strangers.

There are far too many incidents ranging from injuries to death, to support ever sending my child to a camp. It's like paying someone to abuse your child under the guise of wanting to help children and put them on the straight and narrow. I am sure there are those who's goal is to help troubled children and probably even succeed. I can certainly understand the exasperated parent not knowing what to do with their child. At the very least, a complete and thorough back ground should be done to ensure you aren't sending your child to a would be molester or rage freak.

Even at the most desperate situations, I would find it hard to send my child and his welfare in the hands of someone I know only from a brochure and from second hand parties. They would have to meet my criteria first for approval, and that, I know would be a hard test to pass.
 
The most frustrating part of all, came after, when it became apparent that the Camp's paperwork had been falsified and the legal departments entrusted to monitor these camps (however loosely) had failed in the most miserable manner.

Yet, even with proof, the LE continued to look the other way when he reopened under another name. Setting more children up for possible death/injury/abuse. This is what is NOT acceptable.

Goes along the lines of "Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on LE."
 
I have written a bunch of questions and statements in "Quick Reply" about 5 times. I always cancel it out because it always comes back to the same thing. There is little I understand about this.

Do these places have true success stories? Zombies don't count unless they were zombies to start with.

Parents who are just to lazy to do what it takes to raise their children from DAY ONE are the reason that places like this exist. They don't care if their kid ends up a zombie as long as the parent does not have to have their own comfort invaded in any way. Even the act of choosing camp over jail is meant so THE PARENT feels better about the situation. Poor kid loses no matter what happens.

Parents like JMLS - that really care, investigate, and do the best they can - get sucked up into it. These are the kids that truly have more going on and are not just the products of bad parents. Everyone loses here.

Something has to be done. Getting rid of these places only solves that problem. We are still left with what created the "need".
 
I have written a bunch of questions and statements in "Quick Reply" about 5 times. I always cancel it out because it always comes back to the same thing. There is little I understand about this.

Do these places have true success stories? Zombies don't count unless they were zombies to start with.

Parents who are just to lazy to do what it takes to raise their children from DAY ONE are the reason that places like this exist. They don't care if their kid ends up a zombie as long as the parent does not have to have their own comfort invaded in any way. Even the act of choosing camp over jail is meant so THE PARENT feels better about the situation. Poor kid loses no matter what happens.

Parents like JMLS - that really care, investigate, and do the best they can - get sucked up into it. These are the kids that truly have more going on and are not just the products of bad parents. Everyone loses here.

Something has to be done. Getting rid of these places only solves that problem. We are still left with what created the "need".

From what I've gathered, the "boot camp" style establishment was driven by the lack of success of standard rehab centers. The article I sourced made it sound like the creator intended to support and enhance the standard 12-step programs through discipline. Of course, these establishments are pressured to produce results given the high price of their services. So then, it becomes a matter of how much "discipline" produces those results.

Combine that with a human's natural tendency toward corruption when in a position of power and the fact that these kids do have bad track records (and are less credible as a result), you've got a recipe for disaster. Fish in a barrel, really.

In my opinion, the reason we don't see MORE stories of abuse is because these kids are young enough to still be programmable, which creates the potential for brainwashing. Some of these kids come out truly believing that the hell they endured was the only solution for them.

Really, the boot camp industry was (and is) intended to be a solution for drug addiction (although it has been expanded to include criminal behavior). America's going about fighting that war ass backward. We've tried to conquer the problem using punishment, incarceration and abuse, when we really need to be proactive.

We're a country of freedom and expendable income. We're always going to struggle with drug use. The only thing that can combat it, in my opinion, is education. As of yet, there's no ethical quick-fix for chemical dependency, or even criminal behavior. People who are expecting one really don't seem to grasp the level of reprogramming and the tactics that have to be used in order to accomplish it.
 

I look up these places, and others of their kind after trying times with my kid...

I understand the risks, as I've had childhood friends in some of the more unsavory situations. I've also seen the positive side.. my baby brother attended a state-run boot camp and thankfully, came out a mature and productive citizen.

But I would fight tooth and nail to keep him out of one..
 
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If my child was seventeen with behavioral issues, the only bootcamp I would send em to would be actual military (they can enlist at seventeen with parental consent). If they were any younger, I'd have to take a really really good look at the facility, and would only go with one ran by the state. Or, hell, ship em to military school first
 
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Martin Lee Anderson
January 15, 1991 - January 6, 2006

UPDATE:

SHOCKINGLY, the headlines on October 12, 2007 read:

"Jury Acquits Eight in Boot Camp Death"

What kind of people does it take to set eight people free, who obviously played a very real part in the death of a teenage boy?

Coming out of the courtroom, Gina Jones, Martins' mother who was visibly upset said.... "I cannot see my son no more. Everybody see their family members. It's wrong,".

Benjamin Crump, the family attorney talked to reporters and said...
"You kill a dog, you go to jail. You kill a little black boy and nothing happens."

The jury took ONLY 90 minutes to decide if the eight people responsible for the death of Martin Anderson would spend up to 30 years in prison for aggravated manslaughter of a child. Among the charges they COULD have found them guilty of were child abuse and culpable negligence. This jury chose, instead, to let them all go free. Clearly the least of what they should have found them guilty of, was child abuse. It is NOT acceptable to hit or kick a child. If any parent did this in their home, they would be charged with child abuse and the child could be taken away from them.

Prosecutor Scott Harmon had this to say:
"You may not hear anything coming out of that video sound-wise, but that video is
screaming to you in a loud, clear voice, it is telling you that these defendants killed
Martin Lee Anderson,"

On March 27, 2007, Martin Anderson's family was awarded 2.43 million dollars in a wrongful death suit. On May 2, 2007 The legislature passed a claims bill to pay Martin Anderson's family $5 million dollars. On May 23, 2007 Governor Charlie Crist signed the $5 million dollar claim bill for Martin Anderson's family. Is there any amount of money that is going to make up for the death of this child, is there any amount of money that is going to lesson the pain his family is going through and now the slap in the face that the jury has given them by finding these people not guilty? Is there any amount of money that will bring them back their son?

If it were one of their children of the people responsible for the death of Martin Anderson, or one of the children of the any jury member, they would probably feel different. Shame on them all for allowing this happen with no punishment to those who did it.
 
I almost died in one of these fucking boot camps. My fourth day there I contracted pneumonia. I went to the Sarge on duty and told him I was ill. 6 hours later a couple of drill instructors took me to the nurses office and took my temp. I saw the thermometer. It said 105. They gave each other a look and told me that I didn't have a fever, be up and ready for PT at 4am. I tried and fell out..4 of them surrounded me and started screaming at me to get up..When it became evident I couldn't? They picked me up, threw me on my bunk and dragged it into the middle of the barracks and had the whole place run 2 miles, around my bunk, screaming at the top of their lungs. I laid there for a week. Hallucinating, sweating, thinking I was going to die. Finally got in to see the nurse and luckily she was a right proper nurse and got me to the hospital pronto. I'm lucky I guess. Didn't die or get brainwashed so I did pretty good.
 
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