I Speak of Dreams

Redneck Flamethrower

Uhhm, did I mention I was once married to a guy who built a self-propelled flamethrower?  And likes to crush cars?   Well, the flame-thrower gig seems to be a popular kinda thing to do.

A Boot Camp True Story: Allison Writes 63 days

In the 80’s, "boot camps" for troubled teens became the new treatment dejour for parents at their wits end. However, after numerous allegations of severe abuse, untrained staff and several deaths, these camps came under much scrutiny. Steve Cartisano ran the most notorious of these camps, called Challenger Foundation. I was 15 when I was kidnapped from my bed and taken to Challenger. 63 Days is the story-in-progress about my brutal experiences there, my subsequent escape and the aftermath. This is my story, this is my life.

Every parent who is contemplating a "strict, break 'em down" style placement for their child should read this journal.  (If you are looking for CEDU information, scroll to the bottom of the story)

Thinking of Sending Your Troubled Teen to a Boot Camp?

(Welcome to Allison's readers, who have come here via her blog, 63 Days, which I review here. The following article was written by Henry Lawton, not me, and originally appeared on the site, NoSpank -- the Torturing Kids for Fun and Profit segment.  If you are looking for CEDU information, scroll down to the end of the article.)

I can say unequivocally that boot camps do not work. Such programs, in my view, have no concept of the fact that so-called "problem behavior" is always indicative of some sort of emotional problem.--Henry Lawton, 31-year veteran of  New Jersey Division of Youth & Family Services.

April Fool's in Idaho I

Well, I fell for the Heterogenetic Office of American Xenogenesis.

False Dichotomies, Radical Christian Bending of the Truth, and a Cool-eyed Story

The New Yorker comes to Cupertino. 

Challenge Day and WWASPS

[post updated March 3, 2006]--this post was a mess, when I went back to look.  See the new post here.

Challenge Day sounds so good.  It was founded by Rich Dutra St. John and  Yvonne St. John Dutra, who are a husband and wife team, in 1987 ,according to the website. However...
Does Challenge Day actually improve school climates?
Is it good for kids?

Is there a connection between Challenge Day and some questionable organizations and practices?

From Lou Kilzer's 1999 article from the Scripps/Howard news service (as posted on Rick Ross's site)

Teen Help [another name for WWASPs] was started by Robert Lichfield, 45, a southern Utah businessman who lives on an estate in the spectacular canyon country near St. George. He hired David Gilcrease to create a behavior modification program to all but guarantee parents would see a change in their teens....Gilcrease had been trainer from 1974-81 for LifeSpring, a company that perfected a form of encounter session called "large group awareness training."

In April 2002,  according to an article published The Seattle Times (link is to Rick Ross's websitethe Seattle public schools allowed

the first joint venture involving Resource Realizations, the separate, nonprofit Challenge Day organization, graduates of Resource Realizations seminars, and public schools.

A letter from Resource Realizations founder David Gilcrease to the parents of Challenge Day participants said "the next step for your teen" is the company's three-day, $295 Teen Discovery seminar. Brochures were provided for a May 3-5 seminar at the Ramada Inn on Northgate Way. "While Challenge Day is a critical first step, a one-day learning experience only goes so far," Gilcrease wrote. "To create truly lasting transformation in their lives, most teens need more." Critics have accused Resource Realizations' seminars, like the better-known est and Lifespring trainings of the 1970s, of "brainwashing" participants. Gilcrease was a Lifespring facilitator for five years before starting his own company in 1986. Resource Realizations is a defendant in several lawsuits in which parents claim their children were emotionally abused by seminar facilitators or staff at behavior-therapy facilities where teen seminars are held. The company denies the allegations. Until now, the seminars have been pitched primarily to teens and parents of teens in the five member programs of the St. George, Utah-based World Wide Association of Specialty Programs.

More on CEDU Closing Immediately

Additional news reports  Among other things, Boundary County's unemployment rate will double. 

Because Brown Schools are in Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the parents who pre-paid tuition are just like other creditors.  One widow stands to lose about $75,000. -- small change in the creditor line, but big bucks to her.

"This is a relationship-based program, and they closed this like it was a factory," a counselor at one of the schools told the Spokesman-Review newspaper in Spokane, Wash.

Brown Schools operate 11 boarding schools and educational facilities in Idaho, Texas, Vermont, Florida and California, according to its Web site. Facilities in Austin and San Marcos were sold to Psychiatric Solutions Inc. in 2003.

Brown Schools, Parent of CEDU, Files for Bankruptcy

I guess I was mistaken in believing that Brown had assets other than CEDU.

"This is a relationship-based program, and they closed this like it was a factory," a counselor at one of the schools told the Spokesman-Review newspaper in Spokane, Wash.

Brown Schools operate 11 boarding schools and educational facilities in Idaho, Texas, Vermont, Florida and California, according to its Web site. Facilities in Austin and San Marcos were sold to Psychiatric Solutions Inc. in 2003.

 

Comment Comment Comment

Please feel free to use these images as you see fit.  They're as small (byte size wise)  as I know to make them.

I heard about it from Spanglemonkey.  Last year's image was at BamaBlog.

I did another but ...

At first I thought this image was of a female linesman, which I found appropriate.  I found this image at It Had to Be You, (where the text read, Security Leak),  but now I'm not so sure.  It's from Steve Jackson Games, or the World Domination Handbook.  Illuminati, the New World Order.

Different Set of Easter Thoughts

If you want to be plausible talking about the Easter Sunday uprising, you need to know all the words to Foggy Dew,--and a bit of its history-- and the item to my right. (Stolen direct from Little ol' Me, with no apologies.)

(BBC on the Irish War of Independence 1919-1921;  Stereotypes of the rural Irish #1
and #2   and #3 and  of course, Wikipedia on Ethnic Stereotypes.   The Famine Museum
in Strokestown, Co. Roscommon, Ireland; the Famine  as holocaust.    (Speaking of Foggy Dew, Alan Stivell sings it the best, to my mind, but I've lost the LP it was on, Alan Stivell Live at l'Olympique.  Celtic rock.  Amazing.  Traditional Irish CDs if that's your taste.   More on Stivell (or Cochevelou, his family name).   A relatively recent interview.