There's the Brown Schools (parent of CEDU) and then there's WWASPs (the cash cow of the Lichfield family). The good people of Boonville, Missouri, used to be home to a respected military school, Kemper, which fell on the hard times of all boarding schools (declining enrollment) and also military schools (fell out of fashion).
Kemper closed in 2002, and Boonville bought the seven-building property the following year for about $500,000.
WWASPs wants to buy the site. Nobody wants them in Boonville.
The Boonville Daily News recently ran an editorial that said, "We do
not want their program, we do not want their ideas and we do not want
their practices anywhere in our city, our county or our state."
Boonville is smart. "Boot camps" don't work, and may harm.
The Town of Boonville, including the police object to bringing the WWASPs / Lichfield teen torment cash cow to their town.
(that's not the headline, that's my gloss)BOONVILLE, Mo. - Police here object to the proposed sale of the old Kemper Military School to a boarding school network, citing concerns that the school's students may be dangerous.
In a letter sent to city administrators late last month, the Boonville Police Department urged the city in central Missouri to forgo a sale to a group affiliated with St. George, Utah-based World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools, according to The Kansas City Star.
Some schools in the association's network have been accused of abusing students and the U.S. Justice Department has been asked to investigate. The network denies the accusations. World Wide offers services and guidance to seven boarding schools in this country and in Jamaica.
In the letter to city officials written March 24, which follows a police investigation into the network's background, police said: "It is our recommendation that the risks far outweigh any benefits of the sale of this property."
Both the Industrial Development Authority and the Boonville City Council have met with group leader Robert Lichfield to discuss an offer to purchase Kemper, which closed in 2002. The city bought the seven-building property the following year for about $500,000.
Boonville police noted the school's proximity to a YMCA and worried the school's clientele of troubled kids could be dangerous.
"It is clear this would be a huge public safety issue. As we have stated, there will be many troubled teens at this campus, and some could even be violent offenders. It would be a public disaster if a student on this campus hurt one of our children," the letter says.
Randall Hinton, the proposed school operator, has worked at several of the network's schools and said the students would not be dangerous and the school would not be connected to the ones that have faced abuse allegations.
A business plan presented by Hinton to city officials said the school would enroll teenagers who "need help in the areas of discipline, responsibility and leadership skills" as well as those who have had problems with minor drug or alcohol experimentation.
Hinton also said that the school would market itself as a military school and not as a school for troubled teens.
The Friends of Kemper Foundation Trust also opposes the sale, saying it is not "a solution to the city's problem of what to do with the former Kemper campus."
The Boonville Daily News recently ran an editorial that said, "We do not want their program, we do not want their ideas and we do not want their practices anywhere in our city, our county or our state."
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