I Speak of Dreams

Reporter Seeking Students Enrolled in Aspen Education Programs, 2006 to present

The key question: Did the investment by CRC and its parent Bain Capital change in any way the Aspen Education experience?

Aspen Education advertises itself as

recognized nationwide as the leading provider of education programs for struggling or underachieving young people. As the largest and most comprehensive network of therapeutic schools and programs, Aspen offers professionals and families the opportunity to choose a setting that best meets a student's unique academic and emotional needs.

Well, not so fast.  It is also a for-profit venture, required to maximize returns to its ultimate owner, Bain Capital.

Mitt Romney and partners founded Bain Capital in 1984.  In the fall of 2005, Bain Capital  purchased CRC Health Group. In September 2006, Aspen Education merged with CRC Health Group ( Download Aspen to CRC  PDF document announcing merger). 

The key question:

Did the investment by CRC and its parent Bain Capital change in any way the Aspen Education experience?

A reporter from Washington DC is seeking to interview parents and students who attended an Aspen program between the fall of 2006 and the present. 

To contact the reporter, email chris@cafety.org Cafety stands for Community Alliance For the Ethical Treatment of Youth, and it  is "a member-driven, peer-support, and advocacy organization that promotes and protects the human rights of youth who are at risk or have been confined in residential programs."

At one time, Aspen Education Group operated 38 programs in 13 states. The last two years have seen a series of program closures, consolidations, and restructuring.

Partial List of Programs and Schools Operated by Aspen Education, 2006-present

• Academy at Swift River
• Adirondack Leadership Academy
• Aspen Achievement Academy (Loa, UT)
• Aspen Institute for Behavioral Assessment
• Aspen Ranch (Loa, UT)
• Bromley Brook School
• Copper Canyon Academy
• Four Circles Recovery Center
• Island View Residential Treatment Center (Syracuse, UT)
• Oakley School
• Outback Therapeutic Expeditions (based in Lehi, UT)
• Mount Bachelor Academy
• New Leaf Academy North Carolina
• New Leaf Academy Oregon
• NorthStar Center (Bend, OR),
• Passages to Recovery
• Pine Ridge Academy
• Stone Mountain School
• SunHawk Adolescent Recovery Center (St. George, UT).
• Turnabout Ranch
• Youth Care (Draper, UT)

Have You Been in a Residential Treatment Program for "Troubled Teens?" CAFETY Has a Survey for You

Community Alliance for the Ethical Treatment of Youth (CAFETY) is a member-driven, peer-support, and advocacy organization that promotes and protects the human rights of youth who are at risk or have been confined in residential programs. (see more about CAFETY at the FAQ page)

CAFETY is undertaking a survey of those who have been in residential treatment programs for "troubled teens" -- bootcamps, wilderness programs, specialty boarding schools, or therapeutic boarding schools.

The link to the survey is here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CAFETY_Alumni_Survey

The purpose of this survey is to collect information directly from youth and adults who have experienced residential treatment as youth. We wish to understand more about how you view this experience and the impact it has had on your life so we may improve our advocacy and educational efforts. This survey could take up to an hour to complete - if needed, you may take as many breaks as needed and return to the partially completed survey as long as you use the same computer and same browser.

WWASPS News: A Personal Story and A New Law Suit

The Personal Story: Xandir, Queer Teen, Sent to Cross Creek Manor in 2007, Tells Her Story

On behalf of Xandir, Pixie8 posts her story at Reddit.  The short version: Xandir's mother hired a for-profit teen transport company to take her to Cross Creek Manor, where she was held for two and a half-years:

Cross Creek’s methods of “therapy” and recovery were also extremely invasive, humiliating, and in my opinion did much more harm than good.... I can not speak for every one, but for me, being forced to disclose information that was not ready to come out was extremely painful and humiliating. The seminars based your success on how “emotional” you were, meaning that if you did not share some horrible part of your life or simply did not have one, or if you were not crying and sniveling while you did it, you were booted out of the seminar and forced to stay in the program another two months.

Reddit Post Part 1

Reddit Post Part 2

Reddit Post Part 3

Caution: Ads in sidebar not safe for work, Interview with Xandir at Tiny Nibbles

New Lawsuit

Utah-based program for troubled youths tortured teen boy, lawsuit alleges | Deseret News.

SALT LAKE CITY — A former student in a much-maligned Utah-based organization for troubled children filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday, contending it left him traumatized for life.

Carl Brown Austin, 24, alleges World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools subjected him to constant physical and emotional abuse for two years. The Washington state man was enrolled in programs called Casa by the Sea and High Impact, both based in Mexico, from age 13 to 15.

 Since his mother, Glenna Pierson, pulled him from the school in September 2002, he has "lived a life of indolence, drugs and misery to drown out the torture" he experienced, according to the 36-page suit filed in U.S. District Court. Pierson and her husband also are plaintiffs in the case.

"Casa and High Impact have literally wrecked the life of a very young adolescent that needed nurturing, patience and love, not the foolish 'behavior modification' at which the defendants excel."

End the Bullying: Grassroots Activism

There are two groups of students who are routinely bullied in k-12 classrooms: children with learning disabilities (including autism and ADHD) and students who do not conform to gender norms (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (GLBTQ).

There's a new effort, End the Bullying

End the Bullying uses this blog, a Facebook page, and Twitter to build a grassroots base of a grassroots base of people who are willing to provide support and insight for children who experience bullying and for their parents. Our hope is to provide resources via the Internet and, when needed, locally, for children and families who are experiencing bullying, especially when the authorities are not handling the situation as they should.

In news stories about bullying, especially when it has led to suicide, parents note that they repeatedly tried to contact school administrators or other authorities, only to be ignored. Many families whose stories do not make the news also attest to this cycle of nonresponsiveness. End the Bullying focuses on identifying people across the United States who can serve as contacts and facilitators for parents and children whose complaints are not being heard.

If you use twitter, you can follow @endbullying1 for updates.

Listen to my Interview with Gloria Perez Walker on Blog Talk Radio

I got to know Gloria on twitter -- follow her at http://twitter.com/LaGloria.

She is a special-education advocate, community organizer, and Latina Mami.  You can find her on the web at http://gloriaperezwalker.homestead.com/  .

She also is the host of a web radio show at Blog Talk Radio, Special Ed for Busy Parents, http://www.blogtalkradio.com/specialed

Listen to internet radio with Special Ed on Blog Talk Radio

You can also download just my interview, or all of Gloria's interviews, from the iTunes store.

Seclusions, restraints, and "therapeutic holding" -- thoughts from Jean Mercer

Death Goes to School | Psychology Today. "Seclusions and Restraints: Selected Cases of Death and Abuse at Public and Private Schools and Treatment Centers". If you've been reading about the horrors of the Irish reform schools in the past, this report will make you aware that we in the United States are doing just as badly, and what's more we're doing it right now.

Death Goes to School -- Part 2

A clue giving a partial explanation of all these adult actions may be found in the term "therapeutic holding". A small number of articles in professional journals have used this term. They use the expression "therapeutic holding" in claiming that children receive psychotherapeutic benefits from being physically restrained when agitated and having the restraint continue for a period of time afterward. However, there is no research supporting this claim. In articles where authors have cited empirical research as supporting the idea of therapeutic holding, many of the articles cited have actually been about "holding therapy", a different, though equally disturbing, technique which I will discuss in a later blog. It is possible that some school administrators or staff have come across references to therapeutic holding, have failed to understand the lack of evidence for its usefulness, and have employed their limited knowledge in making decisions about teachers' restraint practices.

But why would anyone at any time have thought of physical restraint as a form of treatment for emotional disturbance and "misbehavior"? Of course, restraint and various forms of asphyxiation have long been favored by torturers, as they create enormous pain and terror in the victim but are reversible (if the asphyxia is not allowed to go too far). I need not comment on our present national discussion of this matter. I should also note that restraints in the form of strait jackets and "wet packs" (immobilization by wrapping in wet sheets) were very much part of psychiatricdrugs. These methods were not simply a matter of maintaining physical control of patients, but were thought to calm agitation.

treatment before the development of tranquilizing

Restraints & Seclusion: Should Private Schools Be Exempted?

For those of you new to the world of disability (or possibly k-12 education) the use of physical and chemical restraints, and the placing of students in "time out rooms", or seclusion, has been a big and ongoing issue. 

The National Disability Rights Network released a report early in 2009, "School is Not Supposed to Hurt" (available for download at http://www.ndrn.org/).  This prompted a government report released May 19th, 2009. The blog Disability Scoop summarized the report:

Thousands of children are secluded or restrained in America’s public and private schools each year, including hundreds of cases where the techniques are allegedly abusive or cause death, according to a report released Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

(The complete report can be downloaded by clicking this link:  Download D09719t.)

On December 9, 2009, Rep. George Miller introduced  H.R.4247. As introduced, the bill applied to all schools, public, private, and homeschools.

On February 17, 2010, the Council on American Private Education (CAPE) sent a letter to the House, essentially requesting that private, religious and secular schools, be exempted from the provisions of the bill. The letter lists several concerns, but to me the central one is this:

Another serious concern we have is that this legislation would impose an unprecedented degree of federal mandates on religious and independent schools.

(Click here to .Download 100217_CAPE_letter)

On February 23, 2010, a revised version of the bill was submitted.  Section 11, Limitations, reads:

       (b) Applicability-

            (1) PRIVATE SCHOOLS- Nothing in this Act shall be construed to affect any private school that does not receive, or does not serve students who receive, support in any form from any program supported, in whole or in part, with funds appropriated to the Department of Education.

            (2) HOME SCHOOLS- Nothing in this Act shall be construed to--

                  (A) affect a home school, whether or not a home school is treated as a private school or home school under State law; or

                  (B) consider parents who are schooling a child at home as school personnel.

On March 1, 2010, The Alliance to Prevent Restraints, Aversive Interventions, and Seclusion (APRAIS) http://aprais.tash.org/ responded to the CAPE letter  with a letter of their own, addressing each of CAPE's expressed concerns.

Private schools have always been covered by, and not exempted from, a wide variety of health and safety regulations, including fire safety rules; building codes; health department regulations on food safety, handling, and cleanliness; and protocols for dealing with outbreaks of infectious disease. The requirements for a minimal level of staff training in crisis prevention and the safe use of potentially dangerous emergency measures as set forth H.R. 4247/S. 2860 are simply another positive contribution to a school’s overall safety and preparedness.

(Click here to  Download CAPE_letter_response_2-22-10)

The bill passed March 3, 2010. (Text of bill not yet available in PDF.  In the meantime, here's the annotated version from CAPE: Download HR4247_Miller_CAPE_annotations).

I have to say I'm deeply conflicted.  On the one hand, I've heard far too many stories of abusive behavior by school personnel toward children with disabilities, and I'm all in favor of national legislation of this nature.  On the other hand, I agree with  CAPE's worry about federal intrusion into private schools.  As the CAPE press release reads:

The bill represents an unprecedented degree of federal control of private schools that threatens their autonomy and puts them between a rock and a hard place:  accept the federal intrusion in policies and practices or give up participation in federal programs that benefit students and their teachers.  By using even limited involvement in federal programs as the pathway for regulating schools, the bill establishes a dangerous precedent for federal control of private education in the future.

The blog Disability Scoop has great coverage of the issue of restraint and seclusion: http://www.disabilityscoop.com/restraint-seclusion/. Special education attorney Jim Gerl has a blog post on the issue of including private schools in H.R. H.R.4247 . February 3, 2010 press release from the House Labor and Education Committee. A "myths and facts" press release, also from the House L&E Committee.

Previously here: http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2008/12/cnn-reports-on-holding-cells-time-out-seclusion-rooms-in-public-schools.html

"Emotional Growth" School, Mount Bachelor Academy, Closes

As a parent, I've had deep reservations about the for-profit "therapeutic school" industry  I'm not alone.

A START, the Alliance for the Safe, Therapeutic, and Appropriate Use of Residential Treatment, is an organization of mental health professionals, parents, advocates, and young adults who came together in 2005 amidst growing concern about mistreatment of youth in residential programs.

These programs are largely unregulated, and are frequently staffed with poorly-trained and poorly-supervised workers from the surrounding communities. The programs tend to be in rural, high-unemployment areas.  Many (if not most) have used "Large Group Awareness Training" (LGAT) methods in their programs (see below).  Many of the children enrolled in such programs have co-occuring conditions such as ADHD, learning disabilities such as dyslexia, Asperger's syndrome, or psychiatric conditions such as depression or bipolar disorder.  The programs do not have a research base in addressing the issues raised by the students' co-occuring conditions.

Silver Lining to Economic Slump: Abusive Residential Programs for Teens Shut Down

These programs associated with the World Wide Association of Speciality Programs andSchools (WWASPS) have closed since 2008: Royal Gorge Academy (Colorado), Tranquillity Bay (Jamaica), Spring Creek Lodge (Montana), and Darrington Academy (Georgia). More by Maia Szalavitz at Mother Jones and Huffington Post.

Royal Gorge at I Speak of Dreams

• Royal Gorge Academy closed October 16, 2008
• • January 12, 2007: Randall Hinton, Royal Gorge Academy, Arrested
  • January 13, 2007 Randall Hinton's Qualifications
  • January 29, 2007: Patty Pacheco, Whistleblower at Royal Gorge Academy
  • March 12, 2007: Royal Gorge Academy in the News
  • July 9, 2007: Countersuits from Royal Gorge
  • September 11, 2007: Hinton Convicted
  • November 4, 2007: Testimony from an Alumna of Royal Gorge
  • November 4 2008: Royal Gorge Academy Shuts Down

Royal Gorge coverage at the Coalition Against Institutionalized Child Abuse (CAICA).  Some of the children at Royal Gorge Academy were transferred to Red River Academy, also owned by Octwell LLC.  Details on Red River Academy at AntiWWASPS.

Tranquility Bay coverage at International Survivors Action Committee (ISAC:

• Tranquility Bay confirmed closed as of January 2009.

As of 3/18/09, Brad and Rose Lustick at "Teenpath" (http://www.teenpaths.org/) are still actively marketing

• Tranquility Bay (http://www.teenpaths.org/tranquility_bay/),
• Darrington Academy (http://www.teenpaths.org/darrington/), and
• Spring Creek Lodge (http://www.teenpaths.org/spring_creek_lodge/) .

What do you want to bet that anxious parents are shuffled off to one of the other, still-open, still-abusive programs?

Local news article on the closing of Spring Creek Lodge:

http://www.vp-mi.com/articles/2009/01/14/breaking_news/doc496e176b41949364534296.txt

Spring Creek closes its doors Posted: Wednesday, Jan 14, 2009 - 09:55:42 am MST

Jamie Doran Valley Press Spring Creek Lodge closed its doors for the last time Friday Jan. 9, leaving everyone who had been employed there unemployed and the students at the lodge without a place to go.

Representatives for Spring Creek Lodge could not be reached for comment by the Valley Press before press time.

The lodge first opened its doors about 30 years ago by Nancy and Steve Cawdrey. The lodge was opened as a place to address drug, alcohol and behavioral issues of young people from across the county.

The lodge once had over 500 students enrolled, but during the past several years enrollment dropped down to less than 50.

Thompson Falls Superintendent Jerry Pauli said that while he had no ties to the lodge, the Thompson Falls school system had been impacted by it.

“As their enrollment numbers went down, people who worked there were unemployed, which caused kids to leave our schools because their parents needed to relocate,” he said.

At one point Spring Creek Lodge was the largest employer in Sanders County as it employed about 200 individuals in various positions throughout the lodge.

Pauli said that the Thompson Falls School Board will be holding a special meeting Tuesday Jan. 20 at 7 p.m. to discuss the expansion of their own Alternative Learning Center at Thompson Falls High School.

He said the Alternative Learning Center has been around for years and has had anywhere from 30-43 kids involved either part or full-time in the program.

“What we’re doing is looking to expand that program to pick up some of the kids who were in Spring Creek,” he said.

Pauli said there will likely be some students from Spring Creek that will be picked up by families in the Thompson Falls area and expanding the Alternative Learning Center would be a great way to help accommodate those students.

“At the meeting we’ll be addressing and hopefully making a decision on whether or not we should expand our services and this program to include these students,” he said.

CEDU Documentary to Be Released in 2009

Liam Scheff, a freelance journalist,  has been working on a documentary about the CEDU family of schools, which closed in 2005.  Here's the link to Liam's CEDU documentary page.

Here are some voices from CEDU survivors:

Jennifer Says: December 18th, 2008 at 12:33 am

I think your documentary is great. I’ve tryed to explain what we went through to family and friends with no success. They all think I’m making up stuff. The one thing I can say about CEDU is that I came out of the place in fear. When I graduated I was so afraid of authority and thought everyone was talking behind my back. To tell you the truth, talking with people from CEDU is alittle scary for me. I remember the raps and things people said to me (and I said to others). I felt so small and afraid