You can send this book to Congress. When you join TeenAid we will send a
copy of An American GULAG to your member of Congress or another member
who has not yet received a copy. Membership is $25. You can pay by check
or by VISA or MasterCard. To pay by credit card, call (303) 444-1383.
The mailing address is at the bottom of this newsletter.
*****************************
***Sexual Predators as Custodial Parents?
***Dispatches from the field
***If you're a teen
***Dear Alexia
***Media Updates
-----------------------------------------------------------
SEXUAL PREDATORS AS CUSTODIAL PARENTS?
-----------------------------------------------------------
Who's watching our children?
"The pedophile," says a sex-crime expert, " always has children around
him." They always gravitate toward children. They give children the
affection they may not be receiving from their parents.
When a pedophile is custodial parent or staff member at a behavior
changing facility or mental rehab hospital, they may use the power of
their position to gain sexual favors from terrified or fearful teens who
are seeking love and protection. This type of sexual abuse, says an
expert familiar with mental rehabilitation facilities that handle teens,
is wide-spread. Sexual predators in positions of authority over these
isolated teens may also target children whose records show they have had
already been victims of incest or sexual abuse at home. The pedophile
may threaten to send them to state corrections facilities if they don't
go along with the sex-play.
***
Last week, I received the following from someone acting on behalf of a
teen:
DEAR ALEXIA, I am a 23 year old (occupation withheld) from Florida. I
recently started dating a 18 y/o girl who is a former boarding school
student. My girlfriend attended this school during 1997. My girlfriend
and at least 5 of her former classmates were forced into sex during
there attendance of this school by two men who called themselves
preachers, who ran the program.
The girls who attended this school were supposedly there for help with
there troubled lives and instead were completly taken advantage of.
These were 15,16,and 17 year old girls being forced into sex by men in
their 50's.
P.S. We will be happy to give the name and location of the facility with
all the details of names of students to be contacted.
(name withheld)
***
The authorities have been contacted -- TeenAid will share details of
this case as they become public.
--------------------------------------
DISPATCHES FROM THE FIELD
--------------------------------------
Remember David Van Blarigan? The teen who accused his parents of kidnap
after being taken from his home in Oakland, California in the middle of
the night.
David's grandparents (who sought protective custody of him after his
well-publicized placement at Tranquility Bay) were recently "approved"
to send a letter directly to their grandson without sending it through
David's parents first. In the letter, they wrote that they were sorry
they didn't get a chance to say good-bye to him. It happened all so
fast, they said. The letter also included family photos.
Tranquility Bay's management decided not to deliver the letter to David,
and requested that the senior Van Blarigans write another letter that
was less controversial. They would then insert the photos into the new
letter. -- In addition, the grandparents learned that the "approval" to
send letters directly to David at Tranquility Bay had been revoked.
David's grandparents were told that all future communications must first
pass through his parents, Jim and Sue Van Blarigan. -- This censorship
process is described in An American GULAG.
Communication is a Human Right. Family members who love David and care
about his well-being are being denied direct communication with him.
***
Each day TeenAid receives requests for advice from parents whose
children have been diagnosed with ADD. One, interestingly, was from a
teen who had been diagnosed as ADD but asked for -- and paid for -- a
second opinion. The second opinion showed that he was not ADD. Fearing
his parents would use other tactics to control him such as sending him
to a "teen concentration camp," he wrote that he then hired a lawyer and
emancipated himself.
Statistics show:
"America now uses 90% of the world’s Ritalin-more than five times the
rest of the world combined. Meanwhile, emergency room visits by
children age 10-14 involving Ritalin intoxication have now reached the
same level as those for cocaine. This indicates escalating abuse of
this highly addictive drug."
"Talking Back to Ritalin", from Common Courage Press, says
book-reviewer and former manager of a juvenile justice center, Donna
Headrick, is not for the faint of heart. Nor, for that matter, are the
next several chapters that cover a range of known and suspected adverse
effects from suppressing the growth of the brain to inducing
Schizophrenia and causing seizures. As with his other books, author
Peter Breggin M.D. has a Point of View. Giving this book to a parent
whose child has been placed on Ritalin could very well send them
shrieking into the ether. And demanding a Congressional investigation of
if not an immediate firing squad for the hapless prescribers would not
be overkill.
His book is an important smack in the face to a culture obsessed with
the "miracle cure" the "Big Fix" for every problem. America consumes
pills. And in areas related to behavior, we increasingly use these
substances as a form of chemical control that our systems do not provide
by their processes.
If one defines the cause of specific behaviors, in this case in
children, such as a lack of focus, inattention and general squirminess
in school as a chemical imbalance in the brain, popping a drug into the
mouth of said child may seem like a good idea. But what if we were to
define those behaviors as symptomatic of a child who is brighter than
average and bored in a "one size fits all" educational system? Or a
child with an abundance of energy that needs a physical outlet like
quarter mile around the track several times a week?
What then?
All to often, the "what then" is a drug.
In an increasingly HMOized society, drugs are cheaper than the time of a
professional. A teacher without hyperactive kids in her class finds it
easier to do all of the related teacher tasks of these time such as
collecting and accounting for lunch money and doing the weekly "head
lice check" (and, no, I’m not kidding).
Though I do believe there is a small group of children who can benefit
from chemical treatment, says Headrick, I would make a wild guess that
the percentage is likely one half of one percent of those who now
receive it. And the increasing use of this addictive and psychoactive
drug if looked at side by side with the mushrooming, never-ending and
always ineffective "War on Drugs" seems, not only ludicrous, but a
guaranteed feeder system for our World’s Best Prison Industrial Complex.
(Editor's note: The teen, Kip, who did the shooting in his school
cafeteria in Springfield, Oregon was on Prozac.)
-------------------------
IF YOU'RE A TEEN
-------------------------
Reports one teen -- now on the outside: "Kids ran away from our
(behavior changing) facility all the time. They believed that if they
were caught and turned over to the authorities they would get sent to
Juvenile Hall. They wanted this!" What they don't know is that the local
police routinely return runaways to these facilities.
One reporter who got involved and helped close a facility called Charity
Haven, near Milton, Florida reported: "What bothered me the most was
reading a police report which stated that two girls were seen running
naked down the center of a highway, crying that (their custodial parent)
was after them and would kill them if he caught them. A good Samaritan
picked the girls up and drove them to the police station. A report was
filed and the teens were then returned to the facility."
***
If you're a teen 14-years and older who fears your parents may be
considering a GULAG-type behavior changing facility, do not -- repeat --
do not sign an application form for a passport. Refuse to sign any
application.
If you are 14-years and older but under 18 and are sent to a facility by
your parents (not Court-ordered) you may tell the authorities (if / when
they interview students) that you WANT to leave. They are required to
arrange for your removal from the facility. You have the right to sue.
If you are 18 years old and want to leave, you can announce your
intention to leave, then do so. Those who have been sent out of the
country can demand the return of their passport and receive an airline
ticket home. Your passport and return ticket are kept in a safe place by
management and must be returned to you. At 18, you now possess the legal
rights of adult Americans.
---------------------------------------
DEAR ALEXIA -- From the mailbox
---------------------------------------
My dear Angel.......Some higher power put me in touch with your book on
the Net!
Last year and early this year, (we) were searching for a boarding
school to put (name withheld) in for a year to catch up on all the
school she has missed and get her away from the crowd she has been
running with. At the moment, she has left her home and is seeing this
boy who is from another planet! We are at our wit's end with this
child. But I have to tell you, she is a very sweet girl ( when she
chooses to be) but very manipulative.
(She) has ADD and has been on Ritalin for the last year. She does fine
as long as she stays on it but the moment she decides that she doesn't
want or need it...she gets crazy!! (We have) done everything possible
for this child. Counseling, sports, you name it, she has done it. But
(she) is at that awful and wonderful 16 yr. old stage. One moment you
love her to death
and the next, you want to just nail her.
What a mouth! No one in our family uses the kind of language she uses.
Just recently, she has discovered the birth control center for teens!
We know that she isn't going there to get her teeth checked!. And the
boy! God, give us strength! He is from the other side of the tracks,
so to speak. Dare we say anything? No! because we know the more we say
something, the more defensive she becomes. However, she knows that we
don't approve.
We were all set to send her to a school in Utah and were still
investigating the school when I started going through the articles on
the net. I downloaded yours........
I must tell you, it changed our whole outlook. I sobbed throughout your
whole book. As incredible as it all my seem, I don't doubt a word of
it. The words of some fellow on the other end of the telephone line
came rushing back! It scared the beejesus out of me. We would never
have been able to live with ourselves had we even had the remotest idea
what these schools where like!
You have saved (name withheld) from a fate worse than death. Thank you
from the bottom of our hearts for taking the time to write of your
family's experience. We are looking into a mentoring program as I write
this letter to you.
Walk in peace, dear one.
----------------------
MEDIA UPDATES
----------------------
Q: What's the difference between tax-payer funded prisons and private,
parent-funded behavior changing facilities?
A: The primary difference is private parent-funded behavior changing
facilities are unregulated, or under-regulated, or may be able to
self-accredit. Remote, rural, and operating out of the "public eye,"
they constitute a private (hidden) system of incarceration that operates
in parallel to our public prison system.
NETWORK -- TeenAid has been invited to write an article for the June
newsletter of a national organization that is involved in child
protection and advocacy issues. We will include a reprint in our next
edition.
NETWORK -- TeenAid has received an inquiry from an international
organization concerned about Human Rights abuses of minor children.
Teens who have been privately incarcerated by their parents may have the
right to refuse abusive behavior changing "treatment". -- We have also
been contacted by a representative of Amnesty International.
***
TeenAid, an Advocacy group -- was established to protect the rights of
teens and to monitor activities at behavior modification facilities.
TeenAid is planning to hold a press-conference for the news media
mid-June in New York City. For information about how you can participate
in this or other vigils—located at sites of teen abductions such as the
well-publicized abduction of 16-year-old David Van Blarigan Oakland, CA,
please contact: Alexia Parks .
The Education Exchange Network is supporting the activities of TeenAid.
T.E.E.N. is a 501-c3 tax-exempt, non-profit organization. Contributions
to support the activities of this international group can be sent to
T.E.E.N, Box K, Eldorado Springs, CO 80025. Or call (303) 444-1383.
Questions?
*******
Teen-Justice promotes the reform of "behavior modification" facilities
and schools that abuse the civil and human rights of teens. This
newsletter links experts, the media, and interested members of the
public who are interested in this issue. Please forward it to your list
or post in relevant newsgroups.