Czech Republic
In 1998, Glenda and Steve Roach -- who had
run Sunrise Beach near Cancun -- left to run a
Teen Help compound in the Czech Republic. Morava
Academy called itself "Europe's finest specialty
program for teens," but it didn't last long.
Czech police raided Morava in November after
receiving a tip from an employee that teens were
being abused and forced into isolation against
their wills.
The Roaches were charged under Czech law with
cruelty to people in their custody and with
curtailing the students' freedom of movement,
police said.
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Adolescent Rights
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Some groups that
oppose Teen Help's programs support the
establishment of basic rights for
defiant adolescents. Following are some
of the rights endorsed in September by
the Association of Child and Adolescent
Psychiatric Nurses:
ACAPN opposes the abduction and
involuntary transport of children to
facilities for confinement unless such
measures have been clinically justified
in specific, operational terms by a
licensed mental health professional with
the legal authority to do so. In the
event that such tactics are necessary
for the immediate protection of the
child and/or society, the child must
have access to an appeal process
commensurate with the same right of
habeas corpus available to every citizen
of the United States.
Children have the right to appropriate
treatment in the least restrictive
available setting.
Treatment (including behavior
modification procedures, therapies,
education activities) provided by any
facility, including psychiatric hosptals,
drug and alcohol treatment centers,
residential treatment facilities and
behavior modification boarding schools,
must be professionally and clinically
justifiable ... within the realm of
professional psychiatric standards of
practice.
ACAPN affirms the right of children to
talk and write to persons outside the
detainment facility at any time ...
without having such communication
censored or monitored unless such
monitoring is clinically justifiable for
the safety of the child or others. This
right includes the right to contact an
attorney.
ACAPN opposes any prohibition or
barriers to communicaton imposed by any
facility, including rigid and
restrictive visitation policies,
policies that restrict parents from
visiting their children, limited access
to telephones and barriers to mail
service.
ACAPN opposes any and all punitive
measures. Children should not be
physically restrained (restriction of
body parts by device or by placement in
an isolated, locked room) unless every
avenue of prevention of harm to
themselves or others has been exhausted.
Children and their families have the
right to a treatment plan that is
individually developed for their
situations, as well as the treatment
plan for care after they leave the
facility.
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Police said they had found diaries and other
documents that confirmed the allegations of
abuse. Teens at Morava "were often isolated and
denied food" and handcuffed, police said.
The Roaches were released pending a trial.
Czech authorities allowed Glenda Roach to leave
the country but ordered her husband, who had
been in charge of security at the compound, to
remain in the republic. But Steve Roach returned
to the United States, Czech police said.
Parents of Morava's teen patients streamed in
from the United States, and many praised the
program. Many arranged to send them to other
Teen Help facilities -- Spring Creek Lodge in
Montana or Carolina Springs Academy in South
Carolina.
Police interviewed 25 of the 75 teens at
Morava. Eight complained of harsh treatment.
Farnsworth said the allegations at Morava
were "absurd, ridiculous. Disgruntled employees
got the ear of the state police. They did not do
any abuse over there. The kids were
manipulative."
"If the owners and operators of Morava and
Sunrise Beach would have had the same confidence
in their local legal system, both of those
programs would still be running today," Facer
said.
Farnsworth said he would not hesitate to hire
the Roaches again.
"If they wanted a job, they would be
welcomed," he said. "As far as I'm concerned,
the Morava thing was blown way out of
proportion, and there was much misinformation
about the whole situation.
"They did not abuse kids. If the Czech police
had listened to the other 55 kids ... they
talked to about 25-30, and when they found out
that they were positive, they quit talking to
them. All they ever talked to were the three or
four who were trying to manipulate their way out
of the program."
Cameron Pullan, director of Spring Creek
Lodge, agreed. He said the eight teens at Morava
who had complained of abuse later recanted.
"All the kids I've talked to that have been
through Morava said they weren't tortured,"
Pullan said. "They realize that Glenda and Steve
did the best they could for them over there. And
nobody's reporting any of that."
The News tried unsuccessfully to reach
the Roaches for comment. The newspaper also
interviewed several Morava students, in the
presence of Teen Help staff members, at Spring
Creek Lodge. They said they loved Morava and
that they believe it saved their lives.
South Carolina
"Carolina Springs Academy teaches values,
integrity, honor and respect for authority."
So begins the Teen Help marketing handbook's
description of one of the company's newest teen
facilities. It has housed dozens of teens,
including a 17-year-old girl from Colorado.
Opened last year near Abbeville, S.C.,
Carolina Springs "helps teens to become an asset
to the community," the promotional material
continues. "The program is located on (a) campus
with a southern style all its own. The youth
experience a mixture of Old South courtliness,
European heritage and American nostalgia."
But investigators for the South Carolina
Department of Social Services found conditions
there far less idyllic.
In the fall, the agency three times ordered
the facility to close because it was operating
without a state license. Richard Byars, Carolina
Springs' director at the time, refused, saying
the compound was a boarding school, not a
residential care facility, and didn't need a
license.
Teen Help attributed Carolina Springs'
licensing problem to unnamed foes of its
behavior modification system.
"Unknown to us, sources hostile to the World
Wide Association of Specialty Programs (a Teen
Help umbrella group) made the (state) believe
that they were dealing with some kind of boot
camp/brainwashing process that did nothing but
abuse kids," Teen Help said in a recent Internet
statement. "As a result, their interaction with
Carolina Springs Academy was less than ...
balanced."
State social services investigators inspected
the facility in December and January. Their
reports said that:
- Several teens, including
at least one who had attempted suicide
before arriving at Carolina Springs, no
longer were taking medication for
depression.
One girl told them that
another girl "tried to kill herself. She was
hitting, kicking, spitting, etc. They said
that her hands were crossed over her chest
and her wrists were handcuffed behind her
neck. They said duct tape was put over her
mouth and around her legs. At the top of the
stairs, she jumped on her head to try to
break her neck so she could go to the
hospital."
The teens' letters to
their parents were read before being mailed
"and if the child says something
inappropriate ... you require the child to
change it." Telephone calls are monitored.
"There is very strict control of the content
of written correspondence and telephone
conversations. And the children do not have
opportunities for free conversation with
their parents."
Children's records
contained little information about previous
hospital stays and psychological
evaluations.
Toilets lacked doors or
curtains.
A psychiatrist Byars said
examined the teens had never visited the
facility.
One teen-age girl was
found sitting in a mop closet -- "she was
crying."
A Jan. 26 letter from the agency warned Byars
that "there are currently two incidents of
disciplinary action that may constitute cruel
and inhumane punishment." A follow-up letter
nine days later said: "to our knowledge, the
facility staff members who are alleged
perpetrators have not been relieved of their
duties."
"I have never abused anybody," Byars told the
Denver Rocky Mountain
News. " ... We have no punishment here. This
is just a boarding schoool. That's it. ... Most
kids lie if they have the opportunity."
The social services agency said the staff
members at Carolina Springs weren't qualified
for work with teens.
Many staff members had held only low-wage
jobs before being hired. Some had worked as
checkout clerks, laborers, porters and appliance
salesmen. Many were from Utah.
"The staff have little or no training in
child care issues," the agency reported. "Most
of them (excluding teachers) have only a high
school education and no experience in child
care."
Gena Boggero, a former employee at Carolina
Springs, harshly criticized Byars' supervision.
"Half the kids didn't deserve to be there,"
she said. "Richard tells them when they first
get there that he has custody of them. ... He
tells these kids that they not only will be
there until they are 18, if they don't really
bust their butts to get out of there, but if he
sees no improvement, he can keep them until
they're 21. The kids don't know any different.
"I would not wish it on my worst enemy to
have a job there."
Boggero described how one teen-age girl told
her she had come to Carolina Springs:
"Her mom had told her that they were going to
go out to eat to try to patch things up. ... Her
mom goes inside (a) store and leaves her in the
car. This van pulls up. They jump out, open up
the passenger door where she is sitting and grab
her. She had no idea who these people are. She
thinks she's being kidnapped. She was hanging on
to the steering wheel for her life. They reached
inside the car and pried her hands from the
steering wheel, placed her in a van and drove
her to South Carolina."
The social services agency in April put on
hold a request for an injunction to close
Carolina Springs when Teen Help agreed to
replace Byars and make other changes.
Byars was succeeded as director of Carolina
Springs Academy by Peggy Elaine Bell Davis.
"We will expect the program to blossom under
her direction," Teen Help said in a statement.
Jerry Adams, spokesman for the Department of
Social Services, said the agency and Carolina
Springs are trying to work out their differences
but the facility remains unlicensed.
"They are operating in good faith to correct
the problems," Adams said of Carolina Springs.
"CSA believed then and now that they are a
boarding school, but to end conflict and better
serve their students by resolving that conflict,
CSA decided to try to meet the (state) demand
for (a license)," Teen Help said in a recent
statement. "... In the interest of the students'
progress, we made the agreement so that we could
get on to helping to change the kids' lives."
"Local government wanted to close the
facility," Facer said. "However, after reviewing
the facts, the legal system determined that
complaints were unfounded and unsubstantiated
and further ruled that Carolina Springs should
continue to operate their facility."
However, Carolina Springs still faces a
strong challenge by another state agency.
The Department of Health and Environmental
Control, is seeking an injunction to close
Carolina Springs for "operating as an unlicensed
residental treatment facility."
Its investigation uncovered several potential
problems. One girl told investigators that girls
were told to remove their clothing and be
subjected to "full body searches by junior
staff."
Another girl complained of stomach pains and
asked to be taken to a doctor. Aid was delayed
five days "and by that time, my cysts had
ruptured," she told investigators.
Another girl said that "one of the girls was
really mad because he (an employee) came over
into the room and jumped on her while she was in
bed." The girl reported that the employee "lay
down on top of her" and "was rolling around."
Officials removed two girls who had spoken to
investigators for fear that upper-level teens
might harm them, Adams said.
Davis said she expected the social services
department to issue Carolina Springs a child
care license by the end of this month. She said
she was unaware of the health department's
motion for an injunction.
