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Corporate Child
Abuse Persists
Gregory Chant
April 25, 2005
Private teen
prisons are popping up all across the country. These unregulated
'Behavior Modification Schools' are making hundreds of millions of
dollars for the owners, at the expense of desperate parents at wits
end with their unruly teen. Hundreds of allegations of abuse, dozens
of lawsuits and several deaths are left in the wake of these private
American gulags.
The "Hobbit"
Imagine being
fourteen again. Suddenly, you are awakened abruptly in the middle of
the night as the lights are turned on. You peer at the clock, it’s 2
am. Startled, you notice two large men you’ve never seen before
standing inside your bedroom door. You scream for your parents. No
response. The men then tell you, ‘your parents are not coming. We
are here to take you to a private school.’ One of the men throws a
pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt on you, and says get dressed. As
they watch, you nervously get dressed wondering what is happening.
As you walk out your door, you are grabbed on the arm and escorted
to a waiting car. All along, your parents stand at a distance,
watching, doing nothing. You cry out for help, they ignore you. You
are put in a car, put on a plane and sent thousands of miles away
with no explanation.
Tonight, all across
America, kids are being kidnapped, handcuffed and shuttled to
private prisons located in remote parts of the United States and
various third world countries. The parents of these teens are not
horrified as their teen is taken by force; they have already packed
a suitcase for their departure. These parents have decided to send
their teen to a so-called ‘Behavior Modification School’ under the
cover of darkness. They hire private ‘transportation specialists’ to
forcibly remove the teen from their home, and take them to their new
reality, one of America’s many private children prisons.
One of the most
prevalent organizations in the industry is WWASP, World Wide
Association of Specialty Programs. There have been numerous
allegations of abuse, dozens of lawsuits and several deaths. WWASP
continues to keep some 2,400 children in its programs. Ken Kay and
Robert Lichfield, president and founder of WWASP, say their numbers
are growing with today's social problems. They deny all allegations
of fraud, child abuse and neglect. The company has annual revenue in
excess of $90,000,000.00.
On Friday, August
6, 2004, the BBC and other journalists were present in Salt Lake
City when a 12-person jury found unanimously against WWASP and in
favor of a Florida mother. WWASP brought three civil counts against
the mother to silence her reports of fraud, child abuse and neglect
at WWASP-run children’s programs. The counts by WWASP included
charges of defamation, civil conspiracy, and false advertising.
Attorney Richard Henriksen, of Salt Lake City, Utah represented the
mother.
Some of the jurors
cried as they watched video clips of the “Box,” where American
children were reportedly hog-tied, hand-cuffed, duct-taped, starved,
and slugged by staff. The program was closed after the government
found “credible allegations of abuse.” Videos showed children
covered with skin infections and flies in the food at WWASP’s
Paradise Cove; other clips showed photos of children in dog cages at
WWASP’s High Impact in Mexico, and other alleged abuses by WWASP.
Although the St.
George businessmen, Robert Lichfield, Karr Farnsworth, and Ken Kay,
claim High Impact was not affiliated with WWASP, former employees
and parents testified otherwise. Employees said they were told not
to reveal the program’s affiliation with WWASP. One former employee
testified she had personally traveled to High Impact with current
WWASP President, Ken Kay.
One of the victims
of WWASP sat in the court, a boy of 19, and sobbed as defense
lawyers showed video clips of the children in dog cages. The boy
said his ordeal began at age 12, as WWASP trafficked him through
five of their children’s programs over 4 ˝ years. The child was the
subject of the alleged murder plot at WWASP's Paradise Cove, having
his head banged against a coral reef and knocked unconscious as the
older boys attempt to drown him in an effort to close the program.
The boy weighed only 80 pounds during his confinement at Paradise
Cove, and he was hidden from television reporters covering the
program. His confinement within the WWASP Empire of children’s
programs ended 4 ˝ years later with his removal from the cages at
High Impact.
Robert Lichfield
told Dateline that he would not at all be surprised by an alleged
plot by adolescents to murder another child at Paradise Cove.
Lichfield said, the children “brought that with them.”
Robert Lichfield
was observed smiling in the corner of the Salt Lake federal
courtroom, while WWASP lawyers were observed laughing in the
presence of the federal jury.
Two emotional
fathers testified about their children's ordeals. One child was
reported to have been trafficked through Cross Creek in LaVerkin,
Casa by the Sea in Mexico, and High Impact, where American children
were forced to lie, face down, in on-the-cross positions, and
sometimes hog-tied. According to the father, his child’s thumb was
broken while in WWASP’s custody, the boy had been beaten by staff
and other children, and his child was forced to lie in a pool of
blood that formed around the boy’s chin.
The father
described witnessing duct-tape over the mouth of a female child at
Cross Creek in LaVerkin, Utah on the day the father removed his son.
The father, Chris Goodwin, testified that the reality of being
fraudulently “taken” by WWASP came crashing down on him the day he
visited Cross Creek, another WWASP program run by Karr Farnsworth.
Jay Kay, a Utah
resident, and director of Tranquility Bay Academy in Jamaica,
displayed no emotion in the court while a video clip on PrimeTime
was shown with Jay Kay admitting: "Do I have pepper-spray? You bet I
do. And, I haven't had to use it in five and a half or six months."
Earlier, however, a 15-year-old-boy, now in his 20s, said he was
sprayed with pepper-spray, almost daily for eight or more months, by
Jay Kay and one his former employees. At times, he said his clothing
was soaked from the torment. John France testified that his child
was kept in a small, cold structure without adequate heat or food at
WWASP’s Spring Creek Lodge. The temperature was so cold that the
orange his son has stowed away was frozen by morning. His child had
to urinate in his drinking cup in the night. Mr. France’s child was
forced into the “Hobbit” at WWASP’s Spring Creek Lodge for almost
nine months. His son had scratched the words, “Let Freedom Ring” on
one of the shelves where he slept during his ordeal.
Amberly Knight, the
former director of Dundee Ranch Academy, described a former student
who was raped and had her skull cracked. She described children
being forced into a tiny isolation room and forced to kneel or lie
on lumpy concrete up to 14 hours a day. The children were further
punished with food deprivation. Ms. Knight reported WWASP’s alleged
child abuse to Costa Rican protective services, resulting in the
arrest of Narvin Lichfield and closing of Dundee Ranch Academy in
May 2003.
Ironically, some of
the foreign based programs came under scrutiny from their local
governments and have been shut down, at least temporarily. America’s
programs are all up and running. Lichfield vows to have these
facilities reopened as soon as possible.
Recently, in
Boonville, Missouri, the City Council voted to keep Lichfield out of
their city, and reject his purchase of land where he was intent on
starting another WWASP facility.
The Booneville City
Council, with little discussion, voted 7-0 against selling the
property to a group led by Utah businessman Robert Lichfield,
founder of World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools.
The city also will
return a $100,000 earnest-money deposit, ending a courtship that
began last summer.
"From the outcry
the public had given me about this, my mind was made up," said
Morris Carter, the city councilman who made the motion to reject the
offer. "If the rest of the council had gotten the same information I
had, there was no point in discussing it.
This horrific
business is running strong here in San Diego, in fact every few
months they rent out local convention space for their ‘seminars.’
These seminars have been described by some parents as “cult-like”
and "a psycho cry fest," and many have accused Resource
Realizations' seminars, like the better-known est and Lifespring
trainings of the 1970s, of "brainwashing" participants.
These programs are
marketed through parental referral, and clever internet marketing.
Simply search the web for teen help, and chances are at least 50
websites referring you to a WWASP school will come up. Program costs
are upward of $3,500 a month, and to help parents keep their child
at the facility longer, they are instructed to start referring other
parents to send their kid. In reward, they receive a free month stay
for their own child for every referral. If their child is out of the
program they receive one thousand dollars for the referral.
They admit to
having no licensed professionals at their facilities, and most
people involved, including the founder, have never been to college.
The founders are devout Mormons who believe they can forcibly change
people’s behavior through mind techniques used effectively for
decades in cults and oppressive countries such as North Korea.
This cult is
gathering in San Diego soon. They are holding a seminar for parents
who currently have their teen in one of their facilities, in late
May. It’s time to let them know, we don’t fair well to having
corporate child abusers in our city, their supporters, or their
apologists. Let the Town & Country Resort in Mission Valley know
(619-291-7131), they are supporting an organization that believes
teens have no human rights; supporting an organization who
systematically abuses teens in the name of treatment, raking in
millions at the cost of our counties most innocent souls.
Picture caption:
The temperature was so cold that the orange his son has stowed away
was frozen by morning. His child had to urinate in his drinking cup
in the night. Mr. France’s child was forced into the “Hobbit” at
WWASP’s Spring Creek Lodge for almost nine months. His son had
scratched the words, “Let Freedom Ring” on one of the shelves where
he slept during his ordeal.
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