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Youth programs in Utah targeted:
Alleged assault of teen sparks probe by N.Y.
officials
By
Amy Joi Bryson
Deseret Morning News
The New York State Attorney General's Office is
probing Utah-based programs for troubled youths
after a teenager was allegedly assaulted last month
while being transported to an affiliated school near
the Canadian border.
Two men associated with La Verkin-based Teen Escort
are accused of beating the boy as he was being taken
to the Academy at Ivy Ridge in New York.
The academy is a member program of the World Wide
Association of Speciality Programs and Schools/Teen
Help (WWASP), which was founded by Robert Lichfield
of Utah.
Another WWASP school director in a Utah program was
charged with multiple counts of abuse in 2002,
charges that were later reduced because the victim
recanted. The case, however, prompted some Utah
officials to call for more oversight of private
youth programs, but that effort failed this past
legislation session.
A New York investigator said the business operations
of WWASP and Teen Escort have him concerned because
of what he says is a lack of regulatory oversight
and the "impropriety" of the transport services.
Officials with those programs, however, say the alleged assault was
blown out of proportion, the business practices are standard and they
welcome an investigation because they have nothing to hide.
New York State Police investigator James Hunt said the parents of a
17-year-old boy hired contract transporters with Teen Escort to take
their son from their home in southern New York on March 22 to the school
near the Canadian border.
The parents paid several thousand dollars for the service, which
included having their son removed from home while he was asleep in bed,
having him cuffed and then escorted to a car in his bare feet, Hunt
said.
At one point, the 17-year-old boy, while on a rural stretch of road
headed to the academy, grabbed the steering wheel and caused the car to
crash into a guard rail, police say.
Afterward, the boy was beaten about the face while cuffed, Hunt said.
New Yorkers Leonard Faulstick and Timothy Hurd have been charged with
unlawful imprisonment and assault in the incident, Hunt said.
He said the local district attorney's office is also looking at
charging the father because he allegedly helped facilitate the removal
from the bedroom.
Hunt said he has since learned in his probe that while Hurd was a
contract employee of Teen Escort at the time of the alleged assault,
Faulstick was subcontracted to help with the transport.
Neither man, he said, received any formal training to work in the youth
transport service other than "informational brochures" on how to deal
with problem kids.
Hunt said the state Attorney General's Office in New York requested
documents from his investigation to determine what kind of
"improprieties" may exist regarding the Utah business operations and if
New York can impose any sort of regulatory oversight.
What officials there have discovered, Hunt said, is that private youth
programs for troubled kids fall under little control. Officials
discovered, for example, that Teen Escort's business registration in
Utah has lapsed.
A check of the Utah Department of Commerce's Web site shows the business
registration for Teen Escort Services in La Verkin has been expired
since 1998. It is also described as a "scenic and sightseeing"
transportation service.
"This case bothers me in that with what I was able to see with the
operation of Teen Escort, their policies and procedures, we need to make
other agencies aware of this so we can see about getting some
regulations started," Hunt said.
But James Wall, a spokesman on behalf of WWASP and Teen Escort, said
there are written policies and procedures in place and that Hurd has a
reputation as one of the best transporters.
"They are very much on his side in this little battle," Wall said.
Wall said the crash into the guard rail happened at 65 mph, and "nothing
happened as far as an assault."
When transporters pick up a troubled youths, they often don't allow them
much clothing as a deterrent to running away, Wall said. The arrangement
was made with the consent of the parents, he added, because the kinds of
kids who go into these programs are often not cooperative. Handcuffs are
standard for safety reasons until the youth demonstrates compliance.
Training, he said, isn't a requirement because it is not an advanced
form of criminal handling.
"It's not like being on a SWAT team."
While Hunt said New York officials believe WWASP and Teen Escort are one
and the same, Wall said it isn't so. Teen Escort is separately owned and
one of three transport services approved for use by the admissions
branch of WWASP. If the service is required, it is something the parents
can arrange with more than a half dozen member affiliates in the United
States through an independent admissions office. WWASP also has member
programs in Mexico and Jamaica.
Utah licensing officials and watch-dog organizations say there is a need
for more oversight for private programs to ensure that "discipline"
doesn't amount to abuse.
In a letter to lawmakers this last session, Utah assistant attorney
general Craig Barlow wrote, " . . . my experience with unlicensed
residential treatment programs calling themselves boarding schools is
(that) no one knows what occurs in these programs. Children are
completely isolated from the outside world and from their parents, and
the potential for child abuse and child sex abuse is high."
E-mail: amyjoi@desnews.com
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