Archive | March 2014
31/03/2014  

247. Livoe

Being diagnosed as mentally challenged was rather easy before 1960 in Denmark. All it took was a bad combination of being poor and an ill-tempered doctor.

For young male teenagers Livoe became was Sprogoe was for young women. A devils island they couldn’t leave. Even when they were granted freedom they could be sent back if they started a relationship with a woman because they were considered to be poor material when it came to etablish families and get children.

It is fortunate that the facility was closed down in 1959 because it could not have been fun living there as a teenager.

Sources:

30/03/2014  

246. Foster families managed by the Lutheran Social Services of the South

Lutheran Social Services of the South is a foster care agency which used to handle a number of cases for the State Department of Family and Protective Services in Texas. They were told to stop handling new cases due to their neglect of their duties.

Poorly managed and neglected background checks of foster families led to deaths of children in foster care. About 8 children die in foster care every year in Texas.

It cannot be fun to be there as a child or a teenager.

Source:
State punishes Austin-based foster care agency in death of Orion Hamilton (Statesman)

29/03/2014  

245. Parmadale Institute

Parmadale Institute also mentioned as the Parmadale Children’s Village of St. Vincent DePaul was founded in 1925. For many years it was an orphanage run by The Sisters of Charity.

Later the facility began to focus on a clientele of children suffering from severe behavioral and emotional issues.

Recent investigation showed that there had been cases involving sexual relationship between children and employees. They used corporal punishment as late as in the 1960’s. One girl died there in 2008, when the facility was a so-called treatment center.

It could not have been fun being there as a teenager.

Sources:

28/03/2014  

244. Horizon Academy

In 2007 Mr. Robinson had to move out of California because the authorities had the nerves to have laws regarding the nature of therapeutic boarding schools. It posed a problem for the man because Mexico first closed Casa by the Sea (Number 4 on this blog) and now Bell Academy (number 56 on this blog).

Where could he go? He found a deserted motel in the middle of Death Valley. Here he established Horizon Academy. For a number of years the school existed quietly until the former students from all his previous business created awareness websites on the internet exposing this private prison. At the same time the school was involved in a water dispute in this dry area and he ended with moving the students to Utah where the business closed years later but that is another story.

It could not have been fun attending this boarding school located in the middle of the desert.

Sources:

2019 update

Some years ago the school got new management and was renamed Northwest Academy. 2019 a teacher was arrested by the police on charges of child abuse. Other articles reported a pattern of violence conducted against the students. The school also provided water of such a poor quality that it imposed a health risk on the students.

Sources:

27/03/2014  

243. Focal Point Academy

Focal Point Academy located in Mesquite in Nevada where All of Me Child Care of Development is located now functioned as a therapeutic boarding school. However it was not licensed properly and lack of supervision endangered the students due to the actions of other students. A lawsuit was started some years ago.

It is clear that such a place only will be safe if the employees do their job properly. It is also clear that there is a reason for having a licensing system.

It could not have been fun to be there as a teenager.

Sources:

26/03/2014  

242. Uta Halee Girls Village

The facility closed in 2011. The economy and missing referrals was blamed.

Various documents speak of former employees trying to alert the authorities without success about inappropriate activities with an employee.

It could not have been fun to be there as a teenager.

Sources:

25/03/2014  

241. Yellowstone Boys and Girls

The ranch is running programs for both boys and girls. The have open units and secure unit letting them be run like a prison.

In 2007 a boy claimed that he was abused at the ranch. The employees wouldn’t let him see his lawyer or his parents. In the end he managed to get another placement.

It cannot be fun to be there as a teenager.

2017 update

A boy was charged with plotting the murder of another teenager at the facility based on hear-say: Stillwater County teen charged with attempted homicide (The Billings Gazette)

Sources:

14/03/2014  

240. Turning Winds

Turning Winds is marketed for a school for struggling teens. Having researched the history of the school it seems that the owners had to leave Idaho for Montana when they became center of a police investigation.

It cannot be fun to be there as a teenager.

Sources:

11/03/2014  

239. Spring Creek Lodge

Spring Creek Lodge was one of the largest programs in the now almost closed WWASP chain of behavior modification boarding schools. It opened in 1997 and closed in 2008. Located in an isolated part of Montana they were the largest employer in the area. The local police was partly financed by the school and some claims that the police closed their eyes on some of the abusive methods former students speak about.

Today the campus is used to train children of the native population. Hopefully they have made a memorial for the many teenagers who lost years of their lives locked down living in a prison without having been charged and convicted in court with legal defense as normal citizens get. Last and not least a memorial for Karlye Newman who ended her life at the school.

It was not a fun place to be as a teenager.

Sources:

09/03/2014  

238. Federal Government College, Nigeria

Once again we find that it is time to mention a school where the reason for its placement in this blog is not that the teachers are abusive or the teenagers are withheld from activities which is a rite of passage towards adulthood.

No, this school is listed because some outsiders – simple to say – dimwits – killed many students just because they believe that the education provided is too western.

Each and every one of the students wanted to learn how to farm the land their families have lived on for generations. Why shouldn’t they do this and learn how to write and calculate in the process?

There is no explanation for this tragedy. Only a sick mind like Abubakar Shekau can try making some sense of it but he clearly belongs in a room with soft walls wearing a strait jacket.

This school is not a fun place to attend as a teenager when the world consist of evil and sick minded people like the followers of Boko Haram.

Source:
Nigerian boarding school attack by Boko Haram gunmen leaves 59 pupils dead, officials say (ABC News, Australia)

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