259. Samoa Fa’a Fouina Trust of Otara

Violence is never the answer when it comes to correct poor behavior. It only risk the possibility of reoffending. The adult was sentenced to jail and it is safe to say that it wasn’t fun for the teenagers to be in her care.

Source:
Anti-injury role for basher (New Zealand Herald)

258. Adolescent and Family Institute of Colorado (AFIC)

Jessica Palmer was only 17 years of age when she decided that she had enough of life.

Years before her parents enrolled her at Adolescent and Family Institute of Colorado also known as AFIC. Here she was cut off her family. The unlicensed staff convinced her that she hadn’t the illness she was committed with. She was faking. But the staff had no education which could enable them to make that decision. As result she got worse.

Beside the case of Jessica Palmer other families have stepped forward. The state of Colorado could not explain how this facility was allowed to continue their operation. It should have been shut down decades ago.

Being treated by amateurs when we are taking serious illnesses cannot be fun for any teenager.

Source:
Ex-patients, families say decades of abuse, fraud at Colorado facility ignored (CNN)

257. Summit Quest

In the 1980’s wilderness therapy was the new big thing when it came to save teenagers from depression, acting out, etc. There was no limit what so ever to what nature itself could cure.

But today we know that wilderness therapy also include risking the lives of the teenagers we put in the programs. The environment is not only unfamiliar, it is unforgiving. The parents of 15 year old Michelle Sutton didn’t know that. They believed the seller of the program – now known as Gayle Degraff. Tragically Michelle Sutton died in the wilderness. The employees were not instructed and trained to evacuate her quickly and she died away from her family.

It couldn’t be fun being in the desert surrounded by untrained employees who didn’t know what they were doing. Gayle Degraff is still active in the business.

Sources:

• Boot Camp Brutes (PIERRE TRISTAM / CANDIDE’S NOTEBOOKS)
• Michelle Sutton Memorial

256. Bastøy skolehjem

Known as the Devils Island in the Oslofjord this boarding school for truant teenagers was in operation from around 1900 to 1970 where the awareness of the use of violence put an end to this type of boarding school in Norway.

Among the punishments inflicted were birching where the students could receive up to 12 blows to their naked back.

It couldn’t have been fun to be there as a teenager.

Sources:

• Derfor tiet ansatte om vold i barnehjem (NRK – in Norwegian language)
• Bastøy skolehjem (Norwegian Wikipedia)
• Djeveløya i Oslofjorden, historien om Bastøy og andre straffeanstalter for slemme gutter – by Yngvar Ustvedt (ISBN 978-82-022-0432-7)

255. Bjerketun verneskole for jenter

Today it is called “Bjerketun ungdomspsykiatriske behandlingshjem” and the treatment methods are therapy but it wasn’t always so. In 1960 the media published a number of articles based on the testimony of a counselor who had worked there. Among the issues mentioned were use of isolation rooms, corporal punishment and girls being forced to undress in front of male employees.

The media coverage resulted in a closure of the boarding school. The so-called “protection school for girls” was a prison for young girls where the girls were subjected to a treatment which you normally would expect to see in bad 1970’s sex-movies.

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

Sources:

• Derfor tiet ansatte om vold i barnehjem (NRK – In Norwegian language)
• About the treatment facility today (In Norwegian language)

254. Bellefaire Jewish Childrens Bureau

Bellefaire Jewish Childrens Bureau is a kind of residential treatment facility for teenagers. One teenager Isabel Jamison experiences an inproper relationship with an employee. As result of this she became depressed and was given medication. The employees didn’t monitor her so she overdosed on the medication February 28, 1994 dying on March 17, 1994. The facility was ordered to pay a large sum to the poor girls relatives but her life was lost.

A testimony given on the Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora speaks of worn down buildings, walls with graffiti. It is not a healing environment. It cannot be fun to be there as a teenager.

Sources:

• Cleveland Academy of trial attorneys – september newsletter
• Bellefaire JCB residential treatment center experiences (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora)

2018 update

Increase in serious incidents at youth facility has University Heights officials concerned (Fox 8)