Archive | July 2015
30/07/2015  

355. Rebekah Home for girls

Rebekah Home for girls was a previous version of New Beginnings Girls Academy, which also is on this blog. The state of Texas forced the management to flee the state because the authorites wanted the girls to experience minimal human rights.

Basically the girls were isolated from their peers at home, they were exposed to corporal punishment and subjected to religious teaching without considering what the girls personal belief were.

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

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29/07/2015  

354. Reality Invasion Boot Camp

Reality Invasion Boot Camp became the center of an investigation after the instructors used stun-guns on the children participating in the program.

The case fell in the complicated legal system even after one of the instructors acknowleged the use of stun-guns.

It does not sound like a fun place to be as a child. Normally we only places teenagers are forced to attend but this program have taken 4 years old in.

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20/07/2015  

353. Love Demonstrated Ministries Christian Boot Camp

Tragedy was close to happen when the so-called counselors decided to drag a girl behind a car because she would not participate fully in the activities in this boot camp.

The police pressed charges but the legal system can be complicated so the case got stuck in appeals. At least it led to the closure of the boot camp. What is remaining is that the Charles Flowers is fired from whatever job he might have which includes contact with minors.

Later the pastor became involved in the fight against same-sex marriage. He proclaimed “a divorce between the Civil Rights Movement and the HLGC agenda citing irreconcilable differences.”

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

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19/07/2015  

352. Krause Children’s Center

14-year-old Maria Mendoza died at this treatment facility in 2002. One of the teenagers who were there when the tragedy took place later wrote:

I was there for this incident. Their restraints were not as they said “the least harful possible.” I was thrown on the ground on my chest with my arms underneath me. I told my restrainer(who was also the same person to restrain Maria Mendoza) that I could not breathe and to let me up. He told me that I would just have to calm down then, wouldn’t I? He had restrained her earlier that week and the pressure had been so much that something had gone wrong with her eye. One of them was blood red like it was bleeding. that day, Maria had been mad about not being able to visit her family because she had been “rude” to one of the staff. She got upset and the man taunted her. She went after him, as she did have a little bit of an anger problem and was restrained. They took her to our “quiet room” after awhile to calm down. I was in the bedroom across from the quiet room at the time and I was peeking out of my door, being nosey. The quiet room had an open front, so it was easy to see everything, unless a staff member stepped in front of the door. Maria told the other staff that she was calm but that if the man (not sure if I can use his name or not) came in there she was going to kick his ____. He had been alongside the wall for the majority of her conversation and at that time stepped in front of the door. Maria tried to do exactly as she said. He flipped her onto the floor and she was trying to scream at him, both cussing and saying she couldn’t breathe. He told her if she wanted to be let up she had to calm down. Now tell me how a 14 year old girl with an anger problem is supposed to calm down when the man who upset her in the first place is the one restraining her? Eventually she stopped fighting and they just assumed that she had calmed down. I got a brief glimpse of her when they all got up and she was motionless. Then everyone got frantic but still managed to stand around useless. One of the other staff asked if anyone knew CPR. The man who restrained her was also our designated lifeguard for when we went swimming. I thought lifeguards are supposed to know CPR. No one performed CPR on Maria until the ambulance came. I knew they were going to tell us she was dead after seeing her laying there not moving. They told us the next day though, after taking her away to the nearby hospital. Alot of us were moved after that, to foster homes or group homes and such. The remaining kids moved with the Krause Center to it’s new location at the time which I heard them saying was going to be one of the floors of a mental institution. I remember not being allowed to go on family visits and such because there were so many people outside who were asking questions. Some police came by and took our statements. I gave them mine, but the staff was there and managed to both talk me out of most of what I was saying and to discredit me as I was a foster child and everyone knows that we are unstable, right? I am surprised that the details are so fresh in my mind after so many years but then again, I’m not as that incident scarred me. I could not stand seeing or even hearing anyone being restrained after that, no matter how much I was reassured that they knew what they were doing. I am now 18 and out of the system but I ran across this story and needed the right version to be heard. Thank you for your time.

It doesn’t sound like a fun place to be as teenager.

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17/07/2015  

351. KIDS of El Paso

KIDS of El Paso was a so-called drug rehab based on the Straight Inc. model. It has since proven to be a dangerous system which causes more relapse compared to parents doing nothing.

Kids were isolated in untrained foster families where they were confined like they were in prison. Result was relapse and an alarming percentage of suicides among the kids who were sent there.

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

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16/07/2015  

350. Heartlight Ministries

This place located in Texas is known to punish teenagers abandoned there by their family in orange jumpsuits. There have been several cases of runaways and the place as also focus of the “Free Nathan” campaign some years ago.

It cannot be fun to be there as a teenager.

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14/07/2015  

349. Grace of God Boy’s Home

Grace of God Boy’s Home was a so-called Christian orientated group home located in Corpus Cristi, Texas.

It was closed down by the DHS in Texas in the early 1990’s. Corporal punishment was used at this place.

It was run by Gerald and Nancy Provorse.

Fortunately it is closed now and exist only in the nightmares amond those who was so unfortunate to end up there abandoned by their families.

It didn’t sound like a fun place to be as a teenager.

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