Tag Archive | Oregon
21/03/2021  

832. Catlin Gabel School

A boarding school in Oregon located near Portland – the Catlin Gabel School – has been in the media due to lawsuits made by former students claiming that they were exposed to sexual abuse.

The lawsuit also target the school for lack of protection of the students from employees with the wrong intentions.

It could not have been fun to be there as a teenager being victims of such actions.

Sources:

20/05/2018  

692. Crossroad Youth Transport Services Inc

Crossroad Youth Transport Services Inc was a so-called youth transport firm. It is a company, parents can hire to transport their children to a residential programs if they do not want to burden themselves with the emotional stress of breaking the news to their children that they will rather spend time on themselves rather than doing the hard work of parenting.

The process often starts with employees entering the room of the teenager in the middle of the night together with one of the parents telling the teenager that the teenager has to go with the employee who the teenager never have met before. Then the parent leave the house, so the employees are cleared of facing potential vitnesses who could testify against them if case of possible violence or other forms of molestation.

The companies operating within this industry has in the past been known to use various forms of mechanical restraints. The website of this firm does not state which forms of restraints or use of force the employees are allowed to use.

It must be very clear that the entire process of such a transport must be very traumatic or in clear violation of one of the first rules, parents learn their children: Never go with a stranger!

It is very clear that it could have not be fun to a teenager transported by a company like Crossroad Youth Transport Services Inc

The website is gone so it seems that the world is now free from having this firm operating.

Sources:

01/08/2017  

583. New Vision Wilderness Therapy

The New Vision Wilderness Therapy program seems to take every teenager in regardless of what the problem is. In a case descriped in the US Observer, a boy ended up in the program because his parents went through a divorce. The judge handling the case punished the boy because his parents could not agree on visitation. The boy did not commit any crime but Judge Judge Gerking decided to confine the boy as result of his parents problems. About 90 days where the boy was denied contact with parents, extended family, school and friends.

To make matter worse the wilderness program did not commit the boy to a local hospital for treatment when the boy experienced health problems. Why the authorities allow treatment in the field conducted by biased doctors or medical staff is very unclear. In 2009 a boy died in the very same area in another wilderness program operating in the exact same way as New Vision Wilderness Therapy. The authorities should have made more clear rules which allow teenagers in such program access to independent treatment in hospitals if they experience health issues while they are out in the wilderness.

Pure luck prevented tragedy in this case. In other news it can be read that the firm seems to be very critical against the trans-gender community.

It cannot be fun to be there as a teenager.

Sources:

30/12/2015  

405. Youth Villages Oregon

Late 2015 this group home and foster agency became the attention of an investigation by the local Department of Human Services.

Among the points of interests the authorities looked into were:

  • No regular bedtime checks
  • failure to intervene in sexual contact between the children
  • very little criminal background checks of employees

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

Source:
Troubled foster home faces license revocation (Statesman Journal)

04/04/2015  

331. White Shield Center, Portland

If you was a young pregnant teenager being referred to White Shield Center you knew that you was about to lose. The next generation in your family would never learn about you. Your child would be adopted to some strange family growing up never learning where they came from.

You would know that you had to carry a emotional wound for the rest of your life.

It was a place for grief. It was a place for loss.

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

The organization continues to run a counseling service for young teenagers. It is currently under investigation by HEAL-online.

Sources:

31/03/2015  

327. Second Nature Wilderness program

Second Nature Wilderness program is marketed as a wilderness therapy program. When the business was largest, It had departments in Georgia, Oregon and Utah. As of 2021 the website only mentions Utah. The wilderness program was founded in 1998.

The students are often forced to attend the program against their wishes. Many are transported to the office by professional muscle persons hired by their parents who collect the teenagers from their own beds using the force and tools necessary for such an pickup.

Each student often has to complete fours phases. If the parents run out of money the teenagers can be kicked out before. Often the program has a referral list of boarding schools they can offer the parents. The program often receive payments from some of the boarding schools and treatment centers when they refer a child.

It cannot be fun to be there as a teenager.

Sources:

Student testimonies:

2021 Update

A father and a son sued the program claiming that the services offered were not real threapy.

30/03/2015  

326. Royal Haven Equestrian Center For Girls

Royal Haven Equestrian Center For Girls was a behavior modification facility located on near Sisters, Oregon for some year before moving closer to Bend.

It focused on treating girls for various behavioral issues. However the treatment took a too personal approach for many of the girls. The founder was sentenced to 45 years in prison.

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

Sources:

29/03/2015  

325. Pendleton Academies

The Pendleton Academies was located in Pendleton in Oregon. It closed in 2008.

Founded in 1989 the facility was as a non-profit organization specializing in education and psychiatric treatment for children with the most challenging behavioral, educational, and mental health care needs.

However the facility used a lot of restraints and they failed to report the use of this to the authorities. As result they were forced to close.

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

Sources:

25/02/2015  

323. The Academy and Scotts Valley School

Long ago there was a program called “The Academy”. They had departments in Oregon and in Fiji.

Former students stated on Fornits:

My name is Grace and i lived at the Academy for 22 months. i barely survived the mental and physical torture of the Bridge campus and the Brainwashing life “seminars”i lived with a girl who was molested in Fiji, I was there when a boy with tourettes was made to dig a hole in bridge. i was there when male staff sexually harrassed female students in bridge.I saw patricia Thomass compleat lack of compassion. As a student i can tell you that no one there had any right helping people change there lives. A person who staffed my training and worked at the school and LIVED on the bridge campus commited suicide from a drug overdose. He was supposed to be teaching me how to live?
My two years there i spoke to Patricia once and all she did was push me to tell my parents to go to the Life Training Seminars ( 3 grand a session) that they forced on me.

i will give ANY information to make sure Patricia and Ryan Thomas NEVER run another program.

and

I attended The Academy’s Oregon and Fiji campus. six months at each and left when i turned 18 in april of 2005.

I was in Fiji there for about 5 or 6 months. while i was there, we did have someone from the embassy come by and we were instructed to be “on our BEST behavior” by the director, Victor Kissun (i think thats the right spelling)
dont speak unless spoken to. dont discuss anything you are not directly asked about. tell them how well we take care of you and how happy you are here.

it was effectively, a gag order and instruction to not make the school look bad in any way.

At the very least, i would say that this facility does condone the abuse of children when they see fit.

I saw a student be restrained and beaten by a staff member and another student. When i tried to stop this, i was
held down, had my hands and legs tied together behind my back and the other end of the rope tied to a beam in the ceiling so that i was unable to move or roll around anywhere. I was left like this for several hours. was forced to urinate on my self because they would not untie me. after this, i was held in isolation for about three weeks and had to sleep on the concrete floor.

After being released from isolation, things became alot better because i was able to trade american clothing, shampoo/conditioner and other items we had for Marijuana and Tobacco leaf and rolling papers. I once smoke Marijuana, with one of the staff members, on the front porch of the directors house while he was off campus. The students in my dorm were almost always chewing Tobacco and some times even smoked Marijuana in the dorm room.
I smoked Marijuana with about 4 or 5 staff members in the 6 months i was there. I never could have gotten away with that at the Oregon campus.

I am still in contact with others who attended these campus’ at the same time as my self. We would be happy to help out with any requests for information on this ‘school’.

The Academy as the first program was called didn’t bring profit in leading staffmembers created Scotts Valley School.

Update:

Late 2015 Scotts Valley School became the center of an investigation by the Department of Human Services. Among the issues the investigation targeted were:

  • food wasn’t always available for the students
  • improperly conducting reference and background checks since 2009
  • did not properly maintain required medication logs for the students

According to several sources, it closed in 2016. It was not a fun place to be as a a teenager

Sources:

20/02/2015  

322. Obsidian Trails Outdoor School

Obsidian Trails Outdoor School was a wilderness which used to operate in Oregon. At some point they employed a person involved in the death of another student in a Utah program before he came to this program. Later they lost a student which made the authorities order a stop to the program.

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

Sources:

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