Can 2013 be another golden year

We have learned that one of the largest firms operating behavior modification programs in the United States have decided to close 5 programs down. They are:

• Academy at Swift River
• Talisman Academy
• Stone Mountain School
• SUWS Adolescent & Youth Programs
• Adirondack Leadership Expeditions

Some parts of SUWS remains in operation. Also other independent programs have announced their closure. Among the most well-known programs among survivors was Lighthouse Ministries of North West Florida formerly known as Victory Christian Academy. When the program was located in California a girl died there while she was put to work on something she wasn't trained professional do. Construction work demands education and the program was kicked out of California. They soon found a safe haven in Florida where the authorities doesn't care about religious programs.

However resent coverage in the media put the spotlight on programs like the Lighthouse. Their past was presented to the public. They had no choice but to close. However the closure came too late for the author Michele Ulriksen who died in 2011. Her book "Reform at Victory" showed the ordeal she and the other girls were forced to endure.

2013 seems to be a fine year. So far no teenagers have died in a group home or wilderness program which would be the first for several decades. We will cross our fingers and hope the best.


Sources:

• Aspen Education Group Closes Five Programs (Strugglingteens - industry marketing firm)
• Factsheet about Academy at Swift River (Fornits Wiki)
• Factsheet about Stone Mountain School (Fornits Wiki)
• Factsheet about Adirondack Leadership Expeditions (Fornits Wiki)
• Factsheet about SUWS (Fornits Wiki)
• Reform at Victory

Karl Johanson's reply to a local article in a SUWS runaway case

Karl Johanson wrote in response to this article:

Runaways located after 14-hour search, By Richelle Bailey, The Mcdowell News, May 09, 2010

I am happy that they were found safe.

But I am concerned because knowing the type of wilderness program they were detained in, they were not provided with legal representation as they would have if they had committed a crime.

Most of the so-called clients or detainees, which are a better term, are either tricked by their parents to such program or simply pulled out of their bed at night by private youth transport firms and transported to the wilderness camps in handcuffs and shackles on the orders of their parents.

How come that criminals are better protected that an ordinary teenagers, who may only have problems as little as an ordinary depression or being picky at the dinner table?

What kind of society are we, when we send a message to our kids that you have to commit a crime in order to secure legal protection for you?

As I stated above I volunteer for a NGO where we track records of possible abuse and deaths among minors in treatment. Every year we must acknowledge that we once again can observe how teenagers lost their lives in a treatment aimed to "treat" them. Every year we also most acknowledge that some cannot live on with the memories of the so-called treatment and choose to end their lives prematurely.

When will it stop? We hope that 2010 will be the turning point, but as this story show, it will most likely not happen.

My heart goes out for these girls. May they one day be able to return to their families safe and hopefully without so many scars from the "treatment".

References:

Deaths of minors in residential settings year 2005 - 2009