I feel honored that Secret Prisons for teens was mentioned in the documentary "Extreme Brat Camp" about 22 minutes and 30 seconds into the program.
However some part of me feels that it is too much. I have done as founder of Secret Prisons for Teens is to care as a parent would and should care. Being a father myself to two children who have endured too much hardship in this world I constantly walk around feeling that I have not done enough.
My thoughts go out to the children in the program. Normally I mistrust the child protection services having seen firsthand how self-centered foster-parents can be. Foster parents who believe that they are smarter than doctors, nurses and counselors all together. But the children in this documentary could have benefitted if the system had interfered with the parents decision to hand custody over their own children over to shouting paramilitary people on power-trips.
In this documentary two programs should have center for investigations by the authorities if the social services in these town had cared. The transport service should have been outlawed and the Christian Boarding School, which was listed on Fornits Wiki really seemed as a warehouse for children of none caring parents left without any knowledge about modern teenage life. They cannot document progress but get children returned they have graduated from their program once before.
My children are not at my side right now due to illnesses. However due to the work pushing for reforms their cell phone and Internet contracts have been modified so they can call my all day without having their conversations monitored and cut if they happened to disagree to something at the place they live now. They have the right to complain and be heard. That doesn’t mean that I agree with them. I pay the rent. I make the food. I make the rules in my house and it is respected. Others make the rules where they live and because it is a package deal they have to take the rough with the smooth.
But the rough my children experience is no near what is seen in this documentary. Whenever home is no longer an option the replacement should not be a kind of prison but a place for healing. That is where my children are now. Unfortunately not all children get help. They get punishment instead as the documentary shows. So the fight against abusive residential placements for children continues so other children can get help also.
Once again: I am honored but there are a lot of work left.
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Thursday, October 16, 2014
Setencing and reaction to the Julian Youth Academy baby murder case
The mother of the baby was sentenced to 25 years to life. She can apply for parole after 25 years. She can also appeal the sentence.
Julian Youth Academy where the mother first was a student and later counselor has changed their name to River View Christian Academy so they can put distance the poor media coverage.
As a commentor to one of the article states there should be reason to look at the kind of therapy which the facility use on the students:
We must remember that the mother was product of the therapy and morale code inflicted on the girls at the academy. Hopefully the state will follow up on the case with an investigation.
Sources:
Julian Youth Academy where the mother first was a student and later counselor has changed their name to River View Christian Academy so they can put distance the poor media coverage.
As a commentor to one of the article states there should be reason to look at the kind of therapy which the facility use on the students:
Now where the court has reached their conclusion the time has come to put some focus on this odd boarding school where she graduated from and later returned to work as a counselor.
What kind of double-standards based on a so-called Christian belief was instilled upon her causing her to make these tragic decisions. The school is known for isolating their students from their old peers and it is dangerous in a time where the social network of everyone has become yet more important. This tragedy could have been prevented by allowing more communication.
We all know the movie and play “Agnes of God” which is based on a similar tragedy in the 1970’s. The lessons learned back then were that it takes a secluded and restricted environment to make killing of baby easy without anyone noticing. A heavy part also is religion and denial of social interacting including the sexual part of interacting.
How can the state allow a boarding school to operate with the student not having access to Internet and cell phone outside education periods from day one when we are living in year 2014? It is time to prevent the next tragedy now where the legal system has made its decision in this case.
We must remember that the mother was product of the therapy and morale code inflicted on the girls at the academy. Hopefully the state will follow up on the case with an investigation.
Sources:
- Mother in 'mummy baby' case gets 25 to life (Article with the commenct - KRCR TV)
- A testimony from a former student, who attended the academy
- Another testimony from a former student
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Guilty verdict in the Julian Academy infact murder case
The court has returned a guilty verdict in the case where a mummified baby was found dead on the campus belonging to Julian Youth Academy.
Originally the campus housed the infamous Cascade School, later a Christian boarding School existed on the campus for a few years until Julian Youth Academy relocated there some years ago.
The mummified baby belonged to an employee who used to be a student in the program who started to work for the program after her graduation. Taking into consideration that Julian Youth Academy only “enrolls” students by force it could be rather strange that they hire former students when most teenagers who struggle through the rite of passage towards adulthood benefit from talks with people with long life-experience.
But then of course a young adult with partly severed connections to her normal social network of family and friends is cheap labor because remember how we often seek and change work – by using our social network. The sentenced woman had no such network left, so when the school offered a position she of course took it.
Many know of the play by John Pielmeier named Agnes of God. The play based on a similar tragedy like the one at Julian Youth Academy where the court reached the conclusion that the nun was insane when she murdered the child. Can you compare the two cases?
Not exactly! In the case from Julian Youth Academy the mother had access to the free world. She knew what sex was. She was not raped by a priest which was theory in the original case from Rochester in New York. She engaged willingly in a relationship with a boyfriend.
Still she was not living a normal life. She was still under heavy influence by the school and their almost fundamentalist views on life. The normal rite of passage for teenagers involving partying and interests in the bodies of the opposite gender was put aside leaving the young adults poorly prepared for life once they graduated.
Could the baby have survived? Yes if the co-workers might have discovered it. The mother was so ill-prepared to be a mother that it would be a question of time before the baby would be seriously hurt or die as it did in the end.
Why did the mother not turn to the school co-workers? The answer is that it would not only have caused her to be fired. It would have resulted in the end of her life as she knew it. The school had become her life. She would have been as ill-prepared to the life outside as the baby to a world with her as a mother.
Can we learn something from this tragedy? We have to accept as parents that the world has changed since our childhood. Today it must be accepted that the teenagers and young adult party because we as a society don’t offer them the security of a job after only a few years in school. A job created an identity, strong morale and work values. It creates the feeling to belong to something when the teenagers share a beer with co-workers after work.
Here in Europe our biggest problem is not teenagers drinking or teenagers having sex. If only these small problems were the only ones. No, our problem is teenagers joining criminal gangs or traveling down to the Middle East to join the Islamic State in their acts of terrorism. Here the teenagers can find someone who invites them inside as accepted co-workers. As result the local population suffers. Later we will suffer.
There is no need for places like Julian Youth Academy. What are needed are jobs and safe zones for teenagers partying. What is needed is educating kids down to age 10 about sexual relationships. Here in Denmark teenage pregnancies are so much a thing of the past that we as a people is slowly moving forward extinction because the average of a mother giving birth to her first child is close to 30. We Danes are unable to reproduce ourselves because the demands of education and career are given priority over the creation of a family.
Knowledge is power and it saves lives. Had this mother been proper prepared for life instead of having been confined to a Christian boarding school, the baby would have survived; If not as her child then in an adopted family.
The Rochcester tragedy took place 40 years ago. If we should avoid taking about the same in 40 years then stop removing teenagers from our society and inform them instead. Give them jobs and a sense of belonging to something.
Sources:
Originally the campus housed the infamous Cascade School, later a Christian boarding School existed on the campus for a few years until Julian Youth Academy relocated there some years ago.
The mummified baby belonged to an employee who used to be a student in the program who started to work for the program after her graduation. Taking into consideration that Julian Youth Academy only “enrolls” students by force it could be rather strange that they hire former students when most teenagers who struggle through the rite of passage towards adulthood benefit from talks with people with long life-experience.
But then of course a young adult with partly severed connections to her normal social network of family and friends is cheap labor because remember how we often seek and change work – by using our social network. The sentenced woman had no such network left, so when the school offered a position she of course took it.
Many know of the play by John Pielmeier named Agnes of God. The play based on a similar tragedy like the one at Julian Youth Academy where the court reached the conclusion that the nun was insane when she murdered the child. Can you compare the two cases?
Not exactly! In the case from Julian Youth Academy the mother had access to the free world. She knew what sex was. She was not raped by a priest which was theory in the original case from Rochester in New York. She engaged willingly in a relationship with a boyfriend.
Still she was not living a normal life. She was still under heavy influence by the school and their almost fundamentalist views on life. The normal rite of passage for teenagers involving partying and interests in the bodies of the opposite gender was put aside leaving the young adults poorly prepared for life once they graduated.
Could the baby have survived? Yes if the co-workers might have discovered it. The mother was so ill-prepared to be a mother that it would be a question of time before the baby would be seriously hurt or die as it did in the end.
Why did the mother not turn to the school co-workers? The answer is that it would not only have caused her to be fired. It would have resulted in the end of her life as she knew it. The school had become her life. She would have been as ill-prepared to the life outside as the baby to a world with her as a mother.
Can we learn something from this tragedy? We have to accept as parents that the world has changed since our childhood. Today it must be accepted that the teenagers and young adult party because we as a society don’t offer them the security of a job after only a few years in school. A job created an identity, strong morale and work values. It creates the feeling to belong to something when the teenagers share a beer with co-workers after work.
Here in Europe our biggest problem is not teenagers drinking or teenagers having sex. If only these small problems were the only ones. No, our problem is teenagers joining criminal gangs or traveling down to the Middle East to join the Islamic State in their acts of terrorism. Here the teenagers can find someone who invites them inside as accepted co-workers. As result the local population suffers. Later we will suffer.
There is no need for places like Julian Youth Academy. What are needed are jobs and safe zones for teenagers partying. What is needed is educating kids down to age 10 about sexual relationships. Here in Denmark teenage pregnancies are so much a thing of the past that we as a people is slowly moving forward extinction because the average of a mother giving birth to her first child is close to 30. We Danes are unable to reproduce ourselves because the demands of education and career are given priority over the creation of a family.
Knowledge is power and it saves lives. Had this mother been proper prepared for life instead of having been confined to a Christian boarding school, the baby would have survived; If not as her child then in an adopted family.
The Rochcester tragedy took place 40 years ago. If we should avoid taking about the same in 40 years then stop removing teenagers from our society and inform them instead. Give them jobs and a sense of belonging to something.
Sources:
- Julian Youth Academy (Wikipedia)
- About the case (Murderpedia)
- Nun proclaimed innocent in death of newborn son (Schenectady Gazette)
- Student testimony from a former student (Tales from the black school blog)
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