I just found this. So. Sad.
Did you know that in the United States, it is perfectly legal for a child's parents to arrange to have their son/daughter kidnapped, forced into isolation, and tortured? It is. When you hear people talking about "boot camps" or "corrective facilities", this is what it can be like.
Teens have been hogtied, forced to eat their own vomit, made to sit in isolation in their own urine and feces, starved, shoved into fire ant nests, and dragged from behind vans. Now, I know people always blame the parents for sending their kids off to these places in the first place, but oftentimes, the parents are just misinformed and desperate. Brochures for these facilities show swimming pools and smiling counselors, not restraints and isolation chambers. Parents can also choose to have their progeny sent off to a "camp" in Jamaica, where
The only moment a student is alone is in a toilet cubicle; but a chaperone is standing right outside the door, and knows what he or she went in to do, because when students raise their hand for permission to go, they must hold up one finger for 'a number one', and two for 'a number two'.
Corporal punishment is not practiced, but staff administer 'restraint'. One student explains: 'It's a completely degrading, painful experience. You could get it for raising your voice or pointing your finger. You know you're going to get it when three Jamaicans walk in and say, "Take off your watch." They pin you down in a five-point formation and that's when they start twisting and pulling your limbs, grinding your ankles.'
Before sending their teen to Tranquility, parents are advised that it might be prudent to keep their plan a secret, and employ an approved escort service to break the news. The first most teenagers hear of Tranquility is therefore when they are woken from their beds at home at 4am by guards, who place them in a van, handcuffed if necessary, drive them to an airport and fly them to Jamaica. The child will not be allowed to speak to his or her parents for up to six months, or see them for up to a year.
... no child arrives at Tranquility with a release date. Students are judged ready to leave only when they have demonstrated a sincere belief that they deserved to be sent here, and that the programme has, in fact, saved their life. They must renounce their old self, espouse the programme's belief system, display gratitude for their salvation, and police fellow students who resist.
...Students who fail to grasp the formula are forcefully encouraged to get the message. One girl currently has to wear a sign around her neck at all times, which reads: 'I've been in this programme for three years, and I am still pulling crap.'
When most children first arrive they find it difficult to believe that they have no alternative but to submit. In shock, frightened and angry, many simply refuse to obey. This is when they discover the alternative. Guards take them (if necessary by force) to a small bare room and make them (again by force if necessary) lie flat on their face, arms by their sides, on the tiled floor. Watched by a guard, they must remain lying face down, forbidden to speak or move a muscle except for 10 minutes every hour, when they may sit up and stretch before resuming the position. Modest meals are brought to them, and at night they sleep on the floor of the corridor outside under electric light and the gaze of a guard. At dawn they resume the position.
This is known officially as being 'in OP' - Observation Placement - and more casually as 'lying on your face'. Any level student can be sent to OP, and it automatically demotes them to level 1 and zero points. Every 24 hours, students in OP are reviewed by staff, and only sincere and unconditional contrition will earn their release. If they are unrepentant? 'Well, they get another 24 hours.'
One boy told me he'd spent six months in OP.
I didn't think this could be true, but it transpired this was not even exceptional. 'Oh no,' says Kay. 'The record is actually held by a female.' On and off, she spent 18 months lying on her face.
This all sounds like a major abuse of human rights yet the Jamaican govt seems not bothered about the place so long as it obeys local sanitary regulations. The institution has 49% guardianship rights over the kids and the parents approve so the US authorities won't intervene either.
And why would any parent, no matter how desperate, do this to their children? Here's the kicker: the parents are brainwashed too.
Here's a chilling video made by a teen who survived the Jamaican camp.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwUmc_AoykcAnd as if abuse wasn't bad enough, hundreds, if not thousands, of children have been killed in these camps. In most cases, no charges were filed because "it was the kid's fault". They include:
Alex Harris, age 13, who died of thirst after being forced to run for miles. Numerous times that day, the boy begged for water, complained of pain, and even tried to drink from water fountain before allegedly being dragged away from it.
An anonymous Wisconsin girl who died after after being restrained at a mental health facility. Her crime: blowing bubbles in her milk and moving during a time-out.
Martin Lee Anderson, 14, was beaten to death. Charges were filed, but the jury acquitted everyone involved.
Omega Leach, 17, strangled to death. After refusing to leave his room, Omega was pushed into the hallway, thrown to the ground, and choked. The staffer then forced him back into his room, where eyewitnesses reported that he slammed Omega's head into a wall and pinned him face-down on the floor for seven minutes.
Nicholaus Contreraz, 16. The teenager spent the last week of his life complaining of chest pain and difficulty breathing, but had been identified by the staff as a malingerer and punished more when he complained. When the boy sought medical attention for his condition, the camp nurse repeatedly sent him back out with approval to engage in the stringent exercise required of troublesome juveniles. His condition worsened and he began to defecate on himself and vomit frequently. Staff belittled the youth, made him sleep in soiled underwear, made him eat dinner while sitting on a toilet and ordered him to carry a trash basket filled with his soiled clothes and his own vomit. He eventually collapsed and died. The medical examiner ruled Contreraz died of empyema, a buildup of fluid in the lining between his lungs and chest cavity. He was also suffering from strep and staph infections, pneumonia and chronic bronchitis. The coroner noted 71 cuts and bruises on the boy's body. All criminal charges against the staff were dropped.
Paul Choy celebrated his 16th birthday brain dead and on life support. Before he died, a nurse observed injuries consistent with anal rape. Choy was at a center called Rite of Passage, being forced to sit on a wooden platform in the cold for five hours as punishment for failing to finish a five-mile run. That's five hours of shivering and without bathroom breaks. Finally, in reckless desperation, he gave his keepers just the signal they were waiting for. Two staff members restrained him in a full Nelson for about ten minutes, after which time they noticed he wasn't breathing. To make matters worse, a staff member had this to say about the incident:
QUOTE
... Well, you can't just let these punk kids ignore the rules, can you? You gotta put 'em in their place, right? If they're out of control, you restrain 'em, right? When they don't cooperate, you gotta make 'em cooperate, right? And when they come lookin' for trouble, you give 'em trouble. They ain't in boot camp to be mollycoddled, you know, but to learn respect for authority. And I'm not their goddam granny who's gonna give 'em hot coco when they need their butts kicked...
In addition, we have:
Aaron Bacon, 16, abused and neglected until he died of acute peritonitis - an ulcerous meltdown that gradually ate holes in his lower intestine. When his mother went to identify his body,
"His face was unrecognizable," the Phoenix woman sobbed at a hearing in Utah last year. "He had these sunken cheeks, and his eyes, he looked like a skeleton, his hands were all bone. He was literally bruised, black and blue, from the tip of his toes to the top of his head. He had sores between his legs, open sores. The bottoms of his feet, I don't know how anyone could have walked or hiked on them. "His legs were like toothpicks, his hipbones stuck way out, his ribs—he looked like a concentration-camp victim. The only way we were even able to recognize him was a childhood scar above his right eye." I began screaming, because something was terribly wrong."
Michelle Sutton, died of dehydration after being denied water.
Gina Score, forced to run to the point of hypothermia.
Timithy Thomas, age 9, suffocated while being restrained.
Randy Steele, 9, suffocated while being restrained.
Ian Thomas, 14, died of heatstroke.
Anthony Haynes, 14, died after being dehydrated and forced to eat dirt.
Chase Moody, 17, suffocated while being restrained.
Mikie Garcia, 12, suffocated while being restrained.
Faith Finley, 17, choked on her own vomit while being restrained.
Travis Parker, 13, restrained by three men facedown on the ground for an hour and a half before he stopped breathing. He asked for his asthma inhaler after the first 15 minutes, but staff refused to give it to him. They were later fired and arrested for felony murder.
Linda Harris, 14, was found by paramedics unconscious, with scraped elbows, blood in her mouth, and in physical restraints when they arrived at a facility to try to resuscitate her.
Carlton Eugene Thomas, 17, suffered cardiac arrest after a staff member choked him with a restraining hold. His body was battered and bruised.
Dawnne Takeuchi, thrown from a semi-truck. The VisionQuest counselor driving the supply vehicle was convicted of careless driving and was ordered to pay a mere $270 in restitution.
Andrew McClain, 11, died while being restrained in a Portland, Conn., psychiatric hospital.
Mark Soares, 16, died after workers put him in a headlock at a home for troubled youths in Marlboro, where he was placed because of a history of committing verbal and physical assaults.
Casey Collier, 17, died of asphyxiation after six hospital orderlies restrained him by sitting on his back, legs and shoulders.
Rest in peace.
So why did I cross-post this long-winded topic? Because the only way to end such a sickening practice is to spread the word. I suggest that everyone here cross-posts a topic about this on every message board you are subscribed to, and encourage the readers there to do the same. Spread the word, make it viral, Twitter, Facebook, anything. Make it impossible to ignore. Go!
I don't even know what to say to this... Other than the last part of it. SPREAD THE WORD.
General Stuff
