Allegations Against at-risk Youth Programs Made Before Chairman of Committee on Education and Labor

New Paltz grad student accuses Catskill area facility of mistreatment

By Emily Canty, Staff Writer

A number of programs that take in troubled youth are facing allegations of abuse by their staff, including a school in the Catskills that was attended by at least one New Paltz resident. Some of the schools and programs are accused of malnutrition, verbal abuse and neglect of students.

On Oct. 10 this issue was addressed at a hearing overseen by Hon. George Miller, the chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor. In this hearing, parents delivered several testimonies, including the stories of three adolescents who died while enrolled in “tough love” programs.

“There is only one word for this behavior and that is inhumane,” said Hon. George Miller at the hearing.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) checks up on federal programs and monitors their performance. The GAO took a look at 10 closed cases of teens that died in the care of the programs between 1990 and 2004. Some causes of death were dehydration, internal injury and heat exhaustion. Ineffective program management played a key role in most of these deaths.

“The overall analysis includes private and public programs… the internet and pending and closed civil and criminal lawsuits,” GAO Managing Director of Forensic Audits and Special Investigations Gregory Kutz stated in his testimony.

Four key themes found in case studies were presented at the hearing, including untrained program staff, misleading marketing practices, abuse and negligent operating practices.

In his testimony, Kutz stated that the GAO found “youth being forced to eat their own vomit, denied adequate food, being forced to lie in urine or feces, being kicked, beaten and thrown to the ground and being forced to use a toothbrush to clean a toilet and then being forced to use that toothbrush on their teeth.”

SUNY New Paltz graduate student Jon Martin attended a program for at-risk teens at the Family Foundation School, in Hancock, N.Y. from 1995 until 1997. During his time there, Martin alleges that the Family Foundation School forced its participants to enforce their methods of restraint on the other youth. If a child tried to run away, the other children were told to chase, tackle and bring the escapee back.

“I had been fortunate enough to miss out on most of the horrors personally, although I unfortunately gave many tours to prospective parents, participated in the restraining, and so on. I am not proud of this, but it unfortunately was part of their game,” Martin said.

Former student of Mission Mountain School in Montana Kathryn Whitehead is now the vice president and co-founder of the Community Alliance for the Ethical Treatment of Youth (CAFETY).

Whitehead’s statement, found on the CAFETY Web site, mentions the abuse she experienced.

“Once I was placed on intervention for speaking of running away. For over a week I was forced to dig a hole in the ground and pick rocks out of it with a rock pick for anywhere between 8 to 10 hours each day, with no breaks except for during meal times and chores,” said Whitehead.

CAFETY’s mission is to increase awareness of inadequately regulated facilities using harmful practices and to increase accountability and transparency through coordinated, organized support for policy change.

The CAFETY Web site offers forums as support for survivors and their family members. Several different facilities are discussed on this forum and members have used it to contact young adults that attended the same establishment as they did.

Whitehead explained state policy regarding misled youth reform facilities.

“Each state is responsible for regulation and do so with varying stringentness [sic], or not at all; with variable funding allocation to monitoring, or none at all; and various levels of sensitivity and competency depending on the overseeing agency responsible,” said Whitehead.

Whitehead also said that a state-policy study found that treatment facilities that do not receive state funds are not regulated.

Dr. Sidney Parham, the vice president for academic affairs at The Family Foundation School, said that overall, these programs are very positive and many young adults are helped. He is also the chairman of the education committee for the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP).

Regarding the allegations made against The Family Foundation School, Parham said he preferred not to comment at this time.

Being in an advisory position in CAFETY, Martin is working with connections in the entertainment business to tell the stories of maltreatment. He said that major network news station have recently been showing interest in CAFETY.

“My main focus is on getting the word out through avenues that will reach the youth,” Martin said, although he feels the message is appropriate for anyone concerned about such cruelty.

“If any of those who were so horrified of torture and abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay took a moment to look at what happens to the children, the citizens, of our own country, maybe something would change,” Martin said.

Any students interested in starting a CAFETY chapter on campus should contact Jon Martin .