Utah Company Forcibly Kidnaps LGBT Teens in the Middle of the Night

[Truth2Tell]

From: Reddit

http://www.reddit.com/r/troubledteens/comments/hk0xy/a_gay_teen_describes_her_experience_at_a_utah/

A gay teen describes her experience at a Utah brainwashing facility

PART 1

On May 10th of 2007 at around 2:30 in the morning two strangers barged into my bedroom. I started screaming and crying, as in my mind I was sure that these two strangers had broken into my house and were going to abduct me, rape me, kill me, or in some way harm me. They immediately told me that if I did not shut up that they would handcuff me. I was not being in any way violent or threatening. I was reacting in fear for my life by being vocal and hoping that someone would come to help. I had no idea what was going on. I stopped screaming, still in fear for my life. They started going through my closet digging out clothes as I was only in a night gown. They still had not explained what was going on. I asked, frightened, what the wanted from me, trying to see if I could in some way appease them and get them to leave. They then explained that they were going to take me to a school. It took me a second to understand what they meant by this, as this was an extremely bizarre way to introduce a child to a new school. It then occurred to me that this was what my mother had arranged for my brother several years ago when she had him shipped away to Cross Creek. The two strangers were from Teen Escort Service, a for-profit company that transports teenagers, usually by force, to WWASP (World Wide Association of Specialty Programs) facilities.

I was extremely upset and cried the entire trip, but I obeyed all of their orders. Even though I was being cooperative they said it was their policy to put a belt around the bust of the child and hold the belt so that there would be no chance of attempting to run. It was so humiliating to be led around like a fucking dog around the airport. It was also extremely uncomfortable to have this strange older male putting his hand so close to my breast. I never understood how any of this was legal but definitely knew that none of it was ethical. To this day I feel extremely angered, disturbed, and violated by this entire experience. In addition to this they “forgot” all of the psychiatric medication I had been on at my house. It’s not that I am for psychiatric meds, but it certainly did not feel healthy or normal to go from taking this medication regularly, to just not having it and stopping with out tapering off of it.

From the moment I arrived at Cross Creek, I was treated as though I was broken, dirty, and inhuman. During my stay I saw many others treated this way. I had never spoken to R., the program director, before and my first experience with him was horrible. He asked me why I was there, and I told him all of the things I’d done that I could think of that could possibly be perceived as “bad”. He yelled at me, saying that I was lying and that I didn’t love or care about my parents. I was shocked and confused, unsure of what I had done to deserve this treatment from someone I had just met. To this day, the only thing I can think of that I possibly could have left out was my attraction to other females. In one of the Parent-Child seminars we were made to attend, my mother shared with me that this was one of the biggest “issues” that caused her to send me to Cross Creek. Not the drugs, not the sex (she told me she had no knowledge of me being sexually active prior to being forced to disclose it to her), not the issues with school, but just the fact that there was a possibility that one day I might fall in love with a female. Sorry for not realizing what a horrible, broken child this made me, R.

http://www.reddit.com/r/troubledteens/comments/hk0xy/a_gay_teen_describes_her_experience_at_a_utah/">Continued here...

[TomClash]

1. I'm speechless

This is so far from any behavior considered acceptable in my family and by my friends that I have a hard time conceiving of it.

[spooky3]

2. She needs to lawyer up.

[stevenleser]

4. But do what? Is it illegal for a parent to do this to an underaged child? It should be, but...

I dont think it is.

[Matariki]

11. For fucking child pornography from the sounds of it.

Ugh. That was one ugly news story.

[spooky3]

19. no kidding - also kidnapping, assault, etc.

Children are humans with civil rights too.

From the sounds of things on the Wiki site linked by another poster, litigation is proceeding, the plaintiffs may prevail, and this may force this horrid organization out of business if it hasn't already succeeded in doing so.

[Matariki]

25. Yeah, the thing reads like s/m porn.

It's sickening. I hope some day one of these creeps gets their head kicked in by some kid whose bedroom they're invading in the middle of the night.

[spooky3]

20. "...assault, battery, false imprisonment, fraud and racketeering."

"The highest profile case is a federal suit involving 353 parents and former students. The suit accuses WWASPS and its affiliates — including Carolina Springs — of assault, battery, false imprisonment, fraud and racketeering."

http://www.independentmail.com/news/2010/dec/17/abbeville-school-had-role-rise-and-fall-enterprise/

[stevenleser]

28. Those are cases where the parents pressed charges and sued. The OP parents are not unhappy.

There is no case if the parents are happy.

[spooky3]

44. Huh?

Are you a lawyer? On what basis are you arguing that she has no right to sue someone who has assaulted, etc., her?

And, the article I linked did NOT say that only parents were involved in that particular suit.

You need to provide links before you make such claims.

[stevenleser]

57. No, YOU need to provide legal links to justify YOUR claims. Anyone can file suit, you need to show

a successful suit or appellate ruling.

[spooky3]

64. I provided links to sites containing multiple links to legal cases and to the 13th&14th amendments.

I'm not the one coming to this website and making blanket claims that certain individuals have no legal rights in a given situation, when evidence suggests they do. You haven't responded to any of my requests for more evidence--and I notice that you are now backing off your blanket claims. So I'm done with this conversation.

[MadMaddie]

22. It's still kidnapping isn't it?

These people were not from a hospital or from the police.

[stevenleser]

27. Sending your own underaged child someplace? No, that is not kidnapping. n/t

[spooky3]

46. Read this link as a starting point. Using your logic, if the

parents asked a neighbor to beat up their child, no crime could possibly have occurred and there is no cause for any civil action. It also suggests a parent could assault his or her own child in any way s/he chose. That simply isn't true.

http://www.heal-online.org/legalarguments.htm

[stevenleser]

61. Assault and sexual molestation are definite crimes regardless. But it is not kidnapping to send your

own child for which you have custody to a discipline-based school.

[SemperEadem]

48. parents who allow others to perpetrate a crime on their child with their permission

are still guilty.

Plenty of parents who allow adults to sexually molest their children are still held accountable.

Kidnapping and abducting is still a crime. Taking the child across state lines in the commission of a crime (kidnapping and abducting) is still a crime.

[stevenleser]

59. Again, it is not kidnapping/abducting if it is your children and you have custody.

As for sexual molestation, of course, if that is the case then it is a crime regardless, but there is no kidnapping here.

[SemperEadem]

62. I think someone asked you above if you're a lawyer

you're not.

[stevenleser]

63. #1 - You arent a lawyer either. #2 - Everyone knows a parent can do this. Here is a quiz

#1 - Can a parent who has custody of a minor child legally send a child to live with relatives in New Zealand?
Answer: Yes

#2 - Can a parent who has custody of a minor child legally send a child to a boarding school in Switzerland?
Answer: Yes

#3 - Can a parent who has custory of a minor child legally send a child to Virginia Military Academy if they have disciplinary issues?
Answer: Yes

Fact is, tens and hundreds of thousands of parents do the types of things I am talking about above every year. It's not illegal.

[SemperEadem]

47. I don't believe parents can engage in kidnapping of their own children

for any reason.

Kidnapping, abducting and taking a child across state lines is a crime.

One thing is for sure: if I was this child and these were my parents, they would die lonely and old and never hear from me again.

[stevenleser]

58. It is not kidnapping if it is your children and you have custody. Its that simple. n/t

[Truth2Tell]

5. People have been trying to do that against these guys

for awhile...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Association_of_Specialty_Programs_and_Schools

WWASPS and its associated institutions have been the target of criticism over their treatment methods, including allegations of severe abuse and torture by staff at programs supported by WWASPS.<28> The programs have been the subject of legal investigations by several U.S. states.<27> In 2003, a reporter for The New York Times interviewed 60 current and former program participants and parents; some gave positive reports of their experiences, while other participants and parents said that WWASPS programs were abusive.<2>

Numerous former students or their parents have filed lawsuits against WWASPS, its personnel, or individual schools. Most have been settled out of court or dismissed for procedural reasons. For example, a 2005 lawsuit filed in California on behalf of more than 20 plaintiffs was dismissed because the judge found that California lacked jurisdiction. In June 2007, Utah attorney Thomas M. Burton told a reporter that six suits he had filed against WWASPS on behalf of his clients had been dismissed on procedural grounds. WWASPS president Ken Kay told an interviewer that lawsuits against WWASPS are ploys to get money, brought by people who "are never going to be happy."<29> A lawsuit filed in 2007 against WWASPS and its founder, Robert Lichfield, on behalf of 133 plaintiffs alleging physical and sexual abuse and fraudulent concealment of abuse brought negative publicity to Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, because Lichfield was one of six co-chairs of the Utah state fundraising committee for Romney's campaign.

---

They also fight back...

On several occasions, WWASPS and its principals have responded to criticism by suing their critics. Robert Lichfield sued two individual people associated with the International Survivors Action Committee (ISAC) for defamation, invasion of his privacy, and causing "intentional interference with 'prospective economic advantage'."<27> That suit was pending as of April 2005.<27> In May 2005 a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed (on jurisdictional grounds) a defamation lawsuit brought by WWASPS against a United Press International reporter who had done research for a news story about alleged abuse at several WWASPS schools. The reporter was accused of having made defamatory statements about WWASPS to "potential students, former students, parents of potential and former students, an employee of a state agency responsible for licensing a member school, and a Utah attorney who had filed numerous suits against ." <31>

[spooky3]

18. You're missing the most important (IMHO) line at Wiki:

"WWASPS officials report that the organization is no longer in business, but because of ongoing litigation, it has not been dissolved.<8>"

This means that the litigation may in fact ultimately succeed in getting rid of these monsters.

Notice also in the pgh. you quoted, none of the cases were dismissed because there were no grounds for the suit. This implies to me that the lawyers were not very good at making sure their procedural i's were dotted and t's crossed.

Hope/help is on the way.

[bluestateguy]

3. These "ex-gay" camps need to be shut down

and congressional hearings to expose them.

It's just plain abuse, backed by junk science.

[TomClash]

6. So where is the Justice Department?

Oh wait, they are too busy prosecuting whistleblowers.

[Truth2Tell]

7. America is under seige by Internet Poker and Medical Pot

so the DOJ is busy. Sorry.

[nichomachus]

33. Investigating a bicycle rider who used steroids

[yardwork]

14. It might help if President Obama stopped showcasing the leaders of such groups.

Donnie McClurkin, featured performer and master of ceremonies at a campaign event in South Carolina, runs a business empire dedicated to "curing the gays."

[MadMaddie]

23. Won't happen until the Democratic party is back in charge of the

House.

[stevenleser]

30. And I think that is the key, we need new legislation, but crafting it is going to be interesting...

For instance, if you have a child and it is misbehaving, you can send them to a boarding school that specialized in discipline. Some of those schools come and get the child in a manner not very different from what is described in the OP.

So the legislation is going to somehow have to differentiate between that and sending a kid to one of these anti-gay schools.

[Patiod]

51. WWASPS isn't anti-gay - it's for any behavior a parent doesn't accept

Everything from violence to a "bad attitude". So it will be difficult to differentiate between something like Vally Forge Military Academy, and WWASPS, which is essentially a prison.

We know a survivor, and from what she described, I can't wish anything bad enough on the evil people who run the company.

[stevenleser]

60. Thats exactly it. Some folks who are really, really smart with crafting of legislation are going to

have to study this. We need to stop the anti-gay camps or the anti-gay portion of disciplinarian schools but doing that is not going to be easy at all.

[sakabatou]

8. I swear if that happened to me

I'd do my damned to get the hell out

[libodem]

9. Snag and drag

Therapy.

[marmar]

10. WTFF?

Unreal.

[sarcasmo]

12. Parents should have their parental rights terminated, just sad.

[MrScorpio]

13. Jeezus.

Is this what we've come to?

[originalpckelly]

15. This is a good documentary...it's not just not an ex-gay camp...

This is about another facility owned by the same company, the one that got it all started:
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=057_1200885881

[Odin2005]

16. OMG!

Why hasn't this crap been shut down?

[spooky3]

21. looks like it has been shut down or will be soon

http://www.independentmail.com/news/2010/dec/17/abbeville-school-had-role-rise-and-fall-enterprise/

[ccharles000]

17. k/r

[knitter4democracy]

24. I think one of my students went to one of thost places.

It wasn't one to change kids from being gay but instead for "troubled" teens. What she described sounded like hell.

[Patiod]

50. We were just with someone who got put there

She didn't want to talk about it, but she said it was indescribably awful.

[TheWraith]

26. Gotta admit, whenever I read one of these stories, the first thought in my mind...

...is that I would like to take the owners of the school, their employees, and the parents who employ these types of "services," line them up against a wall, and personally one by one shoot them in the head.

I know that this feeling is supposed to be wrong, but for the life of me, I have the hardest time figuring out WHY.

[sulphurdunn]

41. You are too compassionate.

I was thinking more along the lines of a very long sentence in the general population of any maximum security prison in the US. They are also behavior modification hell holes.

[xchrom]

29. ...

:mad:

[jerseyjack]

31. There could be a successful suit even if the parents complied.

Catholic parents were happy to send their kids to Pedophilia, Inc. Still the kids (adults) prevailed in court. They need a better lawyer.

[Dem_in_Nebr.]

32. Holy shit!!!

That's all I can say right now.This is sick making,

[AlbertCat]

34. He yelled at me saying... I didn’t love or care about my parents.

Well, I'm sure she really does now that Mommy has had her kidnapped and mentally tortured.

Mommy using her child to solve Mommy's own mental problems.


Yet even MORE proof heterosexuals should not be allowed to raise children.

[Cherchez la Femme]

35. An improvement, historically, for the Mormons (see Danites)

They *used to have* (Past tense. LOL Yeah right) 'Danites'
http://1857massacre.com/MMM/danites_index.htm
aka "Kolob Secret Service" or as the above article calls them "Mormon Hit Men".

--or check Wikipedia to start, although I try to eschew that site on principle, especially as it is, along with other groups, constantly 'monitored and edited to make sure the "Real Truth" *really* gets out'
Cause, y'know: De Mormons nil Nisi Bonum
---Sorry, don't have a Latin translation for 'Mormons': perhaps *Lambda Delta Sigma* for Latter Day Saints? (Pardon my Greek, but Greek is often accepted in 'modern' translations when there is no real Latin translation. Of course if someone has a better translation, please tell me! I'm far from a language scholar, but I mean Duh!)

The Danites would come, exactly as in this case, in the middle of the night.
They'd remove the offending (no longer a) Saint forcibly from the home, take them out and execute them (didn't HAVE to be a Saint either -- could just be an offending Gentile neighbor!).

Bing. Bang. Boom.
Bemurdered.

Simple. Easy. Effective!

Blood atonement, still in use in Utah to this day (which is why they still have firing squads for judicial executions).
Blood on the ground, an offering to God the Fadda in Heaven.
He'd get a sniff and practically receive a Holy Boner from it.
Always helpful when Mormon God's have so many wives to service (that was and still is *the* tenet of LDS, and not to my knowledge strictly regarding Fundamentalism: If you didn't have at least 3 wives, you only got to go to at best a 2nd-level Heaven, and you got a 2nd-level world for you to rule over as its, and everything in it's God -- awkward grammar. Appy olly loggies.)

Blood Atonement was because (Christians may find this interesting) Jesus Christ's dying on the cross wasn't enough to forgive *that* sin -- needed an extra Oomph!
Yeah baby, yeah!
But Blood Atonement blossomed quite quickly, if ever truly based upon it at all, from being about 'an eye for an eye' in: re: murder;
into blatant (and Masonically tinged) homicide against anyone going against um... well, whatever the Prophet-'O-the-day, or the Quorum of the 70,
down to heck, any regular bishop or priest (Melchizedek, Aaronic *or* Patriarchal Priest!
Truth in advertising, for Mormons no less! YAY!)

And 'Priesthood' was received as a rite of passage, handed down by his father, for every good Mormon 12-year-old boy!


Apostate blood. Yum.
Hardly anything more pleasing in His sight, or smell, other than "white and delightsome people" of course!


This, of course, was to help those murdered.
To save them.
Save their souls.
Rather, the embarrassment factor against the Holy LDS community (they ARE 'Saints', ya know!) Why, I think embarrassing them is one of the highest sins! (see John Lee)


So anyhow: Polygamy is A-OK, but homo's?! Please!



BTW -- OT but some of you may find a search & perusal of LDS "Feminism" forums quite educational.
Amusing, at the very least.

Those ladies give a whole new name to "Feminism". :evilgrin:




EDIT: *sigh* I best put in my sig "Edit: Typo" :(

[SoapBox]

36. America...land of profit and terror.

Sickening.

And hello, ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, NPR, PBS...are you gonna cover this $hit?

[intaglio]

37. Remember, these are not just "ex-Gay" camps

they are ex-"mouthing-off-to-your-parents" camps; ex-"leaving-your-windows-open-at-night" camps. Check subsequent posts in that thread.

[chrisa]

38. They're concentration camps.

Take a look at the story half way down in the comments about the kid who was "helped" when his stomach exploded from starving to death. :scared:

[chrisa]

39. duplicate

[Initech]

40. Utah *COMPANY* forcibly kidnaps....

The mere fact that this is a fucking business right off the bat tells you that it's shady to deal with. I think deprogramming someone into believing what they believe in is just fucking wrong, but adding a business angle to it makes it even worse, that basically means that someone is profiting off of this bullshit, and they're the real criminals in this story.

[PavePusher]

42. I'd like to see some sort of corroboration on this, as it sounds very... odd.

How in the world do you get a teen through an airport, on a harness, in these days of TSA intrusiveness? How do you do it at any time there are other adults in the vicinity? On reflection, they could possibly have done a small aircraft through a private airport, but that's very pricey...

Where is this "Cross Creek" facility? I'm not having any luck on Google...
Oops, found this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Association_of_Specialty_Programs_and_Schools, and this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_Creek_Programs, which is pretty uninformative. Also this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Accreditation_Commission.
Edit: Leading to this: http://www.crosscreekprogram.com/



O.K., on second reflection/edit, I see that this is a pretty unsavory business. I'll leave my original words standing as a testement to doing one's research before posting... But I'm still not getting the airport thing. How the flying fuck (no pun intended) do you manage that? Who's being paid off?

[Shining Jack]

43. WTF?

That's totally insane. :(

[nolabear]

45. Utah is one of a few states known for this.

Parents can send their minor children there without their consent. There are myriad "Outward Bound" style camps and other immersion programs, some of which might be helpful but there appears to be little regulation and some very frightening stories. In my professional life I've seen reactions that range from actual rehabilitation to brainwashing to trauma. It's appalling.

[Patiod]

49. Spent Tuesday night with a WWASP survivor - she is a mess

Her aunt reluctantly adopted her after her single-mother mom died, and rather than stick out the girl's inevitably turbulent adolescence Aunt Bitch dumped her first in one WWASP facility, Casa-by-the-Sea, and then, when that was shut down by Mexican authorities, dumped her at another, called "Midwest Academy," which is basically a prison with on-line courses. (No LGBT issues with our friend - these prisons take anyone who wealthy parents want to dump - good, bad, straight or gay)

Our young friend says that in fact, the place was far worse than a prison. In prison, you can write to people, and speak to other people. When you're locked up at a WWASP facility, you aren't allowed to communicate with anyone, not even family, for 6 months. So our friend couldn't contact family who might have interceded and asked Aunt Bitch if perhaps THEY could have custody instead. She also wasn't allowed to communicate in any way with any of the other inmates.

This young person was traumatized beyond belief by the entire experience. She said it was full of kids whose rich parents just didn't feel like dealing with them any more, for a whole host of reasons. People whose parents were nothing but fuck-ups. She was there two and a half years. She wondered why we hadn't bothered to look for her, and we told her that Aunt Bitch moved to Denver without leaving any forwarding information, and we couldn't find her until recently. If we had known what was going on, we might have been able to intervene. .

If you read up on the WWASP "treatment", you'll see that these people are monsters. It's 100% punitive, as opposed to being in any way positive or supportive. Many of the punishments are severely abusive. I'm shaking just thinking about what they did to this little girl. And the kid in the OP as well.

Our friend is on her own now. And what's Aunt Bitch up to? I kid you not, she's active in her area's Tea Party movement. Absolutely God's honest truth, (at least according to her niece).

Surprised?

[Kurovski]

52. What would happen if some kid next door had a gun, stepped in and blew the kidnappers away.

I hope the parents are "protected" in case of such an event happening.

Assholes.

I hardly believe this is real. I half hope it's some sort of fraud. :(

[knitter4democracy]

53. Oh, it's real all right.

There are many teen re-education camps all over the US. One of my former students went to one, and it fucked her up but good.

[Kurovski]

54. Thanks knitter4democracy.

I haven't seen you in a while. :hi:

I know the animated South Park has done an episode on the camps.

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/155505/butters-arrives-at-camp

[CreekDog]

55. if you have this done to your kids, maybe they should be taken from you permanently

for their own good.

[Daemonaquila]

56. A violent response would be totally appropriate.

I don't care if a parent has paid the thugs (and are therefore thugs themselves) - any person of any age who is violently assaulted in their bedroom at 2:30 AM is justified in a violent response in self defense. These paid private prisons need to be shut down, and all management and staff involved in these kinds of activities should be prosecuted.