RESPONSES TO MY JEWISH WORLD REVIEW COLUMN: Nine people wrote in to defend Wwasps programs. I asked the authors for permission to print their letters here. The ones below are the ones where I received that permission. My own (very brief) response follows in the next post.
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I am a parent of a 15 year old son named Tony. Up to recently he was a student at the Academy At Dundee Ranch in Orotina, Costa Rica. He is now in Tranquilty Bay in Jamaica. I am going to endeavor to keep this brief, however, I am not sure that I can do that. There is nothing more important to me then the health, happiness, and well being of my child, and I truly want you to understand my feelings and my position.
I will start by telling you some of what I was dealing with as a single parent of a 14 year old prior to making the heart wrenching decision to place him in a “program.” At 14 years old he was drinking, smoking pot, dropping acid and huffing freon and other lethal chemicals on a regular basis. He was expelled from school for fighting and was getting ready to go back to the 7th grade for the 4th time when the next school year started. He was already in “alternative” education when he was expelled. I was at the end of my options. I had been researching programs and such for a year prior to his placement at Dundee. In the beginning I did not know how I could possible afford to do this. I looked at “boot camps” and decided against them. They are dangerous and why would I pay someone 15 thousand dollars to yell at my kid for 3 months. I had yelled at him for 3 years for nothing and accomplished nothing. Short term program.. Short term results. I had a kid who I loved dearly, who was headed for either the morgue or the Juvenile Justice System and he didn’t seem to care which one it was. I had to do something and I finally came to the realization that I could not afford to do it immediately.
When I came upon WWASP I looked at their program outline and finally started to see some hope. Of course I did my research and talked to other parents. David, my initial contact at Teen Help was the best. He was very up front with me and my questions of “how long and how much.” As much as we would like to believe that our children are extensions of ourselves, the truth of the matter is that they are unique aspects of the creative energy with the god given free will that we all possess. All kids are different. Some will take longer to “get it” and there are no guarantees. I choose WWASP and Dundee Ranch because of their commitment to family healing and the outlines of the seminars offered to the kids and to the parents.
I fully and completely reviewed the program rules and disciplinary policies before I voluntarily signed the guardianship of my child to the staff at Dundee Ranch. As a 20 year veteran of the Correctional System I understood more then most parents the need for “restraint” clauses. I also knew that a program where adherence to rules is stressed is right where my child needed to be. Like I said, I have worked with convicts for many years. In my educated opinion, the main reason that someone winds up in prison is because they just do not see the correlation between their choices and their consequences. Everything that happens to them is someone else’s fault. That is the attitude that makes a convict and it is really scarey to have a 14 year old child with that attitude. And knowing the system the way I do, I knew that if my child wound up in the Juvenile Justice System I would have no control over what happened to him. He would be subject to rape and assault by the other inmates and as much as the staff may try to do the right thing, the facts are, they are understaffed and undertrained. There would be no treatment there for him. In the system we refer to Juvie as “Gladiator School.” All they teach them is how to grow up to be real convicts. I could not, would not, or will not, allow that to happen if it is in my power to prevent it. Until this child is 18 years old I am legally, morally, and financially responsible for his actions. And I will always be emotionally involved in his outcomes. Even tho the local School Board, School Principals and Police want to shave the kid’s head and look for the 666, I know my son. Underneath all that anger and belligerence is a good kid. I will do whatever I have to, to help him find his own light again.
In the year that my son was at Dundee Ranch I saw some wonderful changes in him. We are actually able to communicate again. I have done my parent seminars and he had done his. We are both busy working our own program and when we had the opportunity in our first Parent Child Seminar to practice our new communication skills it was truly an AWESOME experience. Altho it had been seven months since I had seen him, it had been four years since I had seen my child show his authentic self. I knew then and there that all the sacrifices I had made to place him at Dundee were worth it. Words can not even express the joy that I felt. He has made the choice to take the long road in his program. But that is his choice and I cannot make it for him. He is well aware of the fact that he could make his level three in a couple of months and we could have bimonthly phone calls. I have also had to take the firm line that until he make a level that he can have off grounds visits I will not bear the expense of the travel to go see him. These are his choices. I can only hope and pray he will get moving soon, cause I miss him so much.
Lets talk about observation placement or “OP” for a minute. I know a lot of people have a problem with this. Here is my experience of OP. In the correctional system we have Special Housing, commonly referred to as the “hole.” Most inmates never go there. Of those that do, most only go once. Solitary confinement is not a lot of fun. But there is a need for it. If you go there, it is for a reason. As a correctional officer, I do not just snatch someone up for no reason and send them to special housing. Their actions create that event. If you don’t like it there, you will stop doing whatever the obnoxious behavior was that got you their in the first place. It is all about choices and consequences. Tony decided that in his first few months at Dundee that he would go to OP. That was his choice dictated by his behavior. He was well aware of the rules and the consequences of his actions. Of course I hated it for him, but I could no more get inside his head and make these choices for him then I could keep him from cussing out his teachers and the local cops when he was home. But here is the rub. One day when my family rep was not available for our weekly phone call, another staff member took my call in his place. This incredible human being is one of the guys who supervises OP. In the 45 minutes that we spoke , I learned so much about what was going on inside my kid’s head. Even tho my child was kneeling on a tile floor with his nose on the wall, there was someone sitting behind him who really cared about him, talking to him, and letting him talk. Someone who saw him for who he really was and didn’t just write him off because of his actions. Someone who was willing to look deeper then the surface. And when I was at the school for the second time at our first Parent/Child Seminar, my son would not let me leave before I met this person because he was “so cool.” And when Tony finally found him, he did not greet him with a handshake, he greeted him with a big hug. I also got a big hug too! Was he tramatized by this? I seriously doubt it as he was so excited to show me the OP room and his “pose” while we were doing the school tour. He was laughing and joking about the time he spent there in the early stages of his program.
Altho I could go on for a few more pages about the Blessing that Dundee Ranch and WWASP have been for me and my son, I did promise to try to be brief. I am firmly committed to my son, WWASP, and the owner and staff at Dundee Ranch. The fiasco that preceded Dundee’s temporary closing should not have happened. I have faith in a higher being that the wrongs will be righted, and I am doing my level best not to focus on the financial hardship that this has created for me. I have been to Costa Rica twice. The country is very beautiful and the people are warm and friendly. I do not blame the whole of the Costa Rican government for the actions of a few of their representatives. One of the reasons why I decided to send Tony to Dundee Ranch was because I admire the politics of the Costa Rican Government and have wanted to visit there. I think that a large part of this current situation is because the Costa Rican people do not have the same problems with their kids that we face here in the States. Their frame of reference does not allow for an understanding of why the program operates the way it does or why I felt like I had to send my child away to save his life. If anyone believes that I did this on a whim or to just get rid of my problem they don’t know me very well. And anyone who believes that I have somehow been brainwashed really doesn’t know me very well.
With Love and Light,
Kathleen A. Crozier
I am attaching a copy of an ariticle written for the King County Journal
which is balanced and fair.
Please take note on the fair and balanced part!!!!! Other articles to date seem to be slanted one way and give a biased direction. These programs save lives and those journalist who chose to not report the truth are literally causing lives to be lost needlessy. I sure would not want this on my shoulders. Or are you just trying to sell newspapers.
Regards
Lewis Wiedewitsch
P.S. One thing the program teaches is accountability by all—Are you really accountable for your actions?????.
[Wiedewitsch later added:] Thanks for the response and yes I would be proud to stand behind the e-mail I sent you. I am a proud program parent of a child who graduated the program after 24 1/2 months at CASA by the Sea and Bell Academy. This program has saved his life and the lives of many more. Today he is a highschool graduate with a 3.57 GPA and has aspirtations of working at another school before entering
the navy next Spring. This program helps the whole family and only those who chose to not work theirs derates the program. I assure you that I have visited two of the schools and have staffed at CASA recently and found it to be a great place for kids to overcome their behavior problems. Tyler was on medication (Prozac and Ridlin) before the program and during the first 3 months. After that time it was withdrawn since it was no longer needed or required. Those Professional people (shrinks) could not see that he was manipulating them for over three years. They just kept giving more medicine and he just kept getting worse as time went along. Tyler had flunked out of his first semester at a private church highschool and was doing drugs, stealing, drinking and smoking and was sexually active. In addition he had tried suicide. It was when he could not manipulate anyone anymore that he chose to begin making good choices for himself. Today we have our son back who is a joy to be around and what’s most important is that we have our entire family back again. Its ” Whole, Healthy and Happy’ once again thanks to the WWASP Program. This program was for us and thats what
counted!!!!
Submitted Respectfully
Lewis Wiedewitsch
To Whom It May Concern:
I searched for help or assistance from Police Departments, Social Services and other state and federal governmental agencies, which produced neither a remedy to our problems nor any course of action until the child committed crimes for the juvenile court system to step in. Our 20 year old son is currently serving his second prison sentence. This was what we were trying to prevent in the first place. What we wanted was a child who was respectful, honest and have good values that would be a great asset to society and his community. The peer pressure at elementary, middle and high school was greater than what we could produce. His lack of self-confidence, self-esteem and self-respect created the need for him to fit in and be accepted by one of his peer groups which out weighed any attempt by us to keep him in alignment with our family values.
His 16 year old brother has been in two different schools associated with the World Wide Association of Specialized Programs (WWASP). We were determined he would not follow his brother so he began his journey at the age of 14 years old when we drove him to Casa By the Sea. This was on 18 Aug 2001. We have been on that campus many times. This school provided the structure needed to reinforce the values for him to be successful in today’s world. During the 17 months that he was with Casa By the Sea, we were finally relieved to know that our son was safe and out of harms way. We watched him change from the disrespectful child he was to a calm and strong individual with his own values. He graduated High School one week after his 16th birthday and produced a 3.75 GPA. We made friends with the family representatives and administration that were there and they supported our family during these troubled and frustrating time in our lives. They offered us hope and produced results that have not only changed our son’s life but ours as well. We can only thank them from the bottom of our hearts.
We moved him to Spring Creek Lodge on 12 Feb 2003. This move was originally for his transition back into our family. We recently had him home for his first five-day home pass. He now has a really positive attitude and has a vision of what he wants to do in his future. These changes are contributed to the amount of responsibilities and trust that have been given to him and by the type of leadership that has been entrusted in him by the facility. This is done in a very structured environment, which allows him to take risks by making choices and acting upon them. He is awarded for working choices and receives consequences for non-working choices. His ability to communicate and articulate his discussions has improved to the point that he is truly a joy to sit down with and talk about almost anything. He demonstrates the confidence in himself by his demeanor and this is a truly blessing. We have gained enormous trust with the family representatives and administration and thank each and every one of them from the bottom of our heart for their willingness to do what they do for our children and my family.
He has thanked us for loving him enough to put him into these two schools. He also admitted that if we have not of made our decision to intervene with intervention, he would most likely have been dead by now.
Our story is similar to many other parents who have children who were juvenile delinquents, using drugs, drinking alcohol, running away from home, skipping school, violating curfew, taking our car to go on pleasure rides, disregard of house rules, sneaking out at night to party with friends, stealing, destroying personal property, disrespectful to parents, disrespectful to teachers, having unprotected sex and being totally disrespectful to girls.
I can only say that these schools have been a Godsend for my family and I would recommend either of them for any family that has children that are out of control. I only wish that there were more facilities available so more children and families can get the help that they need. In my opinion, if the United States of America would use this type of education system, there would be a greater number of success stories for many young men and women today and a significant decrease in crime by our youth…and there would be no more Columbines.
I have met many graduates of all of the schools with WWASP who have no reason to lie about any abuse at the schools. I would strongly state that I would not want my son’s process or school to be disrupted, disrupted or interfered with because of the opinion of some disgruntled individuals or by bad publicity by the press. To do so would be a great disservice to my family and the multitude of parents who are seeking help for their precious teen. I ask that before any reporter publishes half truths, that they confirm and confirm again before they print harmful stories.
Richard Causer
I have a daughter that has been a student at Tranquility Bay for nearly one year. I have visited the facility and was very impressed. We had complete access to the grounds and the students. It is clean although spartan.
The decision to send our daughter to TB was very difficult, the most stressful in our lives. I have a degree in psychology and my husband has a MA in education so we are educated in many aspects of human behavior. We tried everything to help our daughter gain the skills that she needed to overcome abuse from her early childhood (from her birthfather) including 4 therapists, 2 shrinks, 2 types of medications, help from our church, etc. Her school was willing to help but their responsiblilies were to her education. The mental health system was not appropriate as she was not mentally ill. The criminal justice system was not helpful. Despite every attempt on our part, she began experimenting with alcolhol, drugs, sex, and was flunking out of high school despite being a gifted student. Our home was a war zone. We had to put a lock on her brothers’ bedroom door to protect them from her. We took our car keys and wallets into our bedroom with us at night. We could no longer leave our home.
I came upon the WWASP during one of many sleepless nights. We got many parent referrals that were helpful and positive. We had her escorted in July of 2002.
The change in her has been nothing short of miraculous. She doesn’t like being away from home, but thanks us for “giving her this opportunity”, and for saving her life. She has stated that she probably wouldn’t have been alive by early 2003 had we not done this.
One of the wonderful differences between the WWASP and other schools that we looked into is the level of parent and family support that is required. Seminars attached to her school that we have attended here at home have changed our lives and marriage in ways that I never dreamed of.
Please feel free to contact me for more information. My fear is that because of your slanted and biased article, that some desperate parent somewhere who was considering this program will change her mind because of you, and her child will die. Mark my words.
Deborah Stilwell
[And two letters from the Freedman family, one from mother Anita and one from her son Martin:]
June 24, 2003
To Whom it May Concern:
It is with pleasure that I am writing this letter to discuss my experience with The Academy Dundee Ranch and the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs. I am a parent who had the make the most difficult decision of my life to place my son in a program school. We ran out of options here and found that there was little, in fact no assistance from any local authority or hospital; in fact, there was no program like this available to assist my son and my family through this very difficult journey that would allow for us to stay together while we were going through this difficult time.
My son was unmanageable at home. We were in therapy on an on-going basis, psychiatric hospitals and special camps to assist defiant teens. We found that our whole family was affected and the behaviors that my son was exhibiting were carrying over to his little sister despite our steadfast efforts to maintain a home with a strong value system. I am not a stay at home Mom, but I was able to work my schedule around the school and therefore was home by the time my son returned home from school. He did not go without constant supervision, but we still were not able to manage his behaviors. We could see that he was slipping away and were very concerned for his future. I looked at many different types of boarding schools and finally decided on a school that specialized in working heavily with the entire family and not just the teen who was in trouble. That school is the Academy Dundee Ranch in Costa Rica. I must say that I feel that not only my son’s life was saved, but that all of our lives were saved and have became more meaningful than I could have ever imagined. I attribute all of this to my son’s work at The Academy Dundee Ranch and our work as a family through the programs and seminars provided by ADR and the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs.
Anyone who has not been through this experience or has a relationship with someone who has been through this experience may have a difficult time understanding how we could take such “extreme measures”. It may seem that way to those who are not in a situation like ours, but let me assure you that my experience is that the best parents are those who will do absolutely anything and everything in their power to help their children. I speak with parents almost each day who have a troubled teen or teen in trouble, and they are afraid for their teen’s life and future. In cases like this, how can we not make the choice to get our teen into this program or a program like this. On the other side of the coin, one would certainly pass extreme judgment on us as parents if we DID NOT get our teen into a safe environment where they could not hurt themselves or someone else. I guess one would have to ask the question, “just how dead do you want your kid to be?” We must all wake up and see that there is a serious problem in this and other countries. I don’t think I would be too extreme to classify the growing problem with troubled teens as an emergency that needs to be addressed by all- not just the families who are in crisis.
My son’s work at The Academy Dundee Ranch was comprised of many different facets all designed to create the motivation for change. Martin was given the opportunity to be involved in leadership roles at the school, participated in several plays in the Drama Department, acted as a hope buddy for newer kids, graduated the Discovery, Focus, PC1, Breakpoint and Accountability seminars and overall gained many tools designed to assist him is a successful and meaningful life style. As a result, Martin achieved a 3.71 GPA and was scheduled to take the SAT’s at the age of 16. He now has fewer than 3 ½ credits left to graduate high school and has decided to become an Aerospace Engineer. I can safely say that his level of self confidence is higher than ever and he was soaring as a result of the work he has done in this program.
For a long time Martin was one of the kids who was in heavy resistance to change and the caring staff at ADR worked tirelessly to get him to a place where he could discover his unlimited potential and begin to tap into it in a working way. He was never mistreated and always given the opportunity to start over when it was necessary. I was able to see Martin at PC1 in January and then again in May of this year for 7 days. I received mail regularly both from regular mail deliveries and also from email at least once if not twice and sometimes three times a week. It was clear that Martin was free to write whatever he felt by virtue of his letters which were always open and expressed his feelings. My son reports that not only have NONE of the allegations about the facility ever happened to him, he wishes to return to ADR to continue his program. I know that there are many students who feel the same way. My son was thriving, his self esteem was back as well has his smile that I had not seen in years!
Mr. Vargus and the PANI staff who came into the Academy and stated that the kids were free to leave the school and did not have to follow the rules of the school or the instruction of the staff which I gave full authority to act on my behalf as a parent, caused a great deal of harm not just to my child who was progressing so nicely but also to so many other students and their families. Mr. Vargus, whose position it is to carry out the laws, actually knowingly endangered the life of my minor child. He did this without any warning and certainly usurped my authority as a parent. This willful act was in direct violation of Article 5 of the United Nations Convention on children. He went into my son’s school and stated that the minor students did not have to be there and did not have to follow any rules set forth by the school. Not only was my son put in direct danger by out of control students who were acting on the directives of Mr. Vargus, only time will tell of the emotional damage that has taken place as a result of Mr. Vargus’s actions. So far, there is substantial damage, both emotional and financial and it continues to unfold. Additionally, Mr. Vargus stood by and watched as laws were being broken by said children that he was charged to protect. Some of the children were not only endangering their own lives, but also the lives of others. The staff was remanded from doing anything to offer direction and protection and as a result, there was physical destruction to the school, students were injured and my son personally witnessed other students breaking the law, engaging in illicit acts among many other things. My son and the staff members were powerless to do anything to protect themselves based on Mr. Vargus’s clear directives and armed law enforcement to back him up.
To sum up, I can safely say that my son was progressing towards a future filled with love, happiness and success as a result of the work he has done at The Academy Dundee Ranch. His work was disrupted in such a negative way. He would be most willing to return to The Academy Dundee Ranch when it re-opens and would love to continue his program there.
Please do not hesitate to contact me for any additional information.
Sincerely,
Anita G. Freedman
Before I came into the program, you might have called me a problem child, but most likely you would call me a terror of the house. I did no drugs, never had sex, and never drank alcohol. I was never out of the house late partying and I never got charged with any crimes or got in trouble with the law. BUT that wasn’t my area of terror. I never listened to anything my parents told me and almost never followed the rules of the house. I was never out of the house late into the night, but rather downstairs at 2:00 in the morning buying things on E-Bay, with my mom’s money. I never showered or took care of myself. I never ate with the family and when told not to do something, I would do it behind their backs. Of course it never worked and I always got caught. If nobody was home, you could count on me doing something that I wasn’t supposed to be doing. And many times, even when they were at home, I would be doing something that I was not supposed to be doing. Several times, the police were called to come to my house because of the physical abuse that I would sometimes cause to my parents, specifically my mom. This and more behaviors led me to be sent to a program in South Carolina, called Carolina Springs Academy. It is the sister program to Dundee. There I continued my old behavior for 9 months. I was in huge resistance. I ran the same patterns that I did at home. I refused to follow the rules and was always in trouble. After 9 months of doing nothing, my mom sent me to Dundee.
At first, I was reluctant and did not want to go because of all the stuff, bad stuff that I HEARD about it. But when I got down there, my viewpoint completely changed. Even though I was in worksheets and observation placement the first week I was down there. But then, after that, I finally started to become accustomed to the program and understood what it was all about. I soon realized what a great place it was and that it was so much better than C.S.A. (not that C.S.A. is a bad place, but Dundee is better for me). I soon learned that all of the rumors that I had heard were nothing more, and that most of them were either exaggerated or not true. In fact, in my opinion, the program part of Dundee was so good that it actually gave me a chance to start anew. From then forward, I worked hard, the wonderful Costa Rican mountain environment, the caring staff, and the quite humble atmosphere that was definitely out of my comfort zone definitely gave me a booster with which I could continue to learn and grow. It enabled those of us who really wanted to work a completely out of the way (it sure was out of the way, it was out of the country), secluded area with which to change our ways. Most of the staff there were there because they wanted to be and not because they had to. The clear indication of this was evident due to the language barrier involved. You see, I could easily tell that most of the staff wanted to be there because they tried to learn English and help us learn Spanish. The staff and administration there have been more willing to help us than any of the other 2 programs I have been to. There were of course several problems that would always lurk around. Several problems that needed fixing but let me remind you that taking care of the facility was a big job. But I am almost 100% assured that the problems would be addressed. All Dundee needed was enough time to address it, that which the government of Costa Rica did not give them.
That brings me to my main point: the intervention at Dundee by PANI and District Attorney Vargus. I would like to say that the intervention by those 2 parties at Dundee was completely inexcusable and I did not like the way that they did it. I think that the way they came in and kicked all of the staff out was completely irresponsible. I would have been completely in agreement with them if they had just done it in the right way. First of all, the way that they used the police to block off the staff was completely ridiculous. The way that they came in was such that the students felt that they could do whatever they wanted with complete disregard for the program and its rules. I feel that all rioting that occurred after 12:00 PM May 20th for the next week was a result of the way that the government officials handled themselves that day. And I suppose that we will never know whether or not the outcome would be different if the government had not intervened. All that I know is that without the actions of PANI and District Attorney Vargus, Dundee Ranch Academy might have been able to remain open while making any changes imposed by the Costa Rican government. But now, to those whose lives were a part of the Academy, May 20th will be known not as a good day at Dundee where problems were fixed and improvements made , but rather (and I quote from other students at Dundee) as “A day that will live in infamy.” It is the day that the program at Dundee shutdown.
Sincerely,
Martin M. Sirull
A Student From Dundee Ranch Academy
Eve Tushnet
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