An Oregon School for Troubled Teens Is Under Scrutiny

On April 28, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case that has caused anguish in the world of special education and children’s mental health.

The case, Forest Grove v. TA, centers on the question of whether families with a disabled child have a right to seek reimbursement for private-school tuition from the state if the child did not first receive special-education services in public school. The legal question is a narrow one, but the case raises larger, more troublesome issues about student safety and the quality of educational services that families should expect when they place their children in private residential care, because the school involved in the case, Mount Bachelor Academy, near Prineville, Ore., is under state investigation for allegations of abuse reported by students and one employee.

A spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) declined to discuss the details of the ongoing investigations, which include a second inquiry based on possible licensing violations. But according to 10 students, two separate parents and a part-time employee interviewed by TIME — some of whom are involved in the inquiry — Mount Bachelor Academy regularly uses intensely humiliating tactics as treatment. For instance, in required seminars that the school calls Lifesteps, students say staff members of the residential program have instructed girls, some of whom say they have been victims of rape or sexual abuse, to dress in provocative clothing — fishnet stockings, high heels and miniskirts — and perform lap dances for male students as therapy.

Sharon Bitz, executive director of Mount Bachelor Academy, denies the charges. In an e-mailed statement to TIME, she said the reports of abuse are “inaccurate representations of Mount Bachelor Academy’s therapeutic approach for struggling or underachieving teens. Some of the accusations are demonstrably false, while others have been exaggerated for shock effect.”

In response to the accusations of sexual humiliation, Bitz told Oregon’s Bend Bulletin newspaper in a recent interview that school officials have never instructed students to act in a way that would “sexualize them,” and that the students’ costumes came from their own dorm rooms and were chosen by the students. “We would never ask a student to give a lap dance,” Bitz told the paper.

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Source: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1891082,00.html

Do Lap Dances and Humiliation Treat ADHD and Should Public Schools Pay?

In today’s Time Magazine online, I have an article about a school– Mount Bachelor Academy– which is part of a Supreme Court case to be argued on April 28. The Court will answer the question of whether parents can sue to get reimbursement for private residential schools like Mount Bachelor, if their disabled child hasnt first tried public special education. In this case, the child’s disability was ADHD.

For the article, I interviewed more than ten students, two unrelated parents and a current employee who describe bizarre, abusive, one-size-fits-all “therapies” that are neither educational or therapeutic. Most of the teens I spoke with say they had witnessed or were personally made to perform lap dances or other sexualized activity in front of dozens of peers and staff. The school’s management denies all allegations of wrong-doing.

It may be the case that parents should have access to the courts if they feel that their school’s plan for their child with a disability is wrong. The Supreme Court will make that decision.

However, I think it’s very difficult to argue that sexual humiliation, sleep deprivation, food deprivation and isolation from family (kids are only allowed one ten-minute, monitored phone call every other week for months on end, no calls if they are punished) is an effective treatment for ADHD, depression, addiction or any other form of teen misbehavior or mental illness.

Though the school denies that it uses degrading tactics, reports of them have come from students, former employees and parents for decades.

Mount Bachelor is part of Aspen Education– believed to be the largest chain of teen residential programs in the U.S. Aspen, as part of CRC Health, which is owned by Bain Capital, was seen by advocates as much more sedate and less given to wacky practices than clearly “out there” programs like those associated with the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASP or WWASPS). At one WWASP school, for example, teens were kept in outdoor dog cages.

The stories of psychological abuse coming out of Mount Bachelor– a few of which are included in my Time piece– are every bit as bad as I have heard from teens and parents at chains of programs that have far worse reputations.

Under the IDEA act– the special education law for people with disabilities– kids are supposed to be treated in the least restrictive setting with evidence-based approaches. Evidence-based treatment requires that teens have maximum contact with their families, be treated with dignity and respect and be empowered and given real choices.

It does not appear that Mount Bachelor meets anyone’s definition of a “least restrictive environment” or that its treatment is based on accepted research data.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maia-szalavitz/do-lap-dances-and-humilia_b_188141.html

Pee Poo

When I first saw the Peepoo bag I thought it was a joke, but after reading about it I realized it’s quite a novel idea. Basically it’s a plastic bag to go to the bathroom in, which is why I thought it was a joke, but this simple little bag employs some sophisticated sustainable solutions and solves some pretty daunting problems.

In the developing world clean water and sanitation are very scarce. This is due to over population and lack of infrastructure and poses a serious health risk to the affected populations. In these parts of the world not only do they lack the infrastructure to attain clean water, they also lack the infrastructure needed to deal with all their waste, so they end up contaminating the little water they have. Around the world, one child dies every 15 seconds from to contaminated water. For them the saying “Don’t piss where you drink” isn’t a clever metaphor, it’s a real life challenge.

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Source: http://greenupgrader.com/7230/improving-sanitation-with-the-peepoo-bag/