FATHER AND SON
Eric Stone and his father, Craig, spend time in a park near their home in suburban Seattle, Craig Stone arranged Eric's release from Teen Help's Spring Creek Lodge after becoming alarmed by the boy's emotional condition there.
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Emotional nightmare
Video of sobbing son prompts dad to yank
him from Montana youth camp

By Lou Kilzer
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

There's no doubt Eric Stone had a problem. Grades. "I was doing very crappy in school," concedes Eric, 16, who spent 41/2 months in Teen Help, the Utah-based network of behavior modification camps for teens.

His father, Craig Stone, said he wasn't all that concerned. Eric, who lived with his father north of Seattle, didn't drink, do drugs or run with outlaws. The poor grades were just a phase, Craig Stone thought.

That's one side of the story. But as in many other cases involving Teen Help, Eric's other parent saw things differently.

Vickie, Craig Stone's ex-wife, declined to discuss her son's case in detail with the Denver Rocky Mountain News. But her actions indicate that she was concerned about her son and arranged to send him to Teen Help. Craig Stone says that Eric often visited his mother on weekends. So when Eric did not return home one Sunday night in September after a visit with Vickie, Craig Stone says he was not overly concerned. Eric would be home the next morning.

But by Monday afternoon, Craig Stone said he "kind of felt something was up."

Soon Craig Stone's brother called. Vickie, the brother said, had just told him she had sent Eric to a boarding school.

"It was devastating for me," Craig Stone said. "I tried calling her. She wouldn't take my calls. She just sent me a letter stating that Eric's in a new school and she would tell me where he was if I agreed to sign a contract and leave him there."

Craig Stone wouldn't agree. But he said he "played it like a sucker and got as much information as I could."

Craig Stone's sister hit the Internet trying to piece together what might have happened.

Craig Stone's sister hit the Internet trying to piece together what might have happened. After three months of detective work, they thought the most likely spot that Vickie had taken Eric was a place called Spring Creek Lodge near Thompson Falls, Mont. If so, it would mean that Eric was in the care of Teen Help.

"The information we were digging up was scaring us because we were afraid of them transferring Eric to Samoa or Jamaica," Craig Stone said.

"So I kept quiet until I was absolutely sure."

Finally, he called Spring Creek director Cameron Pullan. Yes, Pullan said, Eric was there. He said he thought that Craig Stone had known it all along.

Because Craig Stone had joint custody with Vickie, Pullan said, Craig Stone must sign the contract authorizing Eric's stay at Spring Creek Lodge. Craig Stone said no.

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A court hearing to resolve the parents' dispute over Teen Help was set. Then two things happened to make Craig Stone decide to take charge.

In an effort to convince Craig Stone that Spring Creek Lodge was right for Eric, the Teen Help staff there videotaped the interview with Eric included in this article.

The video shocked Craig Stone. It showed a sobbing, distraught Eric saying how much he missed his home and how much he knew he must remain in Montana. Craig Stone became even more alarmed when he called Spring Creek and learned that Eric was on suicide watch.

He gathered his brother, sister and a friend who is a former pro football lineman. The four headed to Thompson Falls.

Craig Stone went to the sheriff's office and showed a deputy the custody papers. The deputy called the compound.

"If Eric wants to come home, you let him go," Craig Stone said the deputy warned Pullan. The four adults drove to Spring Creek Lodge, where Pullan met them.

"All of a sudden, Eric comes running out of nowhere, crying his head off," Craig Stone said.

Eric flew into his arms. "He was overwhelmed," his father said. "He couldn't believe it was happening."

Many kids report positive experiences in Teen Help, but Eric isn't one of them. He didn't like it from the day he arrived, and he said it only got worse.

When he started out on Level 1 -- the lowest rung on the Teen Help ladder -- he said a "buddy came everywhere with me. Took showers with me. Came with me when I had to go to the bathroom."

The only way to shake the buddy was to take and pass Teen Help's rugged group encounter seminars. To Eric, the sessions were worse than staying on Level 1, although they lasted only three days each.

"They just rip you with feedback," he said. "They tell you you're crap. They try to bring you up in more of their beliefs. ... They try to get you to be like a kid that doesn't talk back, that doesn't question authority, that just goes along with whatever happens."

Eric said he faked his way through the first two seminars but lacked the emotional defenses to withstand the third seminar, called "Accountability."

"It's known to make you programmed," he said. " ... You totally will into the program. You don't see anything wrong with it. You don't have anything against it." An hour into Accountability, Eric said he refused to go on. He said that's when the staff and other students turned on him.

"Everybody was getting down on me because I chose out of the third seminar," Eric recalls. "I knew it wasn't for me."

Soon, Craig Stone said he was told, his son was on suicide watch.

Unknown to Eric, Craig Stone was trying behind the scenes to get him out.

Now living again with his father, Eric is readjusting to life, but it's a struggle.

"In school, he's doing great," his father says, but then he hesitates. "It's up and down," Craig Stone says.

"He's angry. Still angry. Sparks fly between us occasionally. "There's a lot of resentment and hard, unanswered feelings. We both need to get some counseling to get over this whole thing."

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