STORIES BY LOU KILZER PHOTOGRAPHS BY DENNIS SCHROEDER

NOT GETTING WITH THE PROGRAM
At right, a girl at Cross Creek Manor faces a wall, apart from the group hug. Teen Help programs insist that students fully embrace tough behavior standards. Those who express any doubt receive punishment known as "consequences."

 

Columbine fallout

Like no event before it, the April 20 Columbine High School massacre focused world attention on the issue of destructive teen behavior -- and early warning signs that might head it off.

Speculation has reverberated among parents, mental health experts and social commentators about whether Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold could have been helped before they murdered 12 fellow students and a teacher and killed themselves.

Teen Help offers one answer.

One Teen Help activist says that inquiries about its programs have surged since Columbine. A judge in Washington state, citing Columbine, ruled that a mother was wrong to interfere with her former husband's decision to send their child to a Teen Help compound.

"With the incident at Littleton so close to your readers, I question why more families don't put their children in programs that save their lives and the lives of others," said Julie Evans, an Elko, Nev., woman whose 16-year-old daughter is at a Teen Help residential facility in Utah. "I wonder what would have happened if the Littleton boys and their families had gone through the program."

"In light of recent events, such as the tragedy at Columbine High School, I am sure that these programs have not only saved the lives of many of its participants but also those of other teen-agers who could have become innocent victims," Teen Help founder Robert Lichfield told the News.

GIVING UP THEIR SHOES Cubbyholes hold girls shoes at Teen Help's Cross Creek Manor in La Verkin, Utah. Girls entering the program have almost no privileges, and shoes are conficated to discourage running away.

A Web site for a Teen Help umbrella group urges supporters to "speak up! Everyone's talking about how the school shootings in Colorado might have been avoided. If you are interested in sharing your views on dealing with troubled teens and want to contact the TV talk shows or morning news programs, here are some online addresses."

Some mental health professionals recoil at the thought that Teen Help and similar programs might gain additional business because of Columbine.

The debate about Teen Help centers on whether its brand of tough love is appropriate for adolescents stumbling through one of the most emotionally vulnerable periods of their lives.

"The programs have not had phenomenal growth because their clients are dissatisfied," said Brent Facer, a Lichfield associate. "Is it possible to please everyone? No. Even Disneyland can't claim that. However, considering the volume of clients, the ... programs' satisfaction rate is remarkable and outstanding, with both parents and students alike."

"Some people are going to perceive us in a very bad way. Other people are going to perceive us as saving kids' lives," Lichfield told Dateline NBC in a report aired April 12.

Teen Help says that 96 percent of teens and parents who finish its program like the results. But Lichfield acknowledged in the Dateline NBC report that 60 percent of the teens his company enrolls do not complete the program.

"The programs are so effective that most parents see a dramatic turnaround in their children in the early stages, which prompts them to bring their child home early," -Facer said

"The programs are so effective that most parents see a dramatic turnaround in their children in the early stages, which prompts them to bring their child home early," Facer said.

In a newsletter to parents, however, another Teen Help official said that "all our studies and information show the lack of completion, for any teen, is a setup for continued problems for the entire family."

Several psychologists and psychiatrists interviewed by the News expressed skepticism and alarm about Teen Help's methods.

"There's something very creepy about this," Seattle psychiatrist August Piper said. "It's kind of frightening. It sort of smacks of brainwashing, doesn't it?"

Rutgers University psychologist Robert Karlin acknowledged that Teen Help and similar programs can change behavior in a tightly controlled environment. But he warned that some teens could be traumatized psychologically.

"It would take one hell of a lot to think that the only way to bring my kid out of his problems is to take him in for brainwashing," Karlin said.

But Karlin said he understands why some American parents in the waning years of the 20th century have turned to extreme measures with their kids.

 

"They're not evil people trying to hurt their children," he said. "They're people -- many of whom are desperate."

"They're not evil people trying to hurt their children," he said. "They're people -- many of whom are desperate."

One of them is Michele Harway of Encino, Calif. -- herself a prominent psychologist and the mother of a troubled teen.

"You name it, we tried it," she said. "We tried everything my profession has to offer."

She and her husband finally sent their son to Teen Help's programs in Western Samoa and Montana. They're glad they did.

"It's really difficult when your child is in the kind of peer culture that most of our kids nowadays are faced with," she said.

It is difficult, she said, "to counteract that with a one-hour appointment a week, or even a five-hour appointment a week."

Many other parents agree that Teen Help's strict regimen and uncompromising philosophy are precisely what their kids needed.

"Here's the deal," says Barbara Rodgers of Colorado Springs. "This program is definitely a behavior modification program. It has taken some kids that were in pretty bad shape. And my daughter Vanessa was one of them. She was very disrespectful. Her grades were in the toilet."

Rodgers recalled the day she sent Vanessa to Teen Help:

"My husband and I sat at the table in the kitchen and said, 'Well, at least she's not driving off in a hearse."'

Vanessa, now 18, finished the program 20 months ago and recently completed high school. Her mother gives Teen Help tremendous credit:

"I have a daughter now that has direction in her life, that's pleasant to be around."

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