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foreign soil U.S. laws do not govern
the care American teens receive in overseas behavior modification compounds.
"The U.S. government is definitely aware that these camps exist, but
they are run by private companies, and these private companies have
agreements with the parents," said Rebekah Drame, a spokeswoman for
the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs. "The country where
the facility is located is solely responsible for regulating these private
entities since it has permitted the facility to operate within its jurisdiction
and is therefore subject to its laws. "When aware of the existence of
such facilities, U.S. consular officials conduct periodic site visits,
sometimes accompanied by host country officials, to monitor the general
well-being of the U.S. citizen enrollees ... U.S. consular officials
are not qualified to determine whether the programs offered by the facilities
are of therapeutic benefit to the minors involved." Drame said a U.S.
consular official visited Paradise Cove in Western Samoa in October
and found that there was no hot water and that many boys were suffering
from scabies, a skin disease caused by a parasitic mite. The official
notified the Samoan health minister and "the situation did improve after
that time," she said. She said State Department officials also have
visited Teen Help facilities in Jamaica, Mexico and the Czech Republic.
Deciding what rights teens have -- even in the United States -- is complicated
further when they come from broken families. Many of the challenges
to Teen Help referrals -- including the case of Eric Stone, the boy
in the video made at Spring Creek Lodge in Montana -- have involved
divorced couples fighting over what's best for their child. Donna Burke,
a Houston real estate agent who is suing Teen Help, said she was angry
when her ex-husband sent her two sons, 16 and 14, to Tranquility Bay
in Jamaica without her knowledge or approval. But Burke, who has been
in a custody battle with her ex-husband, said she initially went along,
thinking it might be the right thing. "I didn't know they were going
to alter their minds and make little robots out of them," she said.
Teen Help's Contract
"The boys experience a mixture of the great Southwest, incredible fly-fishing
and peaceful solitude of this high mountain red rock desert," reads
one description of Red Rock Academy near St. George, Utah. But the contract
parents sign with the company makes clear that life for their teen-agers
in a distant behavior modification compound likely will be far less
fun than summer camp. For example, the contract for Paradise Cove in
Western Samoa requires parents to hold Teen Help harmless for false
advertising, for any medical complication caused by staff mistakes,
for "bites, sores, infections, slow-healing cuts," and for all illegal
or criminal acts committed against their child by staff members "outside
the scope of their employment." The Western Samoa contract specifies
that "the School/Program services do not include any formal individual
therapy sessions." Such sessions can be arranged for an additional $75
an hour. Parents are told that the "teachers/tutors working with the
students do not need or may not necessarily have U.S. credentials or
equivalent."
Other points in the contract: Saros, director of the county
agency in Columbus, Ohio, that intervened on behalf of Justin Goen,
said he had major concerns about the contract parents sign with Teen
Help. "It was a document that raises many, many concerns, because it
allows mechanical restraints of children for unlimited periods of time,"
he said. "It completely releases the organization from any liability.
It is an amazing document." A contract last year authorized Teen Help
"to use handcuffs, mechanical restraints, electrical disabler, Mace
or pepper spray in order to restrain the student." Parents could not
sue the program for "liability or damages resulting from restraint procedures."
Such specific provisions have been removed from the contract, which
now authorizes "school/program personnel to physically restrain, control
and detain the student." Thomas Burton, a California attorney who has
filed three lawsuits against Teen Help in U.S. District Court in Salt
Lake City, says the contract is "totally unenforceable" in part because
it is "unconscionable." "I've never taken any of the contracts seriously,"
he said. Federal judges in Salt Lake City have yet to decide the issue
of jurisdiction or the enforceability of Teen Help contracts.
©
1999, Denver Rocky Mountain News
insidedenver.com |
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