Television for Women

With all the complaints about Honey Boo Boo, I think I should draw attention to another reality show about exploiting children for money. It's called Teen Trouble with Josh Shipp. This guy is a self proclaimed "teen behavior expert." In reality he is certified in absolutely nothing and man it shows. He's a Class A moron.

Usually the show starts with some kid with a problem, Shipp demonstrates his kooky methods. One of these involved having a young girl, already traumatized by the death of her father have go inside a morgue and wash the hair of a dead person and then sealing said girl in a in a coffin. Then ends with him sending the kid to some wilderness lock down facility owned by the Aspen Education group.

Odd how an "expert" always seems to use the last resort solution. If he were such an expert he wouldn't need to do this. But he's not an expert. He's a shill for Aspen.
Now here are some interesting facts about Aspen. A school that was owned by Aspen, Mount Bachelor Academy, was shut down after:

"State investigators found students were required to engage in sexualized role-play and other humiliating activities, such as re-enacting past abuse, in front of staff and peers."

They've also been known to tell rape and molestation victims they should "take responsibility" for it.
Making sex abuse victims re-enact their trauma and telling rape victims it was their fault is now television for women apparently.

Another program, SageWalk (featured on ABC's Brat Camp) got shut down when a teen died after he was denied medical treatment in spite of his obvious distress. This is part and parcel for Aspen and pretty much all the other players in the troubled teen industry. They don't want doctors to see their "work" and start asking questions so they pretend the problem doesn't exist by saying the teen is "faking" even when they're vomiting blood only acting when it is too late.
I suppose being dead would correct bad behavior though (sarcasm).

A number of the schools that are featured on the show have been dealing with some nasty stuff. Axiom Youth Community is being investigated for sexual abuse of a minor and an ensuing cover up. Considering what happened at their other schools I would not be surprised to find it was true.
Of course neither the fact that Aspen's schools have been shut down for neglecting kids or telling rape victims it was their fault, or the fact that the school the parent is signing their kid over to is being investigated for molestation, shows up in the show nor is this told to parents.

Interesting that the people who defend these schools on the basis of "parental rights" ignore the fact that parents are lied to about these and other things as a matter of routine by the entirety of this industry. Don't parents have the "right" to know if the school is being investigated for that sort of thing before they sign their kids up? Evidently the "parental rights" nutters don't think so since they squealed like a stuck pig when bills to require this, as well as other things that the rest of the civilized world call common sense came before the House.

Seems "parental rights" only works when it's being used to protect abusive nutjobs.
Seriously, where other reality shows like Jersey Shore are just plain stupid this show is nasty. Not only is it putting kids, a number of whom have significant mental issues in the hands of people who have a nasty habit of making things worse, it's also putting them in physical danger.

Sources:
Videos of GAO investigation of the Troubled Teen industry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5txr_Vy6jWc
Other videos can be found in the sidebar this was just the most egregious lie the GAO caught
http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/11/state_suspends_license_from_sc.html
DHS report on Aspen's idea of treating young people
http://cafety.org/images/stories/documents/MBA/mba_emergency%20suspension_2009.pdf
Sagewalk report
http://www.cafety.org/privately-funded-programs/834-abuse-investigation-a-protective-services-report-death-of-sb-or-sagewalk
Change.org petition
http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/josh-shipp-and-lifetime-television-network-stop-placing-children-at-serious-risk-of-ill-treatment-and-torture?utm_campaign
 

Pass this letter to your representative

I recently shared a letter written by a former student of the infamous Judge Rotenberg Center. It's the school that uses electric shocks to allegedly stop students with varying psychiatric disabilities from engaging in behaviors that harm themselves or others. They tell parents, lawmakers and judges that the shocks hurt little worse than a bee sting.

In the letter to my Senators and the one I'm posting here, I detail why that is not the case. Keep in mind that the links within the letter are graphic. I encourage you to write your own Representatives. You can use details in my letter if you wish. Heck post it on your website too. The word needs to get out.

My name is Matt Stafford We've dealt with each other before so I'm going to get to the point. Previously I came to you as an Internet freedom advocate. Today I come before you as disability rights/child rights advocate.

You might be acutely aware of the Judge Rotenberg Center. It is a school for children (and some adults) with autism as well as various other psychiatric disabilities. It is unique in that it uses electric skin shocks as a way to control self injury behavior and various other forms of aggression on others. For many parents who are at their wit's end trying to keep their child from cracking their head open on the wall or something, this sounds like a godsend compared to keeping them on thousands of dollars worth of psychotropics (the sort that Eric Harris was on).

And while they tell parents, lawmakers, and judges that shock devices are only used when a student is engaged in some sort of aggressive or dangerous behavior, and they say that the GED device is little more than a bee sting, the reality is far different.

Here are some letters to the FDA concerning JRC's practices. Note that these letters do go into graphic detail

One is from a girl with autism who was there for four years. In it she describes what she went through. Most of the things she got shocked for were not aggressive or self injurious behavior, but things human beings (yourself included no doubt) do every day such as twirling a pencil or thinking out loud. Note that in this letter, a doctor ordered that the device be removed after a seizure, but they continued to use it.

http://www.autistichoya.com/2013/01/judge-rotenberg-center-survivors-letter.html

Another letter from a former teacher details what he did. He gave shocks to kids using a GED-4 device under the impression that it was FDA approved. It is not. After learning this, he resigned. He also detailed a number of shocks that were not the result of aggression or self injury. Furthermore, he states that many of these behaviors are provoked by the staff in order to give them a reason to shock or to get judges to approve the use of GED devices.

http://www.autistichoya.com/2013/01/letter-from-former-teacher-at-torture.html

Note number 7:

"7. I can testify that student behavioral plans were sometimes altered three months prior to court-dates so that judges would not see many of the behaviors for which students were shocked. I can name specific students and their Case Managers. This may be an intentional and systematic misleading of the judge. An investigation could look to see whether hard-copy samples were only kept of the three months leading up to court dates, or if samples of written recording sheets were destroyed altogether, especially for the lower functioning (nonverbal) students."
Here is a video of one of the shock sessions. Warning this is graphic as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtRGQRtwh2U

You can see why JRC spent a lot of money trying to keep this video off the record. It shows that A. The pain is not a simple bee sting. B. The shocks aren't just relegated to when the student is engaging in dangerous behavior. They're done for fun.

And I know you'll get an earful from the "parent's rights" people, large numbers of whom would jump at the chance to remove the meager protections afforded to children in their own homes and various institutions. I ask you, don't parents at least have the right to know the FULL truth about the treatment they've agreed to subject their children to?

You'll also get an earful from parents who support JRC. Most of them have been misled into thinking that the shocks were used only for self injurious behavior or trying to harm others. Many of their kids are nonverbal so they can't speak up. Many of them say that it worked out fine for their child.

However, just because something works out fine for a few does not mean it should be given a free pass. Many victims of terrorism have used their experience as the catalyst for positive life changes but it does not excuse the evil act the terrorist committed.

I implore you Senator to be the voice these kids need. Tell JRC (as well as other schools that use other forms of torture such as starvation diets, extreme isolation, etc.) that doing things that we'd never dream of doing to prisoners is wrong.

-Matt

P.S.

With all the talk about mental illness in the wake of Newtown, maybe it is time to re-evaluate whether or not practices that can lead to things like PTSD and other things that can contribute to gun suicides/homicides should be legal to use on children.