11/6/09
By Rachel Azevedo
New developments related to the child abuse investigation into a therapeutic school for troubled teens east of Prineville. Mount Bachelor Academy's web site is now off line. When you type in the web address, you're directed to parent company, Aspen Educational Group. The state ordered the school to temporarily close Monday following nine substianted findings of child abuse and neglect.
Mount Bachelor Academy would not answer questions about a permanent closure, but did issue a revised statement Friday that says, quote:
"It is unfortunate that this one-of-a-kind program, which has been effective for so many, will no longer be available to teens and their families."
DHS has given the school 90 days to correct curriculum it found not in compliance with licensing standards. There are a dozen categories from behavior management to therapeutic services, all which list several corrective conditions.
"If those are not corrected satisfactorily within the time frame, then the agency will revoke Mount Bachelor Academy's license," said Gene Evans.
The school addressed findings by DHS that said students were forced to re-enact past trauma, both physical and sexual in nature.
Mount Bachelor Academy said, quote:
"It was designed to help kids confront the worst of their behaviors and take ownership of them, whether that be substance abuse, sexual acting out or other issues."
DHS says it sent its 200 page report to the Crook County Sheriff's Office Friday to review.
Comments
Mba
... its a sad day. It's a shame a few angry kids and a part time van driver who worked at mba for only a month have ruined a great opportunity for so many teens and families. Mba is not a cult... its laughable, ridiculous & dramatic to call it such a thing. The school was and is not cedu, there may have been a few similarities. However, I was a student at mba for 14 months and I also had a friend who went to cedu..and I can tell you the differences are NIGHT AND DAY! I'm disgusted that people continue to reference mba as just a school rich parents dumped their kids off at. Couldn't be farther from the truth. The program is (as it has always been described, and as every parent knows before they send their child there) a therapeutic/emotional growth boarding school, it is SUPPOSE TO BE DIFFERENT & CHALLENGING. That is why it exists, that is why...it has been overwhelmingly succesful in more cases than not. Public schools and other normal boarding schools...full of sex, drugs, gangs, violence, teachers & couenslors who care more getting out of that door when the bell rings instead of helping students, lack of funding to support add/adhd children, peer pressure, over worked parents ect... yea, that sounds like a great place to leave a child who is already falling & falling fast.
I lived in Bend after mba...I worked and got my own apartment at 18 and lived there for almost 2 yrs. I am now back home in the midwest and doing very well I might add. However, I'm appalled and ashamed that a good deal of bend/prineville residents are calling for sharon and other staff members to be prosecuted as well as calling the past & present staff "abusers" and a few other choice phrases I wont repeat. How dare you? These people worked their behinds' off... drove 30-90min everyday (and, might I add... they're not getting "rich" off helping the "poor abused delinquents" at mba) to help adolescents! They should be commended and praised, I'm sure alot of the people against mba haven't done as much as these devoted people to help the next generation become succesful, caring, aware, hard-working citizens of society.
This is such a joke that dhs has abruptly shut down mba... I was there before they watered down the program (march 01-may02) and I'm sure the lifesteps now arent even close to being as helpful as they once were. Why wasnt dhs consistenly knocking on mba's doors (publicly?) and if this investigation was going on for 7 months...if it the "abuse" was SO bad, why in heck wasnt the school shutdown a wk..a month..several months ago? Something smells fishy.
Anyways, I could go on & on. This is a joke, like I said and I'm appalled that dhs has taken so many things out of context because of a few bitter former students. (and might I add, that several of the kids who made the complaints had been already KICKED OUT OF MBA for their repeated irrational, violent, uncontrollable behavior...I bet that didnt make their parents to happy huh?) I will not stop standing up for mba, and neither will HUNDREDS of other students. Aspen might be throwing mba under the bus but we will not...we want that beautiful school in the ochoco forest to be opened back up so more lives/families CAN BE SAVED AND HELPED!
Wha??
Are you kidding? Did you even read the report. You can say abuse helped thousand of kids.. that doesn't make it true - or any less inhumane, innappropriate or inhumane. Here's more from the Bazelon Center for Mental Health
http://www.bazelon.org/issues/children/news/ForestGrove.htm
And 'A START', the Alliance for the Safe, Therapeutic, and Appropriate Use of Residential Treatment - an organization of mental health professionals, parents, advocates, and young adults who came together in 2005 amidst growing concern about mistreatment of youth in residential programs.
http://astart.fmhi.usf.edu/
My thoughts as a former student (1997-1999)
There are prisons, mental institutions, outward bound youth intervention, work programs, rehabilitation clinics, churches, psychologists, and psychiatrists for a reason. Schools and programs like MBA are the grey area in between.
Schools like these are understaffed, under-trained, unprepared to handle (let alone therapeutically treat) children that may in fact belong in any of the afore mentioned, pre-existing institutions.
The tuition costs more than an Ivy League College Tuition but you leave the school with only a GED equivalency and have to pay out of pocket for anything other than the basic services (i.e. food, shelter, outsider communications filtering/monitoring, and outdated and unsupported therapy techniques).
Also, with the cost of tuition in mind, the staff are a problem too. The requirements work there (other than school teachers) seem to barely involve a college diploma, a desire to help children, or even a background check. I mention the background check because there are many staff members who were themselves confessed drug abusers, criminals, and usually former students at a similar program in their early years.
So, did we call it? Those of us smart enough to pick, choose, question, and refuse parts of the program sure did. Glad to say I gave 'em hell while I was there.
Solidarity people,
Peace.