Think of the CHIL-DREN

In Missouri, orphanages and homes for the children of immigrants were started up because of need in the late 1800s. Children of immigrants-- some who were half-orphans-- were at increased risk for placement in these places because of serious illness of a parent or because the family could not financially afford to take care of all of its' members. Religious organizations were at the forefront. There were orphanages for children of German immigrants being run by several sects. Girls were taught to cook and sew. Boys were taught to chop wood.

Missouri is the stomping grounds for many religious homes for children today although for different reasons. Thanks to some ultra-religiosos, there is a popular but mistaken belief in allowing religious homes to govern themselves in some states without a need for any real oversight or state licensing. The thing is, state regs would force the hiring of more staff who are better qualified, some increased supervision of their charges, and the adoption of regs that they are reluctant to kowtow to. Specifically, in the growing industry of sending troubled teens away for treatment, corporal punishment. Corporal punishment is allowed in the Bible, according to these places. The folks in charge invoke a higher authority when challenged-- no less than the personage of the Divine White Heterosexual Male Master himself.

When Brother Lester Roloff opened the Rebekah Home for Girls in Texas, state requirements had been relaxed due to Governor-at-the-time [now President] Bush's interest in perpetuating the de-regulation of regulations over religious outfits and the Rebekah Home could engage in paddling the girls, denying them reading materials and the basic right to practice the religion of their choice, putting girls in isolation rooms for up to several weeks on end without allowing them to wash or bathe, monitoring their correspondence, and chaining them to pipes. Most religious outfits had already gone along with the state regs in Texas. The Roloff homes [there were several at the time] and a few other radical fringe groups celebrated the ruling. Waco happened and H.R. 2482 expired which meant once again that homes such as Roloff's would have to be licensed and regulated.

Roloff moved his homes to Florida, Mississippi, Georgia. He placed them under the auspices of the Independent Baptist Church-- a sect which he founded. That was on the advice of his attorney. Brother Roloff was killed in an small aircraft crash in 1962. His successor, Reverend Bobby A. Wills moved the homes to Missouri because Mississippi wanted licensing.
There are currently six or so homes existing today which have ties to Brother Roloff. These homes all train troubled teens in the Bible and the knowledge of the necessity of getting saved. They also believe in corporal punishment, restricting or supervising correspondence with those outside, and physical isolation from the temptations of the world. The Rebekah Home for Girls is still in Texas-- an empty campus with an eye for re-opening awaiting the favor of President Bush once again. Bad enough to have all these faith-based programs paid for by our taxes methinks. Even worse that they do not have to play by the same rules as the rest of us.

The school possessing the most notoriety was perhaps the one run by Bob Wills. There are entire websites devoted to the Mountain Park Baptist Boarding School and its' legal woes. Driven from Mississippi, the school and three others settled in unregulated Missouri. Several former students have begun lawsuits alleging abuse. September 2007's Free Thought Today newsletter out of Madison, Wisconsin contains an essay by one of the plantiffs-- Carrie Louise Nutt. Her essay on page 12 is titled, "Christian Schools for the Damned." She paints a severe picture of censorship, fear, and punishment. Mountain Park was closed in 2003. It's sister school is alive and well in Florida.

Survivors of Mountain Park and other places like the infamous Elan School in Poland Springs, Maine are speaking out. A websearch will bring you to a Fornits Board where Elan folks commiserate on the things endured during their stay. As it turns out, the school itself is not quite the hang-out-in-the-rugged-wilderness that its' website advertises. Elan also has Group Meetings and also a note about the humiliation practiced there on the teens. Group Meetings, called G.M.s by the initiates, are feared. Residents "get their feelings out" on the assigned scapegoat of the day by the dorm mates conducting an open group physical attack followed by staff haranguing with the kids joining in. A G.M. can last from 4 hours to 24 hours. Total brutality was reserved for the runaways. The "splitters" are hunted down in the woods [the Evan School is surrounded by woods] by physically strong teens and beaten most severely.

Supporters will say that the harsh discipline gave them their child back or that their child got Jesus or is now living a decent life. Detractors tell different harsher stories. The harsh stories are not limited to Independent Baptist Churches' schools/homes for teens. Most folks are familiar with the wilderness camps that are advertised for the emotionally deranged teen. Some may even recall teen boot camps which were popularized by teevee talk show host Jenny Jones and others. Boot Camps and Wilderness Camps also do not have to follow some of the more peskier regs-- like staff qualifications. Nowadays a desperate parent can send off their troublesome teen to such faraway places as Samoa and Jamaica. Places outside of the U.S.A. definitely do not have to follow our rules. And there is something else too. The kid may come back dead or maimed. Websites set up by "consultants" who "recommend" the perfect program for children to go to are partially to blame. And then one also has to wonder why a parent would trust an electronic stranger to know where their kid should go without ever meeting said "consultants."

I have never faced having to put my child on a PINS petition or watch them go off to prison in handcuffs. I have never had the experience of unmitigated hatred by my offspring or the heartbreak of having to place my child in residential treatment. I don't have any kids. It wasn't for lack of trying. It just didn't happen. I don't know the anguish of having to make a decision that must be heart-breaking. I do know survivors of institutional abuse. The troubled teen industry has become an industry. Sure there are good folks out there. There are indifferent folks out there too, desperate folks, dangerous folks. Children are our future. But please don't tell me to Think of the CHIL-DREN and then turn around and support yet another faith-based initiative which adds up to improper treatment of kids in order to skirt some regs and oversight, beat the hell out of them in accordance with the dictates of some book, and censor their every breath.


radical sapphoq


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