Teachers Arrested in China

Two teachers were arrested in China in October of 2012.  Their crimes? Abusing kids in the classroom.  The incidents led to an outcry among people who use the Chinese micro-blogging service called Weibo.  They saw the first picture of a teacher pulling on a young boy's ears, uncovered personal details and more pictures of kids in her classroom being abused on her micro-blog, and agitated for her arrest.  A second teacher in a different province was also fired for abusing kids in her classroom.  The Chinese users of Weibo spoke up loudly and clearly. 

Meanwhile, here in the United States we continue to send our teens off to dangerous troubled teen industry facilities with documented histories of abuse, torture, rape, and death.  How barbaric!  There are many pictures and videos on the internet for our perusal. There are survivor testimonies, reddits, forums.  There are web pages set up as memorials to the kids who went off to these places-- boot camps, religious boarding "schools," behavioral modification facilities, wilderness expeditions et. al.-- and didn't return alive.  Yet, we cannot or will not educate ourselves.  We have self-designated teen behavioral experts, talk show hosts, and educational consultants advising us to ship our teens out to these disgusting places.  We have learned nothing.  We have become immune to horror.  The many pictures and videos ready and available for our immediate consumption clearly illustrate that this abuse exists.  Where is the public outcry?  Our "experts" and teen seminar leaders tell us that the kids are troubled, manipulative, liars.  Workers on staff in the troubled teen institutions routinely advise parents that their teens will complain and to discount anything that the teen tells them.  

Teens get sent off to these places and then discover that there is no way to contact their parents by phone or letter without direct staff oversight.  There is no way to contact a state official to complain about mistreatment.  [N.B.  And religious schools operate extralegally].  There is little if any contact with the outside world.  The kids are isolated.  Sometimes they are told that sleep and food are not rights.  Sometimes they are not allowed to communicate with other teens around them.  Sometimes they are placed in isolation rooms for weeks or months.  Sometimes they are forcibly given powerful drugs.  Sometimes they are raped, beaten, mocked.  Sometimes face-plant restraints are used on them.  Sometimes their medical complaints are ignored or discounted.  Sometimes they die.

And yet, the unknowing and willfully ignorant American public rally around strangers who claim to be able to get through to our teens.  We sign away our parental rights, allow teens to be forcibly removed from our homes, turn them over to places sight unseen that claim to treat a variety of teen ills.  Yeah, there is something wrong with this picture.

radical sapphoq says:  Wake up.  Parenting is your job and your responsibility.  Before signing up your child for any program or service, get informed about the pros and cons.  Type the name of the place that you are considering sending your kid to followed by the word "survivors," "abuse," "lawsuit," or "critics."  Investigate the alternatives.  Know your options.  Underneath the shiny suits and self-assured sales pitches may be people who are interested in your wallet.  Some people out there are sick, much sicker than your rebellious teen.  Some people are slimy.  The agendas of the troubled teen industry may not match your own.  Not everyone wishes us well.  Not everyone has our best interests or the best interests of our teens at heart.  Politicians can be bought.  Politicians may share a religious ideology with a popular teen "expert" or with those who are running a particular troubled teen service.  These are uncomfortable truths that I and others have written about.  You ignore them at your peril and at the peril of your "troubled" teen.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/10/26/chinese-teacher-student-ears-weibo/ 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2223120/Unspeakable-cruelty-Picture-emerges-Chinese-teacher-holding-screaming-pupil-ground-EARS.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

http://horrorfiles.nodeju.com/420/chinese-teacher-fired-for-child-brutality.html

http://micgadget.com/31173/its-outrageous-to-see-how-unqualified-chinese-teachers-abuse-kindergarten-kids-video/

http://www.inquisitr.com/375476/teacher-fired-after-posting-photos-of-child-abuse-photos/ 


http://www.heal-online.org/childtortureusa.htm

http://www.momlogic.com/2009/0/are_troubled_teens_tortured.php

http://teentroublejoshshipp.com/

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xfelz5_liberez-la-bete_music#.UR7118bhfAZ

http://troubledteenindustry.com/video

http://www.helpsavetroubledteens.com/  [note: slide show toward the bottom right] 

http://www.momlogic.com/2009/0/are_troubled_teens_tortured.php

http://atheism.about.com/b/2011/10/20/religious-schools-for-troubled-teens-use-abuse-torture.htm

http://formerhephzibahgirls.webs.com/

http://crosscreek.wwaspsn.org/

http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/tv/reality_show_told_school_stop_sending_eXSiyTY2aAh4J3Kpn3VvDM

 

Dear People Who Have Been Raped

It is not your fault.  When society tells you that the rape was "her" fault, society lies.  When polite company whisper about short skirts or being wasted or walking around after dark, they lie.  When a defense attorney gets in your face about your rep, when a politician refers to you as a slut, when your rapist is defended by your neighbors-- lies, lies, lies.  When you are ready, you will join thousands of women and a few men in proclaiming, "This rape is not a thing of fault.  It is not about sex or flirting or being loose.  You lied to me.  I won't tolerate it anymore."

We live in a rape culture.  Rape culture says it was our fault.  Rape culture says we brought this upon ourselves, we should have known better, we were bad kids, rebellious women, wimpy men, we were irresistible, manipulative, we lied.  Rape culture says our rapists could not help it, we were too available, we led them on, this thing didn't happen, impossible, we wanted it.  Rape culture says women [and a few men] are property to be protected or abused and subject to the whims of our protectors.  Rape culture says we are not worthy, that feeling sexy is wrong, look where that got us, that rape is molestation, that rape is sex without permission, that rape is the privilege of the conquerors.  Rape culture demands that we teach our daughters to defend themselves so we sign them up for self-defense classes, to not put themselves in danger, to be demure.  To behave.  Rape culture demands that our sons be manly men.  Rape is an act of violence.  This rape culture that we live in is composed of many acts of violence.

Our rapists have depended upon our shame and our fear.  We give in.  Sometimes we are not judged to be legally able to make our own decisions since we have not reached "the age of majority."  Sometimes we are advised not to press charges.  Sometimes we are too wounded and involved in survival and we just cannot do it.  Sometimes we die.

The first time after I was raped, I was advised not to press charges.  The second time after I was raped, I watched as my rapist's defenders gathered around him in a tight circle.  They were determined to protect his reputation at any cost.  I was expendable. Both men-- years and miles apart-- claimed that they were not in control of their actions.  "I had to," said the first one.  "I couldn't help myself," said the second one.  The third time that I was raped, I kneed him in the groin and kicked him in the balls with my steel toed boots.  On that particular night, anger was my truest friend.

Anger is messy.  Rage is frightening.  In a rape culture, we are not supposed to be angry.  We are not supposed to feel rage.  We are supposed to forgive the people who have hurt us.  Because that is what our holy men tell us to do.  We are supposed to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and carry on business as usual.  We are told that it takes two to create a problem, that we played a part in this, that we have to look at ourselves and own up to our share of the responsibility.  We will be washed away pure as the driven snow.  Or, we are the damaged goods bringing shame to our families.  We are taught to negate ourselves.  We are taught to behave.

Now is the time to gather together, those of us who are able, and begin the process of dismantling the rape culture.  Some of us will carry signs, risk arrests, hold vigils, take our messages to the streets.   Some of us will name what happened to us for the first time in our lives.  Some of us will write, using the web to let people know what happened and to demand justice.  Some of us will do other things.
Each of us can do something.

To my sisters in India, to my sisters in Steubenville, to my brothers and sisters in behavioral facilities that live in fear of being raped and beaten by staffers or by other kids, to the little ones who are raped by the very people who are supposed to be protectors, I dedicate this blog post.  To my male friend who told me that he was raped by an older woman when he was a teen, I dedicate this blog post.  To those who have died, I dedicate this blog post.  Do not give up.  We need you.  Together we will heal and live.

radical sapphoq

Live Journal Strikes Out continued

Information can be found here at http://community.livejournal.com/innocence_jihad/139850.html

Research indicates that l.j. has still not restored some journals and communities that were suspended on the basis of words in an interest list. Some of those should be unsuspended.

Research indicates that some journals and communities that were suspended ought to stay that way.

Fandom journals and communities should be allowed back.
Survivors journals should be allowed back with many public apologies.
Journals and communities which advocated child rape or teen rape under the guise of "love" should not come back.


spike