On June 24, as the U.S. House of Representatives was debating the Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act of 2008, which later passed overwhelmingly, members of NYRA’s District of Columbia chapter attended a hearing before the DC City Council about the rampant abuses in behavior modification facilities. The City Council is considering…
By an overwhelming majority vote of 318-103, on June 25 the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 6358 (previously HR 5876), the Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act of 2008. This watershed legislation will enact necessary reforms intended to stop the abuse and torture of young people in behavior modification facilities, or…
Every day, young people are tortured or otherwise abused in “behavior modification facilities” or gulag schools, residential “treatment” facilities designed to set troubled and misbehaving teens on the straight and narrow. Young people at these facilities are beaten and subjected to other physical and sexual mistreatment. They are forced to exercise in the heat until…
What should be NYRA’s and any other youth advocate’s top priority now is HR 5876 (read full text here) Take action on the Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act of 2008 here. Bill could give federal oversight to private clinics for children and would require FDA inspections In a move that could…
The U.S. Congressional Committee on Education and Labor got an earful on April 24: a day of evidence and testimony about the physical, sexual, and psychological abuse of young people at gulag schools, or behavior modification facilities, across the country, and the deceptive marketing practices they use to ensnare the children of frustrated parents. After…
Why do we defend the rights of youth? Among the numerous reasons, we’ve had enough of the testimonials. So many young people come to us with their accounts of their lives at home and school. To what many people would dismiss as dramatic teenage whining, we listen. Unlike everyone else in their lives, we take…
The following is a transcript of this video. Politicians and public interest groups are always looking to protect youth. They have a long list of so-called bad guys that they believe are a danger to young people. Even if in all this, they ignore the very many actual dangers youth face every day. Maybe there…
On October 10, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported on the findings of its investigating into so called “wilderness programs.” Said Greg Kutz, managing director of forensic audits and special investigations, “If you walked in part way through my presentation, you might have assumed that I was talking about human rights violations in a third…
When the Government Accountability Office actually uses the word “nightmare” in a report about you. It would appear that the Federal government is finally paying attention to something that’s so glaringly obvious that it would require a lobotomy not to take notice of; behavioral modification camps are both ineffective and potentially deadly. In a report…
First of all, let me say that it is ridiculous to have to defend a TV show that hasn’t even aired yet, but with the shrieking opposition to it (again from people who have never seen it) something needs to be said. Kid Nation is a new show for CBS that is slated to begin…
