WWASPS News

News articles by year

2012
OpEdNews - "Talk about regulating the Troubled Teen Industry"

2011
Turley.com - "Updated Lawsuit against WWASPS"
Tico Times - "Parents revile Teen Mentor, others claim programs value"
U.S. Government - "Legislation to prevent child abuse in teen residential programs"
La Nacion - "PANI youth academy closed for alleged mistreatment of children"
Heal Online - "Child welfare office closes yet another teen reform center"
Huffington Post - "WWASPS sued by ex-students claiming abuse"
ABC News - "Former students claim abuse in Utah teen boot camps"

2010
Independent Mail - "School of troubles - another chance"
Valley Press - "Spring Creek closes its doors"
WYFF Greenville - "Animal bones, Carcasses Found at Closed School"
Independent Mail - "Rise and fall of enterprise for serving troubled teens"
NBC Miami - "Blind dad testifies against

2009
The News Observer - "School official arrested"
Watertown Daily Times - "Director: Ivy Ridge to close until fall"
Watertown Daily Times - "Judge refuses to toss suit filed in 2006"
Huff Post Living- "Good News - Bad Economy Killing Abusive Teen Programs"
The Las Vegas Sun - "19yr old man found safe in southern Nevada desert"
The Jamaica Observer - ""Boot camp' closed"

2008
Eyes, Mind, Heart - "Tranquility Bay, Jamaica - WWASP"
Watertown Daily Times - "Ivy Ridge lawsuit"

2007
The Free Library - "The trouble with troubled teen programs"
Reason Magazine - "Romney, Torture, and Teens"
The Hill - "Lawsuits hit a Romney money man"
Tico Times - "Lichfield Declared Innocent"
AM Costa Rica - "Dundee owner rips police after his acquittal"
The Salt Lake Tribune - "Loophole in state law has allowed some in teen-help industry to go unlicensed"
Reason.com - "Tough Love and Free Speech"
Sun Herald - "Teens escape from Academy"
The Hattiesburg American - "Parents want academy closed"
The Hattiesburg American - "Parents: 'It is even worse than we thought'"
The Hattiesburg American - "State should review academy allegations"
The Daily Record - "Randall Hinton convicted of 2 counts of child abuse"

2006
CAFETY - "Cutting Edge: The Tranquility Bay Documentary"
Miami New Times - "Rough Love"
Tivo Times - "'Tough Love' Camp Owner Faces Trial"
P.U.R.E - "Deception, Misrepresentation, & Fraud"
Missoula Independent - "Taking a Beating"
Alternet - "No more nightmares at Tranquility Bay?"
WWTI-abc - "Woman distraught: denied visit with sister at Ivy Ridge"
Cayman Compass - "Controversy surrounds Tranquility Bay"
NewsWatch - "NY officials declare Ivy Ridge 'Educational Fraud'"
CAICA - "In loving memory of Kerry Layne Brown"
TeenAdvocatesUSA - "Self-Medicated"

2005
Letter by Congressman George Miller about WWASPS Abuses
Columbia Tribune - "Student alleges months of abuse"
New York Times - "A Business Built on the Troubles of Teenagers"
New York Times - "Melee keeps spotlight on hard life at Academy"
Deseret News - "Utah-based group under fire"
Deseret News - "Boarding school ordered to refund tuition"
Deseret News - "Boise accreditation firm questioned"
Union Tribune - "Four compounds closed in Baja in as many months"
Hattiesburg American - "Students flee Bethel school, allege abuse"
WDAM-TV - "Bethel shuts down after girls flee"
KSL-TV - "Group seek probe into boarding schools"
Heal online - "Lawsuits against Bethel Academies"
Watertime Daily Times - "Ivy Ridge accreditation suspended in state probe"
U.S. Government - "End Institutional Abuse Against Children Act"
KSL-TV - "Mother files lawsuit, claims boarding school abused her son"
STATS.org - "NY Times underplays boot camp abuse, lack of success"
Salt Lake Tribune - "WWASPS affiliated school issued sub-standard diplomas"
Fox News - "Tough love schools are both loved, hated"

2004
Legal Affairs - "Want your kid to disappear?"
Union Tribune - "Baja raids shut boarding schools for U.S. teens"
The New York Times - "2 Foreign Units of Troubled U.S. Academy Are Closed"
The New York Times - "Mexico Shuts Tough-Love Centre"
Journal Sentinel Online - "Academy's grip lingers as son, family transform"
STATS.org - "How to save a troubled kid"
Salt Lake Tribune - "Family behind schools calls in political favours"
The Independent - "Pupils complain of life in Jamaican boot camp"

2003
The New York Times - "Program to help youths has troubles of its own"
Child Youth & Care Network - "Tranquility Bay is not a paradise"
Deseret News - "Utah-based school owner banned"
Tico Times - "U.S. Federal probe of WWASP requested"
Costa Rica Daily Online News - "Tough love school sent to timeout"
The Salt Lake Tribune - "Founder's Passion Helping Youths"
Education Week - "Oversight Sought for Behaviour-Altering Schools"
The Observer - "The Last Resort"
The New York Times - "Parents Divided Over Jamaica Disciplinary Academy"
The New York Times - "Parents, Shopping for Discipline, Turn to Harsh Programs"
Associated Press - "Riots at Costa Rica school for troubled young Americans"
Richard R. Titsch, lll - "Visit to Tranquility Bay"
Rocky Mountain News - "Mexican officials remove 8 teens from High Impact"

2002
Rocky Mountain News -"Conditions deplorable at Mexico camp tied to Utah group"

2001
The New York Times - "Desperate Measures - A Special Report"
The New York Times - "Camp in Samoa draws U.S. criticism"
Rocky Mountain News - "Teenager leaps to her death in compound in Jamaica"

2000
The Samoan Observer - "Troubled American teenagers in Paradise!"

1999
Forbes - "Too-Tough Love?"
Youth Today - "It's cheap, but is it good for kids?"
The Associated Press - "Boot camps for youth offer hope, help, hell"

1998
Rocky Mountain News - "Children were isolated & hog-tied, they report"
New York Times - Is this a camp or jail?
The Prague Post - "Morava Academy heads arrested before"
The Guardian - "American's 'tortured children' in Czech home for teenagers"
Salon - "School of hard knocks"
New York Times - "Sorry to wake you honey, they're coming to take you away"
San Francisco Chronicle - "Utah Adolescent Hospital Shut"

1997
Rocky Mountain News - "Desperate Measures"

1992
Deseret News - "Ogden man pleads guilty to sex count with 14yr old girl"


**News about other 'Troubled Teen Industry' programs:
The House program - "Straight Time"
The House program - "Deadly rehabs that target kids"
Mount Bachelor Academy - "An Oregon school for troubled kids under scrutiny"
Utah Boys' Ranch aka West Ridge Academy - "Physical, sexual lawsuit filed"
USA programs - "List of deaths in troubled teen programs"

WWASPS Media

Books, Movies, Documentaries, Videos, Radio, Facebook, Myspace, Blogs

Books about WWASPS
"Help at any Cost" - How the Troubled-Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids, by Maia Szalavitz.
"Come Back - A mother & daughters journey through hell and back" - The story of ex-Morava Academy student Mia Fontaine.
"Trapped in Paradise" - Memoir of the life of a 'student' of theTranquility Bay and Spring Creek Lodge Programs.

Movies about WWASPS
"Boot Camp" - A group of teens are sent to a prison-like camp, where they are abused and brainwashed.
"Self-medicated"- Autobiographical tale of a bright boy with problems who is dragged through the WWASPS system.

Documentaries about WWASPS
"Into The Abyss" - The story of ex-Casa by the Sea student Michael Perry, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to death.
"Who's Watching the Kids?" - PBS documentary on Montana's troubled teen industry.
"The Program Documentary" - The story about the multi-billion dollar industry centered around teen behaviour modification.
"Tranquility Bay" - French documentary on 'the lost children of Tranquility Bay'.

Videos about WWASPS
Live Leak - Tranquility Bay
Survivor - High Impact
Mitt Romney Sells Out (his affiliation with WWASPS)

Audio about WWASPS
"Torture in America - Kids abused in 'treatment centers' speak out" - Radio show 18th January, 2012. By Mark Levine, Washington DC pundit.
"Public address on child abuse in institutions" - Public address, 10th September, 2004. By Roch Longueepee, founder and CEO of Restoring Dignity.

Blogs about WWASPS
The Captive Teen - Cross Creek Manor
Live Leak - Tranquility Bay
The WWASPS Diaries - Tranquility Bay
American child, Mexican prisoner - Casa by the Sea
Tales from the Black Schools
WWASPS - Tranquility Bay
Secret Prisons for Teens
Maia Szalavitz - Open Mike
Asylum Horrible
Stand4Them

Facebook WWASPS groups*
WWASPS Survivors
Stop WWASPS
Stop Lichfield's Teen Revitalization
*There are also support groups for ex-students of most programs on Facebook.

Myspace WWASPS groups
WWASPS Survivors
*There are also support groups for ex-students of most programs on Myspace.


Media about other 'Troubled Teen Industry' programs:
"Straightling" - Cyndy Drew Etler's memoirs of her time in the Straight, Inc - a troubled teen program in the USA. (book)
"Surviving Straight" - Straight, Inc troubled teen program in the USA. (documentary)
"Kidnapped for Christ" - Escuela Caribe, an Evangelical Christian reform school in the Dominican Republic. (documentary)
"Lawsuit filed against youth center claiming physical, sexual abuse" - Utah Boys' Ranch, aka West Ridge Academy troubled teen program in the USA. (video)
"Over the GW" - Straight, Inc troubled teen program in the USA. (movie)