Thread: Brat Camps ... child abuse?

There is a popular British reality TV programme called Brat Camp, (now Brat Camp2) and it shows what happened to British teenagers who were sent to Turn-About Ranch in Utah.

These were terribly spoilt kids, but what happened to them seemed little more than mindless oppression.

It also seemed in contravention of Article 5 of the U.N. Declaration of Universal Human Rights.

“No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

Usual definitions of torture include the use of practices such as solitary confinement, non-medical application of psychiatric drugs, unprovoked beatings, starvation, and verbal abuse as means to change a person’s behavior.

Many Americans are reluctant to support the use these techniques even on criminals, much less teenagers with behavioral problems. Unfortunately, this is exactly what is being done on a large-scale basis as “tough-love” programs have become a booming industry. These programs come in several varieties, including boot camps, “therapeutic” boarding schools or academies, and wilderness programs.

At the cost of several thousand dollars per month (up to $40,000/year), these schools supposedly provide a climate where troubled teens can continue their regular education while receiving treatments designed to improve their behavior.

Many survivors are beginning to share their stories in internet forums, and some are attempting to file lawsuits. But it is likely that an even greater number are remaining silent. After all, these schools employ textbook brainwashing techniques -- physical isolation, cutting off communication with peers and family, strict discipline, lack of privacy, constant indoctrination to the school’s version of reality, and punishment for not accepting this reality.

Historically, these techniques have been used to successfully turn hardened soldiers into zealots for their enemies, or to gain allegiance of normal adults to cults; children, especially those who may be mentally ill, are especially susceptible. Furthermore, the impossibility of escape or ability to control one’s environment is also likely to induce learned helplessness. Beginning with Martin Seligmann’s work on dogs, psychologists have come to understand that both animals and humans can enter the state of helplessness -- characterized by depression, submissiveness, and apathy -- when they suffer stresses that they cannot predict or control.

This process is increasingly being understood as a factor in the development of mental illness, and helps to explain why survivors of these schools report suffering from emotional problems that they did not have before their “treatment”.

A look at the group of people who own and operate these facilities does nothing to dispel the hope that all these abuse allegations are false. The founders of these schools, and architects of their behavior modification programs, are not psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, or in some cases, even college graduates.

Breaking Down Our Kids; Child Abuse for Profit is Occurring in America

This appears to be borne out by the TV show concerned. The main 'instructor' at Turn-About Ranch seemed to be boasting that he was uneducated, and nothing more than a simple 'cowboy'.

Does anybody have a point of view on this? Are such 'schools' a good or a bad thing?

Trust it to the British to invent cruel and unusual methods of "correction" But seriously, it is abusive and should be ended immediately.

Originally Posted by Ausinus

Trust it to the British to invent cruel and unusual methods of "correction" But seriously, it is abusive and should be ended immediately.

Oops, your bias is showing!

This is an American institution located in Utah.

But it doesn't really matter who is doing it - it seems barbaric to me, and I just wondered what other people here think about it.

Originally Posted by Leo

Oops, your bias is showing!

LIES!

But it doesn't really matter who is doing it - it seems barbaric to me, and I just wondered what other people here think about it.

It is barbaric. It is abusive and completely superfluous.

I haven't watched any of those taking the kids to the US and 'toughening' them up shows, including the homegrown one that was on a while back, coz I do think it's child abuse. Most people acknowledge that the point of shows like The Biggest Loser is to publicly humiliate the contestants into losing massive amounts of weight in the public eye, and if adults want to compete in a show like that, then that's fine, but not teenagers...

I know a kid who was sent to one in the US, and it wasn't because she was defiant, disrespectful or a runaway. it was because the parents were beyond dysfunctional and the kid needed some love.

*beat the kiddies*

No, I do agree with you guys, it is barbaric and cirtainly should be stopped.

Comrade

They should just get the dog whisperer. He can solve anything.

I vote for parental licensing.
some people shouldn't breed.

Originally Posted by sectionOne

I vote for parental licensing.
some people shouldn't breed.

The Nazis had similar policies.