Boot camps prove deadly for too many kids

Carol Forsloff - Reader's Digest late this year had an article about the dangers of boot camps following a series of reported deaths from places across the world where
young people are supposed to be receiving rehabilitation and instead
are punished to death.

One of the stories in Readers Digest's article involved an Arizona boot

camp where Chuck Long,  commanded a group of boys.  When several of them
wanted out of the camp, he forced them to do strenuous physical
activities in the long, hot sun, something he called to teach them
"honor, discipline and respect."One of the boys, Tony Haynes, sent to the boot camp for shoplifting
died during this punishment.

These boot camps are present across the country, often the place where
frustrated parents place children and adolescents they believe they can
no longer control.  They pay thousands of dollars and often pay little
attention to licensing, choosing instead to find someplace where they
can find people who can help straighten out some errant youngster.

Whereas
the camps are said to work for many young people, there are those who
have found them to be dangerous.  Since 1983, Readers Digest cites 35
children have died in boot camps.

Boot
camps are found outside the United States, modeled on the same idea of a
rigorous form of discipline to get a young person to behave
appropriately.

The
parents of Deng Senshan in 2009 saw an ad for Guangxi Qihang Survival
Training Camp described as a self-help teen development center.  They
paid 7,000 yuan which is equivalent to $1024 for training to help Deng
get over his Internet addiction. He had just graduated from high school
in July. Deng Fei, the father, had signed an agreement that maintained
staff personnel would help children learn new habits and get rid of bad
ones through “close management with training teachers.”

The
father described what he believed happened, that his son had been put in
solitary confinement shortly after arrival at the camp, then beaten to
death by trainers after being scolded for running to slowly. The mission
statement of the camp reads, “Our methods are tough but do not include
torture or other methods that might damage a child’s health.”

The
camp’s principal, a man surnamed Xia, told authorities the young Deng
had not been beaten but instead had been sent to the hospital because of
a bad fever. The father declares he had been “told the truth” by a
relative in the local police force.”

The boy’s medical was faxed to the China’s Global Times,
and read: “The boy showed no response to emergency treatment. “He
arrived with a very weak heartbeat and could not breathe. He was
exhausted after being beaten. We were unable to save him.” Pictures sent
to the newspaper revealed injuries on the body. Boot camps for
disciplining teens advertise their ability to correct behavior through
an organized program that includes firm structure and rules.

One of these camps, Bethel Boot Camp,
described as a military-type Christian boot camp maintains, “Standing
at attention in formation, drill and other structured activities instill
respect for authority, patience and endurance in boys that may have
never possessed those traits.”

As a reporter examining this
topic, it helps to have first-hand experience in one of these programs.
Years ago, early in a counseling career that spanned more than 20 years,
I worked in the educational program or schools connected with several.
In Albany, New York adolescent girls in one residential facility were
given solitary confinement if they refused to watch “Flying Nun” with
the rest of the girls. Corporal punishment in the classroom was used for
discipline, complete with the rulers across the hands and arms for
those who didn’t properly raise their hands.

In another
facility, I was called at midnight at home by panicked teens, only to
arrive at the cottage to find no staff members present, and one girl who
had sliced herself with a razor blade in an attempt to commit suicide
after discovering she was pregnant. I was an intern at State University
at New York in a Masters degree program at the time and was allowed to
withdraw from these internships because of the conditions.

In a
Hawaii facility years later, as principal of a school on the grounds of a
facility administered by the Salvation Army, I watched teens put in
solitary confinement, something the state would only countenance for 24
hours during the 1970’s and only with a statement from a psychiatrist.
These teens, and even those younger than twelve years old, were held up
to two weeks without release, with the doctor on grounds neither
visiting the young person as required by law and continuing to promote
confinement. In the same facility I watched children as young as ten
forced to stand at attention for hours, then was told by the program
director that someday the child would “thank” the person who made him do
it.

Are boot camps safe for kids and what are the issues
involved?  Given what happens in many of them, experts say parents need
to ask serious questions about them before placing their children in
them for discipline.