School Using Lap Dances to Treat ADD Closed, Your Tax $ Involved, But Will It Re-Open?

[proud2BlibKansan]

Are lap dances an effective therapy for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder or drug addiction? It doesn't seem like a question that should require a serious answer—but a state investigation of Oregon's Mount Bachelor Academy (MBA) has substantiated allegations made by students and staff that such "therapy" was part of the school's "emotional growth" curriculum and forced an emergency shutdown of the campus.

Just this June, the Supreme Court had decided in favor of a couple who sued for payment of MBA's tuition to treat their son's ADHD and marijuana problem. The Court determined that parents of disabled children do have the right to seek such taxpayer support from a school district, even if they haven't tried public special education first.

While the decision didn't specify whether MBA itself was appropriate, some districts across the country are already reimbursing parents for its current $76,000 annual tuition, despite decades of allegations of similarly inappropriate and unproven practices.

These abusive practices aren't isolated. MBA is part of the largest chain of "troubled teen" programs in the industry, Aspen Education, serving hundreds of kids. Right now, another Aspen program in Oregon—best known for being featured in the reality TV series "Brat Camp"—is under criminal investigation.

That investigation is related to the August death of a 16-year-old boy, which the sheriff's deputy in charge of the case has called a "homicide." As in several earlier deaths in such programs, the boy was made to hike in intense heat and is thought to have died of heat stroke after staff ignored his complaints. The state made Aspen shutter the program, known as Sagewalk, in September. Websites with urls like bratcamps.com still advertise it.

more . . . http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/11/school-using-lap-dances-treat-add-closed-your-tax-involved-will-it-re-open

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. omg

[Hannah Bell]

2. what? $76,000 annual tuition reimbursed by the public for parents who haven't even tried

public special ed?

fcking lapdances?

goddam yuppies.

tell me the state's not trying to bankrupt the public school system.

[Hello_Kitty]

3. And since the fuck when does ADHD and a "marijuana problem" constitute a disability?

[peekaloo]

4. Lap dances at Mount Bachelor?

I realize it's a serious issue but good gawd I was expecting an Onion byline.

[Systematic Chaos]

7. You weren't the only one.

I had to read that "motherjones" part of the link 3 times to convince myself that this wasn't a joke.

:crazy:

[TorchTheWitch]

5. the students were forced to give them

You have to read quite a bit through the article to understand what the "lapdance therapy" was...


According to their report, the school's Lifesteps seminars and other tactics involved "sexualized role play in front of staff and students," and required "students to reenact past physical abuse in front of staff and peers." Allegations of sleep deprivation were also substantiated.

Students who spoke with me for a Time Magazine online story in April—which helped spur the investigation—were stunned by the announcement. "I'm so happy now I can't even explain," said Jane* (a pseudonym).

Before being sent to MBA, Jane had been raped. At one of the Lifesteps seminars, the 18-year-old was forced to dress as a "French maid" and perform lap dances while Kelis' sexually suggestive song "Milkshake" and similar music was played. "I was freaked out and traumatized and I couldn't do anything about it," she says.

Her friend Adam—who asked that only his first name be used—said he witnessed at least four girls and one boy who had identified himself as bisexual being made to do this "exercise." He said that when the girls performed the lap dance on him, "They were just crying." The bisexual boy had to give lap dances to both males and females.

[Blue_Tires]

6. seventy-six THOUSAND goddamned dollars?

holy fucking DAMN....at that yearly cost, you can send your kid to almost any college, law school and medical school with study abroad every semester...

and there are school systems actually reimbursing this cost??

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. Not any more

School closed.