Thank You Bishop

[_Eric]

My problem was that I had a Mormon crazed step-parent who also wanted what the Utah Boys Ranch wanted -- a long, LDS funded stay.

But to answer marg's question; I did everything I could to get out. I played their game, I ran away, I shut down and went on hunger strikes.





I was just a boy when I was there, with very little exposure to seeing physical violence first hand, so it was not hard for them to scare me into submission with physical violence and threats of physical violence.



My version of this story is slightly different.

*Yes, Brent Sanderson - thirty-something-year-old staff member - wrote the incident report above. Some people asked if a three-year-old child wrote it while grasping a pencil between two toes, others asked if Penny had written it by holding a pen in her mouth, so I just wanted to be clear.


Who do you believe? Me or this guy.

[_marg]

Spelling not corrected Brent Sanderson writes:

He Eric then steped up to me and said don’t touch me.
I was in good space. I put him to the ground. He was fighting with me, so I was thing to get His Arms Behind His Back. finaly I go Pined in lockdown then ken came and we got Eric to calm down.

Wow…..of course the response to someone asking not to be touched is to tackle them to the ground. As far as Brent Sanderson’s writing and spelling it says lots about the qualification of the people WRA put in charge of their clients. And this is medical treatment that a church ward is paying for…wow!

by the way ..I noticed you have a link to your version of events Brent writes about. This must be extremely interesting for you to see what they were saying on record about you and what things allegedly transpired.

[_harmony]

The thing is... what drives LDS parents to commit their child to this sort of camp, and for long periods of time? At what point does the LDS parent give up and allow others to physically and mentally abuse a child? Why would a parent do this?... refusal to obey home rules? unlawful actions (theft, drug use, drug dealing, assault, etc)? skipping school? Abdicating one's parental responsibilities to the state is one thing (discipline camps in place of confinement in juvenile facilities for crimes committed, etc). Abdicating one's responsibilities to a private entity with no oversight and no ethics is just ..well.... wrong.

Have they not heard that we can't force a child to heaven?

[_Yoda]

The thing is... what drives LDS parents to commit their child to this sort of camp, and for long periods of time? At what point does the LDS parent give up and allow others to physically and mentally abuse a child? Why would a parent do this?... refusal to obey home rules? unlawful actions (theft, drug use, drug dealing, assault, etc)? skipping school? Abdicating one's parental responsibilities to the state is one thing (discipline camps in place of confinement in juvenile facilities for crimes committed, etc). Abdicating one's responsibilities to a private entity with no oversight and no ethics is just ..well.... wrong.

Have they not heard that we can't force a child to heaven?

Amen!

Also, I think this is why step-parenting should really be a "last resort". The blending of two families have a lot of complications. It can work, but there has to be a strong commitment, and I think that the step parent is often going to feel preferential affection to their own blood related son or daughter that has to take tremendous control to curtail. Unless the deepest commitment isn't made to do this, the child is going to feel resentment, and act out. Also, a young teen-ager is likely to do this anyway, just as a natural part of growing up. There are, however, positive ways to deal with this.

Having a child kidnapped and sent to another state just doesn't seem like a reasonable solution. In fact, it sounds downright barbaric. I am trying really hard not to throw judgmentalism Eric's parents' way, only because I do know that parenting is not an easy business. However, I can comfortably say that I would never voluntarily send my child away unless he was phyiscally violent to other children in the family, and we had tried every other means to control the situation. Even then, I would want to make certain that my son or daughter was receiving real medical and emotional treatment, and not a part of some abuse center. If the facility would not allow visitors, I would not allow my child to be a part of it. That is a big red flag as far as I am concerned.

Eric, again, I am so sorry that you had to go through this. Every time I hear about a child being abused, I just want to take them home wiith me. *sigh*

[_Willy Law]

"to be honest I'm really tired of getting my head hit against stuff"

Sorry Eric, this is some sad, sick stuff but that cracked me up.

[_Buffalo]

I hope you get every penny demanded in your lawsuit and this child abuse factory gets shut down.

[_marg]

I just did a search and read these treatment centers are not tax deductible. So by getting the church to pay it is a way of using after tax dollars. Eric's step-dad could for example agree to donate $2,500 per month to the church (well he's already paying tithes), claim that on tax returns and in effect given his tax rate it would cost him about 1/2 the amount. The church's payment of fees works against the best interest of the child because it encourages a lengthy stay...when the school knows the payer has no problem financially to meet payments and that the payor doesn't really care about cost. As well the cost to the parent is significantly reduced if payment is effectively with after-tax dollars...$1,250 per month is not a bad deal when one saves on paying for food and anything else a teen typically might want or require.

I can see the benefit/incentive of why the church might agree to payments to the school..but I don't see it as being ethically right.

I hope Eric's lawyer can nail them.

[_Drifting]

I hope you get every penny demanded in your lawsuit and this child abuse factory gets shut down.

And when they (The Firm of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Lawyers) offer you an out of court settlement on condition of your silence I hope you tell them to shove it and publish every single piece of communication.

[_Chap]

I hope you get every penny demanded in your lawsuit and this child abuse factory gets shut down.

And when they (The Firm of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Lawyers) offer you an out of court settlement on condition of your silence I hope you tell them to shove it and publish every single piece of communication.

I don't think somehow that Eric is in this for the money.

[_harmony]

I hope you get every penny demanded in your lawsuit and this child abuse factory gets shut down.

And when they (The Firm of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Lawyers) offer you an out of court settlement on condition of your silence I hope you tell them to shove it and publish every single piece of communication.

Settlement is the traditional way for the church to resolve it's lawsuit difficulties. That and drag it out as long as possible until the people lose interest or run out of money to pay attornies.