Teen Whisperer or Teen Tormentor: As Congress Takes On Troubled Teen Programs, Times Inadvertently Plugs One

While I've gotta give The New York Times kudos for its strong editorial "When Tough Love is Too Tough," calling for greater oversight of the "troubled teen" residential industry, I must simultaneously take them to task for running a glowing review of a book by a counselor who worked for 10 years for one of the most notorious organizations in that business.

Mike Linderman, author of The Teen Whisperer served as "clinical director" of Spring Creek Lodge, a Montana program linked with the infamous World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASP, also called WWASPS).

Calling Linderman "brusquely compassionate," the Times Styles section approvingly cited him for that work. But it failed to even mention the history of serious abuse allegations and lawsuits involving Spring Creek Lodge -- many of which include the decade in which Linderman worked there.

Take this 2003 Times story, headlined "Program to Help Troubled Youths Has Troubles of Its Own." In it, investigative reporter Tim Weiner notes that "some children and parents call [Spring Creek Lodge] physically and psychologically brutal." He goes on to detail stories of teens locked in solitary confinement for months [photo of the claustrophic isolation room known as "the Hobbit" at Spring Creek is here], fed only beans and bananas. Linderman worked at Spring Creek at the time and apparently was employed by the program until some time in 2006.

Weiner quotes the mother of one teen, Michele Ziperovich, saying "He came out 35 pounds lighter, acting like a zombie. When he came back, he was worse, far worse." Weiner also reports that former employees have corroborated the teens' stories and that one was arrested for sexually assaulting teens in the isolation room.

In 2005, a Spring Creek staffer shot a man seven times and then killed himself. And in 2006, Spring Creek was sued after a teenage girl committed suicide there-- the suit says that the facility "was not designed or operated to provide quality or even adequate care" and that its employees "planned and operated Spring Creek Lodge Academy in such a manner that physical, educational, mental or emotional harm was consistently and foreseeably caused to the children at Spring Creek."

The Times mentions nothing of this controversy -- essentially allowing the author to claim that The New York Times endorses his book and by association, Spring Creek Lodge.

Nor does the review inform readers that when Linderman worked at Spring Creek, it was affiliated with WWASP, which has had no fewer than eight programs shuttered following abuse allegations. In Mexico, police filmed kids chained in outdoor dog cages at one program -- a program to which kids at Spring Creek were often sent if they didn't behave.

Spring Creek Lodge is currently the subject of a large class action suit -- with over 100 plaintiffs claiming serious human rights violations occurred there and at other WWASP programs.

I think parents considering taking advice from the "Teen Whisperer" might want to know that he has been accused as well of being a "Teen Tormentor" and party to institutionalized child abuse.

And we wonder why people distrust the media...

Comments

[slg]

Last year Scientific American had a cover article on the "Teenage" brain. They are wired differently than adults. Forcing them to be adults before their brains are ready is detrimental to their wellbeing and can make them very unhappy, even angry later in life.

[larry278]

I get it the Sulzburgers are doing this to establish that the NYT is no longer a reliable publication & is NOT to be considered to be a newspaper of record & isn't THE newspaper of record for the USA. If the NYT self destructs Mr Murdoch will no longer be interested in destroying the NYT. It's difficult to destroy nothing but if anybody can destroy nothing Mr Murdoch will do it or hire somebody to do it for him. Mr Murdoch is said to be interviewing those who've left W & Co who have the reputation of destroying W's credibility to destroy the reputation of the NYT as THE nation's newspaper of record for him.

[nowaterboardUSA]

I knew a guy 15 years ago who had been sent to one of these Teen Rehabs. He got involved in class action suit himself. Lost contact with so I don't know how that turned out. I hope he got some justice. He told me lots of tales of abusive treatment at his boot camp.

The problem is that most of these places are run by these Right Wing Neo-Con Jackbooted Thugs who abuse their postions of authority on a regular basis just because they can. A lot of this mentality is also in the police and military.

The messase needs to be WE WILL NOT TOLERATE ABUSIVE/EXCESSIVE FORCE AGAINST THESE TEENS. YOU DO IT - YOU GO TO JAIL!

[itolduso]

Here in Florida, even a video of seven guards kicking and beating a child (who died) that collapsed during a grueling forced run was not enough to get a criminal conviction - the redneck coroner testified that the child died of 'sickle-cell' not the beating. Why is the whole country not SCREAMING OUT that police & guards should NEVER be beating or kicking ANYONE for ANY REASON?! Watch Court T.V. any weeknight and watch the endless parade of police shows which depict suspects surrendering by putting their hands behind their back or laying face down on the ground and witness the 'stormtroopers' body slam them or fall to their knees on top of the suspects necks. Yes-the criminals are idiots- but how can we allow the police to become brutal thugs-watch as they taser and pepperspray prisoners that are already in cuffs, that no longer pose a threat? I fear we are cultivating a breed of lawenforcement officers that feel justified in using maximum force in response to even minor infractions-when did electric shock become the standard resonse to misdemeanor disorderly conduct?

[FearlessFreep]

The TIMES book reviews have become an embarrassment!

[ghostsofamerica]

great article. Keep up the great news stories that define the Bush Times.

[ohnoyoudidnot!]

A republican friend of mine finds fault with me for reading the Times. So amusing to see it called the Bush Times.

[realitytrumpsbull]

I think a lot of the 'troubled teen' stuff is
pure horsecrap, and amounts to symptoms of
entirely too much social engineering being
aimed point-blank at kids these days, and probably for the last 20 years, too. If
you're trying to help kids, fine, but do
it logically, constructively, and evaluate
whatever success or failure comes from it to
see if you are, in fact, helping anyone. That would be key, I think.

Problems that kids(AND adults) face in society
include, but are not limited to:
1) Lackamunny. The working world has changed,
and getting from Monday to Friday under your
own power financially has become more of a
challenge. The game is rigged, so to speak,
for reference look under: outsourcing, mortgage
fraud, credit industry, inflation, illegal
immigration.
2) Crappy schools/weak curriculum. Textbooks
printed 25 years ago or so have less relevance
to the modern working world than they should
have. Top-flight teachers with modern teaching materials help build top-flight graduates.
3) Ignorant parents. We're into multiple
generations of people that can't well think
for themselves, because they never really
got taught quite how to do that.
4) Welfare social system. You don't need
welfare caseworkers if you have no welfare
recipients, so a lot of the 'help' is self-
sustaining. Again, multiple generations.

There's some people that say it's ok to hit your
kids, there's other people that'll call the
cops in a hot second if they see you raise a
hand to a minor, but I think that there was
a time when corporal/parental punishment
had a place, namely to establish who's boss,
kind of a variant of the 2 smartest words
Rush Limbaugh ever uttered, namely "Tough love".
Love your kids, but direct them towards
what you believe is right, don't just let
em run wild in the streets. If you can't/won't
teach em, who will? The guy down the street
in the purple El Dorado?
Monkey see, monkey do, if your kids are acting
up, first place to look is in the mirror...

[fedupnburnin]

My nephew, who I partly raised, was sent to a state sponsored boot-camp. It didn't make him better. It made him even more depressed. After he told me how he was treated and some of the low-life dirty tricks they played on him, I was enraged and depressed. What they say they are trying to do is break them down then rebuild them into a "better" person. I wondered if those that espouse a philosophy like that were at one time broken down and rebuilt into the monstrosity they are today. I hate what this country has become.