Hey Ben,


Ops, Gotta question my sources on this one huh? Well - Fair play.

So first of all let me say that I do not remember my initial sources when I searched the web, and I did not save them.

However, another similar websearch provided similar stories.

1 story being about Aaron Bacon whose medical conditions were ignored until he died. He was with the Northstar camp in Utah. I think it said somewhere that the Northstar camp got closed shortly after.....

There is a lot to be found about Charles Chase Moody. Moody mouthed off to some counselors, were put in a head restraint face down where he choked and died on his own vomit. He was at the On Track camp - that later was closed down by authorities for this death. Last time I did the research I think I found an article stating that at least one of the counselors had been convicted, but I didnt find that tonight.

There is also a lot to be found about Ian August who died of heat exhaustion at the Skyline Journey camp.

I didnt have as much time to dig into this tonight as I did last time - when I actually spend several hours digging online. So without going into too deep details and maybe state something that I remember incorrectly I saw some cross over of counselors working for the camps mentioned above and then later working for camps in Oregon as well.

I also saw quite a bit of the same philosophy and style as I saw on tv. The camp counselors all go by an "earthname" which is a "native american" style name given to them. (I wont comment on what I think about people trying to take on the features of a culture that they are so clearly far removed from) THis seem to be a theme with many of these camps. As is the philosophy that it is a good idea to deliberately "bring out the emotions so they can be worked on". Which consists of counselors deliberately and I bet often unkindly trying to provoke the kids emotions.

Here are a couple of articles that I found:

http://www.teenadvocatesusa.homestea...hersquest.html

http://www.nospank.net/moody.htm

http://www.nospank.net/n-j28.htm

http://www.rickross.com/reference/te...eenboot26.html

Again - From what I saw - I have made the conclusion that as much as I really personally want these wilderness programs to be "good", it is obvious there are many that might not be. There might even be some that completely misuse their powers over the young people in their care.

Personally - I cannot agree with using force to "help" teens or adults for that matter. Although I can understand, appreciate and tolerate the argument that it is better to use force to help completely out of control kids than to do nothing.

I certainly and without a doubt think it is completely over the top to blindfold kids before driving them into the wilderness. The kids that I saw on that show where robbed of all dignity and probably sense of self.

I am opposed to using force because the people using the force so easily can get on a slippery slope and misuse their powers. Have you ever read Dr. Zimbardo's prison experiment? If not - its interesting reading and provides the basis for my argument. Here is the url: http://www.prisonexp.org/

Kind regards,
Da Friendly Puter Tech