The Coalition Against Institutionalized Child Abuse (CAICA) has a 40 point list of warning signs of potentially abusive facilities. Caribbean Mountain Academy (formerly Escuela Caribe & Caribe Vista- this facility has a history of changing its name) fulfills many of these (i.e. communication monitored, outside of the U.S., students denied access to telephone, level system etc.). What troubles me today is that they now are boasting about violating #13- The staff includes former clients/students of the facility.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not making a character attack on the staff member in question. He’s probably a decent guy, a pawn in their game. He probably cares for the kids- I had several friends who went back as staff- some were great, others were NIGHTMARES. However, having been a former student, especially a former student under the old order, when Tim Blossom, Phil Redwine, and Jeff Seabrooke were in charge, parents considering CMA need to understand that his norm for what typifies abuse is skewed.
Also troubling, his answer for what drew him back to the D.R.:
“God solely drew me back to CMA…Even when I came home after a student I did well in the program…but the day I left and went home…I was back into it...The battle I have from there from all the way up to when I came back to Christ all the way up to when I came back to here…it’s just been a crazy story. I just felt I had something to offer to students. I had a heart to help. I know how it is when you go home after being in the program..it’s one of the toughest times you can endure..I just wanted to help the teenagers here.”
For how CMA enacts change in students:
“Culture shock helps…it gets them out of their comfort zone…” (note: culture shock is code for brainwashing).
The answer for how he deals with students anger is revealing because it shows the petty reasons why students are sent to CMA.
I let them verbalize that anger…I let them verbally process what they were doing at home…skipping school or talking back or whatever it may be.
His final thoughts on CMA are taken straight from the Escuela Caribe playbook- lines I once used myself.
If I were never to come down here, I’d be dead right now…it essentially saved my life.