In 2011, Escuela Caribe and its parent company New Horizons Youth Ministries shut down. The property was donated to Crosswinds, a subsidiary of Lifeline Youth Ministries. At first we celebrated. However, now we alumni are concerned.
Caribbean Mountain Academy, a division of Crosswinds, is predominantly staffed by former New Horizons Youth Ministries/ Escuela Caribe employees. These are employees that were employed by an organization that professed that children must be broken in order to be fixed. They worked during a time when students, teenagers, were given swats and being sent to the Quiet Room (often for days) for minor violations, when students were being “slammed” against the wall for minor infractions, even when the story of waterboarding recounted by “Emily” occurred sometime around 2009. (For further reference, read this student’s account of abuse in 2008, when many of these staff were employed).
Another troubling aspect is that this summer Crosswinds uploaded a parents’ guidebook (since removed from their website). The students are on a level system similar to the one utilized by Escuela Caribe. It does not say how their placement on levels is determined. (In the past it was via a point sheet).Zero Level, which we all considered an abomination, is no longer mentioned in the guidebook. However, it seems to have been replaced with Level One.
This summer, Jesus Land author Julia Scheeres created a petition to protect students at Caribbean Mountain Academy. A series of requests to protect basic human rights was outlined. Nearly 600 individuals have signed, including Caribbean Mountain Academy/ Crosswinds CEO Mark Terrell.
Terrell added comments. Many are problematic. The two things that worry us most is that he carefully qualified his answers on employing former staff and on uncensored communication between students and families.
In order for students to be protected, they need uncensored communication with their families. They need a hotline to report abuse, and an outside agency that monitors the facility to ensure that abuse is not occurring. For students to be safe, they shouldn’t be in the Dominican Republic at all, cut off from their families.
We believe all former staff should be dismissed. Two of the current staff members have written a post for the Crosswinds facebook page defending why they should still be employed. Even if they did not commit abuse, they still were there while it was occurring. In the United States, teachers or counselors who do not report abuse happening to children lose their jobs. Why should the rules be different in a therapeutic program?
My name is Jennifer. M. I attended escuela caribe for about one year (1979-1980). I sure wasn’t ok with they’re disciplining system. The attitude sessions quiet room. And point system was more than strict. I tried running away after two weeks of being there. Of course they caught me. They cut my long hair straight across very short stuck a mirror in front of my face and said “this will help you remember what not to do” afterwards the disciplinarian Jeff ? made me kneel across a chair and whipped my butt and thighs with a piece of leather with holes in it . They repeated these things to the girl that ran with she had bad welts on her thighs. She got it worse they said she was my bad example. I knew I had to get out of there and I would never get”good”enough for 5th level (recommendation to go home) so I worked hard at my school work and got 3 years done in one year. I made it to 4th level and had a hard time trying not to lose it. There is a learned method to getting enough points to survive on 3rd level I figured out. I was lucky I guess because I had loving house parents and I became best friends with Sarah j. Those two things made it possible to go through. Sounds like I maybe had it better than some although I witnessed worse abuse than I received. I acted out after returning home in a matter of months I was on the streets and deep into drugs and much more. I’ve been clean and sober for almost one year. I haven’t used drugs for almost 20 years. I am finally grateful for my life today even my past. My past is used to help others with addictions and mental illness. We’re not bad kids were just sick people that were put through more unnecessary hell by others. I’m amazed that I thought of looking up escuela caribe out of the blue and found this. Just started writing and it was very therapeutic after 40 years later. Love and hugs to all who have been through it
I am happy you are finding peace. I hate that we all went through this. Much <3.