A girl born in the United States has been taken by force to live a year in Israel. The girl named Hannah Nuszen was forced to attend a private detention facility marketed as a therapeutic boarding school in Utah. The facility New Haven is mentioned on several websites and blogs being operated by human rights organizations in several countries. She is now no longer attending the Utah facility but was pressured to go to Israel where she has no social network of family and friends to live for what looks like an entire year.

Whether this is sanctioned by family court judge Jim York is not known at this moment but the fact is that this girl has been flown to a part of the world located near a war zone. A country which was the target of missile strikes as late as last year.

Sources in Denmark which as country unfortunately are among those countries who delivers warriors for fundamentalist groups in Syria speak of motivated and well-educated youth who have left Denmark for this area and are ready to attack Israel if their religious leaders speak in favor of it.

Hannah Nuszen could be victim of such an attack and had she stayed in the United States she could have avoided being exposed to this danger. We have to ask: Where is her right as a United States citizen to remain in her own country?

We are not talking of a girl wanting to go for adventure with elements of near death experiences built into her trip. We are talking of a girl who wants to remain at home in Houston, Texas where she has her friends and family.

Please stop this exiling of a girl who might not survive this stay.

A mother of a female teenager reached out for help at Dr. Phil and the family was given an offer which they believed could help the girl which struggled with relationship problems as part of the rite of passage towards adulthood.

What the girl got was isolation and violence at the Island View Residential Treatment Center. She ended up with a broken arm, which could bother her for the rest of her life.

Neither the family or the girl was given any advice of the type of treatment center Island View is. It is basically a level 3 lockdown suited for the most severe and violent teenagers. There is little freedom and isolation from family and friends back home.

The family has sued both the treatment center and the Dr. Phil show for the damages.


Sources:

• Parents Say Dr. Phil Exploited Their Troubled Teenage Daughter (Court House News)
  
• Family sues Dr. Phil, Utah treatment center (Deseret News)
  

By locating former students and having them tell positive stories about their stay at the boarding school, Diamond Ranch Academy hopes to address the negative press they have received during the last few years.

When they started their operation there were no internet and former students were not able to reach the established newspapers, radios and television-stations. There was no reason for them to care about what former students might have to say about their stay at the school. As long as the parents who paid for the stay were happy about having been relieved so they could use their time on holidays and other personal activities everything was fine.

But then the former students found each other on the Internet. They were able to compare and found out that they all had the same negative experiences. They began to publish their testimonies online. Teenagers who were in risk of ending up at the boarding began to care. Numerous petitions aiming at saving teenagers from the boarding school were only. They gained support from people not only in the United States but also in other countries. The trademark “Diamond Ranch Academy” lost its value. It has been something you threaten your child with when the child is a toddler. “Eat up your food or you will end up at Diamond Ranch Academy pulling carts all day long”.

When a boy died at the ranch it became clear that the remote location of the ranch posed a danger to the students. An entire new concept for the school had to be invented. They built a brand new campus where the focus is on sport rather than wilderness and ranching activities.

But the boarding school still has its problems which needed to be fixed. Another boy lost his life at the boarding school only a few months ago. In the long run the school cannot survive if the negative press continues. So they are now in the offensive.

Other schools and programs have been in this situation. Usually the next step is to change the name. The family foundation school did that in 2013. Now they are named The Allynwood Academy. What will the new name of Diamond Ranch Academy be? This attack on former students and their negative experiences will not be a success. They have to move on accepting that the past cannot be buried.

From one of our US-partners we have learned of a petition which is about a girl who is in danger of being send to Diamond Ranch Academy where James Richard Shirey died January 2010.

Your signature is needed. Below you can read more about the case:

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Today we heard a troubling story about a girl named Victoria, a sweet 16 year old girl from Louisiana who is in danger of being court ordered to be held at Diamond Ranch Academy, in Hurricane, Utah, a notoriously abusive behavior modification program for the next 2 years. Victoria does not deserve to be incarcerated, her father from whom she is estranged simply does not like the school she currently attends and is determined to dictate her education.

Apparently, in Louisiana, when divorced parents cannot agree on a school for their child they go to court, where a judge listens to both parties and then issues a court order deciding which school the child will attend. (This is what the mom has told me.) The father brought in glossy brochures about DRA, showing the horses, the beautiful grounds, ponds, classrooms, dormitories etc, and presented DRA to the judge like it was a boarding school.

Ultimately, the judge approved the Dad’s petition to send his daughter to DRA, and she is scheduled go there June 1.

Mom and daughter both recently visited DRA and were horrified. Neither of them want Victoria to attend this school, and are desperate to find a way to show the judge the truth about Diamond Ranch Academy, the abuse and the maltreatment that has been the cause of injury and death of at least one student in their care.

Please consider signing this petition in support of Victoria being saved from this fate, allowing her and her mother the freedom to choose the school that is best for her, not a program that will abuse her and rob her of the best years of her life.

If you were a student at DRA please share your story here, we will make sure each and every testimony is delivered to the judge presiding over this case.

Thank You
http://www.troubledprograms.com

Source:Save Victoria From Diamond Ranch Academy (Troubled Programs)