what's wrong with us?
I know, stupid question for stupid times, but these allegations, which I stumbled across via a buzzflash link, make the Bethel Boys Academy, one of those so-called Christian bootcamps for supposedly "troubled" teens, sound just one notch more mild than Abu Ghraib. And, worse, it's not the only one; the website which posted the allegations contains links to data on similar camps throughout the US. We don't just torture our enemies, we torture our own kids. And we don't even have to ship them overseas to do it.
Fundamentalism -- Christian, Islamic, whatever -- cloaks itself in religion. But it isn't religion. It's nationalism -- might makes right and my nation should be the mightiest and whoever weakens my nation from within or without deserves to punished or killed -- and nothing more.
If this were a Burroughs novel, roving packs of wild boys would swoop down from the hills and skies right about now.
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Notice how many of those evil places are in Utah?
Posted on Thu, Feb. 10, 2005
Lucedale's Bethel Home gets new name, education plan, organizer says
LUCEDALE - John Fountain, the director of the newly named Eagle Point Christian Academy, previously known as Bethel Boys Academy, said Thursday the school is entering a new era for working with troubled youth.
"Our goal is still to turn around lives," he said. "We have new staff members and we are going to make our program work better."
Fountain said he and his attorney Trey Bobinger came up with the new name and still haven't finished all the legal wording. "I hope to put a new face on it."
He said the program, which has 105 young men enrolled, gets away from the "boot camp" mentality.
"I don't believe in corporal punishment," he said. "It doesn't work for the kids now days."
He said it could be more difficult to maintain discipline, but that he and his staff would work through that.
Fountain said local educator Bobby Walker is principal of the academy.
"We will be getting a library and adding computers," he said. "We must do that so the youngsters can get into the new technology."
Fountain said the academy would abide by all state rules and regulations. "If we expect the youngsters to go by the rules, we certainly have to do it ourselves."
He would not talk about suits alleging mistreatment of youth which he said came during the past administration. "Our attorney is handling that."
The name change is not unprecedented with the academy, which was founded by Fountain's father, Herman.
It was called the Bethel Home for Children in 1988 when it was raided by state welfare officials who removed 72 abused and neglected children. A judge shut it down in 1990 and Herman Fountain reopened it as the Bethel Boys Academy four years later.
"Life's a learning experience, I've learned a lot from the mistakes my father has made and still learning everyday and wanting to make a change," Fountain said.
Fountain called the abuse allegations "hog wash."
"Some of them are so far fetched, it's almost funny," he said.
George County authorities cleared the academy of abuse allegations last year, but parents continued to complain of visible signs of injury to their children.
Fort Smith, Ark. attorney Oscar Stilley, who is representing parents of former cadets suing the academy in federal court, said the case is heading to trial and at least two similar lawsuits are to come.
Bobinger said even though the abuse allegations, which are two years old, are still the subject of a lawsuit, there are no pending legal issues with the state.
The school admits about 100 students, ages 11 to 17, whose stays range from eight to 12 months, Fountain said.
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News 7
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New Abuse Claim Against Bethel
Another allegation of physical abuse at Bethel Girls Academy has an angry parent taking action.
"I got a call at 11:30 at night telling me they're taking my child to the emergency room because my child's wrist is swollen and they think it's broken, so when I get a call back they're telling me it's broken," says Angela Roberts.
Last Saturday, Roberts says, she received some shocking news. Officials at Bethel told her that her 16-year-old daughter Angenika injured herself after she slammed her fingers in a door and punched a wall. But Roberts says she's not buying it. She claims the school's director Herman Fountain is responsible.
"My daughter says Mr. Fountain grabbed her and took his knees and put it in my daughter's pelvis area and grabbed her wrist and pushed it all the way back until it popped," she says. "That is ridiculous."
Angenika McNeil, the alleged victim, says: "He just jacked me up and he slung me into the door and that's how I got this cut on my eye and when I got into his office he put his knee into my stomach and started bending my hand back and then I jerked it away from him."
Roberts has filed a complaint with the Forrest County Sheriff's Office against Bethel Academy.
But Fountain gives a different account of what happened. He says it was last Thursday, and he tried to restrain Angenika after she lashed out.
"She bit my arm right here. I've got a bruise right here," he says. "She kicked me in the chest and in the legs and I just held her down until she calmed down."
Fountain says Angenika was not injured during Thursday's incident, but instead had to be taken to the e-room Saturday after she injured herself.
"Mr. Fountain needs to pay for his actions," Roberts insists. "He needs to be put in jail for his actions. It makes no sense for a man to do those types of things to these children. I don't care what type of children they are."
http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20050216/NEWS01/50216001
Students flee Bethel school; allege abuse
Law enforcement officers were at a Petal school for troubled
teenagers Wednesday morning investigating allegations of abuse and
reports that several of the girls there had run away.
According to Forrest County Sheriff's Department deputies, 11 girls
fled the Bethel Girls Academy, although the school's director, Herman
Fountain Jr., said only seven girls were missing. He couldn't
immediately explain the discrepancy.
Four girls were being sought by authorities this morning. Others had
returned to the school. It was unclear how many staff members were on
duty at the time the girls ran away.
"Some of the girls had an uprising and sort of took over the place,"
Fountain said. "They just ran away."
One of the girls, Angenika McNeil, 16, said her arm was broken after
she was restrained. Fountain said she may have injured her arm when
she punched a wall.
Another girls was treated in an ambulance for a cut to the head this
morning. Fountain said she fell.
Fountain said he was not at the school at the time of the incident.
The school has had a history of problems with state authorities. The
Department of Human Services removed 38 girls from the facility last
spring after receiving complaints of mistreatment from the girls
about physical and verbal abuse.
No charges were filed in connection with the incident, and the school
continued to accept students.
The school mixes Biblical teaching with military-style discipline. It
takes in girls with behavioral problems from around the country.
Nikki Rich, hired about a month ago as a drill instructor, said she
was quitting.
"This is ridiculous, I'm not going to stay here," she said.
Rich said the girls were providing notes outlining their issues with
the school to employees. Rich said she had several of the notes and
planned to give them to DHS officials.
Deputies said DHS has been called. The agency has not arrived as of 1
p.m.
Originally published February 16, 2005
hi my name's nicole, i'm 16 years old and from cali. i was one of the 11 girls who ran away from bethel girls academy because of the abuse going on there. it was insane. i watched my closest friends get their arms broken, forced to sit in a sewage for 8 hours, deprived of food/water/bathroom priveleges, kicked and beat by the pastor, chased with base ball bats, chased with his truck...and it goes on everywhere. it really is sad and horrible. you had some good points. thanks for posting us on your blog...
www.isaccorp.org
realitynews.net (click on VCA survivors)
http://www.inweekly.net/article.asp?artID=713
Hey nicole. It's Barbara from bethel. yah i do admit that it was pretty insane there. But......... when did they sit in sewage for 8 hours? Or was that when you ran away. And mr. fountain really did try to run some people over. Brother fountain though asked me "are they on our side" when i went up to his car when he was leaving when they police where there and i was like " didn't know i was on your side" He would embaress me because i stuck up for not believing women should be bare foot and pregant in the kitchen and he rudely embarresed me when he was asking us girls if we knew how to cook. when he called on me i said i'll tell the man to get in the kitchen and make ME something to eat. Of course he didn't like that. well i just think that we do need to look at the positve things about it. We made long life friends and got away from keoghman. She was such a kiss ass. Am i right?
Ok, to all the girls that went to bethel....you might have hated that place, but come on....the sewage thing...thanks barabara jean for backing that false statement up. I never heard of the truck incident, but i do know that some of the girls were restrained,but what are you suppose to do when there is a girl trying to hurt you. You can't stand there and let someone that is out of control hurt you, so the restrain thing was necessary, i just wish the girls would stop lying about MOST of the allegations. I can't believe ya'll are still stuck on Kauffman....thats funny :). Well please if any of the bethel girls from the academy see this page, please e-mail me...i would really like to here from ya'll. I actually miss the place. I know that i personally never saw any abuse. and i was there....a lot.
reeel_sweetie@yahoo.com please e-mail me with any questions...or any hellos bye
Hey My name is ben and i live in cali.
You all think you had it bad at the girls home we at the boys home(bethel boys)had it alot worse. ive had my arm borke my foot broke and stiches all from that home.ive actually had seen my friend get the living shit beat out of him till he had to go to the hospital then they said he got in a fight with anouther cadet. plus you all got shut down i had to live with that 7 months after you. i here the fountians are having a classaction suite filed on them and im flying out there to testify.
Seymour man gets $900k in abuse claim
Connecticut Post (Bridgeport, CT)
December 14, 2006
Author: MATTHEW HIGBEE mhigbee@ctpost.com
Estimated printed pages: 2
SEYMOUR - A town man sentenced to 20 years in a psychiatric hospital
for trying to kill his parents by burning down their house has won a
$900,000 judgement against a southern military academy for troubled
teenagers that he said tortured him. Joseph Gabriel Paolillo and his
father, Joseph Peter Paolillo, won the judgement Monday against the
Bethel Boys Academy, of Lucedale, Miss., in Mississippi federal court.
The elder Paolillo was awarded $59,709 in damages.
Routine beatings and mental abuse from a drill instructor with a pit
bull trained to bite in the crotch were alleged by the younger
Paolillo, who was 17 when he went to Bethel in 1998.
"They beat him viscously," his father said. "I feel relieved that some
satisfaction was given to my son, so he can seek professional
treatment and counseling."
Testifying from Whiting Forensic Institute in Middletown, the
25-year-old Paolillo described treatment at Bethel such as being made
to eat breakfast in 45 seconds and then roll around on the ground
until throwing up. A drill instructor, William Knotts, would sic a bit
bull on cadets given a head start to run across a field, Paolillo
testified. "I had bite marks on my groin," Paolillo said in his
testimony. "That's basically where the dog generally bit."
Paolillo was sent to Whiting after breaking into his parent's
residence on Julie Drive in Seymour on Dec. 16, 2003, with a 5-gallon
can of gasoline and setting the dining room floor afire.
Paolillo's attorney, George Yoder, said collecting on the judgement
would be difficult because the Bethel Academy has since closed and
apparently never had insurance.
Section: Local
(c) 2006 The Connecticut Post. All rights reserved. Reproduced with
the permission of Media NewsGroup, Inc. by NewsBank, Inc.
I will send my comment again. Bethel for girls was a great place. Those allegations are ridiculous and Dramatic, as were the girls that sent them. Nicole, I have talked with you, and that is a great made up story. Why LIE?
And Barbara Jean, I have also spoken to you, so why lie on this site. As for the drill instructor, you also surprise me.
It is so strange that so many girls did not want to leave and go home. They knew where they had it good. Bethel was very lienient. Nothing like Ivy Ridge.
I feel so sad so many wrong things were said.
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