World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools

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The World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS or WWASP) is a Utah, United States based organization that runs programs that they claim can correct what is perceived as inappropriate behavior by children as young as 12. Parents can sign their children up for these programs at their own discretion. Juveniles can also be admitted to the facilities by court order instead of jail. No distinction is made within the programs among students admitted because of law violations and those signed up by their parents.

Some of the eleven WWASP schools are based in the United States, including Spring Creek Lodge Academy in Montana, the Academy at Ivy Ridge in New York, and Bethel Girls Academy in Mississippi. Others are abroad, such as Tranquility Bay in Jamaica, Casa by the Sea in Mexico (now closed), and the Academy at Dundee Ranch in Costa Rica. WWASP operates many different websites and is linked to various other organizations, so that an Internet search for "defiant teen" or a similar phrase will likely turn up a WWASP program, rather than the websites of competitors or critics (see external links).

WWASP programs have become notorious for allegations of child abuse against the school staff. Notable criticisms include an article published by the New York Times, an article published by Observer Magazine, and sworn testimony by former attendants of their most infamous facility, Tranquility Bay.

The opinions of former WWASP students are divided. Some claim the program saved them from death, while others report psychological trauma from their stay. (In some testimonies former students say, they are required to believe that the program saved them from a terrible fate in order to avoid punishment and gain points. Their stories of what would have happened, if they were not "saved" by the school are vague and strangely resemble each other. See Guardian Article in Links section)

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Parallels

If the allegations in the various testimonies cited are true, the techniques used in WWASP programs are a mixture of methods used by military schools, churches, prisons, religious cults, and prisoner of war camps (see the linked articles for more information):

  • Magdalen Asylums: rule of silence, even adult women had to address the nuns as "mother" (similar to WWASP's rule of addressing the staff representative as "Mum" or "Dad"), sexuality was strictly controlled, corporal punishment was used, and occupants were kept busy with manual labor.
  • Military academies: degradation and humiliation, power structures are of utmost importance, corporal punishment replaced with making the group pay for a single individual's behavior.
  • Prisons: control of sexuality (many United States prisons prohibit masturbation), various disciplinary techniques.
  • Religious cults: intensive use of videos and "reflections" to dominate the minds of members/inmates, reference to the group as a family (e.g. Children of God), systems of levels within which the members can advance (e.g. Scientology), litigation against critics.
  • Prisoner-of-war camps: methods purely for prevention of insurrection, physical and mental torture as a tool of subjugation and fear, brainwashing, starvation and dehydration.
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Effects

If the testimony cited is accurate, the physical and psychological abuse described would result in severe trauma in many cases (leading in turn to symptoms like depression, nightmares, stress, and self-injury). It depends on the degree of prior bonding with the parents whether such trauma is projected onto WWASP, onto the parents, or self-projected. In any case, these traumatic effects will likely not surface immediately.

Modern psychology increasingly views bonding as essential for the development of positive relationships; bonding, of course, is a two-way-process. Many children admitted to WWASP come from divorced families where the bonding process has been disrupted. Child neglect and lack of physical affection are both known risk factors for problematic behavior such as drug use.

Many of the same arguments that are used in the debates about other strongly coercive methods of education can be applied here: Even many of the most fierce opponents of the practice acknowledge that it may often accomplish the desired result of obedience, but claim that the long-term psychological harm far outweighs this perceived benefit. Most scientific opinions see strongly coercive styles of education as inferior to other styles. None of the methods of psychotherapy accepted by mainstream science uses coercive methods against the will of the patient.

According to critics of recovered memory therapy, patients in such therapy sessions are told that they are in "denial" until they acknowledge that sexual or ritual abuse has happened; similarly, relatives who are charged with the abuse are also in "denial" until they acknowledge its reality. This is comparable to the alleged use of the word "manipulative" in WWASP programs -- students are "manipulative" whenever they say or write something which the staff disagrees with.

Articles about WWASP often quote parents who are very satisfied customers. Critics explain this effect with the widely accepted theory of cognitive dissonance: the programs are very expensive, and if they are viewed as a failure later, the parents would have to acknowledge their own mistake, and worse, that they spent thousands of dollars to fund a program that ultimately harmed their children. Such acknowledgment will be viewed as emotionally unappealing, so reasons will be sought for upholding the belief that the program was indeed useful.

Additionally the thought, that such a severe treatment was not beneficial for the child may create strong feelings of guilt and therefore be avoided. In the same way a pupil, who was forced to police others (which frequently happens in those schools), may create the belief, that everything was for their own benefit, in order to avoid feelings of guilt.

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Current Events

In December 2004 and January 2005, news agencies reported that five U.S.-owned residential treatment centers in Mexico had been closed by local authorities for numerous health violations and for placing children in punishment cells.

On April 20, 2005, motivated by reports of abuse as WWASP schools and similar facilities, representative George Miller (D-California) has introduced legislation to combat child abuse at residential treatment programs in the U.S. and abroad, entitled the End Institutional Abuse Against Children Act (H. R. 1738).

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Further reading

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External links

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