Government Records Prove Long Standing Child Abuse at Family Foundation School, a 'Therapeutic' Boarding School

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
new york city, New York, United States of America (Free-Press-Release.com) November 4, 2011 -- Late yesterday, after over a year of waiting for a Freedom of Information Act request, a volunteer campaign, dedicated to exposing long standing abuse and neglect in a New York boarding school, released a four documents they obtained from the New York State Education Department; the campaign says they have more documents that will be released in the coming weeks. In the documents posted on their website, a New York State investigation cites serious concerns with the treatment of youth in the care of The Family Foundation School, a therapeutic boarding school in upstate New York.

The recently released 1990 document comes in light of an extensive multi-agency abuse investigation into the school just last year. The Campaign says they have a third State investigation from 1998, initiated after a New Jersey judge reported abuse allegations to New York officials when a youth she sentenced to spend time at the school claimed he was abused, neglected, and mistreated by school officials. That investigation will be released in the coming weeks.
The campaign, called The Family Foundation School TRUTH Campaign, is certain that the currently released and not yet released documents will show the public a clear, serious, and continuous issue with the Family Foundation School's operations.

The TRUTH Campaign says that the boarding school has been and continues to operate because under a loophole in New York State law, they are not regulated by any agency stating the Family School is only licensed by the Education Department as a school, but operates and markets itself as a twelve step drug treatment program for youth. The Campaign says any person, with the current law, can open a school, abuse children and get away with it. The TRUTH Campaign claims the Family Foundation School uses fraudulent marketing tactics to keep their doors open and that the school claims they are only an educational institution for 'at risk teens', yet they force every student, most who have serious mental health and learning disabilities, to participate in Alcoholics Anonymous' twelve step program.
The TRUTH Campaign recently learned that the school has pumped up their marketing strategies and have even been seen advertising in New York Magazine. The Campaign stands firm that students are subjected to harsh punishments, physical, emotional, sexual, and mental abuse while they are living at the school and that the owner of the school started a Search-and-Rescue dog service to chase down and catch runaways.

The TRUTH Campaign reports that they will be looking into taking legal action against the State for intentional failure to protect children over the past 20+ years, which they can prove through the documents they obtained. For now though, the Family Foundation School continues to operate, and the campaign continues to fight to close them down.

child abuse     education     family foundation school     The Family Foundation School     The Family School     Therapeutic Boarding Schools     Troubled Teens     truth campaign