Christian Boot Camp Drags 15-Year-Old Girl Behind Van

[Lemur]

Stories like this make my blood boil. The concept of sending a troubled child to a boot camp is a little iffy in the first place, especially when such camps are not regulated in any meaningful way.

Here's the ugliness:

Aug. 10, 2007, 8:53PM

Girl allegedly dragged behind van at boot camp

© 2007 The Associated Press

BANQUETE, Texas — The director of a Christian boot camp and an employee were arrested Friday for allegedly dragging a 15-year-old girl behind a van after she fell behind the group during a morning run, authorities said.

Charles Eugene Flowers and Stephanie Bassitt of San Antonio-based Love Demonstrated Ministries, a 32-day boot camp, were arrested on aggravated assault charges for the alleged June 12 incident.

The two are accused of tying the girl to the van with a rope then dragging her, according to an arrest affidavit filed Wednesday by the Nueces County Sheriff's Department.

Both remained in Nueces County Jail late Friday on $100,000 bond each.

A call to Love Demonstrated Ministries was not immediately returned Friday. No listing was found for Bassitt. An answering machine at a listing for Flowers cut off during an attempt to leave a message Friday.

Flowers, the camp's director, allegedly ordered Bassitt to run alongside the girl after she fell behind, the affidavit said. When the girl stopped running, Bassitt allegedly yelled at her and pinned her to the ground while Flowers tied the rope to her, according to the affidavit.

The girl's mother gave investigators photos of her daughter's injuries that were taken at a hospital where the girl was treated and a sworn statement from a witness who claimed to see the girl being dragged on her stomach at least three times.

Here's the camp's web site, which may or may not crash your browser.

A couple of questions for my fellow Orgahs: Is it possible my tax dollars went to support this camp? I'm worried about the Faith Based Initiatives, and the haphazard way the money's been sloshed about. I would be outraged if this group received Federal money.

Secondly, is there any mechanism for keeping an eye on these boot camps for kids? In theory, they sound fine, but the potential for abuse is so high, I just don't know about them. Troubled, misbehaving kids, taken away from all parental supervision, put under the care of adults who may or may not be psychotic ... I just don't know.

[KukriKhan]

I rather doubt those places get Fed money, although Texas state might contribute - and the original source of tHAT money could be Federal. I pulled this quotation from another camp website:

Camp Huawni is a licensed resident camp under the Texas Youth Camp Health and Safety Act. The oversight agency is the Texas Department of Health. The camp is inspected regularly with its food preparation, water system, staff requirements,

So if it's an overnight/resident camp, a Texas bureau does monitor it. Most of the websites I've visited for Texas summer camps (Man, there are lots of faith-based ones) proudly proclaim their licensed, state-monitored status. Not so "Love Demonstrated Ministries" camp website.

Another local report "http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20219073/, addresses LDM camp's parental consent form, including the phrase:

"I realize that Christian boot camp is a strenuous and highly intense program. I further realize that the possibility of accident, injury or even fatality to my child does exist."

Who would sign such a document?

edit: crap; that link went 404 just after I wrote this. Maybe it'll be up again later. Sorry.

[Stig]

The whole idea of a "Christian" boot camp sounds dangerous, sounds like an Al-Qaida training camp to me.

Who would sign such a document?

So true

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

It bothers me as well, as I'm not keen on religion. Faith? Yes. Belief? Yes. Religion? No.

The idea of religious camps is not one I'm fond of, for social and theological religions.

That said, "Brat Camp" is a television show over here where troubled teenages are sent to a "Boot Camp" in America for eight weeks or so to straighten them out. It seems to work, but then so would national service.

[Lemur]

They showed Brat Camp here in the U.S. as well. It certainly looked effective, but everyone would be on their best behavior for the TV cameras, now wouldn't they? I'm still ambivalent about boot camps for kids. All it would take is one psycho to make the whole thing a nightmarish exercise in child endangerment.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

True, but there's also a thing "Bad Lads Army" where some undesirables are put through 12 weeks of 1950's National Service training. At the end of that a lot of them join straight up. One guy actually said he had to get into the army before he slipped back into his old ways.

Of course, there were also a couple of guys who beat up their fellow recruits and were ejected after a stay in the guard room.

Btw, Lemur, comiserations. The new avater is freaky as well.

[Del Arroyo]

My guess is that the girl is just fine, suffered no real injuries, and is a crybaby.

EDIT: That said, who would drag a trainee behind a truck on a rope? There are easier ways to break someone's will.

[Duke of Gloucester]

The whole idea of a "Christian" boot camp sounds dangerous, sounds like an Al-Qaida training camp to me.

It sounds like an oxymoron (not much room for forgiveness in a boot camp), but I can't see why it sounds like a terrorist training camp. Is it the Christian bit or the boot camp bit or just a prejudice that all religious people are the same?

[Stig]

It sounds like an oxymoron (not much room for forgiveness in a boot camp), but I can't see why it sounds like a terrorist training camp. Is it the Christian bit or the boot camp bit or just a prejudice that all religious people are the same?

The combination of the two. Muslim Terrorist Training Camps are nothing more than Muslim Boot Camps.

[AntiochusIII]

It's amazing how far some people will go to defend something this bad just because it has "Christian" tagged on it.

Jesus Christ (pun intended), what's wrong with you people?

[Duke of Gloucester]

The combination of the two. Muslim Terrorist Training Camps are nothing more than Muslim Boot Camps.

Not according to the accepted definition of boot camps they aren't. Muslim Training camps are attended volutarily by all sorts of young Muslim men often well-behaved ones whose later involvement in atrocities baffles friends and family. Boot camps have an element coercion and correction. Or putting it another way, the people in the camp mentioned in the article may be un-Christian and cruel and unfit to woark with children but I doubt they are training the inmates to participate in terrorists attacks.

[Divinus Arma]

Lemur's a moderator? Woah! When did this curse fall upon us? Congrats!

A couple of questions for my fellow Orgahs: Is it possible my tax dollars went to support this camp? I'm worried about the Faith Based Initiatives, and the haphazard way the money's been sloshed about. I would be outraged if this group received Federal money.

Just because a few rogue employees are criminals does not mean all outreach programs are crooked.

Secondly, is there any mechanism for keeping an eye on these boot camps for kids? In theory, they sound fine, but the potential for abuse is so high, I just don't know about them. Troubled, misbehaving kids, taken away from all parental supervision, put under the care of adults who may or may not be psychotic ... I just don't know.

Your reservations are reasonable. Sometimes these programs can be incredible helpful, and other times they can be sheer horror if the program is not properly ran.

I would agree with standards of oversight on this for sure. I am personally familiar with an incident at North Star that ended in a students death.

On March 1, 1994, Aaron's North Star adventure began -- an ordeal that resembled a desert hell and that ended one month later with the return of Aaron's emaciated corpse to his parents.

[Lemur]

Lemur's a moderator? Woah! When did this curse fall upon us? Congrats!

No cause for worry, my purview is far from the Backroom, so I can go on posting outrageous stories back here for the foreseeable future. I might have to chill a little if they ever asked me to moderate the Backroom, but with any luck that won't happen.

Just because a few rogue employees are criminals does not mean all outreach programs are crooked.

When I used the word "haphazard," I wasn't trying to imply that every faith-based initiative is a crooked op with a P.O. Box at Kinkos. But after reading David Kuo's account of how the Religious Right Placation Program was run in the White House, I'm painfully aware of how little oversight and accountability there is in that honey pot.

Sometimes these programs can be incredible helpful, and other times they can be sheer horror if the program is not properly ran.

I guess that gets to the root of my reservations. Without some sort of oversight, however onerous that might prove, these boot camps seem like a disaster waiting to happen. Adults can say "no" to an unreasonable request, whatever the setting. Teens are subject to in loco parentis, and that means they have no real protection from an insane boot camp counselor. Just seems ... dangerous. More than the usual run-of-the-mill dangerous.

[Marshal Murat]

Some parents are at the end of their ropes with kids.
They can't deal with them and the idea of a
Christian (good moral values) + Boot Camp (rough and disciplined) is an appealing option.

While I am not defending the camp counselors. I'm saying that this is the last option to resurrect their bad parenting and it is boot camp. They figure that anything with that kinda clause is simply for protection and not so that camp counselors can drag a girl behind the car.

The parents should have done a simple search to see if there was oversight, or some form of governmental review. It is bad parenting and no review of their options. To me it seems like a 'Trojan Horse' scam. They slap 'Christian' and 'Boot Camp' onto a camp, run them like a gulag, then collect for the intense workout.

[Del Arroyo]

If her injuries were so serious, then how come they aren't listed? I'll tell you why-- because they are boo-boos. Light to mid-grade boo-boos.

Not that this excuses the dragging behind a truck in general.

[KafirChobee]

Is the point to make disruptive children responsable citizens? Or, to torture them into being good christians?

A better idea:
http://www.youthranches.org/

Give them honest-hard work and responsability - that works. Harassment serves no purpose, except to punish.

[Marshal Murat]

That is what the parents probably thought they were doing. They expected a hard-working, god-loving, faith and work oriented work camp. They didn't research or read the fine print, and this is the result.

[Samurai Waki]

Long Live Texas? ...hmmmmm *scratches goatee*