when ridlin fails you
Kids are just out of control these days. Between swearing and sex and partying and dancing and music and rebellion, I swear, what we need is a good gulag-style lockup to set them straight. Make sure that there is plenty of demeaning punishment, physical and mental. Make them wear signs advertising that they’re still f-ed up. Lie them on their faces for 24-hours, and if that’s not enough, do it again. What would be even better is if they were taken in the dead of night, without warning, and denied communication with their families for the better part of a year. I saw some kids just the other day, and judging them by what they were wearing, who knows what they are capable of?! Out of control.
Sadly, this is a reality. Parents are paying good money (25-40000$$/year) to send their kids off to a place in Jamaica just like this. For years. There is an agreement that the place gets 49% custody of the child (whatever that means….it sounds wrong…I suppose in the case of a divorce they’d become the controlling partner) and keeps the kid securely locked up for up to several years, as long as they deem necessary. It’s astounding, the lack of responsibility that parents are feeling regarding their children these days. Not all, of course, but from an outsider’s perspective (and having spent time in the classroom) it looks as though a great number of parents take no interest or effort in educational development, including morality and behavior modification, instead leaving these to overburdened schools and questionable drugs. A lot of children are being prescribed Ridlin, Prozac, whatever, because they’re a bit hyper. This is ludicrous. Maybe extreme cases warrant these chemicals, but in the vast majority of them a modification of diet (no more oreo cereal and cola for breakfast), patience (they’re developing, and active parenting are sufficient. Now they’re sending the kids away to prison…like in Papillon. These parents are negligent jerks, and should be imprisoned themselves. Boarding school, military school, these are range from significant to extreme, Outward Bound, an interesting and sometimes very successful approach, AmeriCorps too. But Tranquility Bay is an injustice. via Robot Wisdom.
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7 Responses to “when ridlin fails you”
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wow…that was the most depressing piece i’ve read in awhile. those poor kids.
Did someone put poop in your oatmeal this morning Rick? That was horrible. Now I feel like poop in oatmeal. I’m going to go and read some Sylvia Plath poetry and Marilyn Manson lyrics while painting my fingernails black to liven up my mood.
Early this year (2003) I vacationed in Jamaica. I had heard the stories and had spoken to some press that were investigating the issues. My curiosity was somewhat peaked, and since I was staying in Jamaica for about a week, I decided to hire a driver and see, for myself, what this facility looks like. My experience and the pictures I personally took of the facility are available for the asking. For those interested in an abridged version – - here it goes:
First and foremost, you must understand that this place is in the middle of nowhere. It’s a shock to travel Jamaica’s countryside to begin with, because driving in general is so dangerous, away from the resorts (I happened to be staying in Ocho Rios) and the poverty is omnipresent. The city (Treasure Beach) is as remote as it gets, and when you arrive and ask where Tranquility Bay is (or to it’s local folk the “Olde Warf Hotel”), you are outrightly lied to — they say they don’t know exactly where it is. Once you arrive in town, past the Motorcycle merchant, look for an old Jamaican (looks to be 300 or so) sitting on a rock, for it is at that dirt road you have to turn and follow a path about a half-mile long to the rather un-glorious “Tranquility Bay”.
My first awareness that I was in the right place, was that I saw 10 or 20 boys riding on the rim of an old Pick-up Truck in front of us. They all looked unkempt and the ride looked dangerous. They were allowed inside the gates (the children and the dilapidated truck) and I had the driver stop so I could take in this nightmare, that I had only previously read about or had seen by way of very unclear pictures on the internet.
It’s bad — the first thing that catches your eye is that all of the windows (99%) have been “boarded-up”. It hales from something out of a Hitchcock movie. The place has an odor and it is not pleasant at all. The beach could never be utilized because it looks as though the sewage is emptied on it regularly. If that’s not the case, then a blanket statement that the beach is in horrible and unusable condition for whatever reason is a completely fair assessment of the situation.
The place has guards; it’s ominously quiet (it was while I was there). Even if you did manage to escape, I don’t know where any of its “guests” would run to. The trip just to the main road (if you could call it that) would wind even the most fit athlete, and the townspeople are rumored to get rewards for turning run-a-ways in. Remember that many Jamaicans work for the facility and even if the reward does not exist, they have a stake in making sure the “guests” stay imprisoned.
Obviously, I could not go inside, but I snapped many pictures and they clearly illustrate, that the place is a broken-down second-rate motel from the past, and should have been leveled many years ago, and that any beauty that the structure or the beach on which it sits may have once possessed is gone. It’s a frightening site (and this is just from the outside). Notably, there is garbage in large cages outside the structure and I did have the feeling that something or someone, other than it’s intended contents, may be placed in there from time-to-time.
Interestingly, I was not approached, although I was taking pictures like crazy (and my presence was somewhat obvious).
Another important fact, for people to keep in mind, is that this “hell-hole” is hours from both Kingston and Montego Bay Airports — it’s a drive you will never forget and it runs upwards of $300 round-trip.
Truly, all of this is moot, because the Headmaster (and I use this reference loosely) has no credentials at all which justify his position of management over this facility. The parents are bad parents — plain and simple — for taking part in this plan. An inquiry about this program by any parent, by itself, should result in a parent being jailed with no due process for the rest of their life.
Eventually, the United States Government will have to deal with this mess — hopefully by invading Utah again — it is time for that (government intervention) — they have short memories from the last time (The Invasion of Utah.) Utah’s inhabitance (and others) need desperately to come to terms with the fact that troubled children are a part of normal life and that having them kidnapped by paid morons (mostly because the parents are too cowardly to do this themselves)and then surreptitiously smuggling their child/children off to a foreign country to be tortured indefinitely is contrary to the mores and values of a civilized society.
Do not send your kids to this place! It’s awful to look at, the manager is unqualified and all your doing is stuffing the bulging coffers of the nuts and religious fanatics that run these torture chambers.
Richard R. Titsch, III
New Jersey
I am in a state of shock over this, although why I am not sure. But what I would like to know is are you doing anything about this? And if so is there anyway I can help? I would like to see these photos and gain more facts on this, and possibly try to give those children a voice.
Oops wrong email add.
Please visit my BBS on the Tranquility Bay Topic:
http://www.bulletinboards.com/view.cfm?comcode=Titsch
Prozac (fluoxetine) for Depression: I really like this drug. I used to sleep all the time but this gives me tons of energy. I am one of the few who has actually lost weight while on it. I love my Prozac!