Dear god

[beandelphiki]

Courtesy first of socratic:

I cried when I read this.

WARNING: This article is EXTREMELY TRIGGERING!

It's about sending kids to a kind of private prison in Jamaica. It makes me want to throw up, reading about this kind of damage being heartlessly inflicted on already troubled kids. I knew this existed - there was an article in Seventeen a few years back, when I was still passing for female and READING it - but I'd nearly forgotten about it.

The worst part? In the comments on this article, the person coldly commenting that the ends justifies the means. How could ANY PARENT who truly loved their child believe that?!?

Comments

[mhw.livejournal.com]

How could ANY PARENT who truly loved their child believe that?!?

Any parent who truly loved their child wouldn't let them be treated like that. Pure and simple.

[aerindipity.livejournal.com]

Yet more proof that people are and always have been afraid of and thus hateful toward teenagers.

It's sick.

[poopsmoothie.livejournal.com]

I first saw that link in aiobheil's journal. She went on to write that that sort of child-rearing (minus the expense) is commonplace in the Carribean, where she grew up.

JESUS!

[sleepykid999.livejournal.com]

I think I want to cry now.. God, that's horrible. I've had problems with my parents a bit, but I would never imagine anyone who loved me putting me through that kind of hell. I think I would be forced to kill myself if I were there.

[wheelchairkid.livejournal.com]

Didn't you read the success stories? It only takes ONE PERSON getting something good out of it for there to be a chance. Just because it looks like the shittiest thing on earth (and it probably is) but when a kid goes from juvenille delinquent bastard to a loving child because of that sort of establishment, then it can't all be bad for them. The parents send them there because they're frustrated and they care enough for their child to send them somewhere where there's a chance for them to return to a normal life, because they love them enough to not want to see them OD, or get shot by one of their gangs.

[beandelphiki.livejournal.com]

SUCCESS STORIES?

Jesus.

There is not a single kid in that article - either part - that sounded like a success to me. They were all brainwashed. They sound like every emotionally abused kid in the world who've been told something for so long they believe it - "I was/am a bad person. I deserve my abuse."

Nothing good comes of this, and even if it did, that doesn't justify the hundreds of other children who suffer and will need YEARS of therapy to undo the damage done to them.

[beandelphiki.livejournal.com]

...

Thanks for posting that for me. I keep thinking...there's something I should be able to do. I'm trying to think of something I could do.

Re:

[wheelchairkid.livejournal.com]

Brainwashed? Isn't it called brainwashing when they find out that drugs and sex and the road to failure is the cool thing to do? I believe so.
It's not that they DESERVE the abuse, it's just that the PREVIOUS form of BRAINWASHING taught them that their life is worthless, and the only thing worth living for is to get high, have sex and shoot people. The type of brainwashing (the crude term that you use..) that these kids are subjected to is that their life is worth something.
Also, some of those kids were incredibly fucking bad. They could have grown up to be the bastard who shoots your family or something. Now they're out of the way. Therapy my ass, some of those kids just NEED a good ass kicking!
I think lots of kids need a good ass kicking, the selfish bastards get away with EVERYTHING. Don't you think a child deserves a good ass kicking once in a while? YES. to put them back in line. If you think what they're doing is ALL around bad, and you don't think there is any success there, I find you to be incredibly ignorant.
Therapy. Bah. So you find that being a shitty ass kid living in a gutter doing drugs is any better of brainwashing than the program that puts them back on track? You think THAT isn't already DAMAGE inflicted on them?? Oh man!

[astres.livejournal.com]

These children are only being abused. To be frankly honest, when there is turmoil in my house, I subconsciously becme the perfect daughter. I do chores without asking, I am polite to be sure that no one explodes at me.

That is all they are doing to these kids. By no means is this all up to the parents to decide.

[emperor-boy.livejournal.com]

I have the distinct feeling that if my parents had money, I'd have been sent off to a place like that. Not for any real reason, but because luck and fate would dictate it so.

I don't like "troubled" kids, but people get better treatment in prison.

[haleth.livejournal.com]

That is the most disturbing thing I've read in a while. :-( It's hard to believe people would do that to anyone, let alone their own kids. But somehow not surprising at all that the children of such people would have emotional and behavioral problems.

[beandelphiki.livejournal.com]

If you think a kid actually deserves an "ass-kicking" then you disgust me.

"Brainwashing" is a crude term? You better believe it is, and so is the way these kids are being treated - as less than people. Try reading the article again - kids are doing...what? Having a lot of sex? Since when is that a crime? Talking back to their parents? Since when is THAT a crime? Being gay? That wasn't mentioned in this article, but I've read similar articles about places like this, and kids ARE sent to them just because their parents discover they're gay. And please note that the article says this place doesn't accept kids who are drug addicts. The people who go and shoot up neighbourhoods are not the pot-smokers.

Adults in our JAILS are treated better. Why are these kids so fucked up in the first place? Because their parents did a wonderful job raising them, obviously! So instead of taking on some fucking responsibility, they send their kids off where someone else can abuse them, and they don't have to think of them. You call that love? That's not love. You call that teaching a kid they have worth? Bullshit.

First, try paying attention to what other people are saying here - look at the comments, please.

Second, get the fuck out. People who believe abuse is okay are not welcome in my journal.

[wheelchairkid.livejournal.com]

Somehow your reply doesn't surprise me.
You must REALLY think there isn't such a thing as a bad person. I'm sorry, but you really might want to look into that..
As for paying attention to others' comments, what does that matter? That I should jump on the bandwagon and waiver my opinion just because of what a few people I've never met before think? Hardly. My thoughts are my own, and nothing you say influences them.

You want me out? Uh. Ok. :shrug:

:raises glass: Here's to you to continue seeing things from your narrow-minded, one-sided perspective. Have a nice life.

[beandelphiki.livejournal.com]

Here's to you to continue seeing things from your narrow-minded, one-sided perspective. Have a nice life.

Obviously, you've never been abused. See ya.

[wheelchairkid.livejournal.com]

Don't tell me anything about who I am.

[beandelphiki.livejournal.com]

Then don't assume some kid you've never met is a bad person and deserves to be abducted and dropped into a prison for years out of their life.

Mmm-kay?

Re:

[wheelchairkid.livejournal.com]

Don't assume they're GOOD, asshole.
geez, can't you look at anything from 2 sides?

[beandelphiki.livejournal.com]

*laughs* You think that a person has to be either GOOD or BAD?

Can you see something from MORE than 2 sides?

Re:

[wheelchairkid.livejournal.com]

End.

Re: JESUS!

[skrewt.livejournal.com]

I know someone who did kill himself in a place like that, while I was there with him. :-( Those places all deserve to be shut down.

[griffen.livejournal.com]

So as long as one person out of one hundred doesn't die because of the brainwashing, emotional abuse, and physical abuse, and comes out looking shiny, that's good enough for you?

I think if you'd been through that kind of treatment, you'd change your mind in a right hurry.

Re:

[wheelchairkid.livejournal.com]

I think you need to shut the fuck up, you horse's ass, you don't know anything about me.

[griffen.livejournal.com]

How about you do the same, without the name-calling.

This is my friend's journal and you are acting like a troll. Now stop it.

Re:

[wheelchairkid.livejournal.com]

How about you continue on with your frivilous, peon life, what is it.. Griffen? How about I just call you Dick, is that okay?
Well Dick, nice chatting with you, but I do as I please. My commentary is my own.
Freedom of speech, but I'm sure you've heard of that.
Anyway I wasn't starting a fight, Dick. I was merely voicing my opinion. And if you people can't even try to embrace difference of opinion, you might as well gargle a bucket of shit.
Now, Dick.. leave me alone, please? I had ALREADY quit commenting. So back off.
End.

[griffen.livejournal.com]

Aww, wookit the widdle twoll who thinks he's being all tuff.

Can it, honey. I can already tell that I have more of a life than you'll ever have.

Bean, dear, do you know how to block people from posting in your journal yet?

[beandelphiki.livejournal.com]

Oh, I think I do. I mean, I haven't ever done it yet, but I'm sure it's not mind-bogglingly difficult and it must be in the FAQ.

I just didn't see it as necessary in this case. I didn't think it was necessary after he replied to me with "End," and then after you commented...well, honestly, I wanted to see what would happen. :P

[siegeengine.livejournal.com]

oy, I thought I replied to this but I must have gotten too caught up in the, um... thread.

What a horrible, horrible thing to exist. I can't even imagine.

I printed copies of the articles and gave them to some of the staff on the kids unit. I know they do a really good job over there, but sometimes, things like this need to be dispersed so that people don't forget just exactly what lies at the end of certain paths, when they're choosing between them. Staff, I mean.

Because, sometimes, staff think they know better than others, and they end up acting a little too much like the captors in the articles.

:(((

*big hugs*

[siegeengine.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

hee.. omg. just..
kudos to you for not letting it get you down.
I think I'd be frothing at the bit right about then.

(of course, I'm about a week behind, as usual)

wait wait wait

[siegeengine.livejournal.com]

ok, I know you're all, "End." and all that, but I'm coming to this late, because I was sick, and we just bought a house and all, and.. well, anyway...

not trying to start a fight, really, but just wondering, on a point of pure logic...

you can't really mean that if it helps one person then... "it" is all worthwhile... right??

I mean... the "it" that you use in your own argument is an open variable. You don't specify, "the treatment I read about in the article," or anything...

So... if the end... for one person... and only one person, is enough to justify the means... then...

do I even have to write the rest of that hyperbole?