School for Obese opens in California
 

Linky

Man, that's a lotta cash just to get your kids to loose weight.

Far less than the years of medical expenses if the kid doesn't adopt a healthier lifestyle.

$45,000 a year (assuming a 9 month term) is a pretty hefty sum for a pretty hefty son. At that price I would expect my kids to be athletes and geniuses.

Is spending an hour a day walking/running really that hard? I'll admit that I'm overweight, but biking to work and changing to diet coke has done wonders for my weight.

Is this really necessary? I mean really? Around $4500.00...just to make sure that kids eat right and get some exercise. Hell...we called that Summer Camp. The food was so bad that you didn't wanna eat it, and we got plenty of outdoor excercise. There was no...oooh..."fitness center". All this for...hell, I dunno...$100.00?

I just see a way here to seperate rich parents from their money. "Honey? What say we sent the kids to fat camp...oh, I mean a boarding school for the obese, while we tour the Swiss Alps?". Gimmee a break.

some people would rather pay someone else to solve the problem for them.. that way they can place blame elsewhere when it all fails.

Look on the bright side: as long as the parents are spending $45K per year on Obese Boarding School, they won't be using that money to purchase yet another gas-guzzling SUV.

Just put all those obesed kids on "Survivor" they're sure to lose a couple pounds, and hell they might even learn something.

I can see part of the rationale behind this. It is much easier to lose weight if you can isolate yourself from the food temptations, and/or have someone else in control of your diet. If you arent around the food, or you arent given any, you cant eat it. Hence, going someplace where your diet is controlled.

But yeah, thats mighty steep. But at least the parents are trying to do something about it, although the only way to keep that weight off is a complete lifestyle change, which a camp isnt going to impart.

Hell, we called that parenting!

Just another lazy way to pass on the responsibility of raising a kid properly.

...and people wonder why I have such a hatred for children and stupid parents.

First, what's so new about fat camps? Not much new about college prep schools, either. And it seems to me like putting the two together, well... don't college prep/boarding schools have regulated food services and outdoor activities anyway?

4500 a month isn't much for a couple of rich parents, but when you consider that my gym costs 100 for 3 months... meh, to each his own.

what lurk and analog said...

I'd chase the kids around the yard with a broomstick for $4,500 a month. Holy hell, just make the kids exercise, stop eating so much junkfood, and get in the spirit of being healthy. That's just too much fucking money for something that can be done at home.

-Lasereth

yeah this is pricey but no more pricey than other high end boarding schools.

and honestly if your child has a problem with eating and you haven't been able to solve it then this is not necessarily a bad idea. to imply that having a healthy life style in our society is easy is a bit naive -- if it were easy everyone would be doing it. I don't fault a parent for seeking out solutions to a problem, even if the solution seems extreme.

The thing I found amusing is one of the activities is canoeing. Heavy people and canoes do not go well together. That'd be an interesting challenge to watch evolve over the months.

So is this a summer camp or a school? Do kids learn anything like math or reading, or do they just learn how not to be fat?

Dayum, there are a lot of naysayers posting.....

I see several reason why this would actually be good for obese teens.

1) When parents have done as much as they can to keep the weight off their children, but they continue to gain weight, this seems a viable course of action.

When parents lose control of unruly kids, they often send them to military school or boarding schools to try and get some respect back into their system. These schools are sometimes a last resort when all else has failed. We can't always blame the parents for bad parenting. In many cases, the parents are to blame, but we can't always use bad parenting as an excuse. Daytime cartoons are constantly interrupted by unhealthy food and soda pop commercials. School vending machines hold candy and chips as snack alternatives instead of granola and fruit. Parents just can't keep control of what their children eat all the time.

2) Other kids can be really harsh to obese kids. To isolate them, they will be put into a healthy environment with other kids that have similar self-esteem issues. They can work together to conquer these issues and not be as impacted if they were at a regular school where they will be in constant struggle with other students.

3) We have a national epidemic going on here. The majority of our nation is overweight. Not just the parents, but adults in general should be setting better examples for younger generations by putting more athletic programs in place, have healthier diets, and have a better understanding about weight gain and loss. Do you think our nation as a whole sets a good example for these kids? They don't "just" look up to their parents. They look up to the many authoratative influences in their lives and many of these figures are fat asses.

4) Many schools cutting out major parts, if not all of their athletic departments. What does this say about our influence on our children? It says we don't give a fuck if they don't have a means of exercise to help maintain a healthy lifestyle.

So, there are many reasons a school like this would be great for obese kids.

thank you water boy -- all great points.

I think it's interesting that as a society we feel no qualms about condemning obese individuals but when solutions like this school are made available so many people come out against them.

What do these kids do the first time they come home and their friends are hanging out at the local (insert what ever popular eating place is in their area)

The only problem I see with this is that these kids are all isolated...counseled, in isoloation, given their food by someone else...then they come home and get hit with "reality"

My problem is not that a solution is being made available, I just think there are better, cheaper solutions than shipping your kid off so someone else can deal with it. If it works to instill some good, healthy habits in the kids, great! But as ShaniFaye points out, what happens when these kids go back to real life where their diet is not proscribed and they don't have someone yapping at their heels making them go on hikes? It just seems to me to be a lazy way out of changing your child's lifestyle.

I agree that this school is not a fix all (esp since i know very little about it's proposed curriculum) and that there will be certain challenges when returning back to everyday life. However, it is dangerous to imply that being in shape is a wholly individual choice that can be forced onto someone by just yelling at them to exercise more. I think it is becoming more and more obvious that our society is not an environment that encourages healthy life style choices and while adults might be expected to overcome societal influences i do not think we can always expect children to be able to. sometimes removing someone from their temptations in order to teach them healthy choices is a good thing, treatment facilities do so successfully with drug addicts all of the time.

it is prudent to worry about whether the lessons taught in the isolated school environment will be easily carried over once the children leave the school this sort of logic is just as relevant with *any* school lesson. I don't fault you for raising such issues, i do however fault those among us who like to believe that overweight children is a personal or family problem and not a societal one.

I wanna see the desks.


*pictures a bunch of huge kids in giant desks... giggles*

fat camp didn't help Eric Cartman...

Well said brianna.

Lurkette....these kids already live in reality before going to this school. They already have no clue about healthy habits, regular exercise, and positive reinforcement of the things they should do that are good for them. The reality is, this is a global issue and not an isolated one.

What happens is they continue to practice the healthy habits they have learned in school. When a school like this is dedicated to teaching more than just English and math, going as far as teaching these children to appreciate themselves and what a good feeling it is inside to have people not laugh at you or make fun of you because of your weight, would just perhaps make these kids want to practice their curriculum outside of the classroom.

These Schools Don't Work!
 

Sounds frighteningly similar to the "Behavioral disorder boot camps" for troubled teens. Most, if not all of which have been documented, and proven abusive, and harmful in the long run because of the mismanagement of a professional qualifications, and staffing. Lot’s of potential for long term psychological damage. I've read stories of children dying in these places! The incidences are not isolated either. They are stories from all over the country in programs resembling this one, along with a militant approach with children that smacks of brainwashing and thought reform. It breaks them of the habit alright, and may help temporarily, but in the end, all it does is break them. Lot’s of these places run out of Nevada too. Beware of these places, they are bad, they are neglectful. They abuse children, and drain the parent's bank account. Last resort or not, there's aways an alternative to giving up.

Find a way of supporting and helping your children without shelling out tons of money for someone else to do your job for you. When they are adults, they will have learned the skills of being responsible for what is theirs, instead of learning to, “Let someone else do it for me.” AKA Not taking responsibility at all.

Raise your own kids, or don’t have them.

Aspen Education Group's Skyline Journey Licence Revoked:

One of many --

Judge ends pulls plug on teen program

By Jacob Santini
The Salt Lake Tribune
October 25, 2003

It took 15 months, but Judith Pinson, the birth mother of a teen who died of heat exhaustion while hiking in a Utah outdoor wilderness therapy program last summer, finally received news Friday she had wanted to hear.
In a ruling released Friday, a state administrative judge revoked the operating license of Skyline Journey over the July 13, 2002, death of Ian August, a 14-year-old Texas boy enrolled in the program by his adoptive mother. The Nephi-based business has until next Friday to shut down and send an estimated 10 campers back to their homes.
"It's nice to get some good news," Pinson said in a telephone interview from Drumright, Okla. "It showed me somebody did pay attention. [Ian's] death means something."
Lee Wardle, an owner of the program, declined to say if Skyline Journey would appeal the ruling to a district court.
"I don't want to say anything at this point," Wardle said.
Ruling on just one of four operating violations alleged by the state during a series of hearings earlier this summer, the judge found that Skyline failed to provide a description of the environment and demands of the program on a form sent to a Texas doctor who cleared August to enroll.
Calling the requirement "one of the most critical rules governing wilderness programs," Sheleigh Harding, a Department of Human Service's administrative judge, said "Ian's doctor never had the opportunity to determine whether Ian's 'fair' physical condition would make him an appropriate candidate for the types of activities Skyline Journey would require him to do."
August stood at 5 feet 3 inches and weighed 198 pounds and was taking a medication that may have made him susceptible to overheating.
On the day of his death, August set out with five other teens and three counselors on a scheduled 3-mile trek across the Sawtooth Mountain region in western Millard County as a heat wave set records across the state. The group had covered little more than a mile in about 3 1/2 hours when August crested a ridge and refused to hike further.
The teen reportedly stood and sat in the sun for at least an hour before collapsing and being moved to the shade of two trees, according to court records. By 1:30 p.m., August stopped breathing and counselors were unable to revive him through several hours of CPR.
An autopsy later determined the teen died of hyperthermia, better known as heat exhaustion.
Mark Wardle, a program manager and part-owner of Skyline Journey, was cleared of criminal wrongdoing in August's death when a 4th District Court judge dismissed a charge of child abuse homicide against him in February.
Judith August, the teen's adoptive mother who reportedly has defended Skyline Journey in the past, didn't return telephone calls Friday.
Ken Stettler, the director of the state Office of Licensing, which regulates wilderness therapy programs in Utah (there are five others now operating), said Harding's ruling is "what we expected."
"I'm never pleased to see a program lose its license and operators losing their livelihood," he added.
The state also had alleged the Skyline staff failed to treat August in a timely manner, the hike exceeded the capabilities of the weakest member and the program failed to complete a review of the teen's health history before accepting him for enrollment.
Harding, however, declined to rule on the three allegations because a program can lose its license for just one violation.
State law requires wilderness programs to obtain a license prior to starting operations. That provision would prevent the Wardles from starting another program in Utah under a new name, Stettler said. But there is nothing to prevent them from starting a program in another state.
Cathy Sutton, the mother of the first teen to die in a Utah wilderness program 13 years ago, has fought unsuccessfully for years to create national regulations and licenses to govern the industry and its operators.
"I'm tired of saying the same thing," Sutton, of Ripon, Calif., said Friday. "The only thing that gets me thrilled, excited, and is worth talking about, is national legislation."
Sutton's daughter, Michelle, 15, died in May 1990 while hiking in the Arizona Strip as part of a St. George-based program. Authorities attributed her death to dehydration, heat exhaustion and altitude sickness. The state eventually closed the program; the Suttons received $345,000 to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit they brought against the program.
In the years since, Sutton's campaign for national regulations has done little, as programs across the country have remained popular and many parents praise them for changing the lives of their troubled children.
But today, Sutton has one additional ally.
"Not an hour goes by in the day that I don't think of him," Pinson said of the son she gave up at birth but with whom she remained in contact through an open adoption arrangement. "He's always in my heart. . . . Why should other parents have to go through what I have?"

--------------------------------------------------
See link below for further details

http://www.teenadvocatesusa.homestea...everyoung.html

IN MEMORIAM

Michelle Sutton, dead at age 15, Summit Quest
Kristen Chase, dead at age 16, Challenger
Paul Choy, dead at age 16, Rite of Passage
Aaron Bacon, dead at age 16, Northstar
Dawnne Takeuchi, dead at age 18, VisionQuest
Lorenzo Johnson, dead at age 17, Arizona Boys Ranch
Carlos Ruiz, dead at age 13, VisionQuest
Mario Cano, dead at age 16, VisionQuest
John Vincent Garrison, dead at age 18, VisionQuest
Bernard Reefer, dead, VisionQuest
Robert Zimmerman, dead, VisionQuest
Charles Lucas, dead, VisionQuest
James Lamb, dead, VisionQuest
Tammy Edmiston, dead, VisionQuest
Leon Anger, dead, VisionQuest
Charles Collins, Jr., dead at age 15, Crossroads for Youth
Jamie Young, dead at age 13, Ramsey Canyon
John Avila, dead, Rocky Mountain Academy
Danny Lewis, dead at age 16, VisionQuest
Nicholas Contreras, dead at age 16, Arizona Boys Ranch
Edith Campos, dead at age 15, Desert Hills
Matt Toppi, dead at age 17, Robert Land Academy
Chirs Brown, dead at age 16, Robert Land Academy
Eric David Schibley, dead at age 17, VisionQuest
Chad Andrew Frenza, dead at age 16, Polk County Boot Camp
Robert Doyle Erwin, dead at age 15, VisionQuest
Lyle Foodroy, dead, VisionQuest
Gina Score, dead at age 14, State Training School (South Dakota)
Bryan Dale Alexander, dead at age 18, Texas Correctional Services
Michael Wiltsie, dead at age 12, Eckert Youth Alternatives
Tristan Sovern, dead at age 16, Charter Behavioral Health System
Robert Rollins, dead at age 12, Devereaux School
Andrew McClain, dead at age 11, Elmcrest Psychiatric Hospital
Anthony Haynes, dead at age 14, American Buffalo Soldiers Boot Camp
Ian August, dead at age 14, Skyline Journey
Charles "Chase" Moody, dead at age 17, The Brown School (CEDU affiliated)
...and counting.

Watch their diet. They're still your kids?

Thanks for the laugh this morning


Honestly. It's probable that these kids parents have weight issues. If they have been unable to help themselves they are certainly not going to be able to train their child right. I think perhaps they need to take this one step further and ask the parents to come for sessions a certain number of times a year or do sessions in their own home town with a behavioral therapist and a nutricianist. Teaching the whole family would be a better way to insure that when the kid comes home he doesn't go back to square one and start packing on the pounds again. Or that the parents don't just tell him to go watch TV because they're too heavy and tired to go out and play ball with him. So often it's a family problem. This is a good start. I think they should try to take it a step further.