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Reverend Doctor Doctor Miller Newton
and KIDS. In 1983 after
losing a court case for false imprisonment of a college student which
cost Straight a $220,000 jury verdict; and facing a deluge of other
civil suits (one ending in a $721,000 verdict against Straight for
Dr. V. Miller Newton [then the national clinical director for Straight]
personally assaulting a teenage girl); and having dodged at least
two criminal investigations of Straights Dr. Newton left Straight
to form his own second generation Straight which he called Kids of
Bergen County in one of the wealthiest counties in America--Bergen
County, New Jersey-- just outside New York City. (A summary of abuses
under Dr. Newton at Straight is here.)
Oddly, Straight did not establish a treatment facility in the largest
American metropolitan center of all--New York City--but, then Miller
Newton did. Being a Florida-based corporation, almost all Straight
board members lived in Florida as one might expect, but there were
a few exceptions. Two exceptions were the two Straight board members
who lived in New Jersey.
Soon after fleeing Florida and setting up shop in New Jersey in 1984,
Dr. Newton started his own chain of second generation Straights which
he called Kids Centers of America. In 1986 Straight did a very strange
thing. Remember that most Straight board members were from Florida.
But in 1986 the board for Straight Foundation selected a board treasurer,
not from Florida, but from Los Angeles! Straight did not even have
a treatment program in that giant metropolis, but two years later
Kids Centers of America did. Kids of Southern California signed a
lease for a property at 3780 Prospect Ave., Yorba Linda, California
about 40 miles out of Los Angeles commencing March 1, 1988. Kids of
Southern California was quickly closed under a state investigation
for child abuse. The day Kids of Southern California closed, Straight
moved into 3780 Prospect Ave. and took over its child clients. [The
day Straight - Orlando closed, Michael Scaletti, Straight - Orlando's
director, opened SAFE out of the former Straight facility and began
treating Straight's former clients. In similar ways Pathway Family
Center in Detroit and Phoenix Adolescent Institute in Atlanta were
created by former Straight officials upon closings of Straights in
Detroit and Atlanta.] California authorities soon closed Straight
of Southern California for alleged child abuse and Straight shut down
in California on Sept 28, 1990. Kids also opened franchises in Salt
Lake City and El Paso, Texas. Both those programs were also closed
under state investigations for alleged child abuse.�
In 1993 three Kids of North Jersey counselors were convicted of beating
a client. Three years later a complaint was filed against one of the
previously convicted counselors for assault. Another counselor was
convicted of assault in 1999. In 1996 Dr. Newton agreed to pay the
federal government $45,000 in return for not being prosecuted for
254 counts of insurance fraud. In 1993 the Prudential Insurance Company
stopped paying insurance claims to Kids when its own independent investigation
determined that health-care professionals were not being employed
to treat clients at Kids. [The Bergen Record, Sept 24, 1996, p. A4]
On June 9, 1997, as Dr. Newton's reputation for fraud and child abuse
continued to grow, he was the keynote speaker at the Houston Drug
Free Business Initiative meeting. Later Calvina Fay, the director
of the Houston Drug Free Business Initiative, would become the director
of Straight Foundation, Inc. which today calls itself Drug Free America
Foundation (DFAF). In 2000 Newton finally closed Kids of North Jersey
after settling for $4.5 million with a former client for abuse she
sustained there. Newton is currently being sued for abusing another
teenager at Kids. He moved back to Florida and became a professor
at Saint Petersburg Junior College which is where the federal government
headquarters the Multijurisdictional Counterdrug Task Force Training
program, a program to train police officers on an international level
in drug interdiction.
On November 1, 1988 Straight, Inc. added a "sales" office at 104th
Street, Suite 114 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada to its insurance coverage
and on January 13, 1989 Straight added "Straight Association of Edmonton"
to its insurance coverage. Meanwhile Miller Newton was recruiting
so many Canadian teens from Calgary, Alberta (173 miles from Edmonton)
into his New Jersey program that he opened Kids of the Canadian West--a
support center to aid kids who had been through his New Jersey program
in integration back into society; but also Newton hoped to make KCW
his Canadian franchise treatment program. Before opening Kids of Salt
Lake City, its director, W. Kimball DeLaMare, trained under Newton
at Kids in New Jersey. That's how Kids' franchises work. Such was
the case with Kids of the Canadian West. Dean Vause learned of Kids
while working as a guidance counselor at North Battleford High School
which was a source for sending many Calgary kids to Newton. Vause
took a job at Kids with the intention of directing KCW.��But in 1989
CBS's West 57th Street (the week night edition of 60 Minutes) aired
a damaging segment on Kids of Bergen County. Case after case of fraud
and abuse was reported. After that Newton changed the name of his
program to Kids of North Jersey. In August 1990 Bergen County prosecutors
stormed his program looking into allegations of false imprisonment
and child abuse. By then Kids of Bergen County had 40 Canadian clients
and the Canadian government was paying $25 for each or $1,000 a day.
It was then Canadian authorities learned that they had not been paying
for psychiatric or physician services and thus stopped payments to
Kids. But not until they had paid Kids $250,000 [The Bergen Record,
Aug 16, 1990, p. B1]�After the raid by Bergen County prosecutors Newton
moved operations to neighboring Hudson County and set up shop in Secaucus.
(One of the two Straight board members from New Jersey was in Secaucus.)
According to the Vancouver Sun of January 23, 1999, Vause claims that
in 1990 he was invited to take over KCW, but he "had reservations
about the treatment offered" in Kids and so he convinced the planners
that the $1 million that had been raised by the Rotary Club could
be better used by starting a brand new program which he called AARC--Alberta
Adolescent Recovery Centre. [Sandy Levy Barbero is another person
who applied for a position with Kids around the time Dean Vause was
there. She was so shocked by what she saw that she wrote this
report to
state health authorities and to the ACLU to try to close them. If
Dean Vause had "reservations" with Kids why did he not do something
more pro-active like Barbero had done--or did he not see any abuse?]
One of the problems with any Straight-legacy program is start-up.
Synanons or confrontational-style therapeutic communities like Straight
and Kids frequently employ program graduates as counselors. Vause
would have had this problem too. He took at least one former guy from
Kids--Brian Neal--to be an AARC counselor. Tragically, Brian Neal
hung himself in 1996.�
While clinical director at Straight Miller Newton got a PhD from Union
Graduate School (AKA Union Institute) in Cincinnati. At the time Union
was a non-accredited, alternative college. He did not have to attend
classes or take tests. He did attend some seminars called colloquiums.
Newton had to write a paper which was his project to demonstrate excellence
or PDE. In 1981 he received a Doctor of Philosophy for his paper "The
Organization and Implementation of Family Involvement in Adolescent
Drug-Use Rehabilitation." Essentially this paper described the six
new parent raps which he implemented at Straight. [See Newton's education
background here.]
Sharon Wegscheider is a woman Newton met who was also attending Union.
Newton had her visit Straight and give an independent evaluation of
Straight. According to Case # 584418 filed 3-9-89 with the Superior
Court of Santa Ana, California it was alleged that an official from
Kids of Southern California claimed that he or she had also attended
Union Graduate School.�In 1993 Dr. Newton was an Adjunct Professor
of Neuropsychology at Union where he taught colloquiums in Cincinnati
(December 8 - 12) and in Boston (June 23 - 28 and July 6 - 10). Vause
received a degree in physical education and history from the University
of Saskatchewan and later got a masters in educational psychology.
In 1994 Vause got a PhD from Union in Educational Psychology. His
project demonstrating excellence is titled: "The Alberta Adolescent
Recovery Centre: A Treatment Centre for Chemical Dependent Youth and
Their Families." In his Union PDE, Newton writes that Straight is
"kids helping kids." Today Kids Helping Kids of Cincinnati is a Straight-legacy
program running out of the old Straight - Cincinnati facility.�
While this editorial makes no claim of abuse at AARC, it should be
remembered that Straight's predecessor program was accused of child
abuse. That there has never been one Straight that has not been accused
of child abuse. That SAFE, a Straight legacy program in Orlando, has
been accused of abuse as has been Growing Together, another Straight
legacy program in Florida. That Newon's Straight-legacy programs in
Texas, Utah, California and New Jersey all closed under allegations
of child abuse. Listen to what former AARC clients are saying about
their AARC experience here.
There are at least two Canadian drug addiction experts who have written
about Straight's brutal and ineffective methods. It needs to be stressed
that AARC's methods are not "groundbreaking" as stated on the Nature
of Things (a Canadian TV program which aired a segment called Krystal
in 2002). The idea of treating the whole family is one
AARC feature that is not new. For a parent to place a wayward
kid into a treatment program only to find out that the parent himself
necessarily also has a problem is ludicrous and without merit. As
I viewed the brief CDC segment on Krystal, one thing that immediately
struck me that was right out of Synanon Church and Straight is confidentiality.
AARC has no problem revealing Krystal's picture though I'm sure Krystal
has signed a waiver. Straight and Kids does this all the time when
clients portray Straight in a good light. But as soon as Straight
is asked about specific abuse, Straight claims that it can not respond
due to federal confidentiality laws.
Straight parents are forbidden from talking with their children until
their child earns back that privilege. After a few weeks or months
their child may earn TALK. The parents finally meet their child who
is always accompanied by a program official for a staged 5 minute
session. Each parent recites, as he has been trained to do, from a
rote script about a time in his child�s "druggie past" and how it
"made him feel." Each parent must chose one of the 99
possible feeling words found on page 53 of Dr. Newton's graduate
thesis. There are no other possible ways to feel. Next the
child recites his own script about an incident in his "druggie past"
and "how it made him feel." And that�s it. The meeting
is over. Even if the child has been beaten or raped he can not report
it during TALK--his only time to speak to his parents. Even if their
child has a black eye, has lost considerable weight, or has sores
on his face from receiving "spit therapy," the parents are not allowed
to ask about his present condition. It is forbidden to ask about current
events.
During Straight synanons clients
and parents indict one another or tell on themselves for committing
various offenses. The rest of client Group or parent Group go around
the room blasting each other for these indictments. But each indictment
is closed with, "but I love you" to the point that the
word love ceases to have meaning. Time and time again one
will observe a Straight client or parent breaking down, flooded with
tears and emotions only to be interrupted by some juvenile counselor
asking, "so how did it make you feel?" And he would not
let go until the indicted person had picked an accepted feeling
word from Newton's list. Words like love and feel become
robotic in Straight. They lose any emotion or feeling.
Let's listen to them counsel Krystal to see how she feels
from this
segment from Recovering Krystal.
Newcomers at Kids live in a foster home provided by parents further
along in treatment. In his Union thesis on Straight Dr. Newton calls
these foster homes "host" homes. The concept was actually developed
in 1970 at Straight's predecessor, The Seed, which was accused of
brainwashing by the US Senate. [According to the Saint Petersburg
Times, the founder of The Seed had a degree in psychology from a mail
order college.] AARC calls host homes "recovery" homes. AARC's web
page speaks of "peer" staff. "Peer" staff at Straight/Kids are teens
further along in their treatment who tend to newcomers which is how
"synanons" or confrontational-type therapeutic communities operate.
According to AARC's web page it is funded through a combination of
"user fees, private and corporate donations, government grants, service
group donations, third party fundraisers," and AARC's own fundraisers.
AARC is a tax exempt charity and got a $1 million gift from the Rotary
Club. It has been reported that it got $600,000 from the Canadian
government (though Newton and Kids may have gotten that). There is
a classroom and two teachers, so that is a cost. But AARC clients
are boarded in host homes. Though there is a medical doctor for clinical
work when a child gets sick, there appears to be no medical doctors
on the actual drug rehabilitation staff with their high salaries,
and it sounds like at least some of the kids further along in treatment
serve as "peer" staff (perhaps unpaid). Other counselors may be program
graduates (perhaps not demanding high salaries). This is drug recovery
and requires no specialized medical equipment. So why does AARC charge
$50,000 a year for treatment?
Straight co-founder Betty Sembler who lives in Saint Petersburg, Florida
where Straight was also headquartered is also on the board of the
MCTFT. DFAF helped sponsor the Canadian Drug Conference in May 2002
in Vancouver where AARC is trying to expand its $50,000 /a year per
person program.�
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