Teen boot camps under fire

Boot camps for wayward teens are not a new phenomenon in Pasadena, though juvenile justice officials and others say the camps’ harsh physical tactics are unjustified and counterproductive.

John Muir High School hosted a boot camp program from 2007 to 2009, before school officials put a stop to them. But controversy regarding the camps erupted late last month when the Pasadena Star-News posted two videos depicting conduct allegedly tied to Pasadena-based boot camp operators. One two-minute video shows teens forced to drink water until they are sick; another shows a juvenile wearing a car tire around his neck while adults bark orders at him from inches away.

Pasadena police launched an investigation after the videos became public, but Lt. Phlunte Riddle said this week that they have yet to identify the individuals in the videos. The Star-News reported the videos were taped at Firestone Boy Scout Reservation near Brea in 2009, and linked them to Pasadena boot camp operators Keith Gibbs and Kelvin McFarland.

Gibbs denies he was present for the videos, and McFarland, through his wife Nora Morales, declined comment.

Gibbs briefly employed McFarland in 2009 at his Commit II Achieve boot camp, but said McFarland failed to pass a background check and was dismissed after 90 days.

McFarland subsequently launched Family First Growth Camp, and earlier this year was charged with kidnapping and other offenses for his treatment of a Pasadena teen. That case, unrelated to the videos, is awaiting trial.

Gibbs denies condoning harsh treatment of juveniles or of participating in the videotaped events.

“I wasn’t there,” Gibbs said. “People look at the video and see a clip, [but] you have to know what happened before and after to fully understand.”

Gibbs said the camp he ran in Brea was overseen by the Boy Scouts of America, which operates the campground.

Joey Robinson, program director for the L.A. Area Council of Boy Scouts of America, acknowledged Gibbs’ group rented the facility once in the past three years, but said the scouts did not provide oversight. Robinson also said the scouts refused to allow Gibbs’ operation to return.

“We didn’t allow them back,” Robinson said. “They do drills and treat the kids like they’re in the military. There’s a lot of yelling going on.”

From 2007 to 2009, Gibbs ran weekend and after-school camps for at-risk youth at Muir High, acquiring a permit through the same process used by companies shooting films or hosting other events. But Pasadena Unified School District officials terminated the relationship with what was then called the John Muir Intervention Leadership Academy.

“There were some allegations of mistreatment of some students,” Pasadena Unified spokeswoman Hilda Ramirez-Horvath said.

Edwin Diaz, who was superintendent of Pasadena schools at the time, said this week that the tactics used in Gibbs’ camps “were more in the nature of what would be considered corporal punishment, where kids would be disciplined physically, which school districts cannot support or engage in.”

“We didn’t want to sanction any type of activity with kids that was questionable,” Diaz added.

Last week, a female John Muir student spoke about her experience in a court-ordered program, required because she harassed another student. The girl, who is a junior, said her program is nothing like what she saw in the videos.

“They don’t scream at us; they talk to us so we understand,” she said. “I don’t think boot camps should break you down like that.”

In accord with Sun policy, the newspaper is not publishing the name of the student to protect her identity.

Officials who work with troubled youth say the model for treatment has changed in the last 10 years, with physically exhausting rituals replaced by group therapy and vocational training.

“We haven’t utilized the whole boot camp model in over 10 years,” said Kerri Webb, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Probation Department. “It wasn’t considered very productive.”

Chris Burns is executive director of Boys Republic in Chino Hills, a 200-acre treatment center used by Los Angeles County juvenile delinquency court judges as an alternative to county-run juvenile camps. Burns suggested parents keep their distance from boot camps.

“Places like that are not in possession of the right kind of staff to determine whether the people they’re trying to help have mental health issues of any kind, and that type of approach isn’t going to do anything but exacerbate that kind of condition,” he said.

Gibbs, who in the wake of the scrutiny defends the camps he ran at Muir and elsewhere, said a lack of oversight is putting teens at risk. “This industry needs to be regulated, so we know children are not getting beat up, kicked, dehydrated or killed,” he said.