Practices at Another School for Troubled Teens Questioned; Supreme Court to Decide Whether Private Treatment Can Be Publicly Funded

Oregon's Mount Bachelor Academy is at the center of a case questioning whether parents of disabled children have the right to be reimbursed private school tuition from the state if the parents did not first receive special education services in public school. However, Maia Szalavitz reports that Forest Grove v. TA "raises larger, more troublesome issues about student safety and the quality of educational services that families should expect when they place their children in private residential care, because the school involved in the case... is under state investigation for allegations of abuse reported by students and one employee."

There are many allegations of humiliation not support being the basis of treatment at Mount Bachelor, but the Lifesteps Seminars are the most disturbing. Students allege that staff instructed the girls, many who were former sexual assault victims, "to dress in provocative clothing-fishnets, high heels, and miniskirts- and perform lap dances for male students as therapy."

One former student, Melissa Maisa, now 32, married and mother of two young children, claims she was forced to perform sexually humiliating exercises more than 250 times during Lifesteps sessions, and punished when she did not show proper enthusiasm.

Most children's advocates hope that the Supreme Court will refuse to spend public funds for private programs. "We feel very strongly that for-profit residential facilities are completely inappropriate for special education. They have been shown to be ineffective and commonly employ practices that do harm," says Alison Barkoff, senior staff attorney at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law.

More information about Mount Bachelor Academy and Forest Grove v. TA can be found in Maia Szalavitz's recent article, An Oregon School for Troubled Teens is Under Scrutiny, and at her recent blog at the Huffington Post.