The Truth About Provo Canyon School

 

 

 ("May All Your Dreams Be Wonderful..."  Jello Biafra on Provo Canyon School)

 

CHECK OUT: THE AWFUL TRUTH ABOUT PROVO CANYON SCHOOL

 

Robert Crist and Jack Williams founded Provo Canyon School in 1974.  Robert Crist was acting director and chief psychiatrist at Provo Canyon School up until 2008.  Upon the founding of Provo Canyon School, the “‘school...'has an additional and paramount purpose that far transcends school attributes' so that it cannot properly be so characterized, but is in reality a detention and correctional institution...plaintiffs' (Crist and Williams) advertising is designed to attract maladjusted boys with mental or emotional problems, who need detention and control in connection with their education and training; that they will take 'failing students in a fantasy world,' or who are 'adversely influenced by drugs,' boys with 'brain damage,' with 'schizophrenia symptoms.' (Crist and Williams) Plaintiffs' school offers 'residential treatment with a therapeutically designed round-the-clock living program' including 'medical care,' psychiatry,' and 'professional discipline,' along with other aspects of education. It is shown that during past operations (Crist and Williams) the plaintiffs have found it necessary in some instances to use forcible restraints such as chains and manacles on some of the boys and/or keep them in locked rooms to detain them.”(1)

Provo Canyon School from its inception has used tactics considered torture and abuse against the children in their care.  As stated above, the real purpose of Provo Canyon School is corrections not therapy.  Parents who send their children to Provo Canyon School believe it is a positive, self-esteem building, and therapeutic environment where their “troubled teen” can get assistance in realizing their true potential away from influences that are leading them astray.  The reality is that they are sending their child to a private corrections facility run by psychiatrists who use “behavior modification,” defined by Dr. Schein in an address to the United States prison wardens as “brainwashing...(not to be thought of) in terms of ethics and morals, but in the deliberate changing of human behavior by a group of men who have relatively complete control over the environment in which the captives live...”(2) It is unimaginable that parents would honestly consider brainwashing the tool they wished to be used on their children to get them to “straighten up.”  Of course, Provo Canyon School doesn’t explicitly state that they use “brainwashing” only that they use corrections-style behavior modification, which has been defined as such. 

Provo Canyon School has been sued a number of times.  In 1996, Steven Spencer Porter sued Provo Canyon School listing Robert Crist as one of the defendants who Porter claimed was guilty of: “false imprisonment, invasion of privacy-intrusion upon seclusion, medical negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, civil conspiracy, loss of parental consortium, and battery.”(3) Unfortunately, the case was filed beyond the statute of limitations and was therefore dismissed.  In 1995 David Taylor filed suit and won against Provo Canyon School.  Provo Canyon School was found guilty of: “fraud, medical negligence, false imprisonment, breach of fiduciary duty, and gross negligence.”(4) In 1982, Timothy Milonas, Jr. and Kenneth Rice sued Provo Canyon School.  Provo Canyon School was found guilty of: “cruel and unusual punishment, antitherapeutic and inhumane treatment, and denial of due process of law.”(5) In each of these cases Robert Crist was listed as a defendant. 

New lawsuits are in the works against Provo Canyon School and Robert H. Crist.  If you have been abused at Provo Canyon School or any Utah-based behavior modification program you have up to four years to file a lawsuit against them.  The statute of limitations on these types of cases is four years.  Please consider joining others in taking legal action to close these sadistic torturers down now!

How many lawsuits and how many guilty verdicts will it take before they are finally out of business for good?  Why are these people allowed to continue to abuse children?  Why would you even consider placing your child in such a facility?  Children write their parents pleading to come home.  Children upon graduating the program at Provo Canyon School often report their abuses to disbelieving parents or stay quiet in fear that any sharing of their pain will result in greater punishment.  If your child is currently at Provo Canyon School, please rescue them now!  Get over your pride and your denial and save your child from further torment.  If you don’t you are only insuring a life of bitterness and pain for you and your child.  Please, do the right thing and save your child now!

For more information on this issue please visit: http://www.truthaboutprovocanyonschool.com, http://www.heal-online.org/provocases.htm, www.heal-online.org/teen.htm, www.teenliberty.org, www.isaccorp.com, www.beyondbusiness.net/index2.htm, and http://www.heal-online.org/childtortureusa.htm.  Please visit the message board to see more firsthand survivor accounts of the abuses at Provo Canyon School by clicking:  Provo Canyon Survivors' Message Board  If you are disturbed by goings-on at Provo Canyon School and would like to see it closed down, please take a moment to sign the online petition at http://www.beyondbusiness.net/closepcs.htm.  Thank you.

 

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CITATIONS

 

(1)- 520 P.2d 196. Robert H. CRIST and Jack L. Williams, dba Provo Canyon School, Plaintiffs and Respondents, v. J. H. BISHOP, Director of the Utah County Building Inspection Department, et al., Defendants and Appellants. No. 13357. Supreme Court of Utah. March 15, 1974.

 

(2)-The COINTELPRO Papers. Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall. South End Press. 1990.

 

(3)- 957 F.Supp. 1427 Steven Spencer PORTER, Plaintiff, v. CHARTER MEDICAL CORPORATION, et al., Defendants. No. 4:96-CV-382-A. United States District Court, N.D. Texas, Fort Worth Division. March 20, 1997. Order Denying Amendment April 28, 1997. 

 

(4)- David TAYLOR, Plaintiff-Appellant-Cross-Appellee, v. CHARTER MEDICAL CORPORATION, and Charter Provo School, Inc. d/b/a Provo Canyon School, Defendants-Appellees. No. 97-10084. United States Court of Appeals,
Fifth Circuit. Dec. 9, 1998.

 

(5)- TIMOTHY MILONAS, JR., and KENNETH RICE, by and through their Attorney and Guardian Ad Litem, KATHRYN COLLARD, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. JACK L. WILLIAMS, Owner and Administrative Director, Provo Canyon School; ROBERT H. CRIST, Owner and Medical Director, Provo Canyon School; D. EUGENE THORNE, Owner and Executive Director, Provo Canyon School, Defendants-Appellants, JOHN F. McNAMARA, Director and Administrator, Interstate Compact on Juveniles, Defendant. Nos. 80-1569, 81-1407 (Consolidated Cases) UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT. 691 F.2d 931; 34 Fed. R. Serv. 2d (Callaghan) 1305.