Victory Forge Military Academy is the same as Southeastern Military Academy

In December 2009, Weierman decided to change the name for Victory Forge to Southeastern Military Academy. Nothing about the school has changed, except the name. Even their website is the same (save for a new URL).


Monday, March 30, 2009

Blast from the Past

Remember this editorial from the Palm Beach Post?

The points discussed here are still valid and still need to be addressed by Victory Forge. It is because of some of these loopholes, Weierman and his minions can get way with abuse. Yes, it is abuse when kids are beaten, food is withheld, and cover-ups happen. Yes, someone of the kids may be bad, but they should not be treated like animals, even though parents may have signed away the kid's rights.

Still waiting from the State legislator to act to regulate these prisons for teens.

Recap:

1. In April, a 16-year-old boy ran away from Victory Forge Academy, a private, boot camp-style military school in Port St. Lucie. The teen had been shackled for several days, and even had been confined overnight.

And what will the system wind up doing about that? Nothing.

2. A DCF spokesman said the agency has serious concerns about student safety at Victory Forge, but because the school is private, the agency has no authority to regulate it.

3. Parents, who pay more than $28,000 a year for a child to attend the school, sign agreements that they accept the various forms of discipline the school uses, including the shackling of runaways.

4. So, who protects students from the abuse at unregulated schools? Apparently, no one.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Dr. Phil and teen issues

Love him or hate him but Dr. Phil McGraw is a psychologist. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology, a master's degree in experimental psychology and a Ph.D in clinical psychology. He is also a TV personality who says it like he sees it.

One of our parents happen to sit on a flight next to a producer of the Dr. Phil show. While talking, the parent happened to mention the unregulated boot camps for teens that are prevalent in the US and brought up the one in St. Lucie which claims to be blessed by the military. The producer stated that they had done shows on troubled teens (links of the shows were provided to the parent and we will refer to them in other posts) and that what he heard from the parent, sounded very disturbing to him. He was intrigued by the idea to talk to children who have gone through these programs to see how they did once they left and if these unregulated boot camps had any lasting psychological damage on them. Empirically speaking, he stated that he would believe the answer was yes these boot camps cause more damage than they do good.

If this becomes an idea for a show, parents who sent their children to Victory Forge, please let us know if you and your children would like to talk to the Dr. Phil show. The way it works is that once a show idea is approved, the show will interview parents and students. A selected few would then appear on the show. The parent is in contact with the producer and will offer up names once the show is a go.

As an aside, some of you may have known that a parent had contacted the O'Reilly Factor last year, to inform them about the abuse taking place at Victory Forge. The hope was to get the Factor to investigate. Unfortunately, with the election being such a big story, our story was drowned out. The parent had asked if he should try again. We think, YES. If you think otherwise, let us hear your comments.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Port St. Lucie Unemployment

Unemployment rate in Port St. Lucie recently passed 10%. In a relative sense, this is not all that surprising because of the immense stresses our economy is going through. But taken within context, this is bad for the city.

There are about 192,000 civilians working in the city. Of this, over 19,000 has no jobs. Forbes magazine predicts that this spring, the outlook for the city will worsen to the tune of another 14% because "Like so many areas in Florida, Port St. Lucie was hit by the one-two punch of drops in both the hospitality industry and construction."

So why is this important to what we are trying to accomplish? For one, we don't want Port St. Lucie's unemployment rate to balloon by 2 Weiermans and how ever many of their progeny they have employed there. But this should be another wake up call for the otherwise dormant Al, that all is not well in the world and that he needs to change with changing circumstances. The populist tide is against him; the legal tide is against him; and now the economic tide is turning against him.

Remember Al, we all have to account for our sins. Are you ready?

John Chapter 5, verses 26-30

"For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted also to the Son to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to do judging, because Son of man he is. Do not marvel at this, because the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment. I cannot do a single thing of my own initiative; just as I hear, I judge; and the judgment that I render is righteous, because I seek, not my own will, but the will of him that sent me.”