July 6, 2003
 

South Carolina's Department of Social Services has banned a Utah-based behavior-modification school owner from the premises of his campus there.

In a letter sent to Carolina Springs Academy recently, state officials say the ban stems from allegations of abuse at another school owned by Narvin Lichfield, the Dundee Ranch in Costa Rica, which was closed following investigations of mental and physical abuse. The letter also states corrective action needs to be taken before Oct. 30 to renew the school's license. The state cites nine breaches of state regulations, including the use of "buildings that are not approved by DSS." The school must also train its staff on how to report child-abuse cases, which has not been done recently, the letter states.

Dundee and Carolina Springs are both part of World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools Inc. in St. George, a referral service for behavior modification schools. But the only facilities they refer clients to are ones owned by the corporation's founders and trustees and their relatives. An investigation by the Deseret Morning News reveals that state and federal investigations are not new to the company.

A closer look shows that five of its schools have been shut down in seven years. A school near Cancun, Mexico, called Sunrise Beach, was the first. It was shut down in 1996 after allegations of abuse, two years before the umbrella corporation was actually formed by Lichfield's brother, Robert, and SkyWest Airlines founder J. Ralph Atkin. Three other facilities were shut down in 1998, one of which was Morava Academy in the Czech Republic. The Atkin-owned facility closed just six months after opening.

He operated the Czech school in an old hotel, said John Grimes who, along with his wife, Theresa, were hired by Atkin. Upon arrival, the couple realized they were the only teachers.

"We worked seven days a week at 16 hours a day and ended up teaching all the classes," John Grimes said. "Think of something you took in high school and we taught it. It was a little much."

Weeks before Morava was closed, U.S. State Department investigators were sent to another corporation facility called Paradise Cove in Samoa. According to federal documents, investigators wrote that alleged abuses in Samoa included "solitary confinement of youths, withholding of rations, etc." They also noted that "many of the locally hired counselors and employees at Paradise Cove are not certified or qualified to do the jobs they are doing."

Ken Kay said he spoke with State Department representatives and that information is false.

"That is absolutely not what he told me," Kay said. "Were their rations monitored? Absolutely. But they weren't starving."

By the end of 1998, Paradise Cove was closed.

But most teens made their way to Samoa and the still operating Tranquility Bay in Jamaica by being routed through a St. George facility operated by Kay and Robert Lichfield.

Brightway Adolescent Hospital was a teen alcohol and treatment facility until it was voluntarily closed following a state investigation. Debra Wynkoop-Green, the licensing director for the Utah Department of Health, discovered Brightway staff was diagnosing most patients with behavioral problems that needed to be corrected at one of the corporation's other facilities. Of the teens who entered Brightway, 94 percent were shipped to either Jamaica or Samoa, Wynkoop-Green said.

The investigation also netted at least one patient who had been sent to Samoa without parental knowledge. The hospital was closed, Kay said, after insurance companies refused to pay for the behavior schools, which charge up to $3,000 a month.

According to the Utah Department of Commerce, seven companies share the same St. George address of 1240 E. 100 South No. 9, the office next door to Atkin's. Three other youth-related businesses are headquartered at Atkin's office, suite No. 10. Atkin denies being more than the corporation's lawyer. Kay was baffled as to why so many companies, such as Teen Help, Robert Browning Lichfield Family L.P. and Dixie Contract Services all share the same address.

"Whatever it is," he said, "it has nothing to do with me or WWASPS."

Clinical psychologist Roderick Hall has spoken with five former students of the corporation's facilities and says these programs do more harm than good.

"The people I have talked to have post traumatic stress disorder and there's no question about it," he said. This is often referred to as shell-shock. "I have one kid who e-mails me who is in college and still has nightmares."

Kay said that without the programs his corporation offers "children are going to commit suicide."