In this day and age...

[8 Ball]

I really can't freakin beleive a place like this exists

Linky (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,987172,00.html)

I'll admit many Teens can be smartassed & annoying Pricks...but really.

[sheld0n]

Yeah, i've heard about that.
I pretty much share your opinion, 8 Ball.
They're kids, if you raise them like robots, how can you expect anything creative to come out from them?

[Xielos]

The more I read the more I couldn't believe what I was reading. This is sick. I'm literaly disgusted that a place like this even exists, its like something from a spy movie. I just...I mean...I'm left speechless.

[Poison]

Wow, that's just sick indeed. And it's terrible to imagine that parents actually send their kids there.

It's like that one movie where the teachers of a school have developed this chip that gives your brain a little electroshock every time you curse or otherwise misbehave, basically lobotoming them.
Edit: Disturbing Behavior, that's the title.

[sheld0n]

You mean South Park the Movie?
And yeah, if i was a parent, i wont dare thinking of things my child would have to do to make me send him/her to that place...

Also, i think one could draw some interesting parallels to Clockwork Orange.

[Vendel]

Seems to me 2 things will happen. Either they will be mindless robots submiting to any and everything. Or they are ticking timebombs. Maybe the really smart ones can fake there way through it and come out with a will of there own. Heck some Scientologist break free so its possiable.

Seems to me that even with good parenting that some just can't be helped. In the Immortal words of Jeff Foxworthy "You know for once I woud like to see one of these kids go on a talk show and say, you know what my daddys great my mommas great....im just a ****head"

[Randomus]

It's more like 1984 than A Clockwork Orange. Re-education camps? Cut off frmo the outside world? People encouranged to discipline each other in order to advance? You get punished for rolling your eyes? Yeah, that's the definition of Orwellian right there.

[TroubleWolf]

I'd like to go to that island one day... with a baseball bat. When I am standing over the bruised and battered corpse of the bald-headed Jerry Springer-reject who runs the place, I'll raise my bat high above my head and bellow "KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!"

Then I would take over his office, have all the Jamaicans stop being guards and start being camp counselors, import some pizzas, and throw a big party.

[MikeKAY]

I remember when this was posted at PC.com, back in the old Nexus days. It was sickening then and it's sickening now.

[Randomus]

I'd like to go to that island one day... with a baseball bat. When I am standing over the bruised and battered corpse of the bald-headed Jerry Springer-reject who runs the place, I'll raise my bat high above my head and bellow "KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!"

Then I would take over his office, have all the Jamaicans stop being guards and start being camp counselors, import some pizzas, and throw a big party.

Ooh, that sounds fun. I love pizzas.

[Xielos]

I'd like to go to that island one day... with a baseball bat. When I am standing over the bruised and battered corpse of the bald-headed Jerry Springer-reject who runs the place, I'll raise my bat high above my head and bellow "KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!"

Then I would take over his office, have all the Jamaicans stop being guards and start being camp counselors, import some pizzas, and throw a big party.

Hell yeah.

I've been wondering since last night how I would act if I was sent there. Would depend if I was sent alone or if my friend was with me.

[Charon]

"Running away from home, sleeping around, or being expelled from school are also typical."

So... You run away from home because you don't like your parents, or you have alot of sex, or you make a mistake and get kicked out of school... And then your parents, in an effort to get you to be the perfect child, and possibly like them a bit better, send you to Auchswitz Mark II? Where's the logic? Especially in the 'sleeping around' one? I mean... Seriously? I'd probably come out of that place with the will to kill, and that's no exaggeration.

"Other students were sent here for wearing inappropriate clothes, using bad language, or hanging around with the wrong sort of friends."

My God... this logic is disgusting.


I'm with Wolf... We should liberate Tranquility!

[Solario]

This place still exists?! I thought for sure it had been decommishened after I posted it first time.

[Alumette]

Okay, admittedly I didn't click the link, but reading your comments has me curious. I'm not sure if, being the kind of teacher I am, I could stomach looking at the link. My question is, is this a hoax? Anything on snopes about this?

It is true that some kids need "tough love," but "love" is kind of the operative word there. I mean, you still have to let them be people!

[Randomus]

The guy's name "Jay Kay" is suspicious. Y'know, JK, Just Kidding.

But it really wouldn't surprise me. At all.

[Joe Schmoe]

Couldn't find it on Snopes, so I sent the article to them. But its not guaranteed they will do anything on it.. Lets hope

Truly don't want to believe this place is real...

[Masked Revenger]

I goggled Tranquility Bay, and this is the first one on the list.

http://www.tranquilitybay.org/

Chris

[Charon]

Propogandalicious!

[Alumette]

Their "curriculum" is a joke. I see no tie-in to any state's education standards, and it's based on some pretty vague objectives, none of which are directly related to concepts.

I'm tempted to apply for a teaching job there, just to see what would happen.

Now that I've seen the website (which, incidentally, is packed with typos), I'm compelled to click on the original link.

[Randomus]

Their "curriculum" is a joke. I see no tie-in to any state's education standards, and it's based on some pretty vague objectives, none of which are directly related to concepts.

I'm tempted to apply for a teaching job there, just to see what would happen.

Now that I've seen the website (which, incidentally, is packed with typos), I'm compelled to click on the original link.

When you do click on the original link, you'll see that they don't actually hire teachers.

[Masked Revenger]

When you do click on the original link, you'll see that they don't actually hire teachers.

Yeah. In fact, you're probably over qualified to work there, given that the owner of the place only has a High School education.

Chris

[Charon]

Oh, but lets not forget, that makes him competent enough to hire even more incompetent people to do his bidding.

[TroubleWolf]

How can you call a dozen Jamaicans that like to bully teenagers incompetent?

Mon?

[Charon]

They should form a bob sled team and do something constructive.

[Alumette]

Uhh... yeah.

I need to go throw up now.

I am so upset I can't even think straight. But I tell you what, I meet this Jay Kay fellow in a dark alley... hell, a brightly-lit, public parking lot... well, I won't be too sorry for what I might do. I know that's not terribly "Alumettey" of me but I have never in my life been more disgusted to my absolute core with another human being. Ever.

[Charon]

Take Wolf. He has a baseball bat and such.

But don't be surprised if he hits on you....

Although, in all seriousness, I entirely agree. Like I said, Auschwitz Mark II.

[Randomus]

Go Go Task Force Tranquility.

[TroubleWolf]

Uhh... yeah.

I need to go throw up now.

I am so upset I can't even think straight. But I tell you what, I meet this Jay Kay fellow in a dark alley... hell, a brightly-lit, public parking lot... well, I won't be too sorry for what I might do. I know that's not terribly "Alumettey" of me but I have never in my life been more disgusted to my absolute core with another human being. Ever.

There's a chance it's not real, which is just about the only thing keeping me from booking a flight right now.

"Sir, you'll have to check that baseball bat. And the brass knuckles. And the... what is that?"

"Sock full of glass shards."

"Uh... definitely going to have to check that."

"It's cool, I don't need 'em until I land anyway."

[Solario]

Also take Stan and MikeKAY, they have guns and authority.

[Charon]

And really bad attitudes. They're nothing without the attitudes.

[Alumette]

Okay. After a good cry and a bout of frustrated anger that left me shaking, I checked out some of the other Wwasp sites. Wwasp being the organization that owns these places. And that Google search leads me to believe that it's not a hoax.

They have *one* facility that does not raise alarm bells, although it's still a far cry from what I would call any kind of appropriate setting for even troubled teens. It looks like your average hardass-type boarding school, and they actually hire licensed teachers (although from the wording it sounds like they fudge some of those things a bit). The other ones gave these propagandalicious (great word, btw Charon) descriptions that sound lovely on the surface--but just make me shudder to read--and that's it. One site had all this great description in marketingese, but certain links, such as the staff bios, were password-protected. *shudder*

You know, I'm not a parent, so I don't know what it's like to have what I guess people would call a "troubled" kid, although I've had my share of really difficult students, ones who've kept me up all night worrying (and yes, fearing for their lives in some cases). But I'd like to think I know at least a little bit about teens since I deal with 150 or so of them a year. Most of my kids are "good" kids, so I dunno, maybe for some parents it really is that hard. But I can't imagine *anything* any kid could do that would warrant sending them off to a re-education camp run by a depraved cultist. I mean, even kids who break the law in the worst possible way go to prison, and like the article said, at least in prison you get healthy food and can think what you want, and you know when you're going home.

The thing that boggles me is, this guy thinks he invented the idea of teaching kids about intrinsic motivation: the idea that the responsibility for their actions comes from inside them. Hello, that's the whole *point* of adolescence! Struggling with that realization *is* the big struggle of the teen years, and some weather it better than others. And there are a thousand billion hojillion ways to teach it besides emotionally abusing people.

All right, TroubleWolf, Stan, and MikeKay, when do we leave? And can I have first crack at this guy in the ring? ;)

[Solario]

Can you swing by Denmark on the way? I have nunchucks.

[Charon]

Oh, me me me me me! I have a shovel!

[Randomus]

I have a swordcane and a fire axe just waiting for the zombie invasion, but these guys'll do.

[TroubleWolf]

All right, TroubleWolf, Stan, and MikeKay, when do we leave? And can I have first crack at this guy in the ring? ;)

No, Ma'am, you may not. Once I've properly subdued him, you're welcome to wail on him. I won't let that horrible, evil little man have even have a fraction of a chance to lay a hand on you, though.

[Joe Schmoe]

Take me please! No weapons, but believe me, a few sublte come ons and these guys will wish I was just a guy with a weapon!

... Someone please say something else!

[TroubleWolf]

As long as we're going vigilante, let's stop by this guy's (http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/3764132) house as well.

We could be just like the Boondock Saints, except with fewer tattoos and no Irish accents.

[Solario]

Hey that's no fair, I can do a pretty decent Irish accent.

Also how about this woman (http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050715/NEWS01/507150327/1006)?

[sheld0n]

Come on guys, quit it with the news, its a little too much...

As for the Tranquility Bay being a hoax. Well, there is a slight chance, i think. It might be the modern Boogeyman, you know, a bluff threat for hard kids.
At least i hope so.

But dang, if it was real, i would definitely go with you guys.