Parents Sue Bethel Boys Academy; Plaintiffs allege systemic, methodical torture of youths
November 2, 2004

In a civil action filed November 2, 2004, against Bethel Boarding Academy, AKA Bethel Baptist Church, a private kids' boot camp/behavior modification lockup, the list of plaintiffs' allegations include: "...Defendants use coercive persuasion to coerce cadets into beating, terrorizing, mocking, or restraining other cadets, while maintaining “plausible deniability” of their own culpability in these violent abuses when confronted by civil authorities... Cadets at Bethel Boys Academy are forced to guard, harass, mock, assault, and physically injure other cadets on command. They are not given a meaningful choice concerning whether to commit such acts against other cadets. They are forced to commit violent crimes against other cadets as a matter of survival. The choice is one between doing the beating, or receiving the beating... Those who fail to comply with the orders of the Drill Instructors are subjected to loss of some or all privileges, beatings by Drill Instructors, extreme physical exhaustion, made to hold to electric fences, held underwater at the “swamp” up to and including drowning and resuscitation... Cadets under the control of Defendants are often denied toilet breaks to the extent that they are forced to urinate or defecate in their clothing. Defendants then use this opportunity to inflict mental distress and fear on the rest of the cadets in their control... Defendants intentionally use the combination of fatigue, harassment, poor food, lack of bathroom breaks, and extreme exercise to overtax the immune systems of cadets within their custody, to cause exhaustion and illness..."

Read the 42-page complaint at http://nospank.net/complaint2tc.pdf
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Warning: This material is definitely not for the fainthearted.