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The World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS or WWASP) was an organization based in Utah, in the United States. WWASPS was founded by Robert Lichfield and was incorporated in 1998. WWASPS stated that it was an umbrella organization of independent institutions for education and treatment of troubled teenagers. Many outside observers believe, however, that the WWASPS-affiliated institutions were actually owned through limited partnerships, many of which have used the same street address by WWASPS or its principal officials or their close relatives.[1][2][3] WWASPS is connected to several affiliated for-profit companies. These include Teen Help LLC, the marketing arm of WWASPS and the entity that processes admissions paperwork; Teen Escort Service, a teen escort company that transports teenagers to WWASPS facilities; R&B Billing, which does tuition billing and payment processing;[4] and Premier Educational Systems, LLC (also called Premier Educational Seminars), which conducts orientation and training workshops for parents whose children are in WWASPS facilities.[5] WWASPS claims to have "helped" over 10,000 students with issues related to personal behavior.[6] Some participants and parents give positive reports of their experiences, but others say that WWASPS programs were abusive.[2] WWASPS has faced widespread allegations of physical and psychological abuse of the teenagers sent into its programs,[2] resulting in a lawsuit filed against the organization in 2006.[7] WWASPS officials report that the organization is no longer in business, and the facilities originally under it no longer associate with the name, but because of ongoing litigation, it has not been dissolved.[8]
 | This article may be in need of reorganization to comply with Wikipedia's layout guidelines. (May 2012) |
| Formation | 1998 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Robert Lichfield |
| Founded at | La Verkin, Utah, US |
WWASPS operated, or was associated with, several facilities in the United States and in other countries. In 2003, there were 2,300 students enrolled in its facilities and programs.[2] At one time, WWASPS facilities had tuition income of more than $90 million per year.[8]
In July 2007, World Wide's president, Ken Kay, told the Salt Lake Tribune that only two schools remained in the WWASPS network, including Majestic Ranch Academy in Utah, which he said was likely to sever its ties with the organization.[9] In a December 2010 newspaper article, Kay was reported to have said that the organization was no longer in business, but because of ongoing litigation, it had not been dissolved.[8]
Schools and programs currently or formerly associated with the organization include the following:
| Name of school | In Operation? | Location | Circumstances/Notes |
| Academy at Dundee Ranch |  |
Costa Rica | Raided by authorities on May 22, 2003, after an investigation into child abuse. The property was later purchased by a company looking to turn it into a resort, but as of 2022 the only building remaining onsite is the former OP (solitary isolation) building.[citation needed] |
| Academy at Ivy Ridge | |
Ogdensburg, New York, United States | Closed in early 2009 due to accreditation issues; the property was sold, but the buildings are still abandoned. Several former students have returned to the campus and found student records, rulebooks and videotapes from the facility's CCTV system. Some of these videos were later uploaded to YouTube.[10] |
| Bell Academy | |
Terra Bella, California, United States | Shut down in 2003 after issues with state Social Services[11] |
| Bethel Academy | |
Mississippi, United States | Shut down in February 2005 after state officials investigate reports of abuse,[citation needed] also known as Bethel Girls' Academy and Bethel Boys' Academy. The property is currently used by the Watermark Congregational Methodist Church. |
| Brightway Hospital | |
St. George, Utah, United States | Closed in 1998 by authorities for providing inadequate care and abuse;[7] the building is still in operation. |
| Carolina Springs Academy | |
Due West, South Carolina, United States | Was opened by Narvin Lichfield in 1998 and closed in April 2009 when its license was revoked due to lack of compliance with licensing regulations.[8][12] The campus was abandoned as of September 2010,[12] but a South Carolina newspaper reported in December 2010 that a coeducational Christian boarding school would open on the site in 2011.[8] |
| Casa by the Sea | |
Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico | Investigated and shut down by the Mexican government after allegations of abuse; raided by Mexican authorities on September 10, 2004;[13] as of 2022 it was reverted to its original status as a motel run by a local family.[14] |
| Cross Creek Programs | |
La Verkin, Utah, United States | Also known as Cross Creek Manor and Cross Creek Center, originally two separate facilities for different sexes. When the first location of Horizon Academy was forced to close it moved onto the property before it was purchased by an outside organization and turned into the 3 Points Center (an RTC specializing in adoption issues and Reactive Attachment Disorder); it was later converted into the Zion Inn Hotel, which still operates today. Some areas of the original school were left unrenovated since its conversion into a hotel, and much like the academy at Ivy Ridge, student records are believed to still sit in these areas, which were walled off/made inaccessible to guests. |
| Darrington Academy | |
Blue Ridge, Georgia, United States | Closed in March 2009; 90 students were enrolled at the time of closure.[15] School director Richard Darrington was arrested in May 2009 and charged with battery of two students at the school.[16] It was converted into a hotel after its use by WWASP, but as of 2022 its status is unknown. |
| Gulf Coast Academy | |
Lucedale, Mississippi, United States | Formerly known as Eagle Point Christian Academy, in the previous location of Bethel Girls' Academy and Bethel Boys' Academy. Closed on an unknown date, now the location of Watermark Congregational Methodist Church. |
| High Impact | |
Tecate, Baja California, Mexico | Investigated and shut down by the Mexican government after allegations of abuse;[14] its current status is unknown, but some of the buildings remain. |
| Horizon Academy | |
La Verkin, Utah, United States | Originally located in Amargosa Valley, Nevada, it was forced to relocate onto the campus of Cross Creek Programs after the original location was sold and renamed Northwest Academy in 2013. Its original campus in Nevada continued to operate as Never Give Up Youth Healing Services until 2023, when its license was revoked by the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services.[17] |
| Mentor School | |
Costa Rica | Closed in March 2011.[18] Mentor was housed in the former Hotel Carara near Tárcoles and was headed by Robert Walter Lichfield. There were approximately 20 U.S. teenagers enrolled at the time of closure. It was closed by Costa Rican child welfare authorities on March 18, 2011, following complaints of abuse by parents of enrollees. At the time of closure, it was reported that the program had not been licensed by Costa Rican authorities. Officials who visited the facility reported that "physical, psychological and verbal mistreatment" were "apparent".[19] The property has since been abandoned. |
| MidWest Academy | |
Keokuk, Iowa, United States | Closed in 2016 after a federal raid to investigate abuse allegations. Bob Lichfield in 2003 funded the original property purchase. The operator of the facility and owner of record, Ben Trane, was convicted December 2017 of sexually and physically abusing students at the private "school" he once owned and was sentenced in May 2018 to nine years in prison and will be required to register as a sex offender.[20][21] Currently, the campus is for sale or lease. |
| Morava Academy | |
Brno, Czech Republic | Opened in 1998 and closed later that year when Czech police arrested its managers (Glenda and Steven Roach, married former police officers from Salt Lake City who would later go on to open Sunrise Beach in Mexico) and charged them with child torture.[22][23] After the Roaches' arrest and deportation the facility reverted to being a hotel. |
| Old West Academy | |
Randolph, Utah, United States | Formerly Majestic Ranch Academy (it changed its name to publicly distance itself from WWASP, but was owned and operated by the same staff members). Closed on an unknown date, website is now inactive. The property currently operates as a vacation/dude ranch named Dot Bar Ranch. |
| Pacific View Retreat | |
Mexico | Pacific View Retreat was WWASP program it was located 50 miles of San Diego in Baja Mexico.[24] |
| Paradise Cove | |
Western Samoa | Shut down by Samoan authorities because an investigation determined credible allegations of abuse[25] After its closure it reopened under the same name as a luxury resort for weddings, but it was later destroyed by a storm. The property is currently abandoned. |
| Pillars of Hope | |
Costa Rica | After Academy at Dundee Ranch was closed it was reopened under the rebranded name of Pillars of hope[26] |
| US Youth Services | |
Lecompte, Louisiana, United States | Formerly Red River Academy. The school has undergone heavy renovations before becoming US Youth Services. Closed in 2018, the website is now inactive. A Family Rep and Registered Agent of USYS[27] then went on to become the administrator of Never Give Up Academy in Nevada.[28] The property is currently Mercy Behavioral Hospital. Wayback Machine archive has a record of the Mercy website being active as of December 17, 2021.[29] |
| Royal Gorge Academy | |
Canon City, Colorado, United States | Closed in October 2008. Youth sent to Red River Academy.[30] The building, which was formerly known as St. Scholastica Academy, was abandoned for many years before it was purchased and torn down by a real estate developer to build apartments on the site. |
| Sky View Christian Academy | |
Hawthorne, Nevada, United States | Enrolled about 120 students and employed about 63 staff and teachers, with a total annual payroll of $1.57 million. It was closed abruptly in 2007 after a hazing incident.[8][31][32] Its current status is unknown. |
| Spring Creek Lodge Academy | |
Sanders County, Montana, United States | Operated from the late 1970s until January 9, 2009; it currently operates as a hotel.[33] |
| Sunrise Beach | |
Cancún, Mexico | Opened by Glenda and Steven Roach after they were deported from the Czech Republic, the facility was raided and closed by Mexican authorities in 1996 over abuse; it currently operates as a hotel.[34] |
| Sunset Bay Academy |  |
Mexico | Coeducational; established in 2008 as Oceanside Teen Center. The institution states that it subcontracted with WWASP in 2008, but ended the contractual relationship in April 2009.[35][36] |
| Tranquility Bay | |
Treasure Beach, Jamaica | Subject of several documentaries detailing severe abuse; closed in January 2009. The property currently serves the Jamaican Police as a training center after it was briefly used as a COVID quarantine center for people entering the country from abroad.[37] |
| Never Give Up Youth Healing Services | |
La Verkin, Utah, United States/Amargosa Valley, Nevada, United States | The facility was originally opened as Horizon Academy by Jade Robinson after he left Casa by the Sea before it was forced to move to the former location of the male Cross Creek facility. It was sold to a family who renamed it Northwest Academy and continued to employ many of the former Horizon staff. In 2019, Northwest was closed after it was discovered that the school's water supply was heavily contaminated, but it quickly reopened as Never Give Up Youth Healing Services. Never Give Up Youth Healing Services closed in April 2023.[17] |
| Woodland Hills Maternity Home | |
Woodland Hills, Utah, United States | Closed on an unknown date, website is now inactive. The program was unusual among WWASP programs in that it was run out of a residential house, so it's presumed that the location is currently a private residence. |
Some personnel formerly associated with WWASP schools and programs have gone on to establish or work at other similar institutions.
In 2005, Robert Lichfield and the Utah-based holding company, Golden Pond Investments Ltd., made an offer to buy the campus of the Kemper Military School in Boonville, Missouri, to open a new school for adolescents needing help with discipline, responsibility and leadership skills. It was announced that the school would be directed by former WWASP staff member Randall Hinton and his brother Russell Hinton. The Hintons told Boonville officials that the proposed school would not be a part of WWASP.[38][39] The Boonville City Council rejected the proposal.[40]
Randall Hinton later tried to resurrect the WWASP format with a similar "chain" of schools called Right Directions, but the effort never got past the planning stages. Most likely, this was meant to allow WWASP to retain many of its former properties under a new name with a clean slate, but ostensibly it would have been an entirely new entity.
Ken Kay was superintendent of Browning Distance Learning Academy, a provider of homeschooling curriculum.[8] Its materials were used by Mentor School in Costa Rica.[18] As of 2022 no other school or homeschooling group has used Browning Distance Learning Academy, and it's assumed the company went bankrupt after Mentor's closure. Browning Distance Learning Academy does not seem to be up and running at this time.
WWASPS and its associated institutions have been the target of criticism over their treatment methods, including allegations of severe abuse and torture by staff at programs supported by WWASPS.[41] The programs have been the subject of legal investigations by several U.S. states.[40] In 2003, a reporter for The New York Times interviewed 60 current and former program participants and parents; some gave positive reports of their experiences, while other participants and parents said that WWASPS programs were abusive.[2]
A WebWire report on October 16, 2006, stated that children housed in WWASP programs were denied adequate food, denied access to toilets, forced to drink their own vomit, chained to dog cages, and emotionally and sexually abused.[42]
Numerous former students or their parents have filed lawsuits against WWASPS, its personnel, or individual schools. Most have been settled out of court or dismissed for procedural reasons. For example, a 2005 lawsuit filed in California on behalf of more than 20 plaintiffs was dismissed because the judge found that California lacked jurisdiction. In June 2007, Utah attorney Thomas M. Burton told a reporter that six suits he had filed against WWASPS on behalf of his clients had been dismissed on procedural grounds. WWASPS president Ken Kay told an interviewer that lawsuits against WWASPS are ploys to get money, brought by people who "are never going to be happy."[43] A lawsuit filed in 2007 against WWASPS and its founder, Robert Lichfield, on behalf of 133 plaintiffs alleging physical and sexual abuse and fraudulent concealment of abuse brought negative publicity to Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, because Lichfield was one of six co-chairs of the Utah state fundraising committee for Romney's campaign.[43][44]
On several occasions, WWASPS and its principals have responded to criticism by suing their critics. Robert Lichfield sued two individuals associated with the International Survivors Action Committee (ISAC) for defamation, invasion of his privacy, and causing "intentional interference with 'prospective economic advantage'."[40] That suit was pending as of April 2005.[40] In May 2005 a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed (on jurisdictional grounds) a defamation lawsuit brought by WWASPS against a United Press International reporter who had done research for a news story about alleged abuse at several WWASPS schools. The reporter was accused of having made defamatory statements about WWASPS to "potential students, former students, parents of potential and former students, an employee of a state agency responsible for licensing a member school, and a Utah attorney who had filed numerous suits against [WWASPS]."[45]
On August 31, 2007, Randall Hinton was convicted of one count each of third degree assault and false imprisonment, for mistreating students at the WWASP-affiliated Royal Gorge Academy, of which he was manager and co-founder. However, the jury returned verdicts of "not guilty" on four other counts of third-degree assault and one other count of false imprisonment.[46] Hinton was sentenced to jail followed by probation.[47][48]
In 2010, animals were removed from Carolina Springs Academy due to neglect and malnourishment. There were also several animal corpses found on the property.[49]
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