Hi, my name is Brett Harper, author of Spare the Rod and the founder of the non profit by the same name. I work every day for free to combat child abuse in the troubled teen industry. I work long and hard hours but it isn't enough. It isn't enough that thousands of survivors are hurting, that hundreds of us have come forward, that legislation for oversite is being passed because they places continue to be fed by these teen transport companies and education consultants. 

So what is a ed consultant and a transport agent. Definitions below:

Ed Consultant: A promoter of troubled teen industry programs. Someone who pretends to know whats best for teens who aren't behaving the way their parents want. They take money from programs, often with little to no oversite, and tell desperate parents these places can "fix" their kids. They are snake oil salseman that talk desperate parents out of small fortunes, assuring them the program is a sure thing and will definately help their relationship with their child when often times, nothing could be farther from the truth. They have little to no incentive to re-evaluate programs as they often take money in lump sums and have little to no regulations in 49 of 50 states. Oregon being the only state we have passed legislation in to deal with both ed consultants and teen transport agents. 

Teen Transport Agents or "Goons": Goons, as they are sometimes called by us survivors, are often off duty police, retired law enforcement, or have other ties to law enforcement or the court system that keep them out of trouble when the abuse their cargo, the teen. Off duty cops and retired law enforcement often stick up for each other and if anything happens its hard to get justice for the teen. They make really good money. There are almost no regulations on them in 49 out of 50 states. 

Despite the obvious problem with transporting a teen like property by literally signing temporary custody over to these people, it is incredibly dangerous and traumatic and survivors of this process claim to have night terrors related to the incident up to 20+ years later. The transport agents usually tries to come in the middle of the night, while the teen is sleeping, to essentially legally kidnap the kid. Often the parent isn't allowed to be there when it happens. It feels like kidnapping and traumatizes teens as you can see from some of the articles I've posted below. They cuff them, restrain them, put leg braces on them so they can fly them or shove them in a van and drive them to whatever lockdown facility their parents want even across state lines which means in states where child abuse is pretty well regulated and parents can't beat their kids this is a way around that. 

https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/local/rules-sought-gooning-taking-troubled-kids-boarding-agape/63-99431f58-41a9-4255-a8fc-49e6a6ad1d25​

https://www.kansascity.com/news/state/missouri/article265246901.html​

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/troubled-kids-taken-against-their-will-to-religious-boarding-schools-in-missouri-why-are-there/article_f63b32c7-842e-53fb-9be3-c63dd7be6fbb.html

When I came to Sen Gelser Blouin nobody had been tackling the teen transport issue. There were literally no rules. The industry was running in an environment similar to the Wild Wild West and ed consultants were working with transport agents to increase business for both. Ed consultants had even started asking for parents to refer other troubled teens that could be transported to programs. But we SHUT IT DOWN! We passed legislation to ban dangerous restraints like prone position and others that could kill a kid in transport or at a program. We banned gooning teens out of state to states with lax child abuse laws and less oversite of their teen rehab and troubled teen industry facilities. We made sure to put in place rules for ed consultants and anyone who wanted to transport kids within state. Rules that have basically ended the practice of gooning as we know it in Oregon. I'm very proud of the progress we have made over the last few years and I'd like to ask that you join us in banning this predatory, abusive, and dangerous industry! 

Please share. Please consider donating $1-$5-$10, whatever you can as we will need a lot of reach on this and need this petition to really get out there so we can use it in state legislatures to convince lawmakers to take bold action against this very real and growing threat to our teens! Thank you all for your support! I will keep you updated on our efforts!