Brown CEDU School Closes?

Private school closes

Cedu says it's broke, sends students home

By Joe Nelson, Staff Writer, San Bernardino Sun

RUNNING SPRINGS - The large wooden sign hanging outside Cedu School greets all who enter the pristine 75-acre property with the optimistic words "To Dream the Impossible Dream.'
Whatever dreams those affiliated with the school may have had, however, were put on hold when they got news last week that the school was shutting down after 38 years due to bankruptcy.

"It was a surprise to all of us that we are closing the school down and sending the children home,' Cedu spokeswoman Julia Andrick said Saturday in a telephone interview.

She said the company filed for federal Chapter 7 bankruptcy on Friday, then notified its staff and students at its seven campuses across the country of the campus closures at 3 p.m.

"Everything's up for sale right now,' Andrick said.

Company Chief Executive Officer Pete Talbott said in a statement the 301 students from the school's seven campuses should be home with their parents in the next 10 days. About 500 employees will be left unemployed.

A flier posted in the Running Springs school's front office window Saturday stated that other schools were trying to find work for Cedu employees, and that a relief fund had been established by parents for employees.

"I deeply regret that we have come to the end of Cedu's nearly 40-year history,' Talbott said.

The company has become so void of funds that it wasn't even able to give employees their final paychecks on Friday. It was unclear if they would receive future compensation.

A stack of memos sat atop the front desk in Cedu's front office Saturday in Running Springs while employees gathered up their belongings and said their goodbyes.

The memos notified employees they would be receiving a claim form in the mail so they could file for compensation of three weeks pay and any accrued overtime, provided the funds are available.

Cedu Middle School counselors Munir Jones, 54, and Skip Borg, 53, loaded personal items into the bed of a pickup outside the campus.

"It's very sad and a disbelief,' said Jones, of Lake Arrowhead.

He said that for him, seeing the sadness on the students' faces when they were told they were going home was the worst.

"This is probably the only place they were safe and had relationships, with adults and with children,' Borg said.

School founder Mel Wasserman opened the middle and high school campuses in Running Springs in 1967. Since then, five other campuses opened up nationwide four in Idaho and one in Vermont.

Despite the many parents who have praised the expensive boarding school for bringing out the best in troubled teens, the Running Springs campus has had its share of problems.

The father of a 14-year-old girl sued the school in September, accusing it of blocking communication between him and his daughter while she was a student at the school between August 2003 and January 2004.

In June, sheriff's detectives searched the school after a girl reported that two 18-year-old students raped her repeatedly on campus in September 2001, just weeks after she enrolled. She was 15 at the time.

The sheriff's Twin Peaks station received an average of 30 calls monthly from the school reporting runaway students. Most of them returned, except for one.

On Feb. 8, 2004, Daniel Yuen, 16, of Edison, N.J., ran away from the school after his second week of attendance. He remained missing Saturday.

What's it all about...Alkie???

Is this recovery "thing" a you versus me, us versus them, Thursday Night at the Fight where NO ONE is right???

I'm bettin' there we're a whole LOT of people getting better before some dumb-ass Judge (brilliant idea, actually) came up with the idea to "sentence" people to AA. Now I haven't been around that long, but again I'll bet (hmmm, notice a pattern?), success rates (next week, ok?) have gone downhill ever since.

I, personally, have seen rage-aholics sentenced to AA, non-alcoholics sentenced to AA (even a non-drinker!) and worse...so much worse, the mentally ill get sentenced to AA.

The problem, you ask? Anytime the men and 1 or 2 women in high places that run this Great Land of Ours put a stamp of approval on some "thing", too often it becomes accepted as not just THE way but the BEST way. And when that happens the snowballs start getting real big for their trip down the hill.

From the Government? Less money for research. Less involvement in Treatment Center practices. Less, less, less. Why? When you have a FREE place to SENTENCE people to, why bother?

For 12 Step programs? Dilution of their core membership. Resistance to their methods. An exodous of older, more experienced members who simply don't need to put up with the attitude of a 19 year old with a DUI that HAS to be there.

And any alternative treatment methods? Let me ask you...with the exception of the Anti-AA psychologist or social worker who wrote a couple of books (good stuff-bad presentation-worse P.R.)sometime after (or was it before?) he was laughed out of the Treatment Community by his peers, name any Drug Addiction or Alcoholism Treatment method or center or person or organization that gets the following:

Free Advertising
Free Continuous Supply of New Faces (appointed, no less)
Free Celebrity Endorsements (well, some of those are sentenced too...)
Almost Free Rent
and...
A Halo

STOP! I know what you're thinking. You are wrong.

I am all for AA and the many, many people that have been helped through the 12 steps. This isn't about AA. AA is a VOLUNTARY, self-admission, self-supporting fellowship. But because of the "stamp", no other methods or practices get acknowledged, let alone noticed. No, this is Firefox versus Internet Explorer. After all the great press, media and industry buzz-and an opening day record of 1 MILLION downloads-Firefox, probably better but at least as good as IE, now has about a 3 1/2% market share to Microsofts 96%. Thats WITH good press and hype.

But because AA got the "stamp of approval" the cities and counties and states found far more important things to do with the little bit of money originally marked for addiction treatment. And before anyone noticed, AA had become the dumping ground for problems that rightly belong to those same cities,counties and states.

Can an organization with a treatment model that depends on honesty, openmindedness and willingness survive when van fulls of county sponsored work-released inmates and freshly sentenced Drunk Drivers are the majority in some meetings?

Because it's getting worse-not better-and if AA implodes or explodes (won't happen-not soon anyway..I think) there is no plan B. There is simply no money. Alcoholics, real, imagined or otherwise, would do their "treatment" (AA MEETINGS! Put on by AA VOLUNTEERS!) in city, county and state prisons. Just what the Prison Guard Union ordered.(another story, some other time...maybe.)

So AA...if you're listening...I have it all worked out for you. The best part is you already know how to do it. Back to Basics. Go underground. Alcoholics would have to be "sponsored in" and the meetings would go back to the dark church basements. No meetings "lists". Wanna know where the meetings are? Better show up every week or day so we can tell you. And sign an attendence slip for the courtt that sent(enced) you here?

Sorry-we're Alcoholics ANONYMOUS. Tell the Judge we said to sentence you to Betty Ford.

Hey, they're a non-profit...