How The Wrong Specialty School Can Destroy Your Child. 

(TeenLiberty.org) An American GULAG has caught the attention of Howard Davidson, Director of the American Bar Association's Center on Children and the Law in Washington D.C. In his review of the expose, he admits: "This book exposes a little-known, and legally unexplored infringement on the human rights of children."

An American GULAG, by Alexia Parks, (ISBN # 1-930418-01-9, $19.95), adds to the newly emerging field of books which focus on the civil rights of American high school students. The book describes the plight of children disappeared by their parents into private lock-up residential treatment centers misnamed "boarding schools," or "behavior modification facilities."

While most of the world has passed laws against child abuse and child torture, American children sent to these rural, high-security facilities are often held captive, like prisoners-of-war. Unlike adult P.O.W.s, however, these vulnerable children -- caught in a Dark Age between Parental Rights and the Age of Majority -- have no Geneva Convention to protect them. Adds Davidson, "The institutional maltreatment of children described in this book is condemned by international law, so it is time for Americans to ask: 'What is our government doing about this?'"

An American GULAG presents a compelling case for protecting the civil rights of America's youth. It's a "must read" for parents who believe their teenager is "rebellious," "at risk," "out-of-control," or "running with the wrong crowd." It is also an important book for educators and students with an interest in social justice and civil rights for American youth.

SUMMARY: In America, it’s open season on children. Children have become the cash crop for a rising industry of child abuse that targets anxious or worried parents of "defiant," "angry," "depressed," or "troubled" teens. Over the past two years, Alexia Parks has become the "Dear Abby," to worried families and teen survivors of secret P.O.W. camps for teens. Her book, An American GULAG, describes her descent into a secret underworld of child abuse and what she found there.

STORIES FROM THE BOOK include: a high-speed chase down backcountry roads, as the author searches for a "disappeared" young child. Other stories shock with descriptions of children "being stripped of their identity and placed into a secret world where short moments of eye contact are the only form of real communication. Children abducted from home or school and transported like prisoners-of-war in handcuffs or shackles, and sometimes unconscious to a secret destination. Children pulled into sex rings by staff or custodial parents

Other stories describe amazing courage: a runaway boy hides out in the mountains, using his knowledge of Spanish to live among strangers, until the reward for his return becomes too high, and the temptation too great. A teenage boy who refused to "become one of them" and lived in isolation in a room called "the Dungeon" for months. The teenage girl who arranged to send a code word to her mother if she was in trouble, changing the spelling of Dear to Deer. "Deer Mother, she wrote...."