Week 1&2 - Tranquillity Bay Reading

Abuse at Tranquility Bay MAVO/HAVO/VWO

Part 1 – Brainstorm

Before continuing with the text below, make groups of 4 students and think about these questions:

Do you think people under 18 should be punished the same as adults when they break the law?
Should people under 18 be sent to prison, when they break the law? Why (not)?
If people under 18 are sent to prison, how should they be treated there? What would a regular day look like for them?
If people under 18 are very difficult at home, should their parents send them somewhere to change their behaviour?

After having talked about these questions in your group, discuss them in class.

Part 2 – Tranquillity Bay

Those of you unaware of what Tranquility Bay is, it is a facility for (pre-)teens and teens in Jamaica under the umbrella of the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS), an American-based organisation. Parents that don’t know what to do with their troubled teens can send their children to Tranquility Bay.

There have been hundreds of accounts of abuse there. In class we're going to read a letter sent by a mother in which she talks about the abuse at Tranquility Bay. During Skills Lab week 3 we're going to watch a BBC documentary to see if we agree with their way of doing things. Answer the pre-reading questions before reading the text.

Pre-reading questions MAVO/HAVO/VWO

Use the Wikipedia page about Tranquility Bay to answer the following questions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tranquility_Bay

1. Waar bevond Tranquility Bay zich?
3. Van wanneer tot wanneer was de faciliteit in gebruik?
4. Vanaf welke jonge leeftijd werden sommige kinderen al door hun ouders naar Tranquility Bay gestuurd?
5. Waarom werd Tranquility Bay uiteindelijk gesloten?
6. Welke bekende Amerikaanse politica heeft zich met de sluiting bemoeid volgens de Wikipedia pagina?

In onderstaande tekst staan een aantal woorden die (waarschijnlijk) onbekend voor je zijn. Zoek eerst de betekenis van deze woorden op zodat het lezen van de tekst makkelijker gaat.

English	Dutch	English	Dutch
Facility		Pinned down
Unaware		Restraint
Neatly folded		Pending
Bruises		Medical neglect
Embassy		Occured
Agencies		Requests
Abused		Blamed
Indicated		Self-infliction
Shattered		Assured

Als je tijdens het lezen nog andere moeilijke woorden tegenkomt, zoek dan de vertaling hiervan op.

Part 3 – Tranquillity Bay

Abuse at Tranquility Bay - text

In February, families flew in to visit their kids at Tranquillity Bay. Cindy is one of the mothers who went to visit her son, Mike. She brought her teenage daughter, Ashley with her.

When they arrived at the facility they were turned away because some were wearing sleeveless shirts. The parents were unaware there was a dress code for them. They had to take the long ride back to their hotels to change. When they came back they were allowed on the property. While they were sitting around the pool a boy stepped out onto the balcony overhead and threw down a neatly folded piece of paper. Ashley, Mike’s sister, picked up the note while her mother, Cindy, looked up at the boy. He pulled up his shirt and Cindy saw bruises on his shoulders, under his armpits, and on his back. Cindy also saw another boy looking through the glass who had a metal plate in his mouth. Other parents witnessed this as well.

Cindy read the boy’s letter . “… Please I am begging to get this note to the American Embassy because there are no staff here that will do anything … please please get this to the embassy so that I can talk to them ...”
In his letter he also wrote to his own mother, telling her: “… The staff then threw me down and started hitting my head over and over on the floor. One staff dropped his pen and the other staff picked it up and started to stab me in the right shoulder. While all this was happening other staff were punching me and hitting me with my sandals …”

Cindy forwarded the boy’s letter to CAICA. CAICA immediately contacted agencies in Jamaica - the American Embassy, Child Welfare, Unicef, the Ministry of Education and Youth – and the State Department. CAICA provided these agencies with Declarations, a copy of the boy’s letter, and the names of the boys who were being abused. Cindy indicated the facility claims no fault.

Cindy, Ashley, and Mike had some time alone together. While they were down at the beach – an activity Mike said they are never allowed to do during his stay at Tranquillity Bay - Mike told Cindy that children were being abused there - that the boy with the full jaw plate in his mouth had his upper left jaw shattered. He had been pinned down on the floor by several staff and was “smacked” in the face with staffs’ walkie-talkies. According to Mike, staff claimed that during the restraint the boy’s face bounced off the floor, breaking his jaw. The American Embassy said there is a pending investigation into this incident. Mike said injured kids are taken away from the facility when the Embassy comes for a visit. Mike also talked about medical neglect. He complained to staff that he was having difficulties breathing and he thought his nose was broken, but staff called him a liar telling him nothing was wrong.

Before this incident occurred Cindy had made it clear to Tranquillity Bay that she did not want surgery performed on her son in Jamaica unless it was an absolute emergency. She told them if he needed surgery she would have him brought back to the US. They did not listen to her requests and had the surgery performed on her son in Jamaica without her knowledge.

While he was at the beach with his mom and sister, Mike was sunburned on his shoulders – shoulders that barely ever saw sunlight. Cindy could not understand why Mike was so upset. When he calmed down he told her he would be blamed for self-infliction of wounds and his levels would be dropped. Cindy did not believe this could possibly happen and explained to staff that Mike did not inflict this upon himself, that he did wear sunscreen, and that the reason he burned was probably because his shoulders hadn’t seen much sunlight in nearly two years. Staff assured her they would not drop his levels.

Cindy learned Mike’s levels were dropped and he was frightened. He wanted to talk to his dad and said he feared for his life.

Frightened to return to the facility Cindy decided to take her younger daughter and fly back to the US. Before leaving Jamaica she said she contacted a transport company to pick up her son - Sunrise Transport out of Utah. The driver went above and beyond the call of duty to pick this child up and return him to his mom, all in the course of a day.

Exercise MAVO/HAVO/VWO

Put these events from the text in the correct order.

a. Cindy read the boy’s letter
b. They had to go back to their hotel to change
c. Families flew to Tranquillity Bay
d. Mike told Cindy about abuse at the facility
e. A boy threw a piece of paper to them
f. They were turned away because they wore inappropriate clothing
g. Mike was picked up from Tranquillity Bay
h. Cindy saw bruises on the boy’s shoulder, armpits and back
i. Mike was afraid his levels would be dropped if the staff saw his sunburned shoulders
j. The boy’s letter was sent to CAICA
k. Cindy, Ashley and Mike went to the beach

10.

11.

Questions MAVO/HAVO/VWO

1. Voor wie is Tranquility Bay bedoeld en waarom sturen ouders hun kinderen naar Tranquility Bay toe?

2. Waarom mochten Cindy, Ashley en de andere ouders het terrein van Tranquility Bay in eerste instantie niet op? Mochten ze vervolgens wel naar binnen?.

3. Op welke drie plekken zag Cindy dat de jongen gewond was?

4. ‘Cindy also saw another boy looking through the glass who had a metal plate in his mouth.’
Was Cindy de enige ouder die dit gezien heeft? Schrijf het gedeelte uit de tekst waaruit je antwoord blijkt over.

5. “… The staff then threw me down and started hitting my head over and over on the floor. One staff dropped his pen and the other staff picked it up and started to stab me in the right shoulder. While all this was happening other staff were punching me and hitting me with my sandals …”

Schrijf in je eigen woorden op wat er met de jongen gebeurd is. Wat hebben de stafleden met hem gedaan?.

6. ‘CAICA provided these agencies with Declarations, a copy of the boy’s letter, and the names of the boys who were being abused. 'Cindy indicated the facility claims no fault.’

Wat wordt er met het dikgedrukte stukje tekst bedoeld? Vertaal dit gedeelte in je eigen woorden.

7. Hoe kwam één van de verwonde jongens aan een plaat in zijn mond? Wat was er gebeurd?

8. Waarom is Mike bang dat zijn verbrande schouders voor problemen gaan zorgen?

9. ‘Before this incident occurred Cindy had made it clear to Tranquility Bay that she did not want surgery performed on her son in Jamaica unless it was an absolute emergency.’
Heeft de leiding van Tranquility Bay zich aan dit verzoek gehouden? Citeer het gedeelte uit de tekst waar dit uit blijkt.

10. Had de man die verantwoordelijk was voor het transport van Mike terug naar Amerika goed zijn best gedaan? Citeer het gedeelte uit de tekst waaruit je antwoord blijkt.

Questions MAVO/HAVO/VWO

11. For the school newspaper you are writing an article about Tranquillity Bay. You want the article to be really good, so you decided to interview Mike, a Tranquillity Bay ‘survivor’. Make at least 5 interview questions for Mike and write them down.

12. Secondly I’d like you to exchange your piece of paper with a fellow student and answer each other’s questions. Try to be as authentic as possible.

Week 1&2 - Abuse at Tranquillity Bay Reading