The Tico Times in Costa Rica, http://ow.ly/4kSK7, reported Teen Mentor was closed following allegations of abuse. The Academy, known as Teen Mentor, has been operating since October 2010 in Carara Hotel facilities in Tárcoles Garabito, Puntarenas. The owner of Teen Mentor rented the facilities.
PANI officials inspected the facilities on Friday in response to complaints of physical and psychological abuse to students brought by three psychologists who previously worked there. According to the hotel maintenance manager at the time of the intervention of PANI, "Teen makers Mentor and youth were left alone," he said.
According to the complaint filed with the Board, the 21 minors who were in the academy, all of U.S. origin was a violation of various rights. "It is alleged physical and psychological abuse, isolation, lack of communication between young people and their families, there was no medical supervision or clarity on the issue of right to education and recreation programs lacked," said Jorge Urbina, technical manager PANI.
PANI Technical Manager explained that staff of that institution had interviewed the boys. The official said the children reported last Thursday they were forced to sign a document that stated they were at the site of their own volition. According to the boys, if they had not signed the document they would have been sent to an isolation room where they would have been kept eight days.
The Costa Rican child welfare agency (PANI) officially closed the Teen Mentor Academy immediately, and according to Urbina, the U.S. Embassy in San José alerted parents of the 21 children to come and take them home. Until yesterday afternoon, the parents of 10 young people had come to pick up their children. The remaining group was in the custody of the Board.
According to Urbina, the U.S. Embassy linked Teen Mentor Academy to the Mentor Corporation ABC Costa Rica SA, and registered on the National Register in August 2010. "It was confirmed that the program did not have permits from the Ministry of Health or of the Board to operate in the country," said Jorge Urbina.
The article stated the owners of this program marketed the program through its website, as a rehabilitation program for young people between ages 13 and 18, with program costs starting at $600 a month.