This is the History of and Reporting Guide for Bellefaire Jewish Children's Bureau in Cleveland/Shaker Heights, OH

(a.k.a. Monarch Boarding Academy or Monarch School)

 

 

On this page you will find incomplete staff and complaint histories with sources cited (i.e. Progress Report), the general advisory against segregated congregate care with sources cited, and a reporting guide for those unlawfully harmed or firsthand witnesses to unlawful harm by or at this location to report violations of the law to the proper authorities/law enforcement.  The staff list itself will not be updated with additional names out of a sense of fairness where those providing the names ask for anonymity or confidentiality.  And, this program will remain eligible for merciful release if all criteria are met and no guest sermon is provided by a qualifying sponsor by that time.  In the meantime, it can graduate the COPE Conversion Program by meeting the Honesty In Marketing Standards (HIMS) or permanently close to be removed from the watch-list/released from the COPE Conversion Program.  If permanently closed prior to graduation or merciful release, it will be buried in the virtual graveyard.

Name

Unit/Position

Additional Information
Irwin M. Feldman Trustee Feldman is not a licensed mental health nor medical professional in OH.  Source: https://license.ohio.gov/lookup/default.asp
Sherrie Tilton Staff (former) Charged with three counts of sexual battery against a minor at Bellefaire Tilton is not a licensed mental health nor medical professional in OH.  Source: https://license.ohio.gov/lookup/default.asp
Debbie Cowan Associate Exec. Director Cowan is not a licensed mental health nor medical professional in OH.  Source: https://license.ohio.gov/lookup/default.asp
Kate Uhelein Cottage 10 Unit Spvsr. Reported by dissatisfied parent.  Uhelein is not a licensed mental health nor medical professional in OH.  Source: https://license.ohio.gov/lookup/default.asp
Jessica Platt Cottage 10 Unit Spvsr. Reported by dissatisfied parent.  Platt is a licensed Supervising Professional Clinical Counselor in OH and has been since 2012.  (Licensed as counseling trainee in 2006).  Source: https://license.ohio.gov/lookup/default.asp
Sarah Ford Cottage 10 Unit Spvsr. Reported by dissatisfied parent.  Ford is not a licensed mental health nor medical professional in OH.  Source: https://license.ohio.gov/lookup/default.asp
Karl Brass Director Reported by dissatisfied parent.  Brass is not a licensed mental health nor medical professional in OH.  Source: https://license.ohio.gov/lookup/default.asp
Jennifer O'Keefe Monarch Supervisor Reported by dissatisfied parent.  O'Keefe is a licensed Professional Clinical Counselor in OH and has been since 2012.  Source: https://license.ohio.gov/lookup/default.asp
Allison Tasker Case Manager Reported by dissatisfied parent.  Tasker is a licensed Professional Clinical Counselor in OH and has been since 2008.  Source: https://license.ohio.gov/lookup/default.asp
Amanda Young Intake Reported by dissatisfied parent.  Amanda M. Young (may be a different person) is a licensed Independent Social Worker Supervisor in OH and has been since 2008.  Source: https://license.ohio.gov/lookup/default.asp
Ivy Boyle Psychiatrist Reported by dissatisfied parent.  Boyle is a licensed medical doctor in OH and has been since 1970.  Source: https://license.ohio.gov/lookup/default.asp
OTHER OTHER This program is affiliated and/or "accredited" by:

Council on Accreditation (COA)

Joint Commission (a.k.a. JCAHO)

HEAL has received reports from families regarding physical and psychological abuse occurring at this program.  These reports have been submitted by e-mail and verified with the individual(s) submitting the reports.  As the families have requested anonymity and confidentiality, we cannot disclose more at this time.  We recommend that families avoid placing children at Bellefaire given the history of sexual abuse and the other complaints we have received on this program.
SEXUAL ASSAULT, FAIRMOUNT BOULEVARD: A Cleveland man, 24, a staff member at Bellefaire JCB, 22001 Fairmount, is a suspect in the sexual assault of a girl, 17, who is a student there. Police are not sure where the assault took place. A Bellefaire administrator no tified an investigator from the Cuyahoga County Children and Family Services department, and the investigator then called police.  Source: http://blog.cleveland.com/sunpress/2009/08/teens_are_suspected_in_three_c.html
Increase in serious incidents at youth facility has University Heights officials concerned   Posted 4:22 pm, May 17, 2018, by Peggy Gallek Facebook24 Twitter Google Pinterest LinkedIn Email Increase In Serious Incidents At Youth Facility Has University Heights Officials Concerned UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS - The Fox 8 I-Team obtained exclusive video that shows police called to a wild scene inside a facility for troubled teens earlier this month. Just one of many calls police have responded to at Bellefaire JCB in the past few months. “We are very concerned,” said Mike Astrab, University Heights Prosecutor. On May 5, an employee at Bellefaire JCB called 911 saying some of the juvenile clients were attacking staff. “They are trying to steal keys, it's just the clients they are rioting.,” the employee told the 911 dispatcher. “ We had somebody AWOL too, we just had someone break out. “ Body camera video shows University Heights officers responding to the facility. According to reports, some Bellefaire employees were assaulted and three juvenile clients left after allegedly taking keys and badges from staff. All three were later located. This past weekend an employee called police saying a male client was choking a female client, and she was having difficulty breathing. The I-Team found that since January, University Heights police filed 26 incident reports, that is more than doubles the incident reports the department dealt with at Bellefaire during the same time period last year. “We noticed a spike,” Astrab said. “ As a result we opened up a dialogue with Bellefaire to try and figure out what we can do to fix this problem. Those kids there, and there are a lot of them, are residents of University Heights, It is my duty and the police department’s duty to protect those kids.” Bellefaire officials released this statement. “Bellefaire works with youth who often come to us from very difficult backgrounds, many dealing with trauma and mental illness. We work hard to provide a safe, nurturing environment for the clients in our care. Our staff undergo extensive and ongoing training to ensure the best therapeutic outcome for these youth. We continue to evaluate our procedures to identify areas of improvement while ensuring the best therapeutic environment for the children in our care. In fact, as we too are concerned about the increased need to serve more and more difficult children, we are building a new facility that will be constructed and staffed in a manner that should lessen the need for assistance from local law enforcement.” “We want to bring the number of serious incident reports down as soon as possible,” Astrab said.  Source: http://fox8.com/2018/05/17/increase-in-serious-incidents-at-youth-facility-has-university-heights-officials-concerned/
THE TRUTH:

All segregated congregate care providers, including those on our watch-list, are welcome to contact us to correct any information or provide additional data that may assist with delivering the whole truth to the public.  The HEAL Mission of COPE (HEAL) found in many cases where this offer has been abused or resulted in revealing additional basis for our concerns. For some examples see feedback.  Now, we are willing to look at the facts and may have questions or require documentation backing up any claims.  We do verify licensing, academic backgrounds, and other qualifications when investigating and researching programs on our watch-lis/enrolled in the Conversion Program to assist consumers seeking additional information on such programs or victims requiring assistance with getting corroborating evidence of their claims.  We do that in order to make sure the information we provide is accurate and verified and cite our sources.  In the event any information we've posted is in error, we're happy to make a correction. 

HEAL does not support segregated congregate care for many reasons which include that many such facilities are abusive, exploitative, fraudulent, and lack effective oversight often as a result of fraudulent misrepresentation coupled with the ignorance of those seeking to enroll loved ones in such facilities, programs, schools, or centers without a valid court order and involuntarily.  In the United States such involuntary placements done without a court order are apparently illegal as they either violate the Americans with Disabilities Act community integration requirement or due process rights of those involuntarily placed.  Now, in regards to parents, in the United States parents have the right to waive their own rights, but, not the rights of their minor children.  See https://www.cope.church/legalarguments.htm for more information.  Now, most facilities on our watch list include waivers, indemnity clauses, and sworn statements legal guardians must sign assuring the program that the parents/legal guardians have the right to make the placement involuntarily and without due process in a segregated congregate care environment, however, California and federal prosecutors as well as settled law appears to suggest that is not the case.  In fact, in the David Taylor case found at https://www.cope.church/provocases.htm , Taylor sued Provo Canyon School and his mother as co-defendants.  His mother was found liable for 75% of the damages awarded to Taylor as a result of multiple complaints including false imprisonment, while the program was found only 25% liable because the mother owed a duty of due diligence to investigate anyone to which she would entrust care of her child and she failed to do so. 

Now, HEAL opposes segregated congregate care and we find most placements are happening illegally in the USA which if the youth understood their rights would result in unfortunate outcomes for the parents, particularly when they don't exercise good judgment and support the fraud and abuse rather than their own children when they need remedy and justice.  And, HEAL supports all victims of fraud and abuse in seeking remedies at law for any crimes or torts committed against them.  And, that's true whether or not the program or victims are in the USA. 

HEAL has a 5 point argument against segregated congregate care we'd like you to consider:

a.  Segregated care is unconstitutional and a civil rights violation.  It is only permissible if a person is unable to survive independent of an institutional environment.  For more on this, watch the HEAL Report at  https://youtu.be/C4NzhZc4P0A.  Or, see:   http://www.ada.gov/olmstead/  which includes in part:    "United States v. Florida – 1:12-cv-60460 – (S.D. Fla.) – On April 7, 2016, the United States filed an Opposition to the State of Florida’s Motion for Partial Summary Judgment.  In the Motion, the State had asked the Court to rule, on a variety of grounds, that the United States could not recover damages for unnecessarily institutionalized children to whom the State had been deliberately indifferent."

b.  Institutionalization is always dehumanizing and coercive.  Institutionalization always harms the institutionalized and deprives them of protected civil rights.  Dr. David Straker, Psychiatry Professor at Columbia University's School of Medicine (Ivy League) explains this in detail at http://changingminds.org/disciplines/sociology/articles/institutionalization.htm.  "Many institutions, from prisons to monasteries to asylums, deliberately want to control and manage their inmates such that they conform and do not cause problems. Even in less harsh environments, many of the institutionalization methods may be found, albeit in more moderated form (although the psychological effect can be equally devastating)."  (See website linked in this paragraph for more info.)

c.  Institutionalization is not in the best interest of children.  Institutions are not ever better for a child than living with a loving family.  Source:   http://www.unicef.org/cambodia/12681_23295.html       

d.  Reform schools, residential treatment programs, and other segregated congregate care settings have been shown to be ineffective and harmful.  Best source on this currently is:     https://www.acgov.org/probation/documents/EndoftheReformSchoolbyVinny.doc

e. Boarding Schools, even the "good ones", result in a form of social death, isolation, and cause both anxiety and depression.  Therefore, it is clearly not in the best interest of the youth subjected to those environments.  Sources: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jun/08/boarding-school-syndrome-joy-schaverien-review and http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/secondaryeducation/11662001/The-truth-about-boarding-school-syndrome.html

Beyond the above arguments against segregated congregate care, we have reports from the NIH, Surgeon General, Yale University Studies, and much more showing the methodologies of behavior modification are damaging, harmful, and ineffective.  You can request these documents via e-mail.  In addition, for such programs offering academic services or claiming to offer diplomas, certifications, or the like, it is important to check to see if it is a diploma mill with no accredited academic services.  Please see article: "Avoiding Scams: What You Need To Know"  for important information on how to avoid education/training scams.

If you'd like to see what HEAL suggests rather than segregated congregate care (i.e. committing a crime or tort against your child if done against their will without a court order), please see articles: "Fix Your Family, Help Your Teen" and "Emancipation Guide".
REPORTING GUIDE FOR VICTIMS, SURVIVORS, AND WHISTLEBLOWERS:
 
In Ohio, the criminal statutes of limitation are 2 years on most misdemeanors, 6 years on most felonies and no statutes of limitation on murder.  For civil suits in Ohio, the statute of limitations is 2 years depending on cause of action. 

Options for you to take action and/or seek redress/justice today are listed below:

1.  Report crimes such as assault, fraud, battery, labor trafficking, and child abuse to law enforcement in Ohio. You can call the Shaker Heights Police at (216) 491-1220  and/or Cleveland Police at (216) 623-5000 to inquire about filing an official complaint which may provide the probable cause needed to get a warrant for investigation and/or prosecution.

2.  File a consumer complaint with your home state's attorney general against Bellefaire/Monarch and include your request for compensation for any harm done to you.  If you live in Ohio and/or would like to file consumer complaint as a non-resident with the Attorney General of Ohio, visit https://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Individuals-and-Families/Consumers/File-a-Complaint .

3.  If you do not wish to file a consumer complaint, you can contact a private personal injury attorney and look into suing in tort/civil court.  However, if you can't afford the retainer, you should expect to settle out of court with a non-disclosure agreement which may bar you from speaking publicly about the incident because you've agreed (even if with a grumbling assent) to the terms of the settlement. 
 
4.  You may send a new e-mail to rev@cope.church with subject "Post My Feedback" and we will post your feedback (e-mail printed to .pdf disclosing your name and e-mail address and any information in your e-mail with that subject) to https://www.cope.church/feedback.htm  and add a direct link to those .pdf files to this page . 

 5. You may also wish to provide a guest sermon.  Guest sermons are posted at https://www.cope.church/sermons.htm , under Progress Reports/Guest Sermons at https://www.cope.church/conversion.htm where appropriate, and on program info pages when applicable.  So, one provided by you on your program would also be placed on this page .  Guest sermons should be written into the body of an e-mail and sent to rev@cope.church . Your first and last name will be disclosed (contact info will not be unless you expressly request disclosure).  For sermons available on our site see https://www.cope.church/sermons.htm  (and sermon archives linked on that page).  If you have questions about this option, please contact rev@cope.church. Please see https://www.cope.church/givetoday.pdf  to get an idea what your sermon may be worth.
11/17/21: COPE Conversion Program Progress Report on Bellefaire JCB AKA Monarch Boarding Academy AKA The Monarch School in OH

 

 

 Last Updated: February 22nd, 2023

Return to https://www.cope.church/conversion.htm