WARNING!

It is ASTART’s position that this practice is dangerous, and that families should avoid any program that recommends or employs escort services for transporting teens.  

Dangers of Teen Escort Transportation Services

Teen in HandcuffsTeens consistently report experiencing serious trauma by being “escorted” to a residential program. At the urging of “admissions counselors” at programs (salespeople), parents hire private companies to forcibly move their child from home to a program. The company typically sends two or more physically intimidating bodyguards to wake the child in the middle of the night, and force them from their bed into a waiting SUV—often in pajamas and handcuffs—while the parents look on.

Trauma, not therapy

This is how the child learns he or she will be leaving home and friends and family. This is how the parents and the child say goodbye before a separation of several months to several years. This is a scene filled with tears and pleading and promises and begging. This is what many residential programs consider the first step in “healing family relationships.”

This is trauma, not therapy. This is harm, not healing.

Survivors may suffer lifelong disability from
being kidnapped

Many survivors who have been “escorted” to a residential program say they experience years of nightmares, flashbacks, emotional “numbing,” inability to concentrate, angry outbursts, difficulty sleeping or other symptoms—primarily, survivors say, because of the trauma of being forcibly taken against their will, by strangers, to a completely unfamiliar place, and kidnapped with the knowledge and permission of their parents—parents who are supposed to be the child’s trusted protectors.

It is ASTART’s position that this practice is dangerous, and that families should avoid any program that recommends or employs escort services for transporting teens.   

Last updated 5/13/14