New York City-based attorney Dawn Post
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Dawn Post, New York City-based child welfare attorney
By Nakinskie Robinson
The conditions under which troubled teens are transported to the now embattled Atlantis Leadership Academy in Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth are being likened to that of human trafficking.
New York City based child welfare attorney Dawn Post is in Jamaica to assist with relocating seven American boys who were at the facility.
They are being housed at Residential Child Care Facilities after Jamaica's Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) intervened and removed them from Atlantis Leadership Academy following allegations of child abuse.
Mrs. Post revealed that the children who were brought to the facility were taken under unfavourable circumstances.
She also raised concern about another facility in Jamaica where she said there were about 150 American youth.
Oftentimes, she said, parents and guardians whose children are taken to such entities have no knowledge of where the children are going.
"The children are picked up in the middle of the night by what's called transport companies, and these men are given temporary guardianship to transport them to Jamaica and then leave them at the facility and then grant guardianship as custody is transferred to the facility."
Following Wednesday's court hearing, Mrs. Post expressed doubt whether the Atlantis academy was a licensed entity.
She also disclosed that scores of other teens have claimed they were abuse at the facility.
"They were youth that were 'rescued' by their parents and brought back to the US and they are now coming forward and explaining some of the torture that their youth had endured. They were under the misimpression that the facility had been shut down," she noted.
Atlantis Leadership Academy is American owned and advertises itself as a faith-based school which serves teens struggling with substance abuse, anxiety disorders and deviant behaviour.
The CPFSA said it was during an unannounced visit to the facility on February 8, that signs of abuse and neglect were observed, leading to the immediate removal of the boys.
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