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| Virgil Miller Newton III | |
|---|---|
 Father Cassian in 2009 | |
| Born | 1938 Tampa, FL |
| Other names | Father Cassian |
| Education | BA, MDiv and PhD |
| Alma mater | University of South Florida, Princeton University and Union Graduate School |
| Spouse | Ruth Ann |
| Children | Joanna, Miller and Mark |
| Parent(s) | Louisa and Virgil Miller Newton, Jr. |
Virgil Miller Newton (also known as Father Cassian Newton) is a priest in the Antiochian Orthodox Church and former Director of several rehabilitation centers for youth with drug problems, behavior problems, eating disorders and other compulsive behavior. His rehabilitative methods have been criticized.
Several former patients have sued for abuse.
Early life
Virgil Miller Newton III (b. 1938, Tampa Bay, Florida) was the son of Louisa and Virgil Miller Newton Junior. His father was managing editor of the Tampa Tribune and well known for his fight against secrecy in the government, authoring papers such as “Federal Thought Control a Challenge to American Liberties and Freedom.”
From 1956-1957, Newton was appointed state Master Counselor for the Florida chapter of The Order of DeMolay. In 1956, he began attending Princeton University. While there, he conducted religious services on the weekends at three small churches in Southern New Jersey. Newton returned to Florida and recuperated for a year before resuming his studies at the University of Florida, where he obtained a degree in history. During this time, he married and had three children with wife Ruth Ann: Joanna (b. 1959), Miller (b. 1960), and Mark (b. 1964). He returned to Princeton University and earned his master's degree in divinity and subsequently worked as a Methodist pastor in Indianapolis, ministering to youth, homeless people, heroin addicts and alcoholics.
Two years later, in 1979, Newton’s youngest son Mark developed a drug problem and on September 26, was enrolled in Straight, Inc.. a drug rehabilitation program. At the time, Newton was Executive Director of the Florida Association of Alcohol Treatment Programs. The experience with Mark profoundly affected Newton.
Straight program (1980-1983)
Four months after enrolling his son, Newton joined Straight, Inc. St Petersburg as Assistant Director. The Straight program was founded in 1976 by wealthy real estate developers Mel Sembler and Joseph Zappa. The average stay was twenty months long, and its corporate goals were, “to admit 14 clients per month.” Most clients paid an average of $14, 000 for the treatment.
In 1980 Newton attended a workshop on alcoholism at the Johnson Institute in Minneapolis. It was during this time he also switched his doctoral focus to teen drug abuse. He defended his doctoral thesis titled “The Organization and Implementation of Family Involvement in Adolescent Drug-Use Rehabilitation,” and graduated in 1981 with a PhD in Public Administration and Urban Anthropology.
Newton had obtained directorship of the St Petersburg facility by 1981, and in July 1982, Mel Sembler promoted him to the position of National Director of Straight, Inc.
KIDS (1984-2000)
KIDS of Bergen County (1984-1990)
The program had the capacity to treat over 175 youths at a time and the initial fee was $7,200 with an average stay in the program of 12–14 months. Newton also enrolled sibling groups to prevent brothers and sisters from following in the same destructive lifestyle.
A system of peer monitoring enforced his program’s rules. New youths or youths in the first stages of the program were forbidden to be alone, even to shower or use the bathroom. Newcomers were accompanied everywhere through hand-to-belt looping. Socializing was not allowed, and the youths were isolated from their family and friends. Twice a week, Newton held open meetings in which the families were seated on one side of the room and youths on the other. The purpose of these meeting was for the youths to publicly confess their difficulties, and advancement from the first stage depended upon how revealing their confessions were. The program's counselors were former graduates of the program.
In 1984, Newton co-authored Not My Kid: A Parents Guide to Kids and Drugs with TV producer Beth Polson. The book was endorsed by Barbara Walters and was the basis for the 1985 CBS made-for-TV movie Not My Kid, starring Stockard Channing and George Segal, which depicted many of the methods used in Newton's real-life treatment centers.
The program would come under legal scrutiny; in a 1989 interview with ABC Television, Florida state prosecutor David Levin characterized it as "....a sort of private jail, utilizing techniques such as torture and punishment which even a convicted criminal would not be subject to." In response Newton said "I don't like the word imprison. Imprison implies punishment." Claiming to disapprove of violence, Newton said he preferred calling it "an isolation ward."
KIDS of North Jersey (1990-1998)
In September 1993, he obtained a clinical psychology doctoral degree, again from Union Institute. His thesis, titled “Guiding Youth Through the Perilous Ordeal”, was published in 1995.
In 1992 three of Newton’s peer counselors were convicted of assault at KIDS of North Jersey. The presiding Secaucus Municipal Judge, Emil DelBaglivo, called KIDS a “highly questionable” program. He said something was “radically wrong” if the program director would condone “almost unbelievable” conduct. KIDS of North Jersey closed on November 2, 1998 and Virgil Miller and Ruth Ann Newton returned to Madeira Beach.
KIDS lawsuits
On February 24, 1987, 14-year-old Rebecca Ehrlich was enrolled in KIDS of Bergen County. She "was an obstinate, rebellious teen-ager" who had not tried drugs or alcohol. She said she endured physical and emotional abuse until her release in June 1993. Newton said that no one with a professional license had treated her and that such evaluation and subsequent treatment was carried out by "peer counselors." Malpractice insurance for Newton, his wife and corporation paid $2 million as a result.
In 1996, the Federal Government lodged claims against Newton and KIDS for billing the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program for treatment by physicians when the physicians signing the forms had not provided services. Newton did not admit wrongdoing, but agreed to pay back $45,000 for 245 claims.
Notes
- ^ O'Brien, Tim (January 24, 2000). "Closure for a quack victim". New Jersey Law Journal.
- ^ Maia, Szalavitz (2006). Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled-Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids. NY, NY: Riverhead Books. pp. 226–246. ISBN 1594489106.
- "V.M. Newton Jr., Former editor of the Tampa Tribune, Dies 73", New York Times, NY, NY, p. 51, December 14, 1977
- Newton, V.M. (1952). "Federal thought control a challenge to American liberties and freedom". The Journal of the Florida Medical Association. 39: 179–184.
- Jones, Ryan; Pickren, Anthony Lee (August 7, 2006). 2006 Proceedings of the 73rd Annual Conclave Florida Jurisdictional Chapter (PDF). Tampa Bay, FL. Retrieved 2009-10-16.
{{cite conference}}: Text "pages 38" ignored (help); Unknown parameter|Publisher=ignored (|publisher=suggested) (help) - Schoenstein, Ralph (June 9, 1957), "Teen-age pastor: He's a college boy with three growing congregations", Corpus Christi Caller Times Supplement, Corpus Christi, TX
- ^ Polson, Beth; Newton, Miller (1984). Not My Kid. NY, NY: Avon. pp. 1–4. ISBN 0877956332.
- ^ Fein, Ester B. (May 24, 1987), "Turning kids off drugs", New York Times Magazine, NY, NY
- Baum, Dan (1996). Smoke and Mirrors: The war on drugs and the politics of failure. NY, NY: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0316084123.
- Newton, Virgil Miller (1995). Adolescence: Guiding youth through the perilous ordeal. NY, NY: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0393701948.