This is a  staff list for Camp Tracey Children's Home in/near Jacksonville, FL

THIS PROGRAM IS CLOSED.

(we are working to acquire the complete records for ALL years)

 

We advise current and/or former staff to report any abuses you may have witnessed while working at the Camp Tracey.  For information on your rights and how to take action, visit www.heal-online.org/blowthewhistle.htm.  If you were fired or forced to resign because you opposed any illegal and/or unethical practices at Camp Tracey, you have the right to take action. 

 

If you were harmed (family or survivor) by Camp Tracey, please contact [email protected] if you remember the long-term employees and from which years.  This will help!   Also, if you recognize any of these staff as having worked at another program, please send in any information about their past or present employment at other facilities and/or cults.

 

 

This program is closed/closing as of October, 2013.

 

Name

Unit/Position

 Additional Information
Wilford McCormick Founder/Director No education or training in psychology or appropriate therapies for children and teens.
Gary Byram Money Man--Fundraiser No qualifications other than being "saved" at age 27.
Jeff & Michele Kresch Boys' Dorm Parents  
Bruce & Jeanette Scott Staff  
Sara & Justin Scott Staff  
Donald Wilkison Staff  
Ken & Pat Jackson Staff  
Steve & Vicki Ashby Staff  
Billy & Emily Morris Staff  
Tom & Jeannie Swan Staff  
Jeff & Sharon Econom Staff  
Jessica Jones Staff  
Will & Alicia Jones Staff  
Fran & Wayne Jacobs Staff Wayne is reportedly deceased.  Fran Jacobs reportedly worked at Harvest Christian Academy prior to going to CT.
Joe & Judy Rogers Staff  
Arthur Houde Staff Houde was reportedly also the former principal of Harvest Christian Academy.
Cedric McCormick Staff McCormick also reportedly worked at Harvest Christian Academy.
Steve Griffin Staff Griffin is reportedly deceased.
Steve Kuzniar Staff  
Wayne Bush Staff  
Chuck & Susie (Suesy) Wolf Staff  
Glen Zazack Staff  
Paul & Lisa Theus Staff  
Rich Moran Dorm Parent Reported by survivor on January 28th, 2014.
Rick & Linda Harris Dorm Parents Reported by survivor on July 13th, 2014
Chuck & Nita Wilson Dorm Parents Reported by survivor on July 13th, 2014
Jason Rogers Staff Reported by survivor on July 28th, 2014
Tom Thomason Staff Reported by survivor on December 22nd, 2015
Rocky and Shirly Moxley Dorm Parents Reported by survivor on October 13th, 2019.
     
NO OTHER NAMES NO OTHER TITLES (Camp Tracey, like many other programs in this industry, keeps a "tight lid" on any specific information regarding their staff, qualifications, and practices.  Please contact us with the names of any staff of which you have firsthand knowledge or experience.  Thank you for your help.)
Article: How Faith Based Initiatives Help Unlicensed Reform Schools Thrive (RA, 2007)  Excerpt: "In 2003, a former student of FACCCA’s Camp Tracey filed a lawsuit against the facility alleging that he was forced to perform sex acts with two camp counselors (Paul Pinkam, Man Sues Church, Alleges Abuse - Harvest Baptist’s Camp Tracey Cited, THE FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, May 10, 2003, available at http://www.nospank.net/n-k92r.htm). A grand jury investigated Camp Tracey in 1987 after years of physical abuse allegations by children and parents. Allegations leading to the investigation included excessive corporal punishment and the use of ropes and handcuffs to restrain children. The grand jury criticized the absence of procedures allowing residents of Camp Tracey to contact authorities in the event of abuse (www.isaccorp.org/faccca/camptracey1.pdf )." (isaccorp.org is no longer active)
Article: Group sex, abuse investigations lead to arrests at Camp Tracey (North Florida News Daily, July 2nd, 2008)
Article: In God's Name: Abuse at Religious Group Homes in Florida (Tampa Bay Times, October 27th, 2012)
Camp Tracey, a controversial children’s home ministry in north Baker, is closing this month after three decades, The Baker County Press reported. Camp founder Pastor Wilford McCormick said the 160-acre property still will be used for “the Lord’s work,” though the site’s specific use remains uncertain. When asked why now, he said, “We’re dealing with a changing environment in a lot of different things. … After much prayer and fasting, we made this decision.” Camp Tracey was among the homes featured last year in an investigative series by The Tampa Bay Times, which revealed the state has investigated Camp Tracey 22 times since the 1980s and found evidence of abuse in a third of the cases.

(Source: Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2013-10-09/story/around-region-embattled-childrens-home-ministry-closing-baker-county#ixzz2iVrHXEk2)
External Link: http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/CampTraceyGroup/conversations/messages (Survivor Message Board)
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.  We've found in many cases where this offer has been abused or resulted in revealing additional basis for our concerns. For some examples see: http://www.heal-online.org/tcfl.htm,  http://www.heal-online.org/bolthouse.htm and http://www.heal-online.org/abundant2.htm.  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-list 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.  And, for information on how such requests are handled and have been resolved historically, see: http://www.heal-online.org/requests.htm. 

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 http://www.heal-online.org/legalarguments.htm for more information.  Now, most facilities on our watch list include waivers, indemnity clauses, and sworn statements parents must sign assuring the program that the parents 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 http://www.heal-online.org/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 "How Would You Handle My Out of Control Teen?".

If you have a complaint against any facility, please file a complaint with the appropriate law enforcement agency or your home state's attorney general.  For reporting resources see: http://www.heal-online.org/report.htm.  (Reporting guide is for USA only at this time.)
 

 

 Last Updated: November 3rd, 2019

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