This is a staff list for Victory Forge Military Academy of Port St. Lucie, FL
(aka Southeastern Military Academy, Camp Victory Wilderness Challenge, Treasure Coast Academy)
(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 Victory Forge Military Academy. 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 Victory Forge Military Academy, you have the right to take action.
If you were harmed (family or survivor) by Victory Forge Military Academy, 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.
Please dont place your loved one in Victory Forge Military Academy and rescue them if they are there now.
|
Name |
Unit/Position |
Additional Information |
| Alan L.Weierman | Commanding Officer | |
| Molly Weierman | Admissions/Placement Officer | There is no other information listed for this program or its staff.* |
| *(Victory Forge Military Academy, 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.) | ||
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Abuse allegations leave Victory Forge Military
Academy without students--May 2nd, 2008-- The Department of Children and Families asked parents April 24 to remove their sons from the private military academy on Biltmore Street while its investigators look into a child abuse claim. The case appears to stem from an incident last month when police found a runaway student with shackles around his legs. DCF spokeswoman Ellen Higinbotham said investigators are trying to wrap up as quickly as possible because they realize students still have to take final exams. Col. Alan Weierman, the school's president, said the lead investigator told him Thursday the probe likely wouldn't take the full 60 days allowed under law. Weierman said he's been recommending "extremely frustrated" parents join a class-action lawsuit against DCF. He claimed agency officials are setting back the cadets and costing the parents money by taking the drastic measure of asking the boys to stay away from the school during the investigation. "They chose to be vindictive and not look at the situation the way it stands," he said. "They treated us like we were a second-class citizen as a program." DCF has investigated child abuse allegations at Victory Forge several times in the past. In one recent case, Palm City resident Donna Pooler filed a December complaint with DCF over the treatment of her 17-year-old son, D.J. Pooler said Thursday her son has a scar on his foot because he never received proper medical treatment for an abscess. He developed the injury shortly after arriving at the school in February 2007 because his military boots were too small, his mother said. Pooler turned to Victory Forge because her son was "totally out of control" and had no male influence in his life after his father died. She agreed to pay more than $28,000 to enroll him. Pooler's son now shows more concern for other people and has a "nice military bearing," but the experience has left him "zombie-like in his emotions," Pooler said. She decided to pull her son out of the school while he was home at Christmas. "He was terrified to go back to that place, and I decided I wasn't going to take him back," Donna Pooler said. For complete story, click here. |
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| Police found teenage boy in shackles--April 25th, 2008--PORT ST. LUCIE The Department of Children and Families told parents of boys at a boot camp-type boarding school to remove them this week after police found one of the boys shackled, according to the school's leader. Victory Forge Military Academy's board president and school commander, Alan Weierman, acknowledged Friday that the school uses shackles to restrain runaways and that an investigation was launched when a Port St. Lucie police officer saw a 16-year-old runaway being restrained. For complete story, click here. | ||
| Shackled teen 'was running for his life'--May 2nd, 2008--PORT ST. LUCIE When her son ran away the first time from Victory Forge Military Academy, she thought she understood why. It was a strict place, there was discipline and rules, she thought. Maybe he wasn't used to it. But when he fled again from the boot camp-style boarding school - this time in leg shackles - the woman says she knew something was wrong. The 16-year-old Port St. Lucie boy said "he was running for his life," his mother, who declined to give her name or his, said Friday. Academy staff found the boy and called the police. Port St. Lucie officers who responded saw the boy wearing the shackles. Police questioned whether using the leg restraints was legal, said Victory Forge school commander Alan Weierman. So police decided to contact the Department of Children and Families, he said. As a result, both police and DCF are investigating whether the use of the shackles was child abuse. Although police officials say they can't discuss the case because it is still open, the case has been forwarded to the state attorney's office for review, a spokesman said. DCF officials also declined to discuss their investigation. But DCF did contact parents last week informing them of the accusation and telling them to remove their sons from the school. By Monday afternoon, all 16 boys had left the academy. Weierman says the shackles are not abuse. They're used only to restrain the boys and are removed as soon as the student agrees not to run away again. The head of the academy also says parents are told what they could expect if their son ever ran away - he would be placed in shackles, and an extra three months would be tacked on to the 12-month commitment they make when they enroll their teen. But the mother of the Port St. Lucie boy says she never knew her son was being shackled. She learned about the restraints, she says, when her son was found in early April. By that time, Weierman has said, the boy had been wearing shackles on and off for 10 days. The teen's mother called the shackles "child abuse" during an interview Friday. "To shackle a kid, hey, that's abuse," she said. The woman said she sent her son to the academy because, as a single mother, she was looking for a way to discipline the boy after he had been showing her disrespect. A friend of hers suggested Victory Forge and since the boy had expressed an interest in one day joining the military, she believed the academy would be a good experience, she said. The teen's first day at the school was Feb. 26. He ran away about two weeks later. At the time, she thought he wasn't used to the discipline. Then the boy called and told her he had been called names, including a racial slur. The mother says the boy returned after she talked with the school. But during his return, she says, she began having regrets. The woman says she was about to pull her son out of the school when police contacted her on April 6 asking whether she had seen the teen. He had run away again, police said. When she discovered her son had been shackled, she began to regret making him go back to the academy. "Right there and then, I felt so guilty putting him there," she said. "It really hurt." She says the boy later told her that while at the school he had also been punched in the face and choked. The woman said she and her son both gave statements to police about their allegations. She says she's now talking with attorneys to fight the contract requiring her to pay the academy the rest of the $28,600 she agreed to pay for her son's enrollment. On Friday, Weierman said the woman's claim that she didn't know about the shackles is a lie. He denies that the teen was ever punched or choked. Had it happened, he would have called police, Weierman said. "To my knowledge, that never took place," he said. Weierman says the mother is making the allegations because she wants to back out of her contract with the school. "To me, it's rather suspicious and convenient," he said. But the woman says she's concerned about what happened to her son. "As a parent, as a mother, I'm still angry," she said. "I'm upset." For complete story, click here. | ||
| Abuse allegations leave Victory Forge Military Academy without students--May 2nd, 2008--PORT ST. LUCIE The last of the 16 teenage boys living in the barracks at Victory Forge Military Academy went back to their families earlier this week. The Department of Children and Families asked parents April 24 to remove their sons from the private military academy on Biltmore Street while its investigators look into a child abuse claim. The case appears to stem from an incident last month when police found a runaway student with shackles around his legs. DCF spokeswoman Ellen Higinbotham said investigators are trying to wrap up as quickly as possible because they realize students still have to take final exams. Col. Alan Weierman, the school's president, said the lead investigator told him Thursday the probe likely wouldn't take the full 60 days allowed under law. Weierman said he's been recommending "extremely frustrated" parents join a class-action lawsuit against DCF. He claimed agency officials are setting back the cadets and costing the parents money by taking the drastic measure of asking the boys to stay away from the school during the investigation. "They chose to be vindictive and not look at the situation the way it stands," he said. "They treated us like we were a second-class citizen as a program." DCF has investigated child abuse allegations at Victory Forge several times in the past. In one recent case, Palm City resident Donna Pooler filed a December complaint with DCF over the treatment of her 17-year-old son, D.J. Pooler said Thursday her son has a scar on his foot because he never received proper medical treatment for an abscess. He developed the injury shortly after arriving at the school in February 2007 because his military boots were too small, his mother said. Pooler turned to Victory Forge because her son was "totally out of control" and had no male influence in his life after his father died. She agreed to pay more than $28,000 to enroll him. Pooler's son now shows more concern for other people and has a "nice military bearing," but the experience has left him "zombie-like in his emotions," Pooler said. She decided to pull her son out of the school while he was home at Christmas. "He was terrified to go back to that place, and I decided I wasn't going to take him back," Donna Pooler said. For complete story, click here. | ||
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