Strict schools don't always win friends

Ask any high school teacher or administrator to list the five toughest things about their jobs, and almost every list would include student discipline. More than that, most lists would also raise the issue of parental involvement -- or, to be more accurate, the lack of involvement. To this end, many parents rely heavily on schools to teach their children values and appropriate behavior but are too often the first to object whenever discipline is regarded as harsh.

Outside the arena of traditional high schools, both public and private, there has sprung up in recent years a number of schools across the country that base their programs on a religious foundation and a strict code of behavior. Once upon a time, many military schools were considered the last resort for problem teen-age boys. Now religious academies often fill that role.

One school, Mountain Park Boarding Academy near Patterson, Mo. -- not far from Sam A. Baker State Park -- has had its share of media attention since it opened its doors a few years ago. The school currently has 120 girls and 35 boys enrolled.

Mountain Park makes no bones about its mission or its methods. It aims to subject youths to a strict regimen of study, religious education and hard work. The school asks parents to pay $14,000 a year. In return, the school promises a "very strict" year for young men and women. Parents are asked not to visit.

Hundreds of parents have gladly paid whatever such schools charge in hopes that the discipline and focus will turn their children into respectful, conscientious adults with a real chance of succeeding.

Most students who attend the academy's rigorous program see the light and undergo major attitude changes.

Any parent choosing to send a child to such a program clearly understands that it won't be a bed of roses.

But one set of parents from Arkansas who sent their son to the Mountain Park school are now suing, citing such practices as austere discipline, no outside communication, limited bathroom breaks and as little as five hours of sleep a night.

Yes, it sounds like boot camp. But other such programs, such as a military-style program at Camp Clark in Nevada, Mo., are specifically aimed at juvenile offenders and young drug abusers and have been heartily endorsed by juvenile authorities and judges who like the success rate of these no-nonsense efforts.

It would appear the Arkansas parents were getting what they paid for until their son ran away from Mountain Park's sister academy in Florida.

It will be interesting to see how the parents make a case against the school while explaining spending all that money to do pretty much what they are now suing over.