Sue Scheff Truth

How a ‘child advocate’ gamed the media

Republished From Reason Magazine with Permission of the author. Original here. Maia’s Huffington Post comment on this article here.

Maia Szalavitz | August 24, 2007

Sue Scheff has some serious chutzpah. Portrayed by ABC News, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and Forbes as a beleaguered mom running a small business to help parents find treatment for troubled teens, Scheff’s been telling reporters about a service called Reputation Defender, which she says allowed her to triumph over a bunch of rage-filled Internet cranks. Scheff says these vengeance-seeking wackos nearly destroyed her, an innocent businesswoman, with a series of libelous comments posted on online discussion boards. They had called her a “fraud” and “con artist,” she says, and claimed that she was referring teens to tough love programs that then abused them.

What none of this media coverage mentions is that a few years back, Scheff was sued for the same types of comments now directed at her—highlighting the abuses of a “tough love” rehab center (in this case, one of Scheff’s rivals). At the time, she framed the suit against her as an attempt to squelch her free speech.

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On August 14th, On one of her many cross-linked spam blogs, Sue Scheff wrote the following, denying that there is a lawsuit against her and Focal Point Academy:

“I have read claims, Blogs, and horrific postings about my
organization and myself being served a lawsuit - this is not
true. Neither myself nor the other defendants listed on
what they are posting have received any such lawsuit. If
there is a lawsuit, we certainly don’t know about it and you
would think the defendants should have it?

This is a further campaign to discredit me which has
recently escalated since I will be on 20/20 i-Caught this
evening” [hyperlinks added]

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Sue Scheff often refers to herself as an “advocate”, claiming that she just wants to help children. Sue Scheff uses the slogan “parents helping parents”, publicly stating that the purpose of her organization is simply to avoid the dangers of abusive programs. Critics, however, question her commitment to the welfare of children, her honesty, and the ethics with which she conducts her business.

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Regarding Focal Point Lawsuit:

Read the full complaint here.

Recently, A lawsuit was filed By the Green family in Broward County Florida against both Sue Scheff and Focal Point Academy. It is alleged that Sue Scheff fradulently misrepresented her relationship with Focal Point Academy on many matters. for example:

“20. In April, 2006, Scheff also represented that she was not a licensed educational therapist, and therefore was not paid for her work, and that she was only making referrals based on the interests of the children.
2I. Scheff in no way disclosed that she was being paid for referring R.G. and others to Defendant Focal Point on a per-child basis. Contrary to Scheff’s misrepresentations, Defendant Horlacher later disclosed that Focal Point Academy pays Scheff money for each student she refers to the school.”

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Read the full complaint here.

It describes some the things that allegedly went on at Focal Point Academy, which Sue Scheff referred to.

Summary coming in the morning.