Captain Bret Alan Smith Part 5: Still No Trial Update: He Plead Guilty

[ophelia]

The dancing video is so damn painful to watch. I just don't get what EXACTLY is wrong the Captain. There are so many WTF moments when it comes to this guy that I really can't put my finger on it.

[ophelia]

So apparently the remaining kids at the Smith house were sent to school for them. Good for them!! I would really love some more details why they made this decision.

[NachosFlandersStyle]

The boarding academy is part of a National Guard program meant for "at-risk" youth. 

How many kids in total are still at home? I know that they have at least one adult in addition to the school-aged ones.

[JillyO]

The Milledgeville Youth Challenge Academy is only a 22-week program that lets you earn your High School Diploma or GED, not an actual four-year high school. I assume that whichever Smith kid recently graduated from the SOTDRT decided to go there to earn a proper HSD/GED.

I feel bad for the one kid who's still at home. I'm sure that the online public school program is waaay better than Jacqueline's SOTDRT, but I wish the kid got the chance to socialize as well.

[lexiloumarie]

Considering how deep they were in the movement, I'm possibly off base but I doubt they chose to send them to school - I have a feeling a bit of DCFS encouraged it. Her posts about her kids schooling made it sound like high school the kids couldn't do basic math and reading which considering the ESL and other challenges of international adoption of older kids doesn't surprise me at all. She had no idea how in over her head she was. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

7 hours ago, NachosFlandersStyle said:

The boarding academy is part of a National Guard program meant for "at-risk" youth. 

How many kids in total are still at home? I know that they have at least one adult in addition to the school-aged ones.

They have 8 adopted children. I’m positive both Madera and Wally are adults. I’m almost positive Arman is an adult also. So that leaves 5 younger ones but it’s possible one boy that is around 17/18 could have already graduated from homeschool. It sounds like only the 4 youngest are left doing schooling. Which would be the three youngest boys and Sitara. I have always worried about Sitara. She is the only black child of theirs and she is the only one without any biological siblings in the house. I really hope she can make friends outside of the family. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

I’m glad they are open to letting Sitara play sports. She can make friends that way and might enjoy it. She’s tall but that doesn’t mean she’s automatically a good athlete. I hate that assumption.

[JermajestyDuggar]

I’m going to make an educated guess and say that Sitara, Yerik, Gavido, and Madisen are the ones doing schooling. And Gavido is doing the online schooling at home. Sitara and Yerik are probably the ones in high school and Madisen is probably doing the special boarding academy program. 

Edited August 16, 2018 by JermajestyDuggar

[JillyO]

Agreed. And it really sounds like Jacqueline would let her try out for the swim team, which I can assure you does not wear WholesomeWear. So that's a huge step forward!

Couldn't agree more on how annoying the tall = great athlete thing is. I'm tall (almost 5'11") and you cannot imagine how many times I've been asked if I play basketball or volleyball. I actuall am pretty athletic, but I just absolutely HATE any ball sports.

[JermajestyDuggar]

1 minute ago, JillyO said:

Agreed. And it really sounds like Jacqueline would let her try out for the swim team, which I can assure you does not wear WholesomeWear. So that's a huge step forward!

Couldn't agree more on how annoying the tall = great athlete thing is. I'm tall (almost 5'11") and you cannot imagine how many times I've been asked if I play basketball or volleyball. I actuall am pretty athletic, but I just absolutely HATE any ball sports.

Same here! Everyone expected me to play basketball but I hated it! I much preferred softball.

[Nikedagain?]

But who is going to do all of Cap'n and Jacquie's chores all day??? Being students means fewer servants. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

2 minutes ago, Nikedagain? said:

But who is going to do all of Cap'n and Jacquie's chores all day??? Being students means fewer servants. 

Oh I bet they have to do their chores right when they get home from school. 

We know that their bio daughters have all distanced themselves from their parents. I wonder if they are resentful that they weren’t offered an education outside the home but their younger siblings are.

[Nikedagain?]

1 minute ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

Oh I bet they have to do their chores right when they get home from school. 

We know that their bio daughters have all distanced themselves from their parents. I wonder if they are resentful that they weren’t offered an education outside the home but their younger siblings are.

Doubtful. The Smortons are pretty smug...

[NachosFlandersStyle]

I'm actually pretty surprised by this. The Smiths' whole thing used to be homeschooling materials (their Digital Tutor site is still live), and they obviously aren't good at recognizing when their children have problems that need to be addressed. 

 

[hoipolloi]

38 minutes ago, NachosFlandersStyle said:

I'm actually pretty surprised by this. The Smiths' whole thing used to be homeschooling materials (their Digital Tutor site is still live), and they obviously aren't good at recognizing when their children have problems that need to be addressed. 

 

As @lexiloumarie noted above, I suspect that the Smiths may have had "encouragement" from outside agencies to send the kids to public school.

We'll never know how much scrutiny by DFCS & other entities the Smith parents underwent due to Alan's crimes, but it wouldn't surprise me if part of the fallout was putting the minor kids in public school where there'd be at least some oversight of their well-being. This seems like such a major change for them that it's hard to believe they acted entirely on their own.

[lexiloumarie]

24 minutes ago, hoipolloi said:

As @lexiloumarie noted above, I suspect that the Smiths may have had "encouragement" from outside agencies to send the kids to public school.

We'll never know how much scrutiny by DFCS & other entities the Smith parents underwent due to Alan's crimes, but it wouldn't surprise me if part of the fallout was putting the minor kids in public school where there'd be at least some oversight of their well-being. This seems like such a major change for them that it's hard to believe they acted entirely on their own.

They also have at least one, if not two with medical needs requiring regular appointments. It would not surprise me if someone kick-started the conversation and got the ball rolling to get the kids intervention. 

[Palimpsest]

At first sniff, the kids going to public schools certainly smells like an intervention.  They have drawn a lot of attention to themselves in their rabid defense of Alan.

Also, as @JillyO, noted the Milledgeville Youth Challenge Academy is a 22 week course for at risk youth aged 16 - 19.  The kid has to meet the definition of at risk to be accepted.

I took a look at the application process.  It's a voluntary (not an alternative to juvie) all govt. funded program for kids who are falling through the cracks.  Kid has to find a mentor who stays in place after graduation for a few months.  And the mentor must be approved by the program.   I hope the kid does well there, but it might be a walk in the park after living with Capt. Brett and Jacques.

The Smiths will probably present it as a top flight military academy and the poor kid will "graduate" as a Lieutenant, at the very least.  After all, Capt. Brett once had a boat and this program is run by the National Guard.

[Lurky]

I'm really surprised they have let Sitara go to school, but wow, I'm pleased for her.  She looked so unhappy in the terrible group dance videos, and I was really worried about her.

But how do the Smiths justify this, after years and years of selling themselves as the homeschool experts?

I really hope their son isn't actually At Risk. 

I wonder what their older sisters think about this?

[NachosFlandersStyle]

47 minutes ago, Lurky said:

I really hope their son isn't actually At Risk.

It sounds like the major group of at-risk kids that this program serves are dropouts. Maybe the Smiths had simply neglected homeschooling him to the point that he meets the state's definition?

[Tatar-tot]

The children may be required to go to public school by CPS after the entire Alan debacle.  I cannot imagine the abuse was limited to his own children. Pedaphiles tend to be creatures of opportunity. 

[Lurky]

4 hours ago, NachosFlandersStyle said:

Maybe the Smiths had simply neglected homeschooling him to the point that he meets the state's definition?

Isn't it terrible that this is the "least worst" option?

[lexiloumarie]

15 hours ago, Tatar-tot said:

The children may be required to go to public school by CPS after the entire Alan debacle.  I cannot imagine the abuse was limited to his own children. Pedaphiles tend to be creatures of opportunity. 

Speculating about that just feels wrong. There are plenty of other reasons they could have been sent to school without bringing that into it imo. 

[nickelodeon]

I agree @lexiloumarie. More likely the Smith parents' outspoken apologism for their rapist/pedophile son contributed to the state suspecting that they MAY not be capable of educating their kids properly.

[VVV]

I hope the kids at the public high school do OK. I worry that their substandard education is going to put them in the remedial classes at school...this is NOT the best introduction to public education. I once tutored the daughter of acquaintances who had "homeschooled" through high school. As far as I could tell, the parents checked out when the kids hit about 12 and from then on the kids were on their own. The daughter is an extremely bright young woman but when I worked with her, she was in the lowest of the remedial math classes offered by the local community college, and did not even know what an exponent was.

Editing to clarify that the problem with being in remedial classes is NOT because the kids need remediation. It's because those classes are more likely to be populated with slow learners and/or behavior problems. It's terribly frustrating for a kid with normal or above average intelligence to be taught at the slow learner pace.

Edited August 19, 2018 by VVV

[Letgo]

So the Smiths put their kids in public schools because of "Opportunities!" The public schools have been offering those opportunities for decades. Nice try. There was some other reason they stopped homeschooling that they don't want anyone to know. Does their state require testing of homeschooled children? Perhaps their test scores were abysmal? Or maybe someone from CPS saw the singing and dancing videos and had to step in and rescue those kids!