Parent company profile

World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools

Also known as WWASPS

Defunct 36 programs

World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools is a parent company (defunct) based in St. George, UT. Kids Over Profits has records of 36 programs it has run in 17 states and countries.

Programs it has run

36 on record.

News coverage

  • Paris Hilton supports MI bill preventing use of restraints in 'troubled teen' transport My UP News | Mar 18, 2026 | event About one of its programs

    A Michigan bill aims to prevent the use of restraints during the transportation of minors to residential treatment programs. The bill was supported by Paris Hilton, who shared her own experience of being taken from her home in the middle of the night and restrained. Other survivors also testified about their experiences, including Elizabeth Bennett-Faucett, who described being transported to a facility in Mexico against her will.

  • TEEN TORTURE: Sapulpa native advocates for boarding school regulation KJRH | Jan 6, 2026 | expose About one of its programs

    A Sapulpa native, John Moody, shares his story of experiencing physical abuse and trauma at Bethel Boys Academy in Mississippi. Moody is now advocating for increased regulation of behavioral boarding schools. The academy has since shut down, but many states still lack oversight of these types of facilities.

Lawsuits

  • Newman v. Lichfield, et al. 2006 | Ruling | Supreme Court of Montana (appeal from the Twentieth Judicial District Court, Sanders County) | DA 10-0548

    Outcome: Newman settled with Spring Creek, Teen Help and National Contract in early 2010. A jury returned a defense verdict for Lichfield and WWASP on October 27, 2010. On March 6, 2012 the Montana Supreme Court affirmed in part, reversed in part and remanded for a new trial, holding the trial court wrongly limited evidence on foreseeability.

    Judith Newman sued over the death of her daughter Karlye, who was found hanged at Spring Creek Lodge Academy in Thompson Falls, Montana on October 7, 2004 and died at age 16. She filed suit on October 23, 2006 against Spring Creek and its directors, later adding WWASP founder Robert Lichfield, WWASP, Teen Help, National Contract and Peacox, and alleged negligent care, wrongful death and deceptive marketing to parents of suicidal youth. She settled with Spring Creek, Teen Help and National Contract in 2010, and a jury found for Lichfield and WWASP in October 2010. On March 6, 2012 the Montana Supreme Court reversed in part and ordered a new trial. The documents do not show what happened after remand.

  • Dungan, et al. v. The Academy at Ivy Ridge, et al. 2006 | Filed | U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York

    Families of former students filed a class action complaint on July 25, 2006 in federal court in the Northern District of New York against The Academy at Ivy Ridge in Ogdensburg, its owners, WWASP and Robert Lichfield, an accrediting body, and several referral companies. The complaint alleges the defendants falsely told parents and the public that Ivy Ridge was licensed and authorized by New York State to award high school credits and diplomas. It brings claims under RICO and New York law, including fraud, conspiracy, deceptive business practices and breach of contract. The document on file is the complaint and does not show how the case ended.

  • State of Iowa v. Benjamin G. Trane Ruling | Iowa District Court for Lee (South) County; Iowa Supreme Court

    Outcome: Convicted December 22, 2017 of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse, sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist (pattern, practice or scheme), and child endangerment. Sentenced May 10, 2018 to 9 years in prison. Convictions affirmed by the Iowa Supreme Court (State v. Trane, 934 N.W.2d 447 (Iowa 2019); No. 21-1211, January 6, 2023). Trane reported to the Lee County jail to begin his sentence in March 2023. In postconviction proceedings the Iowa Supreme Court (No. 23-1928, January 31, 2025) reversed the grant of a new trial on the child endangerment count.

    Benjamin G. Trane opened Midwest Academy in Keokuk, Iowa in 2003 and ran it until it closed in 2016 after state and federal agents searched the school. In 2015 a female student reported that he sexually abused her, and two male students reported physical abuse; the State of Iowa charged Trane with third-degree sexual abuse, sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist, and child endangerment. At a jury trial in Keokuk in December 2017, a child protection worker testified that the Iowa Department of Human Services and the FBI had received a report in March 2015 that students were held in isolation rooms with human waste, and agents described searches of the school on January 28, February 1 and February 11, 2016. On December 22, 2017 the jury convicted Trane of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse, a pattern, practice or scheme to engage in sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist, and child endangerment. He was sentenced on May 10, 2018 to nine years in prison, ten years of supervised release and sex offender registration. His appeals failed: the Iowa Supreme Court affirmed the convictions in 2019 subject to a rape shield hearing, affirmed again on January 6, 2023, and on January 31, 2025 reversed a lower court's grant of a new trial on the child endangerment count.

  • Wood, et al. v. World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools, Inc., et al. Unknown | Fifth Judicial District Court, Washington County, Utah | 120500380

    William Chase Wood and several hundred other former students and their parents sued the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS), founder Robert Lichfield, his business partners and dozens of affiliated programs, marketing and billing companies in Utah's Fifth Judicial District Court in Washington County. The document on file is the plaintiffs' 228-page first amended complaint, submitted July 24, 2013, which refers to claim sheets filed in the case on December 17, 2012 in opposition to a WWASPS motion to dismiss. It alleges that students placed at WWASPS programs in Utah, other states, Mexico, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Samoa and the Czech Republic from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s were beaten, restrained, locked in isolation and small boxes or cages, denied food and medical care, sexually abused and forced to work without pay. It alleges the programs operated as a single enterprise that deceived parents and concealed the abuse, and brings negligence, fraud, contract, conspiracy and emotional distress claims. The document does not show how the case ended.

  • Houlahan v. World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools, et al. Unknown | U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia | 1:04-cv-01161

    Thomas G. Houlahan was the plaintiff in a federal case against the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASP) and others in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The only document on file is the report of the plaintiff's expert witness, industry consultant Lon Woodbury, filed as an exhibit on February 1, 2006. Woodbury's report compares WWASP programs to industry standards, citing referral fees, commission-paid marketers, enrollments far over 200, open-ended phone blackouts, students used as junior staff to enforce discipline, and more abuse claims and closures than at other programs. The document does not state the plaintiff's claims or how the case ended.

Every case in the lawsuit directory

Documents

Documents on file (197)
Academy at Dundee Ranch (3)
Academy at Ivy Ridge (4)
Browning Academy (1)
Carolina Springs Academy (2)
Casa by the Sea (3)
Cross Creek (3)
Cross Creek Programs (1)
Darrington Academy (2)
High Impact (2)
Majestic Ranch (1)
Majestic Ranch Old West Academy (2)
Midwest Academy (46)
Lawsuit Testimonies (8)
New Beginnings (1)
Paradise Cove (7)
Pillars of Hope (8)
Resource Realizations (29)
Seminars (19)
Spring Creek Lodge (4)
Spring Creek Lodge Academy (6)
Teen Help (5)
Tranquility Bay (19)
Record updated September 20, 2026. Generated from the Kids Over Profits facility database. Suggest a correction