Written by Janet
First of all, I never knew these situations happened, I thought the homes were thoroughly investigated first, before the students were placed.
As the new school year approaches, thousands of foreign exchange students will be arriving in the United States for what they hope will be a rewarding time of study, and exchange of culture. It won’t be long though, that Danielle Grijalva’s phone will start ringing, and her e-mail inbox will begin filling up. It happens every year.
Of all the 30,000 students who come here, most will have a positive experience, but there are always a few that find themselves stuck in a bad home, with no way of escape – especially if the agency that placed them doesn’t take their concerns seriously or even blames them for the problems. That’s where Danielle comes into the picture. You see, these are what she calls her kids.
She lives in Oceanside California, and is 47, and a stay at home mom, who has taken on the foreign exchange industry, intervening in abuse cases, questioning placement agencies’ marketing practices, and bashing the U.S. State Department for what she says is lax regulation. The industry says the problems are exaggerated, as are the allegations, and two lawsuits have been filed against her.
But her complaints that import foreigners were recently borne out in northeastern Pennsylvania, where a Scranton woman was charged last week with child endangerment for allegedly placing exchange students in filthy homes with ex-convicts and not enough food. Danielle helped one of the teens file a complaint with the State Department and offered advice to local child welfare investigators on how to proceed.
She began her crusade 5 years ago, and calls her nonprofit efforts, the Committee for Safety of Foreign Exchange Students _ Grijalva (gree-HAHL’-vah) has answered thousands of e-mails and phone calls from aggrieved students and their worried parents back home. She has had many successes. Aside from removing students from bad situations, her organization successfully pushed for regulatory reform in 2006 and investigated an Allentown-based placement agency that Pennsylvania authorities shut down earlier this year.
Of course, she’s also made many enemies. Grijalva was served with a state lawsuit that claims she defamed one of the largest exchange programs, California-based Council for Educational Travel, USA, by making “false statements” about it while intervening in the case of a Norwegian student in Minnesota.
A French agency, Programmes Internationaux d’Echanges, and two of its U.S. affiliates sued her for defamation in North Carolina two years ago, and won a preliminary injunction against her while the case proceeds. Grijalva, who has countersued P.I.E., says the lawsuits are intended to shut her up.
Her critics say she paints with an overly broad brush, which distorts the exchange program. Since the majority of students go home happy, they say it’s unfair and inaccurate to malign an entire industry based on scattered cases of abuse and neglect. Danish student Emily Larsen says her host family in Denver belonged to a fundamentalist church that denounced Jews, Muslims, homosexuals and others. Larsen, who was raised secular, says she was made to go to the church 10 hours a week, and that it “brainwashed” her and pressured her to join. When her placement counselor ignored her pleas for help, she turned to CSFES.
What the problem is that exchange agencies often bring students to the U.S. without first securing host families for them, leading to hasty, ill-advised placements like the ones in northeastern Pennsylvania. Many agencies require students to first approach their local coordinators with problems, threatening them with repatriation if they seek outside help.
Danielle used to be a placement counsellor between 2002 and 2004 and taking pride in matching exchange students with caring, qualified host families. But she was disturbed by her company’s marketing practices, and quit the business altogether in the wake of a case of sexual abuse _ involving a placement by another representative _ that she says the company tried to cover up.
Danielle’s organization relies mostly on a network of 1,000 volunteers nationwide. Many families of these students say she is a godsend and they couldn’t have done it without her.
Renee Zaman
/ 07/31/2009I am a new host mother. I have a new home, a good job as a college instructor. I was interviewed with the rest of my family and three of us had background checks. Our Yes student was told he could not come to America because his visa was revoked by the State Dept. It is unfair to have the 77 Yes students pay for Aspects’ mistake! These students worked for over a year to get through this process. Our young man has worked to write papers, take classes, do interviews, etc. to make it this far. Now, 4 days before he is scheduled to leave Pakistan, he is told his dream is shattered! Most of the 77 students are muslims. This has not appeared in the news. I believe this is discrimination. This never appears in the news. Nor does it show up that the visas were revoked 4 days prior to students coming to America! The system needs reform! These 77 students should not have to pay the price! This is unAmerican!
Renee Zaman
/ 08/03/2009The students were denied as a penalty to Aspect for have one bad employee that they fired. Aspect had to give up 15% of their students and these 77 Yes students were given the axe. They were told 4 days before they were to start their journey that they could not come to America. Most of these students were muslims and they were all from muslim countries as that is what the Yes program’ focus is. Building relationships with muslim countries.
newsdeskinternational
/ 08/03/2009For those who don’t know, this is what Aspect is:
http://www.aspectfoundation.org/
Renee Zaman
/ 08/03/2009I am married to a Pakistani and I have been for 25 years. I have 3 of my own children 13-17 years of age and we wanted to help a young person from Pakistan and help my children learn more about Pakistan and the culture. We have forged a strong relationship with our student over the past two months and we have followed all the rules and find it hard that this small group of students are the ones penalized for one bad employee that was fired.
Renee Zaman
/ 08/03/2009Yes is a program supported by the US Dept of State that bring students from muslim countries to the US and to spend a year in small town America and give more people a chance to see that muslims are people just like us…not all terrorists. There are many big programs that bring in small groups of Yes students. Aspect, AFS, YFU and others. There is a rigorous application process to get into this program. 77 of these students were under Aspect and they are the ones that lost their visas as the State Dept wanted to punish Aspect for having a bad coordinator in Penn. A person they fired.
Renee Zaman
/ 08/12/2009The program allows people in small town America to see students ambassadors from Muslim countries as human beings. My niece, who is Pakistani-American and just returned from a summer in Pakistan, said that education is the best way for America to invest in building good relations with muslim countries. When money goes into the government it is misused. When students come here and learn that we are not evil and vice versa, ideals change. A great return on ones investment.
Renee Zaman
/ 08/14/2009What is even more sad is that most muslims that I know. I know many from all around the world, are very nice people indeed.
newsdeskinternational
/ 02/03/2010~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~UPDATE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Plea deal for some charges in Pa. exchange scandal
The woman accused of placing foreign exchange students in filthy homes in northeastern Pennsylvania has agreed to plead guilty to a federal mail fraud charge.
According to court documents filed Tuesday, Edna Burgette will plead guilty to collecting money using fraudulent paperwork related to the placement of five exchange students.
Burgette still faces child endangerment charges.
The 69-year-old Burgette placed exchange students in homes around Scranton as a coordinator for the Aspect Foundation. But authorities say some of the students were malnourished and living in deplorable conditions.
Defense attorney Christopher Osborne says the plea agreement is a good deal for his client.
Osborne says he may pursue a plea deal with prosecutors on the endangerment charges. That trial is scheduled to begin later this month.
Joyce
/ 03/21/2010How very informative to happen upon Newsdesk International’s Blog. Upon visiting the CSFES website: http://www.csfes.org, it appears that these abuse cases continue to make headlines across the country. Kids are raped, placed in the homes of felons, yet the State Department looks the other way. Ever notice that a majority of these placement agencies who are responsible for making these headlines of abuse, appear to have ‘full’ membership standing with the CSIET? Council on Standards of International Educational Travel appears to be the ‘fox watching the hen house’ and worse: getting away with providing a false sense of security to many. What can be done?
newsdeskinternational
/ 03/21/2010Treatment of Exchange Students Leads to Lawsuits Filed
It appears as these exchange students return home, their parents are questioning the American culture, and some are even taking legal action. I can’t say that I blame them. It’s estimated each year, that 30,000 exchange students come to the US>
One such case – The father of a South Korean student filed lawsuit through Leawood, Kansas attorney Stephen M. Gorny in Reno County against 70-year-old Richard Young, the student’s host father and Face the World, the Novato, California student exchange agency that had placed the boy in Young’s home.
Young was sentenced to 13 ½ years in prison for molesting the South Korean exchange student who was 15 years-old at the time Young hosted him in 2007.
Edna Burgett, former area representative for California-based, cultural exchange agency, ASPECT Foundation, continues to make headlines across the globe for the treatment of exchange students she supervised.
What most may not know is that these students are required to sign a ‘Code of Conduct’ form upon arriving in the United States. The form states that if the student should have any problems or concerns, the student had better understand that they must only speak to their local coordinator.
If the student goes to the mother of a friend or teacher, that will break the contract, and the student may be sent home. This is not the impression the US wants to send. Exchange students have been told by their local coordinators to keep their mouth shut or go back where they came from.
newsdeskinternational
/ 05/11/2010Judge sends woman in foreign-exchange student case to prison
A Scranton woman was sentenced to three months in Lackawanna County Prison on Tuesday for recklessly endangering foreign-exchange students she placed in squalid living conditions while collecting fees for setting up host families.
http://thetimes-tribune.com/judge-sends-woman-in-foreign-exchange-student-case-to-prison-1.761051
Host Sister
/ 04/12/2011(This is long)
This is the fourth year my family has hosted foreign exchange students. Every year has been average – average plus except this year. While searching the internet I see all these stories of foreign exchange students getting mistreated etc. Well what about the host families? What about the people that give up their home and time for these kids and never ever hear a thanks?
My mom has recently undergone a high level of stress due to financial problems. Yet these kids, they don’t care about anyone but themselves. We started out with five, two of them were removed because of their attitudes, and we have three left. Bulgaria, Ghana, and Ivory Coast. Fortunately the year is almost over. We have treated them with the utmost respect but everyone in the family is getting incredibly weary. Brother, Sister, Mother, and Stepfather (and me). I even wrote a poem because my frustration is through the roof. *(I understand that foreign exchange students are supposed to be making the most of their year, but host families are also supposed to benefit from the high-schoolers they are placed with. The kids should be telling us about their culture or ATLEAST talking to us.)
I feel nothing as they open up our food to eat their second and third dinner.
I feel nothing when they lie to us and scoff at our feelings.
I feel nothing when they ignore us while we ask them about their day.
I feel nothing as they act like their free room, board, transportation is just provided for them yet they have never said thank you.
I feel nothing as they stay up til the next morning on our computers talking to friends while we try to sleep.
I feel nothing as they go places and never invite us to join them.
I feel nothing as they get mad that we aren’t the “perfect host family”.
I feel nothing when they complain that they can’t do chores because they feel that my siblings and I don’t do enough.
I feel nothing as they scare my abused and hurt dog.
I feel nothing when they leave and never come back.