 Abominable Firebug | |
| Author | Richard B. Johnson |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | William Siy Tin |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Juvenile corrections Juvenile delinquency Child abuse Child rape |
| Genre | Memoir |
| Publisher | iUniverse |
Publication date | May 11, 2006 |
| Media type | Print (paperback) |
| Pages | 172 |
| ISBN | 0-595-38667-9 |
| OCLC | 123232489 |
Abominable Firebug is a book about survival as one of America's throwaway children.
This book is a chronology of the early life of the author, Richard B. Johnson, starting in the town of North Brookfield, Massachusetts. It begins at about the age of two and continues until Johnson is 21 years of age. The book details the significant events in the author's life leading to his incarceration in America's first reform school, the Lyman School for Boys in the late 1950s.
Richard Brian Johnson is the author of the book Abominable Firebug (ISBN 0-595-38667-9), which presents his account of daily life at the Lyman School for Boys. Johnson invented the Rubber Ducky antenna while attending the Lyman School for Boys. Johnson went on to a career as an engineer and inventor. He also created the JMODEM file transfer protocol. Johnson founded the Danvers, Massachusetts, software company, Route 495 Software, LLC, in early 2009. Johnson is also an activist for civil rights issues, and has communicated with the President of the United States on issues involving general aviation. Johnson has continued to give talks to groups interested in learning about the nation's first reform school.
North Brookfield is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 4,680 at the 2010 census.
The Lyman School for Boys was established by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts about 1886 and was closed in 1971. It was the first reform school, or training school in the United States, replacing the State Reform School for Boys near the same site, which was opened in 1848. The school was named for its principal benefactor, Theodore Lyman, who had been a mayor of Boston, Massachusetts in 1834 and a philanthropist. Lyman School is not used for its original purpose today but remains a nationally registered historic place.
When the author lived in an institutional foster home, the Stetson Home for Boys, in Barre, Massachusetts, as an indentured servant, he built a relatively large solid-fuel rocket. The last flight of this rocket resulted in the institution's barn being set on fire. The author was charged as a juvenile with the crime of arson and then remanded to the custody of the Massachusetts Youth Service Board and sent to the Roslindale detention center. Thereupon, he was called a firebug by the juvenile authorities.
The Stetson School is a private residential institution located in Barre, Massachusetts.
Barre is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,398 at the 2010 census.
In criminal justice systems a youth detention center, also known as a juvenile detention center (JDC), juvenile detention, juvenile hall or more colloquially as juvie, is a prison for people under the age of majority, often termed juvenile delinquents, to which they have been sentenced and committed for a period of time, or detained on a short-term basis while awaiting trial or placement in a long-term care program. Juveniles go through a separate court system, the juvenile court, which sentences or commits juveniles to a certain program or facility.
In particular, the book details the physical, emotional, and sexual abuse meted out by agents of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Youth Service Board (YSB), later becoming the Department of Youth Services (DYS). [1] Johnson provides descriptions of the abuse he and other boys received but stops short of any prurient references. Although this book has much to do about child abuse, the main theme is one of survival. Johnson was able to find some mentors who helped him become a successful adult and he names them and gives the details in his book.
Physical abuse is any intentional act causing injury or trauma to another person or animal by way of bodily contact. In most cases, children are the victims of physical abuse, but adults can also be victims, as in cases of domestic violence or workplace aggression. Alternative terms sometimes used include physical assault or physical violence, and may also include sexual abuse. Physical abuse may involve more than one abuser, and more than one victim.
Sexual abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. When force is immediate, of short duration, or infrequent, it is called sexual assault. The offender is referred to as a sexual abuser or molester. The term also covers any behavior by an adult or older adolescent towards a child to stimulate any of the involved sexually. The use of a child, or other individuals younger than the age of consent, for sexual stimulation is referred to as child sexual abuse or statutory rape.
Abuse is the improper usage or treatment of a thing, often to unfairly or improperly gain benefit. Abuse can come in many forms, such as: physical or verbal maltreatment, injury, assault, violation, rape, unjust practices, crimes, or other types of aggression. To these descriptions, one can also add the Kantian notion of the wrongness of using another human being as means to an end rather than as ends in themselves. Some sources describe abuse as "socially constructed", which means there may be more or less recognition of the suffering of a victim at different times and societies.
The book is significant because it details the day-to-day life of inmates in America's first reform school, the Lyman School for Boys. Written from the perspective of a resident who, because of earlier experiences, thought that this school was a good place to live, it provides a unique view into the problems and solutions facing the juvenile correctional facilities at the time. The book also details some of the many problems encountered by children growing up in institutional settings such as institutional foster homes. For instance, there is a particularly poignant story about a Boston police officer beating Johnson when he was discovered playing a church pipe organ that he had recently repaired. The management of the foster home could not do anything about that because such police activity was considered “normal,” so Johnson should have avoided the police.
A reform school was a penal institution, generally for teenagers mainly operating between 1830 and 1900. In the United Kingdom and its colonies reformatories commonly called reform schools were set up from 1854 onwards for youngsters who were convicted of a crime as an alternative to an adult prison. In parallel, "Industrial schools" were set up for vagrants and children needing protection. Both were 'certified' by the government from 1857, and in 1932 the systems merged and both were 'approved' and became approved schools.
Juvenile delinquency, also known "juvenile offending", is the act of participating in unlawful behavior as minors. Most legal systems prescribe specific procedures for dealing with juveniles, such as juvenile detention centers and courts, with it being common that juvenile systems are treated as civil cases instead of criminal, or a hybrid thereof to avoid certain requirements required for criminal cases. A juvenile delinquent in the United States is a person who is typically below 18 years of age and commits an act that otherwise would have been charged as a crime if they were an adult. Depending on the type and severity of the offense committed, it is possible for people under 18 to be charged and treated as adults.
This book demonstrates the value of mentors in a child's life. Even as Johnson was approaching adulthood, he found people who had the faith to trust him with activities of significant consequence. For instance, at the age of eighteen Johnson's boss at a radio station let him build a new radio transmitter. Another mentor in Boston taught him to repair a pipe organ and trusted him to do the right thing.
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass. Most organs have many ranks of pipes of differing timbre, pitch, and volume that the player can employ singly or in combination through the use of controls called stops.
Throughout the book is continual evidence of the resilience of youth. As Johnson would encounter some problem and fail, he would immediately do something else and succeed. The book demonstrates the idea that there should never be a “lost cause” when dealing with youth. In the worst possible circumstances, it is certainly possible to succeed.
Psychological resilience is the ability to mentally or emotionally cope with a crisis or to return to pre-crisis status quickly. Resilience exists when the person uses "mental processes and behaviors in promoting personal assets and protecting self from the potential negative effects of stressors". In simpler terms, psychological resilience exists in people who develop psychological and behavioral capabilities that allow them to remain calm during crises/chaos and to move on from the incident without long-term negative consequences.
The book heads each chapter with a photograph and contains several poems that Johnson wrote as a child while enduring his captivity. At several metaphorical intervals, Johnson writes prose that reads like poetry. Dr. Mary Clisbee, [2] [3] established educator of special needs children, writes the foreword and Rev. F. Robert Brown, Johnson's chaplain while at the Lyman School, writes the afterword. Rev. "Bob" Brown later worked for the newly formed DYS helping correct its horrific past. [1]
David James Pelzer is an American author, of several autobiographical and self-help books. His 1995 memoir of childhood abuse, A Child Called "It", was listed on The New York Times Bestseller List for several years, and in 5 years had sold at least 1.6 million copies.
Knox Grammar School is an independent Uniting Church day and boarding school for boys, located in Wahroonga, New South Wales, an Upper North Shore suburb of Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1924 by the Presbyterian Church of Australia as an all-boys school, and named after John Knox. The school has since grown, branching out into a large Senior School and a Preparatory School, enrolling approximately 2900 students. The school also caters for approximately 160 boarding students from Years 7 to 12. During the term of Ian Paterson as Headmaster, the school doubled in size, raised education standards and increased participation in a wealth of activities.
The Congregation of Christian Brothers is a worldwide religious community within the Catholic Church, founded by Edmund Rice. The Christian Brothers, as they are commonly known, chiefly work for the evangelisation and education of youth, but are involved in many ministries, especially with the poor. Their first school was opened in Waterford, Ireland, in 1802. At the time of its foundation, though much relieved from the harshest of the Penal Laws by the Irish Parliament's Relief Acts, much discrimination against Catholics remained throughout the newly created United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland pending full Catholic Emancipation in 1829.
Mark Dennis Devlin was the author of Stubborn Child (ISBN 0-6891-1476-1), a critically acclaimed memoir published in 1985. He died on March 10, 2005. The cause of death was not released but he had battled mental illness, alcoholism, and physical problems for many years. He was 56 years old.
The Mount Meigs Campus is a juvenile corrections facility of the Alabama Department of Youth Services located in Mount Meigs, unincorporated Montgomery County; the campus serves as the agency's administrative headquarters. The 780-acre (320 ha) campus, which can house 264 boys, is next to Interstate 85 North and about 15 miles (24 km) east of Downtown Montgomery. Since 2015, the separate J. Walter Wood Treatment facility for 24 girls is also located in the Mount Meigs Campus.
Gerald Francis Ridsdale, an Australian laicised Catholic priest, was convicted between 1993 and 2017 of a large number of child sexual abuse and indecent assault charges against 65 children aged as young as four years. The offences occurred from the 1960s to the 1980s while Ridsdale worked as a school chaplain at St Alipius Primary School, a boys‘ boarding school in the Victorian regional city of Ballarat. Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found that senior figures in the church knew about Ridsdale's abusing children but protected him. Ridsdale was ordained at St Patrick's Cathedral in Ballarat in 1961. The first complaint about his behaviour towards children was received by the church that same year. Ridsdale held 16 different appointments over a period of 29 years as a priest, with an average of 1.8 years per appointment.
The Ohio Department of Youth Services (DYS) is the administrative department of the Ohio state government responsible for juvenile corrections. It has its headquarters in Columbus.
The Missouri Division of Youth Services (DYS) is a state agency of Missouri that operates juvenile correctional facilities. A division of the Missouri Department of Social Services, DYS has its headquarters in Jefferson City. The Division divides the state into several regions and operates facilities and offices in each region.
The Mississippi Department of Human Services (MDHS) is a state agency of Mississippi, headquartered in Jackson. The department operates the state's family services.
The Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) is a state agency of Arkansas, headquartered in Donaghey Plaza South of the Donaghey Complex, a five-story building on the southwest corner of Main Street and 7th Street, in Little Rock.The state agency is in charge of maintaining social services for Arkansas by providing assistance to families and monitoring/inspecting health facilities.
The Missouri Department of Social Services (DSS) is a state agency of Missouri. It has its headquarters in the Broadway State Office Building in Jefferson City. The department operates the state's social services.
The Wyoming Department of Family Services is a state agency of Wyoming, headquartered on the third floor of the Hathaway Building in Cheyenne.
The Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth & Families (DCYF) is a state agency of Rhode Island, headquartered in Downtown Providence. The agency provides services for children and families.
The Massachusetts Department of Youth Services (DYS) is a state agency of Massachusetts. Its Administrative Office is headquartered in 600 Washington Street Boston. The agency operates the state's juvenile justice services.
Oakley Youth Development Center (OYDC), formerly known as Oakley Training School is a juvenile correctional facility of the Mississippi Department of Human Services located in unincorporated Hinds County, Mississippi, near Raymond. It is Mississippi's sole juvenile correctional facility for children adjudicated into the juvenile correctional system.
Child sexual abuse in New York City religious institutions has presaged or echoed that which has occurred and emerged elsewhere in the United States and Europe. The child sexual abuse cases documented here, so far, reach back to the 1970s but have mostly come to light since 1990.
The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with 2.7 million youth members and over 1 million adult volunteers. In 1979 there were over 5 million youths in BSA.
Jerome Gilbert Miller was an American social worker, academic and public sector corrections administrator, who was an authority on the reform of juvenile and adult corrections systems. He was a prominent advocate for alternatives to incarceration for offenders as well as for the de-institutionalization of individuals with developmental disabilities. His career involved university teaching, administration of juvenile justice services for three states, clinical work with offenders and advocacy for systemic change in public sector correctional services. Miller's work first drew national attention for his leadership in closing several juvenile reformatories in Massachusetts in the early 1970s. Miller went on to emerge as a prominent national advocate, administrator and educator working for systemic change in public sector corrections and disability service delivery systems. He was the co-founder of the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives.