eBook Author
Richard Kent Smith

Richard Kent Smith draws intimate personal knowledge of the secret private school world described in his book, Della's Children.

Having spent thirteen years in the violent institutions depicted in the book, he made his escape, and went on to work his way through high school, college, and graduate school. His degrees are in Art and Secondary Education, with graduate work in the fine arts. He has been both a teacher and counselor. He has worked with former students, parents, and educators to publicize the fraud, abuses, and violence in the private school world, calling for the equitable testing and treatment of retarded children, with an emphasis on the inspection and investigation of unregulated privately-operated institutions.

Della's Children
genre: Society: crime

A teenager's frightening portrait of a demented educator and what the kids themselves did about her. This nonfiction narrative exposes "Della Kelson," the dangerous "Baby Jane" of child-psychology, an educator who used her professional knowledge to swindle parents in an elaborate scheme of greed and profit, yet whose sanity unraveled in the process. This remarkable true-life psychological detective story is the true story of the kids who untangled a web of fraud and deceit, and revealed the origins of Della's growing madness. As seen through a child's eyes, what at first seems like clever fraud gradually evolves into a serious chronicle of child abuse, disguised as educational therapy.

Sometimes violent and grotesque, sometimes humorous and touching, this is an angry teenager's first-person narrative in a uniquely sarcastic personal style. It is a riveting tale of imprisonment, escape, and redemption. It is the true-to-life disturbing chronicle of a few courageous youngsters who prevailed over a skeptical adult world to expose the crimes of a demented woman who had ultimate power and wealth.
http://www.kentsmith.net 
ISBN: 097066821X (electronic)
ISBN: 0970668201 (CD Rom)
ISBN: 0970668236 (paperback)

 

 

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