Morava Academy
Morava Academy was founded in early 1998 by Steve and Glenda Roach and majority owner Ralph Atkin, WWASP Trustee and owner of Skywest Airlines. Morava Academy was located in the Czech village of Jelenice, near Brno. Glenda Roach served as Director while Steve was Security Director. The facility was investigated and closed in November 1998 after allegations of child abuse surfaced. Steve and Glenda were both arrested and charged with child abuse. The charges they faced carried a 2-8 year prison sentence. They escaped the country, however, to avoid charges and have never been brought to justice. (sources: Forniits Wiki www.wiki.wfornits.com, No Spank www.nospank.net)
Staff
J. Ralph Atkin
J. Ralph Atkin is the owner of Skywest Airlines, Eurosky Airlines, and Jet Aquisitions Group. He is also a trustee of WWASP. He has an office in St. George, Utah, and is a Mormon. In 1998, he became majority owner of Morava Academy, which was shut down later that year. He also appears to be WWASP’s main legal counsel, serving as registered agent for many WWASP entities. In fact, in legal corporate documents and filings his name and address is second only to WWASP and their address in appearances. In order to shield WWASP, he relys on tactics such as shell companies, misspellings of names and addresses, and name changes. (sources: CAICA www.caica.org, Antiwwasp www.antiwwasp.us)
Steve & Glenda Roach
Steve and Glenda Roach are from St. George, Utah, where they both worked as police officers. They got their start in the TTI owning an all-girl’s program called Sunrise Beach in Cancun, Mexico. It is unclear whether that facility was a WWASP program. It was closed in 1996 by Mexican authorities and the Roaches were arrested on charges of illegally detaining children and depriving them of their rights, and running an unlicensed and unsainitary facility. In 1998, they opened Morava Academy near Brce, Czech Republic with J. Ralph Atkin, with Glenda functioning as Director and Steve as Security Director. Morava Academy was raided by Czech police and shut down after allegations of child abuse and illegally detaining minors. The Roaches were arrested and charged, but escaped the country and have never faced trial. ISAC reports the couple is living in the Bahamas under assumed names, but they have a facebook page under their real names, although it does not give a location. (sources: CAICA www.caica.org, Antiwwasp www.antiwwasp.us)
Survivor Testimony
Gallery
[nggallery id=16]
I was here at Morava from June, 1998 to it’s closing 5 months later. I was 15, drinking alcohol, and already had a tough life ahead of me. My parents found out about Morava Academy in the Czech Republic, and I really wanted to go because I always wanted to be in Europe.
However, when I got there, it was a mass disappointment. First off, the food there was terrible. Second, I was abused pretty much everyday by the teachers (I do not know who the teachers names were). Lastly, it was unsanitary. Thankfully, it closed down after 5 months of hell. I eventually promised to stopped drinking and go back to normal school.
I am now 30, I have a wife and kid, and I still keep thinking about it everyday. I wish the Roaches were shot and would burn in hell.
@eric …. I was there from open to close of program and never experienced abuse . I also never saw any abuse and I saw it all and knew everyone . I also know the staff and actually liked most of them . I adored Glenn .. just curious what kind of abuse ?? Jennifer was in solitary confinement for a long time and was made to sit in a room with maybe nothing …as punishment … is this what you are speaking of ?
you were abused by the teachers there? the married ones that had a small child?
or the german teacher with the chin beard?
you should speak up
Ahoj,
je mi moc líto co jste si ve svém životě prožili za peklo a trauma.
Jsem z České republiky a udivilo mě, že se něco takového se dělo i u nás, v tak malé zemi. Je to pro mě nepředstavitelné.
Ráda bych si popovídala a dozvěděla se víc o programu.
Kdyby se tu někdo našel, kdo by si rád popovídal,
budu moc ráda, když se ozvete.
Hello Eric, I would like to get in touch with you and ask you some questions about Morava Academy. My e-mail address is peter.lacey.galway@gmail.com
Two disgusting pigs abused children!
I can give you the where abouts of the sob Steve Roach
Please do. I’d like to attempt to interview him for a Morava Retrospect I’m working on.
Hi, I used to work there – if you can call it that. I had just started uni – English and educational science – and was looking for a job, preferably irregular nights as the study programme was rather time-comnsuming. The ad claimed to be looking for night wardens at an international educational facility so I and two of my friends went for it hoping for not only money but also work experience. We were fully trained as staff together with the day staff but then we didn’t really encounter the kids as we were supposed to come at 10pm and leave before they woke up.
Despite the limited encounters, we only did about 7 shifts and then the three of us reported the facility to social welfare services, the police and TV news (just to make sure it went public in case the authorities were reluctant to act). Because yes, the abuse was going on, the Roaches were half-illiterate psychopats with messiah complex. It was horrific, I’d never witnessed anything like that. We provided lengthy statements to the police and some of the Czech staff really did go to court although I don’t know how they ended up. The Roaches escaped, unfortunately. I’ve only come accross these pages because I was watching Leah Remini’s Aftermath and suddenly remembered this short episode of my life, I started putting pieces together. It’s unbelievable that a programme like that can be legal in the States.
By the way, one more aspect of this programme that you guys, as the victims, might not have noticed: it was a total rip off – the whole system of the so-called “consequences” was designed in order to pull more money out of the parents’ pockets.
I am sorry you had to go through this and really hope the Roaches will burn in hell.
Your report is probably a big reason why the facility was closed so quickly. Thank you. Too bad so many American staff in that same position and the authorities supposed to be monitoring the programs turn a blind eye.
I was at morava academy from early after it opened until it was shut down. I was never abused and never saw any physical abuse. I did hear stories about some of the more troubled kids that refused to participate and bc of their refusal to participate they were in isolation for months. We were told that isolation was lying on your stomach all day and starting at a red dot on the wall.
I actually liked the food, although, we all gained a bit of weight.
I thought the facility was clean and never noticed anything unsanitary.
The staff were a mixed bag and some were very strict, which is probably to be expected in a lockdown facility with rebellious kids. I spent my entire 16th birthday in the worksheet room as a punishment for telling the kitchen staff it was my birthday. The cooks would make a special birthday dessert, which is why I told them. We were not allowed to talk to the kitchen staff bc it was thought that we may try to make plans to runaway with the help of the cooks.
Some of the staff were very kind and they reached out to me years later to make sure I was okay.
I think the intention of the school’s founders and most of the staff was overall good. I personally found the program and the in-depth therapy work helpful. I think some of the more troubled kids with real mental health issues didn’t do well with working the program and moving up in the levels, and then being there became another type of trauma in their lives. Most of these kids already had prior trauma, which probably led them to the bad behavior that got them in the program to begin with.
Marie, Thank you for helping shut Morava down! Please get in touch with me: Brainwash81@aol.com
https://www.facebook.com/john.barnett.184
I’m working on a Morava Documentary & I have a few questions.
ABOUT THE VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31kIRsJ_IGI&t=23s
Hi Marie. I am also an ex employee of Morava Academy and I am setting up a web page http://www.moravaacademy.com to publish all we know about Morava Academy. John B is making a documentary about it in America. I am collecting photos, documents and memories. If you like to participate in the project, please contact me on peter.lacey@seznam.cz Thank you. Peter
I can’t believe I found this page, I was trying to find out the name of the town that Morava Academy was in and this website was the first thing to pop up.
Ok, I probably have the most insight into this whole mess, as well as the least. I was there for 3 months in the beginning of 1998, and let me tell you it was a weird but fun 3 months and I loved the people there, staff and prisoners (jk), except the Roaches who were exactly what their names imply.
I’m from St. George Utah, and I got into some trouble with Ralph Atkin’s son, and as an attorney, Mr. Atkin worked something out with the local judge, as to have felonies stay off of our record if we were to attend Morava Academy. Next thing I know, Mr. Atkin’s son and I were sitting on a plane heading for Vienna Austria.
Mr. Atkin’s son and I were only supposed to be there for around a month and they had told everyone that we transferred from another facility and were already at a level 5 or 3, whatever was the highest, so that we could leave the facility with the Roaches on trips to Brno or even Prague one time. The Roaches were insanely nice to Mr. Atkin’s son, me not so much, and the proof was obvious when I got into a fight one day and got into trouble and had to go downstairs into that weird smelling room with wood paneling around the whole thing, to listen to cassette tapes and then fill out worksheets on what you retained, or was it upstairs, for some reason I’m remembering doing those worksheets in the up upstairs room and the dungeon room downstairs, pretty much because once I got in trouble, the Roaches made sure I stayed in trouble, because with me out of the picture, they were free to give Mr. Atkin’s son all the attention and freedom they wanted to give him, but felt they couldn’t with me as a thorn in their GIANT FAT asses.
This is when the Roaches held true to their name, they would open my letters to my parents and read them and insert their own letters along with mine, telling my parents that I was a very troubled young man who manipulated everyone around me and was making up lies about what was happening to me and by doing so, they conned my parents into keeping me there for an extra 2 months, they tried to keep me there longer, but my parents thank God, weren’t stupid enough to fork out any more money to the place.
As far as abuse, there wasn’t any while I was there, if anything, we as punk ass Americans abused the local Czechs who sadly had to put up with our shit. I had a ton of fun there, made some good friends while I was there and I have a bunch of pictures from there also. I have pictures of the students and some of the staff also.
I for sure remember Neck Beard the German teacher, because when he taught us the word for beard, I pointed at his neck, and he incredulously said no, like he had no idea his neck had a single hair on it.
The English teacher with dyed red hair, I loved her, she made the classes worth attending, as if we had a choice.
Oh and I remember B.O. Peter, sorry Peter, but us Americans just aren’t use to your Czech manly musk that you carry so proudly.
I can’t remember what they called the citations they would give you when you got in trouble, but in a few months I got over 60 of them that I still have. One of them for Out of Control Passing Gas! And trust me, if you were there with me, you’ll remember the nights when the kid from Joliet Illinois and I would have fart battles and we’d be laughing so hard and so loud that the staff couldn’t do anything to calm us down or stop us.
I stayed in touch with Matt and Barrett (Barrett if you are still out there, I can still rap your entire name) after the raid of the place they told me everything that happened and how they got shipped to a different program in South Carolina after the whole ordeal.
According to them, it was a disgruntled staff member who got their feelings hurt and then went to the police and ratted them out for things that weren’t actually going on, but that’s what they told me, I had already gone home, and besides the Roaches being punk ass lames, I felt the place was ran okay. I still to this day need someone to tell me how to get some of those white dough balls they would feed us for breakfast with different jams on the inside and then covered with melted butter and then topped with powdered sugar? So Good.
As far as Ralph Atkin goes, he was apart a business venture and that was it, Steve and Glenda are at fault if and I mean “if” anything inappropriate happened and maybe something did, but I’m just telling you my side of it and I was connected to the whole thing in a very weird way.
For any of you that remember me, thanks for the experiences and if I did anything dumb to you while we were there, I apologize, we were all just a bunch of young wayward kids trying to figure out how to grow up.
I still to this day have a huge fondness for the Czech Republic.
I as well as attended morava academy starting the middle of may 98 until it was shut down. I got left for dead alone with nothing to eat or money at the airport u can reach me at snwbunnyjn@live.com
i arrived in Brno in the early spring of 1998, after being abducted by 2 large men from my parent house in arizona.. i was driven to Las Vegas, flown to san francisco then put on a plane to Vienna, Austria. once in Vienna, then brought to the czech. i was one of the first 10 boys. i literally had Zero idea where i was going..only when i arrived at the facility was i informed that i was now in a “program” and things were “changing”. i never tried to escape or complain too much. honestly, i thought it was better than the life i was living before. and i believe it helped me out in the future in some ways. there was hardly any abuse from anyone towards me, the seminars were a lil creepy and cultlike, but i made some tight bonds with several individuals there… i mean, the food kinda sucked. but the czech people are amazing and very beautiful. i’d love to come visit, if i was ever welcomed again.
Comeback: A Mother and Daughters Journey Through Hell and Back, is a first-hand account of a student at Morova Acadamy and her mother- Mia and Claire Fontaine. They say nothing but amazing things about the school in their story, so it’s very contradictive of what’s being said in these replies. So odd how people can see and experience the same thing but have such different perspectives on what it is.
I was the 6th kid there. The abuse was very very real. We were put on silence most of the time treated like worthless cattle. The seminars were nothing short of some cult ritual praise your new messiah bull shit. I was tased zip corded and even thrown in a blacked out closet for days made to use the bathroom on myself while tied to floors and struck countless times. I lashed out violently at the worst of the staff and often took the blame for things to save the others. I tased Steve almost to death with own taser on the 5th floor! I also beat a staff for being a molester and would be rapist within an inch of his life. Let me clear the abuse was real the brain washing was beyond creepy the staff are guilty of emotional and physical abuse as well as sexual. Honestly it would have been worse if I hadn’t put some of the nastiest staff in the hospital. Fuck em!
hey Nathaniel i think i remember you vegally, this is Jenny you can reach me by my fb Jenny Kueng or my email snwbunnyjn@live.com
Geez Nathaniel. How is your life now?
First, I want to ask Miss Marie if she was the sweet lady that sat in the chair in our hallway at night? Some of you were beyond kind and probably why some of us do have such fond memories. Please tell Miss Bianca she made life tolerable in a very traumatic setting. Let’s face it good memories or bad the way most of us got there was very intense. A lot of stuff has been stirred up since Paris Hilton made that documentary. I didn’t graduate, didn’t do well after I left Montana either. I always praised the program because I learned a lot about how our brains work and gained knowledge that eventually led me to live a sober life after struggling for many years. Anyway back to Paris Hilton. People are talking again and for 23 years I’ve maintained my view on both Morava and Spring Creek being wonderful for my life. I’ve gotten in fights on Facebook about people being stuck in their victim mentality. So I’m scrolling through TikTok today and a woman is simply reading a letter from her mom. The letter sounded oddly familiar, like I had read it before. So I started diving down that rabbit hole again. A ton of people are sharing their journal writings and I swear they could have been reading out of my own personal journal. This girl was 21. She wasn’t even alive then. Yeah wwasp has been shut down but the “program” survived. The words were so eerie. I started remembering things I had forgotten. Things my brain had blocked. They 100% were brainwashing us at the very least and their tactics were cruel. The last thing I want to point out is they also groomed our parents. Ask any one of us why our parents sent us and the response will be almost verbatim “because we were scared you were going to end up dead in a ditch” some said “on the side of the street” and others said “in a gutter” Honestly even the worst mom wouldnt ship her child to ANOTHER facility after that went down without some outside force manipulating her into thinking another facility is the answer…they were groomed from day one that the first few letters would make it sound awful but that kids would come around. Yeah we came around alright. It took me over 20years to admit that any of it was traumatic, they got me good. If anyone sees this I’d love a link to the Documentary my email is susie_olson@outlook.com. I’m remembering some details but that year of my life is just gone.
i’m actually reading a book named: COME BACK written by Claire Fontaine and Mia Fontaine and one of the characters(Mia) went to this academy for the program that’s what i googled “Morava Academy”and that’s what i found!!!a lot of testimonies and i did’t really know about it’s closing (sorry about my english, i’m an english student from El Salvador)
Thanks
Shocking! I grew up in Czech Republic. I was surprised that something like that was even possible there. Thankfully good Czech People employees reported it.
One thing I want to point out that the same strategy is now being used in transgenderism. Parents are being told either you want a dead son or you’ll accept your new daughter and are being pushed to consent to series of surgeries and never ending hormone medications.
so they DID when to jail! was wondering if there was justice served after hearing about it form cat dapsira’s article about Polybius not knowing it was form a Past tense I just thought they were still abusing kids and people there being weirdly ok with that, glad I was wrong tho
(also yes I I looked this up becuase of the polybius shut up)
The book that was written was bullshit . She was there a couple of months then went and wrote a book. There were lies in that book. And for the record the program was shut down do to 10,000.00 that was paid to investigate and the embassy went and interviewed former employees. There are a lot of things people don’t know about the demise of this particular program. Some people falsified their need for help to gain reparations off of other people’s pain .
Dnes 08.03.2024 na Netflix
Nepolepšovna vše o tomhle projektu od USA, Mexiko a Evropa.
Začíná to na IVY RIDGE
PS: ke to v CZ
I’m just looking at it. When I heard the Czech Republic (bcs this is my country), I completely froze and started googling. I wonder if the people who say how amazing it was are brainwashed by now or have really not experienced anything, or their traumatic memories have been repressed.
Koukám na dokument a nevěděla jsem že by u nás v České republice se něco takového dělo …..masakr ….
Same. I live like 20 minutes from there and had no idea. My parents or grandparents know nothing about it. This is crazy. I am so sorry for everyone who was there and i hope you are doing better now 🫶🏻
I’m from Brno and I’ve never ever heard about this institution untill the Netlfix documentary 🤯 It is absolutely horrific and I feel sorry for all survivors. I think some of them have been brainwashed into thinking that this was okay. Also, well done to Paris Hilton for speaking up and all the traumatised survivors on the Netlfix documentary! Btw it was a Hotel Jelenice in Brno, not a village.
Same here. I just saw the 1st episode and freaked out when I heard about Czech Republic. I literally live 1h from Brno.. I had no idea.
So awful.. I hate that these children had to live through this.
I can’t believe that some of you actually say anything nice about such fu*ced up place.
Jsem v naprostém šoku, že nějaká taková instituce v ČR vůbec byla, a ti co ji provozovali nebyli potrestáni. Celý dokument “Nepolepšovna” je zločinem, který byl spáchaný na dětech a měl by být potrestán nejpřísnějšími tresty. Potrestáni by měli být všichni, kdo se podíleli a přihlíželi.