Posted by Lee Grivas (161.38.1.87) on October 28, 2000 at 08:05:41:
In Reply to: Re: Letter to the Editor posted by Wesley on May 04, 2000 at 15:42:52:
Dear Kathy,
I believe that you may have a few misconceptions about the Family School run by The Argiros family. Before I go any farther, please allow mw to introduce myself; My name is Lee grivas. i graduated form the Family in June of 2000. I spent twenty months at the school and my life has been a lot different ever since.
It saddens me to think that you would be so eager to publish an article so demeaning to the Family School without mentioning any of the positive aspects of it. Perhaps you do not understand the basic principles promoted by the school. On the sign for the Family School, one finds the words HONESTY, PURITY, UNSELFISHNESS, and LOVE. These four words are what is important about the Family School.
In autumn of 1998, my life was what you might call
"teenage angst." Which you referred to as "behavioral changes in a normal effort to assert their independence from their parents." But I, like most(if not all) of my fellow students at The Family would beg to differ. I was expelled from public school for posession of Marijuana. I lied to my parents(who had been hurt by yours truly many times prior), attempting to convince them not to send me away. In turn , my parents decided to make it my decision. They told me that I had a choice. i would either leave the house or go to the Family School for help. Well, needless to say, i chose to leave the house. I was not about to spend two years in a boarding school. It took under a month to change my mind. In that month my life had turned upside down(even more upside down than before). I was using coacine, ketamine, marijuana, alcohol, lsd, and inhalants. I was also having unprotected sex and selling drugs for money. As it got later into the month of October, it got colder. It was not easy to find a placew to sleep and I found myself outside in forty degree temperature overnight. So I decided to "give up' and ask for help. Two days later, I was checking into the Family school.
My success from there is nothing short of a miracle. After twenty difficult months, i graduated The Family School on a $16,000 scholarship to The Art Institute of Philadelphia(where I currently attend classes and major in photography). I also feel really good about myself. i now tell my parents the truth. I practice Christianity(by choice), live a sober lifestyle, maintain a 3.4 gpa, and have an excellent relationship with my family.
I could go on for pages listing the miracles that have happened in my life as a result of the help and support that I received from my friends at The Family.
My point is this:
There is no need to fear The Family School. It is not a cancer! It is a REMEDY! My life has been saved due to the efforts of Tony and Betty Argiros. My story may be a little harsher than some. but is it worth taking the chance of losing a child under the assumption that a your son or daughter is merely experiencing "behavioral changes?" I, like many of the people at The Family, could have very well died as a result of such behaviors. It is not a matter to be taken lightly.
So please, Kathy, the next time that you want to "help" your community by slandering and demeaning something that has saved lives(including mine), think about what you are attemting to do. Are you redding your community of cancer? Or are you letting children die of it?