i was there when dan berman was kicked out for molesting boys and i remember he was head of my peer gorup which was in middle school at the time he had been threatening to hold me back for lack of growth - thank god i am a girl! that guy always seemed really sketchy and weird to me but so did some other people. NOT CARL!!!
i hated it that the most crule and manipulative people, at least in my peer goup, were the most rewarded with priviliges that pretty much invalidated the whole program for me. i kind of gave up when all of my friends got kicked out over christmas one year.
i was just a baby when i was sent to cascade i was 14 and i really had not left home before but i was leaving a terribly abusive situation at school and home that i never even talked about when i was at cascade. i really couldn't trust anyone there and i feel like i was emotionally/verbally abused by some people at that school. i really needed someone to be gentle and kind to me but i didn't get that at cascade.
also i think that for a school that supposeadly didn't support medication they sure drugged the shit out of me. i got in trouble for "refusing" my meds, i was WAY over medicated and when i would try to get off of them i would have massive anger problems and self-distructive problems. then this would lead counselors and Dr. Fisher (who is a sweet man and i think he meant well) to strongly encourage me to take meds again. it's now well-documented that you can't give anti-depressants to young teenagers, especially not zoloft, especially not in large quantities, and particularly if the kid responds to the medication by having breakdowns, rage, and thoughts of suicide. now i almost never take any kind of medication, not even advil and asside from a deep-seeded fear of therapy i am a fairly healthy person.
