I posted the link to Matthew Grant's trial almost jokingly, but after reading the case history, I feel a lot of sympathy for the kid. The NewsObserver reported "By the age of 3, Pestich testified, Grant had been given beer to drink, and his 14-year-old aunt would give him "shotguns," or blow marijuana smoke into his mouth after she took a hit from a joint.[/i]" He ended up in Peninsula Village, left to the tender mercies of therapist Jean Bolding. Grant's defense team called Bolding in as their witness, but she did more for the prosecution's case. She stated Grant claimed to have participated in drive-by shootings, but wasn't sure if he was lying, because truth and fiction blurred for him. She did everything she could to distance Peninsula Village from Grant, never admitting their treatment failed. Grant left PV more messed up than when he went in. I guess the case got to Bolding, she left Peninsula Village shortly after the trial.
Bolding also used the "M-word" in describing Grant: "Therapist Jean Bolding said Grant sometimes plays the role of a victim to manipulate others' sympathy,". I've heard the word "manipulate" used far too often by PV. "Don't listen to the kids when they say they're being abused, they're lying and trying to manipulate you," I've talked to current patients and former patients of PV, and they must be suffering from mass hallucination because they all describe the same abuse. Why do they want to convince parents their children are masterful manipulators? Is it to make them feel less guilty for throwing their flesh and blood into a shitpit? I have no doubt parents are being manipulated, but it's not by their kids, it's by the administrators of facilities like PV. PV's website makes the place look like a rustic Summer camp, with smiling counselors and kids sitting under trees by the lake, laughing and solving problems, "mending young lives and restoring families," Bullshit. I've driven through the facility and what struck me most was the absolute silence. Silence, and then I saw a line of girls come out of nowhere, walking single file, absolutely quiet, eyes down. They're required to keep their eyes down, especially when a car goes by. They don't want a kid looking up and having a glimmer of hope someone might have come to rescue them. Hope sets their "treatment" back to the STU, totally derails the behavior modification process. My wife and I were seen by a PV goon driving through the facility, which is public. She wanted to show me what the place was like, since I never got a tour. The PV staff called my wife in later during the week to go over some new "guidelines" that aren't mentioned in the lit packs handed out to parents. No unexpected visits to the facility. No cameras. They made her feel like a criminal.
A prison is more lax than PV, but PV is a max security lockdown facility for kids. I've got pictures of razor wire on PV's perimeters to prove it.