I simply cannot believe the ignorance of some of the people posting on this site. The blatant LIES!!! Saying we're hiding behind anonimity making bogus claims. PM me, I'll tell you exactly who I am, when I was there are every bit of TRUTH about my 23 month stay at this "wonderful, caring" TBS.
Here is the TRUTH about my stay at HLA. Function Junction, you are SORELY mistaken and your posts are dripping with lies.
We WERE made to pick up feces with our bare hands. Work gloves were never provided, nor encouraged to parents to be provided.
People were on restrictions for MONTHS at a time.
We did monotonous, pointless work assignments DAILY. Yes, we chopped wood, but in my 23 months at that school, NEVER was it delivered to "poor helpless elderly people." It was stacked in rows underneath the deck of the lodge for staff to use whenever they wanted. Never were we given gloves of any kind or safety equipment (saftey goggles or otherwise), and after 2 hours or so of chopping wood our hands were BLOODY. Another one of my favorites was moving a 15 ft high pile of wood and brush about 20 feet away and then back again just to have some physical work for us. Picking up acorns out of staff's yards was another good one. How about moving rocks from one point in the stream (in bare feet in VERY cold weather) to another point for some more restrictions fun. The list goes on, but I'm sure you get the point. (At least the sensible ones here do.)
We DID to PT in Lower Left that was filled with backed up sewage and goose feces. Not just push ups, but front-back-go's. Anyone who attended that school and did PT with Rob Hyde knows what those are. For those who dont... Front back goes are an aerobic excercise that include push ups (FRONT), flutter kicks (BACK), and high knee running (GO'S). Rob stood, walking back and forth like a drill sargent yelling out FRONT! We'd hit the ground doing push ups... BACK! We'd scramble to a laying down position, hands under our butts, legs out straight at a 45 degree angle, kicking back and forth.... GO! Jump up and run in place, knees must come to a 90 degree angle in front of the body. This went on for nearly an HOUR sometimes!! All the while in shit ridden grass! And that was just ONE excersize. How can ANYONE say this is not wrong and demoralizing!
And about graduation speeches (I know thats from another thread, but I'm just addressing all the bullshit in one post).Yeah, I'm sure to most people, our graduation speeches sounded like the tale of a wonderful and educational 2 years, filled with caring individuals and life improving activities. However... Our speeches were written months in advance. Once a week in Reals, for about the last 4-5 weeks, we would read our speeches to our counselers and Peer Group members. In that time, we were to "revise" any area of the speech that our counselor deemed to be not fitting. You think those were OUR words??? That was 2 years of brainwashed, coached BULLSHIT that we spewed out. And sure, you can say, why didn't someone just get up there at tell the truth?? Well, after every aspect of our life being controlled and moderated, and being punished ANY time we tried to tell the truth (whether through letter of phone call) why would we!? Especially when we were on the BRINK of escape! Why jeopordize our chances of graduating!!?? Do you know how many of my friends there (including myself) actually had nightmares that on the day of our graduation, something was going to come up and we weren't going to get to leave? That was our BIGGEST fear.
Thats why, after so long, after the first few months of trying to tell the truth, and trying to fight back, you just give up. The 13 hour restriction days just get too long... The PT just gets too hard. The constantly being told your a LIAR, a MANIPULATOR, that your DESTROYING YOUR FAMILY... It just gets to be too much. Getting used to the shit that goes on there and just becoming a PRODUCT of HLA is ten times easier than continuing to try and fight back.
And its not just us giving up. The parents want to believe their doing the right thing. They dont WANT to believe you. They want to believe the counselor who tell them that this is just something that every new student does through, and that we'll "adjust" to being there. We'll stop lying, stop manipulating, stop trying to get them to pull us. And by golly, we eventually do just give up.
So how DARE you people sit here and tell me, and others like me that that 2 years wasnt abusive, wasnt degrading... You didn't go through what we did.
WE ARE NOT LIARS. No matter how many times we have been told that AT hla, and even here after. I KNOW WHAT HAPPENED, I KNOW WHAT WE WENT THROUGH.
Go to any HLA Alumni group (excluding the on on HLA's site where they delete posts), and you will SEE FOR YOURSELF our opinions and memories from that time.
Function Junction, The Who, and all you other people advocating for HLA... I sure hope all your lying and deception is worth it... Because there is justice in this world, and I assure you, it will find you someday.
