I have updated the wiki and also sent my story to HEAL.
That list of abusive things that happened is a list I created and posted on the Richard Dawkins forum about SHF. I am going to tell other ex students about these websites.
A
fantastic job updating the Wiki:
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Shepherds Hill FarmShepherd's Hill Farm is a behavior modification facility marketed as a Christian Boarding School located on 2200 Price Road, Martin, Georgia 30557 [1]
This is a "wilderness therapy program" run by a christian fundamentalist and cult leader Trace Embry and his wife Beth Embry. Parental Guardianship is signed over to Trace and a $58,900 tuition a year is paid. At the entrance to Shepherds hill farm is the Embrys house and some other trailers. However about a mile or so down into the forest, away from the eyes of the public and of the parents, is the giant boys camp site, about half a mile or so away in the woods is the girls camp.
The children are forced to cut down and debark trees and build very large cabins to live in with no electricity, or any type of building knowledge, as well as for future students to live in. The students live in these cabins everyday out of the year and in all weather conditions (I did for well over a year)with one tiny wood burning stove per cabin. The wood burning stove adds little to no heat for the size of cabin. Parents were forced to buy their kids expensive sleeping bags for the winter if they wanted their kids to be warm.
The children have no communication with the outside world, or with anyone of the opposite sex. Phone calls home are very rare and visits even less so. All phone calls and letters going in and out are monitored and edited, and limited to 5 minutes. Kids are repeatedly told they are horrible people who will burn in hell forever if not saved and no longer sinful. Homosexuals are mocked and made fun of and made to look like terrible people to the students, as well as any religion other then Christianity. Kids are told that their parents are horrible people and have failed them and that Trace is now their parent. They are also taught in "science" class that evolution is a lie from satan and forced to watch Kent Hovind all day. Other classes included very basic math and reading from the bible.
Kids are punished for any type of "inappropriate behavior". Food deprivation is used in the form of what they call "special meals". Special meals consist of feeding the child a can of some type of cold green vegetable and one can of cold beans with some water. Students are told that this is a perfectly healthy vegan diet and not illegal or abuse. Kids lose pounds and pounds of weight after being on special meals for months. Some children were also taunted with candy bars. One student was forced to sit in a room with candy bars around him in a circle. He was told if any were missing in 2 hours he would be punished. He had already been on special meals for a couple months and looked like a skeleton. When we came back he had eaten a few of the candy bars, even though he cried and screamed he didn't. He was beat, yelled at and given more special meals. Trace made his parents even continue feeding him special meals over Christmas break, including Christmas dinner. "Regular" food is food from food banks and expired milk that the children cook over a stove in the woods at their camp site. They are forced to work for hours and hours in the extreme GA heat or in the extreme cold with rain or snow. They use spanking with a paddle, often leaving bruises for a week or more. Sometimes children are spanked in front of other students or in front of all students and employs. Kids are talked out of taking their medication, and no real nurse nor medical staff is on campus. I witnessed two children have seizures in which Trace and staff held down the student praying for demons to leave them instead of giving the child medicine or calling a medical professional. Sleep deprivation by being woken up in the middle of the night to work. Punished and humiliated publicly for not being able to complete the extreme exercise and manual labor. If a child is told to run a mile or do a number of pushups, and cant make it all the way the student must start over and do it again until finished , and is usually given more punishments in the form of spanking or special meals.
Children are humiliated in front of everyone. One girl was sent to SHF after being raped at her highschool. When the girl got to SHF, Trace asked her in front of everyone if she knew what a whore was. The girl responded "someone who sleeps around with everyone?", and Trace replied "Don't you think you fit the bill of being a whore?" She was then punished by being made to hold two heavy things out to her sides in the snow. If she dropped them down at all she had to start over.
Very much abuse goes on in this place. It needs to be investigated and shut down, otherwise Trace will continue harming children and putting families in debt for the rest of their lives. Trace was supposed to give me therapeutic help, and yet he just used me and the others for abuse and child labor and took all of my families money. I have spoken with other ex students all who have had to undergo years and years worth of psychological help to overcome wounds SHF left them.
They can detain an unknown number of youth of both genders aged 13 to 18.
They offer two residential programs with a length of one year and two years.
This school also offers to have "bounty hunters" pick up your child and bring them to the farm for you. I was picked up by two "bounty hunters" in savannah, GA and brought to the farm. I figured I better not fight the police, they wanted to handcuff me and ankle cuff me.
Program StructureSHF Wilderness ProgramThis one year program functions on the basis of positive peer culture (pressure).
The teenagers lives in primitive shelters in the wood, that they build with no electricity or running water, nor proper building knowledge or supervision. Communication with parents is very little and monitored as well. Parents are assured SHF is a wonderful place, and so are visitors. However, parents and visitors are never shown the camps or what really goes on there. Everything they do and all abuse, is done in the name of Jesus and the bible. Trace sees himself as a saint and someone who performs miracles and saves kids lives. He is simply a cult leader with a following in his tiny town. [2].
The Next Step ProgramThis program can be an extention of the first program. The teenagers are moved to a campus where they can earn privileges like TV and video games, which they have missed the previous year. Also dependent on their progress they can earn the right to a (only happened once) driver's license and a (once)job in the local neighborhood. The students are still punished, and still monitored in the same way. The only difference is that they are allowed to sleep in a house with no heating or insulation, use electricity and watch very little tv. [3].
EducationWhile I was a student there they had a college student teaching classes. They were unaccredited but became accredited. However before and after the education was horrible. Children are taught evolution is an absolute lie, created by evil secularists. They are forced to watch Kent Hovind videos in "science class" and do absolutely no real science. They offered us elementary mathematics, and reading from the bible. I told my teacher what plate tectonics was and he thought I made it up. He finally believed me when one other student said she remembered hearing about plate tectonics in her public high school.
Living ConditionThe first year the teenagers live in very primitive log shelthers that students build themselves with no modern comfort. They also work all day in the heat and extreme cold, in the mud and dirt. They receive only a couple 5-10 minute showers a week. Those who are transferred to the Next Step program live under more humane conditions.
External LinksInfo pagesGroupsMessage bordsReferencesCategories: Georgia | Therapeutic Boarding School | Therapeutic Boarding School in Georgia