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Stay away from Elan or your child will be irreparably hurt.
This page is intended for anyone interested in sending a child to the Elan School in Poland, Maine. Children and teens are taken here, isolated, and given a course of "therapy" that consists entirely of degradation and hurting other people. Elan victims are utterly brainwashed on a par with the strongest cults.
Normal or even exhausted parents and social workers would never associate with (much less ship their child to) Elan if they understood just a part of what would happen. The aim of this small site is to display recent proof of torture, and to demonstrate that traumatic abuse occurs for all students from the start of their time at Elan. Conditions at Elan are below those of federal prisons, mental health facilities, military and private boot camps, and even comparable therapeutic boarding schools.
Elan has a notorious reputation that works to its advantage with understandably desperate parents, social workers or juvenile justice professionals. Elan was once known for its barbaric disciplinary methods--now, Elan insists that the torture is gone, but the sternness and effectiveness of their program is intact.
Elan administrators maintain that the prior abuses that took place during the '70s and '80s are completely separate from what occurs today. The testimonies on this site are only from people who were held in Elan long after the 2002 Moxley murder case that exposed early abuse at Elan and led Elan to publicly (and falsely) promise that the program had changed.
http://www.heal-online.org/elan_jess_charnov.pdf.]
DECLARATION UNDER PENALTY OF PERJURY PURSUANT TO 28 USCA 1746
I, Jessica Lauren Charnov declare and state as follows:
1. The Elan School located in Poland, Maine, emotionally abuses its students and forces other students to emotionally abuse other students. I was in the Elan School
from March 2004 to June 2007.
We were told we had to partake in an act called "getting our feelings off." This consisted of us yelling, swearing at and degrading our fellow students. We would do this twice a week for an hour each day. When another student got his/her feelings off for you, you had to just sit still and not move a muscle because the slightest movement would suggest you were "reacting." I remember being called such names as "psycho," "bitch," "asshole," "hospital case," "freak," "disgusting," "stupid," "crazy," etc. I was told things like "I fucking hate your guts," "I hope you fucking die," "stay the fuck away from me," "I don't fucking like you," "fuck off," etc. I was called more derogatory names, but this is just to give you an idea of what is systematically done.
I was told that I was a "lazy piece of shit," there were many more names and phrases, I could go on for days. If we did not "get your feelings off" we were punished and told that we were never going to change, that we were just being the same person that got us sent there. If we retorted back with anything, we were sent to scrub floors, toilets, sink, showers, sometimes whole rooms as a form of discipline for hours on end. We were taught that not "getting our feelings off" was wrong and a punishable offense. I still hear the screams of my fellow students throughout the day at times. [Editor: If you visit the Elan facility during an afternoon with no scheduled tours, you will certainly hear non-stop hateful screaming for hours on end.] I don't hate them for it--it was what we had to do to to "move up in the program" and "better ourselves."
2. The Elan School forces students that are in certain positions of higher power (in Elan jargon, known as strength or high-strength positions) to handle responsibilities that should have been solely staff responsibilities. Responsibilities included but were not limited to; assisting staff with restraining fellow students, watching students who were at risk of running away, chasing after runaway students and standing in front of doors to be a security guard throughout the day. In my house/unit in Elan (Elan
I was considered to "be a strength" for about half of my stay (about a year and a half).
On my 17th birthday, we went to Boston, MA as a rare house trip. I was celebrating my birthday and having a good time when another student decided to take the opportunity to run away. Once we saw that she had run away, myself and the other strength in our group were told to run after her. So we did, but we couldn't catch up to her. The police then caught her later on that
evening and brought her to the Cambridge police station. Our group took a separate van to go pick her up from the police station. Two students (Kara and Lisa) and a staff (Missy) were sent in to escort her into the van and to take her back to Maine immediately. She tried to attack them and said that she was going to kill herself so she was discharged and put into a psych ward instead.
We were all told it was our fault that she ran away, and some girls lost their "strength" status because of it. According to the staff, it was all of our faults, and we were lectured about how she is now unable to get the opportunity to change as we did.
I was forced to aid in restraining one of my best friends at the time, Gillian. Myself and about four other girls held her down as she spit at us and tried to bite us. She screamed "fuck
you" and "get the fuck away from me" over and over and over again. It hurt me so much, I didn't want to restrain her...but I had to because it was my "job" or "duty" or whatever you want to call it. If I had refused to do so, I would be "compromising the security of others" and not "doing my job." I would have lost my strength position, reduced to scrubbing floors for hours a day and had fellow students "get their feelings off for me" in groups and being told by staff that I was "a failure and a coward" for not "stepping up to the plate."
In order to become a strength position you had to do what the staff told you, whatever it was, no questions asked. What students were instructed to do from there first day of arrival is "put blind faith in staff." This principle was drilled into our heads to the point staff members were "saviors" to us. So being a "strength" made you feel as though you were closer to God, and the higher up on the ladder you were, the closer you were to "getting better" and changing. You had to lie, manipulate and look good at the expense of others to do so, but it was all about the label.
3. The Elan School fits the clinical description of a cult almost perfectly:
"Limitation of communication with those outside the group. Books,
magazines, letters and visits with friends and family are discouraged or even
banned."
When you first come in, you are stripped of anything that you used to wear clothing-wise, and told it is wrong that you dress that way. You are given plain t-shirts and a pair of jeans that they ask you parents to send up for you. Girls shirts have to be shirts that don't show any skin, otherwise you would be wearing it to "seek attention" and bring your sexual appeal into the program, according to staff. There were more guidelines as to what you could or couldn't wear, but to be honest there were so many I can't remember them all.
When you come in you are not allowed to talk to parents until you write a letter telling them all they things you have done wrong and have them write back to accept the letter. You also were not allowed to have visits for more then several hours unless you were in a "strength" position. You were not allowed to go back home unless you were a high-strength position. The only contact that you were allowed to have was with you immediate family at first. If you became strength and "changed" you could talk to non-extended family depending on the circumstances of your family.
The message conveyed to me by [staff member] Missy Esty was, "You miss your parents, don't you? Well the only way you can see them for more then a few hours, is to listen to us and get a strength position." But even strength positions didn't guarantee visits. In my three years and a third months of being there I only saw my father twice (not including when he was there for my high school graduation). Tanya [staff member] told me, "If you love your father as much as you say you do, you would be higher then a non-strength now, wouldn't you?"
We weren't allowed to read magazines, books, or the entertainment part of the newspaper unless we had privileges which were obtained by continuing to follow the rules. Phone calls with parents were very restricted. Students received one phone call a week for fifteen minutes. These calls were monitored by other students or the staff in case you had anything bad to say about your experiences at the school or with staff members. Although family visits aren't banned, they are very limited and you are told what you can and can't tell your parents. Contact is very restricted as well as censored.
New members become convinced of the higher purpose and special calling
of the group through a profound encounter, i.e. an alleged miracle or the prophetic
word of the group."
There was a staff member by the name of Marc Rosenberg. He was feared so much by students, and he was like the back bone of the school. He harbored a lot of the old-school teaching of Elan. Seeing that he was one of the first batch of graduates to leave the school, when he came to the school, he would run general meetings, even stopping meals to do so. [Ed.--A general meeting is when a student is required to stand in front of the entire house and is graphically berated or made to cry by staff. After the observing students are incensed at the student's "crimes," all students are required to stand in front of the victim, four at a time, and "get their feelings off" for the subject of the GM.]
A general meeting was called for myself because I had not made my bed consistently in the manner of perfection required. Marc Rosenberg raised his voice at me, making a joke, saying, "Why don't we just have you scrub out the dumpsters wearing a pink polka-dotted dress with a a toothbrush. All you are living in is filth, it would suit you very well." Afterward, everyone proceeded to laugh. Then, bringing out my bed before the entire student body, he told me I was not allowed food until I had made my bed ten times in the manner he would accept. I made my bed, asking him to accept it. He picked up all of my bedding and threw it on the floor, saying that it was not acceptable and to do it again. Along with some swearing, and the words, "When are you going to get it? This isn't acceptable, and this isn't going to work. You will not 'get over' [be lazy] on me." I was denied lunch that day, and almost dinner until [staff member] Tim Mishu accepted it and allowed me to eat dinner. Marc came only twice my whole stay for a period of a few months. It was mandated by staff members to scream at people during a general meeting, regardless of whether or not it was how we actually felt. This would gain us praise in the eyes of Marc Rosenberg. His word was considered to be much more meaningful, and much more important than that of any of the other members or staff there.
"An explicit goal of the group is to bring about some kind of change, be it
global, social or personal."
Every night, a student was required to read the "Elan Philosophy" to the entire student body right before dorm time. We were told to live by it and we would do well. It was a nightly ritual. Every student was convinced that it was solely their life goal to graduate the program. Failure to do so meant that you were now worthless and would never get along in the world--a hopeless case, unable to change, unwilling to change and unwanting to change, or so labeled by the staff.
"The group's perspective is absolutely true and completely adequate to explain everything. The doctrine is not subject to amendments or question. Absolute
conformity is required."
People who disobeyed the rules were treated poorly. A girl who was in my dorm decided to kiss another guy [a rare occurrence]. There was no sexual relationship and nothing more than a kiss. She was told she was going to end up just like her mother because of it. Her mother was found dead on the side of the road in Georgia a few months prior. The girl, Lydia, was considered a whore by the whole house. The staff had convinced us of this, or, had told us that was what she was. She was then made to clean trashcans, toilets, bathrooms...just about everything, while the rest were told to relax. If you were considered "shotdown" (moved to the lowest position in the program), you had no privileges at all.
"A new vocabulary emerges within the context of the group. Group
members "think" within the very abstract and narrow parameters of the group's
doctrine. Loaded terms and cliches prejudice thinking."
Certain terms that we were in the habit of using in the outside world we were not allowed to speak of in Elan. We were only allowed to call a person by there first name. Nicknames were not permitted and would result in a disciplinary actions. Any foreign languages were strictly forbidden. If you spoke a foreign language with another student, you were immediately interrogated and accused of planning to escape, even if you were just trying to practice a language so that you could keep it. I lost a lot of my French that I knew because of this.
"Pre-group experience and group experience are narrowly interpreted
through the absolute doctrine."
Everything that happened before Elan was classified into being done because you felt one of five subcategories of feelings: Anger, Hurt, Concern, Intimidation, and Jealousy. All of those feelings came from two primary feelings: Pain or Fear. Every action you had ever done was categorized into something you did because you felt Pain (Anger, Hurt, Jealousy) or Fear (Concern, Intimidation). If you claimed to not feel either one of the two, you were considered lying to yourself, no questions asked. So, we lived in a world where the sum of our choices boiled down to being in pain or being in fear. Happiness was something that we never really expressed because we were so engrossed in feelings of pain and fear that happiness seemed like such a surreal and false feeling. The only thing that was ever validated was the pain and fear we felt or the pain and fear we had caused others in our pasts/present.
"Salvation is possible only in the group. Those who leave the group are
doomed."
When you turn 18 you are given the option to do what's called, in lingo terms, "sign out." Since you legally are under your own custody at the age of 18 in the United States, you may choose to leave Elan at your own free will. But, the staff would call people who signed out "cowards" and people who were just too "scared of change." When a student wanted to sign out, they had to go through a lot of emotional guilt-tripping just to do it. There was no just handing the papers to you and leaving. Sometimes you would be removed if you were over-demanding for your papers and "being negative," as you had other younger students (like myself) who were brainwashed into crying because one of their "family" was leaving prematurely. [Ed.--Removal is one of the higher punishments at Elan. Students are isolated and made to sit in a chair all day. They are supervised by strength students and not allowed to talk, although non-strength students may never talk anyway. Removals leave after being subjected to a general meeting. Prior to the publicity Elan received in the Moxley case, this was known as "the corner."]
Students that left were told they would resort to a world of drugs. The staff would bring up their past history and throw it in their faces, saying that they would "resort back to being the same person" if they left. They would also tell them that they were "abandoning their fellow students." If the student endures the emotional torture and decides to leave, they are immediately talked down upon, and we were warned not to turn out like them.
Anyone who was pulled out of the program by their parents were considered to be in this category as well. Basically, anyone who did not complete the program was made out to be "a failure", even if they had managed to obtain a high school diploma. When I had received my high school diploma, [staff member] Peter Rowe told my mother, "You should start looking into a new group home or placement to place her in, and don't bother putting her in college. She's not going to make it." He told her this just because I had not graduated the program and I had only graduated high school.
As if that wasn't enough, there are many issues with the way that Elan School staff members conduct themselves, as well as their treatment of students. There have always been issues. There were issues in the past before my attending, and there are issues to this day. This school needs a review for accreditation, as well as a review of their staff. I can understand if a punishment was, perhaps, cleaning. However, the amount of time being exposed to chemicals as well as forced to do physical labor with the threats of general meetings or something else are not ethical. Nor is dragging someone's bed out in front of the student body and forcing them to make it over and over, or degrading them because it is not to the liking of the staff. Had I not agreed to make the bed, I would have been put in the dumpster and made to clean it with a toothbrush.
On Elan's website, there are interview videos claiming how the school creates a change in people for the better. These things are not true. Horrible things happened to myself and many others there. There are enough usergroups and discussions to prove that, with people telling their recollections of what had happened during their stay there. This is not a correctional facility. If it is a school, all of the instructors need a license to teach. I have heard that many of them are lacking this. I still have nightmares about some things that happened there, as well as about what I was made to do to my friends and others. This has been taken lightly for far too long.
I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct--November 15th, 2009.
:cheers: :cheers: Good story :cheers: :cheers:
