Author Topic: Shepherd's Hill Farm tries lawsuit threats  (Read 7491 times)

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Offline Pile of Dead Kids

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Shepherd's Hill Farm tries lawsuit threats
« on: December 27, 2010, 02:12:10 PM »
LOL, Joel's such an insecure little bitch that he moves posts around. What a faggot.
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...Sergey Blashchishen, James Shirey, Faith Finley, Katherine Rice, Ashlie Bunch, Brendan Blum, Caleb Jensen, Alex Cullinane, Rocco Magliozzi, Elisa Santry, Dillon Peak, Natalynndria Slim, Lenny Ortega, Angellika Arndt, Joey Aletriz, Martin Anderson, James White, Christening Garcia, Kasey Warner, Shirley Arciszewski, Linda Harris, Travis Parker, Omega Leach, Denis Maltez, Kevin Christie, Karlye Newman, Richard DeMaar, Alexis Richie, Shanice Nibbs, Levi Snyder, Natasha Newman, Gracie James, Michael Owens, Carlton Thomas, Taylor Mangham, Carnez Boone, Benjamin Lolley, Jessica Bradford's unnamed baby, Anthony Parker, Dysheka Streeter, Corey Foster, Joseph Winters, Bruce Staeger, Kenneth Barkley, Khalil Todd, Alec Lansing, Cristian Cuellar-Gonzales, Janaia Barnhart, a DRA victim who never even showed up in the news, and yet another unnamed girl at Summit School...

Offline Oscar

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Re: Shepherd's Hill Farm tries lawsuit threats
« Reply #1 on: December 27, 2010, 02:50:20 PM »
Here is the article in question:

Quote
Shepherd'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 inve
stigated 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.

Quote
Program Structure
SHF Wilderness Program
This 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 Program
This 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].
Education
While 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 Condition
The 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.

I believe that the article can be made more neutrail and still provide a message about the true nature of the program.
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Offline Pile of Dead Kids

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Re: Shepherd's Hill Farm tries lawsuit threats
« Reply #2 on: December 27, 2010, 03:14:13 PM »
It isn't the neutrality that's at issue- facts are facts- it's the first-person writing that's a style problem. But since this *is* a firsthand account the bulk of this is not likely to have any external sites referencing it unless he put up a blog someplace.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
...Sergey Blashchishen, James Shirey, Faith Finley, Katherine Rice, Ashlie Bunch, Brendan Blum, Caleb Jensen, Alex Cullinane, Rocco Magliozzi, Elisa Santry, Dillon Peak, Natalynndria Slim, Lenny Ortega, Angellika Arndt, Joey Aletriz, Martin Anderson, James White, Christening Garcia, Kasey Warner, Shirley Arciszewski, Linda Harris, Travis Parker, Omega Leach, Denis Maltez, Kevin Christie, Karlye Newman, Richard DeMaar, Alexis Richie, Shanice Nibbs, Levi Snyder, Natasha Newman, Gracie James, Michael Owens, Carlton Thomas, Taylor Mangham, Carnez Boone, Benjamin Lolley, Jessica Bradford's unnamed baby, Anthony Parker, Dysheka Streeter, Corey Foster, Joseph Winters, Bruce Staeger, Kenneth Barkley, Khalil Todd, Alec Lansing, Cristian Cuellar-Gonzales, Janaia Barnhart, a DRA victim who never even showed up in the news, and yet another unnamed girl at Summit School...

Offline Oscar

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Re: Shepherd's Hill Farm tries lawsuit threats
« Reply #3 on: December 27, 2010, 03:23:48 PM »
Using the Lomborg research method, I found a number of references which could be used for a revised article

Shepherd's Hill Farm is a hell-hole, by PZ Myers, Scienceblogs, February 27, 2010

Shepherds Hill Farm – “The Great Child Abuse Secret”, by Peter Harrison, Reality is my religion blog, February 20, 2010

shepherd's hill farm - HEAL-onlne

According to a StrugglingTeens article in 2003, the owners came from a facility called "Gables Stone Mountain". I researched a little but found no information. Can anyone help me with this?
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Offline Pile of Dead Kids

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Re: Shepherd's Hill Farm tries lawsuit threats
« Reply #4 on: December 27, 2010, 03:35:40 PM »
Oh, nice. That HEAL link contains the wiki testimony and a great deal besides.

(To the people wondering about the view counts on this thread moving up and down, it's because Joel's a sad little post-moving faggot)
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
...Sergey Blashchishen, James Shirey, Faith Finley, Katherine Rice, Ashlie Bunch, Brendan Blum, Caleb Jensen, Alex Cullinane, Rocco Magliozzi, Elisa Santry, Dillon Peak, Natalynndria Slim, Lenny Ortega, Angellika Arndt, Joey Aletriz, Martin Anderson, James White, Christening Garcia, Kasey Warner, Shirley Arciszewski, Linda Harris, Travis Parker, Omega Leach, Denis Maltez, Kevin Christie, Karlye Newman, Richard DeMaar, Alexis Richie, Shanice Nibbs, Levi Snyder, Natasha Newman, Gracie James, Michael Owens, Carlton Thomas, Taylor Mangham, Carnez Boone, Benjamin Lolley, Jessica Bradford's unnamed baby, Anthony Parker, Dysheka Streeter, Corey Foster, Joseph Winters, Bruce Staeger, Kenneth Barkley, Khalil Todd, Alec Lansing, Cristian Cuellar-Gonzales, Janaia Barnhart, a DRA victim who never even showed up in the news, and yet another unnamed girl at Summit School...

Offline Pile of Dead Kids

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Re: Shepherd's Hill Farm tries lawsuit threats
« Reply #5 on: December 27, 2010, 04:38:11 PM »
Oh man, it just gets funnier and funnier.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
...Sergey Blashchishen, James Shirey, Faith Finley, Katherine Rice, Ashlie Bunch, Brendan Blum, Caleb Jensen, Alex Cullinane, Rocco Magliozzi, Elisa Santry, Dillon Peak, Natalynndria Slim, Lenny Ortega, Angellika Arndt, Joey Aletriz, Martin Anderson, James White, Christening Garcia, Kasey Warner, Shirley Arciszewski, Linda Harris, Travis Parker, Omega Leach, Denis Maltez, Kevin Christie, Karlye Newman, Richard DeMaar, Alexis Richie, Shanice Nibbs, Levi Snyder, Natasha Newman, Gracie James, Michael Owens, Carlton Thomas, Taylor Mangham, Carnez Boone, Benjamin Lolley, Jessica Bradford's unnamed baby, Anthony Parker, Dysheka Streeter, Corey Foster, Joseph Winters, Bruce Staeger, Kenneth Barkley, Khalil Todd, Alec Lansing, Cristian Cuellar-Gonzales, Janaia Barnhart, a DRA victim who never even showed up in the news, and yet another unnamed girl at Summit School...

Offline Ursus

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Re: Shepherd's Hill Farm tries lawsuit threats
« Reply #6 on: December 28, 2010, 12:26:34 PM »
Quote from: "Oscar"
According to a StrugglingTeens article in 2003, the owners came from a facility called "Gables Stone Mountain". I researched a little but found no information. Can anyone help me with this?
I've been unable to find anything on Gables Stone Mountain (as of yet). However, that 'Seen 'n Heard' piece on ST did reveal some interesting insight as to the original intentions and/or mindset of the Shepherd's Hill Farm founders. Or... it could also be a Woodbury Reports typo! Here it is for posterity's sake; color emphasis added:

    SHEPHERD'S HILL FARM RECEIVES ACCREDITATION
    (November 4, 2003) Beth Embry from The Shepherd's Hill Farm, 706-779-5736, http://www.shepherdhillfarm.org, announced their on-campus junior/senior high school has recently received its accreditation from The Georgia Accrediting Commission. No longer with Gables Stone Mountain, they now operate the Shepherds' Hill Farm Discipline Camp, an outdoor residential therapeutic program and school for youth struggling with behavioral issues. Their 80-acre camp strives to equip youth with spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical tools, "building relationships and trust between staff and students, based on biblical truth."[/list]
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    Offline Ursus

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    Re: Shepherd's Hill Farm tries lawsuit threats
    « Reply #7 on: December 28, 2010, 02:27:43 PM »
    Quote from: "Pile of Dead Kids"
    Oh, nice. That HEAL link contains the wiki testimony and a great deal besides.
    Yes. The wiki testimony has also been on fornits for over a year. See this post in the 'Shepherd's Hill Farm- Martin, GA' thread.
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    Offline Ursus

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    Re: Shepherd's Hill Farm tries lawsuit threats
    « Reply #8 on: December 28, 2010, 03:10:30 PM »
    Quote from: "Oscar"
    Using the Lomborg research method, I found a number of references which could be used for a revised article

    Shepherd's Hill Farm is a hell-hole, by PZ Myers, Scienceblogs, February 27, 2010

    Shepherds Hill Farm – “The Great Child Abuse Secret”, by Peter Harrison, Reality is my religion blog, February 20, 2010
    See also the following posts, respectively:

    • this post in the Shepherd's Hill Farm- Martin, GA thread
    • this post in the ANHEDONIA (Trace Embry's interpretation thereof) thread
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    Offline Oscar

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    Re: Shepherd's Hill Farm tries lawsuit threats
    « Reply #9 on: December 28, 2010, 04:27:35 PM »
    Google can find some trace of a trial where the text is:

    Quote
    ... day ends the students perform chores attend group meetings and bible studies Rebecca testified that Trace Embry and his wife Beth Embry run the program ...

    Brasile v. Brasile

    It seems that they had some kind of contract with a local school. Lucky for the girl the father did have to pay, so she was maybe released based on the ruling of the court.
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    Offline Ursus

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    Re: Shepherd's Hill Farm tries lawsuit threats
    « Reply #10 on: December 28, 2010, 06:10:08 PM »
    Quote from: "Oscar"
    It seems that they had some kind of contract with a local school. Lucky for the girl the father did have to pay, so she was maybe released based on the ruling of the court.
    Didn't you mean to say that ... he did NOT have to pay? 'Cuz this was an appeals court ruling, reversing in part the trial court ruling (in which he would have had to pay).

    Anyway, daughter Emily did NOT want to go back to Sheperd's Hill Farm and, seeing as mum would have had to foot the whole bill and could not, she probably did not go back.
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    Offline Ursus

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    Shepherd's Hill Farm & Gables Academy
    « Reply #11 on: December 28, 2010, 07:19:58 PM »
    Quote from: "Oscar"
    According to a StrugglingTeens article in 2003, the owners came from a facility called "Gables Stone Mountain". I researched a little but found no information. Can anyone help me with this?
    Okay. Got it now. This would be Gables Academy, originally a program for learning disabled kids.

    It was founded in 1961 in Coral Gables, Florida, under the name of Florida Gables Academy. Eventually they moved to Stone Mountain, Georgia, and hence dropped the "Florida" from their name.

    Gables Academy appears to have incorporated a number of other programs under its umbrella and/or had some type of contractual arrangements with other programs. Trace and Beth Embry appear to have entered into such an arrangement for a period of time, starting in late 2000 or 2001.

    At the time, the Embry's had already acquired the land and "members of their church started using [it] for an equine therapy program. The Embrys also held day camps, taught classes and hosted outdoor music events at Shepherd's Hill." Then, "a school in Atlanta called. Its officials had heard about the camps and equine therapy programs at Shepherd's Hill and wanted to send troubled kids to live on the property." That school appears to have been Gables Academy.


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    * Quotes from the article, "Couple's leap of faith brings youngsters hope" (by Heidi Cenac; June 29, 2007; Anderson Independent Mail).
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    Offline Jill Ryan

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    Re: Shepherd's Hill Farm tries lawsuit threats
    « Reply #12 on: February 14, 2011, 11:38:14 AM »
    I cannot find Shepherd's Hill Farm or Shepherd's Hill Academy on Georgia's ORS Website as a CCI and OCCI.  Does anyone know if this place has ORS oversight?   Not that it helps.
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    Offline Ursus

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    Re: Shepherd's Hill Farm tries lawsuit threats
    « Reply #13 on: February 14, 2011, 06:49:37 PM »
    Quote from: "Jill Ryan"
    I cannot find Shepherd's Hill Farm or Shepherd's Hill Academy on Georgia's ORS Website as a CCI and OCCI.  Does anyone know if this place has ORS oversight?   Not that it helps.
    Thanks for checking! Shepherd's Hill may work around any potential need for ORS oversight by being a "faith-based" program. I'm not 100% sure 'bout that. Maybe someone who really knows could confirm...
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    Offline Jill Ryan

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    Re: Shepherd's Hill Farm tries lawsuit threats
    « Reply #14 on: February 14, 2011, 09:16:37 PM »
    K, thanks.  I'll ask the DHR next time I speak with them.
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