This thread was CLOSED at Amazing Forums. It will unfortunately just scroll off the page eventually. Last post 6/28. Two apologies/retractions were posted on 8/11 and 8/12- See below.
steve posted 11/23/03 4:59 AM
--------------------------------------------------I am interested in finding out from staff and students alike, now out of the program, what their thoughts feelings and intuitions of the program are.
Deborah posted 11/23/03 11:21 PM
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What is your interest?
Mike posted 12/10/03 3:22 PM
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Does anyone have recent experience with this school to share?
Deborah posted 12/12/03 2:20 AM
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http://amazingforums.com/forum/BS4/169.html Former HLA staff posted 3/22/04 0:27 AM
--------------------------------------------------I am a former recreation/restrictions staff of HLA. The recreation staff especially create a very open, safe and supportive environment for its students. I support many of the therapeutic aspcets of the program, but like any private institution--there are some problems.Not all of you may encounter them but be aware of the high-stress and high-emotional costs of this program(as far as dealing with staff and turnover goes.) The students grow and learn and become very strong young people---stronger than most adults.
JM posted 4/7/04 5:18 PM
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I currently attend HLA and well I must say that it sucks it is progressively getting worse and worse and they say you can write proposals to make the place better but you can't, the therapy is useless only the students can help you with your problems DONT SEND YOUR KIDS HERE UNLESS YOU HATE THEM
Ashley T posted 4/18/04 10:03 PM
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Ok. I was a student at Hidden Lake for 14 whole months. I truly do not feel that the HLA experience can be summed up in a small paragraph on this page. I guess you could say that there are just as many people that have gone to HLA that say it helped as there are people who dispise even remembering the place. I was withdrawn from the school after my parents decided i was too old to be wasting my time doing nothing in a place i didnt like. I suppose you could say my opinion of hidden lake isnt a positive one. my reasons are simple. too much negativity from both students and staff, and a system that started out with good intentions but in the end was corrupted. there is a program called restrictions that kids have to be in if they get in trouble or break one of the three aggreements. No sex, drugs, or violence. you may read that and guess that those are fairly easy rules to follow and arent irrational at all. I agree. However, those rules are just a generalization to a book of policy thicker than all the harry potter books put together. No sex means no hugs, no hanging out with the other sex too much, only having friends of the other sex, no notes, no letters with any flirty things (this is for when you write your approved 5 friends after 8 months) and that sort of thing. No drugs means no sharpie markers, tide detergent, straws, anything. No violence means no football, horseplay, plastic or metal knives (yes, we used spoons to eat with) and no tacks or anything like that. I just suppose the kids there mostly make their situation worse because they really have nothing to look forward to except the occasional visit every three or four months. Visits are really limited also. they are only with your immediate family. you are not allowed to use the phone, internet, anything. You cant talk to or see your friends. It is ridiculous. When you get on the phone once every week or so with your parents, you have a staff right there with you. THey are there so you will not try to manipulate your parents into sending you home without finishing the program. Some kids will get kicked out of the school as soon as they mess up. others will have parents who pay their kids way into staying. Anyway. i feel like Hidden lake would have the potential to be a beneficial step in a kids life if they just changed a few policies and tryed not to scare the kids into being good. Thanks.
david herring posted 4/19/04 2:11 AM
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hello everyone, i'm 17, almost 18 years old, 16 when i quit HLA, if you love your child and want what is best for them, don't send them to HLA, the school overall is bad. they call it a "safe" enviroment for your child......ha... let me tell you a few storys about how "Safe" it really is, i had been there for about a week, at the time 15, i was going through a rough time because i had just gotten my first restiction, i said i wanted to call me mom and talk to her, the dean Lee Parham came up to me and said this word for word "there is a phone about 7 miles down the road, walk down the road and call your mom if you like...." sure it sounds like he was being nice....but if i had walked down the road, HLA would have called the police on me for being a runaway and i would have had cuffs slapped on my wrist, i don't think that it is "safe" for the dean to tell you to walk down the road then call the police on you, another thing that happened while i was there, a kid took a pencial sharpener and made about 14 or 15 cuts in his arm and spread the blood all over the room, i don't know about you but i don't wanna be in a dorm room that had blood all over the walls, they clean it off but none the less. another thing is they did dorm searchs, they would go through everything you had personal or not and search it, this means journels, poem books, and other things, i don't think that sounds very "safe"...... also when i was there i met a girl and we started to get feelings for one another, the staff got wind of this and put us on bans which means that the other person pretty much does not exist, is it "safe" to put males and females into the same place and not expect them to form something closer then a friendship?
and if we got caught talking to one another or anythign else for that matter we would be put on restictions, this is where you go if you break the rules of HLA, what you do on restictions is manual labor, such as make ditchs, trails, cut wood, move rocks, and staff does not do anything but watch it was very rare when a staff helped...... we also did militery training (A.K.A. PT) we were not feed right on restictions ethier, we could only have soup, water, salad, and whatever was on the menu, we could not have sandwichs or aything else, and we could not use the microwave, the school was also very sexist in my point of veiw, on restictions the females got to work inside or in the shade most of the time and could slack off on PT some, where the males where out in the sun, sometimes without water, and we were out there for hours on end, the dorms should be enough proof that the school was very sexist because the males dorm had 8 showers for the whole dorm, very little hot water, and you could have up to 3 other roommates, where as the the females dorm was a hell of alot nicer, they had a shower for each room, and you would only have 1 other roommate, but i think the most unsafe thing about HLA was that you could be placed on restictions for nothing at all, if someone says you did something then you did it, no questions asked, they did not have to have proof or anything of that nature, and they would keep you on until you admit that you did what you were accused of, so that is sometimes forcing you to lie.... is that "safe"?
? i don't think so, so if someone did not like oyu then all that had to do is write fake fallout, which is where you write everything you know about that has gone on on campus, and BAM!!!! they are on restictions for something they did not even do, so as i said beforeif you care for your child and you want the best for him/her prove it by NOT sending him/her to HitlersLastAcheivemnt as we use to call HLA........ if anyone has any questions about my stay there please by all means ask, and if your child is in HLA please pull him/her because you are doing nothing but putting hate in thier heart, together maybe we can shut this place down,
THOMAS DAVID HERRING
John Reuben posted 4/26/04 5:01 PM
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I just enrolled my son there and am interested in contacting any other parents who have children there or have had kids there. Have heard good and bad but was very impressed when I went down there. My son had not thrived either at home or in a normal boarding school environment.
david herring posted 4/27/04 5:21 AM
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JOHN GET YOUR SON OUT OF THERE!!!!!!!! the staff shed the parnets from all the bad things at HLA, they seem like perfect angels when parnets are there but as soon as they leave things go back to the way they were take every students word for it on this board, we know we where behind the scenes parnets are not.......
JP posted 4/28/04 9:11 PM
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If anyone is thinking about possibly sending your child to HLA, please listen to what I am about to say...Okay. I'm not sure really where to begin. I'll start with why I went there... I was court ordered there for assualt and battery on my parents during a cocaine overdose, unruly child; dropping out of school & living on the streets, and a few drug paraphenalia charges due to proof of parents. I was 16 at the time of my conviction, to then turn 17 just a few days on entering HLA... That was in 1997. I am currently 23 and do have control over my life, which is an aspect very different from my dark days. I consider my self to be well educated and have been very succesful with relationships, including the one with my parents... There are some hangups though. I have suffered from Social Anxiety disorder upon leaving HLA. No matter who I've talked to, I just can't seem to get past it. I also suffer from pretty disturbing nightmares & bouts of spontaneous depression. Luckily, I have people in my life that love me for who I truly am... Ever since I have turned my life around, I've done my best to help those when it seems applicable & even when it doesn't. I have this quote I like to say, " I am so full of Love because I know so much of Hate."... About HLA... Although there is the one point I can't ignore, if I hadn't been admitted to HLA I probably would be dead, there is still the fact that after walking in there to rid myself of problems, I exited with a whole new set of problems... So, when it comes down to it, I don't really know what to say. HLA is Evil. There's no doubt about that. They're exploiting young minds for the sake of profit and for even stranger deeper personal control issues. Brainwashing is also definitely involved. There were things they had done to me that I hadn't realized till much later when I realized that a decision I had made wasn't what I wanted to do, but what HLA had programmed me to do, and not in a good way. For parents who have kids there & it seems to be working, trust me, it will, but only for a short while. After one starts adjusting to their natural environment in society again, it will all be realized and,sadly, there will undoubtedly be problems again. Why? Because they are not really themselves. They all were broken down in the same ways, and they were all built again with the same techniques used on everybody. Nobody is the same. That's why programs range anywhere from 3 wks. to a few years. I was there for 10 of the 18 mo. I still feel to this day that I was ready to be released at around 4 mo. ANything thereafter was very very unhealthy for me. Nobody is the same. EVeryone thinks and percieves differently. If you don't believe me, go to
http://www.personalitypathways.com and take the Myers-Briggs online type indicator test. Hopefully these tests will be given more regularly in schools while children grow up, so as to avoid things like this and so everyone may respect each others differences more wisely... I told myself I wouldn't talk specifically about any certain incident at HLA, but I do want to give you one example that'll hopefully terrify you. When HLA found out that I was trying to get my court order dropped & that I'd secretly written the judge, they tried in many ways to get me, or should I say make me, stay. One specific incident included me, 3 of what I like to call psycho-manipulators, one of these being MIKE WITHERSPOON, and two other kids who'd been placed as dorm heads and had been at HLA longer. Almost every kid there would sell you out very fast for special privledges, and these two guys just happenned to be that way. Long story short, they all took everything I said & did & turned it around to make me think I was suicidal. They knew that if I tried to kill myself w/ them intervening or had a written statement, that I wouldn't be able to leave. I had been there for around 5 mo. at this time. Well sure enough, I tried to slice my wrists open with a pair of scissors. Let me just say this, I knew something was up when they were talking to me like they were in that little room, but I have always considered myself a trusting individual & so I was not aware to what these people who're supposed to be helping me were trying to do... Now, that is pure evil. There is not one person who wouldn't have done what I did. That is their job, they are psycho-manipulators who have a backup & excuse for everything. Any parent that talks to them will be swayed to see what they want you to. They control whoever they want unless you are truly aware of what is being done. When I told them what I knew they had done, I busted out into tears as I watched no emotional response and no feeling behind their eyes...none... The only reason I changed at HLA when it comes to the problems I had previous to this place, was because I realized that I was a good person inside & only I could change my life. It truly had very little to do with the program, well, except for the motivation to get out of there... SInce HLA, I have been successful in everything I do, but everywhere I go, I constantly fight horrible feelings. I always fight & I always win, but they are always there & I wonder if I'll ever be able to push through them... If you care at all about your child, do not send them there. In fact, I am so adament to having these facilities that you only see in movies shut down, that I'm willing to offer giving my best advice to whatever the situation may be in which you are consulting this site for. My E-mail is
kentuckymadman@yahoo.com RobertBruce posted 6/1/04 2:07 AM
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I also attended HLA but was able to escape. I honestly beleive that there are enough people out there with enough information to consider filing a class action law suit. I know we all have these stories and I know because of the brainwashing that went on there alot of times its hard to put in specific terms what was done to us. But I firmly believe that because of the physical, sexual, and mental abuse we suffered we have an obligation to shut that hell hole down so that no one else ever has to suffer as we do. Parents if you are considering sending your child there, FIND ANOTHER OPTION. The person you get back may have been cured of some of their problems but what you get back will not be the same person you once knew and they will have a whole different series of problems to deal with. Anyone who is interested in this or who has friends from the school who might please let me know via this board until we can find a more suitable venue.
brian valdez posted 6/1/04 3:51 AM
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hla was fucking gay as shit. ian is a faggot. lee is a faggot. all the staff are gay. i love ken tobe
alex wein posted 6/1/04 11:34 PM
--------------------------------------------------my parents just pulled me from hla because they finally figured out the truth that place. if you really love your kids and care about their future do not i repeat do not send them to this school they will hate you for the rest of their life. FUCK YOU HLA BUCCIE IS A FUCKING FAGGOT LITTERALLY.
Kid Thorazine posted 6/2/04 0:18 AM
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Thank you Mr. Valdez
anyway yeah HLA sucks oh by the way can anyone get me Walter Kepings adrress I found this great site that anonymously sends dofshit to people for like twenty bucks
a current student posted 6/2/04 5:00 AM
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wow i dont even know where to start. i am currently an hla student in fire element. In the program description that would mean i had been thear between 8- 12 months. I am approaching 16 months. This program gets suckers every week. A parent will buy into it and decide to give the program a chance which is fair. By the time the child is at Hla they have already paid a substantial amount of money. Around the time when a student has been there 4-8 months many parents realize the true nature of the program ... a buisness. with the primary intention of making money. At this point the parent will decide to pull the student but find out they have been financially trapped into keeping their child there. People who have financial aid get especially swindled because if they try to pull a studentthey will find out that they owe the school all the financial aide that was given to them if their child does not complete the program.
on to point 2. HLA destroys youre soul and spirit. Everything they do is meant to bring you down and make you give into them.They will make you miserable and tell you to accept it. that is no way to live life. that sounds more to me like a concentration camp than a "safe" enviornment. While i have been there i have seen two suiside attempts. One girl will never be able to speak again because of the permenant damage she had too her windpipe while hanging herself in a closet. I f you could send ure child to a place that could cause that kind of paine in a human being you have a sick mind. It is a not a safe enviornment it is not a happy enviornment it is not a useful enviornment
if you have a troubled son or daughter there are better alternatives. One thing to be very clear about is that this is not a rehab and in mose cases does not help with drug addiction, If you want a rehab send your child to a rehab not HLA
This place is not good for deppresion, suicidal thoughts or problems with cutting or bulemia. I was depressed before i got to Hla BUT I WAS NEVER SUICIDAL UNTIL I HAD BEEN THERE. Cutting, bulemia , and deppresion are results of unhappiness, personal problems, and sometimes medical conditions. Sending your child to a place that drains that happiness out of everyone there has no way of helping someone wiith these problems. It could only makle it worse. Also the kind of therapy is different than what most people think of as therapy. tHERAPY is a very broad term. One kind of therapy is where you go to a doctor and sit down and talk about your feelings. That is not the same as HIDDENlake therapy. The therapy there could be more consideed as a brow beeting. More often in therapy which is called realls you would get hollered and screamed at by the counselors than asked about an opinion or how you are personally feeling
THE FIRST FOUR OR SO NMONTHS AT HLA IS IN MY OPINION BENEFICIAL TO MOST OF THE STUDENTS THERE the only problem is the program is 18 through 28 months long and the last 14 -24 month are useless yet still cost you 100's of thousands of dollars. by the time you child has been there 4 months the school will have already financialy trapped you into staying there.
as a closing i would just like to say that you should never take another humane beings life lightly. When you wrecklessly make descisions that affect others life it will have permanant consequences. If you are thinking about sending your child to hla make sure you THOROUGHLY INVESTIGATE the school and THOUROUGHLY investigate all other options. If you send your child to a program that does not make them miserable they will be more willing to work through it and they will gain far more from it . thankyou for your time
ps if you are conan scheins parents i can tell you from all the time i have shared with him that you need to reevaluate your descision to keep him at hla. you have taken all the happiness from him that i used to see in him when he first got there. and u are going to affect his life more than u could understand. - a friend
Henry Perlstein posted 6/2/04 7:37 AM
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I graduated from HLA in august, 2001. I was a little kid while i was at hla, and to be totally honest, that place scarred me. I was 14 when i graduated, and that place gave me a fucked up view of the world. It tought me not to trust people, and i learned more about drugs than i had ever imagined before i got there. I have my life completely in order now, but in my opinion, HLA did nothing to help me become the person that i am today. To those considering sending there children there: YOUR KIDS WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU! At least i havent forgiven mine.
p.s. any hla student from the past, send an email to
http://www2.state.ga.us/Departments/DHR/ORS/ I'd be curious to know if any of the parents who post here thought for a minute that they were sending their child to a traditional boarding school or if indeed they expected some form of 'treatment'. How did you know that HLA was a therapeutic facility?
I'd also be curious to know how many parents are paying for a traditional 'education' with insurance money, or taking tax deductions for the expenses associated with their child's 'education' at HLA. If HLA is a traditional boarding school whose primary purpose is education, wouldn't that amount to fraud?
Did your child have a service plan?
http://rules.sos.state.ga.us/complete/BCB77.pdf Or was s/he treated with the standard one-size-fits-all program.
Did your child have a preplacement evaluation? Was your child labeled ODD prior to selecting HLA or did HLA provide the diagnosis? Did HLA comply with the ICPC, if you were out-of-state?
http://rules.sos.state.ga.us/complete/D7AF4.pdf So, is HLA a traditional boarding school, or a residential treatment center? Can't sit on the fence forever. The fraud will eventually be exposed for what it is.
brian valdez posted 6/16/04 4:31 AM
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hey guys im back. well hla is gay big up to jeremy diermeier ken tobe and rich. well since ive been to hla i found out that i am indeed a faggot. i like having butt sex and ill give yall some fall out, jeremy and i had sex on three occasions. one when we were dipping together at the sleep over, one when we were doing inhalents, and another at the airport.
Vanessa Maxwell posted 6/16/04 2:25 PM
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HLA is the worst place I've ever heard of. You make friends but they fuck you over with them by putting you on bans if you get to close. Everyone did what they weren't suppose to do and some people were smart enough to not say shit and then dumb ass narc's fuck you over. Basically HLA is a pathetic excuse for help...because it just makes all matters worse!!! Do NOT send your kid to hell if you love them!!!
Katie R posted 6/16/04 2:43 PM
--------------------------------------------------Damn... Parents, if you think the students here posting messages are in the minority of the HLA student population with their blind and utter hatred for the dealings at Hidden Lake, think again. The only reason you don't see more of them here is that, their stuck there at the school. Any recent grads feel free to email or im. Email-
JCutaia@comcast.net or AIM: ZimaPartyin86 Thanks!
Sarah posted 6/17/04 5:13 PM
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My parents finally took me out of Hidden Lake Academy because I had to SNEAK call my home to tell them what the hell they were doin to us! I wasn't really a bad child, the reason why I was sent there is because I lied to my parents saying that I was going to my friend's house when I really went to see my boyfriend. When they found out, they said I was out of control! I wasn't out having sex with 15 different guys, I smoked weed a few times.I mean if they really wanted to send me somewhere to get help..HIDDEN LAKE ACADEMY IS NOT THE ANSWER! PLEASE PARENTS..YOU THINK YOUR HELPING YOU CHILD TAKING THEM TO THIS PLACE...YOU'RE NOT..TAKE THEM SOMEWHERE ELSE TO GET HELP!! couselors treat you like shit! There is no real treatment...it was more like torture than bein helped. Kids commit suicide for staying for GOD SAKES! They invade your privacy, they read your letters! If you write to your parents of how they really treat you, they'll just throw it away and you get hell afterwards. They dont even feed you right. They put you on restrictions, like digging ditches, they put in the woods. I swear I could not believe they made a place like this. To torture us. They treat boys more unfairly than girls. You cant even have friends. After I talked to my parents they took me out of there right away. They believed me cuz of they way I looked. The way I explained shit.PLEASE PARENTS DONT DO THIS TO YOUR CHILD...TAKE THEM SOMEWHERE ELSE...PLEASE!
I Am No One posted 6/17/04 10:06 PM
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Keep Writing, keep telling people what this school is doing - they need to be shut down. They can't be shut down if no one talks. The place is abusive, it's hell, it strips you of your life, liberty and squashes any hope of the pursuit of happiness. I wouldn't send my worst enemy there.
M Taylor posted 6/17/04 11:33 PM
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I was just recently taken out of a 24 month program, afte 12 months, and i am in the process of transferring schools..I would like everyone to know that HLA withhoheld my transcript illegally, and now we are in a lawsuit.. HLA is a corporation, not a fucking help clinic.. But have no fear.. It will all be over soon peace
RobertBruce posted 6/18/04 5:25 AM
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M they tride to do the same thing to me when I escaped. If you need any help or any further testimony let me know it sounds like they did the exact same thing to you as they tride with me. Let me know via this board if youd like any info. Ill do anything to help tear those bastards down.
- posted 6/18/04 10:22 PM
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i love you scott love
someones sister posted 6/20/04 7:04 PM
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vanessa, talk about "screwing people over" look what you did to john and brian -- looks like you still need a lot of help with honesty and friendship
Vanessa Maxwell posted 6/22/04 5:15 AM
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Fuck you Gina!! You're a dumb bitch!! How the fuck did I screw them over?? It's not my fault that John liked me!! Stupid slut...have a nice day!!
Gina's Friends posted 6/22/04 5:24 AM
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Gina, It's your your whole fucking school, yeh...everyone hates you. You are fat and smell like tuna. Yeh...you should def just kill yourself, with that big nose and all...oh! and yeh...your a stupid bitch too. You are the reason abortions are still legal...yes yes, my nasty little one, ur a dumb cunt
paststudent posted 6/22/04 6:31 PM
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Free Gioia
Vanessa's friend posted 6/23/04 2:37 AM
--------------------------------------------------Listen Gina or whoever is talkin mad shit about vanessa. Vanessa is the shit and you should be honored to be able to say that you even know her. You are just jealous that Vanessa can get a guy. Unlike you she doesn't have to chase them until they give up you big fat ass hoe. Just be glad that when Vanessa told you off she held herself back. Next time I can assure you, You won't be so lucky. I know her and she will lay all your shit down!! So FUCK OFF!!!
RobertBruce posted 6/25/04 5:50 AM
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A preety good example of how much good HLA really does.
mr valdez posted 6/25/04 8:19 PM
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fuck hla
my balls are really big
210 416 1517
Katie Clifford posted 6/28/04 3:03 AM
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I'M FREE!!! HLA is the biggest bunch of bullshit I've ever come across, what a waste of 23 months and over $120,000! hey to all my friends...if i still have any...if i ever did... brian i love you but you suck because you're ditchin me at uiw! we gotta hang out before school starts
vanessa IS the shit so gina dont be a fucking cunt and talk shit to her about stuff you don't know about
KatStevens posted 6/28/04 7:08 AM
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any one from peer group 30 ....email me
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The two retraction/apologies:
Joe posted 8/11/04 5:50 PM ___________________________________
I am retracting the statements I made above, and apologizing for making them.
-Joe
brianv. posted 8/12/04 3:28 AM
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Recently, I made some comments on a post-reply website about Hidden Lake Academy that were untrue and immature. I thought that it would be funny to post up untrue things to have a laugh with my friends but all I did was look immature to the people who visit the website and to some of my friends. I apologize to anyone who has read my post ups and I regret doing them. I also apologize to Hidden Lake Academy and the staff, who work very hard to improve the lives of their students.
Brian A. Valdez
Nova posted 8/12/04 8:00 AM
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Hey man you are not in the program anymore... Who is going to consiquence you??? What is done is done and learn from it... Not to sound programized but that's how it is...
http://amazingforums.com/forum2/WWASPFORUM/forum.htmlwwasp forum
