Cascade Closing-DECREASED ENROLLMENT

[Anonymous]

She was my counselor. I broke this story to the cascadesurvivors group on yahoo.

She is in jail for reckless child endangerment, but did kill a girl while "rebirthing" her.

They tied her up in a blanket and piled pillows on top of her, along with a few adults on top.  This lasted for hours and the girl died in her own feces and vomit.

You can find the whole transcript of the event, as it was videotaped.

I remember Julie Ponder whispering shit in my ear during the truth. It pissed me off since she was distant and didn't know me well.

When I reaf the transcript of the murder of this girl, I hear Julies raspy cigarette-smoking New Agey voice in my head.

sickening. . .

Tommy O

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone. I have to say that all of this takes me by surprise. I graduated in 98, and I can't say that I completely agree with the program, but it saved my life. I've had plenty of ups and downs in the last 5 years, but I realize that I am a much stronger person because of all that crap that goes on there. Also, my relationships with other people are deeper because I understand so much that people go through without having been through it myself. True, there have been many times that I've cursed the school and my parents for taking away 2 years of my life, and when I remember life there the memories are generally bad. Who really enjoys getting yelled at three times a week in forums or standing up in front of a room full of people and telling them all the things you hate about yourself? And thinking about my "inner child" is somewhat embarrassing too, oh yeah and negative statements and all that workshop stuff..
Forgive me for rambling. My point is, Cascade was a long long time ago, and even though it sucked, I am grateful for the strength and understanding of life that I got from it.

Oh yeah, I don't know what all this talk about Carl being a predator or whatever, but I was one of his favorites and he never gave me any reason to doubt that he's an amazing person.

Kurt Mundorff (Meandork!) if you're out there, you rock.

-Stephanie, Class of 98

skimitsuka@yahoo.com

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the kind words KimmySu (do you even remember that I called you that?)
There certainly were some predatory people working at Cascade. Some simply "disappeared" when there activities were discovered, while others continued to abuse their positions to the "bitter end."
I am a very affectionate person; always have been and always will be. However, I can sleep at night because I know I have never been physically inappropriate with anyone in my life. My affection was always displayed very publicly. It saddens me that a few people who thought I was an asshole (I always claimed I was an asshole in recovery) threw out those allegations because they knew it was the most hurtful thing they could throw.
Many things at Cascade were beneficial to some students, and many things were abusive and there were people working there who should not have been allowed to get within 100 yards of an adolescent.
That being said, there comes a time when it truly is a time to move on. I know there were times when I was verbally "aggressive" and said things to students I would cringe at today if they came out of my mouth. To those on the receiving end I have offered my apologies. There is nothing more I can offer except to say that my motives were always to help young people cut through to the best parts of themselves. There was never an intent to abuse power.

For what it's worth, when I chose to leave the school six years ago after working there seven years, I returned a few months later to keep a promise to a few students to be there when they came out of their Symposium Workshop. A few weeks later I was told that a certain founder of the school had walked into a Counselor meeting to inform everyone that I was "banned" from the school and that no students could continue to have contact with me because I had allegedly told a student they should leave the school.

I guess I am guilty as charged on some level. I did have a conversation with an 18-year-old who had six months to go until graduation but had been accepted into a major University. She was weighing the pros and cons of leaving Cascade to enter college rather than waiting an extra year to begin. I think I actually dared to tell her that she needed to weigh everything and then make a decision for herself.

She asked me if I felt her life would be ruined if she did not complete the program and go through the Symposium. I laughed and told her there was value in going through the experience but that were no Gods waiting to deliver their seal of approval of her at the end of the Workshop or at graduation.

Apparently she shared that conversation with her "counselor" and it eventualy reached the exalted one.

Heresy!

[Anonymous]

carl...you were the only one who took kids in no matter hat the looked like...what they put off...purely cause you believed in them...thamks
A
Aimee remember me?
why were you part of this mess?

[Anonymous]

ps
sooo glad you are safe in thailand
A

[Anonymous]

Is this "THE" Aimee??
Head???

[Anonymous]

the one and only!

[Anonymous]

i would like to know.

[Anonymous]

Well Ms Aimee "Head" E.

It is so good to know you are out there somewhere and at least in electronic reach of me. I would love to hear how you are doing! Are you in San Francisco, New York? or somewhere more exotic!

You can email me direct at funster@mindspring.com

Hugs,
Snarl

[iknowcedulies]

get a username so i can send you private messages anonymous.   tell us about michael allgood and his crazy wives.  tell us about the abusive staff and tell us how they get kids to think they are good people.  that mindfuck has been going on since they started the scam/extortion racket called "emotional growth"

[Anonymous]

I am a cascade graduate from '88.  I am sooo-o glad this school is closed.  It was the weirdest most traumatic experience I ever went through.  Has anyone ever tried to sue them for abuse?  Some of the things they made me do in those workshops still make me want to puke.  I fake cried my way through most of the raps and workshops just to get the unprofessional staff off my back.  I remember seeing Michael Allgood laying on the ground with his favorites all piled around him (only boys) looking all smug.  The same with Eric Meltzer and his girls (perv).  The only staff I could relate to was cory, GAbe and TY.  I'm only in touch with 1 person from that school.  It took me a few years to get my bearings back into real life.  I would never send my children to a school like that. S.Z

[iknowcedulies]

One thing you need to know about allgood is that he believes the ends jusfifies the means. he believes he is always right and therefore it is okay to embezzle from parents and state's because after all being molested by him is better than being molested by some inmate and hey he has a nice suv to drive as well. allgood does not care about kids and that "loyalty" crap he puts out is a lie. Allgood has a vendetta against all the kids he molested who now realize that he is a con man and the "school" was just a front to molest boys and brainwash girls to believe his lies. the lie and twisting of the truth done by him and others  is that it is the kids who have a vendetta against them. the truth is that it is the other way around.  sociopaths believe their own lies [ This Message was edited by: iknowcedulies on 2005-04-12 17:52 ]

[Anonymous]

Hey Carl, I was wondering did you know about counselors such as Dan Berman and Scott Abbott molesting kids while he was there? Did you say anything? Did anyone in the staff know. It seems pretty odd that the student know more about this than the counselors.... or was it just deemed consensual and therefore not perverted?

[post cascadian]

now i have a username

[Anonymous]

iknowcedulies: check your private msgs