Cascade Closing-DECREASED ENROLLMENT

[Anonymous]

Wow,
iKNOWceduLIES,
the name says it all.

How rediculous are YOU right now?


-Neaner

   Adult

[Anonymous]

was anyone there when "slide" drained the pond?  I think it was probably in '99 mabye '98.  Slide was in my family and he "accidently" compleley drained the pond.  It was, to this day, the funniest and stupudist thing I ever saw.  Imagine the pond with no water in it and dead fish everywhere, he got railed for months.

 I got kicked out before the symposium when the "underground" was busted because a leadership student who was about to graduate unexpectively coped out.  I knew I was expelled and it didn't matter because everyone I was dirty with( a  commitie head and a buch of dormheads)  were already getting kicked out to so I turned in a full cop out list (about 40 pages long) for shits and giggles.  I think the members of the "underground" probably broke almost every "agreement" we were forced to agree to.  Paula and some of the other shady counselor's never trusted me, but I still had clout at that place, it was a very strange double life.  

Cascade sucked in a lot of ways, but it was just another experience that I went through that lead to the person I am today.  Like any other experience I do not regret going through it, although I wanted out the whole time.  I do, however, feel bad for the people in my family who did not handle it well and are now dead or on the streets.  Especially one girl who was like Cascade's poster child graduate who turned back to her prior life style and was killed shortly after graduating, she was probably the sweetest girl I have ever met, she was kind and vulnerable and I think Cascade contributed to her death.  

Mary and Jackie were good counselors and good people, so was lon(I forget how to spell his name, it is pronounced like lawn) he left in 99'.

[wiseup]

Cascade Survivor's  seem to think that because the counselors there treated them well that there is no way they could have mistreated or abused anyone else.  One thing about Cascade is that those who run it treat those who they like very well and those they do not the opposite. When those who are not treated well and abused by Cascade open up about it they are called losers and told they need medication. Cascade's agenda was "we don't believe in psychiatry". many cascade alumni have this attitude that because the staff at cascade were there for them in their time of need that therefore they treated others the same. Sadly, what these self-absorbed alumni think is dead wrong. Cascade counselors treated many as just something to abuse and hold until they were done abusing them. They had no regard for the trauma they inflicted and would terrorize students who talked about the abuse and even encourage others to harm them.  It is no coincidence that many were found suicidal or suicides.  Many former students are so selfish that they cannot understand that many were harmed by cascade and all they can do is blame the victims of cascade abuse.  it is a destructive cult that only seems to care about those who survive and disregard those who are left traumatized.

[Troll Control]

Deceased Erolless yeilds Decreased Enrollment.  Classic "Addition by Subtraction."

[Anony]

I was part of the Neil, Gabe, Allgood, Cass, the beginning of Cascade in 84-85.  Gosh, that long ago.  It sounds like some people are really upset with the school.  Is there a lawsuit, were people molested?  I don't know, but I'm surprised (or maybe not) that the school closed.  bjperry@juno.com

[Anonymous]

i was there when dan berman was kicked out for molesting boys and i remember he was head of my peer gorup which was in middle school at the time he had been threatening to hold me back for lack of growth - thank god i am a girl! that guy always seemed really sketchy and weird to me but so did some other people. NOT CARL!!!
i hated it that the most crule and manipulative people, at least in my peer goup, were the most rewarded with priviliges that pretty much invalidated the whole program for me. i kind of gave up when all of my friends got kicked out over christmas one year.
i was just a baby when i was sent to cascade i was 14 and i really had not left home before but i was leaving a terribly abusive situation at school and home that i never even talked about when i was at cascade. i really couldn't trust anyone there and i feel like i was emotionally/verbally abused by some people at that school. i really needed someone to be gentle and kind to me but i didn't get that at cascade.
also i think that for a school that supposeadly didn't support medication they sure drugged the shit out of me. i got in trouble for "refusing" my meds, i was WAY over medicated and when i would try to get off of them i would have massive anger problems and self-distructive problems. then this would lead counselors and Dr. Fisher (who is a sweet man and i think he meant well) to strongly encourage me to take meds again. it's now well-documented that you can't give anti-depressants to young teenagers, especially not zoloft, especially not in large quantities, and particularly if the kid responds to the medication by having breakdowns, rage, and thoughts of suicide. now i almost never take any kind of medication, not even advil and asside from a deep-seeded fear of therapy i am a fairly healthy person.
 :skull:

[mjacobs852003]

This is Melissa Jacobs I am here i Graduated in 2003 from Cascade last i heard the Casses were still living up in Whitmore and eric Meltzer left the school shortly after i got there.  The real truth is and most staff will tell you the same is that it appears that Michael allgood purposly ran the school        
into the ground and he took alot of peoples money with him.  I had heard that some paretns had paid months tuition in advance and they haddent gotten it back.  George Rogers who was in charge of beginning school had asked if it was going to be shut down and he was assured it wasnt but that was a lie.  As soon as Michael allgood took over for Jack culotta the headmaster when i was there (he left after 9/11 and i dont kno why he was great)the ed consultants really stopped reffering so many poeple and im assuming either they didnt like Michael or they liked Jack alot and didnt think that Michael was a very good headmaster.  To be very honest i never knew him becasue he was rarely ever around.  When jack was there he was always around doing meetings in the house calling out forums and being very close and in touch with all the kids there he was very involved and determined u could tell that he loved helping us.  Currently my mom is working with a lawyer in redding to help with a lawsuit against michael allgood i for one sure hopes she reems him especially if he really did run that school into the ground and if what i had heard about him doing so is true i hope she gets him good.  Its all really sad tho because to be blunt that school really saved my life and help get my family back on track.

[mjacobs852003]

yes paris was there for like a week

[mjacobs852003]

Paris Hilton went to Cascade Linda McCokey moved her in

[agnstdwind]

Barbara is it you??
-a former millhouse dormie

[Anonymous]

hey everyone, for those of you who knew me, it's walter craigie

i was pulled from cascade at the end of the 03 summer before the school's closing in january 04.

personally, i think all of this conspiracy crap about michael allgood setting us up teh bomb is quite retarded. i cant think of anything any of the administration could have possibly gained from a school closure.

i talked to barb and craig kass a few times after i left and after the closing, and they were both pretty torn up about it, trying to figure out what they were going to do next.

as far as reasons for the closing, it's not any more complex or sinister than people not sending as many kids away. also, the backbone of kids holding each other accountable broke. it got to a point where there was an underground doing bad shit all the time and nobody was willing to do anything about it. weed was smoked in the dorms, people broke into the dining hall repeatedly, kids sneaking out for fuck sessions, etc. the separation between kids and counselors grew and grew, with them giving admonishments about our behavior and the kids giving the middle finger back. so many kids were kicked out and pulled. i suppose the parents pulling their kids just got the feel that the place was rotting a little bit.

anyways, for a personal summary of cascade, i had a good time and made wonderful friends. everybody who bitches about it being hell and whatnot is a fucking pussy. i had some of the best matches of chess and axis & allies i will ever have. i mean sure, plenty sucked some major ass, but hell there's plenty of shit that sucks some major ass right now with rent and car payments. life! ahhh.

seeya,
walter

[Anonymous]

WAlter, its Melissa Jacobs, what you said for the most part is true but when Michael Algood took over alot of Educational consultants didnt like him or the way he wasnt involved with the school and all of the referrals from the Ed consultants dried up. I do agree that there was a huge underground thing going on thats for damn sure and there wasnt alot of integrity either but you have to want to change and for those who did the program worked but for those who didnt want the change it didnt work becasue they didnt want to accept the help from the staff. Cascade saved me and my family and fo those who say it didnt work is bullshit.  You had to want the change in your own life. I firmly believe that because Michael took over and that there was a big underground and lack of integrity that that is the reason for Cascade shutting down.

[Anonymous]

Its Melissa again, I do want to make it clear though that I honestly believe that all the other staff wanted to keep Cascade alive. I really believe that Barb, Craig, and all the other counselors loved what they did. I dont believe that they wanted the school to shut down.  They pretty much based their lives around the school it wasnt just a job for the counselors it was a part of their everyday lives they grew to love us like we were apart of thier families and essentially thier kids.  I truly believe that poeple like Barb, Craig, Jon kerr, Peter Reitz, Doreen DeRoss, Carla, Mary, the Erics, and all the other staff and counselors loved us deeply.  But i do believe that the reason the school shut down was ultimatly one way or the other because of Michael whether he wanted it to close or not.

[Anonymous]

hey melissa... Have you heard from any of the staff since graduation?  I know some of them went over to Carlbrook in VA (Jeff Moore, Mathew L., Scott Foran) but otherwise I don't know what happened to anyone....

By the way, Props for sticking up for the school.  I mean you went through hell there and came out a really amazing person.  I think you are a real example of how the school tried to help people.  The place had A LOT of problems but essentially it was there to help and a lot of us desperately needed some help in our lives.  I'm really mixed on my own experience there and have struggled like crazy in the 2 years since graduating, but no one can deny the amazing experiences we had at that place.  Smoosh piles just don't happen in the real world.

Anyway.... I think its good the school closed because it was in such awful shape and probably doing more harm than good but people lets not take all our bitterness and anger out on the place.

Celia 01-03
sillya@gmail.com
anyone feel free to email me with comments or whatever....

[Anonymous]

hey its walter again

heh what a quirky way to get in touch with you two again.
hows life?

i had a real good senior year at a regular boarding school after leaving, but when i went to college i kind of went off the deep end. smoked way too much weed and didnt do any work. i came back home to richmond on academic suspension and took up a full time job as a painter. i quit smoking trees, and actually found myself a really kick ass girlfriend.

id say my head's on my shoulders again, which is spiffy.

i hope things are going well for you two too.

seeya around,
walter

ps. i hope my first post wasnt taken as me bashing cascade...? regardless of things i hated and loved, its something i would never want to erase, and i have the most difficult time ever trying to share it with anyone not in the "club"