Petition to close the abusive Provo Canyon School is gaining

[cherish wisdom]

I'd just like to thank the former employee of PCS for disclosing what really happens behind the closed doors of that institution.  If more people like you came forward perhaps something could be done to prevent this type of institutionalized abuse. Unfortunately the children who are subjected to this are routinely called manipulators.  Most staff members seem to have a code of silence that is part of the problem.
Thank you so much for giving some validity to the horror stories of hundreds of former patients at Provo Canyon School.
Best wishes to you and hopefully you can join our effort of reform and exposure of this teen industry.  

 :nworthy:  :nworthy:  :nworthy:

Everything that people say to you is personal. Whether it is constructive criticism or not will determine whether it cam from and asshole or not.

----Bill Warbis

[Anonymous]

I understand that Dr Phil suggested that parents send their child to Provo Canyon School for treatment.
I sent my child to Provo Canyon School in Orem Utah upon the advise of three therapists in California.  It was the worst decison I ever made.  She was diagnosed with severe depression and post traumatic stress syndrome.  What happend to her at Provo Canyon School defies beleif and was in no way therapeutic for a patient suffering from severe depression.
She was severely punished with isolation and seclusion for a week for describing her maltreatment in a group therapy session. She was drugged with an injection of   five millgrams of Haldol by force while six people held her down. During this episode she told staff that she could not breathe and nearly died from asphyxiation.  After the ordeal she became unconscious and blacked out. The staff left her in this small, cold, concrete room.  No one monitored her. In the morning she was lethargic and staff kicked her until she woke up.  She was the faced with the horrifying side effects of a Haldol overdose - facial contortions, drooling, inability to swallow, blindness and severe back pain.  Emergency care was not given, instead she was forced to do chores and was punished for fighting against the forced injections.   She also witnessed the abuse of other girls and could hear the boys ages 12 -13 screaming day and night.  There were many other abuses she experienced and witnsessed. The maltreatment she received only made her worse and caused her to derail psychologically.  
There is another side to this lucrative teen industry that lacks regulation and governmental oversight.  The children in these facilities are truly vulnerable to abuse of every kind because they are shut-off from the world.
I made reports of this abuse to the authorities - CPS the Attorney General of Utah, Health and Human Services. All we receieved were carefully worded letters indicating that nothing would be done.  
Please look at the other side of the coin. These programs may do more harm than good to mentally ill teens - especially those suffering from trauma or depression.

[Anonymous]

I support all human rights and children's rights and feel everyone should be respected equally as individuals. CCM (Cross Creek Manor-WWASPS) is my personal experience, though I am aware of other Programs which treat people in inhuman, unlawful, and cruel manners and I support the shut down of them whole heartedly.

[Anonymous]

This place abused me emotionally, physically, and mentally!  Please, someone needs to do something about this place immediately!
SH

[cherish wisdom]

This was taken from the petition to close PCS. I had a similar experience in 2003 - with therpists from Vista Del Mar - in Ventura - recommending residential treatment for my child.......

My daughter was a resident of this facility in 1990 - 91 and during her stay there and after she complained about the treatment. I , at the time, did not consider her statements as "rational" after all she was there for behavior problems that were out of control..suicidal in nature and had been recommended by the Psychiatric facility in our city of Ventura, Clif. namely Vista Del Mar, so this place had to be a good one. Not to mention the cost that was paid for by her father's insurance.  The staff always seemed to be compassionate, understanding and concerned. My daughter is now 30..(today 12/20) and still has nightmares about the months she spent in PCS. She has forgiven me for sending her there, but I can't completely forgive myself since coming to terms with what she told me was actually true and I did not believe her.  I believe that there are children who do need help...but not this kind. If what I have said here stops or prevents another child from going through what my daughter did, then I have righted a wrong and can look at myself better.

If it is believed that... elementary schools will be better managed by the governor and council, the commissioners of the literary fund or any other general authority of the government than by the parents within each ward, it is a belief against all experience.
http://laissezfairebooks.com/product.cfm?op=view&pid=FF7485&aid=10247' target='_new'>Thomas Jefferson

[Anonymous]

I am a former student of pcs and i left last week. My father committed suicide in july 2004 and my mom put me at pcs because I started smoking pot. Pcs is Not a thereputic enviornment, and they are extremely verbaly and physically abusive. they pushed their mormon reliogion on me and the staff are all young mormons just out of colllege who wanted an easy job. pcs is bull**** please if you love your child dont send them there no one no matter how many struggles they have been through should have to go through the neglect pain and abuse they put every child who attends through

[Nihilanthic]

Go to http://www.isacorp.org

Go to the media.

Email, call, snail mail, ANYTHING, to Dr. Phil.

Dr. Phil on live TV sent a girl to PCS on his show!

Ardent advocates of prohibition were obsessed by a zeal that bordered on fanaticism. They supported politicians who voted to outlaw liquor, no matter how much of it they privately consumed, and spurned politicians who voted against prohibition, no matter how sober they were personally.
http://www.ncpoliticalreview.com/1101/Ervin/cohen.htm' target='_new'>Sen. Sam Ervin, Preserving The Constitution

[Anonymous]

They are still up to their own tricks - they should be shut down.  What they are doing in the name of therapy is beyond belief. Isolation, forced drugging, strippings, sensory depravation, take downs - all of these thing do nothing to improve the mental state of the patients there.

Parents should not be paying $12,000 per month for others to abuse their children.

[Anonymous]

At the hands of these monsters my psyche was practically destroyed and my self esteem annihilated.  I still suffer from nightmares.  My way of life has been forever disturbed, and it sickens me. I will do whatever I need to do to bring justice to myself and those like me.

[Anonymous]

Close PCS!  I spent eleven months pretending to be the way they wanted me to be so I could go home to my family and friends.  I was insulted and mocked repeatedly by my therapist, not only to my face but behind my back to other students.  Most of the staff were under-qualified college students whose main priority was to chat on the phone with their boyfriends or power hungry middle aged women who had nothing better to do than make you feel diminished and worthless.  Please shut this injust school down.

[cherish wisdom]

Here is another story from the petition to close Provo Canyon School.....Please sign it if you haven't done so.....There are so many stories like this - of lives lost, pain and suffering.

I was only thirteen years old when admitted to PCS. They said I was just touring it. Then as soon as I was behind closed doors they put me in a room with a woman whom I have never met before. She told me I was staying there and couldn't say goodbye to my mom. I was pretty scared. At the time I was a rebellious teen girl, with an attitude. By the time I left there I was an adult. They diagnosed me with an illness I am sure doesn't even exist. They called it oppositional defiant disorder. They forced me to speak of things painful to the thought let alone the tongue. My therapist had me admitting to things I had never done. He had a way with words. I was punished because of a physical ailment. I was unable to bend at the knee so I couldn't bend over to clean the bottom of my shower. I sat on the investment unit for a long time just because I was impaired. I saw things I never should have seen at thirteen. Suicide attempts, unexplainable psych illnesses. Feces rubbed on the floor and walls ,constant screams and cries in the night.(I heard dial nine in my sleep for years after leaving there) I am from Las Vegas and almost 8 years ago I was sent to PCS as a guinea pig for an insurance company thinking of covering the program on their rehabilitation policy. I smoked pot. And at 13 not very often. I was not crazy. My mother was misinformed about my treatment. In fact it seemed there were always secrets. I left there in February of 1997. I was too scared to leave my house until November that same year. Nine months I sheltered myself from the world. Trying to hide from the world I viewed in there. I saw things at that young age that most people living full lives never see. In the end being around the older girls only educated me of the drugs I had yet to conquer. After my nine month hibernation I emerged only to hide the pain I felt, the shame I felt. Everyone treated me like I was crazy I figured why not act the part. Besides that, from the day I was admitted to PCS and to this day now, I am different. I!

 think differently. I was an outsider to my peers, with memories that made me somewhat queer. I was quiet and withdrawn. I didn't think anyone would even begin to understand. I kept quiet. It ate at my soul.  I let my self-esteem run my life for the next 5 years. I battled a massive addiction to methanphetamines. Hell, I fought with addiction to everything. I was finally incarcerated into a state facility. I didn't need it, but I deserved it. I did not deserve PCS. I am and have always been a strong willed leader of a person. I have a kind soul and a genuine heart. No one will ever be able to take that away from me again. No one will ever coerce me to believe otherwise. Today I am a mother of a 2 year old little girl. I don't have the perfect life but I try everyday. I still think of those screams I still remember the girl who pulled out her hair whenever she got mad. I bet they have forgotten me. (the staff and counselors). I believe they admitted me there for money and knew I was an average brat of a girl.

Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you recognize a mistake when you make it again.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/external-search?tag=circlofmiamithem&keyword=mark+twain&mode=books' target='_new'>Mark Twain

[Anonymous]

I hope they close this monstrosity as quickly as they can.  I was there in the early 90's and it seems things have not changed.  The lies, the abuse, the harassment, its all still alive and well going unchecked by a city turning a blind.  Parents should be well aware of the reality of this place and the lengths to which PCS will go to keep the truth (it should be eye opening that hundreds of former "students", not just a couple disgruntled rebels, tell the same stories or experiences).  The only way to get out if you have wealthy parents is to graduate (PCS will make up anything they can to keep draining your family of money). PCS went as far as to accuse me of being a drug addict and saying I tested positive after home visits etc, when in actuality I had NEVER in my life touched drugs.)

 

It took my parents a couple years of research after I graduated to learn the real truth and they've been apologizing ever since.  So not only has this hurt my adolescence, but it hurt my family to know that they were the ones who fell for such a destructive place when all they wanted was for me to spend more time on my studies and not hang out with friends they didn't approve of.  

 
I'm well over the horrible treatment I endured, but hope that one day they will be forced to close their doors.  To this day I still have problems with my knees from spending hours upon hours, hands folded and twisted, knees locked in a standing position, over and over again all day for 20 or so minutes at a time with 5-10minute breaks to work off "points" for having a sock turned the wrong way in my drawer or "hospital corners" that were not perfect.  

 

Is this really how you want your children treated?

[cherish wisdom]

Many more signatures and stories on the petition - over 400 now -
These can be viewed at
http://www.heal-online.org/sign.htm

Here's one....
I am appalled by the methods employed at this institution. The "behavior modification" techniques reported by the students to be utilized at the school are archaic and unethical. The use physical punishment, forced confinement, and other punishment is inappropriate unacceptable. Testing attitude and future intentions by the use of a lie detector is offensive and inhumane.As a human rights advocate and a parent, I demand that this institution be shut down immediately. The individuals who have run this institution and supported these practices should be punished and barred from ever having a role that can impact young people again.We must send a message that prisons treating adolescents inhumanely will not be tolerated or condoned.

The bible teaches that woman brought sin and death into the world, that she precipitated the fall of the race, that she was arraigned before the judgment seat of Heaven, tried, condemned and sentenced. Marriage for her was to be a condition of bondage, maternity a period of suffering and anguish, and in silence and subjection, she was to play the role of a dependent on man's bounty for all her material wants, and for all the information she might desire...Here is the Bible position of woman briefly summed up.
--Elizabeth Cady-Stanton

[Anonymous]

I was at Provo Canyon School in the 90's.  We were made to stand, facing staight ahead, and not move for very very long periods of time, as punishment.  There was one girl there, who stood for so long, she passed out, fell face-first, and broke her jaw (which had to be wired shut).  The staff blamed her, saying she lost consciousness because she "locked her knees".   :flame:

[Anonymous]

Better do Something else to stop me.


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