I am a former inmate of the Elan School from 94' to 96'. These WERE the worst years of my life. I watched things happen before my eyes I still cannot believe to this day actually happened. I still have nightmares and anytime I allow my mind to wander, guess where it goes. This place did serious damage to my emotionally, which i do not think can be repaired. I also have a close friend who went through the "program" with me, who i have been friends with ever since and have lived with after Elan. He was so tramutised by what happened to him in Elan he turned to drugs to escape the living nightmare he had to endure everyday. He jumped out of a window one day and is now permanently disabled. In fact, he has no control over his body from the neck down, for the rest of his life. I think about him and i cry , for me i would rather be dead than have to live my life from 24 years on, in his condition. Elan is directly responsible as far as i am concerned, I don't care what anyone else thinks. The emotional torture they put my friend through rivals that which was carried out on our poor soldiers in the prison camps in Vietnam.
We cannot allow this horrible place to ruin anymore people's lives. This has nothing to do the parents of children brought to Elan. Any past inmate will tell you that they had no idea what was going on and probably will never know either. Elan and its staff are masters of deception. Everytime anyone from the government or the educational department of Maine tries to see first hand what really goes on there, the staff are informed ahead of time. This gives them time to create the illusions and deceptions necessary to hide the TRUTH about what goes on in this horrible place. If a child id completely out of control during the visit from officals, they simply move him or her to place where they won't be seen. Anyone who has gone through the program knows what this is "house isolation". I feel helpless becuase i don't have the money to hire a lawyer to go after these people. I need help. I am trying to find other people who will testify, in open court, as to the "holocaust style" attrocities going on at Elan. We can only win if we are united. I can't tell you how many times i think to my self how easy it would be to go to Elan at night and liberate all of the children there. I am suffering, please help me!
