My skepticism of the industry is warranted- it has hurt many who I love. I take nothing for granted.
My older son spent 6 months in a military BM facility. Came home, after much pleading with his father, with PTSD which resulted in a successful lawsuit. Talk about a Lord of the Rings environment. Ratio 1:60. Older cadets ran the show and one of the more infamous was notorious for having his goons hold down younger boys so he could slap their faces with his penis. Or having them strip and walk down the hall while the others, lined up on the sides made sarcastic remarks and gestures. The highlight of his ?therapy?- distrust of other people, internalized anger which manifested in cutting, devil worshipping, and serious drug use which began so he could fucking quiet his mind enough to sleep. There?s much more, but that will suffice to make the point.
My younger son was shipped away in the night to San Marcos Baptist Military Academy. A week after his arrival at mid-term an oldtimer confided that their dorm officer had been molesting him and other boys. Low and behold the MF is serving 95 years because my son reported it. They have had another inappropriate sexual incident since then. Ten months later my ex decided to send him to the east coast, so I couldn?t ?interfere? with his ?treatment?. He like the sound of ?Therapeutic Boarding School?, given the atrocities with the others. In addition to the experimental mind fucking he endured on a daily basis, he also did a stint in their glorified boot camp, sold as a wilderness leadership program. The ex-military survivalists left him in the woods overnight with a black trash bag and a poncho. No water, no flashlight, and certainly no food. He was puking every 20 minutes and the those ?adults? in charge couldn?t hear his screams for help because the bastards were tucked in their nice warm beds back at base. What if?. He?d had appendicitis or worse? Did I mention, neither facility was licensed? Highlight of his ?therapy?- my once athletic son, confident, A/B student who was well like by all age groups, was stripped of his self-esteem and taught to think like his pseudo parents- group think. He is recovering. The program perjured themselves to keep my son (my exes money) there.
My neighbor?s son was killed at Skyline Journey Wilderness program due to medical neglect. There is a lengthy thread on that subject if you are so inclined to read the horrors that they put this kids through. Staff and participants harangued and harassed him for being a faker until he proved them wrong. The highlight of his ?therapy?- death.
A business associates grandson was molested in a Baptist BM facility in Waco. Lawsuit pending.
My best friend was boarded at a Roloff Religious BM facility, called them reform homes then. She ran, was raped by a trucker and said the rape was less traumatizing than the ?treatment?.
There?s a few more, but I think that?s enough to justify my skepticism of the industry. I have no happy success stories to tell. When you take a kid from their home, you damn well better provide the ?better? environment you advertise.
I won?t buy the standard ?window of loss? excuse for harming kids in the industry. Those kids who play sports are not forced against their will to play. They are not in ?therapy?. NO therapy a kid is involved in should carry with it the risk of death. That?s about the most ludicrous thing you could say. It's a red flag for me, and causes me to second guess my original assumptions, that you are basically a good and reasonable person enmeshed in and conditioned by this horrendous industry. Just curious to know if you've read the accounts of those scores of kids who have died, and if you could defend their sadistic and/or ignorant 'caretakers'.
WT was unsanitary. If you can?t admit that, then you further loose credibility with me, for what that?s worth. Put up some damn dumpsters for the reasons I said earlier. Build a damn outhouse. Build more permanent structures with protection from the extreme elements. If you can?t get the infrastructure right, what?s to say you got the ?therapy? right? If you don?t consider those pictures to define squalor, then you need serious oversight and the program deserves to be closed. One should never be so blind as to think a high ?success? rate is any indicator that the kids have been treated with respect.
My sense of optimism has been altered by the rude awakening that exposure to this industry was the catalyst for- to discover that I indeed live in a nation of moralistic sadists, who get off on torturing social ?deviants?. My optimism lies in educating and staying as far away from them as possible.
