Author Topic: Questions for Calo Students  (Read 26279 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline psy

  • Administrator
  • Newbie
  • *****
  • Posts: 5606
  • Karma: +2/-0
    • View Profile
    • http://homepage.mac.com/psyborgue/
Questions for Calo Students
« on: September 16, 2009, 12:40:26 PM »
Continued from this thread.

Quote from: "CALO Student #17"
I'm usually someone who sees things for how they are, without distorting events or ideas in a bias manner.

I'm skeptical such a person exists, self included, which is why it's necessary to limit power.

Quote
If anybody wants to know more about this place, feel free to ask me. I might be the only person who has ever been neutral about CALO (lol), so I don't have any reason to lie or hide anything.

What was group like?  Was it harsh?  Confrontational.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
Benchmark Young Adult School - bad place [archive.org link]
Sue Scheff Truth - Blog on Sue Scheff
"Our services are free; we do not make a profit. Parents of troubled teens ourselves, PURE strives to create a safe haven of truth and reality." - Sue Scheff - August 13th, 2007 (fukkin surreal)

Offline Anonymous

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 164653
  • Karma: +3/-4
    • View Profile
Re: Questions for Calo Students
« Reply #1 on: September 16, 2009, 09:30:02 PM »
Medical Tests

What medical tests did CALO require you to undergo prior to enrollment?
Who conducted the tests?

Physical Restraints

Did restraint reports specify proactive measures taken by staff to prevent restraints, what time restraints started, what time restraints finished, staff involved and injuries from restraints?
Were students allowed to process restraints via. telephone with their parents?
« Last Edit: September 17, 2009, 10:28:12 AM by Anonymous »

Offline Che Gookin

  • Global Moderator
  • Newbie
  • *****
  • Posts: 4241
  • Karma: +11/-3
    • View Profile
Re: Questions for Calo Students
« Reply #2 on: September 16, 2009, 11:00:05 PM »
CALo student #17

What happened after you attempted to communicate with those girls using sign language?

What is a double duece?
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline CALO Student #17

  • Posts: 25
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
Re: Questions for Calo Students
« Reply #3 on: September 18, 2009, 12:19:44 PM »
Sorry for not getting back to you guys sooner. College has been keeping me busy, lol.

Anyways, I personally didn't have to go through any medical tests or evaluations. I'm sure that they evaluate the student first though. Most of the students that went to CALO had come from some other previous program at one point or another. I went to Second Nature, a wilderness program and I was transfered to CALO as soon as I came out of the woods. I'm sure that my therapist in SN forwarded my information to CALO. Besides that, the only tests that I went through were physicals every now and then that were given by a doctor from the nearby hospital (i forgot the name, sorry). I wasn't even prescribed meds for my entire stay there.

And as far as restraints go, staff typically tried to use the PCS method as a last resort. A hold typically put the day's flow out of whack, so for the sake of keeping the mood as positive as possible (which wasn't very high anyways) staff tried to talk the student down first. I'm not gonna lie, there's been a couple staff members who enjoyed holds, but those staff members didn't last more than 4 months. In fact, my entire stay in CALO, there was an average of 1 or 2 staff members being replaced every month.* Along with the disruption and having to move all the students away from the hold, staff also avoided holds because each one involved a good deal of paperwork. The student is always examined for injuries some time after the hold (unsually right after, but I've seen them take as much as 6 hours to get around to it). Any injuries are recorded, sometimes even if there is an injury that happened before the hold. The therapist and the parents are always alerted about the hold, but usually not right away unless the therapist is on campus at the time.

Students get at least one therapy session per week and almost always involve a phone call with the parents. This is usually to process whatever the student is working on in their program at the time. We also had another "free-time" phone call on Sundays. We used to be able to call to our parents durring this time, but once we started filling up with more students, we had to arrange times where the parents called in. We got 30 minute phone calls (which i always extended to 40-60 minutes  :D). If the parent did not call in durring their scheduled time, then the student would be skipped. At the end of the phone call schedule, there is time set aside for the staff to try calling the parents who didn't call in. If they don't pick up, then the student typically doesn't talk to their parents until the therapy session later in the week. Durring the free-time phone calls, however, the students are not really being monitored, until it has been prescribed by the therapist. The phone room is pretty big, and theres only one staff member in there to watch us, sothey don't get the hance to actually listen in on all the conversations. We can say whatever we want.

Lol, Che, you've certainly done your homework. We typically get regroup for communicating with the opposite sex. We also got the green shirt, but that usually isn't a big deal. The therapist is usually informed of the comunication and the student gets to talk about whatever they were trying to do. This is usually where the students lie their asses off, btw, lol. Anyways, the "double deuces" thing was between another student and me. It was our sign of "I was thinking about you today". This "sign language" was set up when we were both on home visits. She called me every now and then, and before we went back to CALO, I thought it would be something cute to do. I'm not sure if anybosy else has used that, lol. I'm kinda suprised that you've heard about that, lol.


*This obviously caused problems with students because most of them were sent to CALO with attatchment issues. It always hurt when you get really close to a staff member, then they suddenly just disappear. Sometimes, the administrators actually didn't allow the staff members to return and say goodbyes. There were times when students would openly refuse to open up to staff members due to fear of being hurt when the staff member leaves.

Any other questions?
« Last Edit: July 09, 2010, 01:58:35 PM by CALO Student #17 »

Offline CALO Student #17

  • Posts: 25
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
Re: Questions for Calo Students
« Reply #4 on: September 18, 2009, 12:28:00 PM »
Oh, i forgot to answer the other part of the "restraints" question.

All staff members on CALO property are PCS certified, so they can put students in a hold. I've even seen our cook put a kid in a hold once. Therapists and administrators aren't an exceptions either.

And as far as how long they last, it "lasts as long as it needs to". This pretty much means that they will keep the kid on the ground (not necessarily putting pressure) until they are calm enough to listen. Holds aren't like "kid disrupts - staff put into hold - kid calms down - staff gets off - day goes on". After the hold, the student has to talk to the staff members who put him him/her into a hold. It doesn't have to immediately after, but no longer than a day after the hold. Because of this, staff tend to keep the student down until they feel that the student is calm enough to talk to and resolve whatever issues are going on.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Anonymous

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 164653
  • Karma: +3/-4
    • View Profile
Re: Questions for Calo Students
« Reply #5 on: September 18, 2009, 01:00:44 PM »
17--
Were you ever abused by staff?

Do you think CALO was genuinely trying to help kids or were they just full of shit?
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Anonymous

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 164653
  • Karma: +3/-4
    • View Profile
Re: Questions for Calo Students
« Reply #6 on: September 18, 2009, 02:25:43 PM »
Does Ken Huey allow students to call the state abuse hotline if a student witnesses abuse?  If not, what are his reasons?


Quote
All staff members on CALO property are PCS certified, so they can put students in a hold. I've even seen our cook put a kid in a hold once. Therapists and administrators aren't an exceptions either.  And as far as how long they last, it "lasts as long as it needs to".

The mindset "lasts as long as it needs to" really concerns me.  This mentality casues serious injuries to children.  It would make sense to call a supervisor to assist staff in preventing a restraint.  Children respond better to a fresh face.  This is not always the case though.  Do staff call a supervisor as a proactive measure to prevent physical restraints?  What is the longest you've seen another child in a restraint for?

I appreciate your willingness to answer questions.  Thankyou very much.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Anonymous

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 164653
  • Karma: +3/-4
    • View Profile
Re: Questions for Calo Students
« Reply #7 on: September 18, 2009, 03:22:26 PM »
Quote
I'm not gonna lie, there's been a couple staff members who enjoyed holds, but those staff members didn't last more than 4 months.

Staff who enjoy holds is a serious problem.  Did these staff provoke physical restraints?  If yes, how did they provoke restraints?  

Quote
In fact, my entire stay in CALO, there was an average of 1 or 2 staff members being replaced.* Along with the disruption and having to move all the students away from the hold, staff also avoided holds because each one involved a good deal of paperwork.

What were the students reactions when they saw physical restraints?

Quote
The student is always examined for injuries some time after the hold (unsually right after, but I've seen them take as much as 6 hours to get around to it). Any injuries are recorded, sometimes even if there is an injury that happened before the hold. The therapist and the parents are always alerted about the hold, but usually not right away unless the therapist is on campus at the time.

I assume physical restraint paperwork consists of (1) proactive measures to prevent a restraint (2) students state of mind prior to the restraint (3) reason student was restrained (4) when the restraint started (5) when the restraint finished (6) type of physical restraint conducted and (7) staff involved in the restraint.  Am I correct?

I assume PCS restraints, from my research, consist of bent wrist control with sub variations.  Am I correct?

Thankyou for your time and effort.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Che Gookin

  • Global Moderator
  • Newbie
  • *****
  • Posts: 4241
  • Karma: +11/-3
    • View Profile
Re: Questions for Calo Students
« Reply #8 on: September 19, 2009, 11:17:20 AM »
Very interesting about the green shirts. I heard Ken Hooey claiming they were voluntary for kids who need a bit more attention.

As for restraint happy staff lasting only 4 or so months? Are you kidding me? What about Brian and Kevin, aka the champion psycho staffers who love to inflicit the pain?

? Also what about Nick Llament who was fired because he didn't support Kevin who did a shit hold on some poor kid? I understood the kids at CALO had a high regard for him.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline psy

  • Administrator
  • Newbie
  • *****
  • Posts: 5606
  • Karma: +2/-0
    • View Profile
    • http://homepage.mac.com/psyborgue/
Re: Questions for Calo Students
« Reply #9 on: September 19, 2009, 04:02:38 PM »
Quote from: "Che Gookin"
Very interesting about the green shirts. I heard Ken Hooey claiming they were voluntary for kids who need a bit more attention.

Well.  In fairness he said they were mostly voluntary (if you feel down, you wear a special shirt and people are supposed to be nice to you, for example).  He did say that there were cases where kids were made to wear them but recently claimed that they stopped that practice.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
Benchmark Young Adult School - bad place [archive.org link]
Sue Scheff Truth - Blog on Sue Scheff
"Our services are free; we do not make a profit. Parents of troubled teens ourselves, PURE strives to create a safe haven of truth and reality." - Sue Scheff - August 13th, 2007 (fukkin surreal)

Offline CALO Student #17

  • Posts: 25
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
Re: Questions for Calo Students
« Reply #10 on: September 19, 2009, 04:14:58 PM »
To thetruthplease:

No, personally, I was never abused by staff. In fact, in my entire stay (1 year, 1 day), I wasn't put into a hold once. I've had my wrist held, but they didn't put any pressure.

And honestly, I think that there are some very genuine staff members there who want to help, but then there are other who have different reasons for being there. I'll get a little more into depth about this when I answer bobpeterson.


To Questions:

No, we aren't allowed to call anyone at all. The only time that we can kind of call out, is when our paretns don't call for our Sunday phone time. Even then, it is the staff member who picks up the phone and talks to the person first before the student does. This is because a student once tried to call a friend to come get them.

Holds have always been a wierd situation. It's different for different students. Some students preffer to be held by a staff member that they trust. That way, it's easier for them to open up when processing whatever is going on. On the other hand, when some students are restrained by a trusted staff member, they instantly feel like they lose connection with them. They hold the mindset of "How can you do this? I thought we were friends". But from what I've seen, for the most part, being restrained by a newer staff member prevents the students from opening up. Only a couple students comply with a newer staff.

I've seen a student be in a hold, literally, for about 3 hours. There wasn't constant pressure being put on the whole time though, obviously. He was put into a hold, then the staff would stop putting pressure when he calmed down enough to listen. They'd usually let go of the wrists, then just hold down the arms and talk. They felt good enough to let him sit up as they talked, but then he started saying violent things again. This held his hands again and told him that he neede to calm back down again, but when he started fighting back anyways, they threw him down into another hold. This sort-of cycle went on a few times, making the overall hold last a long time.

To bobpeterson:

No, the staff don't provoke the students in a sense of saying "Does that make you mad? Are you going to do something about it?". When I say that they're restrain-happy, I mean that they have more of a mindset of "secure the student first, then ask questions". Of course, this didn't go over too well with the students (mostly because we felt like the staff wanted the hold to take place), so naturally... that's where it led to.

The reactions to restraints differed depending on who it was being held. It wasn't uncommon that we could see that it was completely the fault of the student. Some of the kids there were... hot headed and stubborn. However, I do recall a time when a student was put into a hold because they were freaking out about their friend being retrained.

I've never actually seen the paperwork myself, but that sounds about right. The only thing that I would think to add is the physical body check. After each hold, the student is examined for and injuried that may have occured durring the hold.

And yes, what happens durring PCS (stands for "Positive Control System") is the wrist bending. The staff member lodges the student's elbow into the bend of the staff's own arm, in order to keep the student from pulling out of it. They then bend the wrist downwards. This is supposedly proven to be impossible to break a person's wrist, because the "pain" (which is more of a discomfort than a pain) is caused by the tendons being stretched. Personally, I think that if the wrist-bending were done at a ridiculously high speed, then the tendon could actually snap, or even pull a small bone fragment out of place. I only know this because it's what happened to me in football... but honestly, a staff member would have to be really, really strong and being trying to break something. There aren't many variations, besides positioning of the student. The PCS I just described would be called an "escort", with a staff member on each side, both with an arm. A "hold" is when the student is put onto the ground. The arms are on the ground and out to the sides. This also requires one staff member per arm and the staff member is holding the arm down by the student's tricep. The hand is upwards, and bent towards the body of the student. This is basically the same thing. The only variation on the actual bending involves the position of the thumb. When the thumb is pulled in, towards the palm, it bunches the nerves in the wrist, causing an even greater discomfort durring the bend.

To Che:

We all loved Nick. He was one of the most genuine staff members that we had. He personally told me that he wasn't fired, but that he was having family problems. It's true that he didn't agree with all of the CALO procedures and stuff, but his family member was in the hospital. From what he knew, the family member wouldn't be able to work, so Nick volunteered to take over the business. He felt that it was a good time to do so anyways, since he knew that CALO admins didn't really like how he disagreed with their system.

Green shirts can be optional, meaning that the student can inform the staff members that they would like extra attention and closeness. For the most part, though, it was staff's decision to put kids on closeness. Trust me, most of the kids there don't know what's good for them, so a lot of them needed to have someone tell them. I'm not gonna lie though, there's been times where the green shirt was a bunch of bullshit. Typically, it wasn't a big deal. It usually didn't restrict you from doing anything, unless prescribed by the therapist. The green shirt almost completely means that staff keeps a better watch on you. Not a whole lot more than that.

And I'm not sure which brian and kevin that you're talking about. I said before that I wasn't really going to name people, but if you send me a private message, I'd be glad to reply a response on this forum again. I have a pretty good idea of who you're talking about though, lol.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline CALO Student #17

  • Posts: 25
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
Re: Questions for Calo Students
« Reply #11 on: September 19, 2009, 04:37:07 PM »
Oh, shit, I boarderlined a lie just now.

I've never been "abused" by staff, but I've wrestled around with some and I play fight with a couple. We usually did this without other students or higher-ups knowing, but it was never abusive and they still followed the guidelines of the 2-1 ratio... so it was either 2 staff against me, or one of them would just watch, lol. It was never abusive though, but I've bust my lip once, lol. These few staff members made it very clear, though, that if they didn't think I could handle it, then they never would consider it.

This would also be a good time to mention that staff there play favorites. I mean, we're all human, but still, I've seen ridiculous double standards at times. Most of the staff loved me, because I basically get along with everyone that I meet... except for Caleb... he and I never got along. Anyways, it was a bit unfair when staff members didn't care when I did some stuff and wouldn't allow others. That didn't matter too much, because they usually had the excuse of "well, I personally feel like he can handle things like this, so I say it's okay". The part that pissed me off was when there was a student that everybody hated. There were only 3 or 4 studets that fit this category, but still, staff members didn't lose any sleep after putting them into vicious holds. So yeah... since there was no bond between the staff and the student, there wasn't nearly as much hesitation when it came to putting them to the ground. I hated that, so I did what I could to help.


By the way, I'm going to be busy for most of today because I'm taking my friend out to Olive Garden and Jillian's for her birthday. I might not be able to answer any questions until late tonight. Tomorrow, I have some event at some temple to go to... I'm not too sure of what it is or how long it lasts, but I'll try to get back to you guys if I can again. Sorry guys, lol, but I'm doing as much as I can.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline psy

  • Administrator
  • Newbie
  • *****
  • Posts: 5606
  • Karma: +2/-0
    • View Profile
    • http://homepage.mac.com/psyborgue/
Re: Questions for Calo Students
« Reply #12 on: September 19, 2009, 05:18:43 PM »
A girl who recently ran from CALO, according to the press, hadn't spoken to her parents in ~8-9 months.  Is that sort of thing normal?  What might have caused that lapse in communication?

Also, what's this whole business about "therapeutic touch".  What's that about, because it sounds rather...  unsettling?
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
Benchmark Young Adult School - bad place [archive.org link]
Sue Scheff Truth - Blog on Sue Scheff
"Our services are free; we do not make a profit. Parents of troubled teens ourselves, PURE strives to create a safe haven of truth and reality." - Sue Scheff - August 13th, 2007 (fukkin surreal)

Offline psy

  • Administrator
  • Newbie
  • *****
  • Posts: 5606
  • Karma: +2/-0
    • View Profile
    • http://homepage.mac.com/psyborgue/
Re: Questions for Calo Students
« Reply #13 on: September 19, 2009, 06:05:43 PM »
Also, what are "accountability groups" like?
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
Benchmark Young Adult School - bad place [archive.org link]
Sue Scheff Truth - Blog on Sue Scheff
"Our services are free; we do not make a profit. Parents of troubled teens ourselves, PURE strives to create a safe haven of truth and reality." - Sue Scheff - August 13th, 2007 (fukkin surreal)

Offline Che Gookin

  • Global Moderator
  • Newbie
  • *****
  • Posts: 4241
  • Karma: +11/-3
    • View Profile
Re: Questions for Calo Students
« Reply #14 on: September 20, 2009, 12:24:53 AM »
So if Nick Llament left to help the family business why is he waiting tables at Applebees? And as for restraints something tells me you missed the one where the girl got thrown on her face in the parking lot for throwing a snowball at a male staff member.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »