Fornits
Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS) => Topic started by: Anonymous on December 31, 2005, 12:26:00 PM
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Besides what has already been posted or what is in print, what is known about the circumstances around Karlye Newman's death at Spring Creek Lodge Academy in October 2004?
What was her life like at SCL?
Did any board members know her?
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info:
http://missoulanews.com/News/News.asp?no=4970 (http://missoulanews.com/News/News.asp?no=4970)
http://www.teenadvocatesusa.homestead.com/tribute1.html (http://www.teenadvocatesusa.homestead.com/tribute1.html)
http://www.ficausa.com/deaths.html (http://www.ficausa.com/deaths.html)
Sorry its not much help but all I could find on the subject. Wanted to at least bump this up.
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How could this girl hang herself with a sweatshirt in the shower anyway? sure sounds fishy to me. Has this incident been investigated further?
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The shower is really the only time you are unsupervised at SCL. You take a pile of clothes with you to the shower to change into when you get out. It's very plausible, although quite difficult I imagine because showers are limited in time (3-5 mins) and the next person is waiting right outside the curtain waiting for you to finish (it's crowded). She probably wrapped the sweatshirt around her neck and tied the other end around the shower head. She must have really wanted to end her life, because it would take a great deal of effort I would imagine. It's extremely sad. ::noway::
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On 2006-01-03 05:58:00, Anonymous wrote:
"info:
http://www.ficausa.com/deaths.html (http://www.ficausa.com/deaths.html)
Hey, Kathy moved that site to
http://www.kathymoya.com/FICA/index.html (http://www.kathymoya.com/FICA/index.html)
Please update your links.
Also, anybody know what part of the country Karlye was from?There is not a "fragment" in all nature, for every relative fragment of one thing is a full harmonious unit in itself.
-- John Muir
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Karlye Newman was from Denver
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Myspace thread:
http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseac ... ED57932146 (http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=messageboard.viewCategory&groupID=100272570&Mytoken=68D27B9D-8622-B719-5539154D45BDA3ED57932146)
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Mentioned here:
http://cafety.org/index.php?option=com_ ... d=55&id=15 (http://cafety.org/index.php?option=com_uhp&task=view&Itemid=55&id=15)
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Karlye was missed in the head count when her family was leaving the cabin. It was said that a couple of the girls covered for her during the head count. Head counts are done when leaving and entering a building. The family Mom dropped her girls of in the classroom and went back to the cabin to take a break. She was the one that went into the bathroom and found Karlye. She had taken her sweatshirt and tied it around her neck then wrapped the other end over the top of the bathroom stall. It was NOT in the shower. If you look at bathroom stalls in public places there is a space between the frame and the door. She looped her sweatshirt around the metal across the top. The "upper staff" told everyone that Karlye didn't mean to actually kill herself and that she thought someone would come back in time and find her. How does anyone know, but Karlye, what she was thinking? Supposedly this wasn't her first attempt and she had just come off of "High Risk", so she wasn't watched as closely.
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Tragic-
has the family taken any legal action in this case?
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People who complete suicide don't mean to "not actually kill" themselves.
This girl had multiple attempts.
People who complete suicide after multiple attempts are, at least when they do it, deeply miserable and want the hell out of their lives.
How do I know? People like me know more about it than anybody else who's still alive to tell you.
I was suicidal from the time I was five years old until I finally started getting effective treatment at twenty-five. It's a minor miracle that I'm alive--twenty percent of the people who had the same thing, and the same lack of psychiatric treatment, aren't.
I stress that I was never in a Program and that the Programs do not count as effective psychiatric treatment. Medical model RTCs that only take the seriously mentally ill, real mental hospitals, or outpatient psychiatric care are what counts as effective psychiatric treatment.
Using the Programs for children with major mental illnesses is like using Lydia Pinkham's for children with cancer.
Julie
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Very few people listened to Karlye or gave her any attention aside from restraint and time in the hobbit.
Her parents were not very supportive of her. Imagine being completely depressed, wanting to end your life because the stress the program is causing you is too much to bear along with your prior issues, and your parents refuse to listen to a word of complaining, because that is how the program designs it. no phone calls, just letters here and there. Filtered communication. Family reps whispering into their ears.
And Karyle, having the same routine every day without progress, getting constant drops for dumb consequences. She really did try hard. She was such a good person. I worked her family 3-4 days a week for 13 or 14 hours a day (I was a upper level student, "junior staff"). It was hard to devote all your time to a certain "lower level", but I tried as often as I could to talk to her because she seemed so lonely and angry. Some staff were great, of course, but not enough of them to really make a difference.
At the time of the incident, I was with someone that had a radio, and in the middle of everything. I was one of the first students to find out, and it really rocked those of us that knew her. I felt so sick at the time, so dizzy. Karyle was not even dead when they found her, and she was in there for a fair amount of time alone. I hate the fact that she suffered. She was med flighted out and died on the way.
As I remember it, the family mother and her bunk buddy thought that she had gone with the family rep after group therapy. So she was marked as accounted for on the headcount when they left for the classroom. Shortly after the news of her death, all the upper levels were brought to the court and Cameron Pullan talked to us about what had happened. That night, they sent us to work in the lower level families to help them cope, and then four admin staff went to all the cabins and informed the families, one by one. The following nights Cameron and Chaffin did memorials for her, one for the boys and one for the girls. They were very emotional and moving. But then, Karlye's name and the incident became forbidden discussion. I don't think anyone knew how to cope with it. We were conditioned to forget, and it was so. She was just such a good person. That's all I think about. She didn't deserve to be treated like she was.
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Im not trying to rain on your parade here, but I just noticed a few thing WWASPS does a lot that really kills me.... making that knot in my gut from reading about how they pushed this girl to kill herself even tighter.
The following nights Cameron and Chaffin did memorials for her, one for the boys and one for the girls. They were very emotional and moving.
Any excuse to cause regresion, it seems :roll:
But then, Karlye's name and the incident became forbidden discussion. I don't think anyone knew how to cope with it. We were conditioned to forget, and it was so. She was just such a good person. That's all I think about. She didn't deserve to be treated like she was.
Making you go 'forget' and forbidding discussion over that is utterly barbaric. Thats just the icing on the cake... I honestly dont know how any of you were able to survive that.
Program survivors amaze me more and more every day. I just hope that the day will come that we can put an end to all this bullshit and that she did not die in vain.
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I wonder if the Sanders county sheriff looked into this one.
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This would have been me, if I'd ever got sent to a Program.
Thank goodness my parents weren't that stupid.
That poor little girl.
There's a special level of hell for the bastards that drove her to die.
Julie
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Poor Karlye...Her mother used to write her the worst letters. Linda Topp was an irresponsible family mother for Integrity that left Karlye in the bathroom without checking before exiting the cabin. I just thank God that she was the one who found her and not the whole family upon returning to the cabin. It was gross negilence on the part of Spring Creek. This should not have happened. Parents pay large tuitions for their children to receive the best possible care. Where was the care here? Ultimately it is on Spring Creek for allowing such a untrained, unprofessional staff on the payroll. Wake up Chaffin, Cameron and the rest of you people. I want you to smell the coffee!!!
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just to clear things up, it wasn't linda topp that left her off the headcount. i forget the name of the family mother but she was kind of young, short hair, newer to the facility.
it wasn't necessarily her fault...headcounts there are more of a formality than an actual record of where everyone is. they are not strictly regulated at all. it is common for a family parent or other staff to just put a general location when they're not sure but THINK they know where they are, etc, karlye's bunkmate thought she had gone with her family rep, and before that the family mom had seen karyle talking to her rep. half the time the family parents don't even do them or the junior staff does. i can recall a number of times where the headcount would come up short and we couldn't figure out where someone was and the family parent would basically disreguard it, assuming they would radio another staff and figure it out, or check at another location as we pass it, etc. there is also not a rule about checking all the stalls before leaving the cabin...it was more the system that was at fault than the family mom. i know she had enough guilt from walking in on her and having to see it. i am not excusing it by any means, and that's not to say that it wasn't terrible and negligent. i completely agree.
i also agree about karlye's mom...she definately didn't help her situation. she was very cold and programy to her, especially since karlye was on level one most of the time, and parents are told to be especially unforgiving and tough until they improve their status. it would be especially tough for her if she gained points and then lost them over something small. she would just get even more frustrated and angry and feel like giving up. she felt very alone in that place, especially after they put her into integrity with girls she didn't know (she had been in destiny for a long time before that).
the whole situation is just heartbreaking. the karlye i know would not have wanted to die. they pushed her to it.
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While searching the internet for info I came across something that seemed to ridiculous to be true. It stated that Karlee's parents were not informed of her death for almost a month. This seems too farfetched to be true. Is this factual or just some more BS floating around the internet? Anyone know?
And are Karlee's parents taking any kind of action against SCL?
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How was this poor girl referred? By an ed con? A wwaps parent looking to make a quick buck by "helping other parents"?
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lol, karlyees parents were immediately informed of the incedent with their daughter, whether or not they've taken action has not been made public knowledge
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The last "guest" posting is definitely some sick, programmed individual, probably a former or present employee of SCL. Save your support for somewhere else...Karlye's death was tragic and definitely overlooked, covered up by Spring Creek and their untrained, unprofessional staff.
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This site is full of warnings not to put your kid at SCL. It is posted here that it is physically dangerous, psychologically dangerous, and basically not a very bright idea. Parents think we don't know what we are talking about. That we have an agenda... our only agenda is to keep the same thing that happened to us from happening to other kids. This girl who succeeded in killing herself is a drop in the bucket. How many kids kill themselves later in life? How many kids wanted to kill themselves while there but couldn't? What kids do 'kill' themselves inside, shutting off emotionally for the rest of their lives?
These parents don't deserve any money. SCL does not hide what they are. Parents can search the net and be at this site in two clicks of the mouse. Documentaries, news articles, nationwide television programs, what more do parents need? If anything these parents should be charged themselves, for reckless endangerment for placing their daughter there. But who will press the charges, the victim is dead. The parents are not the victim, they are the instigators who caused the whole mess. If it weren't for their foolish decision, their daughter would still be here.
Let's give sympathy where it is due, to the girl who decided she would rather die than live in the prison her parents sent her to on their own volition.
Parents, when will you wake up?
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While searching the internet for info I came across something that seemed to ridiculous to be true. It stated that Karlee's parents were not informed of her death for almost a month. This seems too farfetched to be true. Is this factual or just some more BS floating around the internet? Anyone know?
And are Karlee's parents taking any kind of action against SCL?
I saw that article. I think it was the independent, but it was about family she had not been in touch with.This BS isn't any more tru than the rest of it.
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From the 2005 Missoula Independent article "Spring Creek's Short Leash" (http://www.missoulanews.com/News/News.asp?no=4970 (http://www.missoulanews.com/News/News.asp?no=4970))
"Karlye Newman?s death went largely unnoticed in Montana and elsewhere. No obituary ran in any of her hometown Colorado newspapers. While local newspapers were notified that there had been a suicide at the school, Karlye?s name never appeared in print. The only record of her death is her Montana death certificate, which was filed on her birthday.
Her adoptive father died when she was about four years old, and his family wasn?t told of Karlye?s death until months later when a reporter called to ask about her. "
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"Poor Karlye...Her mother used to write her the worst letters."
How do you mean? What kind of letters?
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I would guess she wrote exactly the kind of letters the Program staff and sales people told her to write. "Your a major looser; we're taking vacations and enjoying ourselves now that we don't have to take you; get to work on your program and maybe someday you'll be fit to rejoin your family." Something along those lines?
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This site is full of warnings not to put your kid at SCL. It is posted here that it is physically dangerous, psychologically dangerous, and basically not a very bright idea. Parents think we don't know what we are talking about. That we have an agenda... our only agenda is to keep the same thing that happened to us from happening to other kids. This girl who succeeded in killing herself is a drop in the bucket. How many kids kill themselves later in life? How many kids wanted to kill themselves while there but couldn't? What kids do 'kill' themselves inside, shutting off emotionally for the rest of their lives?
These parents don't deserve any money. SCL does not hide what they are. Parents can search the net and be at this site in two clicks of the mouse. Documentaries, news articles, nationwide television programs, what more do parents need? If anything these parents should be charged themselves, for reckless endangerment for placing their daughter there. But who will press the charges, the victim is dead. The parents are not the victim, they are the instigators who caused the whole mess. If it weren't for their foolish decision, their daughter would still be here.
Let's give sympathy where it is due, to the girl who decided she would rather die than live in the prison her parents sent her to on their own volition.
Parents, when will you wake up?
I agree with this person 100%. There is no excuse for parents anymore. They know exactly what they are putting their children through. The more guilt, and emotional pain they endure the better. Her parents don't deserve one fricken penny from WWASPS for her death. NADA!!!!!
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This site is full of warnings not to put your kid at SCL. It is posted here that it is physically dangerous, psychologically dangerous, and basically not a very bright idea. Parents think we don't know what we are talking about. That we have an agenda... our only agenda is to keep the same thing that happened to us from happening to other kids. This girl who succeeded in killing herself is a drop in the bucket. How many kids kill themselves later in life? How many kids wanted to kill themselves while there but couldn't? What kids do 'kill' themselves inside, shutting off emotionally for the rest of their lives?
These parents don't deserve any money. SCL does not hide what they are. Parents can search the net and be at this site in two clicks of the mouse. Documentaries, news articles, nationwide television programs, what more do parents need? If anything these parents should be charged themselves, for reckless endangerment for placing their daughter there. But who will press the charges, the victim is dead. The parents are not the victim, they are the instigators who caused the whole mess. If it weren't for their foolish decision, their daughter would still be here.
Let's give sympathy where it is due, to the girl who decided she would rather die than live in the prison her parents sent her to on their own volition.
Parents, when will you wake up?
I agree with this person 100%. There is no excuse for parents anymore. They know exactly what they are putting their children through. The more guilt, and emotional pain they endure the better. Her parents don't deserve one fricken penny from WWASPS for her death. NADA!!!!!
I agree. Google, simple common sense, and actually following what this country claims to believe in goes a long way to prevent this bullshit.
It really kills me how a educated, influential, western society that's lead the world for so long can decay to the degree that parents are so easily tricked and made to rationalize sending their kids off to gulags!
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Karlye's case is explored on the following show playing Tuesday, November 14 2006 on Montana PBS http://www.montanapbs.org/WhosWatchingTheKids (http://www.montanapbs.org/WhosWatchingTheKids)
A link to purchase the program is at the bottom of the page:
Who's Watching The Kids?
There are more than 30 privately run schools for troubled youth operating in the state of Montana. They employ more than 600 people and pump an estimated 4 million into the state income taxes. It's an exploding industry, but strangely, most Montanans have no idea the schools even exist. In this hour-long documentary, MontanaPBS explores a lucrative industry praised for its novel approach to reforming youth, yet shrouded in disturbing allegations of abuse and neglect.
First Aired Thursday, September 14, 2006
Airs Tuesday 11/14 at 8pm
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Try this link
http://www.montanapbs.org/WhosWatchingTheKids/ (http://www.montanapbs.org/WhosWatchingTheKids/)
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http://missoulanews.com/News/News.asp?no=6119 (http://missoulanews.com/News/News.asp?no=6119)
Knee deep
by John S. Adams
Lawsuits mount against Spring Creek Lodge
On Oct. 7, 2004, just days before her 17th birthday, Karlye Anne Newman slipped into a bathroom at Spring Creek Lodge Academy?a behavior modification boarding school outside Thompson Falls?and hanged herself in a stall with her sweatshirt.
The Sanders County Sheriff?s Department investigated Newman?s death, found no signs of foul play, and ruled it a suicide.
The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) also investigated Newman?s death. As a result of that investigation, a Montana PBS documentary recently revealed, DPHHS filed a child abuse and neglect complaint against Cameron and Chaffin Pullan, the twin brothers who own and operate Spring Creek Lodge. The case was ultimately dismissed, and due to a state law designed to protect juvenile victims of abuse, it remains sealed from public scrutiny. As a result, few details about DPHHS? investigation or the facts surrounding Newman?s death have been revealed to the public.
Some of those facts may soon surface in court now that Karlye?s mother, Judith Newman, has filed a lawsuit against Spring Creek Lodge and the Pullans. Filed Nov. 6, the complaint alleges wrongful death, negligence, breach of contract and fraud on behalf of the school and its directors. It?s the third in a string of lawsuits filed this year naming Spring Creek Lodge as a defendant.
In March, former Spring Creek Lodge student Jonathan Herrick filed a lawsuit in Sanders County District Court alleging negligence and breach of contract by Spring Creek Lodge. Herrick?s suit claims Spring Creek?s inadequate staffing and oversight policies led to repeated physical and psychological assaults against him during the time he was a student there. The five-page complaint doesn?t detail the alleged abuses, other than to say that Herrick ?suffered serious physical, mental and emotional injuries? while at Spring Creek. Polson attorney James Manley, lead counsel on both the Herrick and Newman lawsuits, declined to comment specifically on either case.
Additionally, in October Spring Creek was added to a long list of defendants in a lawsuit filed in federal district court in Utah. That suit alleges negligence, fraud, breach of contract, battery, assault, false imprisonment and racketeering violations?among others?on behalf of the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (widely known as WWASPS) and its associated programs, which until June included Spring Creek Lodge. The 36-page complaint currently lists 27 plaintiffs, though Dallas, Texas attorney Windle Turley said he expects to add ?many more? to the suit in the coming months. Turley said he couldn?t comment on which of the complaint?s allegations pertain specifically to Spring Creek Lodge.
At press time the two Montana lawsuits had not yet been served. Spring Creek Program Director Mike Chism said Nov. 20 that Spring Creek officials weren?t aware of them and thus declined to comment. As for the Utah suit, Chism said, three plaintiffs are former Spring Creek students, though he declined to identify which three. He also said the three students had been enrolled in other WWASPS programs either prior to, or after leaving, Spring Creek.
?The lawsuit is really vague,? Chism said, noting that the complaint doesn?t specify whether any of the alleged crimes were supposed to have occurred at Spring Creek.
The Newman lawsuit, however, is more specific, and mirrors many of the allegations DPHHS initially made against the Pullans, as reported by Montana PBS.
According to the Newman lawsuit, Spring Creek?s program ?was not designed or operated to provide quality or even adequate care? and the defendants ?planned and operated Spring Creek Lodge Academy in such a manner that physical, educational, mental or emotional harm was consistently and foreseeably caused to the children at Spring Creek, including Karlye Newman.?
Karlye?s mother alleges that Spring Creek staff concealed the fact that Karlye was not progressing well in the program and that she had deteriorated physically, mentally and emotionally in the months she was enrolled at Spring Creek. Judith claims her daughter expressed ?self loathing, hatred of her life there, depression and despair,? and that Karlye made repeated statements that she was going to kill herself, but that those statements were ignored by Spring Creek staff.
According to the Montana PBS documentary ?Who?s Watching the Kids,? (which can be viewed online at http://www.montanapbs.org/WhosWatchingTheKids (http://www.montanapbs.org/WhosWatchingTheKids)), DPHHS charged that Cameron and Chaffin Pullan, as officials of the school, neglected Karlye when she became suicidal by not providing her adequate therapy. ?Who?s Watching the Kids?? also reported that DPHHS alleged that Spring Creek employees placed Karlye in solitary confinement for periods of hours, sometimes days, ?damaging her mentally.? Finally, according to the documentary, the department alleged that Spring Creek?s method for keeping track of students was inadequate in that it left Karlye alone long enough to commit suicide.
A DPHHS hearings examiner initially dismissed the department?s complaint on the basis that 1) DPPHS lacked the legal authority to regulate the school; for that reason, the department can?t declare Spring Creek?s rules and regulations inadequate, and 2) the examiner didn?t believe DPHHS could prove its allegations of abuse and neglect. A district court judge upheld the hearings examiner?s ruling, and DPHHS appealed to the Montana Supreme Court before ultimately withdrawing the administrative charges.
In a statement issued by the school following Karlye Newman?s death, Spring Creek officials claimed that ?SCLA [Spring Creek Lodge Academy] was acutely aware of the girl?s fragility and had placed her on ?high risk? observation. After showing signs of improvement, the 16-year-old student was recently removed from high risk after consultation with the student?s counselor, the assistant clinical director and four staff members who had worked closely with her.?
But Judith Newman claims the staff never sought or conducted a competent suicide evaluation for Karlye and then failed to take appropriate steps to monitor, supervise and protect the teen.
According to the complaint, Karlye was missing for more than an hour before she was discovered hanging in the bathroom.
?Defendants made no attempt to look for her, or otherwise protect her,? the complaint states. ?When a staff member found Karlye hanging, the untrained and unqualified staff member ran out in panic. Defendants failed to provide immediate and necessary aid which might have saved Karlye?s life.?
Manley said he expects the Herrick and Newman lawsuits to go to trial sometime next year. Turley says it could be years before the Utah lawsuit goes to a jury trial.
jadams@missoulanews.com
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Was this girl having suicide ideations before being place in SCL? If so, then my question would be why did the mother place her at this particular program? Did she hire an ed consultant? Find it on her own (e.g. on the Internet?) Word of mouth referral? Another WWASPS parent?
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The Sanders County Sheriffs did come to investigate what had happened. And the faculty didnt give up on her. Its very hard to reach an adolescent at the level she was at. A lot of students stay in "resistance" for a very long time when they enter the program, not thinking or understanding how the program will benefit their future. And a lot of JS members tried very hard to break her out of her shell. Most of the faculty, junior staff, and students didn't know how to react or deal when this occured.
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And a lot of JS members tried very hard to break her out of her shell.
And that's why she died, you worthless piece of shit.
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Or maybe the Senior staff and faculty members shoulda had some kind of psychology degrees!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Or maybe the Senior staff and faculty members shoulda had some kind of psychology degrees!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If they had those, they wouldn't have been working at SCL; WWASP wouldn't have wanted them and they sure as shit wouldn't have applied for the job.
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A lot of students stay in "resistance" for a very long time when they enter the program, not thinking or understanding how the program will benefit their future.......
And a lot of JS members tried very hard to break her out of her shell.
Therein lies the problem. I guess y'all finally did "break" her. Congratulations.
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A lot of students stay in "resistance" for a very long time when they enter the program, not thinking or understanding how the program will benefit their future.......
And a lot of JS members tried very hard to break her out of her shell.
Therein lies the problem. I guess y'all finally did "break" her. Congratulations.
I only wish you did understand "there in lies the problem" Anne. Because between Pile and yourself you intimidate more new comers then anyone here. They never come back that's for sure.
You sure would make a great staffer.
danny