Fornits

Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora
An open discussion about the troubled parent industry

I am currious if anyone else here has had experience with so-called "educational consultants".

My consultant, an elderly woman by the name of Jill Porter, based in San Diego CA, advised my family to send me to CCA.  At the time, CCA had ONE student, no staff, and was located in the administrator's house.  She had never visited the school, and only knew Tammy (administrator) through Spring Ridge Academy.  Futhermore, she sent a young man to Blue Hills Academy when it only had a few students and no history of sucess because she was "familiar" with Linda and Sonja, two therapists that created the school.  Once again, she had never visited the facility.

Porter sent me to Oldfields School after CCA - it is a dumping ground for rich, spoiled brats of rich east coasters.  She knew very well it was my last choice, but didn't seem to care.  It was, also, the most expensive of my choices for high school after CCA.

So has anyone else found these people to be dishonest?  Do they get kickbacks?  If so, how much?

That's crazy, but lucky.  Well, except for the end.

How did the level system work at SRA?  We just had the (to my understanding) basic 1-5 setup.  Occasionally there were jokes about there being a level 0 or even in one instance, -1, but for the most part the administration kept to the 1-5.

I got demoted from level 5 to 3 for 8 months while the school began going through financial straights - my parents were some of the few who always paid their bills on time and never seemed to care that they paid more than other families, and keeping me around was an asset.  They made up some bullshit reason why I "wasn't ready" for level 5 anymore, and I don't remember it, nor do I care.  I thankfully got my own look at their finances (you should password more than just your screensaver, dipshits) and memos on a few occasions, enough to draw my own conclusions about my demotion.

I loved how cloak and dagger you had to be around there.  It provided an excellent sub-plot to spice up the boredom of living in one of those hell holes.  

Nite Owl - please refer to their website.  http://www.ccacademy.net/
They are still going VERY strong.

Yeah, Seqoia was far from a good program shrink - he was too laid back.  But considering I just wanted to get the hell out of there, I didn't mind at all.

We did a similar thing to the boat - I think it was a blizard or something, but in the end it came down to a life or death choice.  Because I was the youngest and nerdiest out of the students (and had never had sex or done any drugs at the time I was admited - just had severe depression problems) people were always choosing me to die.  I was "confronted" about this in the discussion afterwords, as if being told by everyone you live with that they'd rather see you dead wasn't bad enough.  Linda told me that everyone choose for me to die because I didn't do anything worthwhile for other people.

Which was bullshit - before CCA even had a fucking teacher, I was helping tutor people in their classes, which was damn sad, an 8th grader helping sophmores and juniors in their classes.  But that wasn't good enough, apparently.  Not "worthwhile" by their junkie standards.

It's so nice now to be able to tell people who don't apreciate what I do for them to fuck off and die.

At the time I attended Copper Canyon Accademy (Jan 1998 - May 2000), it was a mess.  I was considered their "first student", although technically this is incorect.  One girl was there breifly before me, for only two or three months.  I watched the school grow from having a "max" populaton of 12, 16, 20, 24 to finally around 36.  The consultant who sent me there was named Jill Porter, a miserable woman who was more than happy to send me to a school she had never seen, and never would visit until over a year after it's founding.

The original core Copper Canyon Academy staff consisted of Tammy Behrman (sp on last name), Patty Bowman, and Judy (last name unknown, an elderly caucasion woman).  Tammy operated the school out of her house, a 5 bedroom home in Camp Verde, AZ.  She and her husband lived downstairs, and students upstairs.  Linda Cathcart (once again, sp) was the practicing therapist, and was joined by a female friend of hers (name forgotten).  All these staff members came from a school called Spring Ridge Academy - apparently, Tammy was a part owner of that program, but her partner somehow tricked her out of her share.  She claimed to be upset with the way the school was ran, but in truth from what I have read, ran CCA almost identically to SRA.  CCA claimed to have many things - equine therapy, tailored educational services, and a professonal staff and atmosphere.  It had none of these.  The staff were terrible, and on one occasion, a staff member came in drunk to work.  Many of the staff members were not qualified to work at anything more than Wal-Mart or Chevron, but were allowed to stay on because they were friends of Tammy's through the mormon church.

The school began doing much better once Tammy removed herself from power (although not from profit, as she still collected a sallry even while doing nothing).  Once her brother, Darren, began running admisions and having a say in how the school was ran, things became much better.  Also, the therapists Terry and Mark made a significant change to school policy, and made it a much more humane place, in which one was less likely to be punished for the whims of a staff-member.  These two therapists left, however, they were replaced by staff that were, in my opinion, of equal caliber.

5 years have passed sence I attended CCA, and things are much different, and while I hope the program has become more professional and honest, I wonder how much this can be in a culture of deception fostered from the program's birth.  I can personally say CCA made me worse, not better.  My learning disability was ignored, my issues regarding social phobia were never addressed, and I left a much more passive and fearful person than when I started.  I was unlucky in that I entered CCA at a young age - 13 years old.  Older students seem to have delt with their experiences far more constructively, and I wish them the best of luck.

I could fill pages about what I think about this program, but it isn't relevant.  CCA is dangerous because the woman who started it is dangerous.

Please forgive my spelling errors, but I haven't the time to proofread this.

~Liz

I am a former student of this institution, from Jan 1998 to May 2000, and I am seeking others.  Irronically, I was miserable before it, but had never taken serrious action against my own life until after it.

Thank you for your time,

Liz
[ This Message was edited by: disk_pusher on 2005-04-18 16:05 ]