There's plenty of information on the HLA threads to wade through - good and bad. I suggest that you comb through those threads, as I'm sure you'll find them helpful.
I worked at HLA when they opened their doors in 1994. It's the same now as it was then, just wrapped up in a prettier package (thanks to millions of dollars in revenue from duped parents).
They are a one-size-fits-all treatment center that treats all kids as "oppositional/defiant" regardless of their actual diagnosis (which, by the way, HLA does NOT PERFORM ANY PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATION WHATSOEVER before "diagnosing" residents as "oppositional/defiant").
They are not properly licensed by the State of Georgia. They employ techniques proven beyond doubt to harm developing children, including withholding of food as punishment and sleep deprivation. Their "break-'em-down-'n-build-'em -up" philosophy sounds nice until one realizes no kid has ever been "built back up," but rather just horribly abused mentally and sometimes physically.
The staff turns over in its entirety often. There are only two staff members currently at HLA from when I worked there, neither of whom are counselors.
The original staff was from CEDU, a known abusive cult-like facility now closed due to its being properly exposed to the public and sueed out of business. The people from CEDU included the headmaster, Rudy Bentz, who struck and killed a pedestrian while driving under the influence of alcohol (what would now be charged, at least in my state, as "vehicular manslaughter"), and who has been accused of assaulting children in his care and who has been fired from HLA and Swift River Academy for various innapropriate/abusive episodes with kids. His wife, Jill, also worked at HLA and was also fired for much the same reasons. There were two more CEDUites, Dean and Lauralyn, who ran the (still) unlicensed "wilderness" part of the "program," also both long since shitcanned from HLA. But this gives an idea of where the philosophy came from.
The bottom line: HLA is a Behavior Modification Warehouse for kids to be held captive against their will, abused, neglected, denigrated and humiliated, all for ENORMOUS PROFIT.
Please go back through the other HLA threads to see what other former employees and inmates have said about HLA. I think you'll find it educational at the very least.
Abusing kids for fun and profit the HLA way...
