?Brat camp? confidential: Wilderness school turned life around for Cumberland girl
By Craig Giammona
Ashley Hallett of Cumberland with the dish rack she built at New Dominion School in Dillwyn, Va., where she spent 18 months turning her life around.
Courtesy Ashley Hallett
CUMBERLAND ? On Dec. 15, 2002, Ashley Hallett was sitting in class at Greely High School. Christmas was just over a week away and the blond-haired sophomore didn?t have much on her mind. Then she got a call from her father, who said he was coming to pick her up for a doctor appointment. Hallett was suspicious. It didn?t make sense. She had been to the doctor a few days before and her father?s story was flimsy. She became agitated, but eventually her father arrived and forced her to leave school. She knew something was up when she got to the car and saw her mother sitting in the front seat.
?It didn?t make any sense,? Hallett, now 18, said.
Her parents stuck with the doctor story for about 20 minutes as they drove from Cumberland to Portland. But as the car wound around the Back Cove, Ashley?s parents came clean: They were enrolling her in a wilderness school.
The situation was somewhat similar to that being documented this summer on ?Brat Camp,? an ABC reality television show that premiered earlier this month (although Ashley said the kids on the TV show get away with much more disruptive behavior than she ever would have been allowed).
Ashley?s parents were fed up with her behavior ? she had run away for four days, was drinking, smoking marijuana and generally disrespecting them on a regular basis. They had opted for the last resort.
Ashley started yelling and screaming. There was no way she was leaving her life, her friends, her school. But she didn?t have much choice. The Halletts spent the next 15 hours driving to the Southern Urban Wilderness School in the mountains of North Carolina. When the family would stop for gas, one parent would stay in the car with Ashley while the other paid and bought water and snacks.
?They knew I would try to get out and run away,? Ashley said, ?so one of them had to stay there and watch me.?
Three years removed from the ordeal, Ashley has turned her life around. She speaks of the events in a glib, self-assured manner. Recalling vivid details of the experience, she tells the story matter-of-factly.
?Honestly, I don?t know if I?d be alive right now,? she said, when asked if she had come to understand her parents? decision. In the next beat, though, she admits it took her a long time to forgive them for sending her away.
?I hated them,? she said.
Ashley spent 43 days in North Carolina in a structured program that involved frequent hikes and physical labor. When she first arrived she was sure she?d be home for Christmas, a notion that quickly drifted away in the cold winter air. The first week, she said, was the worst.
At first, she was not able to talk to the other kids and had to write four pages every day that were read by supervisors. Then an ?impact letter? arrived from her parents, detailing their reasons for sending her away. She had to read this in front of the entire group.
The minimum stay at the Wilderness school was 28 days. When that day hit, Ashley thought she was going home.
?Just get me out of here, I?m fine,? was how she described her attitude at the time. Her supervisors ? who give no indication of when a student will be released ? had other plans. They kept Ashley there until Jan. 30, 2003. She had been there for 43 days, but was still apparently not ready to return to Cumberland.
Her next stop was the New Dominion School in Dillwyn, Va., where she spent the next 18 months. The school teaches respect, again through a rigorous program of physical activity.
?Every minute of the day you?re doing something physical,? Ashley said. There is not electricity at the school outside of the dining room where the students eat. ?Being fake? or ?acting like you?re fine when you?re not? is a major violation and one that afflicted Ashley for her first six months in Virginia.
?I still didn?t get it at that point,? she said. ?I still thought I was fine.?
About six months into the program, Ashley said she had a turning point. She can?t quite pin down a particular event that caused the attitude change, but she figured out she was going to be there for a while and should try to do something positive. She had seen friends leave the school and realized she had to change her behavior if she ever wanted to follow them.
She started behaving and earning school hours, one at a time. She eventually worked up to six school hours a day and when she left Virginia in June 2004, after 18 months, she was back on track to graduate with her class.
In fact, Ashley received her high school diploma, on time, in June. Now, she said, she has adjusted to a new life in Cumberland. She no longer sees her old friends, who she describes as ?part of the problem? and instead has reacquainted herself with some close friends she knew growing up, but distanced herself from when she fell in with an older crowd at the start of high school.
?I don?t have to impress anyone,? Ashley said. ?I just don?t care anymore if (my friends) get mad at me for not going out.?
The new-found confidence, she said, derives from having survived her 20-month ordeal. ?No one knows how it feels to go through this,? she said.
Ashley now holds down three jobs ? coaching sailing in Portland, working part-time at Rite Aid and teaching private sailing lessons. She is no rush to go to college, but has a nanny job lined up in the fall and possibly wants to pursue a career as a probation officer.
?I want to do what people did for me,? she says, ?only I don?t want to sleep outside every night.?
Craig Giammona can be reached at
[email protected].
