Ridiculous

[Anonymous]

whats with all the bitching? why are there people on here 10+ years removed from cedu who are still complaining about how it fucked up their lives?

fornits.com - home of the people who were destined to have shitty, miserable lives from the day their mothers got knocked up. cedu's just a convenient excuse for them to say it's not my fault i'm such a reject. it's, uh, cedu's fault! yea thats it!

[Antigen]

Isn't it amazing how CEDU (and every other program discussed here) manages to draw in these obviously damned people? Why, it's practically a miracle!

Or, maybe, possibly, seeing as how there are so damned many people so many years later reporting similar experience, maybe there's some merit to what they say? Nah, can't be!

At the very least, compare the 99% efficacy claims to what these folks have to say.

Revelation indeed had no weight with me.
--Benjamin Franklin, American Founding Father, author, and inventor

[Anonymous]

i'm sorry but does it say 7,381 posts under your name? sweetheart, you are the ultimate example of what I just wrote!

[Antigen]

On 2005-08-17 12:34:00, Anonymous wrote:

"i'm sorry but does it say 7,381 posts under your name? sweetheart, you are the ultimate example of what I just wrote!"

Yeah, it does. That would be since I started hosting these forums over 3 years ago. Not one of those are about how fucked up my life is now because my life hasn't been fucked up since I unfucked myself a couple of years after escaping the Synanon based cult my family had been in for around 10 years. Something wrong having an avid interest in the topic? Some people think of dedication as a good trait. But who am I to say. Maybe you're right. Maybe it's actually a character flaw and the really high quality people are those, like you, who just don't give a shit.

When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with all other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.
-- John Muir

[shanlea]

For me, CEDU was the most strange, surreal experience I've ever had, but I never talked about it--EVER--until last year on this site. Not one of my friends would have ever understood that wacky place.  So for me, it's been cathartic and vindicating. Also, I'm just finishing grad school so I'm online a lot. The reason I still post on and off is because my parents had NO idea the type of place they were sending me to, and I want to make sure other people are aware of these schools before they decide to inter their children there, especially since the brochures look so damn good.  What happened 10+ years ago is bygone and I really don't think about what CEDU did to me per se but I do want to encourage others to have their eyes open.

It's not that I don't think some kids need intensive help, I just think people should be a bit more savvy or creative in their problem solving skills.

[Jack1963]

This must be a brainwashed staffer. I mean, why is this person even here? Why is this person being so hostile and disrespectful of how other folks are feeling?

On 2005-08-17 12:34:00, Anonymous wrote:

"i'm sorry but does it say 7,381 posts under your name? sweetheart, you are the ultimate example of what I just wrote!"

[Anonymous]

haha hey jack, eat a dick

[If u want to know..then a]

I don't think that the Anon poster is being vindictive or anything.  I think he/she is doing EXACTLY what this site was made for and that is to express personal opinions on any such topic posted here.  I think that the fact that Antigen always talks about how her life is so "unfucked" is ok also.  Like I said before, personal opinions is what runs this site, especially when it comes to CEDU.  Maybe there was better wording for some of the things said, but looking around, everyone here (including myself) gets caught up in the moment and isn't really caring what anyone else thinks about their comments.

[puma046]

I think the original anon poster who started this thread asks a really valid question. It probably could've been asked without the personal attack attached, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a good question because in all reality what he is asking is pretty much the basis of this site. Is there any need to dwell on cedu? Sure it sucked but think about the ages you were when you were there. 14 year olds to 17 year olds and a few 18 year olds as well - those can pretty much be the shittiest years of ANYONE'S life not just those who went to cedu. High school sucks its just the way it is! And we all know that you could've been somewhere MUCH worse for 2 years.

So lets be serious there are things about cedu that sucked but why sit here and complain about every little thing? Its worthless, and I have to agree with anon that a lot of people on here are just using it as an excuse for their lives being miserable!! And no thats not a blanket statement so give me a break.

[shanlea]

Anon and Puma, You still ain't getting it. This isn't about having a shitty time at CEDU like you had a shitty time at summer camp. This isn't about making excuses for pain in my life at all. In fact, I know a some of these anti-CEDU folks and they have very successful lives and great families of their own.  It's about unethical, fraudulent therapeutic practices and allowintg that to endure for OTHERS. Maybe it's okay for you to say who the fuck cares, that was 10 years ago, but what about the people who are at these types of instituations today?

Maybe it has to do with being older and having your own family. I know Serb, Bryan, and I all have our own families and none of us would ever entrust a place like CEDU with our children, and we wouldn't want other children to go through the same experience.  Even if a parent elected to send their kid to a TBS, they should do it with their eyes open. Why would you pay 100 grand for unaccredited, abusive, non individuated, cultic, coersive, highly contrived, isolation based "therapy"?

It's not just bitching; we've actually had parents PM us and decide not to send their kid there or pulled out a kid.

[puma046]

No, you're not getting it. They're not the same place today that they were over 10 years ago. By the time they closed they barely resembled what they were 5 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, man, why the hell am I on here, anyway?

Dammit. I hadn't thought about RMA for ages, until that silly brat camp show came on a few weeks ago and I caught a couple of minutes of it for the first time. Aside from being totally hysterical, it made me wonder what was up with the schools, so I checked online, only to find out that everything got shut down, and that all of this really horrid shit happened in the 90s, like a riot, and some kid hanging himself, and all of these lawsuits, and weird wacky staff shit like Richard raping Twila after they both left, and Dan Earle fucking a student, etc. (both of those guys were creeps) and I also found a link to this forum, so here I am.

I don't know why I couldn't have just dropped it and forgotten about it after I found out about everything that happened. I mean, why should I give a shit? I didn't know any of those students, and it didn't happen while I was there, and it vindicates my theory that the school was screwed up and that it was only going to get worse. So I should feel satisfied that my theory was proven correct, right? Well, that didn't happen, and I didn't end up feeling that way at all.

I'm over all the angst I myself went through because of the school. I dealt with all of that crap years ago and exorcised it from my psyche. (Plus, I do have some happy memories from there, and I could have been in worse places.) But after I found out about what happened, I felt really disturbed, and I don't know why. I kept trying to not think about it, but it kept coming back. So now I'm posting in this stupid forum and thinking about all of this crap again. So I guess maybe I'm not as over it as I thought I was?

Emotionally, it's been ok. Not really any seriously awful stuff, just a lot of thinking, and some slight feelings of being disturbed, but nothing traumatic or any anger or feelings of resentment or anything.

The only resentment I feel is against my own brain, or maybe my weakness of character. Maybe I thought I was stronger than I truly was.

Hopefully, the obsession will run out of gas in a few weeks. That's what I'm betting on. I don't want RMA in the forefront of my mind on a daily basis like it was right after I graduated. Eventually, I'm going to have to stop picking at this scab again. I really don't know what I hope to accomplish by posting in these forums, really. Maybe it's just some self-absorbed, self-indulgent, crap. (I'm just speaking for myself, here.)

[Son Of Serbia]

On 2005-08-17 23:59:00, puma046 wrote:

"No, you're not getting it. They're not the same place today that they were over 10 years ago. By the time they closed they barely resembled what they were 5 years ago. "

The time period doesn't matter, be it 10 years, 5 years, or 6 months ago, the one constant always remains:


CEDU HURTS KIDS, AND THEY DEFRAUD DESPERATE FAMILIES OUT OF HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS TO DO IT!


This has never never changed, so in this respect, the school has always been the same, regardless of the time period.

[shanlea]

I have no idea if CEDU was better prior to closing... but if it was, then why did it close? Why do more current staff and therapists still recount the same type of therapeutic abuses? Why did CPS stop sending children there? Why was there a very strident investigation of the place?  I'm not sure how much kinder or gentler it could have been if systemically it was flawed.  The whole thrust of the program is based on cultic tactics like those used in Life Spring or Synanon.

And, still, if parents are gonna spend a shit load of money to "help" their child, why not spend it on something that works? Why spend it on a place that simply does not have the expertise to deal with individual cases? Why spend it on a place with staff who are as fucked up as the kids working out their own crap on them, and getting off on the power trip?

[Anonymous]

But what system really works?  I was sent to Charter Hospitals, Group Homes, Counselors, Therapists, before my mom said nothing's working let's try CEDU.  At least it locked me up from the real world for a few months and kept me sober long enough to figure out what the hell I was doing and wanted to do.  I'm not saying CEDU had all the answers, but there is no perfect program you just do the best you can with what is provided at the time.