I found this site by accident, reading Julia Scheeres book: Jesus Land...
http://www.juliascheeres.com/This was a very well written book, its not often a book will bring me to tears but this one did. It is a heartwrenching story/ So I looked up her site, saw some links and found this place.
I believe you all are telling the truth about how bad these institutions are.
I worked in secular residential care years ago. We didnt have the abuse going on that is described here. There were no physical abuse, beatings or starvation or forced labor, but I believed the system did its own type of damage to the kids.
I remember the stupid rules they expected me to enforce.
1. Measuring food, and dictating portions--enforcing diets on the fat kids.
Counting snacks. Always having to control the food to "save" money.
2. The stupid behaviorial control Behavioral Therapy program that forced us to talk to the kids like we were robots. Telling them whenever they acted out just a tiny bit that they were in a ________*** Put stupid social work phrase here. A kid could not voice even an opinion. Us workers were put under tons of pressure to be very strict on the kids. If a kid talked back even a tiny bit or even complained once, and you didnt put them in a _______**Put stupid social work phrase here, and the boss was around, they would chastise you even if you worked things out with the kid!
Taking points off for this and that and giving points for decent behavior. {I know years later realize how evil this system was on many levels-ignoring the personal needs of each kid, staff having to follow a script like robots. teaching kids essentially to manipulate for points]
Now our kids could have severe behaviors but I think this system actually REINFORCED them. Gave them endless negative attention. Didnt allow for natural teen emotions. Should a kid be punished just for getting a look on their face? I dont think so. The actions should be what counts.
3. Our kids werent locked up.[I know a lot of the places talked about here are run like prisons]
4. They required us to restrain kids, when they acted out. I refused to do it. Unless a kid was trying to hurt themselves or jumping someone I wouldnt touch them and then it was only to help move them out of the situation. Some of the staff controlled kids [like when they didnt listen to them] by restraining them which was NOT the way it was supposed to be used except in cases of danger to themselves or others. One lady who did this all the time, I would yell at her to leave the kids alone. One time the kids accidentally left a dirty pan in the sink--they had cleaned the entire kitchen and she tried to ground them all for two weeks. She was about to restrain one who was protesting this injustice. I said No way!
There were really some head cases who worked there. The place was half way decent the first year but then got under different ownership. Gestapo Nazi types as staff, they were hard on other staff members as well as the kids. One control freak and I constantly butted heads.
5. The punishments were extreme I thought, while they were not physical in nature we were required to keep kids at the table for hours at end when they were being punished. Our bosses actually wanted to us to keep kids on punishment sitting at the table writing papers [most staff made up dumb topics for them to write on] for over 12 hours a day. They would loose a bunch of privledges too and wouldnt even be allowed to watch any TV, even read their own books, or talk to anyone. We were like jailers sitting there. Every week there was at least acouple kids on punishment.
6. The house was run down, and we had to constantly clean it. it was like shining a turd. They were extremely anal about the level of cleaning up.
Working there, I relaxed all the rules I felt served no purpose. When the boss wasnt around or the head residential counselor, I let the kids watch more TV when there wasnt nothing else to do, I let them eat til they were full, I let them read books, go for walks, let them get time away from the table punishment. {I still kept to some standards--didnt let kids do everything they wanted but I was fed up with their capricious rules, and looking at the kids, I realized if i had been stuck in that place, I would have trying to run away too!}
I was considered the poorest residential counselor there, and found a secret file they had of all my write-ups.; some they didnt share with me. I was written up constantly for not being strict enough or following the rules to the letter. If the kids ran away or acted out, often times the staff would get in trouble along with them. I did pay the price for my approach often enough, while many kids liked me, there was one or two who understandably I suppose saw any "weakness" as their opportunity to bust out.
One day my boss called me into the room, and told me "These kids have no respect for you" "you are too nice and give in to them constantly" "You have to be more strict or else we are going to fire you" I got in trouble for not following the rules probably even more then the kids. In fact there were so many rules, even if I wanted to enforce them to the letter, I dont think I could have just in remembering them all! Safety rules, and others those with a purpose, I remembered just fine. The capricious stupid petty stuff, I didnt.
The rules that Julia talked about reminded me of some of this stuff, brought back memories.
I heard that constantly the whole time I worked there. I saw all of my co-workers as hard cold people who through burn-out and brainwashed by the system had sold their souls down the social work river. I have absolutely no interest today in being in the social work field. I look back on the whole system and think how is all that control and false system supposed to change anyone for the better or prepare a teen for adulthood? It didnt.
