Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Straight, Inc. and Derivatives

Growing Together of Lake Worth, Florida

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Blopa:
Growing Together of Lake Worth, Florida I am a parent of a teenage boy that abused every drug, was kicked out of school, stealed from us repeatedly and got in trouble with the police for minor ofenses. He had a very defiant attitutde with us also. As he kept failing drug tests and all the warnings and consequences did very little to improve his behavior or stop his growing, daily drug use, I sent him to Growing Together. I am interested in information about this place and program as I love my son and want to help him and not harm him. I will appreciate any factual info anybody can provide me.

Thanks!

ramprato:
Blopa Thank you for writing,


I hope you have had the chance to see the police report about Growing Together at the following link. Its contents concern a sex abuse charge. Scroll down a bit over halfway down and look for the heading "Sex abuse and rights of children in Florida rehab programs", there are 5 further links concerning that police report. I hope that tells you something about Growing Together that the ones running it didn't want you to know. I would implore you to MAKE yourself find other options for your troubled kid. These people are not the answer, don't let them sucker you in anymore saying to you they are it, the only ones that can "help" you kid. The methods they use to "fix" your kid require extreme mental abuse him leaving him shell shocked with lifetime nightmares and perinea, and falsely guilt-ridden for life, you will take what ever problem there was with him before and only add more to his already long list.

fornits.com/straight/head.../index.htm


Growing together is just a spin-off of Straight Inc., with a new name. Please read up on it at thestraights.com/straight/

Antigen:
Info on Growing Together Greetings Blopa, and welcome,


We don't hear much, either good or bad, out of Growing Together these days. Here are some
News Items on Growing Together from the archive. For some reason the `97 incident didn't make the papers. But I did see the police report. It seems that this rape was a part of a hazing ritual. Staff almost certainly knew about it and certainly should have known. But the child wound up being charged with the crime and staff just pretended that nothing like that had ever happened before or since. Call my a cynic, but I have a hard time believing that.


We know that the folks at GT are paying close attention to what we're doing. But they're not talking to us at all. Ususally, when we focus on one of these places, at least a few people will respond either in support of the place or with complaints. That hasn't happened with GT at all so far. The only information we have on GT comes from actual law suits. Very, very strange!


If I were you, I'd absolutely insist on direct and frequent contact with my son. That's almost an acid test. Anyone tells you that it's therapeutic to isolate an adolescent, even from his mother, is hiding something. Odds are they're hiding the same things they were hiding under the names Straight and LIFE.


You know the old joke:


"How many shrinks does it take to change a lightbulb?"


"Only one, but the lightbulb has to want to change."


That's not completely correct. You can force someone to change against their own will by breaking their will. That is the core method of the Program if GT is still working the same way. And, again, not one soul has come along to suggest otherwise.


So I can't give you absolute proof that GT is still abusing kids. But I can't give you any assurance that they're not, either. Because of what I know about GT's lineage, that's one of the last places on Earth I'd put anyone I love.


If you wander around some of these forums, you'll find that most of us regard this type of high-pressure, confrontational group therapy as worthless and harmful. Even among those who regard their experience as having been helpful most of them attribute that to simply having been removed from a bad situation; change of set and setting.


If you're not able to contact your son without withdrawing him from the Program, withdraw him. Take him camping, on a tour of france, walk the AT or something. Give him a change of setting, more time to think, less opportunity to go wrong for awhile.


And do let us know how it goes.

FaceKhan:
Get him out I had not read the earlier post before my response in the other topic.


Definitely get him out, in fact don't send him to any program in Florida or Texas, because the Bush's faith-based initiatives have made the teen rehab ( brainwashing and abuse) industry in those states virtually self-regulating which means that the school administrators many of them religious extremists set their own policies and state child welfare agencies cannot even inspect them anymore.  

Blopa:
Re: Get him out I started this Topic asking for 'factual' info about GT. The fact that one kid once accused them of abuse does not appear to be conclusive that anything bad actually happens there. You see, we did not take my son there simply to get him out of our lives, we went to GT desperate looking for a solution, after other programs gave up on him. My son has been there for only a month and I saw things that I frankly do not understand (some really look ridiculous) but they do not seem 'bad' per se. I just read so much criticism (some very, very heavy) about these programs, that it made me wonder and I am seeking more informatioin. I wish I could also hear from 'success stories', of 7 stepers that completed and graduated the programs, but I don't know where to find them. I don't condone any form of humiliation, torture of brainwashing. Now: how do you deal (successfully) with the problems of drug use, terrible behavior, law breaking, lack of motivation, liying, stealing, etc.? Does anybody have an alternative that actually works? Sorry to ask, but, do we hear in this forum just the voices of people that failed in the program and are resentful as a result? I read hear some truly hear drenching stories that I am sure are legitimate and honest experiences of many; are there success stories to? How are the lifes of those that left those programs in disgust? Are you OK now, drug and crime free, etc.? If my questions seem to naive I am sorry, I am truly tring to find a solution for my son (an mine) problem. I am not a prude, moralist, or any crap like that, but I do have to address my son's problems with a realistic solution that will work. I appreciate any help anyone can give us.

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