Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Aspen Education Group

My son is currently at Aspen Ranch

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Anonymous:

--- Quote from: "Guest" ---Aspen is actually running a brain-washing facility for the Religous Right. True story. Seriously though, has anyone noticed if they(Aspen) pay someone to make comments on this site on the weekend or is it strictly 9-5 M-F? You can notice that they are now using Guest profiles more frequently, mixing it up a bit. This site has obviously got their attention. "The Who" is most likely working in Cerritos California puling down 60 g's a year just to respond to crap said on this site. I applaud the rebels who post here for their small victory over a corporate giant.

--- End quote ---

Money flows for, against gay-marriage measure
By Josh Richman
Friday, July 25th, 2008 at 1:31 pm in Elections, General, same-sex marriage.

Big money kept changing hands this week for and against Proposition 8, the proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

Piedmont philanthropist and Obama fundraiser M. Quinn Delaney on Tuesday gave $50,000 to the campaign opposing the measure — she runs the Oakland-based, anti-racism Akonadi Foundation; is vice-chairwoman of the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California; is on the Tides Foundation’s board of directors; and is married to real estate investor/developer Wayne Jordan.

Focus on the Family — the Colorado Springs, Colo.-based evangelical Christian organization led by James Dobson — on Tuesday gave $20,000 to the campaign for Prop. 8.

Garden Grove-based Container Supply Co. on Tuesday contributed $25,000 to the campaign for Prop. 8; the company’s president is former state Senate Republican Leader Rob Hurtt.

FamilyIQ.com founder Mark Hobbins — formerly, a cofounder of the Aspen Education Group, which operates boarding schools and boot camps for troubled teens — of Trabuco Canyone on Wednesday gave $25,000 to the campaign for Prop. 8.

Those opposing the amendment on Tuesday moved $1.25 million from the Equality California campaign fund into the “No on 8 — Equality for All” campaign fund.

And on Monday, as previously noted here, the Tupelo, Miss.-based American Family Association gave $500,000 to the campaign for Prop. 8, the biggest single contribution to the campaign to date.

Anonymous:
Friday, July 25, 2008
Past: Aspen Ranch
 
So I have [obviously] been thinking about AR a lot recently. Not sure why... just one of those "phases" all of us "alumni" go through. The good times. And the stupid shit. Speaking of stupid shit, what was the thing called when we were "locked down" in our cottage because of something or someone? I remember my first stay at the ranch, team 5 cottage, there was one of these. I think it was right after I got finished with round-up. Which, by the way, was TOTALLY different then my 2nd stay. Round-up used to be... totally secluded! They used to have us sleep in the basement & have absolutely no contact with our team, or anyone for that matter. Also, I remember not having the privilege of using real shampoo & conditioner. The was received once you got out of round-up. Until then, you had to use one of those commercial soap dispensers filled with a multi-tasking body cleanser. Ha ha ha!! Good old Sysco provided us with everything. Including some really disgusting looking food; you would only know this if you worked in the kitchen via Greenhorn privileges.

OKAY-- so for those of you who have never been to AR, or who have never heard of it, let me explain a little bit about the program.

First & for-most, AR is for the bad little kids (under 18) who their parents don't know what to do with them. Drugs, depression, violence, etc etc. Aspen Ranch is a "lock-down" boarding school in the middle of NOWHERE Utah. Loa, Utah, to be exact. Loa is about, a three or four hour drive (if I remember correctly) from Salt Lake City. Down many twisted roads, through & up & down mountains, passed mining & drilling... around NOTHING. Seriously. I suppose this was a good decision on their part considering it makes it very difficult to run away from this program. During my second stay, though, there were two boys in round-up who ran away & ended up riding w/a truck drive to Cali where they were eventually arrested & locked-up in Juvy [so we heard].
Aspen Ranch is in fact a Ranch... a wana-be campus type layout. You turn off of the "main highway" onto a long dusty "driveway." The driveway splits, at a point, and you can either go towards the horses & barn or to the rest of the "campus." Continuing up towards the main part, you pass the school on your left [which is a TOTAL joke... nothing actually gets accomplished here other than the girls sneaking off to have sex in the bathroom with the guys]. Next is the admin building where the president, therapists, etc have their offices. Then one of the guys cottages is next. A little bit further up are the three girls' cottages, on the right... teams 4, 5 & 6. On the left, up quite the dirt "mountain," I may add, is the main house. Continuing up the driveway to get to the main house, there is the boys "dorms" which houses the other three boys' teams in a dorm-style housing. There are typically no more than 12 guys/girls to a team at one time.
To break it down for you, here is the program description per [http://www.secretprisonsforteens.dk/US/AspenRanch.htm]:


Aspen Ranch is a behavior modification facility located near Loa, Utah.

It was established in 1995 and is a part of Aspen Education Group.

The detainees are a mix of children placed and paid for by their parents and detainees court-ordered to serve their time at the facility.

An average stay takes 11 months, but parents are advised not to talk about the length of the stay to prevent the child from knowing his or her release date.

Program description
Most of the detainees arrive by use of a Youth transport firm, but some arrive with their parents.

Level system
The ranch use a system, which consist of six levels. New detainees arrive at the lowest level known as round-up or orientation phase. The detainees has to remain silent in a basement or do manual labor during the demanded stay (2 weeks) on that phase.

They can apply for the next level at the end of the 2 weeks. If they are allowed to go on the next level, they leave the basement and goes on to live with group at the dormitory.

Higher levels has names like: Mustang, Maverick, Greenhorn, Rider and wrangler.

Communication between child and parents are letters-only at the lower levels. However, as the child moves up through the levels monitored phone-calls will be allowed. In the contract between parents and the facility, the parents give permission to open all mails going from and to the child, cut off phone calls and strip-search the child.

Detainees has to stay at given level for at unknown length of time. The reason given for that is that the detainee has to demonstrate that the student is really ready for the challenges of that level.



So going back to the "locked down" procedure/event when something happened... I feel like there was one during my second stay also, but I do not remember what that one was regarding. The first stay was because during our Sunday morning deep-clean, the part where we had to lay out EVERYTHING we had & kept in our possession [clothes, underwear, letters, notebooks, etc], I do not remember what this part was called, so the staff could go through them & make sure they were A)ours and B)withing the compliance of AR's regulations. Well some stuff was confiscated from this dumb girl [who looked like Michael Jackson seriously]; she got this stuff during the infamous Parent Week. One of the things she had was gum. Which god forbid, we were not allowed to have. The staff put it somewhere off to the side in "their possession" and apparently she stole it back. But of course didn't say anything. So the staff goes to trash the configated stuff & sees that the gum is missing. Of course she flipped out yelling at everyone & no one would come forward & say they did anything. This resulted in us all having to push the furniture to the middle of the room and sit, facing the wall [like some little toddlers] until someone would confess. Hours passed. We could not eat with everyone at the main house for lunch; instead we were delivered a PB&J sandwich and a little milk carton. I think we had to be silent for like 15-20 minute intervals & after that we had a chance to confess; during the confession time we had to write answers to some "deep-thought" questions about like honesty & shit. If I remember correctly.
Ha ha ha. It's kind of funny and pathetic to look back on, but this is the shit we went through and the shit that was oh-so-serious at the time.

Speaking of food, the meals there were so bizarre; and it's funny how excited we got about the "good" food. I think probably the most popular meal there with everyone was cereal mornings. Good old knock-off name brand cereals. The brand was Western Family, which is apparently the non-name-brand in Utah. I wish I could remember the cereals' names. They were pretty damn funny.

Posted by Ms. Ambitious at 10:28 AM
http://illusionofsuccess.blogspot.com/2 ... ranch.html

joethebadass:
Yeah Mount Bachelor Academy only uses Western Family, too. One western family soda is allowed per week. "Saturday sodas" are currency there. Seriously, I could.'get pretty much anything that I needed done done for a 25 cent "Dr. West"

Anonymous:
hmm. a lot of "parents" claiming to have kids at aspen ranch writing with suspiciously similar styles. And participants popping up in the middle of the thread apropo of nothing to announce their satisfaction with the same style hmm. its almost as if aspen education group is trying to combat the sworn testimony offered here, and is directly below their add for their abusive gulag.

http://www.heal-online.org/aspenranch.htm



SURVIVOR REPORT #1 BY ANONYMOUS
I wish I knew where to begin I will try to focus on the most disturbing experiences i can remember but, like many other survivors of such programs i find myself having a hard time remembering everything that went on.

 For the first two weeks you arrive at Aspen Ranch you are placed on a level known as round-up.  During this period of time you are either silent in a basement, or outside doing manual labor (changing watering pipes, building fences etc).  
You can not have any contact with your parents and get to talk to a therapist maybe once or twice.  One July morning when I refused to go outside, the sheets were ripped out from under me and I was carried and thrown onto a staircase where two men put my shoes on picked me up and dragged me to the field where I was to work.  Afraid of any other forms of punishment,I did.  Being physically threatened is a major way they get you to follow the rules.  

Every week you got to speak with your parents,  on speakerphone, with your therapist present for 20 minutes.  If you ever tried to tell your parents about the torture you were suffering through the conversation would be immediately terminated.  All letters were read before sent, all incoming mail opened read and inspected before given to you.  The only contact allowed was to your parents and had to be positive.  

On top of whatever work project your team was assigned to each day you also had to participate in an hour long physical, no matter how physically drained you were.  People would sometimes pass out or break down begging to stop but, for the most part the physical went on for as long as the supervisor saw fit.  The psychological abuse was never ending, if you were suspected of doing something wrong you would be forced to go into the basement and sit at a desk until you admitted what you were accused of.  We were often threatened to be sent to an out of country program where we were told there was no child labor laws, I still don't know if this program exists but, the mere threat was enough to keep most of us "in line".

 I could go on forever with stories of this sort.  My main point though, please do not put your child through
this, two years later I am still suffering from the lies I was fed.
 
Please protect my identity.  I know this is not a complete story but I think it gets the point across.  
 
SURVIVOR REPORT #2 BY ANON
These are all factual events that take place at aspen ranch everyday, these are events that have taken place and will continue to unless someone takes action soon. Everything in my statement is true and I give HEAL permission to use my
statement.  I am a survivor of the aspen ranch school, located in Loa, UT.  A Therapeutic Boarding school/ rehabilitation center.....my ass.  Aspen Ranch uses a physical restraint system called PCS (positive control system) which is actually FAR from positive. PCS includes a barrage or various pressure points and bent wrists, locked joints, and strained tendons. Once put into PCS submission you are held here by a minimum of 3 staff, you're pulse regularly checked to indicate your level of anger.  You are normally on the ground (also known as "Carpet Time" for a norm of 45 minutes to an hour)  They use any method of getting you down, whether it be calmly asking you to cooperate with them or tackling you through a crowd of people onto concrete (which seems to be a staff favorite). I have seen many of my friends at Aspen Ranch end up with broken
wrists from PCS. I have myself lost the feeling in the tips of my fingers for days  as a result of being held in PCS submission for over 3 hours. Once you are PCSed (on top of everything) you have to go to R&R (redirection and recovery)
more commonly known as the room where you where red sweat pants and sweat shirts even in the dead of the summer (in the Desert) to no avail.  The "on campus" psychiatrist's prescribe you medications based on staff behavioral reports, without even consulting you to see how you feel about putting a new foreign substance into your body or checking past medical
records (could be detrimental to your well being).   For example I myself was a bit ADHD according to staff, and the staff apparently thought that they were doing me a favor recommending that i be prescribed to ritalin (methylphindate), which
actually led to a number of seizures...to bad they didn't bother to  check to see if my family had a history of amphetamine
related seizures.  thanks aspen ranch!!
-Anon

Whooter:
This post was edited to add a link back to the original poster, KJ


--- Quote ---I just recently left Aspen Ranch (during the July parent week), graduating as a Rider. I was there for over 16 months! The substance abuse counselor was my primary therapist! I had a lot of problems going there, personal as well as a fucked up family. I've now ben home for 3 months and am doing great. I haven't relapsed or really even considered it.

Aspen was a great place! We didn't get pizza from the local place once a week, but we did get it on parent week and for special occasions. The food wasn't great but it was certainly bearable (and I'm picky!). The staff was AWESOME (most anyways), they were very caring and devoted. There have been MANY changes in staff and rules in the past 6 months there as well, so check it out! Sure I had my rough times, everyone does! I would defenitely recommend it if you're kids having a rough time, but be sure to check it out before to see if you think your kid would be a good fit.

And to whoever posted about seeing kids doing pull-ups with a man with a radio....he was the personal trainer! I was in Personal Training for over a year there and it helped a lot! I've never heard a complaint about PT, kids can sign up for an extra fee through a past navy seal who really pushes you hard! And there's a LONG waiting list.

Thanks, and please no one tell me I'm lying....when I left I was 2nd in seniority out of everyone there at the time! And to those parents who have kids there now...I wouldn't doubt if I knew them!
--- End quote ---

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