One more question. In what capacity are you affiliated with HLA?
Court-ordered- There are no kids that are sentenced to HLA. There are kids who the courts are allowing to go to HLA in leiu of being sentenced elsewhere and upon successful completing of the program will have their charges dropped. It is a matter of semantics, I know. But they are not technically "court ordered" to HLA.
This is called being "mandated" into treatment. And, yes, it is by court order. Of course nobody is sentenced to HLA. They are, however, mandated by the court to be there and former patients have reported that the staff exercises considerable, shall we say, "leverage" over kids that face criminal charges for splitting treatment.
Strip Search- Yes. STrip searched are done. Always have been, to my knowledge. Any denial of this is a lie and someone is not doing their job.
During my employment at HLA there were no strip searches performed. This was not policy.
Parents report that these strip searches are not disclosed before enrollment. Parents have reported asking specifically "Do you strip search?" and were told directly that HLA does not perform strip searches.
Sex with staff- I am aware of three rumors, no facts. Two rumors have to do with staff and students after both have left HLA. This is not AT ALL appropriate, but it did not happen while they were under the direct care of HLA. I am aware of one rumor of a staff having sex with a girl while she was at HLA. This has been ivestigated and,to my understanding, HLA can find no truth to the rumors other than people saying, "well I heard something happened, but I don't know for sure."
I personally have heard from young women who were allegedly the victims of sexual harrassment and inappropriate "come ons" from staff. I am in contact with a young woman who reports she had an ongoing sexual relationship on campus with a male staff member.
Are you saying that HLA performed an investigation of sexual abuse claims by a patient? Why would they have not called the police to investigate a sexual assault by a staff member on a patient? This is astounding negligence and blatant disregard for the rights of the victim.
Drug free campus- HLA's campus is largely drug free. There have been times when kids have snuck drugs on campus, despite the fact that strip searches are done.
Kids have reported that they were able to obtain drugs from staff members in exchange for clothing items. When I worked there kids broke into a staff member's vehicle and found his marijuana stash, which they promptly smoked right there on campus.
Students having sex with each other- HLA keeps very close tabs on its students. There have been kids have sex with each other, however, durign the almost 11 years of it's existence. It is rare though.
It has been reported by a number of kids here and on other websites that the supervision is so lax in certain areas that they can readily have sexual intercourse without being caught. Keep in mind that this is unprotected sex that can lead to STD's including HIV and pregnancy, as birth control and condoms are "contraband."
Accrediting agency guidelines- HLA is accredited by SACS and follows their guidelines.
This has been abundantly proven false. Especially in the area of student rights, including ready access to a non-HLA faculty to whom abuses may be reported. There are no phones and the kids are prohibited from reporting abuses to anyone other than HLA staff, who immediately dismiss the complaint and dole out punishment for "manipulating" or "lying."
There is no mechanism by which kids can report abuse.
Licensed for mental health care- No. HLA is not under any state license other than being accredited by several accrediting agencies.
HLA is an unlicensed treatment center.
Accreditation has nothing to do with licensure whatsoever, but is often used as "evidence" that the "program" is overseen by some entity.
Suicide attempts- While extremely rare, there have been suicide attempts on campus. There have been no successes.
This doesn't seem to jive with the stories of former patients, nor does it jive with my personal experiences.
I have never heard of a "successful" attempt, thank God.
Locked inside the dorms- The doors are locked from the outside, to keep people out. You can easily push the door open to get out in case of an emergency. There are at least three exits to each dorm.
Patients claim windows are locked from the outside. This takes away the only avenue of escape from fire from each individual room and happens to be illegal.
Forced Labor as punishment- Kids do hard work as a consequence. Chopping woods, clearing dead branches, stacking fire wood, minor landscaping. HLA hires a professional landscaping crew for the major jobs.
This is hardly the extent of the forced labor regimen. Your statement that kids do any landscaping shows that their forced labor is of benefit to the business. That's illegal. Kids cannot be used as a source of labor for jobs normally handled by paid employees or contractors.
What about scrubbing dumpsters with a toothbrush or moving rockpiles back and forth?
Wilderness- Yes they follow their own rules regarding sending the students to wilderness. Who elses rules would they follow? If a child runs away, harms or severely threatens someone else, or brings drugs onto campus, they will go to wilderness.
Parents are provided with the "rules" regarding transfer of a patient to "wilderness." Several parents have complained that these rules were not followed in the cases of their children.
Thank you for your time and attention to answering some of these questions. It is sincerely appreciated.
_________________
"Compassion is the basis of morality."
-Arnold Schopenhauer
[ This Message was edited by: Dysfunction Junction on 2006-01-26 15:17 ]