worried

[Anonymous]

Well, I'm glad he's going to be shedding some light on the situation, but he's dead wrong on the "concept" of HLA.

[Anonymouse]

I graduated the program and all it did was waste 22 months of my life and get me further behind than ahead. I learned nothing. Ive been on restrictions for about 1/4 to 1/3 of my time there. Some staff are ok but if they want to keep there job they must bassically fill a quota of write ups. It makes no sense to send a kid there. Its just a huge waste of money.

[Anonymous]

Maybe your situation was different or you just had sadistic counselor, but I can assure you that there is no "quota" for write ups.  Most counselors would prefere not to put people on restrictions because it means more paper work for them.  I will grant you, however, that some counselors lacked the common sense to know what was worth writing up and what should be let go or dealt with without a write up.  Because they had no common sense they would write up everything.

Just clarifying what the reality probably was.

[Anonymous]

You're trying to clarify reality through the eyes of an adult. The "reality" is much different in the eyes of a teenager who is going through normal ups and downs plus some - have that compounded by counselors who, for the most part, were incompetent and unskilled jumping down a teenager's throat everyday. Of course the situation is much worse in their view because they are living it.

[Deborah]

There may not be a specific 'quota', but let's say it was noticed that a counselor consistently had few write ups. Would that be questioned?
My sons PGCs weren't necessarily sadistic, that I'm aware of, and I know he was on restrictions for most of the first 4 months he was there, and very frequently throughout. Often for minor things or because someone accused him of violating a rule.

[Anonymous]

No the number of write-ups was not questioned.  There were three major rules as you know and if a administrator, counselor or teacher did not write a student for breaking one of the three major rules then that may be an issue.  In fact some of the people who did not write up the kids were well respected for having an orderly bunch and those who consistently needed to write people were often seen as the ones who were not capable at their positions.  If anything there was almost the opposite correlation of what was suggested.

There are alternatives to write-ups as well and the alternatives were commonly used, more by some than others.

There may not be a specific 'quota', but let's say it was noticed that a counselor consistently had few write ups. Would that be questioned?
My sons PGCs weren't necessarily sadistic, that I'm aware of, and I know he was on restrictions for most of the first 4 months he was there, and very frequently throughout. Often for minor things or because someone accused him of violating a rule.