Caroline is an alcoholic. Has struggled with alcoholism since leaving Maine where she open another program with a former student. Randy is long out of the business and has been involved in major therapy to resolve issues of RMA/Cedu.
I have to say that I'm not at all surprised. I remember Randy so well, and because of some bizarre personal circumstances, I spent some time alone with him and the subject of the 24 period was his dreams of being molested, becoming the realization that those weren't dreams, but a common occurrence in his younger life. We talked a lot about him, and while I was never one of his favorites- he liked the kids he perceived as being druggy kids- I felt, even at the time, that I understood him better than other staff. With him, it was simple- simple belief in the program because that's all there was or would ever be for him. During this period we drove and were off the Idaho campus. He was my opposite and he was married to someone I vehemently resented and, in fact, hated.
It's really hard for me to imagine these people having other lives. Many staff chose a life, an ideology in the program that has proven to have been harmful to hundreds and hundreds of kids. For Caroline and Randy, it was stranger...to be a lifetime staff! I can't picture them in a scenario where they aren't harmful those that surround them, in whatever they do.
