"Intervention" Program

[Anonymous]

You are thinking of the log cabin, I think.  The Chalet is a one room house with a fire place, bare wood floors, no heat (other than the fire place), some windows, no bathroom, one closet, and a deck on the front.  If you were camping you would think it was wonderful.  If you were a kid being punished you would think it sucked.  It was definitely not fun for those kids who were there for days at a time.  I suppose that was the purpose.

[Anonymous]

I was sent to super restrictions once. My super Restrictions was out at restriction village and we wern't warned we were going. We didn't ever knew how long we were going to be out there. We didn't get to take clothes or toiletries. If our toothbrushes and deoderant ever made it out to the woods we were lucky. There were no showers until we went back to student population. A student would be sent to super restrictions if their counselors thought or knew that the student was hiding something, or if the counselors needed to figure out something that was happening on campus. That could be like the student was in a relationship or they broke the drug agreement or if they knew something about someone else, or it could be something bigger. Usually a group of 3-5 students would be sent to super restrictions. It wasn't an everyday thing. Just when it was time to shake up the campus. I was out in the woods for 7 days with 3 other girls, who were there for snorting glucose tablets. I was just there to do fall-out, because I never did in reals(therapy). No shower, same clothes, no toothbrush, no phone call with my parents, Just 3 small meals a day, one which was bread and peanut butter. And basically we didn't get to go back to campus until they heard what they wanted to hear on our fall-out (where we'de tell on ourselves and each other). When we wern't writing fall-out, we were raking, digging holes, you name it, we did it, just as long as the students on campus didn't see us. We slept in sleeping bags on the ground. I woke up in the middle of the night once with a toad on my head. Like I said, I was out there 7 days and the only reason I went back to student population was because they brought a guys group of super restrictions out for an emergency. One boy kicked another boy in the stomach so hard he soiled himself. Some of them were sent to wilderness a few days later. I was just sent back to regular restrictions.

So basically restrictions 24 hours a day for a week with no shower, clothes or toothbrush with  a lot less food and liquids, occasionally using leaves as toilet paper(not joking) until someone would bring more... We did make the campus look nice though.

[Deborah]

So, to summarize:

The length of the punishment was not stated- Or it was assumed that you'd stay until you produced the information they wanted. (Sounds like a POW camp)
No contact with parents.
No personal hygiene.
Limited calories and water.
Manual labor.
Sleeping outdoors with no protection from the elements.

All violations of ORS regulations for RCFs. And HLA claims that the RCF regulations aren't appropriate/ too restrictive for their "private boarding school".

And these were Masters Level Counselors issuing this austere and unethical punishment, and sometimes on a hunch? What happened to innocent until proven guilty?

When did this occur? Several alleged staff have posted on Fornits that they stopped limiting calories for Restrictions and that Restrictions ate with and the same thing as the gen pop. Some students have even confirmed that it improved, shortly after RC was forced to be licensed.  When the catering company was hire to provide meals. Did all those things just shift to a new catagory of "Super Restrictions"?

By the way, where is Restrictions Village? Is that where the Chalet is? And I assume it's not RC and RC staff were not supervising this punishment. Is that correct?

[Anonymous]

How to get to The Shalay and Restriction Village

If you are driving to RCI, the path splits before you get to RCI. If you go down the other path (the one not going to RCI on the right), it splits into two again as you head up. The more visible path is leading to the right and that heads behind the lake. If you head to the left however, you head over a bridge, right after that is the Shalay.  

If you continue down the more visible path, it heads behind the lake. At some point about halfway down the path, there is this kinda oldish building with a roof on your left, that is Restriction Village.

Restriction Village and The Shalay are not the same thing and are used for two completely different reasons.

Restricion Village: Super Restrictions and Weekend Restrictions

Shalay: Holding kids before they get pulled, kids who are refusing to go to RCI, kids put on Isolation, start/end point for Interventions.

[Deborah]

"Isolation"?
That's a new one all together.
Is that your interpretation, or was there also a punishment refered to as "Isolation"? If so, how was it different than the other punishments? Might that be for, say, holding a kid who has turned 18, when they're trying to coerce him/her to stay?

Okay, I know there are Masters Level Counselors reading. Do/Did you condone this treatment?

The length of the punishment was not stated- Or it was assumed that you'd stay until you produced the information they wanted.
No contact with parents.
No personal hygiene.
Limited calories and water.
Manual labor.
Sleeping outdoors with no protection from the elements.

Did you ever learn in your psych training that this is unethical treatment of anyone, even prisoners, much less teens.
I can understand the ex-military staff and untrained staff going along with this, but people who have been through six years of school? It's hard to fathom. Do you just go along, or did you believe it was good "therapy"?
Did Buccellato explain to you in the orientation why teens must be "treated" this way? How, and who justified it?

[Anonymous]

If this is all true....I am just sickened...my heart is sickened....Please call Kit Wallace at CPS(Child Protective Services)..

[Anonymous]

"Isolation"?
That's a new one all together.
Is that your interpretation, or was there also a punishment refered to as "Isolation"? If so, how was it different than the other punishments? Might that be for, say, holding a kid who has turned 18, when they're trying to coerce him/her to stay?

It is more of an interpretation, I mentioned something about kids refusing to go to RCI. When a kid over 18 is pending to go to RCI and they refuse, they go to the Shalay, b/c RC cannot legally accept them unless the kid signs a consent form or something like that. While the kid is at the Shalay, they have a staff watching the entrance to the Shalay 24/7. From when I saw the dorm charts, It was usually an HLA staff. I am not sure though about what happens during the night shift. Also, if a kid is supposed to go to RC, but for some odd reason RCI doesn't want to take them (there were a couple instances of that), the kid was put in the Shalay until the situation was resolved. This usually ended in dismissal.

[Deborah]

What ORS wants to know about your Behavior Modification & Emergency Safety Intervention Model for Use With Children and Adolescents.

Read the Application for Approval here:
http://ors.dhr.georgia.gov/DHR-ORS/DHR- ... .29.06.pdf

[Anonymous]

So, to summarize:

The length of the punishment was not stated- Or it was assumed that you'd stay until you produced the information they wanted. (Sounds like a POW camp)
No contact with parents.
No personal hygiene.
Limited calories and water.
Manual labor.
Sleeping outdoors with no protection from the elements.

All violations of ORS regulations for RCFs. And HLA claims that the RCF regulations aren't appropriate/ too restrictive for their "private boarding school".

And these were Masters Level Counselors issuing this austere and unethical punishment, and sometimes on a hunch? What happened to innocent until proven guilty?

When did this occur? Several alleged staff have posted on Fornits that they stopped limiting calories for Restrictions and that Restrictions ate with and the same thing as the gen pop. Some students have even confirmed that it improved, shortly after RC was forced to be licensed.  When the catering company was hire to provide meals. Did all those things just shift to a new catagory of "Super Restrictions"?

By the way, where is Restrictions Village? Is that where the Chalet is? And I assume it's not RC and RC staff were not supervising this punishment. Is that correct?

There is NO innocent until proven guilty at HLA. In fat even after proven innocent, you're still guilty. They'll find another reason for you to be guilty of something. Restrictions food did get better. It went from cheese sandwiches and soup to what gen. population got to eat. One serving on hot food, no fruit, and only a few pieces of bread. You could make a sandwich or salad. Also just water, gatorade or milk. No juice, which was fine, it wasn't real juice anyways.

[Anonymous]

Another term- crisis "shadow" trips. What's that? Where does it fit in the line up of punishments?

In 1996 (until 99), Patrick (Logan) moved back east to join Hidden
Lake Academy as their Assistant Wilderness Director; Patrick ran HLA?s Overnight, 4- and 10-day expeditions and their crisis ?shadow? trips, and directed field training for all wilderness staff.
http://www.snwp.com/staffdetails.asp?id=22

[Anonymous]

Weren't "Interventions" used as a form of "punishment"?

HLA states in their response to the lawsuit "punishments" never happened.

Opinions? Experiences?

[Anonymous]

Yes.  There were punishments.  This is where HLA is going to get bit on the butt.  They use the term "consequences", but in reality they are using the term incorrectly.  What often happens, by definition, is a punishment.  There is just more of a negative conotation with the word punishment, so they don't want to use it.

I have never heard of a "shadow" crisis intervention.  I know that HLA has had some wilderness trips that were offered for students who were doing well.  The kids were trained as first responders in wilderness first aid.  It was pretty popular.  I don't think it was called a shadow trip though.  I don't know if they still do those wilderness trips.

[Anonymous]

they had nothing to do with each other...there was a "super restrictions" which i think got changed to "intervetions" if i remember correctly...they could be totally different things but i know that both terms were used and i think that they were the same thing...could be wrong though...
the other wilderness things were for "good behavior" and were a lot of fun initially then they started not having enough "good" students and had to fill slots that were reserved and i think those last ones were kinda sucky...
but again, i could be wrong...

[Anonymous]

You are right and wrong.  

Super Restrictions and interventions were two different things.  SR was facilitated by HLA staff and not as intense as an intervention.  Interventions were facilitated by RCI and from what I understand extremely miserable experiences.

You are right about the positive wilderness trips.  I know some were very popular, but others kind of sucked because the truly positive kids were not on them.

[odie]

Boy the old time tc's used to call this crap "negative reinforcement". When I hear of it happening today it makes me forget who I am just for a moment and go down there beat the livin shit out of somebody, then rationalize it by saying it's only a consequence of you abusing kids.