Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Aspen Education Group
Split from ASR: Private School or RTC
TheWho:
--- Quote ---They have more in common then a TBS does with a public school. Anyone who'd actually experienced the two (not you) knows that.
--- End quote ---
Well, that?s a good start, Bob. Instead of just being critical, why not share your thoughts a little more. How much more in common?
--- Quote --- That you know? Cindy you dont know any TBS's. You bought into the brochures of two programs. One of which is apparently being sued for abusing kids, the other has been operating the entire time without being properly licensed.
--- End quote ---
You faltered a little, there, Bob. Try providing a few examples yourself?.. this will show the readers you have knowledge on the subject and you can provide some insight to new readers with some school names??.
--- Quote --- Wow youre stupid. It would be laughable if it werent for the fact that kids are being abused because of idiots like you. Explain to us how a traditional boarding school limiting the time or the location in which a kid may call his parents is the same thing as a TBS screening and censoring all incoming and outgoing mail/email as well as having staff members standing by to terminate any phone call in which a kid states anything that might be deemed manipulation and then punishing the child for doing so? How many traditional boarding schools prevent the child from calling his parents for weeks or even months at a time?
Rattle off a few names for us Cindy.
--- End quote ---
Again, thanks for your attempt, but try giving input yourself i.e. provide information, instead of saying anothers is wrong. It will gain you more credibility and you can use the time to explain how much time is too long for having contact with home, which schools that you are personally familiar with limit phone usage and terminate calls.
Without the info, bob, you appear to be just an angry reader with no answers. Come on?try engaging in the dialog a little, share your knowledge, you may learn to like it.
RobertBruce:
This coming from the guy who has no credibility.....
Cindy Ill be glad to follow through on all your suggestions provided you can do a single thing for me.
Back up just one of your ridiculus claims. I dont even care which one, I just want see if you can.
RobertBruce:
yeah I didnt think you could......oh well. G'Night Cindy!
Anonymous:
--- Quote from: ""TheWho"" ---
--- Quote from: ""Guest"" ---
--- Quote ---TheWho said:
The parents know their own child? if the kid is being raped or abused by half the counselors she can just say ?Look Mom, the counselors are full of crap, they are raping me, come get me tonight or I am going to walk away on my own, you can find me at the local police station or hospital, goodbye?
--- End quote ---
Which telephone are they supposed to use for this function, Who? THEY AREN'T ALLOWED TO REPORT ABUSE OR EVEN TO USE A TELEPHONE AT ALL. This is the part you're missing.
--- End quote ---
I take it you dont know much about ASR. My daughter called every week, she could tell me then or walk down to the center of town and use the phone at the store.
If they were in wilderness they could call the cops when they get out, it only takes one kid getting raped to shut the place down, even as a minimum for an investigation.
--- End quote ---
This young man attended ASR after Who's daughter was there. Note the discrepencies.
Here is my testimonial for the website:
My name is Richard Meehan. I attended three different programs starting at 4:15AM on October 23rd, 2003 to April 21st, 2005. I attended ALE (Adirondack Leadership Expeditions), ASR (Academy at Swift River), and DA (Discovery Academy). I was woken up at exactly 4:15AM on Oct 23rd.
I live in New York City and a 7ft tall native American man opens the door to my room and turns on my light. I see my parents standing behind him and another 6ft 3 in guy behind them. At first I thought I was getting robbed. Then he said "Were from Right Direction, we're here to take you..." I would have tried to run but considering i lived on the 5th floor of my building, i decided against going out the window. I immediately realized my situation. The guy told me to get on my clothes, which i did, after he thoroughly searched through them. He took me by the belt loop of my pants downstairs on the elevator. I was still in shock, i did not know what to think or do. My doorman was on the elevator and walked over to the door to open it. The expression on his face was of pure shock. When I saw him I had my teeth grinding kind of like a grin except it was not.
They told me on the way down that they would treat me fine if i did not resist. If i did, they said they had plenty of restraints to put me in and that they had handcuffs and footcuffs that they would use if "necessary". I felt trapped, there was nothing i could do. I did not consent to this.
After a five or six hour drive we arrived in the Adirondack mountains. I remember being taken out of the car and up to the room where the director of the program was. About eight staff members were standing around me in the room and they asked me a bunch of questions about how i felt. I didn't't't feel particularly good at the moment and then the drove me out to a forest. It was snowing out and the temperature was -10. They told me to take off my clothes so I could get into gear. I was outside without clothing for i guess about five minutes and then I was blindfolded and guided through the woods where the staff gave me my course book. I spent my first three nights with two staff before i went to my actual group. When i met the group i was with a bunch of kids in the same situation. During my entire stay in wilderness it was freezing outside. There were some nights it was so cold they had to let us use tents they use on the base camp of Mount Everest. There was one day I remember it was so cold i could not move my fingers. After 41 days, I left the program and was driven by my parents to ASR.
ASR had a division of it that you went through in the beginning that was part wilderness. This one was not as bad since they had recently revised it so that we could sleep indoors. However, unlike my last wilderness, this one was more like a bootcamp. Instead of hiking and what not we did PT, Physical training. PT consisted of push-ups, crunches, etc. Whenever you got a consequence there it was in the form of PT. AKA if you were not in arms reach of your nalgene* you would have to do a certain amount of push ups and crunches. After a brief 29 days there, i made it to the main campus.
ASR's main campus was the worst place ive ever been. I hated every second i was there. We had group therapy three days a week for four hours each session. Group consisted of two or three staff, or our "therapists", who were not qualified to do therapy in a room with your Peer Group. The session consisted of staff getting you to talk about your biggest issues. If something bad had happened in your life they wanted you to say it. Then once you did they would use it against you, whether it was to make you feel guilty, to use that issue to make you turn against other kids, or whatever set of circumstances they could manipulate it into there favor.
At ASR, there was no information from the outside world, if you were not receiving any consequences which are in the form of Challenges or Self Studies, you could watch TV for about an hour on sunday. Your mail was open and read before given to you, all your 15 minute phone calls were monitored, and there was no contact with anyone other than your parents. If you started talking something that happened in the school to your parents that the staff didnt like, the staff monitoring the call would try to take the phone from you and say to them you were manipulating or try to disconnect the phone from the wall.
On August 2nd, I left ASR and my parents flew me out to Provo, Utah where I attended Discovery Academy. This school was pretty much more of the same. Only one therapist had credentials that i know of and the therapy was pretty much non-existant. You could not talk to any of the girls there except for one hour a day during the week in a supervised activity. The staff there were nice guys when they liked you but if they didn't they could make your life horrible. I never experienced that since i was good with them but other kids had problems. If there was ever an incident that occurred in either of these places it was downplayed by the staff. If you told your parents about it they said it was untrue.
Essentially, these programs are all corrupt. All they want is money and will figure out and say anything to get the parents to keep the kids there a little longer.
*A nalgene is a canteen that we were given to drink out of. In ALE we were given old military canteens, which with the extreme cold were impossible to drink out of due to the cold. Basically, when i was with the staff we hiked around for no reason. We were actually shadowing the main group but the director convinced my parents to put me with the staff for a few days so i can adjust. In reality it was to make me lose 3 days of progress i could have had to graduate. They didn't treat me badly. They asked me questions like why was i there, did i ever have wilderness-like experience. They tried to teach me how to do basic things like set up my tarp and properly pack my bag within the allotted time limit, although i do not remember how long they gave us to pack or set-up camp. Yes, other kids did suffer from hypothermia and im pretty sure people got frostbite, although not sure about that one. Actually, in ASR Base Camp (wilderness portion), there was a girl with poor blood circulation. I remember how her hands would turn blue during PT but the staff did not care.
ALE was located in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate NY. ASR was located in Cummington, MA, and DA was located in Provo, UT.
http://www.teenliberty.org:80/Voices.htm
TheWho:
3 schools in less than a year. I am sure this kid had some major issues and needed to be monitored much more closely than most. Not your average student experience.
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