Survivor's Report: Peninsula Village
By L.C.
Everything in my statement is true. I give HEAL permission to use my statement. I swear everything I wrote here is to the best of my knowledge completely true and I will be held accountable for anything written here.
I have personally witnessed the repeated abuse of minors at the Peninsula Village facility and would be more than happy to testify or present evidence to this fact. These behavior modification teen wilderness camps are a controversial excuse for therapy at best, they are also exorbitantly expensive. PV costs 500 dollars a night, more if they are "forced" to restrain you, or if you are in STU, the lock down unit. PV costs over a 150,000.00 a year, the kids in PV either have very good insurance or the state, tax dollars, pay for them to be abused. Children?s parents can sign them over to behavioral modification facilities with no court order for ?crimes? that no court would convict. The children are isolated in the facilities and have no recourse whatsoever. Many of the parents are abusive.
When I started to research PV I was amazed to discover how completely unqualified many of the daily staff is. The job requirements to be a live in counselor are a high school education or a GED, associate degrees from community colleges are common. Out of the staff that PV shows on it's website, I don't believe I saw one member of the daily staff that actually lives with the kids. Therefore, it is obvious that Peninsula Village turns an excellent yearly profit. I will include the job requirements for PV I found on the Covenant Health website under job search. The purpose of this letter is to officially report and describe the abuses that I both witnessed and was subjected to, in the hopes that it will help the children still suffering under that nightmare.
I was in Peninsula Village from 96 to 98, both my parents and I feel that we were extremely misled as to what my treatment there would be like. I was in the lock down unit for six months on arrival to the Village although I was cowed, completely subservient and did everything that they told me to. I was physically restrained on the first day in a hospital gown by at least 8 large adults for nothing more than pulling my arm away, it was an impulse reaction, when the large orderly woman dugs her nails purposefully into my arm. I know that this was purposeful. I was sitting on the floor in the isolation room looking up at the staff member when I pulled away but only instantaneously as a sort off knee jerk reaction and not violently, she had hurt me. She then stepped back looked at me again and pressed the buzzer staff wears around their neck to signal a restraint. There was absolutely no need to restrain me other than to prove a point, we can hurt you if we want to, which I don?t believe they are allowed to use restraining for. I was already in the isolation room all she had to do was walk out and close the door, I also wasn?t at all violent or had even thought to be, I regarded her as a teacher or some other adult authority figure, you certainly do not react violently to a teacher. I was not in PV for any form of violence. I wasn?t even defiant, mostly I was scared, crying and sitting on the floor of the isolation room in a ball. This was after the intrusive body search and being woken up at 5:30 in the morning by three burly adults who escorted me to Tennessee, it was more like being kidnapped.
While being restrained the Peninsula Village staff applied excessive pressure, I couldn't breathe and kept repeating that I was choking, but they let no pressure off, I was bruised and sore the next day, the restraint went on for hours. I saw one girl with a nasty black eye which they said came from pressing her face into the floor, like that made it better. I saw other cases with bruised arms, wrists legs and faces. There is no doubt in my mind that they could have restrained my totally non-resistant sobbing 95 pound borderline anorexic teenage self between all 1400 pounds of the 8 of them without hurting me. I was not fighting at all, even at first, I was far too shocked. Each held a body part so it was not a case of too many cooks in the kitchen, the individual staff member meant to hurt us. They also kept restraining you long after any fight was gone and even if none was there in the first place. I remember girls being restrained for what seemed like all night, although it was really only about three hours. There was an isolation room in the lockdown unit, nice cold hard linoleum with cement underneath but they would restrain you anywhere, gravel, garden manure, wherever.
They also used a straight jacket called a burrito. I can remember seeing a state kid stuck in that thing for a day or more, they were leading her around. Other girls were strapped to a cot wrapped up in it, given what must have been a lot of thorazine and other drugs, and left to drool. There were about two or three restraints a week often more. I was once restrained because I couldn't stop crying , I really couldn't I would have stopped of course to avoided being restrained, I was about as resistant as a wet noodle and they still held me down choking for hours. They would restrain girls for nothing, for saying in group therapy, I don?t agree with that politely enough , or for sitting down on work detail saying that they felt sick and needed to rest.
We were not allowed to look at or talk to the other girls and we had to ask for permission to do anything, move even, of course go to the bathroom and we had to tell them what it is we had to do, they stood outside the door and timed us. There was no reading, and no free time, Group therapy was more like a denouncement session and began as soon as you were crying, that is later on the first day, after they had restrained you for a few hours and you were a broken puddle ready to confess to anything. I don't believe that many of the staff that actually lives with the girls on a daily basis is especially educated, perhaps some BA's and associate degrees, These are the one?s who actually deal with the children and run group therapy and restrain them, I don?t believe there is one daily staff member pictured on the internet and they are the ones who actually live with the girls. .
The lights in the lockdown unit, STU, where I spent the first six months, were left on all the time, we slept in cubicles and were often woken by the staff patrolling , they were always standing over us. We were punished constantly, abuse was constant every second for those two years. The cubicles had no fronts and the room was small. We were not allowed outside, until we were ready to move out to the cabins. This was horrible, after sitting on a bed for six months we were suddenly made to do back breaking physical work all day.
We had level systems, I never got beyond the first level although I was completely compliant. I don't think I was as willing to rip into my fellow prisoners as much they would have liked. Group therapy was a cult denouncement experience, it was pure hell, and I am not exaggerating. They would find out your deepest darkest secrets and then browbeat you with them like you were disgusting dirt, we could say nothing to defend ourselves or we would face being PCId/ restrained. They liked sexual revelations and would ask you everything about them, specific details and more details, it was not appropriate, odd and used to induce shame. You would confess to things you didn't do and then they would tell your family. Many of the girls were in there for something that had happened to them, the website, says the Village is an expert at helping abused girls. It was terrible to watch them torture some poor teenager who was in there because she had been raped or molested. Many of the girls had been raped or molested, myself included, and to be held up to shame, ridicule and denouncement in relation to sex at a place that was supposed to help you with your experience was a pure nightmare.
They encourage the girls to pick on each other, to rip into each other during group therapy so bullying is greatly encouraged, in fact the level system is based strongly on it. There was desperation mentality, as we all struggled so hard to avoid being punished and they punished all of us together, I realize now that the punishments were arbitrary, no matter how hard we tried to avoid them they were still going to rain down on our heads. We would pretend to give feedback, their word for harassment and abuse, but how can you tear someone apart after listening to them scream all night while staff held their face into the floor. There were also frequent outbreaks of head lice while I was in STU. Many of us wanted to work with the Village, I personally wanted sane educated adults to help me. It was extremely confusing and terrifying.
It seemed very odd that some of the girls were in a behavior modification facility at all and it was hard to tell how all this abuse was going to help any of them. The treatment did not seem at all relevant to the problems the girls were having? One of the girls was there for telling her parents that she was gay and that was really it. There were a lot of anorexics. Worst of all some had done nothing other than get molested by a close relative, to the horror of their families. The PV website says that PV is an expert at helping girls deal with issues like rape and molestation. I want to know whether or not the relative being accused was being investigated? It most cases I saw it was being somewhat brushed under the rug or almost completely brushed under the rug. There was very limited contact with the outside world, especially for girls who's families had signed them over. It did not seem reasonable that these girls were treated as if they were being punished or were in jail for more serious offenses. I thought too, that a lot of the girls who were in for more serious things were acting out more serious problems in their lives, like the kids who had unfit parents and were in foster care. It is a very hard world out there for a teenage runaway with drug addict, alcoholic, abusive parents. It really is, I lived with them for a long time, the stories were pretty typical. Perhaps better educated staff would have been more aware.
The counselors run all the group therapy sessions and group therapy is the only kind of therapy we had at the Village. We had brief individual therapy once every two months maybe less and group therapy two or three time a day. Some girls were good students, there were also a certain amount of custody battles. The Village likes to add as much social stigma as possible to the teenagers there because it keeps them in business. Some were pretty ordinary teenagers, who were dealing with issues like boys, sex, pressure to drink and smoke pot or being tormented by kids at their schools. I'll include the criteria for admissions to PV at the bottom of the page it is so broad as to be funny if it wasn't horrible.
After the lock down unit with its cramped quarters and barred mesh covered windows for months, we had the cabins and work detail. Work detail was exercise digging up stumps, cross sawing logs, mauling logs, building endless things under the constant abuse of the staff in the hot sun. I believe I was also suffering from sleep deprivation because we were often woken up at two in the morning to go out to the log shed to be shown how much wood still needed to be chop or for some other arbitrary reason, we also always woke up before dawn and didn't get to bed till late because we always had endless chores or punishments to finish. I used to fall asleep standing up, literally on a daily basis. We marched around in lines, or holding on to a rope, and there was still no talking or looking at the other girls, it was very lonely. We had to haul around the Gott, a water jug that weighed so much your arms would feel like they were going to fall off and you'd want to vomit but if you dropped it you knew you were in worse trouble, we carried around many heavy things. The Gott was our water for the cabin.
The cabins have no running water or bathrooms only porta johns. They exercise you past the breaking point and then over a little, and then much more. It was torture, I can't emphasize that enough torture, we did this all day most days, unless we were in school or on shutdown. We had no free time, we weren't allowed to read or anything, everything was tightly scheduled and we would always miss our schedule and be punished although we tried in pure desperation to make them happy so they would stop. Our showers were timed, everything was timed. Hygiene wasn?t that great and there was no makeup or jewelry or of course shaving your legs, only ugly work cloths. I only mention this because it is very dehumanizing for a young girl. We had no free time whatsoever, I did not speak to another girl the entire time I was there, without staff permission, which was rare. We weren't allowed to read, that was the worst for me because I love to read. No books, how are you suppose to learn without being able to read.
School was ok when you got to go, but it wasn't very organized and there was a lot of other stuff going on, we also only went half of the school week, so we could do more important things like dig stumps out of the ground, I guess. Most left with a GED, I think they really focused on GED training, which makes it hard to get into colleges, especially if when they ask for high school credits you list a behavior modification facility. Often if something came up, like we went on shutdown or were sent to STU, the lockdown unit, we would miss school all together. Once they had us sit in a circle with our backs to each other and stare at the wall for five months only to turn around for group therapy and to be escorted to the bathroom. We had no school for those five months and five months is a long time to sit in a circle starring at a wall only to turn around for a denouncement session.
From all the restraining you are probably thinking that the girls were always acting up. I can not stress how completely not true this is. For the most part they were more like zombies than wild teenagers. I?ve done some research on prison camps and abuse and I don't believe there is a teenager girl out there that isn?t going to turn into a limp half dead dish rag in the face of no escape, constant abuse; mental, physical, emotional and sexual although not physically so, denouncement sessions, sleep deprivation, sadistic people four times her size watching her constantly and being drugged. The opposition I saw was closer to nervous breakdowns than violent defiance. There was some defiance but it was only verbal protests of the abuse, that I saw. The girls crossed the staff at the Village in really sad to watch ways, like protesting the denouncement sessions, no being molested wasn?t my fault, or saying I can?t work anymore I feel sick or I can?t stop sobbing I?m trying but I can?t stop, I?m just going to sit here and not move. Saying, ?this is wrong? was enough to get you restrained, or showing any annoyance at the abuse. I don?t think I saw anyone physically fight back or even threaten too except by pulling away or as they were already being restrained and this was usually accompanied by a very believable, remember I saw many bruises, you are hurting me I can?t breath. The only time I saw anyone fight, or squirm from underneath eight gigantic adults, is when they were already being restrained. These were usually the girls who had suffered long term serious abuse and it is not surprising they would become upset when being abused again. They staff was far too eager to restrain people and unbelievably cruel and abusive in their daily treatment on the girls. I never saw anything that posed as a danger to staff or the other girls but I sure as saw them restrain people a lot, at least two or three times a week. I also thought it odd that if the girls are so dangerous that they would have them marching around with hammers, cross saws, mauls, axes and other pretty dangerous things.
I believe there is an abusive criteria for staff at the Village that they are told to follow, they show no sympathy and harass the girls constantly. I believe the idea is to keep the level of stress extremely high. There was a good deal of talk about breaking us down to be built back up although I saw no building back up, and I was there for about eighteen months. Also, I believe behavior modification involves rewarding good behavior. The punishments at the Village were completely arbitrary and rewards involved things like being allowed to use salt and pepper on your food. Staff would do things like walk around and mess up your bed and then yell at you while you tried to remake it while being timed, this is a slight example but it would happen, or something like it, twenty times a day sometimes at two in the morning, and was extremely nerve wracking. It was completely odd arbitrary stuff that basically allowed for you to be abused no matter what, and it taught you that no matter what abuse is constant. It was much like living in an extremely abusive family I believe. Not very helpful to victims of molestation, or abuse?
One of the counselors, extremely undereducated, she had a associates degree from a community college, was found on My Space to belong to a community that photographs women in bondage. There were many pictures of young women in bondage on her website. In another instance, a director of the girls side, was arrested for driving extremely drunk, I believe she tried to back down a highway entrance ramp and hit another car. It turned out she was an alcoholic.
Peninsula Village of course, won't let you talk to your parents except after I think it was six months for me, even then just by phone with a family therapist on conference call so if you break out of the party line and say ?please get me out it?s a nightmare? large orderlies can appear and march you back for more abusive indoctrination. They also read your mail. They laugh at you when you say you want a lawyer. Your parents have of course been told you are a lying manipulator and not to believe you and that you just want to come home so you can go out with boys and smoke pot. Kids wet the bed because they were too scared to ask to go to the bathroom at night, either that or all the abuse was manifesting in weird ways. I wouldn't believe it except I lived it and I swear on my life everything I said is 150% true.
I have lasting scars from this experience, I have nightmares almost every night, not always about the village just in general, that the world is a horrible place and all the scary fascist people are going to eat me and everything I care about and I'm going to be completely at there mercy. Besides the nightmares sometimes I shake uncontrollably if I am frightened or nervous, it is very embarrassing and is not helpful at work or in school. I have finally gotten over my overwhelming social anxiety enough that I am well on my way too having a college degree and have a life of my own. The Village taught me nothing other than how to be cowed and subservient and to think it was ok when someone abuses me, I still am completely incapable of making eye contact with other human beings. The Village teaches you to give in to peer pressure and let your self be influenced by those around you even if they are going against what you think is ethical. I can?t emphasize enough how bad Peninsula Village is. I was amazed that we had no rights while in there. I asked to speak to a lawyer or someone from the outside, I heard girls ask to have the police called repeatedly, and they laughed at us. Therapy at PV is a horrible lie. They take abused girls and tell them that they deserve abuse. It's the daily mantra there, how everything is your fault, your rape, your parents problems, your anorexia, your life in foster care. I never got to talk to another girl the entire time I was there, other than with asked permission and staff listening, even then it was just about mandatory things, like, put the piece of wood down here. I can understand how people are taken in by Peninsula Village, from the outside it looks ok, my parents trusted and had no idea that such things even exist in America, they believed as I did that it was a safe and caring program that would help their daughter like most school and health programs. People don't believe that something this insane, this Gulag like, would exist in America. No-one sees it from the inside except the daily staff and the girls really and us they do so much to discredit and keep down that we do not believe anyone will believe us or care. I feel as if I have just recently woken up from Peninsula Village?s nightmare and it has been seven + years. It is an evil, horrible place that should be shut down and they should have any licensing stripped from them and be brought up on child abuse charges.
I am sorry it has taken me so long to report PV but I was still very young when I was freed from there. I was also embarrassed, traumatized and I had no support in reporting the Village. I am still afraid of the social stigma and of the Village itself. It is hard for me not to believe that people can?t show up at my door, proclaim that I have some sort of disorder, and carry me off to a room with heavy doors and no contact with the outside world, never to be heard from again. Your organization is against such things and protects people from them. What can be done to fix this horror? Why is this legal, how can they isolate and torture minors? I know girls are still suffering there! I reported PV to the Tennessee Child Protection Agency and they said that they had heard PV had cleaned up their act. This is blatantly untrue. There are a variety of websites and even a book, very recently written or posted, by parents of PV survivors or the girls themselves that prove PV has changed none of it?s abusive practices, their website itself proves they are up to their same old game. I also reported PV to the local Tennessee police and they completely ignored me. Someone needs to investigate PV and they would see what I am saying is true. Again I officially swear that everything I have said here is completely true to the best of my knowledge and I would be more than happy to swear this in court. I would not be afraid of any form of liable issues because I know what I saw and experienced to be true, I am only afraid of social stigma in relation to my work and school and of PV itself.
Here are the requirements to be a PV counselor I took off the Covenant Health website job search:
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1/20/2007
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PROGRAM COUNSELOR
Job Code: 17673
Location: PENINSULA VILLAGE
Department: Girl's Outdoor Program
Description: Full Time Position: Four days/ three nights.
Requirements: Social services degree preferred, but H.S. diploma with experience will be considered.
Duties: Work in the outdoor setting with patients in a residential facility. Provide safety, supervision and therapy to adolescents in our care. Need extreme flexibility with scheduling and extensive availability.
Covenant Health is committed to a safe and healthy work environment. Therefore, employment is subject to a successful background check and drug screen. Also, a credit check may be performed on applicable positions that deal with handling money. EOE
Education: High School Diploma/GED
