Can you imagine having to eat a meal 3 times a day with THIS going on while you eat at the SAME table?!
Kids are encouraged and praised for "bringing someone up at the table." This is the meal table and if someone has done something you don't like, you bring them up on it. My son said these were always crying and shouting bouts that literally gave him an upset stomach while he was eating. My daughter and I witnessed one of these sessions during our last visit and we were shocked. My son later told us that this was mild compared to most days. A girl brought herself up on charges that she had "lusted while walking down the hall" and "judged someone wrongly." She was crying and asking for help while we were eating our macaroni and cheese. My son said he had to tune them out so that it wouldn't ruin his meal. We noticed that other kids would jump on the bandwagon and start criticizing someone after a charge had been brought up because it gave them brownie points to do so. These are the informal counseling sessions that were praised as being such "effective counseling." Effective for whom?
Where in the hell did this joint get the ideal that having an encounter/copping to guilt group at the table with peoples food on it and while the other kids are trying to eat was beneficial or therapeutic? Nice thing for parents and grandparents and little siblings to see is it not?
Isn't the abuse that happens before and after meal times enough to put these kids through?
Why haven't the parents/guardians who witness this behavior YANK their kid outta there right then and there?
Do the programs scare parents that call to get their kid out to go to their grandmom's funeral (for example) with tales of being suicidal, running away, acting out, Etc.
Do they scare the parent into thinking a early release will make the kid backslide?
Is it all about the money or not?
It blows my mind that a place like this can stay open and recieve the funding and the license's necessary to house and care for and to teach these kids under 18?
Does no one inspect these joints from top to bottom? Do they not interview the kids at random to prevent the staff from telling a kid they picked what to say or else?
Please keep all of these kids in your prayers. They need them more than we do right about now.
Poor things.