My son attended Alldredge Academy and he felt the wilderness part was very important for him.. He left there almost two years ago and still says he would either be dead or in jail if he had not gone there or somewhere very similiar. Some of the people he was involved with were arrested soon after he left. We did not think jail was going to help him in any way, shape, or form!
When he came home he knew of at least three people that were either dead or in jail because of drugs, suicide, or car accidents. He (and many of his friends, including the ones that died) were not just experimenting with drugs and being obstinate teens. They were heavily into dealing (and not just pot) and other very destructive things.
We tried counseling (for a year) with someone he liked and trusted (and confided to about his drug use, but not honestly), he changed schools, and nothing seemed to help.
The school part of the program (at Alldredge at that time) was not very good and was a waste of time for him.
I hope that things at Alldredge are made safer for everyone but know that until society changes a lot this and other programs like them are needed for parents and kids that luckily have something that may change things towards a positive direction.
I sense that many that use this forum did not feel helped by the program that they were forced to go through. I hope that some day they will see there was something positive about the experience they had.
I went through cancer 8 years ago and I would not trade that experience for anything. It was very hard, yes, I could have lost my life, yes, but it taught me so much about myself and what is important to me. One of those things was to make sure my sons grew up and to not worry if they did not like the decisions I made for them. Parenting is not a popularity contest. I hope, and sincerely think, my sons love me, but I had to make the decisions that I made and not worry if they would like the decisions. Even if my son hated me now I would still feel we did the right thing for him because he would be alive to hate me and make his own choices about life.
