Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > The Troubled Teen Industry

Catherine Freer Spins a Defense

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Oscar:
Comment made to the article in Albany Democrat-Herald:


--- Quote from: "danielcoyle - July 8 - 2012" ---I worked at Freer and then, Santiam Crossing, for 10 years and left, as the Director of Santiam Crossing School, in November of 2010 after what was, in spite of its challenges, one of the best jobs I am sure I will ever have. Mr. Cooley and the rest of the people who have been involved in fostering his original vision have contributed much to the lives and families of thousands of former clients.

I left after a board decision to reorganize the school's major operations was intentionally kept secret from myself and other school leadership. These decisions included hiring an assistant director with no feedback or interview process by the school and remotely outsourcing the financial management of the school to a Utah based consulting firm (which meant firing a very competent Albany woman who had served as our Chief Financial Officer).

The only reason given for keeping the plan and decsion secret from school employees and leadership was that the board was concerned it would not be recieved well.

During that year the school's leadership and employees had successfully navigated the same recession referred to in the article interview with a series of cost control measures. These included significant long term pay cuts that were scaled up for those in management and leadership positions. These sacrifices helped us to keep everyone employed through the most challenging parts of the recession and eventually turn around the school's financial position.

The School became profitable for the first time in its 6 year history in the Spring of 2010 and we were able to pay back all cut wages to the many employees who had stuck with it. Ironically, the month that the board implemented its reorganization plan was the most profitable month in the history of the school and the school's line of credit had been paid down to 0 from $100K for approximately 9 months. (The DH could interview former employees and, presumably, Citizens bank, to corroborate the claims made here regarding pay cut refunding and the history of the credit limit).

Mr. Cooley was the president of the board at both programs and, though myself and others had lobbied for creation of a more traditional board structure, the board had continued to consist of his family members and current and former employess. After a disagreement about decision making processes lead to the departure of the main minority partner of CFWTP in 2009 (after 21 years partnership) there was little balance left and the level and quality of organizational communication changed.

Like many of the parents spoken about in the story I, even as director, was not able to get valuable communication from the Board. In my first two years working as Director I was not invited to nor did I know of any meetings of the board and I was given no formal feedback on the school's administration and progress. This was in spite of being recruited to take the position by Mr. Cooley himself. Only once the school became profitable did the board's activity increase. This lead, within the space of 5 months, to the aforementioned plan to secretly re-organize the way finances were controlled.

At least two board members (who were also company employees) told me at the time that they were unhappy with the decisions and process but felt unable to do anything contrary to Mr. Cooley's wishes. One of these members resigned from the board during the process and eventually left the company.

Along with the financial limbo described for current client families former employees have had retirement accounts put at risk through documented negligence of Mr. Cooley in managing those programs. I was disappointed for myself and the school when I left and am saddened by what I view as the entirely unneccessary loss (through mismanagement) of a genuinely amazing service and dynamic part of the local business community.

The work and people I was involved with there stands out for me personally and I don't imagine ever doing something I enjoy more. In spite of the difficulties described above there was tremendously valuable work done; by staff, by the teenagers who attended and by families. Many folks have taken the inspiration they gathered from Freer and Santiam to build new resources that have and will continue to form the ways we connect with and guide young people.

Sincerely
Daniel Coyle
Former Program Supervisor at Catherine Freer Program
Former Director of Santiam Crossing School
--- End quote ---

thantastico:
Here is an interesting project that is shedding light on the issues w/ reformatory schools through film. Check it out and please pass on the link if it's something that you guys connected with.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/138 ... radise-bay


cheers!

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