Wow, obama is going to win

[Anonymous]

I attended the Family School I was never hit or slapped, but I was yanked around, dragged and shoved. I did not suffer extreme pain from that, just total humiliation.

 Some things happed to me that caused lasting and extreme pain. I had painful menstrual cramps, which I HAD NEVER had before the Family School. I was made to work very hard while I had these even though I was crying. I was not allowed any medical care for these at The Family School. I was even told at one point that I did not deserve to go to the doctor. Since leaving the school these pains have gotten worse and they have found all kinds of things wrong with my ovaries and uterus. I may never be able to have kids and recent ultra sound has found sometime abnormal on the uterus. I am going in later this month for another one. They are hoping that it is not cancer.

 I hardly ate any meat before the Family School and stuck to a very healthy/sometimes organic diet. At the Family School the food made me so sick to my stomach. It felt like rocks sitting inside me and I would go days with out having a bowl movement. I would sit on the toilet crying and I could not sleep at night because of the pain. I really needed some fiber in my diet. I was thin and athletic before the Family School, and I gained about 50 pounds there which was emotionally painful. It took forever to lose it. We also had to ask permission to use the bathroom. Sometimes they said "no" and I would have to wait forever to take a piss. It would put my abdomen in so much pain that I could not concentrate on my school work or in class.

 I didn't have food taken away, but I had restrictions on the food towards the end of my stay. I spent about 2 months in the corner, I could not get extras and stayed hungry. I did lose a few pounds in the corner, which I was happy about. They had me in the corner because I had announced that I was going to leave on the 18th birthday, so I spent the rest of my time in the corner.

I was denied feminine hygiene and ended up having gross horrible accidents in the Family room, which I was harassed and ridiculed for. My cramps were still painful and getting worse and my periods were out of control with heavy bleeding. I slept in a bloody bed for my last few months there. They stood me up in front of the Family once and Mary Musgrove made me tell the boys about my "problems". I refused and went back to the corner.

 I got very sick in the dorm and threw up every where and lost control of my bowels. My bed was a mess. My comforter was covered in nastiness, and I begged for weeks to allow me to wash my comforter. They said it would not fit in the washing machine. They also refused to have someone bring it to town to wash at a laundry mat. I only had a few months left, thank God, but I had to spend each night sleeping in a disgusting bed.

 I was only allowed 2 days of rest after this illness and then had to go back to leading wait staff even though I still felt like shit. I was never kept in isolation, but was denied sleep in the dorm.

 The alarm would go off when someone ran away. The alarm would go on and on and sometimes we had to go look for the run away. I lost much sleep because of this and it made school work very difficult.

 It was also difficult to sleep in the dorm because the heat would not always work. Winters got very cold in the dorm, and we went several weeks without having hot water for our showers.

 I also spent several weeks on a work sanction. I had to stand all day without leaning or taking a break. I could only sit down in the dorm and on the toilet. I couldn't even sit down to eat. All day I was made to carry big buckets filled with rocks. I carried them up and down the road. Sometimes a staff member would come by and put more rocks in the bucket to add more weight. My back and knees constantly ached. I have had many problems with my back and joints since I left the Family School. I have been to doctors for those problems. They said my back is filled with knots. I had some work done on it and it feels much better, but it was so painful at first. I would wake up each morning for years after leaving the Family School feeling like my back and joints had been beaten all night. I had always dreamed of being a dancer, but my back and weight have really held me back.

Thank fully I have been able to see a doctor who got me back in shape and I finally lost all my weight and am on a dance team now. My period and constipation problems stayed with me and I have to take medicine for both, as well as attend physical therapy for a few months. All of these doctor's bills do add up, as well as being time consuming. I believe that I owe my health problems to the Family School.

Also, I had gone to see an orthodonist while at The Family School. They said my wisdom teeth were growing side ways and needed to be taken out. They also a couple of my front teeth needed to be taken out because they wern't growing right. The Family School told my dad not to worry about it. Well, my teeth got really bad, and I had to wait until college to get this taken care of. I had a total of 6 teeth taken out, and now I have 3 fake teeth. I had to wear braces for 3 years. I could have had this all taken care of in high school, but no. The procedure took a lot of time, and I had to miss college and work. It was painful and another hold up in my adult life. I hated being 22 and wearing braces. I finally got them taken off 2 years ago. The Family did not want my teeth taken care of because it would take my mind of my program.

[Anonymous]

My name is Andrea DiGenno. I attended the Family Foundation School from June 1998 to June 2000, during which time i witnessed my peers being abused mentally and physically and i endured the same. When i got to the family school i was heavily involved in drugs was emaciated and unable to think clearly and rationally. I was taken from my house by two bounty hunters who hand cuffed and shackled me in my pajamas and took me into their car only to drive two and a half hours away to the foothills of the Catskills to the elusive Family School.

When I arrived I was gawked at, laughed at and questioned like a war criminal. My clothes were all taken away, while I was asked if I was a whore. My lack of self esteem at the time had made me feel like they were right. My parents were told not to speak to me, signed the papers which handed over my life to these supposedly trusted people and left. I did not speak to them for at least a month. During my first few weeks there i was told i was nothing special, was nothing more than a blow up doll used and thrown away like a tissue. I was a whore and my birthmother was the same. If I wasn't careful I would finish her cycle. These verbal put downs were displayed in front of groups of girls as well as boys, men and women who were requested and encouraged to add their sentiments on the situation. These sentiments were only allowed if they were in the same vein as the leaders of these groups.


I was forced to eat food I was allergic to and had never eaten before. If food was not finished at one meal it would be finished at the next as well as the meal served at that time all while being forced to face the wall in the corner. I gained 60 pounds in five months which is by no means healthy. As my size grew my insecurity followed suit.  My clothes did not fit anymore and but since they had denounced me as vain and way too into my looks, I was not allowed ANY new clothes, restricting me from being comfortable for months. Being called fat and being ashamed of my looks, I was not allowed to wear minimal makeup like the rest of the girls and all my hair was cut off. They had allowed me to keep my hair for a part in a play and cut it the day after the play was over.

   
At three months there I was forced to scrub human feces off planks of wood used to keep a dock in a cow pond as my sanction for standing up for myself. These are only a few of the things that happened to me.

I witnessed people being restrained by staff and students with extreme force. I witnessed staff yelling in students faces about their issues as if they were no less then petty drama made up by the students. These issues included rape, molestation, abuse, death and many other serious problems that can NOT be dealt with through intimidation.

We were told we were evil, children of the devil and our only salvation was following their rules and worshipping their gods. Religion was forced upon EVERY child and was expected to be followed.

Leaders of staff were molesting children and blaming other students for these situations. Some students were taken on outings and touched by a specific highly trusted staff member. Upon return said students blew the whistle to their parents resulting in their immediate removal from the school as not to infect the rest of the population with their propaganda. I as many other female students experienced blame for the students removal. If we werent such whores these boys would of been able to continue with their program instead of leaving.

As the years went on we realized that if we didnt become fake and participate in the abuse we would never leave. I was left back upon arrival and told i couldnt leave until i turned 18.

At 18 I tried to leave and I was put in isolation my sneakers taken and NEVER given back. They were lost I was told. So I spent the last year of my stay being snubbed and trying my hardest to achieve their standards of excellence. I participated in yelling at and restraining other students, I made speeches and participated in the schools propaganda at family days telling other parents about the success this school had afforded me. All of which were lies. I was dying inside an empty shell I was made to believe was filled by love honesty respect and unselfishness our schools motto. Things none of us had experienced while there.

The only people who loved us, namely our parents we were on a once a week speaking basis with. A privilege that depended on whether or not we did our home work everyday for 8 classes or more. We were given approximately 2-3 hours a day to finish our assignments many of which were forced advanced placement which we got no special help for. Our passing grade was raised to 85 and if our group didn’t all pass at this grade we were not allowed ANY extra food. We were also forced to run a mile every night right after dinner before we could start our homework. This cut our time down by sometimes 40 minutes as we had to wait until every last person was done, in all weather conditions. Normal treatment was celebrated.

No one was honest with us or our parents. While we lived a daily lie our parents were constantly manipulated by the school, being told we needed more help more structure more discipline and more work before we were even close to ready to come home. Leaving became an impossible task looked at as almost the Holy Grail.

There was no respect for our needs. I as well as many others were held from using bathrooms only to result in the soiling of themselves and the embarrassing nature of the circumstances.

As for being unselfish, we were forced to confine our selves to small spaces, shower for only 4 minutes in sulfur water and live in unsafe conditions. This was called being selfless by the staff and senior members around us. During winters the dorms had no heat and I myself as well as many others became very sick. With a 103 fever and bronchitis I was forced to participate in ALL daily activities including school, work and chores. Only to have my sickness relapse 3 times during the same winter. I developed asthma and was not produced an inhaler. During my stay I developed a rash and was seen by the school doctor and was told that I had developed an std. With no blood taken and no second opinion I was lead to believe this lie for over two years only to find out it was an infection from a dirty razor.

 But all of the physical suffering pales in comparison to the mental anguish I have survived over the past 8 years since i have graduated. Failed relationships, jobs and leaving college all due to my lack of trust. I have been successful at helping myself through medication and therapy but do NOT under any circumstances believe that my lack there of was caused by not working their "program".

Out of my class of 40 no one is sober, and many are dead.

I am now 6 months pregnant, sober and starting my life over, the life I believe I deserved and could of had long ago. I say none of this for pity or selfish gain. I say this to STOP INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILD ABUSE.

[Anonymous]

Melanie Bilcik
 Reading others Testimonys about their experience at the Family Foundation brings back a lot of bad memories that I have tried to forget.
I guess I thought I was just really bad or extra sensitive and didn't think anyone was affected as I was. It brings me so much peace to know that others had endured what I had (if that makes sense).
  I was at the FFS for 6 agonizing months. I honestly don't know how the people that were there for years lasted.

I always wondered how people let themselves get brainwashed in cults. It never made sense to me. I understand
now that the human mind is not always as strong as we want to believe.

I have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder
and borderline personality disorder. I also had substance abuse issues as a teen. I used drugs to numb the pain I felt
because finding an appropriate medication for my illness as a teen is very hard. Doctors are not supposed to diagnose bipolar in anyone younger than 18.
My parents tried putting me in numerous rehabs and psych wards but the short term just wasn't working.  I would be good for a couple months and
then revert back to my old behavior. I was also missing so much school because of my issues. I kept getting kicked out of every high school my
parents enrolled me in. My parents finally found the FFS and thought it was the perfect place for me. To this day they do not want to believe how horrible the place was and how severe it damaged me. The FFS is very good at brainwashing everyone they come in contact with.
They convinced my parents that it was not a mental illness that caused me to act the way I did, it was the music and clothes I was
interested in. My parents threw out all my clothes, tapes, CD's, posters, basically everything I owned. They bought me new clothes that didn't fit right and I was not permitted to have any of my personal possesions like my journal. My first day at the FFS was not bad. People were very nice to me and they didn't force me to eat anything I didn't want. I figured it was just like the other places I had been in, I would just be there longer. I was so wrong. On my second day they still hadn't gotten me my psychiatric meds and I was getting very ill. I kept asking for my meds and they said that my meds were not a priority and I would get them when it was convenient for them. I grew increasingly ill and was starting to have psychotic delusions but no one seemed to care. They would not let me call my parents to let them know what was happening. Had my parents known they were withdrawing my meds, my parents would have thrown a fit. Eventually they got me meds, but would not give them to me as prescribed. I was anything but mentally stable. Two of the side effects of my meds was they made me gain weight and very tired. I was put on a trotting sanction(you have to jog everywhere and jog in place when you are standing)and
brought up in front of the family and humilated by everyone. I had 20 kids and 5 staff call me lazy and fat and told I would never find a man to
love me because I was so disgusting. I started having nightmares because I was brought up in front of everyone to be more and more and humilated.
They would keep telling me I wasn't being honest about certain things, when I was. I was trying so hard and doing every thing they said so
the verbal abuse would stop but it only got worse. You are not allowed to touch or look at the opposite sex but at dinner the seating was
boy girl boy girl, and they put the seats so close together its almost impossible not to brush up against the person sitting next to you once
and a while. The boys would tell staff I was touching them and that I creeped them out. I learned to not make eye contact with anyone and I was
terrified to look at anyone for fear they would say I was staring. I walked with my head down all the time.  
 Due to my nightmares and medication I was falling asleep in church(chapel was twice a day, once in the morning and once at night) and also in class.
A group of girls and staff did an intervention with me and accused me of staying up all night masterbating because one girl heard me tossing and turning.
I was yelled at and told that they will always know when I masterbated because lust causes fatigue and if I was tired it meant I was masterbating all night. I denied it because it wasn't true but no one would talk to me and I was always yelled at for everything. I had to run around the building 2 times every
morning and put on a work sanction to "wake me up". I eventually admitted to having a 'severe masterbatian' problem just so people would talk
to me.  I was also assigned a junior sponser who was a tyrant. She followed me everywhere, constantly yelled at me and brought me up in front
of the family and made up things just to humiliate me. Noting I did was ever good enough and I felt like I would never leave. My phone calls
and mail were monitored so I couldn't tell my parents what was happening. I was forced to eat what made me sick as was everyone else.
I remember this one girl was a vegitarian when she came in and refused to eat meat. They made her sit in a corner until she ate her meal.
She didn't eat anything for two days and when she finally gave in they made her eat the meat she refused two days ago. You had to eat everything on your plate, even if you were full. If you didn't you were put in the infamous corner. I was in the corner so many times I cant remember. You had to sit the corner, look down and couldnt talk to anyone. They also made me miss school to sit in
the corner all day. I missed more school in the FFS than when I was on home schooling. My education level did not improve
and I was failing classes. In FFS you had to get a B to pass. I was getting more and more frustrated and whenever I showed the slightest sign of anger or depression I was rolled in a blanket and duct tape and thrown in the janitor closet alone for hours, one time a whole day. I couldn't use the rest room and was forced to urinate myself. When they saw what I had done they called me a disgusting pig and threw me in a scalding hot shower with my clothes on and threw insults at me. The abuse was getting so bad that I was suicidal and started wetting my bed. I wasn't getting better at the FFS I was getting worse. I was forced to tell my parents how happy I was there.
 I ran away once and made it back to NYC. I took a bag of clothes with me and hitch hiked my way into town. I found a guy to
buy me a ticket to NJ (where I'm from. I had to switch buses in NYC and I lost all my street smarts. I was used to being in a cult
family like setting that I smiled at everyone and almost expected everyone to be safe. I was almost kidnapped by a guy who tried
to grab me but I got away. When I made it back home my mom drove me right back upstate. They didn't believe anything I told them and thought I was making it up. I tried to run away again about a month later. I was caught. Because I was 18 they were going to let
me go but I was not allowed to take anything with me but the clothes on my back. They said that everything I had belonged to my
parents and my parents wanted me at the FFS so I could not take anything because that would be stealing. I packed a bag anyway and Bob Runge grabbed, hit and wrestled me to the ground with two girls from my family. I was so mad that I broke his glasses which
I eventually had to pay for. I once again made it back home and was sent back.
My mental health was getting worse and I was developing severe stress disorder. One day I flipped out at the family and went to run
out the back door.  A bunch of girls followed me and tackled me to the ground.  I blacked out and started choking my junior sponser
. A staff had to smother me and make me pass out to make me stop. I didn't realize what I was doing, I was just doing it. They sent a psychiatrist to evaluate me and I lied and said I thought about killing her all the time and was doing it on purpose so they would send me out. I got my way and was sent to a psych ward. My parents were going to send me back but thankfully the FFS wouldn't take me back.
Upon leaving I developed severe anxiety disorder and didn't know how to socialize with others. I develpoed insominia and to this day I suffer
with nightmares and am terrified in social situations. My accounts may seem scattered but thats how my memories are. There is a lot I have
not mentioned because I do not want to make this a novel. I want to thank you for giving me the chance to tell my story to people who believe
me. Up until now no one has believed me. I was almost sent to Elan in Maine after but thankfully they would not let anyone on meds be
admitted and my parents would not allow that.
In another testimony someone mentioned that people do not succeed BECAUSE of the family school but IN SPITE of and that is so true. I am still in therapy and have moved to AZ, I graduated from college and now work with homeless youth.

[Anonymous]

Daniel Merrill
I was seventeen when my parents made the decision to enroll me in TheFamily School in Hancock, NY. The next 26 months of my life were an
experience in survival.
  At the school, I was stripped of my identity as soon as I
arrived. Most of life was stuffed full of activity. The 11 hour school
day and lack of any personal space or time is not important though. What is important is the absolute brainwashing, constant antagonizing, and harsh punishment methods.
  I had to repeat my junior and some of my sophomore year when I
arrived at the school. This was due to improper paperwork, and a lack of care for transcripts.

For more than fourty thousand dollars a year, i had hoped to enroll where i had left in school. Instead, i was placed back in
earth science, where i wasted my time for a full year. I had aced the
midterm which was taken straight out of the regents final exam, and i was still not reevaluated or allowed to audit the course.
 
Every mealtime was a terror. In my "Family unit" we had
discussions at the table called "table topics". these topics involved
bringing concerns, real or imagined, to the attention of myself or one of my peers. The leader of my family was a self admitted sex addict, and every problem with a student was tainted by that.

These topics involved high levels of mental and emotional abuse designed to break down the psyche of the student involved. If this student did not say what the staff members wanted, they would be given a consequence; sitting or standing in the corner, being pulled out of class to do useless physical labor, alternative food(a single packet of cram of wheat for breakfast, or a single soy burger for lunch or dinner), denial of contact with parents, and many more punishments which were socially and emotionally damaging. Only a few members were educated in child care or any kind of therapy, and they seldom were involved in these table topics.

  I was taken out of school in 2004 for more than 5 months, forced
to stand in the corner, trot while standing, eating 3 alternative meals
even though i am diabetic, and doing physical labor for 11 hours per day.
This labor included carring buckets full of rocks up a steep hill, labor in the kitchen and groundskeeping tasks. At one point in the winter, i was forced to stand in an outside hallway in the New York winter, when temperatures did not exceed 45 degrees inside even during the day.
  My experience was certainly not the hardest which i have seen. Studentswere sometimes kept at the school for up to five years, and submitted tothe same amount of hardship. I saw one student commit suicide. Also, one winter I witnessed a restraint in the snow involving 3 large staff members,at least one of whom was sitting on the fourteen year old student.
  In the time since I left the school I have experienced an incredible
amount of difficulty in rebuilding my identity and my ability to relate
to peers. I hope that this bill will help other children be protected from the hell which many of us have survived.

[Anonymous]

I arrived to the Family Foundation School Inc. on January 7th 2003 and was expelled on May 5th 2004; I would like to enter this testimony to this case: A big problem with the school is the sexual issue. The school approaches human sexuality on a strictly Catholic perspective of sexuality is immoral and sexual urges of unwed teens are inappropriate and shameful.

The school's entire basis of expelling me was for not admitting to my rampant masturbation, something which did not exist due to my lack of homosexual urges and knowing that less than 4 feet away from me in any direction was another guy wasn’t exactly arousing.

A memorable experience was when two staff members confronted me on this very issue and when I denied that I was acting out sexually, one of them suggested that anyone in my situation would need some sort of release, at the time I was very heavy into prayer and meditation because I did not want to act out violently, and my retort was that my release was in prayer and meditation to which the staff member suggested that I by saying this I was somehow massaging his prostate (in cruder words of course). Verbal abuse was one of many ways the family school operates, which is sad but is not an isolated evil.

The family school advertises itself as a secular environment that promotes each individual religion. However, one should note the blatant disregard for dietary laws upheld by Islam and Judaism, and beyond sacrilege the family school was derisive towards these rules. A specific example of Passover comes to mind. Jewish people are not supposed to eat leavened food during Passover. Year round Jewish people are not supposed to eat pork, meat and dairy or seafood. The family school insisted that all of their students eat all the food placed in front of them, so during Passover when the rest of the students were having bacon lettuce and tomato, the Jewish kids had that too, on matzo. When the other kids were having Philly cheese steaks, the Jewish kids had that too, on matzo.  
Next I would like to address the issue of labeling. The Family School loved to label their students with addictions and maledictions, they took great delight in informing me, 6'2 175 LBS at the time that I am a food addict and that I am obsessed with food and I use food as an escape. Moreover, I (according to them) was a sexual pervert who compulsively masturbated and I would inevitably wind up jailed, institutionalized or dead if I did not manage to graduate their program. The school didn't offer much for the imagination, there was very little encouragement for students to pursue their own wants or goals but rather goals were set by the school and if one did not choose to pursue those goals they risked punishment or a lengthier stay. These goals and expectations could be as simple as participating in an activities or extra curricular activities or as intense as committing to not date for at least 6 months after leaving etc.
Staff members were openly verbally abusive and derisive to students, there were incidents where staff members were physically abusive but that wasn’t really prevalent the main form of abuse that I felt was the most sinister was food depravation. It is understandable to not feed someone who is actively being violent or physically acting out but if someone is physically cooperating to any extent they should not be deprived of food for long term period and kids who go there are customarily. The school is set up in a way where kids are forced to be paranoid their entire stay; because at any given moment what little dignity you are granted in life can be stripped away from you. At the school reality and truth is not dictated by reality and truth but rather by the whimsical perceptions of the staff members who take on a holier than thou role.
After leaving the school I had no contact with them. Several times I reached out to the administration and several times I had my hand slapped away. At one point per a conversation I had with an alumnus in which I made a joking reference to bringing a Swiss army knife to the alumni reunion in the event of any shenanigans as a device of self defense, the administration sent police officers to my home to inform me that if I showed up at the reunion I would be arrested. As far as success rates, indeed in order to leave the school one needs some sort of college plan but that doesn't mean that anyone who leaves is prepared for college. The school doesn't allow organic growth and therefore causes the students to be completely incapable of studying without a strict framework, hence the vast majority wind up failing miserably in college life. Also no reasonable framework is setup for the students to have a support network at the school, students are sent off into a cold cruel world with dead ideals involving principles that weren't upheld by those who enforced them upon them and as a result the rate of failure is staggering, rather than making recovery appealing to the students in the school recovery is made abhorrent a "do this or else" scenario is set up and so any success attained while in the school is just that, success attained in the school, and any success outside of the school is a fluke not a given.
I am a perfect example of a fluke. I was expelled for not working the program prescribed to me by the school (supposedly). I was informed quite assuredly by the principal that I would be dropped off in Binghamton and that I wouldn't last a very long time. When I finally failed I would be accepted back as I had hit bottom.

I arrived in Binghamton and immediately continued where I had left off in the school, doing everything I could to replicate the life I had envisioned in the school using religion and recovery as my backbone. I found solace in a 12 step program and found myself a home group and a sponsor, my sponsor to this day makes efforts to break me of emotional damage inflicted by the school.

[Anonymous]

Amy Johnson
My name is Amy Johnson and I attended The Family Foundation School in Hancock, NY from August 2000 through June 2002. Over my 22 months at FFS I witnessed, partook in and was encouraged to emotionally, verbally, mentally and in some cases physically abuse my peers. The school as it was during my 22 months operated on fear and isolation to force conformity in what I thought then and am certain now is unethical treatment of institionalized populations.
Although I graduated from FFS over 5 years ago and by the schools standards considered a success I still have nightmares, instrusive thoughts, panic attacks and an overall feeling of betrayal stemming from my time at the school. I however was one of the few who attended FFS, during my time and in my opinion, who needed some kind of long-term residential treatment. Afterall I was a teenage drug addict, I prostituted myself for the narcotics I abused and had been placed over a dozen times before being sent to The Family School. I think, to the school, I must represent the typical adolescent they are trying to save. But years later I have focused myself, my education, my career on stopping treatment centers like The Family Foundation School from abusing their patients/clients the way they abused me and the way I witnessed them abuse others.
The school was awful; when I tell people about standing in corners, work sanctions, contacting parents twice a week for five minute phone calls, the lengths other students went to run away, being refused an HIV/AIDS test until I passed a math course, never receiving dental or optical exams, being forced to contact my father who had sexually abused me for years because the school wouldn't let me graduate without forgiving him, staff laughing as students cried, screamed and urinated themselves in isolation rooms, staff throttle students to the ground, restraining them despite the student remaining still when I've told people this over the years their reaction is always the same "I would have done ... and gotten out of there" but it wasn't that simple. I was told if I left the school even after my eighteenth birthday I would spend the next X number of years in prison or the rest of my life in a psychiatric ward. I was told and believed what the school said but I never believed they were in it for my best interest. While a new chapel was being built our dorms were a filthy, disgusting, bug infested, rotting, molding mess that parents were prohibited from seeing. At the school the students do all the manual labor such as cutting the acres of grass, shoveling upstate NY snow each fall and winter, preparing and serving the meals, cleaning the school and house. The treatment aspects of the school were only apparent in our family leaders strict interpretation of Alcoholics Anonymous 12-steps and it's Judeo-Christian roots.
What I witnessed at the school was horrific; within my first 6 months I had witnessed an exorcism, several restraints, table topics that ranged from how writing to your parents that you missed them was a manipulation to multiple run-aways. I saw some terrible things at the school but for me the worst part was the hierarchy of things. If you were at the school for more than a few months you were encouraged, expected and eventually did participate in table topics. We all torn each other down for the approval of staff and to divert their attention from whatever we may have done that day. I personally went after several students and was always praised for doing so, I was a senior member by doing so.
I had been at the school for less than 3 months when I witnessed the exorcism of a girl who I only knew of as what could happen if the rules of Family Five weren't followed. Jessica was in sub-five, on a slew of sanction including standing 24 hours a day, mayo and tuna for meals, speak when spoken to, house blackout, family blackout, and a work sanction. I didn't know this girl or anything about her but I knew it was wrong that for taking too long in the shower or not completing a throughout inventory card she should be held down on the floor of our filthy dorm room while her peers told her to calm down and said Hail Mary's. It was also during my first 6 months that I was placed on family blackout (where you can not contact your family by either their or the schools request) and put in the corner for failing a math test.

[Anonymous]

Leah Pallor
My name is Leah Pallor. I am not very good at writing but I do know what I endured at the Family Foundation schoo and I will share it all. I was 15 years old when it all began. An adolescent that was suffering from depression due to losing my father at age 10 to cancer and a dramatic social life at public school. My mom felt desperate and looked into places she could send me for help. This is when she came across The Family Foundation School.

 I was awoken in the morning by my mom and two escorts who shackled me and put me in the backseat of a car where I would be headed to "my new school". I cried and was so confused, but I complied because I wanted to shackles off.

As I arrived at the school I was escorted inside where I was stripped of almost everything I had. I remember my second meal they served me was fish. I get sick from fish every time I eat it. I explained this to them but they told me I had to eat it anyway. I refused so they had me sit in the corner where they took my shoes away and told me I wasn’t allowed to eat at all until I ate my fish. Next meaL that came around they brought my fish back out and said I had to eat it. They literally starved me and told me I will go to the hospital and get fed through tubes.

I finally gave in and ate the fish and after about two bites, I vomited. Everytime we had seafood I would vomit but they still amde me eat it.

I decided to run away. The police found me coming out of the woods and the school promised me a phone call home if I came back and so I did. They never gave me the phone call. I was taken the privilege of speaking to or getting or sending mail to my family for three and a half months. I was put on "sanctions" where I couldn’t wear makeup, jewelry or name brand clothes. I had to wear my hair in a tight bun or else they would cut it off and even though my clothes were huge on me they still said they were too tight. My mother had to keep buying new clothes to send me there. I only had two outfits they approved of me wearing. The whole time I was there, the staff humiliated me by making me out to be a sex addict flirt when all I ever did was kiss a boy. Sex wasn't even on my mind yet.

 They had me make a dishonesty list to share with my mother and every time I made a real one out they told me it wasn’t good enough. They didn’t approve the list until I said I was doing worse things than I really was.

I was on "blackout" with boys almost the whole time I was there which really affected me when I came out of the school.

I was wrapped in blankets and forced to eat nothing but dry tuna and water even though it made me sick. I was also put on a sanction to eat nothing but bread and water and remained on that for almost three weeks. When my sister came to take me out of there she said my complexion was very green in color due to malnutrition.

I left the Family School very brain washed and afraid of the world and never to trust anyone. I still have nightmares that I am there and when I try to run its like running under water and I couldnt get out. I definitely feel traumatized by my experience

[Anonymous]

My name is Brendan McMahon I understand those of you investigating this matter will have much testimony from many facilities to read through so i appologize for the length. I wanted to make sure you had as full and accurate a picture as I could provide of a very complicated and very weird experience. Really it would take a novel or feature length film to give you an accurate idea.. regardless Link title If you wish to jump ahead the second and third paragraphs are probably going to be of the most interest to you.


I spent 14 months in the facility one of the record short stays at the time because there was an 18 month minimum though it was rare that they let anyone go in that short period of time. Upon arriving at the Family I was welcomed fairly warmly ( I soon realized this was only because my father was there) I smoked my last cigarette on the front step and handed the pack over knowing I would be searched and wrongly assuming I would find a student who would supply me with one later. They took my cloths and replaced them. They also took any reading material I may have selected to bring with me and music.

They put me with a buddy (a senior member (a person who had formed into the model)) he seemed bizarrely positive about the place when speaking to my dad. He emphatically emphasized how grateful he was that he came here and that it changed his life for the better. I said goodbye to my dad and he drove off. They explained to me what I was not to talk about, that I was not to hum any music that was not approved by the ffs, not to read any newspapers, I was not allowed to use the telephone, they would read my mail, “so I better not say anything negative in my letters”. I was not allowed to be alone. I was not allowed to masturbate (they monitored the showers 3 minutes max with someone standing next to the shower and went with you to the bathroom). Basically all information coming into or out of my mind was to be dictated by and monitored by the FFS, and anything I did or said which indicated a lack of 100 percent compliance and belief in the FFS philosophy would be punished harshly. In addition if I so much as suspected let alone overheard or witnessed anyone doing or saying anything "negative" I would be held equally responsible for their actions as if they were my own including witnessing someone else witnessing something and not saying anything about it, you seriously could not get away with anything period. Aside from the strict rules something seemed awfully strange about this place from the very first person i spoke to. I asked questions and couldn't seem to get any answers. It was like talking to computers that were only programmed with certain responses. It didn't take long to realize everyone was brainwashed or pretending to be. Everyone was a brick wall. I was freaked out by this i started thinking i was on a very creepy episode of the twilight zone. I actually believed that I was going to find a way out of this place. I thought I could get my parents to come get me or something but that was pretty difficult considering I had no way of contacting them at first and when I finally did get that privilege they explained any attempt at "manipulating” my parents by being negative about the program would immediately result in the call being ended and I would be on blackout where I couldn’t speak to anyone period especially my family. I also found out later they had already informed my parents that I may attempt to “manipulate” them and that it would be in my best interest not to succumb to my dishonest behavior. After all they were the experts. They knew exactly how to handle a troubled youth, and in the end I would be grateful for this experience. I was labeled negative of course because I had not yet been conditioned by their weird mind control tactics. I tried to fight it but as one of the senior members said when I was trying to argue one night "he'll learn" and I did.

I was not to speak my own opinion or indicate that I had one under any circumstances, unless it was in 100 percent agreement with the FFS philosophy. In fact the FFS philosophy was to be my opinion 100 percent of the time if I indicated or was even accused of anything less I was to be publicly confronted and screamed at. Then I would be told to sit in a corner. The Corner... you know like in preschool go sit in time out. The Corner was indefinite, with a minimum of 24 hours. If you did not stay in the corner or if you refused you would be duct taped to the chair or your feet would be duct taped together your arms would be duct taped to your back and you would be rolled in a blanket like a burrito and that would be wrapped in more duct tape then you would be put in isolation in duct tape and a blanket which was actually a big boot closet with some book shelves in it. When they decided it had been long enough they would let you out of the blanket then maybe isolation then from isolation back to the corner then you might be aloud out of the corner 24 hours later if you were able to convince them you believed you had done something wrong and you were sorry ect.. It was pretty simple. Most of us, knowing what they would do if we did not comply, allowed ourselves to be subjected to whatever other humiliating and strange punishments they would think of. If they told us to trot (which is where you have to trot any time you aren't sitting down) we trotted. If they stood us up at the table (which is where you stand up alone in front of everyone for any infraction of the rules) we stood up. If they asked a girl to recount her promiscuous sexual history (and she better have one to confess if she ever wants to be left alone) …she would. If they screamed at her telling her she was a whore and was destined to be dope shooting hooker…. she listened… and agreed. If they took away out privilege to speak… we didn't speak. If they said sit in the corner ….we sat there. They had a pile of rocks which some kids would have to move back and forth all day from one spot to another which as tiring as it could be in itself could be worse if you were also on a trotting sanction. They also had a large pile of cow manure for the same purpose. This seemed to be a particularly popular sanction for kids that were too fat. Fat kids were always determined to be lazy slobs who needed to exercise and work more. They were very open with degrading language and screaming they would also throw food at you in some cases while they were verbally berating you.


I would like to also s take a moment to illustrate one very important part of all this. They did not restrain kids because they were a threat to anyone else or themselves physically. It was very rare that physical altercations were not initiated by staff either by ordering other students to wrap them up in duct tape or staff doing it themselves more times than not they utilized the other kids who were there to assist in these procedures. In most cases restraints were used because of passive defiance. As stubborn as many of us were very few of those who were restrained were doing any more than saying no. I can recall only once when a kid was threatening to attack another person and was restrained. There was also another instance when a kid was cutting his wrists so they duct taped his hands in balls so he could not use them to hold anything. Most instances went something like this There was a kid named who refused to mop a floor saying he just wasn't going to do it.He did not threaten anyone physically he did not get violent at all he simply said no i won't do it. He was supposed to be mopping the floor so they threw him on the ground dumped mop water on him and used him to mop the floor until he agreed to mop the floor with the mop. The point was that he was going to mop the floor one way or another there was no way around it you were going to act say and become exactly what they wanted. Most of the time however they would just duct tape you up and wrap you in a blanket and wrap duct tape around that.


This is the way it was for us ….we smiled when any outsiders were there acting like everything was perfect… assuring parents on tours this was the greatest place in the world …Seeing kids being duct taped up became as normal as kids in a regular school going to detention or getting write offs. I would step over squirming bodies on the floor in the dorm while talking and brushing my teeth like it was perfectly normal ….and it was at the time that’s just what happened if you didn't want to listen. It was their fault for being in the duct tape. I saw kids get punched and lifted 6 feet in the air and dropped on the ground while in these restraints. The one thing though that never seemed right was the newsletter they sent our parents. It never mentioned any of this. It always talked about the great things we were doing grades sports choir. They never told our parents the truth and for years after I left, my parents were resistant to the truth. I told them about what really went on.


After I left I felt like an alien visiting earth… everything I saw people say or do seemed wrong. I felt like I was constantly doing something wrong.. It literally took years before I was able to cope with what the family did to my emotions my mind my spirit and my personality. It has been ten years since i was at the family and the last time i had a nightmare about being there again was 2 months ago. I was socially years behind people my own age. I had no idea how to handle the opposite sex considering for fourteen months I was monitored in the shower and the bathroom to prevent me from masturbating. Anyway I think this is enough to give an accurate picture of what the family school was like during the time I was there

[Anonymous]

Fay Leff
I'm going to attempt to make this as cohesive as possible; however, I find I have trouble remembering lots from my short stay at the Family Foundation School (FFS), much seems to be blocked out in my mind.

During my stay at FFS, I remember on several occasions witnessing students being restrained by other students (at the direction of staff) and being carried off to the isolation room. I remember a time when a new girl with bulimia was restrained by students while one staff member yelled in her face during dinner.

One of the saddest things I can recall there was a young female student telling me about how she was a lesbian before FFS and had a girlfriend, but how she now realized how wrong that was. The idea that the school convinced her this was immoral and belittled entirely the feelings she had had for this other woman blew my mind.

I stayed quiet during most of my stay at FFS, and luckily did not experience any of the physical abuses first hand. However one cannot deny the emotional HELL of living in this environment. One of the rules I struggled with the most while there was not being allowed to journal. No journaling! A proven, well used, standard therapeutic practice was not allowed! Because we were never allowed to speak our minds without fear of punishment, I began to feel like a prisoner in my own head. I remember waiting to use the bathroom all night so that I could use the small bathroom in our trailer/dorm JUST so I would have a few moments to myself to think. On a spiritual retreat, I actually got in trouble for journaling! I’ve gone back and read these small journals I wrote… and it’s like I don’t even know the person that wrote them.

 I’ve found inventory lists I had to write while there of all the things we had done wrong, and I don’t even know what I was talking about in half of the items. I just knew I had to fill up that page with something.

Even after leaving the school, the emotional abuse still haunted me. I had dreams for months, and continue to still have some to this day, of being sent back, kicking and screaming, telling anyone that will listen that I am 18 now and they can’t send me back, and then being told due to some loophole, they can. When I first returned to my high school after FFS, I had many problems socially. I had always been an outgoing person and found I had a hard time fitting back into normal life. I had no idea how to talk to boys, because while at the school we weren’t even allowed to look a boy in the eye! I would shy away from my boyfriend and even wait till he left the room to change as quickly as possible so he would not see my body (even though he had before). I had to re-learn how to hug, be affectionate, etc. I was only at FFS 6 months; I can’t even imagine how long it took someone who was there the recommended 18 months to re-adjust to regular life.

FFS claims that things have changed, and that the school we all remember is not how it is today. However, there’s no real way for anyone to know that, given the current situation. Students are not given contact info for any child advocates. All phone calls and letters are closely monitored. Students are forbidden any contact with the world outside of FFS. Even if visitors or parents come to visit, students were never allowed to say anything of what was going on without being accused of trying to manipulate their parents to get out of the program, and then get punished for trying. Many people like me just didn’t say anything cause it was easier to lay low and stay out of trouble. If these practices are still ongoing at the school today, there will never be any way for any outsiders to know what is really going on in the school.
To my knowledge, no one I came in contact with during my stay at FFS had a PhD or doctorate. I believe there was a psychologist associated with the school that was supposed to meet with all of us, but in my stay I never talked to such a person. In total in 6 months I believe I had 2 family ‘sessions’ with Susan Runge, and maybe one or 2 alone with her though I can’t remember for sure. Our group therapy “class’ was a joke. Even their website says that they put less emphasis on master’s level clinicians than on peer therapy… how can this be best? Seems to me for the enormous amount paid by parents for this program, therapy of any kind should never be run by a social worker alone, but always have a practicing, licensed Psychologist present.

The biggest problem I found during my stay at FFS was the oversights of their admissions process. As mentioned, I was an A student. I did not get in trouble in school; all of my teachers loved me. I did not drink. I did not do drugs. I was not sexually promiscuous. I did not have an eating disorder. I had previously been to 2 psychiatrists and one psychologist. I’ve since learned both told my parents that I was just normal healthy adolescent. Why then did FFS accept me as a student? Other than talking to my parents, no research was done on my background. No one at my high school was interviewed. None of my friends’ parents were called. No one spoke to my previous therapists. As I’ve grown up and matured, I’ve realized that most of my problems with my parents were due to my mother’s unhealthy mental diseases. Because of the lack of background checks into whether a student even NEEDS to go to FFS, I was admitted solely based on the statements of a mental ill parent. Because of this, my adolescence was robbed from me. Because of this, I almost was not able to graduate high school when I returned. Because of this, I’m not even in my high school yearbook. And if anyone at FFS has done even a miniscule amount of research, all of this could have been prevented.

[Anonymous]

Chavaya Beebee Galvao
Among the staff who engage in the negative behaviors are Ted Towsley, Audra Towsley, Paul Geer, Robin Deucey, Mike Deucey, and Rita Argiros. It only takes a few bad apples to spoil the bushel, most of the staff did have the best interests of the students at heart, but if you will note, the turnover rate is very high, because many staff members were deemed too "soft" and not punishing enough, or they simply did not have the stomach for the atrocities that have been committed at the school, so they chose to leave.
I will report briefly on some of the experiences that I had while a student at the Family Foundation School. On my first day, I was lied to by my parents (who were counseled by the school to do as much), and brought to the school under false pretenses. Once in the locker room, I started towards the door, and was immediately slammed against the ground with two female staff members and two male staff members on top of me. I had no forewarning that this would happen if I moved towards the door, they simply jumped on me. I was scared, and they were cutting my air supply off. After a few minutes, I was let up and forced to continue inprocessing.
The same night that I was inprocessed, I began to notice something very strange: All the young people at the school talked the same, walked the same, moved alike, and it seemed that the ones who chose to be themselves were consigned to sitting in the corner facing a wall, removed from the general population, or standing outside in the freezing hallway eating either plain tuna fish and water, or nothing at all. So, I began talking, moving and acting like all the other students so that I would not have to sit in a corner, or worse yet, haul buckets of gravel back and forth on a worksanction. Everyone knew that everyone else was full of shit, but we were all too scared to say anything about what we really thought.
The months went by, and I began to run on anxiety. Five minutes to get to class, no time to go to the bathroom, one study hall to do homework, table topics, picking up other students that were deemed a "threat," complete lack of privacy, being punished through food deprivation, constant fear of being resigned to the corner or put on exile, constant yelling, kids running away in the middle of the night, everything was extremely stressful. It was just too much. In fact, I believe that my problems with high blood pressure were caused by those two years of my life that I was shut inside the Family School.
I don't believe that in a long-term placement facility, it is right to have such complete autonomy over the lives of hundreds of teenagers. The punishments, had they been meted out by parents, would have resulted in the involvement of child protective services. I simply do not believe that starving, forcibly restraining, or locking children up in a tiny cubicle letting them urinate and vomit on themselves is the answer to drug addiction or alcoholism. In fact, 90% of graduates from the Family Foundation School "relapse" into the same behavior, but many times the addiction is exacerbated by the treatment that they have recieved at the school.
I hope that the suffering of hundreds of children and teenagers can come to light and aid in closing this establishment's doors for once and for all, ending the profit that a select few administrators are making from what can only be termed as child abuse.
I was at the school from 2003 to 2005, I never experienced hitting or slapping but I was manhandled on one occasion, resulting in bruises on my arms, and I was denied proper nutrition on several occasions. There were several occurrences in which I was severely and publicly humiliated by staff members, as well as two work sanctions in which

I was forced to work from 7:15AM to 6:30PM, during one I contracted bronchitis and complained of dizziness and shortness of breath several times before collapsing due to neglect of my illness.

In addition, I have eye-witnessed several abusive situations that took place at the school, including peer bullying that was encouraged and kids locked into tiny rooms and not even being allowed out to use the bathroom.

[Anonymous]

Save a child's life? Are you implying such a hypothetical kid was an immediate danger to himself or others. If that was the case, most schools would exclude enrollment on that basis (most schools generally have sections in their contracts to this effect... if you can find one that that doesn't, i'd be interested in hearing of it). So this means that most kids in program are, by the program's own standards, not an immediate danger to themselves or others. In this case, the APA would agree with me that such a placement would be inappropriate.

Yes!!  Only seconds to live lol.  You are so dramatic,Michael.  We should kidnap them and drag them to the nearest Gulag and torture them so they wont die!  LOL

Furthermore. I truly believe that none of these places actually help kids. Even the "good" ones. There is no evidence to show that residential treatment works, and although we can share anecdotal evidence all day going one way or the other, it's not conclusive at all.

So either side is correct or wrong depending how you want to perceive it since it is not conclusive.

That being said, the fact that there are few, if any, pro-program graduates on this site (which allows all people) says a lot to me... which is not even to mention the surveys of Allison Pinto.

I dont believe many pro program people are going to tell their stories here after reading what is posted here.  But look at the sheer volume of kids going through these programs and then at the few who post negative comment here.  Even if we took the few I bet a very small minority, if any of them, talked about Gulags, kidnapping and torture before they came to fornits.  Its a learned language that is taught here.  Look at some of the regulars early posts and then the way they speak now.

Well. I've never met a parent whose first stop has been Fornits or any other forum allowing criticism of the industry. It's a matter of search keywords. Google "troubled teen" and see how many critical site you find. A parent doesn't end up on Fornits unless they have already contacted an ed-con, is considering a particular school, and has googled that particular school.

You avoid my question.  

That question is leading. See my point above on the effectiveness of residential treatment.

Avoided another.

Yes, i'm aware of that. All that proves shows to me is that parents cant just look at watchlists or one organization to consider a program "safe".

Yes, the word “bad” or “Good” is very subjective each person or website has their own interpretation and they may be wrong.   I remember a certain person jumping down my throat for not referring parents to isaccorp.  A parent reviewing isaccorp would find it safe to send their child to FFS where fornits describes it as the worse place on the face of this planet.  

With all the bad programs out there, while there might be a hypothetical "safe" program, it's impossible to tell the difference. It's like trying to find the one fresh apple in a cartload of rotten ones. The cultic influence of Synanon, Est, and LifeSpring (among others) is that taint which has rotten the whole bunch. Sadly it spreads. Cultic groups are like a cancer for which there is no chemo.

That is why parents seek out Educational Consultants (as they should) to guide them thru this mess.
 

This industry can't be "cured. It's way past that point. The way I see it, the only solution is to put the patient down and end the entire industry. The economy will take care of most of the programs. Negative PR from this site and other will take care of the rest.

The better schools and programs will survive.  My boss says a  few good mom and pop places will be lost.  But in a bad economy it cant be helped.  Maybe they can get some of the bail out money.
Michael we are on opposite sides of the fence on this issue.  The only difference is I am open to the people I talk to and provide information from both sides.  You tend to think you have all the answers so you withold info which goes against your thinking.  I have met educational consultants who believe, like yourself, that parents should only be given filtered information which will persuade them to have their child placed.
I think they are wrong and you are wrong too.  Parents should be allowed to determine for themselves and we should be open with them.  You should give this some thought and think about providing parents with more than one point of view.

[Anonymous]

Melanie Bilcik
 Reading others Testimonys about their experience at the Family Foundation brings back a lot of bad memories that I have tried to forget. I guess I thought I was just really bad or extra sensitive and didn't think anyone was affected as I was. It brings me so much peace to know that others had endured what I had (if that makes sense).
 
 I was at the FFS for 6 agonizing months. I honestly don't know how the people that were there for years lasted.
I always wondered how people let themselves get brainwashed in cults. It never made sense to me. I understand
now that the human mind is not always as strong as we want to believe.


 My parents finally found the FFS and thought it was the perfect place for me. To this day they do not want to believe how horrible the place was and how severe it damaged me. The FFS is very good at brainwashing everyone they come in contact with.

They convinced my parents that it was not a mental illness that caused me to act the way I did, it was the music and clothes I was
interested in. My parents threw out all my clothes, tapes, CD's, posters, basically everything I owned. They bought me new clothes that didn't fit right and I was not permitted to have any of my personal possesions like my journal.

My first day at the FFS was not bad. People were very nice to me and they didn't force me to eat anything I didn't want. I figured it was just like the other places I had been in, I would just be there longer. I was so wrong.

On my second day they still hadn't gotten me my psychiatric meds and I was getting very ill. I kept asking for my meds and they said that my meds were not a priority and I would get them when it was convenient for them.

I grew increasingly ill and was starting to have psychotic delusions but no one seemed to care. They would not let me call my parents to let them know what was happening. Had my parents known they were withdrawing my meds, my parents would have thrown a fit. Eventually they got me meds, but would not give them to me as prescribed. I was anything but mentally stable.

Two of the side effects of my meds was they made me gain weight and very tired. I was put on a trotting sanction(you have to jog everywhere and jog in place when you are standing)and brought up in front of the family and humilated by everyone. I had 20 kids and 5 staff call me lazy and fat and told I would never find a man to love me because I was so disgusting.


I started having nightmares because I was brought up in front of everyone to be more and more and humilated.

They would keep telling me I wasn't being honest about certain things, when I was. I was trying so hard and doing every thing they said so  the verbal abuse would stop but it only got worse.

You are not allowed to touch or look at the opposite sex but at dinner the seating was boy girl boy girl, and they put the seats so close together its almost impossible not to brush up against the person sitting next to you once and a while. The boys would tell staff I was touching them and that I creeped them out. I learned to not make eye contact with anyone and I was  terrified to look at anyone for fear they would say I was staring. I walked with my head down all the time.  


 Due to my nightmares and medication I was falling asleep in church(chapel was twice a day, once in the morning and once at night) and also in class. A group of girls and staff did an intervention with me and accused me of staying up all night masterbating because one girl heard me tossing and turning.  I was yelled at and told that they will always know when I masterbated because lust causes fatigue and if I was tired it meant I was masterbating all night. I denied it because it wasn't true but no one would talk to me and I was always yelled at for everything. I had to run around the building 2 times every morning and put on a work sanction to "wake me up". I eventually admitted to having a 'severe masterbatian' problem just so people would talk
to me.  

I was also assigned a junior sponser who was a tyrant. She followed me everywhere, constantly yelled at me and brought me up in front of the family and made up things just to humiliate me.

 Noting I did was ever good enough and I felt like I would never leave. My phone calls and mail were monitored so I couldn't tell my parents what was happening. I was forced to eat what made me sick as was everyone else.

I remember this one girl was a vegitarian when she came in and refused to eat meat. They made her sit in a corner until she ate her meal. She didn't eat anything for two days and when she finally gave in they made her eat the meat she refused two days ago. You had to eat everything on your plate, even if you were full. If you didn't you were put in the infamous corner. I was in the corner so many times I cant remember. You had to sit the corner, look down and couldnt talk to anyone. They also made me miss school to sit in the corner all day.

I missed more school in the FFS than when I was on home schooling. My education level did not improve
and I was failing classes. In FFS you had to get a B to pass.

I was getting more and more frustrated and whenever I showed the slightest sign of anger or depression I was rolled in a blanket and duct tape and thrown in the janitor closet alone for hours, one time a whole day. I couldn't use the rest room and was forced to urinate myself. When they saw what I had done they called me a disgusting pig and threw me in a scalding hot shower with my clothes on and threw insults at me.


The abuse was getting so bad that I was suicidal and started wetting my bed. I wasn't getting better at the FFS I was getting worse. I was forced to tell my parents how happy I was there.


 I ran away once and made it back to NYC. I took a bag of clothes with me and hitch hiked my way into town. I found a guy to
buy me a ticket to NJ (where I'm from. I had to switch buses in NYC and I lost all my street smarts. I was used to being in a cult
family like setting that I smiled at everyone and almost expected everyone to be safe. I was almost kidnapped by a guy who tried
to grab me but I got away.


 When I made it back home my mom drove me right back upstate. They didn't believe anything I told them and thought I was making it up. I tried to run away again about a month later. I was caught. Because I was 18 they were going to let
me go but I was not allowed to take anything with me but the clothes on my back. They said that everything I had belonged to my
parents and my parents wanted me at the FFS so I could not take anything because that would be stealing. I packed a bag anyway and Bob Runge grabbed, hit and wrestled me to the ground with two girls from my family. I was so mad that I broke his glasses which
I eventually had to pay for. I once again made it back home and was sent back.


My mental health was getting worse and I was developing severe stress disorder. One day I flipped out at the family and went to run out the back door.  A bunch of girls followed me and tackled me to the ground.  I blacked out and started choking my junior sponser
. A staff had to smother me and make me pass out to make me stop. I didn't realize what I was doing, I was just doing it. They sent a psychiatrist to evaluate me and I lied and said I thought about killing her all the time and was doing it on purpose so they would send me out. I got my way and was sent to a psych ward.

Upon leaving I developed severe anxiety disorder and didn't know how to socialize with others. I develpoed insominia and to this day I suffer with nightmares and am terrified in social situations.

My accounts may seem scattered but thats how my memories are. There is a lot I have
not mentioned because I do not want to make this a novel. I want to thank you for giving me the chance to tell my story to people who believe me. Up until now no one has believed me.

 I was almost sent to Elan in Maine after but thankfully they would not let anyone on meds be
admitted and my parents would not allow that.

 I am still in therapy and have moved to AZ, I graduated from college and now work with homeless youth.

[psy]

So either side is correct or wrong depending how you want to perceive it since it is not conclusive.

I've just invented a product. It's a secret recepie that only I know. It cures all illnesses.  Now I will market it as 97% sucessfull.  It's highly addictive and just might kill you, but those who it works for... they swear by it!

Point being that you're reversing the burden of proof.  In order to advertise something as working, it actually has to work.  Most of the staff at these places are unqualified and most of the "therapy" amounts to cult-derived quackery.  Like snake oil, it's some powerful shit... but it doesn't necessarily mean it's helpful.  It just means it's popular, which can be for all sorts of reasons, such as an illusion of efficacy.

Do parents ask you about effectiveness?  What do you say?

@Guest: Please stop posting those FFS testimonials over and over again.  We get the point, but it interferes with dialogue and Kathy is unlikely to care since she refers there and has already implied she sees such testimonial as untruthful and/or biased.

Why not ask her a question instead, such as "how do you dismiss all these allegations of abuse when they all describe similar occurrences?"

[Anonymous]

KathyS, "edcon", thinks that Tony & Betty Argiros,  who did that to Melanie should not be in prison.

Rather, Kathys thinks they should continue to have young adults sent to them so they can hold them in 24/7 lock-down, without contact with the outside world, withuot oversight, with totalistic control of their prisoners.

Thank you for representing EdCons so accurately KAthyS.

[Anonymous]

KathyS is theWHO. To those too stupid to figure it out, well... you deserve to be trolled.

Oh I agree with you on this one, especially the last post. But I still think he got his sister involved to provide a believable other voice, especially in the beginning. It's not exactly without precedent here on fornits, to have multiple people posting under one "user name".

that would explain why thewho sounded so different every couple of weeks or so. In fact, he would go back and forth between sounding like Hal from 2001 A Space Odyssey, to rather like this twit.