Gateway

[Anonymous]

Does anybody know anything about Gateway Academy in Salt Lake City, Utah

[Anonymous]

For starters:

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=23624&p=288800#p288800
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=23376
viewtopic.php?f=52&t=19873&p=321159#p321159

[Oscar]

Also visit our wiki datasheet with links to survivors etc.

[Pile of Dead Kids]

Wait, you sent your kid to this shithole and you're actually going to get on here and complain about the fucking money you lost?!

And then you're going to just ship him off to another, presumably similar, shithole based on some Potemkin-village tours?

What the fuck is wrong with you?  Are you honestly looking for sympathy for doing this? The only thing you deserve is buckshot to the back of the head.

[Whooter]

TroubledParent,You will have to excuse,Pile of Dead kids.  His only focus in life is recording the names of kids who died in programs across the United States.  He purposely sabotaged his own life by faking his way thru the program he was sent to and never bothered to apply himself.  His parents cared for him enough to get him help but he threw it away.  He realizes he screwed up and instead of moving on and pulling himself up he remains bitter, so now he spends his time screaming at other parents who care enough to get their kids help (like his did) hoping they will fail also so he doesn’t feel like the only one.  So don’t take his criticism to heart.
The majority of us here wish you and your family the best.  It would be nice if you could check back in with us to let us know how your son is progressing.
Good luck



…

[Ursus]

We originally sent our son to Gateway Academy in Salt Lake City, Utah and had a terrible experience. We were concerned that Gateway Academy could not handle a boy with our son's issues (BPD traits, mainly anger) but they assured us that they could. We explained all of our son's issues, had them talk to the Wilderness program he was leaving and told them we thought that he might not be a good fit. They insisted that Gateway was the right place for him.

It's called a referral fee.

Ten weeks later, Gateway Academy kicked him out of the program and abandoned him and us (his parents). They indicated that they didn't he would still be having these BPD behavioral issues ten weeks into the program and couldn't work with him. If we had known he was only on a ten week trial program we certainly wouldn't have sent him to Gateway.

Not only did they kick him out but Gateway Academy abandoned our son with no support leaving us to scramble to find another placement ASAP. He had a bad weekend and they took him to the emergency room to admit him to the hospital psych ward because they couldn't handle him. Then they called us up and said they wouldn't take him back and we needed to figure out where to send him. We live across the country and so we scrambled to find him alternatives, toured those alternatives and transferred him after about a week. When we picked our son up at the hospital we were shocked to find that they didn't even bring him a change of clothes or his reading glasses for the week he was in the psych ward. They didn't even call to consult with the Dr. to see how he was or if they could give some input. Even though they had legal custody they never visited although about day four the therapist called to see what our parent visitation code was to visit? Pretty lame considering they had legal papers that they could have used day one to establish their right to visit and why they didn't do this to check on him on the first day he is hear astounds me. It would seem like basic human compassion to want to visit someone ASAP in the hospital. They offered no help to us in figuring out the next placement for our son or offering any solution beyond him staying in the hospital psychiatric ward prior to his next placement.

"Human compassion" is generally not the motivating reason behind the operation of these places. Sorry you had to find that out so abruptly and at such a vulnerable time.

This may be cynical but Gateway Academy admitted our son when they had a lot of open beds and kicked him out when they were pretty full. Also, you would think they would at least compensate us for the extra expense we incurred to scramble to find him another placement plus part of the cost of the psych ward since he calmed down right away and the psych ward was just expensive baby sitting for the week. No...they didn't refund a dime beyond our deposit. They stuffed his dirty clothes in his bags, had us pick them up and said good riddance. The management at Gateway Academy does not appear to care much about the kids they care for - at least not once they kick them out and stop getting paid.

We don't blame the staff as they have many good staff members but the management team wouldn't take any responsibility for anything - I hope they teach their residential kids better lessons about taking responsibility.

I wouldn't call your observation about the respective enrollment density "cynical." I'd call it spot on.

Also, although some staff do get into this business because they care about kids and believe they can make a difference, IMHO, sooner or later that caring will run counter to program policies and procedures. Good staff do not seem to last very long at these kinds of places. Behavior modification is a nasty and dehumanizing binnis.