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TheWho:
Thanks Koo Koo, thats was a very detailed account of HLA.   What was the food like when you were there?  Were there any kids  seeing a therapist one on one?  Would you say there was a lot of drugs smuggled in?  Could you sneak away and smoke at all?  Did kids tend to gain weight or lose weight?

Thanks in advance for answering.

Anonymous:

--- Quote from: "RobertBruce" ---It sounds like not much has changed. More proof that Buchi has no interest in improving things. Do they still do "interventions" where a kid who really isnt interested in hack therapy is sent out into the woods with a lack of adequte suppplies for an indefinite period?

Do they still do writing assignments while on restrictions. Essentially forcing kids to cop to whatever it is they're being punished for and keeping them on restrictions till they do? I hear they finally did away with the starvation diet they kept us on while on restrictions. At least that's something. Do they still do "fall outs" where you're forced to tell on yourself and others until the counselors hear what they want to hear? I once had a session go on till 3 am.

I've yet to hear how coerced therapy ever helps anyone.
--- End quote ---

interventions, i dont know about. when i was there from 05'-07 they did a few, i was never on once. if you really mess up they send you on an intervention.
writing assignments, fallout, yes. always. thats a central part of their system.

--- Quote ---Thanks Koo Koo, thats was a very detailed account of HLA. What was the food like when you were there? Were there any kids seeing a therapist one on one? Would you say there was a lot of drugs smuggled in? Could you sneak away and smoke at all? Did kids tend to gain weight or lose weight?/quote]

Food: all sysco. there was  cafeteria where a few very disgusting hicks working there with such thick georgia accents that unless you were from there, you could not undertand them. there is usually 3 main hot dishes - a veggie or carb, and one or two meats, and a vegetarian option. theres also soup made out of the week's leftovers, a salad bar, and a sandwitch bar with tyson coldcuts and wonderbread. the food wasnt horrible, it was just bad. not tasty and cheap quality, like prison food, despite the options. they made alot of generic prison stuff: chunked and formed salsbury steak, BBQ pork, corn dogs, fake mashed potatoes, pork chops, etc. they do not have a kosher or hallal option. although they may feed you enough actual food, the food itself is horrible - very low quality generic institution food. it's also known for causing exessive gas in.....everyone. If you were on an intervention or at ridge creek, they fed you army MREs and sometimes cold cafeteria leftovers.

therapist: no. kids on medication would see a psychiatrist briefly (10min) once every other month or so for medication management. if that psychiatrist disagreed with buccelato, he got fired. as a result, they would keep you on whatever medication made you manageable, not what was actually best for you. You could not refuse your medication, if you did, you would go on restrictions. whatever was on the list for you, you had to take.

Drugs: on and off, yes. kids would bring in drugs after vacations, but would run out right away. sometimes the nightstaff would bring in tobacco, coke, speed, or weed if you figured out a way to pay them (no money allowed in HLA). that way was getting your freinds to pay them through paypal. kids would arrange this on their vacations or through secret codes in their letters, and sometimes with siblings. there is no nightstaff anymore from my understanding; kids are now only supervised by cameras in the dorms. another way was through locals - you can find people on myspace, facebook, or even chat people up while on school trips who can hook you up. for an extremely inflated price (like $1000 for an ounce of midgrade weed, paid for by your loyal friends at home via...paypal. gotta love paypal), you can arrange for them to sneak onto HLA property and drop it in a designated hiding spot where you would go pick it up the next day. if you got caught, you were sent to ridge creek. Coke, DXM, ecstacy and opiate pills were most common as they are easiest to get away with. cannabis was less common as it was easy to get caught smoking it and is somewhat bulky. it's hard to say for certain how much drugs there are, as people keep them secret and to themselves for the most part - if you dont tell anyone you will never get caught. but i can attest that i smoked weed at least fifty times while there, took vicodin at least a dozen times, tripped on DXM once, and tried coke my first time. there were also around twenty incidents in my two years there where kids got caught using or smuggling.

Sneaking: it was easy to sneak away for a smoke. theres often two staff for fifty kids running around a field...you just sneak off into the woods when there not looking. there are also many opprotunities to sneak off throughout the school day, like for example if you are on trash duty, you can smoke by the dumpster. the only problem is smelling on your clothes. i kept a trash bag with a smoking jacket behind the dumpster under a rock. i wonder if it's still there. you can also smoke in the shower once it's really steamy, or under the desks in the dorms using a toilet paper tube and fabric softener. (theres a little "cave" under each desk behind the beds),

weight: depends on who you were when you got there. ex-coke/methheads would gain tremendous amounts of weight, and so would the diabetics. i saw a diabetic speedfreek girl go from 110 to 220 in a matter of months. everyone else would gennerally loose a little weight while over the entire time there. they make you excesersize quite a bit, especially on restrictions, and they very rarely allow seconds at meals. alot of kids loose around ten pounds when they arrive due to lack of appetite (depression over getting sent away) and then they gain back 20 or 30 because their body isnt able to process the food yet (it's all very artificial), and then end up loosing that weight by the end of the program because their bodies get used to it and the excersizing catches up.
--- End quote ---

TheWho:
Thanks kooKoo.
The food sounds like it really sucked but it must had been nice to be able to get off on your own even for a few minutes to have a smoke.  Thinking about your next smoke or getting high was a good way to keep your sanity thru all that craziness I bet.

Were any of the staff nice?  Could you trust any of them enough to sit down and shoot the shit with them without worrying about slipping up or were they always working?  Were most of the kids really screwed up by the time they left?  How did you make out?  Make any friends?  Did the place screw you up really badly?  What was the worst part of your whole stay there?

Sorry I hope that is not too many questions.  You dont have to answer them all.

Anonymous:
some of the staff were nice, but very few would let things slide. mainly the ACs (assistant counselors) were ok. they were mostly north georgia college students, a few local military people on leave, and a few average joes who just happen to work there. unfortunately (and fortunately, also) there was a very quick turnover rate for those people - they quickly became disillusioned with the place and did not want to be part of it. i'm not going to name names but there were a few very, very good people there. they would do quite a bit to make your stay more comfortable if you got on their good side. it was a 50/50 good/bad.

some of the kids were really screwed up when they left. as mentioned before in another thread recently, they either go into a very highly structured environment like the military or they fall into drugs really hardcore. most are fine, eventually. of the kids that go back into drugs most spend a few years doing that and then mature and move on with their lives. it's not that you are exactly SCREWED UP from the place. it's like this: when you are there, you are fed this bullshit reality, bullshit identity. as soon as you leave, you realize it was all a lie. so you start shedding parts...pieces of your mentality and identity forced on you at HLA. you try to catch up with your peers, experience things you missed while at HLA. eventually, you become a normal individual. the only problem is that the anxiety caused by living in that environment stays with you no matter what you do. going into nostalgic tangents where all you can think about is how much you hate HLA and anything to do with it or similar to it is common among most people. thats why fornits exists. OR you abandon your self of self and resign to the created identity they gave you.

i made our fine i guess. i abandoned everything they taught me, and found myself. it took many years of sitting around doing drugs though, but i turned out ok. I learned quite well how to manipulate people, situations, and get what i want through HLA - that i did not abandon.

i do keep in touch with some people. not very tight relationships, but friends still.

the worst part of my stay is the total mindfuck of it all. they force you to think things that you do not believe, so you have to pretend you actually believe their bullshit in order to stay comfortable and out of trouble. eventually you start becoming the lie, like an actor so immersed in his character he looses his sense of self. you have to be very carefull about what you say and do. also, because of the fallout system you were always fighting for trust with the counselors, and always suspect of your peers; while at the same time trying to earn the trust of your peers and fighting the suspicions of your counselors. HLA was also very unpredictable. you never know when someone is going to do something that you end up being involved in somehow that gets you in trouble. it was a constant fight to maintain appearances while trying to remain true to yourself. you never got any real rest from it all, there was never any real peace. there is a constant political cold war going on between students, between staff, and between students and staff. kids are always trying to find dirt on other kids to earn respect from counselors, or do things against the rules to earn respect from peers. kids were always probing and testing other kids and staff to find their buttons, their weak points,  how far they can go with them, and to see how they can be used. people are always scheming against each other. it was a constant fight to stay out of it all. to survive you have to be extremely tactful and manipulative.

RobertBruce:
Again, it sounds like not much has changed. I will say it sounds like Buchi lowered his standards in regards to who was allowed to attend. Thinking back now, I think that started to come into play more when I was on the way out. By allowing these Hanibal Lectors in, he made it worse on everyone. At least during my time the inmates by and large stuck together, and we didnt make life anymore miserable for each other. You could, with exception, tell each other about "agreements" (never quite got that one) you had broken. When I was locked up it was always much more us versus them.

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