Ken Huey: Chief Executive Officer of CALO (Change Academy Lake of the Ozarks)
Ken Huey worked at West Ridge Academy
[abusive program] and Provo Canyon
[abusive program]Ken Huey joined Provo Canyon School at the beginning of 2003 and was named as their Director of Business Development in June of 2004. He left Provo Canyon in July of 2005 and joined West Ridge Academy (known as the Utah Boys Ranch until 2005) as their Director of Clinical Services. In November of 2006, Ken Huey launched CALO (Change Academy Lake of the Ozarks).
http://www.caica.org/STORIES%20PCS%20Angie%20Taylor.htmProvo Canyon School Experience - 2003
(Author wishes to remain anonymous pending lawsuit)
It is now May 2005 and I am now nearly 19 years old. I am attending college part time and work as a sales representative for a printing company. I've been promoted to vice president. I graduated from High School last year and have been successful because my parents rescued me from a private prison in Orem, Utah. It wasn't called a prison of course. It was called Provo Canyon School.
In December 2003 I was 17 and became a patient at Provo Canyon School. My experience there was horrific and abusive to the best of my recollection. I had been diagnosed with severe depression and post traumatic stress syndrome. The treatment I received was in no way therapeutic for my diagnosis. On the worst day, I was given a forced injection of a powerful chemical restraint, Haldol, while 6 people brutally held me down on the ground. One staff member cried and said, "if I hold her down any harder I may break her arm." This was punishment for getting out of a chair to use the restroom without permission and speaking my mind to a rude staff member.
I was put in solitary confinement for hours upon hours with out being able to use the restroom or get a drink of water because I fought against this injection of an unknown drug. When I discussed this maltreatment in a group therapy session my therapist was called and he ordered strict isolation and seclusion for a week. This meant that I could not look at or talk to any other person. I was forced to stare at a wall most of the day and do chores.
I was not allowed to go to school or church. I had to eat my meals alone. I was punished for smiling at another patient. Could this in any way have been therapeutic for a depressed patient?
Before being placed in solitary I was thrown on the ground and against the wall to have my jewelry and clothing stripped off. This was punishment for not allowing an unlicensed staff member read a letter I was writing home.
I was tormented by the staff who I thought should be people we could talk to in time of need. I truly believe that some were sadistic. My therapist would breach my confidentiality to the staff, who would then use my innermost thoughts against me.
All of my civil rights were taken away from me. There was no freedom of speech, movement, religion. I was punished for verbal communication as well as non verbal communication. I was not able to attend church meetings and was not allowed to read my Bible.
I also witnessed abuse besides my own. I witnessed a 15 year old girl who had her nose broken by Provo Canyon School staff while they were attempting to give her a forced injection of Haldol. This dose of Haldol caused her to overdose and it was an over dose for me as well. We both had facial contortions, blindness, difficulty swallowing, and severe pain. We both asked to see a nurse and were neglected. While in observation/solitary confinement I was neglected while unconscious. I later learned that my vital signs were not taken, I could have been dead. Luckily I am alive to this day and the 22 days of hell I experienced are in the past.
My abuse started with a full body cavity search on day one. Ten days after admission I had been the victim of two human take downs and restraint, isolation for eight hours in a concrete room with a concrete floor, forced to sit in a chair for 80 hours, drugged against my will with a dangerous drug used as a chemical restraint. This drug caused severe side effects - blindness, coma, shortness of breath, rash, facial contortions, drooling, pain, and lethargy. Staff did not seek any emergency care for me or monitor me in any way. I was kicked by staff for not waking up after being placed into a drug induced stupor. My hair was pulled and I suffered verbal and emotional abuse.
When I was finally allowed to call home to speak to my parents after 10 days I was still under the influence of the forced drugging. I was only allowed to speak to my parents twice in one month and both of those calls were monitored by my therapist.
The treatment I endured derailed me mentally. I went along with an irrational escape attempt with 5 other girls. One other girl, L.D., and I were caught. Staff stripped us naked and left us in the concrete observation rooms where they had turned the air conditioner up to 50 degrees. I was turning blue. After a half hour of this nude/hypothermic torture they threw us some bright orange sweat suits to put on because police officers were coming to investigate the escape attempt. We talked to police and pleaded with them to take us to juvenile hall. They did as we asked. I felt safer there and was finally allowed to speak to my parents.
Within days my parents came to Utah and rescued me. They were horrified when they saw me pale, nervous and bruised. The other girl, age 15, was not so fortunate. Her family did not come out to rescue her and she was sent back to Provo Canyon School. Her fate still haunts me. The last time I saw her was at the court house wearing her bright orange, tattered sweatsuit with four staff members surrounding her so she could not run again. She was not allowed to speak to me, so I never had the opportunity to say goodbye.
If you are considering this facility or another one that uses behavior modification, or if you have your child friend or relative in this facility - PLEASE subject yourself to the following experiment: Sit on the concrete floor of your garage when it is about 40 - 50 degrees outside, have nothing more than a sweat suit on, stare strait ahead for two hours. After the two hours ask yourself if any person should be punished in such a manner.
Realize that your child will be punished like this for any arbitrary reason - like talking without permission, standing, looking the wrong way, rolling their eyes. Imagine if you had to do this for 4 hours, even 8 hours a day.
This is what children are subjected to on a daily basis for any minor infraction at Provo Canyon School. One girl was in this room every day. Staff told her it was "her home."
The United States signed the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Would you consider being forced to sit in a cold, small concrete room on the concrete floor for hours degrading, even painful. State authorities who are supposed to protect children in the states that host these programs allow these atrocities to occur. My mother informed many authorities in Utah about the abuse I experienced and witnessed and they did little to nothing to protect the children from this type of abuse. In my opinion these authorities should be removed from office because they are allowing children to be abused, degraded and inhumanely punished in the name of treatment. These tactics are used solely to brainwash, terrorize and change minds.
DEFINITION OF TORTURE:
UN definition: Part 1 Article 1: the term "torture" means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or FOR ANY REASON based on discrimination of any kind...
PCS uses a concrete closet to imprison students. The children must sit on the cold floor for hours, isolated from others. They also use powerful and dangerous drugs as chemical restraints to place adolescent patients into drug-induced comas. They force children to sit in chairs for most of the day as punishment. Any child with a will or "attitude" will be broken by this punishment. They may never be the same - but that is what the intent is - TO CHANGE. Whatever works - includes torture. This must not be allowed in our country. I'm sure Provo Canyon School is not the only facility doing this.
All of these programs must be better regulated and the patients/students must have their basic civil and human rights protected by the government.
The only thing that possibly benefited me was that I was better able to appreciate my freedom and home life because I had just spent time in HELL.
Provo Canyon School was shut down once before in the 1980's. The authorities must close it again.
Anonymous (pending lawsuit)
Patient Provo Canyon School December 2003
Provo Canyonhttp://www.isaccorp.org/provocanyon/pcs1.pdfhttp://www.isaccorp.org/provocanyon/pcs2.pdfPROVO CANYON TRUTH pt1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIloOhuiugsProvo Canyon Truth pt 2http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsjXMAN_ ... re=relatedProvo Canyon Truth pt 3http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hebCsEtQ ... re=relatedProvo Canyon Truth pt 4http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fckS3Kds ... re=relatedProvo Canyon Truth pt 5http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-LD_e16 ... re=relatedProvo Canyon School Exposed! Part 1 of 2http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcXSg8MK ... re=relatedProvo Canyon School Exposed! Part 2 of 2http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsrimUUg ... re=relatedABUSE at Utah's West Ridge Academyhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYamMAcJWs0ABUSE at Utah's West Ridge Academyhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgCldrrLGsEABUSE at Utah's West Ridge Academyhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ8ZrVLrloMABUSE at Utah's West Ridge Academyhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOsUjuKaq_w
Chris Buttars and the Mormon Gulag: Staff Retaliatehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n694FLK2OEWEST RIDGE ACADEMYhttp://www.strugglingteens.com/artman/p ... 5465.shtmlLandon Kirk: Clinical Director/ Chief Operations Officer of CALO (Change Academy Lake of the Ozarks)
Landon Kirk worked at West Ridge Academy
[abusive program]Caleb Cottle: Recreational Therapy Supervisor/ Residential Coaches Supervisor of CALO (Change Academy Lake of the Ozarks)
Caleb Cottle worked at West Ridge Academy
[abusive program]Nicole Fuglsang: Admissions Director of CALO (Change Academy Lake of the Ozarks
Nicole Fuglsang worked at Hidden Lake Academy
[abusive program] http://www.isaccorp.org/documentsam.asp#hlahttp://www.thedahloneganugget.com/artic ... /01hla.txtHidden Lake Academy faces class action law suit
By Matt Aiken
Published: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 10:32 AM EDT
A federal class action lawsuit accusing Hidden Lake Academy of the “tragic mistreatment of troubled teenage students and families” was filed in the Gainesville branch of the United States District Court last Monday.
The civil action suit, filed by a team of Atlanta-based lawyers representing the families of two former students, centers around a laundry list of accusations against the therapeutic boarding school and its founder Dr. Leonard Buccellato.
Hidden Lake Academy is a SACS (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools) accredited boarding school which provides therapy for more than 150 students. The school is located off Camp Wahsega Road and was established in 1994.
On Sept. 11, the legal team of Gorby, Reeves, & Peters brought the operation of the establishment into question as it portrayed the school as an unsafe facility manned mostly by uncertified employees.
As a result, much of the lawsuit revolves around Hidden Lake's alleged misrepresentation of itself through its parent handbook and official Web site.
“HLA's zeal to cut corners and misrepresent itself stems from the fact that it is run in large part for the personal enrichment of its founder, defendant Buccellato,” the suit states.
One of the more serious accusations would appear to be HLA's alleged knowing introduction of “violent and severely disturbed students” into the school population, despite assurances to the contrary.
Included in the plaintiffs' complaint is an apparent internal e-mail, dated Feb. 24, 2006, which was reportedly sent by former Admissions Director Clarke Poole to eventual Admissions Director Nicole Fuglsang as he pointed out the instability of particular students.
“There is a fairly long list of students whose appropriateness I have questioned, especially in the last year or so,” the e-mail states.
The author goes on to point out students allegedly admitted against his recommendation and goes so far as to liken one of these students to Hannibal Lecter.
“He should have been in a padded cell in a psychiatric prison, and we knew it going in,” wrote the author. “It's difficult to distinguish his psychological evaluation, which was done by Len Buccellato and [name intentionally deleted in the suit] from that of Hannibal Lecter's.”
Poole reportedly left Hidden Lake Academy soon after the letter was sent.
“Hidden Lake's reluctance to reject court-ordered, severely disturbed and violent students stems from the fact that it is highly profitable to admit such students,” the complaint states.
The suit goes on to allege that the inclusion of some of these students led to several violent altercations and attacks on other students, one of which resulted in an investigation by the Lumpkin County Sheriff's Office.
However, Capt. Jason Stover with the sheriff's office said he had no record of such an investigation.
According to the suit, tuition at the boarding school runs $5,900 per month. Students are expected to stay for the duration of the program, which can run 17 to 21 months.
According to the suit, parents must put down a hefty deposit as well.
Since, according to the suit, the product is not what was advertised, parents and their children are bound to a shoddy deal, leaving parents with the predicament of leaving their child at the school or removing them and forfeiting the deposit.
“Nevertheless, despite the fact that parents incur huge educational and financial costs for pulling out their children before graduation, more than fifty percent of HLA's students during the Class Period - nearly 400 families total - have failed to graduate from HLA, and instead left the program prematurely,” the suit states.
The suit then goes on to question the accreditation of HLA staff members.
“Throughout the Class Period [of 2000 to the present] a large number and, at certain times, an overwhelming majority, of HLA's teachers have not been certified, while a sizable number of the counseling staff lack bachelor's or master's degrees in areas related to social work, counseling, or psychology, and have not been clinically trained in counseling or social work,” the complaint states.The Hidden Lake Academy Web site claims that “teaching faculty at HLA hold a Bachelor to a Doctorate level degree in education.”
The complaint also alleges that employee Clay Erickson has taken the position of Director of Addiction Services despite having his license revoked by the Washington State Medical Disciplinary Board in 1993. The suit claims the suspension was due to “his alleged alcoholism and abuse of controlled prescription drugs.”The plaintiffs also claim that HLA failed to consistently employ sufficient medical staff while also neglecting to deliver on the advertised promise of providing a full-time special education teacher.
“HLA has also during the Class Period only rarely employed a licensed learning disability specialist and within the past several months or longer has not employed a registered or properly licensed nurse,” the suit states.
“Hidden Lake also provides students with deficient medical supervision, allowing unlicensed staff such as secretaries and pharmaceutical technicians who are unsupervised by a nurse or proper medical authority to dispense prescription medication to students.”The complaint goes on to allege that HLA students who have been placed on restrictions have been utilized to clear land for future building projects.
“Buccellato's use of students to do HLA manual labor was similarly not disclosed to families at the time they entered into their enrollment contracts,” states the complaint. “Further, Defendants' misuse of such students to do manual labor violates countless federal and state labor regulations.”
HLA is also accused of routinely performing strip searches on students after they return to campus following home visits. According to the plaintiff, this detail is not sufficiently advertised by the school.
The plaintiffs also allege that HLA often charges undisclosed extra fees despite the reported assurance that tuition is all-inclusive.
These reported extra charges range from marked-up toiletries purchases to exorbitant medical fees.
“Incredibly, HLA even overcharges students for vaccinations and shots, imposing a more than 50 percent mark-up for flu shots and $90 for a meningitis shot that costs significantly less,” the suit states.
“During the Class Period alone, these undisclosed overcharges have reportedly totaled some $800,000-$1,000,000 all of which amounted to pure profit to HLA,” the complaint states.
A myriad of accusations are also directed at Buccellato himself, who is accused of using school funds and employees for his own personal use.
“Buccellato uses HLA Inc. as his personal bank and employment agency by, among other things: billing to it significant amounts of his personal expenses, including extravagant dinners, gifts to friends and family, and lavish vacations totaling thousands of dollars; using school maintenance staff to maintain and repair personal rental properties; having the school pay his personal taxes and service his loan payments; arranging for present or former school therapists, such as Dr. Steven Taylor and Dr. Brad Carpenter, to work up to four days a week in his private psychology practice; enlisting school employees to work part-time at St. Francis Day School, a school that Buccellato also helps operate; and getting the school's food service provider to privately cater personal affairs, which he then bills to the school,” the suit states.
Buccellato is also accused of forging the name of his CEO, CFO, and Secretary Kenneth Spooner on official documents as well as bribing third party educational consultants in order to receive positive recommendations.
“Realizing the significant role consultants play in the school selection process, Buccellato showers consultants with gifts and other forms of undisclosed compensation,” the suit states.
The plaintiffs have also accused Buccellato of misappropriating donations that were intended to build a campus chapel.
“Buccellato has taken funds directly from the Student Chapel Fund program for his own personal use,” the complaint states.
Buccellato could not be reached for comment. Instead The Nugget was contacted by HLA's defense team of Quirk & Quirk.
Martin Quirk contended that the accusations against Hidden Lake Academy are merely the result of disgruntled parents who, after withdrawing their children prior to completion of the program, are now reluctant to forfeit their deposit. These fees, he added, are a normal part of such schools.
“A couple of parents that withdrew their children didn't like that provision, which they had signed,” said Quirk. “And apparently blew it way out of proportion.”
The first set of unidentified plaintiffs are residents of Florida whose child was enrolled at HLA November 2004 to May 2005. During this time they reportedly paid $63,268, including a non-refunded deposit of $14,550.
The other set of plaintiffs are current residents of Pennsylvania. Their child was at Hidden Lake February 2005 to August 2006. During this time period they reportedly paid $102,727, including a non-refunded deposit of $14,709. Both sets of plaintiffs pulled their children from the program three months prior to their expected graduation dates.
According to the complaint, this suit could open the door for hundreds of families to join in the class action, the damages of which could reach more than $5 million.
The legal group of Gorby, Reeves, & Peters, which declined to comment for this story, has demanded a trial by jury.
Hidden Lake Academy has 20 days from the initial filing of this complaint to respond to the suit.
“The school is going to vigorously defend it,” responded Quirk. “I think the justice system will prevail.”
By Eric Norwood
Republished with author’s permission
Further info at Mormon Gulag
This story is about Eric Norwood’s personal experiences at a place called The Utah Boys Ranch, which models itself as a “tough-love” prep-school, but while Eric was there, he witnessed some unbelievable atrocities. It is a Mormon-funded and staffed facility, and religious indoctrination is a fundamental aspect of the school. There was sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, suicide, staff corruption, and escape. A major Utah political figure, Senator Chris Buttars, was the executive director while Eric was there. This is Eric’s story.
His filthy digit tasted like rust and fish. “I can hurt you without leaving any marks,” Brent growled as I writhed in agony on the ground. I struggled for breath as he mounted my back, put his finger in my mouth, and pulled back on my cheek, fish-hooking me. The pain was incredible. I tried to beg him to stop, but the words would not come.
After he finished beating and bludgeoning submissiveness into me, he pulled me up by the rope that was lassoed around my waist. The wool army blanket I had fashioned as a skirt had shifted askew and I stood there in my boxers bleeding from my nose, humiliated.
My
green Utah Boys Ranch t-shirt had been ridiculously stretched out and looked more like a low cut blouse. I loosened the noose around my waist and pulled the itchy blanket through the loop and folded it over so it looked like a brown bath towel secured by a belt. He wasn’t satisfied, he wanted more. I just wanted out of this classroom. I started to think about how I got here.
From CALO Staff manual
Green Shirt Regulations
Safety And The Green Shirt
The one rule at CALO is that each student must regulate his or her own emotional, physical, mental, sexual and psychological safety at all times. If a student is unable to do this on their own, it is the coaches responsibility to help give that student the additional support and coaching they need. Students must be guided towards good safe choices while they experiment with their relationships with the coaches. If a student makes an unsafe decision, or is unable to regulate his or her own emotional, physical, mental, sexual or psychological safety, that student is placed in a green shirt indicating to themselves and others that they are not currently in a safe place, and/or they are not making safe decisions.
The Utah Boys Ranch appears to be a kind of tough-love school with a Christian-esque undertow. My parents thought as much when they employed its services in hopes of corralling their spiritually wayward son.
Being kidnapped was probably the last thing I was worried about at 15 years old. I was staying at my grandma’s house that fateful night. My step-dad and I had been at war since I had refused to go to seminary, a church service for Mormon kids in high school that began at the ungodly hour of six in the morning.
I loathed early morning seminary more than the three hours of my Sunday regular LDS church service consumed, or the three hours on Wednesday nights. My opposition, paired with my step-dad’s religious fanaticism, resulted in being grounded almost to the point of indentured servitude. Grandma’s house was my sanctuary. Ironically, when I looked up at the clock that next morning - as two imposing silhouettes entered the house my mom grew up in - it was five minutes to 6 a.m. on Valentine’s Day.
I was camped out on the sofa bed in the TV room with a plate of leftover lasagna from the fridge. It was half eaten and a Roseanne re-run was playing when they first walked in. They looked around as if they had been told where to go, but hadn’t quite envisioned it right. They looked to their left, saw the terrified eyes of a 15-year-old, and pounced. They shoved clothes and shoes on me and I was gone before I was able to think about which way I should run. They told me very little. Their first names were Paul and Barry.
Barry was a white guy, a big mother. At least 6?5?, and I would not be surprised to hear that he weighed more than 300 pounds, but he was not fat. Paul was shorter and had a darker complexion. He was big too, and meaner than Barry. He turned to me when we first got into their white mid-sized rental car and said, “You have a choice. You can be cool and get on an airplane with us and be there in a couple of hours, or you can sit back there with handcuffs on for the next 12 hours. Non-stop.”
“Where are we going?” I asked, still in shock.
“Utah,” Barry answered casually from the passenger seat, without turning his head. “We are from the Utah Boys Ranch, Eric, and your parents have asked us to take you back with us.”
“What?” My head was spinning. I felt like I was going to throw up. There is no way that this was happening. My mom would never allow this. Utah? What the hell is a Boys Ranch? I couldn’t breathe.
“I guess we’re driving,” Paul said odiously.
I knew the child-lock would be on and as I saw the familiar houses of my grandmother’s street pass by, I started to roll down the window. We weren’t going fast enough for them to notice yet and the warm Agoura Hills climate didn’t tip them off. I rolled it down enough to fit my arm out and open the door from the outside when Paul paused at the stop sign at the bottom of the hill, looked back at me, and stopped the car.
He shoved the gear into park and pulled handcuffs out of somewhere and told me to give him my wrists. I sat there cuffed for a moment when I realized that I really would die from this feeling in my chest - a physical manifestation of angst. My heart was beating furiously, and I knew that I couldn’t last 12 hours.
“You can take me on a plane. I’ll be cool.”
“Now that’s more like it,” Barry said kindly. “My wife will be happy.”
The first person I met in Utah was Senator Chris Buttars. I had no idea who he was until that point.
All I knew was that he was to be feared, and I was scared to death of him from the moment I first saw him.
“Sit down,” he squawked in a loud, high pitched, galling voice that sounded like a cross between a buzzard and an old cowboy. He continued to make it very clear that I was at his mercy. He told me who he was - politically - and the influence he had. If I ever wanted to leave I was to do what he said. “How old are you?”
“Fifteen,” I mumbled.
“Three years might not be enough for you. I can have a judge order you to be here until you are 21,” he croaked. With that he sent me off to be “changed and put on work crew.”
I was led down a long hall of doors with nameplates. I had no clue what kind of place this was. I didn’t see any cows or horses…no sign of what I thought a “ranch” would resemble. Paul took me into a small room that was no bigger than a broom closet, which was stacked to the ceiling with three colors of cloth, blue, green and brown. There were green t-shirts, blue t-shirts, and blue jeans.
There were also brown army wool blankets, and I remember thinking that I didn’t want to sleep under such a coarse covering before I was told to “put it on.” I was told to wrap a thick, itchy blanket around my waist like a towel and wear it like a dress.
I was then given a “leash” made of climbing rope and what I think was a square knot to tie around my waist.
I had never imagined being tethered and walked like a dog, but here I was, being walked like a dog towards a cluster of about 12 other boys. They were lined up facing a wall while two large men in red sweatshirts watched them from a couple of chairs off to the side.
Some of the boys had camouflage pants on, a few others wore dresses. I wondered how long I was to be in this blanket dress. I was later told that it was so I wouldn’t run away - and they were right - I literally could not run in this humiliating getup. I could barely get a full stride walking.
That’s when I saw Brent - or ‘Captain America,’ as he was called disparagingly - for the first time. My leash was handed off to him, but he told me to wrap it around my waist and go join the group of young men who were standing with their noses touching the wall, all spread out about arms length from each other.
I turned to the boy who was standing to my right and asked him how long he had been here, but before I could get my question all the way out, my forehead careened into the carpeted wall in front of me. A sharp pain stabbed the back of my head, and suddenly bad breath filled my nostrils. “Are you talking on my work crew, boy?” a red-shirted man screamed at me.
My head was ringing. I was still trying to piece together what had just happened when I looked behind me and massaged the pain in my head. Suddenly my legs fell out from underneath me and I was on my back.
He had just slammed my forehead into the wall, and now he had put his foot behind mine and pushed me, sending me to the floor flat on my back.
He stood over me and bawled, “Don’t look at me. Don’t look around. Don’t you MOVE without permission! You don’t do anything without permission! If you talk, I think you are talking about running away, and I will restrain you. Do you understand?” I nodded. I knew then that I had to get out of this place. I wasn’t going to last here.
It was only my second week on work crew when Neil Westwood refused to turn his back to Brent and place his nose on the wall, which is what the command “face the wall” plainly meant. It was a Mexican standoff for a few moments. Stunningly it seemed like Brent was going to let Neil get his way. I had never seen an older boy in a pissing contest with a staff member before. The younger kids refused commands, but they were always quickly thumped into docility.
Neil was a big kid, a lot bigger than me - probably 230 pounds or so, and over six-feet tall, but dispelled any image of toughness with his glasses, disproportionately small arms, and frizzy hairdo. Neil was as obnoxious as he was an easy target, but I still can’t believe that no one reacted when Brent stood up in a flash of rage and chucked a full, unopened gallon of milk at Neil’s face from about five feet away, crumbling him to a pitiful puddle of tears, blood, and non-fat milk.
The work crew was depraved. When they didn’t have us facing the wall for hours at a time we were digging ditches with spoons, only to fill them back in again.
We made huge piles of heavy rocks taken from the field, the field that both surrounded and contained us, only to be told to move the massive mound to another location. They worked us in ways redolent of Stalin’s gulags.
There was an agonizing week of all-day sod laying - with bits of mud and grass sticking to the inside of my wool dress - in preparation for some ceremony the work crew boys weren’t privy to. The Scarecrow Festival was even worse. We worked for weeks from eight in the morning till eight at night in preparation and to take down that contrived fall carnival/ fundraiser. Boys wished for death. There was also a dry-cleaning service that they operated somewhere in town, which was supposedly much better than any job on campus - even kitchen duty.
Getting off from work crew meant school during the day, and considerably less work. Some sadist there created a t-shirt caste system that involved wearing either a blue t-shirt or green t-shirt. “Blue shirts” could talk, receive letters (which were opened and read first), talk to their parents, and possibly go off campus.
“Green shirts” were allowed into school, but that was about it. No speaking, sitting, or anything but working or reading LDS literature. A “green shirt” was forced to read the Book of Mormon, in particular the first 22 chapters. We were interviewed by one of the four full-time Mormon missionaries that worked there and had to paraphrase all of “First Nephi” before receiving a blue t-shirt. What good derives from reading the Book of Mormon under duress is anyone’s guess, but I did it. I had to.
I had to go to church and seminary too.
It turns out that any form of decadence - smoking a little grass, telling your math teacher to sit on it, being gay or bi-curious, sexually assaulting a family member or young girl - is curable by a little hard work, tough love, and Mormon doctrine. Boys with “sexual issues” are housed together in what could only be some cruel showing of satire.
They were constantly being caught jerking each other off onto each other, or, more tragically, assaulting younger boys. Whatever it was, they would be shoved into blankets and thrown on work crew. On Tuesday night they would meet with all the boys with sexual issues and provide remedies like IcyHot on the penis to stifle homosexual urges.
I was kept there until they couldn’t keep me any longer, and on my 18th birthday I walked out the front doors into a cold October morning with nowhere to go and nothing but my freedom. If I didn’t experience it myself I would not believe a place like this exists. A Mormon gulag.
How do they get away with all of the abuse? The forced religion, the stifling of freedom of speech? Was it legal to prevent us from reporting abuse to authorities, or to restrain us with ropes, wool blankets, and duct tape? Is it legal to force young boys to talk about masturbation with Mormon clergy and missionaries? How does all of this go unnoticed? We were young and naive and didn’t know that most of what they did to us was illegal. Buttars was famous for telling us that we had only three rights: food, safety, and shelter. They failed to even live up to those standards.
Besides being callow, we hardly had the chance to report any abuse. They instruct parents to ignore any claims of abuse from their children. They call any complaints from children a manipulation tool - “fear factor” - and instruct parents to be wary of the “tactic” they say they encounter most.
There were also no phones to call the police. No nurses or medical examiners to talk to. No government authorities to check in on us. Incongruously, this Orwellian facility desperately needs government oversight.
Sen. Buttars said it all when he told a reporter, “What sets us apart is that we’re the only residential treatment facility that doesn’t seek or accept government funding. If we did, they’d control us.”
*
