Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > CALO - Change Academy at Lake of the Ozarks

Questions for Calo Students

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CALO Student #17:
To thetruthplease:

No, personally, I was never abused by staff. In fact, in my entire stay (1 year, 1 day), I wasn't put into a hold once. I've had my wrist held, but they didn't put any pressure.

And honestly, I think that there are some very genuine staff members there who want to help, but then there are other who have different reasons for being there. I'll get a little more into depth about this when I answer bobpeterson.


To Questions:

No, we aren't allowed to call anyone at all. The only time that we can kind of call out, is when our paretns don't call for our Sunday phone time. Even then, it is the staff member who picks up the phone and talks to the person first before the student does. This is because a student once tried to call a friend to come get them.

Holds have always been a wierd situation. It's different for different students. Some students preffer to be held by a staff member that they trust. That way, it's easier for them to open up when processing whatever is going on. On the other hand, when some students are restrained by a trusted staff member, they instantly feel like they lose connection with them. They hold the mindset of "How can you do this? I thought we were friends". But from what I've seen, for the most part, being restrained by a newer staff member prevents the students from opening up. Only a couple students comply with a newer staff.

I've seen a student be in a hold, literally, for about 3 hours. There wasn't constant pressure being put on the whole time though, obviously. He was put into a hold, then the staff would stop putting pressure when he calmed down enough to listen. They'd usually let go of the wrists, then just hold down the arms and talk. They felt good enough to let him sit up as they talked, but then he started saying violent things again. This held his hands again and told him that he neede to calm back down again, but when he started fighting back anyways, they threw him down into another hold. This sort-of cycle went on a few times, making the overall hold last a long time.

To bobpeterson:

No, the staff don't provoke the students in a sense of saying "Does that make you mad? Are you going to do something about it?". When I say that they're restrain-happy, I mean that they have more of a mindset of "secure the student first, then ask questions". Of course, this didn't go over too well with the students (mostly because we felt like the staff wanted the hold to take place), so naturally... that's where it led to.

The reactions to restraints differed depending on who it was being held. It wasn't uncommon that we could see that it was completely the fault of the student. Some of the kids there were... hot headed and stubborn. However, I do recall a time when a student was put into a hold because they were freaking out about their friend being retrained.

I've never actually seen the paperwork myself, but that sounds about right. The only thing that I would think to add is the physical body check. After each hold, the student is examined for and injuried that may have occured durring the hold.

And yes, what happens durring PCS (stands for "Positive Control System") is the wrist bending. The staff member lodges the student's elbow into the bend of the staff's own arm, in order to keep the student from pulling out of it. They then bend the wrist downwards. This is supposedly proven to be impossible to break a person's wrist, because the "pain" (which is more of a discomfort than a pain) is caused by the tendons being stretched. Personally, I think that if the wrist-bending were done at a ridiculously high speed, then the tendon could actually snap, or even pull a small bone fragment out of place. I only know this because it's what happened to me in football... but honestly, a staff member would have to be really, really strong and being trying to break something. There aren't many variations, besides positioning of the student. The PCS I just described would be called an "escort", with a staff member on each side, both with an arm. A "hold" is when the student is put onto the ground. The arms are on the ground and out to the sides. This also requires one staff member per arm and the staff member is holding the arm down by the student's tricep. The hand is upwards, and bent towards the body of the student. This is basically the same thing. The only variation on the actual bending involves the position of the thumb. When the thumb is pulled in, towards the palm, it bunches the nerves in the wrist, causing an even greater discomfort durring the bend.

To Che:

We all loved Nick. He was one of the most genuine staff members that we had. He personally told me that he wasn't fired, but that he was having family problems. It's true that he didn't agree with all of the CALO procedures and stuff, but his family member was in the hospital. From what he knew, the family member wouldn't be able to work, so Nick volunteered to take over the business. He felt that it was a good time to do so anyways, since he knew that CALO admins didn't really like how he disagreed with their system.

Green shirts can be optional, meaning that the student can inform the staff members that they would like extra attention and closeness. For the most part, though, it was staff's decision to put kids on closeness. Trust me, most of the kids there don't know what's good for them, so a lot of them needed to have someone tell them. I'm not gonna lie though, there's been times where the green shirt was a bunch of bullshit. Typically, it wasn't a big deal. It usually didn't restrict you from doing anything, unless prescribed by the therapist. The green shirt almost completely means that staff keeps a better watch on you. Not a whole lot more than that.

And I'm not sure which brian and kevin that you're talking about. I said before that I wasn't really going to name people, but if you send me a private message, I'd be glad to reply a response on this forum again. I have a pretty good idea of who you're talking about though, lol.

CALO Student #17:
Oh, shit, I boarderlined a lie just now.

I've never been "abused" by staff, but I've wrestled around with some and I play fight with a couple. We usually did this without other students or higher-ups knowing, but it was never abusive and they still followed the guidelines of the 2-1 ratio... so it was either 2 staff against me, or one of them would just watch, lol. It was never abusive though, but I've bust my lip once, lol. These few staff members made it very clear, though, that if they didn't think I could handle it, then they never would consider it.

This would also be a good time to mention that staff there play favorites. I mean, we're all human, but still, I've seen ridiculous double standards at times. Most of the staff loved me, because I basically get along with everyone that I meet... except for Caleb... he and I never got along. Anyways, it was a bit unfair when staff members didn't care when I did some stuff and wouldn't allow others. That didn't matter too much, because they usually had the excuse of "well, I personally feel like he can handle things like this, so I say it's okay". The part that pissed me off was when there was a student that everybody hated. There were only 3 or 4 studets that fit this category, but still, staff members didn't lose any sleep after putting them into vicious holds. So yeah... since there was no bond between the staff and the student, there wasn't nearly as much hesitation when it came to putting them to the ground. I hated that, so I did what I could to help.


By the way, I'm going to be busy for most of today because I'm taking my friend out to Olive Garden and Jillian's for her birthday. I might not be able to answer any questions until late tonight. Tomorrow, I have some event at some temple to go to... I'm not too sure of what it is or how long it lasts, but I'll try to get back to you guys if I can again. Sorry guys, lol, but I'm doing as much as I can.

psy:
A girl who recently ran from CALO, according to the press, hadn't spoken to her parents in ~8-9 months.  Is that sort of thing normal?  What might have caused that lapse in communication?

Also, what's this whole business about "therapeutic touch".  What's that about, because it sounds rather...  unsettling?

psy:
Also, what are "accountability groups" like?

Che Gookin:
So if Nick Llament left to help the family business why is he waiting tables at Applebees? And as for restraints something tells me you missed the one where the girl got thrown on her face in the parking lot for throwing a snowball at a male staff member.

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