Moonridge Academy

[sad]

Any abusive incidents at Moonridge Academy?

[DannyB II]

Any abusive incidents at Moonridge Academy?

Have not found any yet, still looking. Atta girl sad, keep looking and studying.

Danny

[Oscar]

We have not found a single incident. According to the myspace group of girls who have lived there they felt isolated and like falling down from space regarding how to start living like a normal teenagers once release, but that is nothing.

People who have been contained in a subculture - aboard or at a boarding school will always have difficulties to adjust back to reality.

However we must challenge the fine words about education because you can look them up on this page. NAAS (Northwest Association of Accredited Schools) is angry with them.

Maybe it is the reason why the state of Maine didn't want to pay for the education. I don't know. Try to extract a student manual. Then we can see how restricted the place is.

[Pile of Dead Kids]

Oh for fuck's sake, lady.

1. Utah.

2. NATSAP Seal of Guaranteed Child Abuse.

3. http://www.moonridgeacademy.com/testimonials.htm . Yes, their own testimonials damn them! Look at this evil shit:

Our first family therapy was cut short because our daughter wasn’t “cooperating”.

They will forcibly keep her out of contact with you for many weeks. Why do you think this is? Remember, you're not watching them, and you're not in unfettered contact with your own daughter should you send her to a place like that, which means they can seriously be doing anything they want, and are. Their own site absolutely screams with warning signs. You'd have to be an idiot to consider it.

Real medical treatment facilities do not require you or anyone to "work the program". That is cult bullshit. And meanwhile the school system is suggesting actual facilities run by real professionals (like that Walden place you asked about before).

Saying that "well this particular NATSAP facility run under the same principles as the rest of them hasn't had any abuse reported..." is ridiculous on its face. You remember how we told you that these places come and go like the wind? They do it for this exact reason: Because places with reported abuse make less money, so it's better (for them) just to shut down and open another one! It's run on the exact same ideas, with the exact same kind of program, and you seriously doubt that they're doing the exact same shit?

Quit listening to the wilderness morons telling you to send your daughter to somewhere that will give them kickbacks and bring the poor girl home!

[Oz girl]

Sad it is possibly not enough to look for abusive incidents at the school. The first thing you need to do is look at the key staff on the programs website. Usually it will say that they have x amount of years industry experience. Sometimes they will list other programs that they worked for. Then try to find out about their previous employers. If this is not on their website then ask. This is important because it often means that they adopt abusive or ineffective techniques that they learned at other places. In many cases they could have been actively involved with a specific incident. You cant know for sure.
Also take natsap membership with a grain of salt it was founded by people who were shut down by the state of oregon for abuse.

[SUCK IT]

As you can see the extremists here will use any argument no matter how convoluted and diluted to persuade the gullible to not seek the help their children so desperately need. Not many people holding reasonable views on this industry will tolerate the bullying and threats that come there way from posting here, so that's why there is nothing left but a small gang of anti treatment extremists. Keep in mind you are taking advice from people who think legalizing all illegal drugs, while at the same time outlawing AA/NA will bring in a new era of utopian brotherhood in a world free from any form of treatment centers. The posters here don't care about you or your daughter, they just care about winning an argument and getting a free ego inflation from giving advice to parents, just like the professionals do, the very ones they harass online. Just another fornits irony.

[Anne Bonney]

As you can see the extremists here will use any argument no matter how convoluted and diluted to persuade the gullible to not seek the help their children so desperately need. Not many people holding reasonable views on this industry will tolerate the bullying and threats that come there way from posting here, so that's why there is nothing left but a small gang of anti treatment extremists. Keep in mind you are taking advice from people who think legalizing all illegal drugs, while at the same time outlawing AA/NA will bring in a new era of utopian brotherhood in a world free from any form of treatment centers. The posters here don't care about you or your daughter, they just care about winning an argument and getting a free ego inflation from giving advice to parents, just like the professionals do, the very ones they harass online. Just another fornits irony.

[Ursus]

Any abusive incidents at Moonridge Academy?

Moonridge Academy is one of the CERTS programs. In other words, it's a small program that is currently owned by a slightly larger company, most likely as an investment opportunity. From their About Us page on their website:

Certified Educational, Recreational, and Therapeutic Schools and Programs (CERTS) is a family of adolescent schools and programs recognized nationally and internationally for providing unique, specialized treatment programs for specific student profiles and also for providing the highest standards of care in the industry.[/list]

CERTS currently has the following programs under its umbrella (they've also had others in the past):

• Kolob Canyon Residential Treatment Center
  Kolob Canyon is a 12-bed facility that works with girls ages 14-17 suffering from depression, eating disorders, self-mutilation, anger and defiance, a learning disability, adoption issues, or a history of substance abuse. This clinically intensive program is highly successful in treating core issues of self hatred and depression. The setting for Kolob Canyon is a beautiful, 23 acre horse ranch in Utah’s Canyon Country that provides more opportunities for the girls to work with horses than are available in other CERTS programs.

• Moonridge Academy
  Moonridge Academy is a 16-bed facility that works with girls ages 12-15 who are exhibiting some of the challenging behaviors listed above including oppositional defiance, self-mutilation, and/or suicidal ideation. Moonridge Academy is clinically intensive, but uses experiential therapies to compliment traditional therapeutic approaches to provide "age-specific" therapy. Also, an average younger student age means that students are less exposed to the attitudes and issues of older girls.

• La Europa Academy
  La Europa Academy is a unique 33-bed, fine arts-based facility that works with girls ages 13-17 that exhibit the behaviors and issues treated in the other CERTS programs. However, La Europa’s specialized programming blends the healing power of the fine arts (e.g. art and art therapy, drama, dance, and music) with all of the clinical intensity of the other CERTS treatment centers to create a unique and powerful approach to releasing self-destructive emotions. La Europa's superb setting is also highly conducive to inner growth and healing.

• Mountain Springs Preparatory Academy
  Mountain Springs Preparatory Academy is a structured, co-educational boarding school specifically designed as a transitional program for graduates of treatment centers. While some students can go directly from the treatment setting back to home, other students do better when there is an in-between, transitional step that provides safety, structure, and 24/7 supervision. The Academy offers outstanding, fully accredited academics and is a natural "next step" for the CERTS treatment programs. Students participate in numerous self-esteem boosting activities that are not possible in the traditional treatment setting—cross country ski treks, white water rafting, ice climbing, horse packing, mountain climbing, etc. The "hands-on, go and do" educational philosophy of The Academy translates into international service projects in Mexico, educational field trips throughout the United States, and many other meaningful projects. All students are involved in a challenging Student Leadership program that assists them in taking charge of their own lives. This less restrictive, but still supportive environment can provide an important in-between step to the "structure" of the treatment centers and the comparative "freedom" of home.

In certain respects, Moonridge's situation reminds me of another of the programs you brought up, New Haven, which was originally started as a mom and pop operation, and which got subsequently bought up by Solacium Holdings (which was founded for the express purpose of creating a small stable of programs). Solacium overshot their investments, and subsequently had to unload a few programs. They currently go by the name of InnerChange.

There's a huge market out there in the buying and selling of small companies. The troubled teen industry is no different in that respect. Everybody hopes they can become part of the next Aspen Ed Group. Whether they actually manage to achieve such a feat or not, there are still fortunes to be made for the program owners who get bought out along the way.

[Ursus]

Thanks, Moose, for that very detailed reply!

I was there. 14 months. I have the student manual. I however do not have working scanner.
Some points of interest from my time there:
The majority of the line staff themselves were wonderful people, and I think that most of them truly were there for the right reasons.

Imo, those are the ones who usually don't stay that long. Or they change...

-One point while I was there, a girl was forced to dig up a tree because she was not 'working her program.'
-On my admission, I believe a rather expensive and very special ring of mine was stolen, but I have no proof, so I do not wish to get into that further.
-There were strip searches nightly if you were on safety.

Stealing from a "troubled teen," who can be quite easily also labeled as being a "liar," is, unfortunately, more common than one might think. What kinds of things could get you put on safety?

-Strip searches after coming back from anywhere, even the horse stables at Kolob.
-At the library, you could only check out books staff thought were appropriate. For gods sake, they thought Twilight was inappropriate. Yes, Twilight sucks, but inappropriate? No.
-Mail was monitored, if you wrote something inappropriate, you had to rewrite it.

So, staff read all your outgoing mail? Were you restricted as to who you could write to?

-To get off the initial safety, you had to sign a form that basically signed your rights away. I remember that so clearly, I didn't want to sign it, but to get off safety, I had to.

What are some of the rights you had to sign away?

-Phone calls were 10 minutes once a week, staff member sitting next to you. If it got heated, your call was ended.
-Safety of course included bathroom watch, but you could be on bathroom watch without being on safety.
-If you failed to finish your consequences within a certain time, you were put on no-talk. That changed soon before I left, but the program director has changed now, so I'm not sure what the state of that is.

What entailed bathroom watch? What were typical consequences; how were they assigned? What could get you put on no-talk?

That's all I can really think of on this right now. Mind you it's 5 am so I may have more to add later.

By the way, the website is INCREDIBLY out of date. It has been as it is since 2007, possibly earlier.

ETA: I may have thrown out my manual, but I am not sure. It may just be in one of the many boxes that reside in my living room. Will look for it later.

That manual might be very helpful info to have on here, in case you are ever able to find it!  

[Ursus]

A very small update:
I have not found the student manual as of yet, but I have found my mother's parent manual.

:rasta:   GOLD!!!

[Pile of Dead Kids]

Moose, see that "Upload attachment" at the bottom of the Reply page? Upload it to Fornits so we can all get a look.

[mcmh1]

Was the parent handbook ever uploaded?  is there any new information on Moonridge? I am considering enrolling my 12 yr old.... a frightening step!

[Anne Bonney]

Was the parent handbook ever uploaded?  is there any new information on Moonridge? I am considering enrolling my 12 yr old.... a frightening step!

You have no idea how frightening.   What did this 12 year old do that is so egregious that you feel the need to send him/her away?

[Dysfunction Junction]

Was the parent handbook ever uploaded?  is there any new information on Moonridge? I am considering enrolling my 12 yr old.... a frightening step!

You have no idea how frightening.   What did this 12 year old do that is so egregious that you feel the need to send him/her away?

Mom must believe that junior can be cured by systematic psychological and physical abuse.

[Ursus]

Was the parent handbook ever uploaded?  is there any new information on Moonridge? I am considering enrolling my 12 yr old.... a frightening step!

I hope you will reconsider sending your 12 year old away from home. She may well end up with more problems from such an experience than she currently has!

Moonridge Academy Parent Manual (.doc download, 1.28 MiB)