Academy at Sisters

[Awake]

To Morgan, and her parents, but especially you

I don’t know if this decision is final or not, but what I am hearing is that they might really be willing to work with you on a reasonable alternative.  From what is being said there is a very common power struggle going on in the family dynamic. Everyone needs a sense of control over their lives, and if you are willing to give up a little of it, you may not lose it all.  Your parents are expressing that this choice IS their last option based on your behavior, and so has become a situation where you are forcing them to force you to cooperate.  If you are made to go to this program without resolving this power issue with your parents this vicious cycle might escalate in worse ways than you can imagine. You can’t ‘win’, you really can’t, and whatever alternative they are open to is a good one.  I know you can’t just do away with any resentment or bitterness over what has been going on in your family, but if the control tactics come to the point where you have to go to this place under the current circumstances this might become a seething underlying issue that damages your family relationship beyond repair.  

I heard one of your parents say they are not entirely right either, and maybe that makes it hard to submit to the choices they want to give you, but if you are willing to put the right and wrong aside for now and just do it you will avoid a far more painful experience in which you will have to submit to a situation you disagree with much more, and you will submit even if you have to learn to fake the most genuine of emotions.  It is a unique kind of suffering that you truly do not want, much harder than what it will take for you if you give in now.  It may even be better for you in the end as far as getting what you want out of your family relationship, at least you will maintain a position of more equal footing when you are working through things with them rather than being put at the bottom of the ladder.  Someday you will find that you are going to want their support in your endeavors, and maybe even want them in your life as equals and friends, but if the situation gets to a point where you are put in a position of powerlessness it may be impossible to accept that support without also accepting their domination of you.  You may get married someday, or accomplish things that you will want their blessing for.  That blessing may always carry with it that denunciation of you.

I hope you all can give this one last chance to work it out.  You may have to live with unresolved anger  and it may be difficult to find a way to get along for awhile, but if you can turn things around now and get through it, IT WILL BE WORTH IT.  You are always going to be a family, you will never be able to avoid that even if it becomes forever associated with animosity and interactions that disqualify each other.  If you, Morgan, can’t make a really tough move to cooperate with your parents now, you may never come back from this.  

.

Very nicely stated, Awake.  Morgan, you should consider those wise words and try to look at those as the best path to get you to age 18.  If you can resolve this locally, working with your parents and with a counselor you will be better off.



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Thank you for your support.  I just want to see this work out for the best.

[Troll Control]

Thanks, DJ, hand Whooter another victory in thread derailment. Good thing Morgan's Dad's seen sanity BEFORE the Whospam started. Sorry, Whooter, you derail another thread but still fail again.

Pile, this is not a "victory" for anyone, especially Whooter.  You know as well as I (and Nihilanthic made the same comments as well on this thread) that Whooter is an object lesson to parents about this industry.  Frankly, the more he says, the more he exposes himself.  

All I did was allow Morgan's parents to see the difference in what is said to prospective parents - the polite, cool, calm, collected sales pitch - and how these same sheisters actually view the children off whom they are making their living.  It's a teachable moment.  What these people really think and do, out of the public purview, is twisted and demented.  Whooter is just a prime example of this - from the fictitious "My kid did well after the program" (i.e., the glossy brochure with smiling faces) story to the desperate and vile commentary about posters who point out that this is factually bereft (i.e. what they do to non-conforming kids behind closed doors).

Whooter is the glossy brochure, while his other usernames (Mitt Romney, SUCK IT, Al Gore, Sarah Palin, RobertBruce ., Queef, John McCain, etc. ad nauseum) are the thugs that actually get their hands on your children.

[Whooter]

Whooter is the glossy brochure, while his other usernames (Mitt Romney, SUCK IT, Al Gore, Sarah Palin, RobertBruce ., Queef, John McCain, etc. ad nauseum) are the thugs that actually get their hands on your children.

People logging in under numerous usernames appears to continue to be a source of heartburn for you, Dysfunction Junction.  If this is so unsettling to you the fornits admins may be able to change the rules to your liking so that each user can only be assigned one user name.  But I don’t have control over that.

I can tell you that of the list of usernames that you laid out above, some are mine and some are not.  So you are getting yourself into a frenzy for no reason and appear to be a little paranoid about who is behind each post.

Another option is to ask fornits admins to list out our user names (and string together past anon posts)and post them publicly.  I have done this upon request a few times before and am willing to do it again, if it interests you (I have nothing to hide).  You have never agreed to this yourself, for some reason, and are afraid to agree to have all your user names revealed along with the anon posts.  The last time you were asked this you cut and ran and stopped posting for awhile.

So give it some thought, if you are embarrassed about your past posts and don’t want to have your user names and anon posts revealed openly then just say so and we will drop it.  I wont rub it in……  There are two of us talking here and one of us has something to hide and it is not me because I have done this many times before but you consistently continue to run from this subject.

As an aside:  If you want to pursue this topic further I would take it to another thread out of respect for Morgan and her parents.  There are plenty of other threads where this can be discussed, no need to muck up this one anymore than it is.



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[Troll Control]

Lols.  I have had one username and one username only for my entire time posting here.  You have my permission to verify with the site's admin.  Go ahead and have them link up any anonymous posts as well.  You have my permission.  Please ask them to post the results of your inquiry.  We'll all be awaiting the big event with bated breath.  

I'm going to go ahead and do a little prognosticating now, too.  My predicttion?  You'll do neither of the above and just continue claiming I have multiple logins and you'll keep doing it right here in this thread rather than doing what you requested and move it to another thread.

In the meantime, I moved our discussion over here where it belongs to honor your request.

[Whooter]

Lols.  I have had one username and one username only for my entire time posting here.  You have my permission to verify with the site's admin.  Go ahead and have them link up any anonymous posts as well.  You have my permission.  Please ask them to post the results of your inquiry.  We'll all be awaiting the big event with bated breath.  

I knew you would run.  We both know that we cant request to have another users posts or user names strung together.  You need to get it done yourself.  But you knew this .. good try again.

Like I said, I have done it a few times and you keep side stepping it.  Just wanted to make it clear who was being open and who wasnt.....Not a big deal.  Lets move this off this thread shall we?



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[Troll Control]

In the meantime, I moved our discussion over here where it belongs to honor your request.

Maybe you missed this earlier.  I have moved this to the appropriate thread.  Please continue over there.

[SUCK IT]

Just read through this thread. Quite the family soap opera, fornits loves these types of threads. Did anyone else laugh out loud at the advice for a 15 year old girl to run away and live on the streets instead of  going to a treatment program? Yeah, because a 15 year old girl living on the streets is so much safer, right? Anyone making this argument is completely insane, a young girl is much more likely to be a victim of violence or exploitation on the street, than inside of a treatment center with professionals. If you cannot see this is a truth, then you seriously need a reality check about the situation young teens go through on the street. More disturbing is the posters offering to take the kid in "if only I lived closer" (the most famous internet cop out ever!), that's just wrong. Who takes in a 15 year old girl just because she might be sent to a treatment center? I have to imagine that is illegal, anyways, but hey why not offer bullshit solutions on the internet you have no interest in following through with, all it takes is a few keystrokes.

Pile of Kids and Nihalinic both attempt to make it seem as if they all programs are evil, soul destroying, concentration camps. Kudos on the over dramatization, it might work on gullible parents who might even assume you set foot in a adolescent program yourselves, which I have a suspicion neither of these posters ever did. Call it a hunch, based on their regurgitation of the mythology of what programs are like, a mythology you will only find on fornits. Only someone who's knowledge of programs is built upon this mythology would ever suggest a young teen girl run away to the streets than face a treatment program.

Here is some advice based on reality. Don't run away from home.You will be found and then you will be sent to a more controlled environment treatment program. The people giving you advice here mostly have never even been to a program, let alone the one you speak about. They spend their time creating a narrative that all programs are evil, the kids are forever damaged and nothing good can come of it. More likely than not, you'll make some new friends, do well in the new environment, come home, move on with your life and never look back. Don't make the mistake that people here on fornits want to help you, or will ever follow through with the help that they offer, they are completely full of shit. They have themselves invested personally in a losing argument here, and their egos so big they are only interested in one-upping their competition, in this case Whooter who simply tells it like it is. Then you got the hobby arm chair activists like Pile and Nile who will spin the fornits mythology in a way to scare any parents or kid, but it's just not true. You will not be abused, or brainwashed or mistreated. You will make new friends, find the support of a caring staff and probably do very well. Or you can run away from home and call a lawyer who will never call you back, or wait for the donations and place to stay people here promise you but will never follow through.  When you are older you will be thankful that you have parents who care about you, you probably do not realize or appreciate it now, but you will someday. The people here will help you destroy your life to win an argument, don't give them that chance. Good luck in treatment if that's where you end up, it's not nearly as bad as the people in this thread are claiming. In fact, you might even enjoy it.

[Pile of Dead Kids]

[T-Rex]

I have been watching this thread for a few days now. Does everyone still remember we are talking about a 15 year old girl here. That this thread is not about Pile, Whooter, Dysfunction Junction, Suck It, Ursus or anyone else.
Why do you men have to trail off into your duels of ego, "I'm better then you shenanigans".
Neither of you in my opinion have the moral ground, you disrespect this site and yourselves with your constant bickering. More important you loose site of the overall objective, that was to help Morgan and her parents.
Maybe you did, I read that several of you were PM'ing Morgan with information, that I hope was beneficial.
I can only hope that Morgan and her parents got the help that this Web Site promotes and several of the members purport to want to give.
I would hope in the future that you could refrain from arguing with one another while your helping someone. Everyone has a opinion of the TTI, Morgans parents did not appear naive or gullible. They should hear all sides so they can make a informed decision. I found at the onset that you were doing this very well, until your ego's took over and off you went.
Just my two cents...I know mind my own business.

[Whooter]

T-Rex, I think your post, in part, was a good observation.  From my vantage point it seemed like many people get overly excited trying to get their point of view heard and there is also an intolerance present towards those who have a differing point of view from their own.  Many here find it difficult to hear views which leave the door open to the possible placement of a child in a program and they find that threatening to them and therefore have a need to silence them.

Resistance comes from your ego.  When a persons  ego takes ownership of their ideas, then anyone who challenges their ideas are treated as a personal challenge, hence the need to defend yourself as if being attacked.  Think of it as a free thinker entering an LDS meeting or an anti abortion rally.

If people can just try to keep their ideas separate from their ego, then they will not have this personal attachment to them and we can experience a much more healthier discussion and learn from each others ideas.




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[Ursus]

Originally posted on 26 Nov 2009 in the Mount Bachelor Academy Shut Down thread:

I feel I have to post in case there are some parents considering the Academy at Sisters (Bend, Oregon) as an alternative to MBA.  My ex-husband put my daughter at the Academy at Sisters and while I am fairly certain they did not do the lap dancing and other forms of sexual role playing, they did engage in other forms of abuse mentioned at MBA.  For instance, they will take away school credits and/or remove the student from the public school some of the students get to attend (Bend High School).  In my daughters case this was done one week before finals because she made negative comments about the Academy to her father who was fully and completely brainwashed.  This frequently happens before a girl is to graduate either from the program or high school in order to keep them longer.  They also will force students to be isolated - either in solitary confinement or by not permitting them to interact with the other girls around them.  For more than a month my daughter was not allowed to talk to the other girls or eat with them at mealtimes.  The Academy even went so far as to tell the other Academy girls who attended Bend High School with my daughter that they had to ignore her and not acknowledge her while she was at school.  Why a public high school puts up with shunning is beyond me but it is done frequently.  On occasions they ask the girls to disclose embarrassing things about themselves to the group.  Privacy and respect are nonexistent.  They also have "feedback," that common form of abuse where they can only say "thank you" as all the other girls and staff tell you anything and everything negative about you they can come up with.  Since the only way a girl can move up levels and get privledges is by snitching on the other students they will make up complete lies if they have to.  The point of all this is that I am sure parents of Mt. Bachelor students are probably looking at alternatives for their kids who have been messed up by their experiences at MBA and can't return home.  The Academy at Sisters is not the answer.  I would imagine most programs are probably equally as abusive so all I can suggest is that you get a good therapist and maybe find a family member or friend the kid can live with for awhile.  They get out of these programs very angry and need a lot of time, space and support to get acclimated to the real world.  I was not prepared for the anger I saw when my daughter ran away a couple of weeks before her 18th birthday and was disowned by her father for a period of time.  It has taken a couple of years to get to the point where she we no longer has nightmares about the place and she has been able to put it behind her.

One thing I consider another red flag about a program is when they do not post staff identities and brief bios on their website. In the case of Academy at Sisters, I could find only three individuals, on the academic faculty page. And yet, don't these girls, or at least some of them, attend Bend High School, at least some of the time?

One would think that the therapeutic staff would be of more concern to parents, given that this is a behavior modification facility. And yet I was unable to locate any such individuals on their website. Perhaps I'm not looking at the right pages. Anybody else find any such individuals listed?

[Whooter]

Originally posted on 26 Nov 2009 in the Mount Bachelor Academy Shut Down thread:

I feel I have to post in case there are some parents considering the Academy at Sisters (Bend, Oregon) as an alternative to MBA.  My ex-husband put my daughter at the Academy at Sisters and while I am fairly certain they did not do the lap dancing and other forms of sexual role playing, they did engage in other forms of abuse mentioned at MBA.  For instance, they will take away school credits and/or remove the student from the public school some of the students get to attend (Bend High School).  In my daughters case this was done one week before finals because she made negative comments about the Academy to her father who was fully and completely brainwashed.  This frequently happens before a girl is to graduate either from the program or high school in order to keep them longer.  They also will force students to be isolated - either in solitary confinement or by not permitting them to interact with the other girls around them.  For more than a month my daughter was not allowed to talk to the other girls or eat with them at mealtimes.  The Academy even went so far as to tell the other Academy girls who attended Bend High School with my daughter that they had to ignore her and not acknowledge her while she was at school.  Why a public high school puts up with shunning is beyond me but it is done frequently.  On occasions they ask the girls to disclose embarrassing things about themselves to the group.  Privacy and respect are nonexistent.  They also have "feedback," that common form of abuse where they can only say "thank you" as all the other girls and staff tell you anything and everything negative about you they can come up with.  Since the only way a girl can move up levels and get privledges is by snitching on the other students they will make up complete lies if they have to.  The point of all this is that I am sure parents of Mt. Bachelor students are probably looking at alternatives for their kids who have been messed up by their experiences at MBA and can't return home.  The Academy at Sisters is not the answer.  I would imagine most programs are probably equally as abusive so all I can suggest is that you get a good therapist and maybe find a family member or friend the kid can live with for awhile.  They get out of these programs very angry and need a lot of time, space and support to get acclimated to the real world.  I was not prepared for the anger I saw when my daughter ran away a couple of weeks before her 18th birthday and was disowned by her father for a period of time.  It has taken a couple of years to get to the point where she we no longer has nightmares about the place and she has been able to put it behind her.

One thing I consider another red flag about a program is when they do not post staff identities and brief bios on their website. In the case of Academy at Sisters, I could find only three individuals, on the academic faculty page. And yet, don't these girls, or at least some of them, attend Bend High School, at least some of the time?

One would think that the therapeutic staff would be of more concern to parents, given that this is a behavior modification facility. And yet I was unable to locate any such individuals on their website. Perhaps I'm not looking at the right pages. Anybody else find any such individuals listed?

My guess is that because it is a very small school that the teachers wear several hats and "cross train".  In the professional area I found:

The Academy at Sisters Treatment Team consists of Case Managers, Clinical Director/Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Teacher(s), Academic Director, Operations Director and Executive Director.  To take advantage of the unified team talent and to ensure consistency throughout the process, the Treatment Team meets weekly to discuss the individual needs of each girl and the overall group dynamics, as well as make important treatment decisions as a Team.

Upon admission, each student is assigned a personal Case Manager. The Case Manager’s responsibility is to make sure that all components of treatment (therapeutic, academic, familial, community, safety, and self) are being utilized effectively. They provide weekly one-to-one sessions for each student on their caseload, participate in various on and off-campus activities, carry out weekly family conferences, facilitate weekly groups, and continually evaluate all facets of the girls’ individual treatment plans with the oversight of Dr. Julie Schneider, Licensed Clinical Psychologist. This ensures that the individual’s program is addressing her most immediate needs and reinforcing positive changes.

The Academy has built a strong Clinical Support Team within the community utilizing the services of a local Board Certified Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist for medication management; a Behavioral Consultant; and Licensed Therapists for additional support as needed.



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[Antigen]

Well, haven't heard from Morgan or her parents in this thread in awhile now. Hope they didn't trick her into the car by telling her they were headed to a good local  counselor.

[Pile of Dead Kids]

They didn't. You're way late to the party on this one Ginger. Read the shoutbox chat history.

[Academy at Sisters]

How did this resolve?
thanks
How do you use the history command
thanks.