Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > The Troubled Teen Industry

I'm a 16 year old and I think I need to check myself in to a

<< < (5/5)

Anonymous:

--- Quote ---On 2003-10-30 12:45:00, Anonymous wrote:

"if the program is that bad, and I'm starting to get really scare, what should I do? Maybe I can fake it the entire time I am there?  "

--- End quote ---


Far be it from me to encourage anyone to break the law, but I have heard survivors of various programs saying they would have been better off as runaways than they were in the programs.  

If your parents won't agree unequivocally to the safeword, your other options are probably to get another family member to sue for custody of you, request family and children's services to place you in foster care on the grounds that you're in imminent danger of abuse and neglect---affidavits from former inmates at TB and a copy of the court case where a parent lost custody to siblings or cousins or something for placing a kid there would help, pursue the option of moving out somewhere and getting emancipated minor status---those would be your options.

If you want to go the foster care route, ISAC will probably be able and willing to help you get a copy of that court case, if you're for real.  A copy of the court case, a couple of affidavits (which they also might be able to come up with), and your request to be removed from the home, together with your promise not to scream at foster parents nor skip school, could get family and children's services to either pull you from the home or get a court order from a family court judge restraining your parents from removing you from the state.

If you can get another family member to agree to take you in, your parents *might* be willing to let you do that on a trial basis on the condition that you not scream at that adult relative and not skip any school.  That might be the *first* thing to try.

You might want to get the affidavits and court case now, and place them with a *very* trusted friend.  Letting your parents know you have them *might* get you shipped off sooner rather than later.  It depends on how much the program has taken your parents in.

FaceKhan:
I would say you should definitely set things in motion if you think your parents are not going to listen to you and contact cps or a friend or relative to take you in.

Once you are there you will not have an opportunity to come home and give your side of the story so you better have things happening before you are sent off.

Especially if you decide to contact CPS, it may be illegal for your parents to send you away after CPS begins investigating them.

That may be your best course of action, report to cps that your are in danger (and wwasp is dangerous) and need to be removed from your parent's custody. Once that process is started your parents may not be permitted to send you away. They can probably be ordered by cps not to and they definitely can be ordered by family court not to.

Antigen:
I'll tell you about my experience with HRS (what Florida used to call Dept of Children, Youth and Families, though I suppose they're due for yet another name change behind all this bad press lately)

After two years of program, after I'd split and hitchhiked to another state (not a real likely option in most WWASP programs, from what I hear) HRS finally stepped in and placed me in a local group home. It was like a vacation by comparison! it was, essentially, nothing but a fairly safe bed, comfortable if seedy place to spend my days w/ tv, books, a pool table and a few staffers and other residents around for company if I wanted any. Never felt quite as safe as my own bed at home, what with all the troubled teens sharing the same house. But no one ever actually messed with me, either.

I was 17, almost 18 when this happened. I think the other older kids got more or less the same benefit from it as I did. Just a safe place to live while the courts and families and whoever else had a say in our fate sorted out their differences.

It wasn't such a friendly, safe experience for the kids who were too little to look out for themselves. But for you? I'd say you're probably getting very good advice. If you're living in a state that's overly indulgent of TOUGHLOVE hategroups, go to another state and find a halfway house. They can usually let you cool your heels for 48 hours before they have to give away your location to any authorities or make you leave.
No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the sources of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.
P. J. O'Rourke
--- End quote ---

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page