Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Elan School

Elan will be officially closed as of 4/1/11

<< < (3/4) > >>

Botched Programming:
Here's a little song to Elan for the Elan Survivors... Called Vengence Is Mine ... By Alice Cooper

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCtu7A9W ... re=related

Inculcated:

--- Quote from: "Pile of Dead Kids" ---*long, vigorous clap*
She came right out and blamed the Internet, too. Her fellow programmies are not going to like that; it proves the technique works and encourages others to try it.
Massive props to "Gzasmyhero", whoever that is, for mobilizing the Reddit hordes.
--- End quote ---
^Seconded resoundingly!
and Kudos to all who brought the heat, turned it up and kept it burning.

--- Quote from: "Dethgurl" ---POLAND — The controversial Elan School for troubled teens will close on April 1.


--- Quote ---The private, for-profit boarding school has been forced to close, according to owner and Executive Director Sharon Terry of Casco, due to “declining enrollment and resulting financial difficulties.”

Terry, who is Ricci’s widow, points to an ongoing Internet campaign launched by an unknown person who goes by the name "Gzasmyhero," as the cause for much of the school’s financial distress.

The ongoing Web campaign alleges the school engages in punitive tactics, like isolating students for long periods, requiring students to scream at other students as part of the disciplinary program, routinely humiliating and restraining students and limiting teens’ contact with their parents...

A number of other active online sites focus on Elan, including chats on fornits.com and multiple Facebook pages. At ElanAlum.org, former students have more complimentary things to say about their years at Elan; at elanschool.org, derogatory posts discourage parents from enrolling their children.
--- End quote ---

--- End quote ---
Quoted from comments:

--- Quote ---This School should have been closed decades ago.
Thanks to the internet the truth can no longer be hidden.
I seriously hope the people who ran the Elan School are held responsible for their criminal behavior.
This type of abuse should have never been allowed to continue for so long...
--- End quote ---

Someone who has the scratch should level the buildings (but only if the property can be acquired in a bankruptcy auction or similarly not to the gain of Sharon Terry) and place a memorial there, lest the atrocities be forgotten. And everyone else should keep a watchful eye toward whatever trajectory the Élan staff take from here, lest they gravitate toward other places where they feel they can continue to damage kids.

Guest3:
This is such great news! Hopefully RCS is next!

heretik:
http://www.sunjournal.com/city/story/1005073

Web campaigners happy to take credit for Elan School closure

By Judith Meyer, Managing Editor/days
Published Mar 25, 2011 12:00 am | Last updated Mar 24, 2011 9:10 pm

Former Elan student Mark Babitz recently photographed writing on a wall in an isolation room on the top floor of a previous Elan School in Parsonsfield. It reads, "Elan dont (sic) like peaple (sic) to have familys (sic) so they send them to group homes and keep them her (sic) for three years."
- submitted photo

A drawing by Mary O'Brien depicts her experiences at Elan.
- Mary O'Brien art

A drawing by Mary O'Brien depicts her experiences at the Elan School.
- Mary O'Brien art

A drawing by Mary O'Brien depicts her experiences at the Elan School.
- Mary O'Brien art
A drawing by Mary O'Brien depicts her experiences at the
- Mary O'Brien art

A drawing by Mary O'Brien depicts her experiences at the Elan School.
- Mary O'Brien art
Elan School

A drawing by Mary O'Brien depicts her experiences at the Elan School.
- Mary O'Brien art

Mark Babitz, a former student at the Elan School, recently visited the previous site of the school in Parsonsfield and photographed what is described as a cell in the basement.
- submitted photo

 
Facebook group for students who attended The Elan School (I Went To Elan School)


POLAND — The Elan School’s closure, brought about by declining enrollment tied to an aggressively negative Web campaign, had the people engaged in that campaign cheering the therapeutic school’s closure Thursday.

The e-campaign, waged most recently on reddit.com, has been going on for years and in recent months stepped up in force with postings by a former student known as "Gzasmyhero."

On Wednesday, school owner Sharon Terry announced the private, for-profit boarding school would close April 1, unable to maintain its enrollment through what she called false and harsh Web attacks against the school, attacks that had the “avowed purpose of forcing the school to close.”

Web campaigners are happy to take the credit, and were congratulating themselves online and by phone following Terry’s announcement.

One message of congratulation, posted on reddit.com, reads: “… I will say that, although I'm usually pretty cynical about the effectiveness of internet activism, I can't deny that Gzasmyhero and the rest of you got sh** done.”

Another poster, who lives in Virginia, wrote: “The push to have this place get investigated and shut down has been pretty constant. …What's sad is that it took this long.”

David Connerty-Marin, spokesman for the Maine Department of Education, said the agency has "investigated Elan a number of times based on reports of abuse and other deficiencies, and never found any evidence." He said that New York officials also have investigated, and never found evidence of abuse at the Poland school.

Portland attorney Ed MacColl, who represents the school, said Thursday he viewed the school closing as "very sad."

"I've worked with this school for 22 years now and there are parents of students who are currently at the school that are pleading with us to find a way to stay open because the school is so effective in helping kids," MacColl said.

Despite those pleas, MacColl said he did not foresee Terry changing her mind on the decision to close.

"This is a fabulous institution that has worked very hard over the years to address perceptions of some aspects of the school," he said, adding that the closure is heart-breaking to parents who see the program working for their children.

"It's unfortunate that the hardworking, talented and creative people associated with the school aren't getting simply the uniform praise they deserve for a lifetime of working with kids," he said.

Last fall, Elan students earned another cross-country championship, but MacColl said the school would not be attending a state-hosted appreciation event for this year's state champs.

In the past year, MacColl said school staff have made some significant improvements in the program, including increasing family involvement and visitation, more closely regulating the use of student restraints, increasing clinical supervision and training for staff, and improving its transition program for graduates.

Students have also launched a recycling program, raised funds for Haiti relief, volunteered to prepare Thanksgiving meals at a local church and established an Interact Club, a service club for youth that operates as part of Rotary International.

A number of former students acknowledged Thursday there may have been recent changes at the school that improved the study and living environments, but that their own years at the school were rife with practices that promoted student humiliation as a means of controlling bad behavior.

There are presently 29 students enrolled at the school, but MacColl said he would not comment on what administrators are doing to help place these students in other programs, citing confidentiality concerns. He also had no comment on what Terry intends to do with the property.

Click to read more of the stories from other men and women who attended the Elan school:

* One man, who attended the Elan School from 2001 to 2003, enlisted in the Army after he graduated and said his tours in Iraq and Afghanistan were easier to tolerate than his years at Elan.

* Lydia Lenzen is attending college, something she never thought would happen before she was court-ordered to attend Elan. She’s grateful for the staff’s personal attention to her, and says any accusations of abuse are completely false.

* A Virginia businessman said he still has occasional nightmares that he’s back at the Elan School, which he remembers as a prison, and he can’t leave. He was part of the school’s security crew and subjected other students to punishment, which he deeply regrets.

* Sean Sullivan of Boston was 19 when he was court-ordered by the Connecticut Department of Correction to attend Elan for two years. It changed his life, giving him the focus he needed to confront his anger.

* Mark Babbitz of Chicago admits he was a violent, angry teen who caused trouble while he was at Elan, including stealing cars, and says the punishments he endured at the school traumatized him for life.

* Fred Konopasek of Massachusetts says Elan is the best thing that ever happened to him. The staff absolutely saved his life by breaking down his angry self and rebuilding him into a responsible man.

* Matt Hoffman of Virginia remembers the school as a sadistic place that used negative peer pressure to force students to behave. He’s since made “friends with his memories,” but finds his school experience hard to talk about.

* Rogers Johnson III of Philadelphia spent a year at the school in 2001. Although he said he was traumatized at the school, he did learn a degree of self-control that he said makes him behave somewhat “normal.”

liarsexposed:
Another former student, Sharon McCarthy of Illinois, a distant Skakel cousin, is determined to hold Terry and Elan staff members accountable for her experience when she was there in 1984, including her rape while on a school outing, she said.

Kernochan, McCarthy, Mark Babitz of Chicago and Matt Hoffman of Virginia are the core group behind the anti-Elan Internet campaign, and McCarthy runs the three-year-old Elan Survivors Group. She estimated that there are about 400 members of the support group, with membership growing since the closure was announced as memories surfaced.

As much as I am grateful for the efforts made by Sharon,Mark and Matt.. Of the 3 of them,Matt would be the only one that could be considered as sane. Credit where credit is due is my motto.. But really, I found the article pretty funny...To the point of Entertaining. Especially the part about the "Survivors" group of 3 years" That was one of the best lies I have heard in a long time. Started as a hate group,and 7 more times hate was attempted to be spread. I think those who remember,know how that worked out. Who the person is,that is responsible for so much damage,for so long,in multiple places on the web
10 years of Babitz 20 screen names,and his extra foul mouth... Only to teach his game to Sharon.
To this day,I still believe Sharon was taken,and continues to be taken for a ride by this full time Liar/Cheater,and Thief.
Although it appears that something good,finally came of it.. For this I am proud of all of you,and grateful as well

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page