Danny is misunderstood. He's a great person.
He told me you rotten little pricks were defaming him. I see it's worse than he said.
Danny is a survivor too. You are his brethren. Accept that and move on to closing down programs :roflmao:
Hold on there Dr. Newton, if you read the thread, you will realize these are the words that Danny Bennison has written on fornits. I have been reading for years lol.These are actual quotes and comments of his and it seems that he does either lie or try to malign other people, or just outright abuse. Lol once a director always a director. There are many of his posts that I am sure are going to make it to this topic.
As for him writing a book ,I just don't know if it would be worth reading , I told that elanian ,Kenny ,when he came to pick me up on the day Elan closed and carried me home ,that some one really ought to write a book about what went on inside this place, that Hollywood couldn't come up with the stuff that went on inside here. Absolutely it's true no one would really believe except the residents that lived it. Looking back on it all lol, we were some really creative people.
I don't think any book written by Danny Bennison could ever be accurate about Elan. Since Danny Bennison can't remember conversations he has had with me , let alone Joe or Marty or Peter or Ken or Dave and he states that. Nor was he there for the really good crazy incidents like haha the two kids that ran away whit out their shoes in a foot of snow and got frostbite so bad that one lost parts of their toes , Amazing how abusive we made it, that kids would try run away with out socks and shoes in a foot of snow. . Its too bad Danny Bennison has to rely on stories passed down thru the line, stories of what went on in Elan .
We use to get the kids to play a game called "telephone ",Danny Bennison played it . It was a simple game where a sentence was told to a kid and then that kid whispered it to another kid and so on the line it went . It was always the same whether it was 7 kids or 20 kids the out come was always the same .
This by the way Dr. Newton was a teaching tool ,to teach the kids about how facts can get distorted thru hearsay, rumors or out right gossip.. It was a favorite of mine because a simple sentence "like the black car hit the large oak tree and burt into flames" , could end up after being whispered thru 20 different kids as , "the tractor trailor carrying oak flooring overturned on the interstate and burst into flames ". It was a fun game to watch. not as much fun as what we did to those residents though, lol.
My point is Dr. Newton is that Danny's "stories" or what he thinks is true about elan are just him being on the end of a long line in playing that funny little game of "telephone". And of course the stuff people remember about him , well lets just say denial won't hold up in a court of law.In fact if I remember Danny Bennison and it is not wit many fond memories , he made me feel like he was trying to one up me when he was an assistant director , but thats neither here or there.
I say this to clear my conscience a little .there was another car dragging incident . I directed some residents to tie Jennifer Stamler to the back of a car one night as it was already dark and I made her run behind that car . I think Bob Carl was the one of the few drivers . Therefore it was not the only time this type of therapy was administrated in elan. It really wasn't therapy for Jennifer , it was more therapy for me , she wasn't fat she was just something that I could keep the house focused on ,because she was such a dingy ditsy ,loud girl and residents could be made to easily hate her. She provided a oppourtunity to rally around the residents and give them something to vent their frustrations from being in that place on. she was the glorified scrapegoat until we directors found another weak goofy resident that we could use, and make the house hate.Each hpuse had one and they were actually a few to a house .
I know it sounds sick and we may have very well driven this young adult insane , but what me worry Dr. Newton ,not a chance in hell for that .I do believe me it kept many kids from running away and for me it was fun ,it gave me power, that you can only imagine and it was so much fun. Man the car incident with Jennifer was the nicest thing we did to her. I directed some sick ,and my god, I mean sick stuff to have happened to that girl. As well as stuff to other residents. Man the stuff we did and got kids to do . I never would have believed it , but children will pretty much do anything thats really sick to another child if an adult tells them to do it , I mean some really sick stuff. Even the adults back in those day when we had children and adults in the same house boy they had no qualms when we told them to abuse.I was though amazed at the brutality that children would and could put other children thru., I mean hell I had no training with children. I learned fast that children have an innate need to please and seek praise ,and boy that made it so easy. The residents did our directed dirty work and we the directors and other employees collected the big paycheck and went home everynight .
I will tell you this Dr. Newton I was intimdated by the really smart residents , and man we had some that were utterly brilliant . Also the staminia that these some of these children ,that took the abuse ,the fortitude that these little kids had in the face of this abuse was overwhelming at times. We treated some of those children like animals ,infact most really all of them ,and they would survive oour abuse. Newton with all due respect you didn't come close to what we did to those children. We had dayrooms where anything went , boy oh boy it was worse than what went on in a juvenile detention center. And Dr. Newton when I say anything went I mean anything went.Its really a wonder more people from elan have not killed themselves after what we put them thru.
Danny Bennison clearly was not one of these types ,he bothered me for other reasons, though.
Ya I told Kenny that really someone ought to ritght a book about that place , because no body not even Hollywood could have come up with the stuff that we hahahaha directors pulled on those adults and kids. The early days , end of 73 to end of 83 were the most fun for me. I don't care about a book being written because the Maine Statue of limitations protects me and any way I am old and fat and much closer to death than people realize ,that by the time a good book about elan comes out ,I'll be in the ground.
Ya if Danny Bennison is writting a book ,on elan I wouldn't buy it . Now some of you other residents man ,you all have a gold mine of stories ,and yes you should scribble one out.