Desisto School

[Anonymous]

Then, of course, there was the "Free Heather" lawsuit, which, in the annals of DeSisto legal action, was the lawsuit to end all lawsuits.

In 1986, Heather Burdick, a troubled teen from Old Bridge, N.J., ran away from DeSisto School after only a few weeks. Burdick, in a letter to a friend written a few days after she got there, said she "hated" the school, a not-unfamiliar sentiment expressed by several generations of first-year DeSisto students.

But one of Heather's friends showed the letter to her parents. This triggered the filing of a lawsuit by 13 residents of the town, none of whom were related to the young woman, against DeSisto. They sought a court order to release Burdick from the school and garner damages from the school.

The lawsuit and subsequent media attention snowballed to unexpected depth, complete with "Free Heather" rallies, "Free Heather" marches, yellow ribbons tied to trees, "Free Heather" T-shirts and extensive television and newspaper coverage from all over the East Coast.

The suit was eventually thrown out and Heather left DeSisto. DeSisto School, which expended about $550,000 in legal costs, was awarded $41,000. Burdick's parents subsequently sued the 13 neighbors. In turn, some of the neighbors eventually sued Heather for making inaccurate statements about her tenure at the school in her letters.

[Anonymous]

School has been controversial since its opening 25 years ago
By Derek Gentile
Berkshire Eagle Staff


STOCKBRIDGE -- In 1978, A. Michael DeSisto, the former director of the Lake Grove School of New York, announced plans to purchase the former Stockbridge School on Route 183 for $450,000. The intent, according to DeSisto, was to establish a private, nonprofit secondary school for "highly motivated" students.

DeSisto conceded that he was not a wealthy man, so the down payment of about $200,000 on the property would be made by 38 Lake Grove parents who were planning to re-enroll their children at the new school on Route 183.

The Selectmen, particularly then-Chairman John A. Beacco, Jr., were skeptical.

"I find it absolutely unbelievable that an organization that paid a half million dollars for the school has not contacted the town," he said.

Six years later, Beacco was volunteering his time as a baseball and basketball coach at the school.

Defenders, detractors

In the 25 years it has been a part of the town, DeSisto School has generated passionate defenders and equally passionate detractors. Some, like Beacco, have switched sides. Some, in fact, have switched sides several times.

The school itself is located on a breathtaking 300-acre tract on Route 183 that features wooded areas, meadows and wetlands. It is one of the largest parcels in town, and one of the most prominent.

"Actually, one of the things that occurred to me when I first heard about this is that that parcel is a very attractive piece of property," said Selectmen Chairman J. Cristopher Irsfeld. "It will be interesting to see what happens to it in terms of development."

DeSisto, who died last year, had a vision of the school that was meant to provide an individualized, therapeutic atmosphere for the students of the school, many of whom were at risk.

In fact, his eventual plan was to create DeSisto schools throughout the country. In 1980, he purchased a parcel in Hovey-in-the-Hills, Fla., and built another school there. That school eventually closed in 1988 because of declining enrollment.

Structured environment

But hand-in-hand with that individualized, therapeutic philosophy was an extremely structured environment that virtually every student who matriculated to the school initially found stifling. Students rebelled by running away or being disruptive.

Sometimes, that disruption spilled over into the Stockbridge community, which would rankle town officials. From time to time, DeSisto would appear before the Selectmen to defend the school.

The town has benefited in a variety of ways from the presence of DeSisto School. For example, the student-run cabaret at the school, formed in 1989, has attracted critically acclaimed performers.

The school helped revive the annual Stockbridge spring cleaning day, providing 120 students to help townspeople who walked up and down the streets of the town, picking up litter and debris. DeSisto students also have volunteered in the annual Walk for the Homeless, and countless other town events.

DeSisto students have participated in classes and programs in Mexico, Italy, Florida and the former U.S.S.R.

In 1987, a group of DeSisto students visited China to teach and film a video, becoming one of the first student groups from the United States in modern history to visit that country. The next year, students from China visited the DeSisto campus in Stockbridge.

But in addition to these and a number of other positive aspects at DeSisto, the school seemed to be perpetually under fire and in court. Initially, many of the lawsuits were between the school and parents who felt defrauded by DeSisto when their child ran away, or refused to return after a semester break.

Ironically, DeSisto himself said he understood those lawsuits, although he obviously would have preferred not to have to deal with them.

"We are the last resort for some of these families," he said in an interview years ago. "The next step for many of these kids is jail or death. When their children leave DeSisto, these parents are aware that this may be the end of the line. They need someone to blame besides themselves."

The school rarely lost these battles, because if nothing else, school officials always tried to spell out exactly what the parents and their children could expect. According to an Eagle story written in 1992, the school at that point had won or settled 22 lawsuits and lost only three.

Then, of course, there was the "Free Heather" lawsuit, which, in the annals of DeSisto legal action, was the lawsuit to end all lawsuits.

In 1986, Heather Burdick, a troubled teen from Old Bridge, N.J., ran away from DeSisto School after only a few weeks. Burdick, in a letter to a friend written a few days after she got there, said she "hated" the school, a not-unfamiliar sentiment expressed by several generations of first-year DeSisto students.

But one of Heather's friends showed the letter to her parents. This triggered the filing of a lawsuit by 13 residents of the town, none of whom were related to the young woman, against DeSisto. They sought a court order to release Burdick from the school and garner damages from the school.

The lawsuit and subsequent media attention snowballed to unexpected depth, complete with "Free Heather" rallies, "Free Heather" marches, yellow ribbons tied to trees, "Free Heather" T-shirts and extensive television and newspaper coverage from all over the East Coast.

The suit was eventually thrown out and Heather left DeSisto. DeSisto School, which expended about $550,000 in legal costs, was awarded $41,000. Burdick's parents subsequently sued the 13 neighbors. In turn, some of the neighbors eventually sued Heather for making inaccurate statements about her tenure at the school in her letters.

At odds with inspectors

In addition to these problems, officials at the DeSisto School were sometimes at odds with local inspectors, most specifically the building and wire inspectors. The original Stockbridge School was an old building that had been closed since 1976 when DeSisto purchased it, and in fact was not allowed to be used as a school building in 1978 until certain septic problems were cleared up.

Although school officials attacked the problems from time to time, there always seemed to be unaddressed structural problems left hanging.

The school's dustups with the state began as early as 1983, when the school sued the state Department of Education to restore its accreditation after questions arose about the school's treatment of special needs students.

That battle was eventually won, but the school's individualistic treatment of children was often criticized as cruel and unusual. DeSisto never denied that the treatment was out of ordinary, but he emphasized that, to him, it was not cruel, either.

[Anonymous]

I went to Desisto at Howey in Florida from Aug.81-June82. My 10th grade year. It was nothing compared to say the strictness of the wwasp programs of today, which are similar in many ways. But When I went to desisto it was really not that bad, other than i could not do drugs or skip school, which i was doing in 9th grade. If i did not get anything but one thing out of my stay at desisto it was learning to make my own choices and not be influenced by other people to do things. I still meesed up some more after getting out, but I know it helped me from maybe being dead or in jail.
I now transport kids to boarding schools which is controversal, but i think it is important and i'm making a difference in some kids lives that let me councel them on the way. Yes Mike Desisto is dead and his scholl in mass. is now closed.
As for the man, I really did not like him.

[Anonymous]

My unnamed source assures me this comes from their own reliable unnamed souce, that in the early 80's when AMD went heavily Broadway/Hollywood, he was a starfucker.

[Anonymous]

I accepted a teaching position at DeSisto almost 7 years ago and it was a very creepy experience.  First of all, they never intended to give me a teaching position, but rather keep me as a house parent, in a dorm with the punished residents.  They had mandatory group and individual counseling sessions everyday for staff, and I left after one week, not being able to shake the feeling that DeSisto was some kind of cult.  I would never advise anyone to send their children there.

[Anonymous]

http://www.isaccorp.com/cults.html


Limitation of communication with those outside the group. Books, magazines, letters and visits with friends and family are discouraged or even banned.


New members become convinced of the higher purpose and special calling of the group through a profound encounter, i.e. an alleged miracle or the prophetic word of the group.


An explicit goal of the group is to bring about some kind of change, be it global, social or personal.


Use of the practice of self-disclosure to members in the group. In the context of a gathering of the group, converts are encouraged to admit past sins and imperfections, and doubts about the group.


The group's perspective is absolutely true and completely adequate to explain everything. The doctrine is not subject to amendments or question. Absolute conformity is required.


A new vocabulary emerges within the context of the group. Group members "think" within the very abstract and narrow parameters of the group's doctrine. Loaded terms and cliches prejudice thinking.


Pre-group experience and group experience are narrowly interpreted through the absolute doctrine.


Salvation is possible only in the group. Those who leave the group are doomed.
Source: http://www.factnet.org

[Anonymous]

Connecticut school wins permit for DeSisto  site
By D.R. Bahlman
Berkshire Eagle Staff

STOCKBRIDGE -- The Selectmen last night granted a special permit to the operators of a Connecticut-based, therapeutic boarding school that seeks to  
establish another campus on property formerly occupied by the DeSisto School on Route 183.  

The three-member board voted unanimously to approve the application from the Grove School of Madison, Conn. The board acted after school officials outlined their plans for the 220-acre  
DeSisto campus and fielded questions from the dozen-or-so citizens who attended  the meeting.  
Plans call for eventually housing some 140 young people, with a residential staff of 45 and a nonresidential staff of 65 on the campus. The overall class ratio will be about 5-1.  
http://www.groveschool.org/

'Open campus'  
Founded in 1934, the Grove School offers an "open campus." It does not accept delinquents or aggressive, psychiatric or substance-involved youngsters  in its  year-round program, said Richard L. Chorney, president and chief executive
officer of the for-profit school.  

Replying to a question from an abutter, Chorney said students rarely run away from the school because their attendance is entirely voluntary, and those who  wish to leave need only speak up and their parents are notified to come pick  them up.   :question: [Why the need to 'run' if they can call their parents to pick them up?]

Students at the Grove School are "bright kids" who suffer from such problems as attention-deficit or obsessive-compulsive disorders, and emotional difficulties, said school officials. Clinical treatment for such problems is the  
school's first priority, thus its formal designation as a "therapeutic boarding school and activity center."  :question: [Clinical treatment= Drugs?]
 
Annual tuition is $72,900, said Chorney, replying to a question.  

As a for-profit entity, the school would pay property taxes amounting to an estimated $25,000 per year once the school is fully up and running, the Selectmen were told.
 
Abutters requested and received assurances that the slope on the western edge of the DeSisto property will not be developed. Indeed, a commitment to place the property under a conservation restriction is included in a written agreement between the town and the school. The agreement also provides that Grove will not subdivide or develop the property  for
residential use, that it will rehabilitate the "main house" on the campus  and that it will continue to operate as a for-profit entity.  

The school also would have to return to the board for a modification of its permit if its admission standards changed such as to permit the acceptance of students with more serious problems than those who are currently admitted, said  Philip F. Heller, the school's attorney.  

Negotiations for the sale of the property are still under way. School officials said they expect the closing to occur in late October, but  environmental issues, notably the presence of buried fuel oil storage tanks on  the property, could delay it. Chorney said the school could open as early as January 2005; he also mentioned April 2005 as a possible opening date.  

The Grove School will maintain the campus that it leases in Madison, and will likely open in Stockbridge with far fewer than the 140 students that it is planning to eventually accommodate, he said.  

"We did a full 'background check' on you," joked Selectmen Chairman J. Cristopher Irsfeld. Board members read into the record letters from officials in Madison, including the town's police chief and first selectman, praising the school and its administrators.  

The DeSisto School closed in June following an extended struggle with the state Office of Child Care Services. At the time, school officials said they were thinking of moving the school to another state.  

Related permit  
In a related matter, the board approved a "use permit" sought by David and Paula Hellman, who recently purchased an apartment building used by the DeSisto School for staff housing. The building, at 72 Interlaken Road, had formerly
been  apartments, and the Hellmans plan to continue that use. They also will establish  a bed and breakfast in another building on the property. In accordance with the  town's bylaw, the owner of the bed and breakfast -- the couple's daughter and  her family -- will live in the building, said Hellman.

[Anonymous]

I understand that The DeSisto School is now operating under the name Cold Spring School and they are now located in Florida.  I would not recommend this school to anyone even if it is a last resort and especially not to a child of parents going through a divorce.  The school will choose sides and god help the parent that wants their child "OUT OF THERE".

[Jeff_Berryman]

I used to drive past the Florida location years ago, and the locals were terrified of it.  They were under the impression that every kid there had committed at least one murder and all would be adjudged insane on their 21st birthdays and sent on to state mental hospitals.  That pretty well assured that any runaways would get no help or sympathy from the local community, or local police or social service agencies.  I can't help but wonder if those rumors were spread deliberately.    [ This Message was edited by: Jeff_Berryman on 2004-10-22 18:05 ]

[Anonymous]

Last i heard, in June, they shipped off the last dozen or so students to San Miguel Mexico. I can't find any google searches for a Cold Spring School in Florida.

[Anonymous]

It's Cold Spring Academy in Sarasota Florida

[Anonymous]

Schools
Cold Spring Academy
4001 Swift Road
Sarasota, FL 34231     Map
(941) 926-3828  Francis C. McNear
http://www.coldspringacademy.org/

[Deborah]

DeSisto lawsuit set for Nov. 17 hearing
By Ellen G. Lahr
Berkshire Eagle Staff

Thursday, October 28, 2004 - STOCKBRIDGE -- A recent lawsuit against the DeSisto School has been fast-tracked to a Nov. 17 hearing in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport, Conn., where a judge could grant a real estate attachment against the Route 183 campus, or against the proceeds from an impending property sale.

Attorney Rachel Baird of Torrington, Conn., confirmed that she has filed a motion to speed up a "prejudgment remedy" to ensure that money is available if the plaintiffs receive a financial award. Her motion was allowed, and a hearing date was set.

The lawsuit states that damages in the case, if successful, would exceed $75,000.

The multimillion-dollar real estate deal to sell the campus to the Grove School of Madison, Conn., is expected to close within a month or so, the Grove School's lawyer said this week.

The only remaining matter is the completion of some environmental cleanup work at the campus, where some old oil tanks had been stored.

DeSisto operated for years as a residential school for troubled adolescents, providing controversial interventions at times and drawing several lawsuits over the years.

Baird, in her court filings, received approval to maintain her client's anonymity in court documents and to seal certain affidavits in the case, according to a court clerk in Bridgeport.

Negligence alleged

Baird is suing on behalf of a New Haven, Conn., mother and daughter, who claim DeSisto School engaged in negligence and fraud in connection with the student's repeated self-inflicted wounds while under the school's care, and DeSisto's alleged misrepresentations about its abilities to treat her.

The lawsuit alleges that DeSisto staff were improperly qualified and failed to supervise the high-risk student, identified in the suit as "D.M.," who last Jan. 22 cut her arms with razor blades and then swallowed two blades from a disposable razor.

It was the second time in a week that the girl had injured herself, and she had a history of such behavior, along with diagnoses of serious mental illness and emotional instability. According to the court complaint, D.M. was taken to local hospitals 41 times during her tenure at DeSisto -- 14 times for swallowed objects, other times for cutting herself -- starting in February 2002. She was seen at local hospitals 21 times between September 2003 and January 2004.

After the January incident, the girl was transferred to Albany (N.Y.) Medical Center, and then to Four Winds Hospital, a psychiatric facility in upstate New York, which is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

Lawyers for DeSisto have either refused to comment or been unreachable in the past few days.

It was the repeated instances of "cutting" behavior by D.M. and several other students that prompted the state Office for Child Care Services to implement tough supervision measures that DeSisto School officials said were untenable and demeaning to students.

The school was one of the few, if any, facilities willing to accept students with such behavior.

After the January incidents, the school froze admissions and discharged students deemed too high risk for the campus. In the spring, officials opted to close the school in June and to relocate to another state.

The status of such a move could not be ascertained this week, as the school's director was traveling and did not return messages.

Troubled history

The lawsuit reveals the history of a student whose debilitating mental illness, hospitalizations and troubled behavior led to complex legal wranglings between her family and the New Haven Public Schools, from which the girl's mother sought assistance.

The case indicates that during hospitalization at the Yale New Haven Medical Center, D.M. was depressed, suicidal, defiant and showing signs of developing bipolar disorder, with symptoms of paranoia, school truancy, academic failure and antisocial behavior. Heavy medication was prescribed, and the hospital recommended a highly structured, specialized psychiatric program for the girl.

The mother then sought support in finding such a placement from the New Haven schools, but the school system denied the mother's request for a residential setting; the mother appealed the matter and won her case. The process took a year.

The New Haven schools were assessed a tuition payment to DeSisto of $66,000 for D.M.'s placement there.

However, the lawsuit states that DeSisto's promises of "intense psychotherapy and ongoing daily group therapy, conducted by a qualified professional under the supervision of the Therapy Center of the Berkshires," were not provided.

The lawsuit accuses DeSisto of negligence for failing to maintain the student's safety and welfare, failing to keep razor blades from her and failing to hire qualified staff.

The school also accepted payments from the New Haven school system, "but knew or should have known that it did not have the staff, professional resources or policies and procedures" to ensure the girl's safety, the complaint states.

The school also misrepresented its ability to treat and educate emotionally disturbed minors such as D.M, the lawsuit states.

At the time of the lawsuit filing, Oct. 13, D.M. was missing from her most recent residential placement. Yesterday, her lawyer said, "She's still out there."

Her mother, A.B., claims her daughter's crises at DeSisto caused her to suffer a mild stroke and resulted in her hospitalization for health problems.

She was unprepared to care for her daughter when the Four Winds Hospital prematurely discharged her, driving her to Connecticut and dropping her off her mother's home.

Her insurance had run out, the complaint states.

[Anonymous]

Negligence suit may hamper DeSisto sale
http://www.berkshireeagle.com/Stories/0 ... rch=filter

DeSisto School is accused of failing to properly supervise the young girl and prevent her self-injury. The lawsuit also alleges fraud by DeSisto, whose administrators represented the school as an appropriate setting for D.M., who had a long history of mental illness and emotional instability, characterized by self-inflicted cutting, swallowing of sharp objects and homicidal threats.

The lawsuit accuses the school of failing to hire properly trained staff and failing to respond quickly to the most serious incident, last Jan. 22. That evening, while in the shower, D.M. used a razor blade to cut her arms and then swallowed two blades.

DeSisto staff member Melissa St. Pierre, who was in charge of the girl that night, did not call an ambulance, and took almost 90 minutes get D.M. to Fairview Hospital, the lawsuit states. St. Pierre also stopped in the Fairview dining room for food before going to the emergency room, and then failed to notify the doctor that razor blades had been swallowed until late in the examination, according to the complaint.

That night, 51 sutures were needed to close D.M.'s wounds. Just a week earlier, 18 staples had been used to treat other injuries, and those wounds had become infected, the lawsuit says.

During the Jan. 22 hospital examination, Dr. Glen Lovejoy "noted the immaturity of the DeSisto staff who accompanied D.M. and their inappropriate comments during the closure of the lacerations," the complaint says.
///
Last spring, in defending its management of students who are "cutters," DeSisto's administrators and lawyer said such young people are typically not admitted to any other facilities and that DeSisto was committed to working with them, knowing that preventing cutting is extremely difficult even with heavy supervision.

However, the school said the state's increasingly aggressive requirements for the management of such children were unreasonably harsh.

[Anonymous]

None of this went on in 1981-82 when i was at howey. But that was a long time ago in a galxay far far away.