Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > CEDU / Brown Schools and derivatives / clones

CEDU kid that hung himself recently?

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ObieGoodman:
I am Obie Goodman. I just discovered this site. I was kind of wondering if something like this existed.
Just for clarification, I did not run and make it home. We (Holly, Shauna, & I) left at night and hiked through the woods along the clearcut that follows the power lines over the mountain. We were being hunted and tracked by the bounty hunters almost the whole time. we were apprehended the next day in Bonners Ferry. They tried bring me back to RMA to put me in a jumpsuit and booth but I went ape-shit. I ran around smashing the place up with staff chasing me for about an hour. Tony finally tackled me and restrained me (illegally). Then I went to ASCENT, completed that program & then went home. :cheers:

jharsan:

--- Quote from: "HandsOutLight" ---I'm out of the closet - I'm a former CEDU Therapist too. May the Great Spirit forgive me. I heard a boy hung himself again (recently) at RMA or BCA. Any truth to that?

A lady told me the parents fly in on a corporte jet. I knew a boy and family like that.

Does anyone know who it was? I would be very sad, but I must have the truth so I can grieve or let it go.  :cry:

Light
--- End quote ---

I don't know about this recent event but I know of many CEDU people who have committed suicide. One was Kim Quigley, a staff member who put a shotgun in his mouth and blew his brains out. Any of those "behavioral" psycho-babble programs are evil.

Ursus:

--- Quote from: "Aether" ---I do not believe it was by chance that I should come across this topic. As a former BCA student, this topic is relevant to me for several reasons.

I vividly remember the first day I got there, August 24th 2010. I was fresh out of wilderness and had not even showered yet, and I finished eating lunch in the Clifty dining hall. Two students approached me and asked if I wanted to check out an unused dormitory with them. Being naive and unknowing of what was in store, I figured it couldn't hurt. It was only when I walked up the first floor of the dorm that they explained why they brought me there; the dorm was called Camelot, and was the site of a suicide in the early 90's at the former school on the property (RMA as I later learned). They made me look through the window as no curtains were blocking the view, to see the sprinkler pipe where this boy hanged himself. It was still slightly bent, adding an eerie and ominous feeling to the sight. I was frightened, as I had only been at the school for a few hours and I was already receiving a picture that wasn't pretty about the place.

The subject was tabooed at BCA; while no one received consequences for discussing the subject, the staff and faculty never discussed it. Some who were unaware of the legitimacy of the story tried to brush it off as false. Students were generally immature about the matter, and chose to perpetuate this campus legend by joking about "the ghost of Camelot". When we had barbecues by the pond, we were never allowed to go up there because the staff were aware of how the story had been spread amongst students since it occurred. It was never brought up during last lights or workshops, as an unwritten rule.
--- End quote ---
Do you think it's possible that he may have hung himself there, in full view of all, at least partially as a warning?


--- Quote from: "Aether" ---I was personally offended by the matter, because I felt it was so inappropriate to make fun of an innocent kid who took his own life; it doesn't matter how long ago it happened, because the fact that it happened at all was tragic. I am so against anyone having to experience the kind of hazing I went through, because it's not fair to new students who are so desperate to find something positive about the school. I grew tired of people exploiting the story, and got after people when they talked about this subject with disrespect. However, I realized that a lot of it just had to do with the fact that these people were teenagers, and often didn't know what they were doing or talking about. I was able to discuss this subject with a select few people (including staff who had worked at both schools during the incident) who knew I was the kind of person who could handle the subject maturely, and I felt like it was a learning experience. I think there was a silver lining in the story, because according to their accounts (which I felt were reliable) despite what happened, this boy was the happiest he was in his life because he had gotten away from the problems he was dealing with at home. Apparently, not only did the parents not sue the school, but because of this realization as a tribute they had his ashes spread on the Quest trail.

Ultimately, I realized that the greatest tribute we can pay to those who have passed away is to move on and live our own life; in the end, I only wish more people at BCA had felt the same way I did about this subject.
--- End quote ---
Ya mean, as a consequence of being the happiest he had ever been in his life... he committed suicide?  :eek:

I guess Rocky Mountain Academy simply wasn't able to impart the appropriate coping mechanisms for so much happiness!

Ursus:

--- Quote from: "Aether" ---Please, you must not misunderstand me; I am not at all undermining how shady things were at CEDU programs during that time, and I know what I am saying sounds paradoxical... What I was trying to get at is that from a trustworthy source told me, he was pretty much brand new; he had only been at RMA for a couple of weeks before he committed suicide, and there's two ways you can look at this: it did so much damage in so little time, or conversely, the small amount of time he was there shows that it may have not necessarily had anything to do with the school, but rather how broken he already was, and that it ultimately had more to do with himself; the 1994 article from the Spokesman-Review concerning the event is archived on the internet (http://www.teenliberty.org/RMA.htm) and it states that he had apparently been taking medication for bipolar disorder, which from firsthand experience I can say these kinds of medicines only made me feel worse. The worst part about this story is, according to the article, he was found by another student... I want to be adamant about that I have the utmost respect and sensitivity towards these kind of people who were in so much pain that they couldn't take it anymore, and their story ended in tragedy. What I am trying to say is that from what I have heard, amongst the people who were cruel to him, he found people who genuinely cared about him and were true friends, something that this person had not been accustomed to before he went to the school.

Again, I want to be firm about the fact that my intention was to voice my respect for this poor kid's memory in the midst of all the people who missed the point and did not take it seriously. I'm more for what you believe than you could ever imagine, so I am asking with compassion, love and mercy that you do not misconstrue my message.
--- End quote ---
Oh, I don't think anyone here would misconstrue your heartfelt intentions. And if they did, they're probably grappling with some sociopathic propensities that, imo, are best left ignored. Although I might diverge a bit from your overall analysis of the worth and meaning of the experientials you went through at BCA, that's hardly all that important, is it? After all, these are your experiences and your thoughts and I'm just interjecting my two cents, relative to my take on things, in part heavily colored by *my* experiences (at a different program), and which you can take or leave, as you wish...

Fwiw, I've followed your posts with interest, though I haven't responded 'till this here thread. You have a real gift with descriptives. The image of the bent pipe in the distance, seen through the unadorned naked window, was a metaphorical homage to this kid that few could have evoked so eloquently and so earnestly. It was haunting, even for someone who wasn't there.

In closing, here's an excerpt from a recent post by someone who went to CEDU Running Springs, who survived two suicide attempts, and who is still trying to parse his/her time in program:

It has left me in a weird type of limbo that I don't understand and longing for experiences that don't exist in the real world and probably shouldn't have existed at CEDU either. As sick as this may sound, I probably would have been content to stay at CEDU forever and put up with the soul-crushing techniques employed there in order to experience that strange sense of closeness with other human beings that comes after the peculiar, induced, emotional discharges that occur in raps and propheets.[/list]

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