This is from another post by other people - had to get it to this post site. It explains why they remain in the red
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CEDU has had some problems with the law that they don't reveal to parents. They have been cited for abuse of students, and the local county, San Bernardino, won't place any kids there. Local clinicians know how abusive CEDU is. The local medical clinic on the mountain there is very upset with them, too.
Mel Wasserman, the founder, was such a nut case, that we had to keep him away from parents when he visited. We would organize to keep him busy so they wouldn?t ruin everything by finding out what kind of person he really was. Can you believe it?!
I worked there. I saw how parents were ripped off. It is true that some kids needed "shock" treatment - gang bangers, and so forth. Some kids are literally putting their lives in peril with the stuff they are getting into. Almost anything would be better than some kid dying in a shootout.
However, I know that there is no THERAPY happening there. There are counselors with no formal psychological training. They do have real therapists there, but the school doesn?t want them there. They have them only because they won?t be paid by the school districts if they don?t, and it looks good to the parents. We were ?supposed? to do what the therapists said if there was a problem. That?s what we presented to the parents. It was a lie. We did what our supervisors told us to do. Frequently, it was abusive.
The school tried to get us to go to their "profeets" but we all refused. We knew it was inappropriate. In the "profeets" staff and kids are supposed to bare their souls, after hours of emotional abuse, telling every bad thing they did. If a kid couldn't come up with something terrible, he was shamed. I knew kids who lied and made up stuff just to get everyone off their backs.
One staff stands out - she was a complete s_ _t. Kids told me that in the profeets, she would talk about her promiscuity. She would scream and cry. Two kids AWOL'd later - they told me they saw her in a bar dancing with men like a s_ _t. They were shocked. They told me that they would have a terrible time believing anything she said. She had no formal training at all - she had been a receptionist at a real estate office when CEDU hired her. She keep being promoted at CEDU, because she was emotionally cruel. I'm sorry to say it - that's the way it was. When I quit, she was the head of the middle school. It sickens me to think that that ignorant, cruel, mean-spirited, s_ _t is responsible for all those kids and staff. Do I sound unreasonably biased? I tell you, this is as it is.
I kept complaining about a large braided rug on the floor in the reception office. I begged them to nail it down or remove it. The edge of it kept rolling up and people would trip on it. One night, a grandfather came into the building and tripped on that rug. He could not get up. When the paramedics came, they asked what had happened. I told them that he tripped on the rug and an administrator who was in the room quickly hushed me. I know that they did not hear me because of the noise and they never reacted to what I said. I was a coward and didn't repeat it. I learned later that he died in the hospital - he had suffered a broken pelvis. CEDU killed him. And I didn't say anything. I'm deeply ashamed.
This place stimulates so much fear. You just can't imagine. I am so glad for this opportunity to post. I went to work fearful and depressed. It got to the point where I had to stop driving my car on the way to work because I was crying so hard I couldn't see to drive safely.
The school broke all manner of laws regarding confidentiality. They gave the nurse far more power than she should have had. I knew about medical problems kids had that the nurse ignored as the kids were ?attention-seeking? or ?lying.? I had to go to the parents and make them promise to not tell the school I tipped them off. That was the only way I could be sure the kids got the medical attention they needed. The nurse was angry, negative, and controlling.
I also recall a tall, psychotic and homicidal middle-schooler. He told me about fantasizing murdering his roommates by holding pillows over their faces. I was alarmed and told the administration that I felt he was a threat to the other kids. They ignored me. He eventually was removed by his parents as they observed that he continued to be psychotic. Duh.
I felt that way because CEDU was such a horrible environment. They were traumatizing and abusing kids and I could do nothing. I hated being a part of that. Staff were traumatized ? I met people who were traumatized YEARS after leaving CEDU. They said that when people quit or are fired, they get the CEDU escort. Someone tells you go now and you can?t even pack up your stuff without someone hovering around, pressuring you to leave right now. This happened to me ? I was not even allowed to say goodbye to my kids. The school lied to me, lied to the kids, and lied to the parents. I wonder how many kids are traumatized by CEDU. I?ll never know. I just hate knowing that I was a small part of it. There are excellent school that are truly therapeutic. CEDU is not. God, it feels to good to get this off my chest. I have many, many, many more horrible stories.
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Post URL:
http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?to ... t=10#43242 Anonymous
Unregistered User Definitely Abusive
Posted: 2004-04-04 21:48:00
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These staff stories are absolutely horrifying and I feel for each and every one of you. How I wish parents could hear what goes on in these places from the perspective of counselors and therapists that no longer work in these hellish places. Why don't you all hook up and collaborate on a book? If you can get around the threat of lawsuits for "telling it like it is", and with the right literary agent, this book would be a bestseller right up there with the latest Steven King novel.
It's that nightmarish!!!! Anyway, thanks for sharing and trying to get the truth out there. Like Ginger always says, "it takes a 1,000 voices"
