Welcome to these posts!
There are several lawsuits going on here. Look through the posts. If you were mistreated, you can speak up and do something.
Some of the posts are rageful. Some are from ex-students. Some are from staff. I suspect that there may be one or two from people at CEDU now. I have no reason to think this except for my brief time working there - it makes you paranoid about them.
It is interesting that although I have posted that I worked a short time, immediately started looking for another job when I saw how they treated the kids, I never abused the kids, I constantly caught hell from CEDU for not abusing them, and I still get letters almost ten years later from kids telling me that I was the only one who was kind and acted like I believed in them (I did), there are some here to yell at me in the posts.
It makes me wonder if they are turning the ears of new readers deaf. I am hoping that parents will look at these threads and decide to not send their kids there based on LOGICAL argument. Some of these posts might make them think that the person posting is a raving lunatic and will just not take that persons seriously.
Also, beating up ex-staff may not help convince them that they should speak up in the lawsuits. We can help these ex-students who are suing the school. However, if all they want to do is beat us up, how are we going to feel about that? I did contact some of the attorneys posted here. Staffers know things, even if we were there only a short time. We saw stuff - that's why we left.
So, new friend, I ask that you not post in a way that parents won't listen to you at all. CEDU is an abusive hell hole and we need to convince them of that there are 105 things they can do to help their kids that don't involve this kind of "treatment."
You also might be interested in knowing - and not surprised - that the staff, the "counselors" are uneducated. The only education they get is from the CEDU brainwashing. Some of them have degrees from California Coast University. This is no real university - it's an unaccredited, mail-order school. So, CEDU claims that they have counselors but they are just people who have been manipulated. The ones who are on some sick power trip enjoy abusing the kids. The ones like me, LEAVE.
I have spoken with ex-staff who believed that although they hated the treatment of the kids, that they were doing the right thing there. They finally figured it out and are full of remorse. Some of these people posting are not willing to allow a person that mistake. They are rageful and not allowing that a person with no training or experience might NOT UNDERSTAND that what CEDU does is not helpful and, in fact, harmful. They just were ignorant, and as soon as they figured it out, they left. So I am asking you to please be kind to these folks. They are trying to apologize for their ignorance and sometimes they're getting beaten up for that.
As for you, here it is a couple of decades later and you're still harmed by CEDU. Ask yourself the kinds of questions an attorney would ask - and call one of these attorneys. I'm glad you got out. You were never shipped back, I assume? Good for you! I'm glad you've made a life for yourself and am disgusted that CEDU is still hurting you. We are hoping a massive lawsuit will take them down.
You are so right about the profeets. Lots of kids lie just to get it over with. I went through one and refused to talk about myself and refused to cooperate with how they were treating the kids. Brandi Elliot (Running Springs) was enraged at me over this. Too bad. I was horrified. I was going to school (a REAL school) to earn a psychology degree, but I didn't need any of that to know that what was going on was wrong. I said so in my first staff meeting - that yelling and belittling and staff talking about some really raunchy and discusting stuff they had done was NOT therapeutic nor beneficial to ANYONE. Boy, did I get reamed.
And look - I was right. You weren't there very long and you are carrying scars for life. What do your parents say about it now? I'm curious. But don't blame them. CEDU has such slick packaging that they give scared parents hope. They promise their troubled kid will have a great life if they send him to CEDU. Parents are scared and don't know what to do. CEDU knows that and preys on their fears.
Then when the kids talk to their parents on the phone, the staff are always monitoring. If the kids get a chance to tell the parents they are miserable, the staff say that they are "manipulating." I remember asking if manipulating wasn't just doing what you needed to do to get what you needed. I got yelled at for that. But I was right. When those kids were doing things that staff called "manipulation" they were simply trying to get their needs met. Parents were taught to not listen.
I hope you have been able to forgive your parents. They didn't know any better. I'm glad you got out when you did.
On 2004-04-24 10:14:00, Anonymous wrote:
"Wow....I looked up CEDU on the Internet to see if that hellhole still existed and discovered this forum. I was enrolled at CEDU during 1982-83 timeframe. It should say alot that after so many years, I still cringe when I remember that place. Yes, I was a "troubled" teen...but the abuse CEDU issued, at the hands of it's counselors (John Pagent (sp) and Eric Meltzer to name a couple), was the most traumatic experience I went through as a teen. I went through the Truth Profeet and was disgusted at some of the things people said just to have the counselor leave them alone. I am not a psychologist or a psychiatrist, but I'm sure that yelling at kids, and belittling them in front of their peers, is not a proper form of "treatment." I ended up "splitting" from that cult, and made my way back home. I still remember that school with a child's fear and hate that will never go away...even after so many years. It does make me feel better knowing that I am not alone. Please reply."
