All BCA Stand up

[chinsk]

There were certain songs they would play over and over again during these propheet experences.  A lot of john lennon and such.  I can only remember a few songs.  I mean sometimes they would play some of these songs for hours at a time.  You grow to hate them after awhile.  Too bad, I like lennon.

[Hell on Wheels]

yeah, but Yoko sucks
they were supposed to play the misfits during the summit, I wonder if they ever did....East Coast punk rules

[Maximus]

Dude,
Don't blame the artists. I'm sure Denver and John would be sick to know how their music is used to brainwash - but who am I to judge? Hell, I'd burn the stuff to let go of the hate. I'd throw everything in the fire.

I'll never forget the time I went into the bridge and put on Bob Dylan "Everybody Must Get Stoned." Those staff idiots looked like swarming ants. I laughed my ass off.

Music is not related to drug use. And, humor actually prevents it by releasing stress. I never saw that CD again. I would play AC DC in my office for them though and those Mormons would pace around outside my office. They couldn't do anything about it.

They are clearly frustrated that they have not yet been promoted to Godhood, though they are practicing daily. They just can't get that lightning bolt thing down, and they are lousy at floods and famines - they do hire human locusts however. But, the locusts are not very smart or effective. They just swarm around - it is very frustrating to them. Denial of music as drug prevention - who ever heard of that? Reminded me of the Movie "Footloose" where the town banned music and dancing and the kids rocked out "underground" - Great movie - rent it.

Little did they know that the kids were indeed acting like good CEDU boys and girls while all of them just accepted the fact that the place was a total joke run by total idiots - lemmings, locusts whatever.

They would ban Bob Dylan and other "subversive" "propaganda" while the kids brewed their own alcohol, broke into staff offices, had sex or took cigarettes out of offices, and got deliveries of pot. Ulrich's psychotropic drugs were mixed into cocktails, amphetamines were bought and sold by the, so called, ADHD kids. People cheeked and threw away antipsychotics or broke them up to get high, Todd Degraff, LaTeresa and BCA was "in charge" "in control" What a F...ing Joke

We would try helping the staff deal with these issues, but their "interventions" of screaming and yelling, all day Raps, sickening transparent fake love and concern, restrictions lasting weeks or months, these would only make the problem worse - making kids so angry that all they wanted was to subvert the system or burn down the whole place.

I would try to tell staff that making enemies and imposing standards that would make Islamic fundamentalists uneasy produced the opposite results from those they wanted, but, as La said "The therapists don?t understand what we do."

Hell, we understood it just fine. We clearly understood that the collective IQ of the place was around 65. We knew intimately that you can't explain to a dog how to make a paper airplane because a dog is not interested in paper airplanes. They want to chew on sticks and bark.

They are all still there chewing on sticks and barking for $160 thousand dollars per kid per year.

So we therapists finally realized that subverting subversion was not subversive. It was subversive to support the subversive subversion (funny huh). Well, I'm the funniest guy I know. "Get her done."

Anyway, seeing the futility and illegality of mandatory reporting of danger to children to "risk management" instead of CPS as required by CEDU. (They would just sweep it the rug), I eventually, just reported to CPS. After all, this is the law, and, it is illegal for CEDU to decide for the therapist what is reportable and withhold it, but they did anyway and still do.

It sucked; you had to sneak around them to CPS and report anonymously. It made no difference anyway. CPS fears Mel's or Brown's mafia - and rightly so. In fact CEDU scares the hell out of me. They will spy. They will hack. They will lie about you. And, frankly, I would not even consider murder beyond their capabilities. That is why I stay vigilant 24 hours a day almost two years after leaving BCA.

I hope parents gat the picture because if anything happens to the child the parent is held legally responsible - not BCA, not RMA, not NWA. not Milestone, not CEDU High School, not Ascent or Cedu Middle School has any liability. The liability is with the parent

[chinsk]

I am not sure of their ability to get your or comparing them to the likes of the mob.  I don't understand why they are viewed as being scary.  In reality what are they going to do?  I would love for them to come after me, but why the hell would they?  What is so scary about them?

[Anonymous]

If you worked there and were able to assess the mental stability of the staff, you would fear them.

If you knew what the management was really like and how they treat their employees, tou would fear them.

This is an evil place - very evil.

[Anonymous]

from Jack "
I would love to collaborate, and I know a therapist who worked there who would. However, the threat of lawsuit is so scary. I hate this. I feel like I don't have any testosterone! They are scary, man!

/


Then
On 2004-04-04 21:48:00, Anonymous wrote:

"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"



    "

[Anonymous]

CEDU has zero integrity.  I would not want them plotting against me.  These people have no respect for anything except power.

I knew the law inforcement in Bonners Ferry personally.  They HATE CEDU!  They know that CEDU tortures children.  They know that half the staff at CEDU are using drugs.  Do you know how many staff have been picked up for DUIs?  More than the average, I promise you.  The Bonners Ferry police and Boundary County Sherriff Dept. are forced to turn their heads because of the revenue CEDU brings in, much of it under the table I suspect.  It is very sad.

Why does the State also turn its head on the hundreds of reportings of child abuse?  Because CEDU plays hardball that's why.  They know who to pay and who to play.

Does that mean CEDU will win?  I don't think so.  CEDU will crumble because they are dependent on parents sending their children to them, and the more educated parents become about CEDU and the Teen Help Industry, in general, the less likely they will choose schools like CEDU.

That is my hope!

[Maximus]

Below is the best description of the Propheets I have ever Heard. Please note that most of the I-and-Me and The Summit Workshops came from the Life Spring EST cults.

I went through the same high in the Basic course and the same berating in Life Spring's Advanced Course. My opinion is that it is all worthless and damaging. It is exactly as stated here.

In fact, the whole "science" of all of this comes down to dragging people down emotionally by berating and shaming and evoking sad emotion in them and then opening the trap and letting them out to the sound of charismatic music about freedom, and love, and a plethora of hugging, and other bullshit.

In summary, there is no science other than dragging the kid into a carefully crafted manufactured hell and then releasing him into a carefully crafted manufactured bliss, whereby he or she is convinced that a transformation has occured within. Nothing has actually occured.

In actuality, all that has happened is a mental minipulation - induced depression followed by the induced euphoria of being let out of the depression.

That is what parents are paying big bucks for. It is a total deception and nothing more. No improvement in personality, mood, or mental stability occurs. People actually are made more unstable of mood by these processes. Just look at the staff who have been going through these workshops - the term "histrionic" would describe the worst of them, "unstable" the best of them.  

On 2004-04-14 17:35:00, chinsk wrote:

"the good employee fired was mike bonner



as far as propheets are concerned they were just a chance for me to be full of crap and do what it took to get through them.  the breakdown of the propheets is as follows



Truth:

This was mega stupid.  I heard a lot of things about people that I would rather not hear.  This was the emotional growth session where you were supposed to address your "disclosures".  Disclosures defined as things you have experienced in life you generally feel bad about.  For me it was no big deal because I didn't feel particularly bad about to many things.  I mean all I was ever guilty of was acting like a troublesome teenager.  I never had some horrible act under my belt.  Pathetic part about this was how out of proportion staff got with things.  If you had sex with a guy and you were a girl you were called a slut and had some pretty profane things yelled at you.  I heard staff yell things at teenage girls that would get them arrested outside of BCA.  Terrible stuff, they also got in pretty graphic detail when talking about such things.  If the staff didnt feel like you got all your disclosures off your back they would pester you call you "chicken shit" and such.  I ended up making stuff up to get them off my back.  I was credited with "doing my work". Whatever, I was doing what it took to get this thing over with.



Childrens:

Getting in touch with your inner child.  This is where you are supposed to A: Feel bad by thinking about how you "destroying your inner child" with your actions or B: get mad at your parents for supposedly destroying your inner child.  Whatever, move on.



Brothers:

Your friends really arent your friends.   I don't fully understand cedu's definition of a friend but evidently its someone you are constantly expected to berate in raps and nag constantly about emo stuff.  You just weren't being a good friend if you didnt yell at your buddy in raps.  BTW the definition I heard of a friend seemed to change weekly.  One day I hear I am being a good friend, the next day I dont.  Blah, I give up.



Dreams:

Pretty much slept through this one. Hah :wink:



I want to live:

I liked this one because you got to wrestle around with your buddies and break stuff and not get in trouble.  Once again like all propheets you were expected to talk about your feelings, get told they are bullshit and let staff tell you your feelings.  Girls are once again sluts, if you even tried a drug oncce you were a dying addict, if you got angry you were going to be murderer when you got older, etc. Pretty routine by this point, seeing a patern yet?



Values:

This one wasn't so bad, mine was devoid of a lot of the dumb stuff usually found in propheets.  Most likely due to the fact that mine was ran by a decent guy.  Unlike most staff who I think jump at the chance to be in a propheet because they enjoy whatever game it represents to them or move up on the emotional growth staff chain of command.



Imagine:

Now this one I really did get a kick out of.  For about I guess the first 12 hours of this thing you are sitting in a room having the staff ask you questions that have no point and go in circles, argue with everything you say, screw with you repeatedly.  I mean this thing is rediculous.  This was the first propheet I had with my RMA counterpart peergroup.  Boy were those guys good at the game, they had the whole routine down to a T, the crying, the indictments, the self realization, etc.  A buddy of mine told me about this part so I pretty much kept silent until it was over.  I did have an outburt with a staff where I mocked the situation but after they figured out I wasn't going to break down and cry like everyone else I was simply written off as being dishonest with my feelings and we moved on.



The next two activiteies were I and Me and the Summit.  Now these two things are filled with the most rediculous activities, verbal ridicule, and mental abuse.  The summit is basically 5 days of telling you you are a piece of shit and the 5th day you are supposed to celebrate because you are now super, thanks for asking.  Of course I came out being all happy and what not, part of it was the upper school look-good requirement and the other half was that I was happy as hell I was done with all that nonsense.  It truely did feel good to be out of the summit, it meant i never had to do one of these stupid exercizes again.



What got me the most in all these experiences was how the "power staff" appeared to take it so seriously.  I mean their dedication to carrying out these rediculous and innaproprate sessions was way past the point of fanatical.  A lot of staff exhibited behavior that I just cannot condone no matter how it is rationalized to me.  They acted rediculous and abusive, period.  Nothing gives them the right to say the things they did and the worse feeling was that you couldn't speak your mind or put some of these bastards in their place.  Doing so resulted in consequences ranging from: dropping you a peer group, full times, indefinite work assignments, ascent, etc.  Having your own oppinion or own way of doing things was unacceptable.  You had to be the cedu staff super emotional being clone. You were trapped and had to conform.  In the end it isnt all that bad to go along with the program just so things were easier on you and you didn't have to deal with all the mess.

"

[Maximus]

God Bless you for having the generosity ande guts - speaking the truth as you have done. You appear to understand the following:

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few - or the one"

From Star Trek

[chinsk]

OK here is the continuation of my stay.

Section 1: Ascent

Like I said before my introduction to ascent wasnt exactly timid.  But anyway, the first night of me sleeping in the circle was over and next morning we were awakened early.  At ascent the normal accomodations were teepees.  Yes, you slept in teepees just like the native americans did.  I personally did not mind them too much, some people really hated em.

I don't remember what time we got up in the morning, I know it was early (we werent allowed to have watches, I remember staff getting mad when you looked at theirs, I saw some kids get restrained for that).  The normal routine if I remember correctly was wake up, goto the bathroom, do PT's then continue with the daily emotional growth activities.  Speaking of bathroom, when you were first there or if you were a run risk you wore these things called "potty boots".  Those boots were a very large size of water waders, but totally uncomforable, made running for PT difficult and were never cleaned.  I didnt have to wear them for too long as I remember.  But anyway, morning bathroom breaks were in the outhouse.  The bathroom facilities were just yer standard outhouse, a building with a "toilet seat" over a large hole.  What used to bother me was the fact that the staff would stand there and watch you go to the bathroom.  Kind of degrading but I guess they were into that R. Kelly style stuff (please tell me someone here watches Chappelle's Show).  I remember one time a kid took of his "new student" jacket which was basically a reflective orange vest and he chunked it down the toilet.  I saw staff hold him up by his ankles while they dangled him INSIDE the hole and made him fish it out with a rake.  I heard the kid was gagging and throwing up but they wouldnt bring him up until he fetched it.  I know it was a stupid thing to chunk it down there but I dont see how dangling him inside an outhouse hole was legal.  PT's werent bad, sometimes staff took it too far but I got a good work out from the deal and got in great shape.  The daily activities usually consisted of chopping wood in the wood shed or hiking up the mountain and bringing logs down.  I don't mind physical labor so none of this was to bad for me.  Although one time some staff was being a dick and made us eat our lunches WHILE holding logs on our shoulders hiking down the mountain, which was a difficult task to say the least.  The staff then went on a rant saying about how thye don't have to feed us, and if they wanted they could give us all 3 of our meals at once and never give us anything to eat for the rest of the day.  For some reason I don't think CPS would be a fan of that.

Occasionally we would have 2 or 3 times a week.  These raps were usual fare, girls were whores, guys were thugs, we were all going to die or end up in jail, etc.  Raps at ascent really gave look-goods and ass kissers a time to shine.  Was kinda funny to watch those kids.  Staff bought there little act too.  Ascent was broken up into 3 sections, first two weeks consisted of labor and whatnot, second 2 weeks you trained to go out on course, and the last two weeks you went out on course and finished up the program.  The second set of two weeks consisted of some wilderness training with your group and a lot of raps to get to know the staff you were going on course with.  I rember in our group we had this one staff member that was a real dick.  He would just ridicule and make fun of kids for no reason.  He would push you until you acted out, he laughed like he got enjoyment out of it.  This is the staff I popped twice for doin that routine to me on course.  Of course I got restrained but that is to be expected.  All in all course was not that bad, it was just real cold out and that was my only complaint from the ordeal.  That and the fact that the dick staff that was with us would have temper tantrums and give us 30 seconds to eat our meal, which usually meant no meal because you could not unpack you backpack and pack it back up in that time frame (hey these packs weighed like 50 pounds, there was a lot of stuff in there).

The last week or so of ascent wasn't that bad, by this time the staff pretty much quit screwin with you unless you were a real hard head.  I was in the kitchen for most of that time which was a major plus.  The wood burning stove was in here so it was nice and warm and it gave you a pass out of a lot of the labor and whatnot.  As long as the dishes were clean and the food was served up it wasnt a big deal.  Pretty easy stuff.

Showers/Baths.  I only remember getting a bath a few times there.  They took place in a teepee that had 4 or 6 stalls with buckets.  You would pump the water and heat it on a stove and dump it in the bucket and are given a large bottle of dial soap.  That is how you took showers.  Sometimes people got to take frequent ones, especially those that smelled particularly bad.  It wasnt very pleasant because it would be in the teens outside and the water in those buckets got cold quick.

I remember one time they were shooting an ascent commercial there.  Was very entertaining to watch.  First we werent allowed to talk to any of the actors or crew.  The staff were also very nice during this time, all friendly actin like they were buddies with us.  Gotta put on a good face for the outsiders.  What was especially entertaining was all the actors were wearing outdoor gear (nice gear, not like the old cheap garbage we got) and carrying canoes and all sorts around.  It was pretty entertaining because it was completely bogus and fake.  You see these nice shiny clean actors and then look over at us dirt caked and filthy kids.  Gotta do that marketing and PR though I guess.

All in all my stay at ascent was worthless, I learned nothing but to conform and keep my mouth shut until it was over.  It was 6 weeks so it was pretty easy to do your time until it was over.  For how much it costs I don't see the point.  After ascent I returned to BCA to finish the program.  What would bother me is that they would send kids to ascent all the time, not necesarilly because they needed to be there.  I think ascent was just a huge quick cash cow for them and they used it as such.  Mel needed some work done at his house so you send a kid there for 6 weeks, collect your 15K and walla new siding on casa de Mel.

Ill continue with the BCA portion next.  I may have forgotten some stuff so ask me questions and tha tmay trigger some old memories.

[Jack1963]

It does sound paranoid, but many ex-staffers are fearful of CEDU. It's not like we think they are going to do a driveby. We just fear that they will sue us for libel or have a negative impact on our careers. My fear is lawsuit. Although everything I post is true, what happens in courtrooms is not necessarily just nor is it true. Plenty of bogus claims are rewarded in the courtroom. So, I'm not willing to step forward.

I think part of the experience is the way they spied on us. I mean, it was unreal. Information got back to me that they could not have have possibly known had they not been spying on me. As people say, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean someone isn't out to get you!

On 2004-04-15 10:17:00, chinsk wrote:

"I am not sure of their ability to get your or comparing them to the likes of the mob.  I don't understand why they are viewed as being scary.  In reality what are they going to do?  I would love for them to come after me, but why the hell would they?  What is so scary about them?  "

[Hell on Wheels]

Summit waas way weird, guess there is a reason it is saved for last. Life boat, stuff like that. Although the stretch was pretty cool, I caught a woman shoplifting, and she gave me her contact info. I guess I won. Shit by then you were so far out of your mind, you didn't know what the hell was coming next. Course then the fun began, we got to scare the new kids with our dancing after we got out. of course that was a little weird when one of my peer group cleaned his dirt up right then and there. Scared me. Oh well, it was only 30 and a wake up from then on out. Cake. except, they are not supposed to put you in raps, but I somehow made it to almost every one. Guess I just kept screwing up, and was broken

[Hell on Wheels]

hey I don't blame ya for being a little paranoid, I still am, although I am still not thinking they will come after you. They just destroy your reputation. I saw a lot of it and after I left I heard there was a lot of it. Just putting the fear into them I guess. "Use your tools, xxxxx xxxxx didn't and is fucking up outside" stuff like that

[Hell on Wheels]

[ This Message was edited by: Hell on Wheels on 2004-07-07 19:37 ]

[chinsk]

Hey that flannel wasn't commissary!  I remember when I got there I was able to keep like 10% of the clothing I had with me.  Most of my stuff was out of agreement.  I remember there was a time at BCA when I was on bans from loose fitting pants, I had to wear butt-tight jeans until my restriction was up.  Guess I deserved it because we used to sneak in all types of clothing.  You just had to make sure that your plane back from home visits arrived after hours.  That way you could just take the stuff you didn't want to have checked in to your dorm (nightwatch could care less).  Altho the catch 22 of that was when I was transfered to RMA, they made me send my clothes through the commissary and all my out of agreement clothing got ganked. I was so disappointed.

Speaking of night watch, those guys were cool most of the time.  They would let upper school have birthday parties where you could watch a movie in the lodge after lights out.  No staff would stick around so the nightwatch was watching you.  The rules were that you had to go back to your dorm after your flick but little did staff know we had movies that we snuck in and ended up watching flicks till about 2 in the morning.  That was a good time.  Chance to hang out with your buds with no staff around.  I also wired up the satellite reciever they just put in the lodge and we listened to the music channels.  THat is one thing that bothered me the most, not being able to listen to music you liked.  If simon and garfunkle, sting, and fleetwood mack were your thing they played that all the time in the lodge.  I remember going home on visits and listening to my music, was like candy to my ears.  Its amazing how much you miss that stuff.

On 2004-04-17 15:32:00, Hell on Wheels wrote:

"I remember Matt's first day before his ascent vacation, watching him wander off campus in his new yellow and black commissary flannel. How was I to know I would still be in contact with him 8 years later. That was the one neat thing about it, you could make friends fromo across the country, (course when I was there, we had a few foreign nationals). I think it is funny though, the cedu site still has pics from when I was there. It looks so loving I would almost send my kid there."