Petition to close the abusive Provo Canyon School is gaining

[cherish wisdom]

It's truly amazing how this industry gets away with everything short of murder. I guess one could say that they get away with murder.
I can honestly say that all of the authorities turn a deaf ear to reports of abuse at PCS - I believe it is because the State uses tax payer funds to send juvenile offenders there.  This information needs to get out to the public.  

When cryptography is outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl.
--
Anonymous . . . for obvious reasons

[Anonymous]

I now suffer from post traumatic stress disorder as well as social phobia...it has been many yrs since I left pcs and I still am haunted and left with the damage and disorders pcs left me with...  I hope and pray justice will be done.

[nite owl]

These types of programs should all be shut down. Provo Canyon School has a notorious reputation in the psychological community. It is known as a facility of last resort for the truly difficult teens.  These reports of abuse that have been described by survivors of this program must be taken serioulsly by the authorities who allow programs like this to not only profit but proliferate.  Provo Canyon School is obvioulsly in violation of many rules, codes and laws. Particularly those laws that have been established to protect the mentally ill. It should be closed as a result of cruelty to those who suffer from diagnosed mental illnesses such as depression and bipolar disease.

The weavers of linen and hempen cloth, ... may exercise their trades without paying any fine.
-- Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations (chapter X, part II) notes:

[Anonymous]

I agree with shutting down Provo Canyon School and I believe that there should be petitions for shutting down another school just like it called Logan River Academy, which was started by people who used to work at Provo. Thanks for your time and good luck!

[Anonymous]

I went to a similar place next to PCS called Island View. These programs use crazy methods of reform and ALL NEED TO BE SHUT DOWN!!!!!

[nite owl]

This was recently posted on this petition to close:

I picked up my son on Saturday, July 17th in Utah, I pulled him out of the program, I was more and more frustrated the more I read on PCS.  He came home with a swollen eye, cuts all over his hands and right finger swollen and bruised, knee cut up and swollen and bruised.  It was just as I had read in all the emails/internet.  He was threatened and spoken to in such a manner that made my stomach turn.  His life was threatened as well.  My son did get into a physical fight with another student, and stopped immediately, but it did not stop the staff from throwing him down twisting his neck and throwing him into the "Observation Room", which by the way he spent the entire night, cold and smells of urine and who knows what else, just smells really bad and very cold.  Just so you know I never mentioned anything to my son about what I had read, I simply asked him to describe what he went through, now remember he was there for only 13 days, and witnessed 12 year old boys being punched in the nose and made fun of on a daily basis, how therapeutic is that? There a person there by the name of Levi who told my son on many occasions, that "his _ss was his, it is his way or the freeway, and don't be surprised he if he was to get shot", like killed, and calls the boys in the unit all really really bad names.  This place is incredible and can't believe that children are suffering.  My son said that there are a lot of court ordered boys in there so they don't even have a chance.  Also, that all calls are monitored and they are told before they talk to their parents that they better not manipulate us by saying they want to go home or anything negative about PCS.  Please let me know how and what to do to help take this place out of business.

If once [the people] become inattentive to the public affairs,
you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors,
shall all become wolves.  It seems to be the law of our general
nature, in spite of individual exceptions.


http://laissezfairebooks.com/product.cfm?op=view&pid=FF7485&aid=10247' target='_new'>Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, 1787

[Anonymous]

PCS is very inhumane and unsanitary. While I was there I was treated with no respect and zero tolerance for everything I did. I do hereby swear that I want PCS shut down, FOR GOOD! They neglected me of medical attention and therapy sessions, other patients as well. The staff gossip about the girls at night while they are asleep and no action is taken when this is grievanced. They brainwash the children and people are starting to expect that the food is being medicated. Also on a number of accounts there has been bugs, human hairs, and mold found on, around, and inside the food served at PCS. I indeed agree with all the statements made above and my family is planning on suing PCS for negligence and for accepting me illegally.

[Anonymous]

I have read reams of documents both specifically concerning Provo Canyon's record of abuse prior to and since they were purchased by their new owner and generally, regarding the "troubled teen industry" practices. As a former Marriage and Family Therapist and now a Child Welfare Advocate I am enraged at the failure of so many institutions at the federal, state and local levels that so many vulnerable families, particularly children can be imprisoned in "schools" such as Provo Canyon who are not only committing horrendous child abuse in the name of "treatment" but are charging immense amounts of money to perform this abuse paid out of pocket by families, who, for the most part, do not have it to spend

[Anonymous]

There are now more than three hundred signatures on the petition to close Provo Canyon School. One can manually circulate the petition and the names can then be entered onto the on-line petition....

[Anonymous]

This program is well known as the place of last resort - yet they don't advertise this to parents, nor do they tell them this.  They have been abusing children for over 30 years now. They continue to isolate children for long periods of time regardless of permanent injunctions which forbid this treatment. They violate State and Federal law.  They violate the Constitutional rights of children.  Most parents are kept in the dark. Phone and mail are all monitored.  This program should be shut down and every child should be examined and interviewed to determine the magnitude of the abuse.

[Anonymous]

Schools such as this were brought to my attention three years ago...Before then, I was not aware of the plights of the thousands of teenagers that are subjected to these types of facilities.

I find that the really sad part of these stories is that the American mainstream would never believe that they were true.  We can't get Americans to believe that such conditions exist in foreign countries, much less within our own borders.  

The catalyst that will bring about change is getting the word out...Letting America know that these children are suffering.

[Anonymous]

This was from the petition to close Provo Canyon School - August 2004

 We are going to get my brother from provo canyon today he has been there about 90 days.. We read the website and it was horrific. I wont know the extent of the damage done to my brother until he gets home back to California tomorrow but I will find out and any and all action will be taken.

 Lynda

[Anonymous]

I am the webmaster of http://www.mountainparksurvivors.com and a Survivor of Mountain Park Baptist Boarding Academy in Patterson, MO and also of New Bethany Home for Girls in Arcadia, LA.

 

I have made it my goal in life to see all such "behavior modification lock-up schools" outlawed and to make it illegal for parents to send their kids to similar schools operating outside the country.

 

I pray that we see victory in this soon!!!

[Anonymous]

My cousin is there right now, I am very afraid for her, so I signed this in hopes of her being helped the right way.

[Anonymous]

If I were you, I'd get a lawyer, talk to her parents PRONTO and push for communication with her and get her parents to open their eyes and READ this forum and READ what goes on and THINK "Gee, why haven't we spoken to our kid" ?

Just don't give up, keep fighting for it, and focus on the light at the end of the tunnel.

http://www.askquestions.org/articles/teens/ this is a good place to start if you want to educate yourself about this issue. Go to ISAC http://www.isaccorp.com/index.html and try to get some help.


Good luck, and god bless.