I don't know much about Daytop except that it's another Synanon based program. You tell me. How are the 1, 3, 5 and 10 year outcomes compared to non-treated control groups?
I don't know the kid you're talking about, but I can tell you why I split Straight when I might have 7th stepped the next Friday or the next. Something horrible happened. I saw through the illusion for one lucid moment. I had just finished reaming a kid out for being uncooperative and defiant. Next, they called on his sister to do the same. When he heard her voice, that was the first time during the confrontation that this kid's face showed any animation at all. He was searching for her with his eyes and simply could not locate the source of her voice, even though they were standing face to face, not 15 feet from each other. It was that moment that I realized that this kid was not capable of complying w/ our demands. He was fried. He'd had enough. And, if I'm not mistaken, everyone else in the room caught on as well, as there was a pregnant pause before Staff ordered him back to timeout for a little more confrontation "therapy" and called for another song.
I realized in that moment that I could no longer continue to be a part of that nor could I do a damned thing to help end the madness. If I'd tried, or anyone else had tried, we just would have wound up getting a dose of the "medicine" we were giving that kid. No thank you.
So I started making plans to split while we were singing Zipety doo dah ... louder, to cover the sounds of Bobby screaming out from the timeout room.
I had been on pretraining for staff at that time. Had I stuck it out, I would likely have had a free ride through college, help getting established and all the rest, just like the rest of my Seed graduate brothers and sisters. I do not regret it. I don't think I could live w/ myself had I stayed once I saw what I was a part of.
Are you sure you're seeing clearly?
The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.
-- John Muir