Here's something a former patient wrote - this patient was there in 1988-89:
ATTENTION PARENTS - ATTENTION PARENTS ---- If you truly love your child you will not be deceived by PCS. Their tactics and lies are evil in more ways than one. I was locked up at PCS in 1988/1989.
FALSE ADVERTISING---------------------------------
PCS mislead my parents in the 80's and I am sure they are doing the same now. PCS has pamphlets that show the numerous activities that the child will take part in once at the school. This simply does not happen. Neither does the therapy sessions that are meant to help the child. PCS is not truly a "school." Although the teachers could be just as vindictive as the counselors who were hopped up on steroids, employees of PCS saw school as a privilege for the child. The counselors would often not allow children to attend classes so that they would always have some kids to punish during the day. I was at PCS for fourteen months and probably attended class about six of those months.
ABUSE - PHYSICAL AND MENTAL-----------------------
For minor misbehavior or no bad behavior at all, the child would be made to stare at a wall anywhere from three to ten hours a day. For many children including myself, this would result in dizzy spells. This was mainly because of the room that this was taking place. It was in a unit of the school that had locked doors and no windows. During my stay there was a time when I stared at a wall ten hours a day for six months straight. There were other eight foot by eight foot rooms that were used for solitary confinement. I was locked in solitary for over 24 hours once, and I have seen friends locked in for over three days for what counselors would regard as a "poor attitude." PHYSICAL ABUSE would often occur as well. Almost daily you would see a small child slammed to the floor by a 250+ pound BYU football player. Of course these goons had absolutely no credentials to work these positions. Most of them were not bright and resort to violence when they were frustrated with a child.
INSURANCE FRAUD-----------------------------------
This may be an area that does not receive as much focus as the other complaints by former students. However, this is something that is very disturbing and very real. According to the staff members at PCS, your child is so fucked up and such a mess until the time when your insurance begins to run out. You will be told that your child is (magically) transformed into a well-adjusted person only when your insurance is gone and you are no longer of any value to them. Another disturbing fact is the financial compensation that Psychiatrists across the United States would receive for referring parents to PCS.
I have dozens of disturbing stories regarding my stay at PCS but it is probably best that I do not get into all of the specifics in this forum.
EVERYTHING WE SPEAK OF IS TRUE--------------------
As someone who endured fourteen horrible months in such an evil place, I see it as my duty to educate parents about what PCS is truly all about.
Though I feel that sites like this are a positive thing for former students, friends, and family, I am also very aware of the amount of power and wealth held by PCS (PCS was owned by The Charter Corporation when I was there). I have knowledge of payoffs that PCS has made to former students in order to stay out of court. The class action lawsuit (twenty+ students) that I was a part of in the late 90's was only thrown out by the judge due to the statute of limitations law. Previous to that ruling PCS had tried to settle with all of us for about $5,000 which was an incredible insult. We are talking about an evil facility that is absolutely petrified of receiving bad press and going through a huge trial. They know that if they ever go to court and the truth comes out they will be forced to pay up big time.
I have always been consistent in saying that as much as it would be nice for me to receive financial compensation for what PCS put me and my family through, I would rather not receive a dime if it meant that PCS would be shut down.
By the way, there are hundreds more former students out there that don't even know that this forum and ones like it exist.
THERE ARE OTHER OPTIONS--
GOOD LUCK AND GOD BLESS--
By 1940 the literacy figure for all states stood at 96 percent for whites. Eighty percent for blacks. Notice for all the disadvantages blacks labored under, four of five were still literate. Six decades later, at the end of the 20th century, the National Adult Literacy Survey and the National Assessment of Educational Progress say 40 percent of blacks and 17 percent of whites can't read at all. Put another way, black illiteracy doubled, white illiteracy quadrupled, despite the fact that we spend three or four times as much real money on schooling as we did 60 years ago.
--Vin Suprynowicz
