Why do you people have a need to create your own personal chaos? It?s like season 4 of Beverly Hills 90210 on here?. ?Is Dylan dating Kelly or Brenda? , ?Will David become a Rap Star??, ? Is Brandon?s job at the Peach Pit in jeopardy because of his gambling habit??.
Can you not contribute anything other than insults and bickering? How about sharing your personal experiences? how you cope day to day after being in Élan?. real stories of abuse, while at Élan, not third party narration? Those are just a few topics that are certainly more interesting than this playground fighting ?meet me at the big tree after school if your man enough?.
You know why I hate Élan and everything about it? The concept was flawed. The staff was sadistic and the students were selfish predators. The Élan ?Therapeutic Community? concept was flawed. NO violence, Relate Your feelings, Don?t act out - Élan creates a false sense of safety and security ? nothing could be further from the truth. The staff was not qualified to do the job they were hired to do ?Act as if and It will become a part of you? BS. The students that I was subjected to, on a daily basis, were sent to Élan as a last resort to Prison.
The Violence that caused the most harm, in my opinion, was not the restraints, the corner or the rings. It was the humiliation at the hands of people you were made to trust, ridicule at the hands of people you are forced to call friends and the constant attack on your self-esteem.
Don?t get me wrong if I had not gone to Élan I probably would not be successful today, but I learned at the expense of the thousands of other former residents who are locked up behind padded walls or in the ground. It?s not to say that they would not have made it to those destinations on their own, but I believe Élan was a contributing factor. Someone should be getting a refund for the service they paid for because Élan sold bad goods.
