Author Topic: Turn About Ranch (A Rough Guide)  (Read 73302 times)

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Offline Anonymous

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Utah Does It Their Way!!!
« Reply #15 on: October 02, 2006, 08:31:35 AM »
Please note that I am 53-year-old mother.  I am NOT Mormon and have lived in Escalante, Utah for the past six years.  Prior to moving here, I was a business consultant in northern Arizona.  I'm currently in the process of moving out of Utah due to the Mormon culture which includes rampant child sexual abuse, male dominance, submissive females and polygamous relationships (it's not just Warren Jeffs).  The Utah social system does not work around laws or morals of rights and wrongs, rather, its priorities are connections to the Church and the family (all families are inter-related due to polygamy and Utah's past isolation from non-Mormons).
 
Wayne is currently the Intake and Intervention Manager at the new Ironwood Maine Residential Treatment Center for teens.  In 2004, I worked with Wayne at Turn-About Ranch (TAR) in Utah, a similar teen facility.  At TAR, Wayne was also the manager of their intake center which is called Roundy.  
 
On Saturday, June 26, 2004, while working with Wayne, I witnessed, and was involved in, several events which ultimately led to my formal written complaints with the State of Utah DHS Office of Licensing, Utah Child Protective Services, and Garfield County, Utah Sheriff.
 
As a local resident, these facts are commonly known about Wayne:  He is a Mormon.  He was a police officer in the Salt Lake City metro area and was a wrestler.  He was not divorced, but lived alone in this remote region, separated from his wife in northern Utah (6 hours away).  While working at TAR, he worked as an undercover agent for the Sheriff's Office which is 90 miles away (generally, there is no law enforcement officer in Escalante at all, they're hired, but soon leave).
 
As a TAR employee, these facts are commonly known:  Wayne is an alcoholic and was disciplined several times by TAR for drinking on the job.  Prior to my complaint, TAR had disciplined him several times for wrestling with male students.  The Roundy facility was called "Wayne's World" where every staff was submissive to him.  Most employees choose not to work there.  He broke whatever TAR rules or state laws he desired.
 
The following are the "Wayne" points from my complaints:
 
While alone with two female students (approximately 15 years old), one complained of an aching back as a result of wrestling the previous night with Wayne.  Wayne suddenly appeared from out-of-nowhere and boomed, "Yes, we wrestled, and I won, didn't I?"
 
After that, Wayne assigned me to stay in the front of the cabin with three students who could not leave their area while Wayne took two females to the backside of the building.  One of my students asked for her sweater, and since everything had to be approved by Wayne, I went around back to find him.  
 
As I approached, he was turned away from me, but the two female students had eye contact with me.  As the "not-so-pretty female" watched, Wayne stood within inches of the very beautiful one with whom he had wrestled the night before.  She had one hand on one side of his throat, and Wayne was instructing her to put the other one on the opposite side.  She told him, "I don't want to."  He picked up her hand and put it there, and then proceeded to twist her around, drawing her into a full contact body slam hold.  It was then that he saw me.
 
A few hours later, Wayne tried to instill in my mind that I was a coward.  There was a lot of lightening that day, and we were in a tall Ponderosa Pine forest.  Wayne and all students returned to the cabin's front porch.  He told everyone that I was a coward because the day before he'd heard me on the radio saying I was bringing my kids back to the Barn facility due to lightning.  
 
Thereafter, with every thunder clap, Wayne came over to me and called me a coward.  Then, the thunder continued, but Wayne stopped.  I said to him, "Go ahead and say it."  He responded, "I don't have to anymore, because every time you hear thunder you will think you are a coward."  I laughed, and said, "You have no idea what I'm thinking."  I was actually fully aware of his mind control techniques and was thinking that this guy is nuts and just wants me to be a coward due to the mornings events.  All of this transpired with students all around us.
 
On the night of the wrestling match, there were no female staff members at Roundy even though female students out-numbered males.  Staff consisted of Wayne and Allen P.  Allen is known by locals as having sexually abused his younger sisters.  He would only work as "night security" for TAR.  As a result of my complaint, he no longer works there.
 
On the night I filed my complaint with the TAR Director, my husband and I responded to an emergency call at 10 pm from the Roundy facility--Wayne's World.  When we arrived, a female student, dressed only in thin pajamas was duct taped at the ankles and wrists, lying on the cold, wet ground (8,000' elevation and rain), and had a 200 lb female staff sitting on top of her.  The Sheriff had to respond to the incident because duct tape is explicitly against the law.  State licensing told me this was resolved because, by law, TAR had fired the involved male and female staff.  Not true, the female was already moving out of state which she did, and the male staff still works there to this day.  I told the State this, they did nothing.
 
My complaint included many other items which TAR was required to fix:  Vehicles used to transport the students with no steering or brakes and doors that wouldn't open.  No air conditioning in loft bedrooms in the desert facilities.  Inhumane punishments.  Scheduling and assignment of male staff only with female students (they've gone back to this today).
 
No action was ever taken against Wayne other than a verbal reprimand by TAR.  I discovered his social connections to all three agencies.  The state licensing woman's husband worked for the same corporation (Aspen Education Group) at a different facility, the child protective service woman was the TAR Director's cousin, and Wayne worked undercover for the Sheriff.
 
The male staff involved with the duct tape incident attempted to run me off the road on three different occasions.  Each time, he was in a TAR vehicle with TAR students inside.  On the third incident, I stayed my course, and we almost crashed, but he has not done it since.
 
A former TAR student, now a young woman, has recently been in touch with me.  She has given me permission to print our discussions.  Her comments are:  
 
Wayne would routinely dump cold creek water on sleeping students.  He generally picked on the quiet, cooperative ones because he "believed students who 'went along quietly' were just faking it to get out faster."  He withheld food from all students if one misbehaved.  They took baths in the creek with one staff member watching.
 
"Males were alone with the female students all the time.  And vice versa."  "I was denied medical treatment for a serious issue, as were other students, including a friend who had broken her leg when she fell off one of the horses there."  "Once, my counselor Annette, after noticing my lips were unusually red, accused me of repeatedly biting them to make them look darker to 'impress the boys.' She called me a tramp, and taped an attenae [sic] to my hat to 'teach me not to care so much about my appearance.' I walked around with a metal appendage on my head for over a month."
 
She goes on:  "As for emotional recovery, I still have a little ways to go. Unfortunately, my parents and I never made up. I just couldn't forgive them after they said I was lying about my experiences at TAR."  "Looking back, I'm sad to say that TAR did have one positive aspect on my life; It caused me to grow up faster. I was no longer naiive and immature... I didn't have much of a choice. But, it did make me distrustful of my family, and to this day I still have trust issues with people I am close to."

I'm also going to post this under Ironwood!
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Offline Anonymous

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Re: Utah Does It Their Way!!!
« Reply #16 on: October 30, 2006, 01:00:00 AM »
what else can you tell about Turn about recently?
Is there anyone locally that would have a list of complaints on this place?
I am very concerned
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Offline Anonymous

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Turn About Ranch (A Rough Guide)
« Reply #17 on: December 26, 2006, 07:25:31 PM »
i dont think wayne was disrespectful at all. some kids need to grow up and realize some things. they are making false accusations and are taking things to the extreme. if things were that bad, you could have told someone there. you could have confided in someone. waynes personality took some getting used to, but he was awesome. you could learn a lot from him. wehn i got sent back to roundy after being at the barn, it was him he taught me to do 8 bowdrills in a row...he taught perseverance and strength. the cowards who are saying false things, you are pathetic. get on with your life. tar was fuckign awesome.
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Offline Anonymous

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Probably Wayne
« Reply #18 on: January 02, 2007, 08:45:06 PM »
Quote from: ""TS Waygookin""
Quote from: ""Guest""
i dont think wayne was disrespectful at all. some kids need to grow up and realize some things. they are making false accusations and are taking things to the extreme. if things were that bad, you could have told someone there. you could have confided in someone. waynes personality took some getting used to, but he was awesome. you could learn a lot from him. wehn i got sent back to roundy after being at the barn, it was him he taught me to do 8 bowdrills in a row...he taught perseverance and strength. the cowards who are saying false things, you are pathetic. get on with your life. tar was fuckign awesome.


very confusing post.


I agree, and it doesn't sound like a student.  It's probably Wayne.  He is not a decent guy at all, and he had plenty of complaints filed against him.
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Offline The Luffly Shandy

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Turn About Ranch (A Rough Guide)
« Reply #19 on: January 03, 2007, 05:41:46 PM »
A lot of that stuff isn't up to date... I'll get on that for yalls.

And for some other people who have gone to TAR, bowdrills came hard to them. So when someone helped them out with it and saved them from impact that person became their personal savior. At least that's what I'm getting from this guy...
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Offline Deborah

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Turn About Ranch (A Rough Guide)
« Reply #20 on: January 04, 2007, 12:05:10 AM »
Welcome to Fornits!! Glad you're free.
Would you elaborate on what this meant, "saved them from impact"?
I'm guessing it must be something different than the infamous Impact letters, perhaps a figure of speech?
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Offline Fr. Cassian

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Turn About Ranch (A Rough Guide)
« Reply #21 on: January 04, 2007, 12:08:16 AM »
Nothing wrong with personal saviors...

I'm a personal savior to many druggies nationwide.
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Offline The Luffly Shandy

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Turn About Ranch (A Rough Guide)
« Reply #22 on: January 04, 2007, 01:11:33 AM »
For bowdrills, if you dont get them after the first three days? You get put on bowdrill impact. Basically impact until you can do all your bowdrills, no matter the circumstances. My friend September was on it for eight days. Crazy no? So usually if a staff member helped you out in bowdrills, that staff became your new favorite. It was twisted how they used impact against us...
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Offline Anonymous

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Impact
« Reply #23 on: January 04, 2007, 10:42:54 AM »
Quote from: ""Deborah""
Welcome to Fornits!! Glad you're free.
Would you elaborate on what this meant, "saved them from impact"?
I'm guessing it must be something different than the infamous Impact letters, perhaps a figure of speech?


Hi Deborah -- It's Toni.  Impact is a big circle of stone rocks, with a firepit in the middle (at Roundy).  It's used to segregate students from each other and eliminate their contact with others -- no talking, etc.  One student per impact zone.

When first entering the program, they have to stay in impact for days, cook their meals over the open fire, and think about how they've screwed up.  

For discipline, you're ordered to stay there until the staff member who put you there takes you out.  I remember some staff members who went home for the day and forgot their students on impact.
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Offline Deborah

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Turn About Ranch (A Rough Guide)
« Reply #24 on: January 05, 2007, 12:10:41 AM »
Thanks Toni. Hope you're well. Shoot me a PM when you have time and update me. Miss ya round here.
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Offline Anonymous

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Turn About Ranch (A Rough Guide)
« Reply #25 on: November 17, 2007, 11:53:35 PM »
Quote from: ""idioteque""
[Note: My time at TAR was voluntary. It resulted from my expulsion from a traditional boarding school that I loved, as a prerequisite for re-enrollment. Also, as an Elan history buff, I was curious about this industry. My experience took place in late Winter to early Spring of 2002.]



I went to Turn About Ranch for "the minimum" 60 days because I began a letter-writing campaign to the educational consultant at the Department of State, my dad's employer. While she did not do anything besides force a stop-payment, it was still welcome.



TAR really ought to be shut down. It isn't brutal in the sense of WWASPS, but it's still incredibly twisted. The isolation, forced labor, antiquated gender roles, and mandatory Baptist instruction are sickening.



For the uninitiated, here's a general break-down of the system:



1st level: IMPACT/ROUNDY



During the first day at Roundy camp students are strip-searched, have their shoes taken away and replaced with old size 14 rubber boots (without laces). They are then told to sit in the dirt, surrounded by a 4x4 circle of rocks with a firepit and a plastic tarp/lean-to supported by cedar branches. They sit there from before dawn to well after, until the Level 2's are sent to bed.



This is called "impact".



During this time they are not allowed to talk (except to ask for water or food) and are forbidden to sleep except when the staff tells them to. They eat breakfast (oatmeal, cooked over their personal camp fire in an old coffee can), lunch ("trail mix," which is shredded coconut, Cheerios, and raisins), and dinner (which can vary from beans & lentils to Ramen noodles, depending on availability and behavior).



They are issued to blue Level 1-2 binder. At this time their only work is to write a letter to their parents, a letter to themselves (to be opened upon graduation), and to wait. Wait until advancement.



Level 2: ROUNDY



The students get their shoes back. Nor do they have to shit under supervision anymore, but it's still in the same port-o-potty (Staff, Boys, and Girls toilets are there, but are unlabeled so humiliation and punishment can be used against anyone using the "wrong one")



Usually after about 3 days the students are taken off of impact. A bath (in a galvanized tub with boiled water, a bar of soap, shampoo, and a disposable BIC razor) is provided. They are now Levels 2's or "twos," but keep the same binder. Their responsibilities are much greater than on impact. They spend most of their time milking cows, carrying water from a creek (punching through the ice if you're lucky enough to be there after November and before April), washing utensils/dishes, collecting eggs, feeding pigs, and doing push-ups twenty five at a time (if they say anything as horrible as "dude"

or "god"). Anywhere on the calendar remotely near winter, they chop firewood. Cords, as they call them, are a necessity for advancement in the Blue Binders. A quota is listed and enforced.



Level 3: The Barn



You get your Green Binder! And a mid-term meeting with your parents, who just might screw you over more if you're not careful. Better slap on a Utahn accent and bury that mouth firmly in between their ass cheeks!



At The Barn, oligarchy rears its ugly head. There is a syllogism to it. Not all students are snitches, but all snitches are students. You have to watch your ass in an entirely new way.



You are allowed to drink flavored beverages now (Kool-Aid, milk, soft drinks as infrequent rewards). You are allowed to see clocks and watch certain movies (The Emperor's New Groove, E.T., The Bridge Over the River Kwai, etc.) during "movie nights" and also you eat more complex food (burritos are a perrenial favorite). However, your mail is still (as always) regulated and newspapers/TV are out of the question.



Your average day will be spent feeding cattle off the back of a truck, feeding goats/chickens/geese/sheep, or even helping an employee move their furniture to a new house. You are free labor and therefor expendable, don't forget that. On Sundays, you're ushered into TAR vehicles and driven to Escalante's Baptist Church for the mandatory services(supposedly not, but on asking not to be included I was threatened with a "level drop").



During this time you will also be included in "groups." During Group you will sit on plastic chairs in a semi-circle and watch people be accused of things, mocked, and subsequently have insults screamed at them. Maybe you'll get to participate in Max Stewart's (the burly Mormon who runs the place) challenge to run from your chair to the corral fence and back again just for the hell of it. If you look at the girls too much he'll accuse you of wanting to make a "TAR baby." To Mormons, sex without reproduction is a foreign concept.



Or in my case, you might get taken for a ride in Stewart's pick-up truck for some personal attention. He told me I was a drug-addict for requesting a continuation for my prescription Eskalith (lithium citrate, for Bipolar Disorder). Thanks for curing my organic brain disorder, Max!



Level 4: The BARN, SOLO, GRADUATION



As a Level 4 you get to serve yourself a plate before anyone else by going behind the counter and scooping slop onto it while helpless Level 3's drool. You also get to sit in on "leadership meetings" in which troublesome students are brought up and solutions are devised. It's a sweet position, but make sure you kiss the right ass or you'll level drop.



During this time you're supposed to complete your Red Binder, which includes assorted equestrian bullshit and anti-drug propaganda from 20 years ago (by the way, these binders are counted as High School credits for some reason).



Eventually, after tormenting your underlings in Levels 1 to 3, you're sent to Solo. Now, Solo isn't as harsh as it used to be. It's still the same one-room, black-painted cabin out in the middle of nowhere that it used to be. The only difference is you don't have to sleep there. Instead you spend your time completing the Solo Binder, which is a reflection on just about everything. You can almost (kinda) get a tan out there, too. This is also the perfect time to smoke any cigarette butts you've found (or sage-brush rolled in notebook paper if you haven't learned to trade well). What, no matches? You should have stole them from the meds booth, you retard, GAWD there's only a fucking basket of them!



But I digress.



This isolation will last perhaps 2 days at the most. Then you'll be welcomed back to The Barn in hushed, secret anticipation of your graduation. Sometimes this is delayed for more than a week, other times it happens within 24 hours. You're then led into a circle outside (or one in The Barn) where your "medicine pouch," some feathers, and some other Indian bullshit are given to you. Then everyone says some stuff and your indulgent, well-fed, affluent parents cry and welcome you back into their (YOUR) family.



You are now free. It took 90 days of no music, no "slang," forced Christianity, having to sing while using the bathroom, hard manual labor, and ingenious mind-games... but you're free. What's in store for you? If you follow Turn About's suggestion; a life of piety and no friendship. Better than smoking weed and premarital sex, right??



what do you mean you are an elan history buff? That's peculiar. Also, you worte letters to the state educational consultant? How did you manage that? How did you know her address? How did you manage to get mail out?
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Offline Anonymous

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Re: Turn About Ranch (A Rough Guide)
« Reply #26 on: May 16, 2009, 06:44:39 PM »
I got released in late march, to say the least that "70 percent sucess rate" is all bullshit, it just made me hate Mormons and made me a better criminal, and to learn the concept that you can't trust anyone, not even your parents. I would love to meet the owner of Aspen Ranch, that man is making bank because it costs about 400 dollars a day to be there. But at the same time, they feed you grains from oatmeal and rice and free water from the river when on impact. Oh yeah, one more thing, Sue and Jay still work there, and local preacher Dale, personally i hope they burn in hell.
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Offline Anonymous

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Re: Turn About Ranch (A Rough Guide)
« Reply #27 on: May 16, 2009, 09:18:46 PM »
Quote from: "Andrew"
I got released in late march, to say the least that "70 percent sucess rate" is all bullshit, it just made me hate Mormons and made me a better criminal, and to learn the concept that you can't trust anyone, not even your parents. I would love to meet the owner of Aspen Ranch, that man is making bank because it costs about 400 dollars a day to be there. But at the same time, they feed you grains from oatmeal and rice and free water from the river when on impact. Oh yeah, one more thing, Sue and Jay still work there, and local preacher Dale, personally i hope they burn in hell.

Report them to the police and sue them. If you want justice and to end the evil, you need to stand up for yourself
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Offline brnrck

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Re: Turn About Ranch (A Rough Guide)
« Reply #28 on: April 21, 2011, 12:40:35 AM »
i went to turn about ranch twice. i have a few friends that went there too... some of us made it, some of us didn't.  I remember that in the group i was in, there were 2 suicides that i personally know about post tar, and a couple of us have some pretty bad ptsd. i feel that my parents were trying to help me, but turn about wasn't the right place for me.  the kind of tactics they use to change behavior is bogus. it's just tough love in a ranch setting while the program director brought in some pseudo native american bullshit mysticism to impress, and to make it seem more legit. they don't allow for freedom of religion, sending everyone to the same church, and reprimand you with physical labor if you refuse to participate.

i myself had a particularly hard time, cause i'm queer and they generally frown on that shit. they didn't really care for the fact i was jewish either.

i am pretty well adjusted now, but i really think that tar had nothing to do with it...
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Offline Trey5

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Re: Turn About Ranch (A Rough Guide)
« Reply #29 on: April 04, 2012, 12:56:36 AM »
I know this is a ridiculous *bump* but I was at TAR recently and one of the things they did was read our mail. a federal crime.
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