Elan (corporation/school)

[Anonymous]

a rape victim is advised to do the same or life will seem not worth living

The difference, nick, is that rapes are usually investigated, and rapists arrested and prosecuted. You hardly ever hear anyone say things like "So what if he raped a few kids? He was nice to me."

[lpayne64]

You are a bit hostile sounding, but I couldn't agree with your meaning more.  Elan should have been investigated and shut down.  Joe Ricci was a crook, and benefited off of insurance money and left me to deal with a nightmare.  I'm just glad that he is gone. I'm really not that type of person, but I have to tell you, I was pretty damn happy when I was told that he died.  By the way, I have moved on, I have a wonderful family, I wake up joyous every day, unfortunately, Elan will always be something I will want to face and figure out probably b/c I never had closure.  Although Joe passing away defintely helped.

[lpayne64]

I don't understand why you don't list your names, profile in regards to who you are and when you were in Elan.  Why no names?

[yearight]

y.

[lpayne]

I'm really quite sorry each time that I read someone posting that we need to get over Elan and move on with our lives.  With any tradegy it is as though it becomes a part of who you are.  Elan sucked...those of you that have been there recently just have no idea as to the cruelity or psychological games that were played on us.  As a parent now and having raised a teenager of my own, I have made my own voice heard to other parents contemplating to send their children away.  YOU DO NOT SEND YOUR CHILDREN AWAY IN MASSES LIKE A USED CAR TO BE FIXED.  B/c daah, it's usually the whole family that needs some adjusting.  And those that advise rape victims to move on with their lives, have not beeen raped.  Horray, for you that Elan was so wonderful, that is the farthest thing in the world that my Elan was.  You don't know what you are talking about...NO IDEA AT ALL!!!!

I could see if there was only one or two of us from the old school that were complaining or venting or sharing..whatever you want to call it, but there are hundreds of us...hundreds of us that share a terrible experience that get together occassionally in these bulletin boards to talk.  Do we offend you?  Well, that's just too bad.  I'm glad you are doing well, and I'm happy for you that you contribute some of that to Elan.  But for me, b/c of Elan I had to work all that harder to get where I'm at which is a great place to be, (mentally, physically, etc), but what I share and bring to other teenagers that come into my house and other parents contemplating sending there kids away.  I don't want to forget.

[yearight]

I never said you offend me with your posts about how Elan treated you. I simply expressed that I didn't share the same experience. I said that I hope you can move on, not that you should move on. Allow me to explain my point of view a little further. I simply wish that the older residents who had a bad experience realized that the more recent residents didn't. I understand that you don't want to send your kids there. Hell, I wouldn't either. I would never want to subject anyone I love to a place like Elan and my mom still apologizes to me once a year or so for sending me there. Then again, I can't condone all the immature (and likely 100% false) posts like those about Clare.

You asked for a name, I gave you mine. Please don't take my words the wrong way. I feel for your experience, I have no desire to belittle it, I just didn't share it.

~Dave

[Anonymous]

dave,
I remember you, you were in 8 about the same time i was in 7,Well, here is my 2 cents:
Everyones elan experience was individual and different whether new school or old. Each person encountered different problems with residents and staff.
I think that when a kid of 15 years old (me) is ripped from all familiar surrounds and lives in an alternate reality that is completely fictional for three years and then released back into society at 18 years old, your gonna have some emotional unrest about it.
When I was brought to elan it was by a joint effort of my parents and florida state government.
One day I was enjoying the summer break from school I got arrested, 2 days later i was scrubbing the floor for hours on end for breaking rules like, talking without strength, looking out the window, speaking to the females. I thought It was like i was in the midst of a horrible trip I couldn't come down from. I lost my laces was put on a bright LE, bans, loss of laces, eat last,shower last, put in the corner and made to get my feelings off in encounters the first day. Talk about a shock to the system, I litereally didn't take a shit until october 3 and i got there sept.1, physically impossible? almost,we'll just say i couldnt sit right fot a few days.
To some people it wasn't like this, to some people it was much much worse I will not ever doubt what a student says about elan. no body knew the staff but us, and no one, not even the staff knew everything that went on there. It was in a sense anarchic dictatorship. and maybe even worse than the staff were the students that staff took a particular liking too. Which I'll go ahead and say was not me, they couldve made it harder for, though i probably would have not graduated, they sure as hell made it easier for the kids they favored.
As I'll close, the experiences people had are as individual as the peopl who had them, I believe elans time is coming to a close. We can only pray.
By the way dave- this is whit Long- elan 7 -9/95-6/98, graduate as full coordinator of communications, broadcasting.

[lpayne64]

F _ _ _ !!!! U

[Anonymous]

Lpayne -who was that directed towards, you know the
F___ You?

[Anonymous]

My not so nice reply was not directed properly.  It posted in this room even though I hit reply to this specific message in another area.  Sorry!  It wasn't towards you all.
lp

[dterrel]

GO WHITNEY!!!!  YOU ALWAYS WERE THE SHIT!  This is Doug T!!!  How have you been?

[Anonymous]

who the fuck are you?  how the hell can you tell anyone to grow a spine when you won't even write your fucking name.  i put mine in here, my name is Ryan Kievit, and i don't give a shit who knows it.  i have a spine, anyone willing to speak out against the hell called elan has a spine, and i wish i knew who the fuck you are, cause i sure as hell have no respect for you, i am more successful right now, at eighteen years old then you will ever be in your whole life.  i fucking graduated too, big fucking deal, who the fuck cares?  i went to elan 3 to bitch, so let me know who you are, but don't sit there all fucking high and mighty cause you fucking graduated and think you made a difference there.

[lpayne64]

Ryan, I read your posting.  I survived Elan...oh some 23 years ago.  Elan...what right to Joe R. have?  I escaped from Elan (only one of the few successful escapes) and I still in one form or another live with the trauma that it burned on my soul.  It will be (unfortunately) a part of me for the rest of my life.  But in reading your angry post (I don't really blame you at all for being angry and only find this makes you "normal") I realized that you are the same age as my son, Raymond.  Even though you are only 18 right now, I can tell you that because of how aweful Elan was (amongst other incidents in my life) my son gained from all of my suffering because I vowed to not be, not give, not subject my own children to anything I was.  So, in a very twisted way, (VERY TWISTED) something good actually came out of Elan. You have absolutely no idea how hard it is for me to admit that anything in regards to Elan would be good.  Actually, it is because of how awful/evil Elan was that any good came from it.  It is because I am the opposite in every way of everything Elan stands for.  I wish you the best..and hope that you have a great life because remember Ryan.....You survived probably one of the worst experiences in your life.  It can only get better now.  That is how it is for me.  Elan was so incredibly psychologically damaging to me, to my very core, that now as an adult anything bad that can happen pales in comparison to the hell I had to live through at Elan.

Lisa

[Anonymous]

You snivelers make me sick. Elan is not to blame for your miserable lives, YOU ARE!
Get over it.

I was in Elan for 29 months in the early 80s
I dont think about Elan, I dont blame elan for any of my fuck-ups since I left. 99% of the stories I read here about Elan are BULSHIT...you snivelers are a severe minority, the majority are those who dont look back, those who dont care, and those who are completely honest about what elan was, and WHY THEY WERE THERE!

THAT is why no media will touch Elan, because the only people they can get a story from is the fucking snivelers who exagerate, and have distorted thier own memories of thier stay in Elan to a point where even YOU cant remember the TRUTH.

Im sure if you didnt go to Elan, there would be some other source of blame for your miserable lives.

Fuck you people make me sick, get with the fucking program...Elan is history yet all you fucking whiners come in here, and other sick sites to stew in your own shit. YOU'RE to blame for that...

I hear you all saying the same thing..."my life would be better if I didnt go to Elan"

Uhh, your life would be better if you simply WANTED it to be better despite what some school in Maine "did to you"
Now that would be a success story you snivelers couldnt handle! :scared:

[Anonymous]

Hey Art yea its me........... see ya found this board. Ok will post the site here too hope more of you will hit this site and file with them maybe one laywer out there will hear us...

        http://www.bigclassaction.com
Its worth a try everyone!