What Do You Wish To Believe?

[Anonymous]

"Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against."

"Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth."
 
This Is my life. This is my Truth and I hope anyone reading will listen closely. We want no trouble. We just want everyone to understand that we arent the bad guys. When you believe in something, its hard to change your mind, but remember, The worst of mistakes, fall apon those with a closed mind. So think before you take a side, and then dont take one. If you have idle time, spend it usefully. I just wish for everyone to believe that people have there reasons for saying what they say, but also know that we are good people, We still love leah and wish she would stop the lies and remember the person she used to be. We wish people who dont know us wouldnt judge. We try not to judge also. But everyone is human. I'm sorry for any problems this has caused and it has been hard for all of us. but i hope to let everyone know that this is a place of good, we love everyone and everyone is a family. We share eachothers everything. I am sending out an open invitation to anyone who wants to come see at any time, how things go around here, come and stop by for a visit, then you can make your judgemnts. Please, give evey side a chance.  It would only be fair to both of us that you know the complete stories on both sides. if you have any questions,  please feel free to ask them. And please i hope knowone will take the words i have offered from my heart and turn them into something they are not. I mean what i say and i say what i mean. Thats is all there is too it. bless anyone out there that they will find strength to know whats true, and to take the side of god.

Sincerely,
A whitmore student

[Anonymous]

hey that was good.maybe you will get to be first in line at the buffet tonight for writing all that good stuff. cheryl might even give you a pass on journal writing, and increase your shower limit to 3 hole minutes.

[Gmom]

I was there several times.  I did see.  I, too, believed the Sudweeks -- wanted to believe them.  But then things just didn't add up.  I visited and saw things I questioned, was told things that were contradictory to what I had been told before.  I was told by Cheryl that people in Canada and Mexico were trying to kill them.  I heard different stories about the same incidents from Cheryl.  Sorry, Leah is not lying.  I have heard some of the phone calls to Leah, I have read the threats.  Truthfulness doesn't have the need to do that  Love doesn't do that.  

Leah is a very strong girl.  She learned a lot about what she did not want to be part of or be like.  In the end the love of her family and the teachings of her family were her strengths, not the Whitmore.  You can make all the accusations you like against her, but you cannot take away what the Sudweeks have done, what they contracted to provide for the money they were paid.  It's real simple, they lied to us.  They led us to believe they would provide things that they did not.

 So you see, it's not about the kids' problems, what bad behavior they displayed -- that's what they were there to fix -- it's about the untruths told by the Sudweeks, the abusiveness and the neglect.  

There is a right and a wrong. To sit back, to not take a stand for what you believe, to not take sides, to stand back and do nothing, is to let the things that are wrong to continue.  Everyone is part of the human race and has a stake in it.  Stand up and be heard -- participate -- help right the wrongs.

[Anonymous]

Leah aint no strong girl..if she were strong..she wouldnt give herself up to every guy that walks by her...practice what you preach and teach your sweet lil baby that one too

[Anonymous]

Gmom, dont you understand? This is affecting the kids that live at the whitmore. They dont like to see mark and cheryl like this, "if mama aint happy, aint nobody happy!" You know? so cant you think of them and leave this be?  Let well enough alone. our lives dont need this, What did the kids do to deserve this? or mark and cheryl and there family? This makes it hard on eveyrone! and i know your having a hard time also but then we have soemthing in common, may the man who has not sinned, cast the first stone. how can you beat on us when you have made mistakes also. and dont turn my words around.

[Anonymous]

There is a right and a wrong. To sit back, to not take a stand for what you believe, to not take sides, to stand back and do nothing, is to let the things that are wrong to continue.  



"
[/quote]

ok, if you want to do so much good then tell the authorities about zitas momma, she is the one raping her daughter, f'in lesbian. do something about that!

[Anonymous]

Lying about this girl's mother will not make the investigation by Dectective Kimball go away. What a shame to stoop so low.

[Antigen]

To the anon who started this thread and at least one other:

Look, here's the thing. A lot, probably most, of what's gone back and forth in this forum lately has been low brow, ugly, mean spirited BS. But if you skip past that stuff, you'll find that there are a few, simple and pretty serious issues also under discussion, barely heard above the din.

These issues are not your fault! And "Mama" has no business taking it out on you in any way.

One of the issues I'm interested in discussing is the method of treatment that Whitmore offers. I'll tell you right up front that I hold a very dim view of group therapy, especially w/o meaningful informed consent. One of the problems that I have w/ that treatment model is that you have to secure meaningful confidentiality agreements w/ everyone involved. As we've seen here lately, that doesn't always work out as well as you might initially intend. You kids have no business knowing half the stuff you know about each other, even the bit of it that might be factually true.

You didn't set it up this way. It's just what you were handed. No, you're not the bad guys. I don't even think the Sudweeks or the edcons or the parents involved really thought this through. But I hope they'll start thinking about it now.

If we choose to violate the rights of the innocent in order to discover and act against the guilty, then we have transformed our country into a police state and abandoned one of the fundamental tenants of a free society. In order to win the war on drugs, we must not sacrifice the life of the Constitution in the battle.
--US District Judge H. Lee Sarokin

_________________
Ginger Warbis ~ Antigen
Seed sibling `71 - `80
Straight South (Sarasota, FL)
   10/80 - 10/82
Anonymity Anonymous
Some days, it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps.

[Mr. Bean]

Now all of you are just stooping down below your imaginations. If you haven't been there for a year then shut your mouth!!! :evil:  you have no room to talk. I was there for a year and i know what that place is all about. i am a former student of the Whitmore. They are only trying to do what is right but they are not perfect "no one is" They did stuff that wasn't right but most of it is good. You have to understand that there is no such thing as a perfect place that helps troubled teens, never has and never will be. The Whitmore has helped me so much and advise that you take it from a former student who was there for a year instead of the parents on here who are just mad because of the lies their kids told them in desperasity of doing anything to get back home. You need to think all of this through before you post nonsence on here. I was there for all that drama that happened with the STATE and kids being questioned about things that didn't even happen. Trust me I would not be supporting Mark and Cheryl if bad things were going on there. i am pretty much the most recent kid that left so I know what is going on and what is not. feel free to contact me if you have any question..........   [email protected]

[Antigen]

If it's such a great place, then why are kids desperate to go home?

May your days be joyfully challenging and your words artfully true
-- Ginger Warbis SMA, `00

[Gmom]

Come back here in six months and see if you feel the same way.  When you live the life 24/7 you begin to think that is "normal" and okay.  It's after you have been away and think back you begin
to see that is "normal" of "healthy" or "right."

You said the Sudweeks did some bad things.  That is not acceptable.  That is not okay.  That is not a right that they have.  It is really that simple.

[Gmom]

THAT IS NOT THE ISSUE.  NOR IS IT ANY OF YOUR BUSINESS OR ANYONE ELSES.  ATTACKING LEAH OR ANY OTHER KID, WHO IS OR WHO HAS BEEN AT THE WHITMORE, WILL NOT CHANGE THE ISSUES OF ABUSE, FRAUD, ETC.  TRY SPEAKING TO THOSE.

[Gmom]

I'M SORRY YOU KIDS AT THE WHITMORE ARE HAVING SUCH A HARD TIME.  BUT SOONER OR LATER, IF NOT ME, IT WILL BE SOMEONE ELSE.  WHAT THE SUDWEEKS DO IS WRONG.  GO TO THE POLICE, CALL THE CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES.  GO ALONE OR GO AS A GROUP.
THIS HAS GOT TO STOP.

[Antigen]

One other question/statement.

On 2005-03-12 02:14:00, Mr. Bean wrote:

You have to understand that there is no such thing as a perfect place that helps troubled teens, never has and never will be.

That has been my contention all along. Like a lot of these troubled teen programs, the Whitmore is marketed as a kinder, gentler, better alternative to some of the more abusive places. You probably already knew that. What you might not know is that damned near all of these places say exactly the same thing about themselves and others. As recently as last week, I heard from an adult that Hidden Lake Academy is kinder and gentler than The Seed. But if you ask a dedicated Seedling (and you can find a few posting to the Seed forum on this server, my brother among them) The Seed was nothing but goodness and love, w/ maybe a mistake or two. Essentially just as you describe the Whitmore. But then you can also find people who found the whole experience to be horrific and who had problems owing to it for years afterward.

Well my question, going back a couple of years now, is this. What exactly is this better alternative? How does it work? How is a parent supposed to know the difference between one program's claims of superiority and all the others?

How does it "work"? How does a kid, taken there against their will, come to change w/o the kind of forced behavior mod techniquies we're all so familiar with? And, maybe more importantly, why are these kids attacking each other now?

Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense.
--Francois Marie Arouet "Voltaire", French author and playwright

[Anonymous]

"A gentlier, kinder program" is only one place, a NON-WWASP program. It is that simple.
And how can group therapy, led by a non-therapist with the focus being on one kid with the point of the "GROUP SESSION" being to humiliate that one kid and possible to physically abuse the kid?
There is no confidentialy. Each kid must "confess" why he/she was brought to Whitmore, and many feel a need to "add to the confession if they don't appear to be BAD ENOUGH."
Parents are told the PROGRAM works one way, when in actuality it works the opposite. The contract states there will be no physical abuse of anykind for discipline, and there IS. When all communication is MONITORED, then the parents are highly criticized for NOT KNOWING. The school is advertised one way and presented by the honest-seeming referral company as THE BEST--then it is NOT.  It is a vicious circle. Then after-the-fact, when parents complain, file criminal charges the parents are held up as lunatics, vindictive, and WORSE.  How does the cycle end? New, uninformed parents just fill the void of the WISER parents who got their kids out.