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Former Pierceton Woods Employee Arrested For Child Seduction

PIERCETON ? A former Pierceton Woods Academy employee was recently arrested after entering into a relationship with a juvenile who resided on the campus.

Kaitlyn Anne McCullough, 24, 4256 S. SR 109, Albion, is charged with child seduction, a level 6 felony.

On July 8, 2020, the Indiana Department of Child Services received a report of child seduction that occurred at Pierceton Woods Academy. The incident allegedly involved McCullough, who formerly worked as a childcare worker at the facility, and a youth who resided at Pierceton Woods.

On July 9, 2020, the youth was interviewed by a DCS worker and Pierceton Police officer. According to court documents, that person described entering a relationship with McCullough while she was employed at Pierceton Woods. The youth showed Facebook messages between them and McCullough, indicating a relationship spanning from May to June 2020. The juvenile also described two events where the two kissed in a wooded area on Pierceton Woods? property.

The DCS worker and Pierceton Police officer then spoke with McCullough about the incidents. McCullough admitted to having Facebook conversations with the juvenile and described two incidents where she and the juvenile kissed in a wooded area.

Pierceton Woods Academy is currently facing a sexual assault civil suit in a matter unrelated to the McCullough incident.

In the suit, a father of a juvenile who was allegedly assaulted on the campus says their child was sexually assaulted by Darby Ellis Perry, a former Pierceton Woods employee.

McCullough was booked in the Kosciusko County Jail on Feb. 11, with a $5,250 surety and cash bond.

I am in need of someone to check out this facility . My grandson was sent to this place and has had problems since. Inmate hiding under bed. Now threatened to be next victim in front of supervision. Now torn up his room and inmates that threatened . Want investigated someone to call check out tapes.

I have nothing to say against Pierceton Woods Academy. This of course is a great Stress to me as one of my children is currently a residence of the academy. However I can say that the program has helped my son in a immense way. They helped me save my family

I have lived here for one year and months and highly recommend considering you options when coming to this facility. My experience was absolutely horrendous. I was not helped when coming to this facility in fact was set further behind and was given less opportunity. There were care specialists that were clearly biased and gave favoritism to other residents. Not only this, I was promised full confidentiality of all treatment information but I was not given this respect and this caused me more troubles. I was put down by other residents and I was not helped by the care specialists. I was discharged unsuccessfully because of failed polygraph in  which I was forced to take by the facility and what was worse is I had been truthful, but had been called a liar. These polygraphs have caused the fall of so many residents and in my entire 14 months of stay,  I saw only 1 person discharge by completion of the program. These residents are undergoing a tremendous amount of stress, I know because of the social awkwardness that I still have today.  The facility also does not have a welcoming setting, I felt I was in solitary confinement . These people will walk out with more mental problems and will likely discharge unsuccessfully. In my personal opinion, avoid this place at all costs. In the mist of all this, they did offer a great christian environment but may be a problem if there were one who was not christian. The care specialists generally liked to show christian movies and shows. One more thing, the school offered had no opportunity, most of the schooling was on computer and classes offered were chosen for you, generally an elective like basic skills or Indiana studies. So complicated classes such as algebra had to be self taught on a computer. Please consider all of your options when coming to this facility, because generally any other residental is better than here.

Fired a good staff member for completely bs reasons and treated them poorly with clear bias for certain members. Not very understanding of staff having to do what they can to keep things under control in high stress situations with zero help from other staff even if it doesn't 110% go the way management wants it to go.

Horrible place to work!!! They are alway short staffed. Was hired for zero Sundays and I can?t even go to church yet this is supposed to be a ?Christian? company. They do not allow me to go to church. This place is a joke. The management never helps and just lets us work short staffed. Kids are always beating up staff and running away. Setting fires. Yet no one here to help. This company is a joke! I never call off I?m always at work and they won?t even let me e cerise my rights to go to church.

As someone who successfully discharged from the facility. I say, depending on the kind of environment you want your child in, this may, or may not be a good place. They may have good staff, but many staff who work here are power hungry when it comes to position. I would recommend somewhere else, but it is your choice.

i mean its not meant to be fun. But most of the officers are disrespectful asholes that break you down because they make NO money. Mr.White especially was a ugly as dude who would make fun of me and laugh at my own expense. Somedays they dont even let you out of your cell for rec. #ShutDown

Xu's testimoney

The program lied to my parents giving false legal information saying if i left the state of Georgia it would complicate my felony even more because the place is so depressing me and a friend of mine there tried running away and we happend to come across a car with its door open and keys inside to swindle more cash pre day during my stay there in GA 2 the boys group 1 tried to kill them selfs 1 ran away 5 times turned 18 and finally ran away they over charge the worth of this program by priceless amounts WOULD NOT RECOMMEND if you have a troubled teen it would be much more beneficial to talk to them and provide care your self or send them to a residential or rehab facility the kid who tried to kill him self was there for 90 days and got kicked out last minute and all the program did was recommend him to another program a absolute WASTE OF MONEY

White's parent-testimony

I regret taking my son here.  He attempted suicide TWICE because of this program.  My son isn?t the same anymore because of the trauma this program causes.

Reading through the news articles in the Tampa Bay Times, I found some disturbing similarities in the statements of others and what I experienced here, even though they were sent to this facility many years after me. I was sent to Bonifay, Teen Challenge in May of 2002 and ?graduated? in September of 2003 only after my parents signed a waiver for me to join the US Army (as my other option was homelessness). But in June of 2002 I was nearly killed in this facility by a staff member called ?Sergeant Williams.?

I raised my hand to ask a question in the dining hall and was picked up several feet off the ground and slammed head first onto a tile floor. I could not move or feel anything for several minutes. I had a knot on my head the size of a softball, got dizzy and sick often, and found walking difficult for several weeks. I was refused medical care. I would find out years later during a CT scan that my skull had previously been fractured and I had sustained what should have been treated as a life threatening concussion. SGT Williams would go on to do this to several other children during his career at TC Bonifay, until eventually being let go for nearly killing another cadet.

In this facility we were forced to fight each other in a boxing ring in what was called the ?back 40? (the 40 acres of land behind the facility facing away from Highway 2) for staff entertainment. Sometimes the staff would enter the boxing ring with cadets if they felt there was an issue with a child. It is important to note that the staff members during my stay at TC Bonifay were all either ex-military, active duty police officers, or former police officers. One of which was ?SGT Pollock,? an active duty police officer, who was fired for sexual misconduct involving a cadet (TC did do the right thing here). Another honorable mention is SGT Wright, a former Marine, who entered the ring with a cadet and knocked him out (he was not fired).

We were physically worked until several of us were urinating blood, and forced to dig 6′ x 6′ holes in the ground to ?bury our demons? if we committed an offense such as not standing at the position of attention with the correct posture.

It noted in the Tampa Bay Times that the school is not regionally or state accredited. The Army accepted the HS diploma issued (bear in mind it was 2003 during the invasion of Iraq), when applying to college after leaving the military I still had to go and get a GED due to this school not being accredited.

If anyone else is out there reading this, please do not send your child here. If you are also a victim of abuse at this facility, please share your experience and vote to change the law regarding class action suits of facilities like this so we can be somewhat compensated for the brutality experienced here and years of PTSD which follow.

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• Victims of the Troubled Teen Industry (1000 places You don't want to be as a teenager)
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Horrible horrible horrible. I was a girl there for almost 5 months before graduating and I, 8 months later, still think of the horrors of this place till this very day. First of all, I was NO angel. I went there because i was crazy and out of control, typical teen stuff times 1000.. I come from a beautiful loving family,  so they were desperate.... First of all, the majority of the women here are in their early 20s and very unqualified!! Second of all, in order to get out, you must kiss up to them as much as possible! You are also NOT allowed to talk to any other, or stare or even smile at any other girl there. Snitching on eachother is expected. If you get caught doing so without going through staff you will get a hill run,(its not a hill) which includes running up a mini mountain with raddle snakes while staff times you... If u dont get up & down in 15 mins you must redo it . Third,  you run over a mile a day, up and downhill.... You are given no choice. If you feel sick or are injured that usually say they don't believe you and force you to run anyway..  Over the course of my nearly 5 month stay,  I got a gash in my head that almost needed stitches and broke my tailbone/strained my back because staff forced me to ride on an unruly horse. I was threatened with tacking on months to my stay and being level dropped if I got off, so out of desperation I did what they asked. Sure enough, due to staffs incompetence, the horse steps on sharp wire, bucks up, knocks me off and begins to roll on top of me .... The helmet broke.  Just as bad, the woman, instead of calling for help, forced me to walk almost a mile back to the ranch... When we fianally got to the cabins, i was told to go to the "wash cabin" where I, in terrible pain, had to tell the lady there I had just fallen off a horse. Finally, after delaying about an hour, they took me to the emergency room.  Of course, not before making me walk to the barn to get myself some dinner. However, I was so brainwashed by the crap that I didn't see just how messed up everything was. They have something called "Life Review" ( the name still gives me chills) that is basically you do something "bad", and are forced to sit facing the wall. All day. Thats all you do. You cant be around anyone, you sleep on the floor, cant participate in anything, cant talk to staff, and if u get caught doing something as minor as looking around the room, you get olives and beans to eat. This can last anywhere from a week to MONTHS. A 13 year old girl was on this for over 2 months before she left... She was so bored and lonely that she resorted to self harm & picking the skin off of her hands to occupy her time.. She wasn't perfect but wow I bet she suffered SO much. By the time she left she was pale and even more thin.

If I could I would put this place called hell in negatives. But sadly i'm not able to do that. My names Elana, and I didn't get the help i needed. I stayed there for 5 months trying to kill my self every other week. That should be a sign. You're welcome. Please contact me if you want more details on the experience.

I attended Trinity as a teen and have since tried to forget the trauma that happened to me while I was there but have found myself 5 years later, still tortured by the memories. I was your typical rebellious teen- experimenting with alcohol and drugs, defiant, hanging out with older boys, and depressed. However, the punishment I received at trinity for being this way is something I would never wish on my worst enemy. All Trinity did was confuse and lie to my family, and further traumatize me. I was sitting in a car one day after I got out drinking and smoking weed with my old friends 100 times MORE self destructive, alone, and sad than I was the day I went to Trinity. The affects of Trinity led me to be a serious hard drug abuser, something I was never destined to be coming from my loving and supporting family that was only trying to help me. I had no other way to numb the memories and pain. Every other girl I attended with had similar fates- either became serious junkies, or became promiscuous and had children out of wedlock because they were only searching for love and to numb the memories as well. I am being totally honest when I say this- I WOULD HAVE RATHER BEEN IN JAIL.

Why? Many reasons. One, in jail you actually know how long you are going to be there. Trinity is on a "need to know basis." So unless it is information you need to know in a life or death situation, it is withheld from you. The MONTHS never knowing when you will be able to see your family again or be treated like a human being are torture. Two, you can talk to other people in jail and rely on each other for support. At Trinity, the girls are not in any case allowed to be friends or talk to each other without permission. No one is allowed to know why the other one is there. Theyre encouraged to tattle on each other and punished if they do not. This creates a lonely and depressing environment versus having other girls there for support and to share similar struggles with. Three, if you are doing well you will get out sooner and vice versa. At Trinity, no matter what you do, you will be accused of faking it and lying and problems will be made up by staff for you, anything in order to tell your parents you need to be kept there longer. It is biased and decided by unqualified "life coaches" that have simply received an undergrad degree in something like psychology and has no training. I was once told by one of these staff members that I was getting too close with another girl and every time I looked or spoke to this other girl I was tacking on a few months to my stay at Trinity. My final reason is you are given adequate hygiene, food, and clothing in jail. At Trinity, every girl there even though we were all different sizes and body builds were FORCED to eat the exact same portion every single meal and if they didn't eat something on their plate? Punished. This was too much for some girls and never enough for others. Showers were maybe once a week in cold water for 5 minutes. And the underwear, bras, and clothing were reused by girls for over 20 years- it was ratty and disgusting. One girl came back as a staff member 10 years after she had been there and said she recognized her sweat pants and hoodies she wore at age 15. This is pretty amusing to me since TRINITY COSTS NEARLY $300 A DAY. Yet they spent none of this money on clothing or anything else really. Food was ordered cheaply in bulk and the girls made every thing themselves- low cost pasta and rice meals- and if anything started getting used to much and became "too expensive" it was immediately nixed. I was once reprimanded for using the too expensive avocados. 

Angie Woodward, the owner. How that name makes me cringe. She is the lovely lady responsible for harming so many teen girls and scamming hundreds of people into dumping her loads of cash for her multiple homes, vacations, and boats, cars, horses, ATVs, etc. that she parades around the girls and rubs in their faces while they are slaving away on her ranch. Angie's father owns the trouble teen boys ranch down the road and is where she learned all of these shaming and fear tactics for the clients and families. The only difference between the two ranches is that the boys one has been closed for abuse, neglect, and fraud, while Angie's is surprisingly still open! She claims to have years of experience and be our on staff nurse but I think I only saw her twice in the whole year and a half I was there- like I said she was busy vacationing. She hires 24 years olds fresh out of undergrad to carry out the dirty work instead who are too fresh in the world and naive to know they are doing something wrong- although a few figured it out and left and have written reviews here themselves that are negative but have been removed. Ill spare you the details of the abuse and neglect that goes on at Trinity- all you need to know is it is a scam with false advertising, AND YOU SHOULD NEVER SEND YOUR DAUGHTER HERE.

My daughter attended TTS three years ago at a time when we, her parents, were desperately seeking help for our teen who was self-destructive to the extreme.

After 16 months on the ranch our daughter came home. We were no longer living in fear that we would receive a dreaded phone call that our daughter was in jail or dead. Initially we attributed this to TTS.  We now know that any improvement in our daughter was by default, certainly not due to the unprofessional, quack/psuedo therapy administered at TTS.

After three years, it has become abundantly clear to us that in the process of overcoming the former self-destructive behavior, our daughter was very emotionally traumatized by the harsh, punitive treatment at TTS.

As her mother, I had put my faith in the program but had misgivings. I heard of all the "challenges" and "consequences," the critiques at the peer and staff assessments - but where was the balance with any affirmation, or sign of love and caring? I definitely had the sense that my child was living in a fearful, not loving environment, even though I had been assured the girls lived in a loving, healthy, "family" environment.

My daughter is now in intense psychotherapy to deal with the trauma she experienced at TTS. She has been diagnosed by both a psychiatrist and a psychologist with PTSD.  TTS did a masterful job at tearing our daughter and her former ways down but she was not built up in a healthy, caring way, as we were led to believe she would be. No, she was intimidated, afraid to tell the truth, say or do  the "wrong thing".  She now lives in fear of being constantly judged, misunderstood, has nightmares and flashbacks.  Her already fragile self-esteem and identity were decimated at TTS.

For all the time, money, and emotional drain we invested with TTS, I believe we were misinformed, lied to and left in the dark about the harsh reality of our daughter's treatment.

Unless the program makes a concerted effort to balance the "Siberia-like" conditions with some loving compassion - I would strongly not recommend sending a daughter there.

Please do not send your daughter here. I left Trinity almost three years ago, and suffer from the repercussions everyday I was barely 16 when I was sent to TTS and left at almost 18. Those are two vital years of a young persons life, in which they should be nurtured and be able to learn from their mistakes. Trinity is a verbally, emotional and psychological abusive program that you leave having no feeling of self worth or confidence. I know I do not speak for just myself as I am in contact with MANY previous Trinity girls. A majority of the reason I was sent to Trinity, was because of my adoption. My "counselor" and staff would never allow me to talk to them about my adoption and upon leaving they told me I was not allowed to talk to my birth family for a year. They refuse your basic human rights and treat you worse than if you were residing in a prison. I have many psychological as well as physical damage as a result from Trinity. While there I was told I was not allowed to engage in any extraneous activity involving my knees. However I was still made to do these and more, now at 20 years old I have the muscle, bone structure and fragility of a 70 year old woman. I also had many UTI's as a result of being refused to be taken to the bathroom while on chair. I suffer from social anxiety and PTSD, waking up screaming in the middle of the night afraid I am being sent back. If you want the best for your daughter, DO NOT send them here. They will come back with only more damage and hurt before they left.

This facility did nothing to address the problems I have communicating with other people. They told me I do not have any disorder. Turns out I have autism. I was there for almost two years and none of the staff there picked up on it. I have problems understanding other people, and learned nothing about how to deal with my disorder. I also requested to leave repeatedly when I turned 18 years old there, and was told I could not. I was held against my will for over a year. At no time was I showed paperwork that they could hold me against my will, such as a court order signed by a judge. I still have weekly nightmares and am in therapy with a PTSD diagnosis because of the abusive manner in which I had been treated. I underwent sleep deprivation, food deprivation, and mental and emotional abuse. If you really want to help your child, I recommend finding either a short-term place or putting your child in the juvenile justice system. Research shows no difference in outcomes for clients of these facilities and people in the justice system. At least in the justice system, there is a definite sentence. A person's behavior while inside determines if they stay longer or get out faster. If they want to get out faster, they will change their behaviors. Keep in mind Trinity Teen Solutions is a private institution, and can pretty much do whatever they want, legally. The things documented here by myself and other former clients really happened, and TTS is going to keep doing them as long as parents are desperate enough to send their daughters there. It would be nearly impossible to shut them down due to the abuse they have inflicted, since they are a private company.

honestly this was the worst experience I've ever had to be put through. i was only there for a little over 5 months and I only got to leave when i ran away while in town. My stay there was so horrible that towards the last month and a half all i could do was think of ways to try and kill myself to get out. I suffer from PTSD now. i went to two more residential treatment centers before going home truly better. My whole stay consisted of trying to kiss up to all the staff so i could get out. the average stay there if you wanted to graduate was around 2 years. most girls had to wait until they turned 18 to leave. You aren't fed properly. you are over worked to an extreme. the "care" you receive there is horrible and traumatizing. it would be less that a star if i could rate it that way. this place honestly made me worse than when i came in.

I went here for about six months, and while I don't think it was as bad as some of the other reviews here say, it was still pretty bad. For one, before I went there I had never done drugs, never drank, never partied, but when I came back I felt the strongest urge to get into this stuff. I learned about piercings, tattoos, parties, alcohol, and all this other stuff I didn't really know about and being so restrained it seemed so fun! The turn over rate is very low, most girls can take 2+ years to graduate. Nobody had graduated in over a year when I was there Jan-Jul 2014. Most girls either "age out(turn 18, like I did)", or they get pulled out by their parents for whatever reason. Most girls parents don't let them go home when they turn 18, but my mom did because she had been planning on pulling me out soon anyways because she didn't like how regulated and censored the communication between us was, mostly letters.

The staff are pretty nice, but there is definite favoritism. I've talked to a lot of girls who went there, and the few of them who I've met said they had to kiss major butt to get anywhere. I was only comfortable actually talking to only 2 or 3 of the staff there, many of them are just either awkward or tend to make me feel like what I was saying was wrong. Now, maybe that was the case, but I thought they were supposed to help me open up and learn to see my mistakes instead of making me feel shut down and guilty. All I know is that I had a lot more self confidence going in than I did coming out.

Another thing was the horses. I LOVED the horses. One of the main reasons my mom said she sent me here was because she was really excited about the horses, but unless you are on horse chore you don't get to see or interact with them very often. You go riding maybe once every few weeks if you're lucky, though sometimes at random you'll go like three times in two weeks then not go again for a month. Not sure how that system works, but my mom wasn't very happy with it and neither was I.

The therapy was alright, I loved Bernadette! She made me feel like a normal person and a lot less guilty. Not everything bad is my fault, turns out! The staff though is a bit harsh. I know the point of the place is "tough love", but there's a point where it can go a bit overboard. You can try as hard as you can but it still will not be good enough, unless you meet these standards you feel awful about yourself. I did learn a lot, but I think the "trauma" kind of negated most of it. I have nightmares about the place and I wasn't even there that long compared to most. I was pretty well behaved, so I didn't get in too much trouble, but the punishments for things are very unbalanced. Once a girl freaked out and made us all leave the cabin and she just didn't get dinner, while once I accidentally ordered an extra box of soap and got a hill run. I understand that people need different punishments, but good golly. Some girls would act completely awful and so the staff would coddle them, while some of us got completely ignored. Now this is how I saw it. I don't know the whole story, but all I know is that it made me feel very insignificant and frustrated.

The religion was also kind of shoved down your throat. I am a christian, not catholic, but I still got shut down when I tried to give my opinion during group discussions. If they didn't agree with you, you were wrong. Another thing about the "group therapy", I didn't even know that was supposed to be "therapy". Most of the time we watch videos about a saint or how to react in different situations(videos that were made in the 80's may I add). Those videos are hilarious and none of us take them seriously, they are just too dang corny. They call it "group therapy", but its more just something to keep us occupied for an hour or two.

Now, in my opinion, if your daughter is close to turning 18, has never drank, partied, or done drugs, isn't very religious, or anything like that, this isnt the place. I cant speak for others, but when I came out I think I was worse than when I went. Also if you actually want her to graduate expect her to be there for at least two years. I did learn some stuff though, like that you can put anything on a tortilla! Also patience and people skills because the girls there can be nuts. I love them though and I can't wait until they get out so I can talk to them without being constantly monitored. So anywho, yep. That's my opinion.