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Messages - ArtLew7

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There has been a new lawsuit filed describing "torture" of a 15-year-old girl in 2005. I'm researching behavior mod programs, and I wanted to know if anyone went there since 2006 and had similar experiences? Either post here or contact me directly.
Thanks, ArtLew7;
            http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/06/27/47850.htm
  SALT LAKE CITY (CN) - A mother claims in court that "sadists and psychopaths" at Turn About Ranch, a residential treatment center in Escalante, subjected her teen-age daughter to "torture," including hours of stress positions, threats to suffocate her, exposure to animal abuse and regular public humiliation.
     Elizabeth Verney and her mother, Julia Gordon, sued Turn About Ranch and Aspen Education Group, both California corporations, in Federal Court.
     Turn About "purport(s) to be a Utah licensed residential treatment center" in Escalante. It's owned and operated by the Aspen Group, according to the complaint.
     Verney, now 22, claims Turn About subjected her to "torture" in 2005, when she was 15.
     The ranch billed itself as a place to treat "young people with low self-esteem, depression and mental health problems," according to the complaint, and "boasted [of] daily private therapy sessions, horse riding and outdoor activities with all staff trained as childcare experts."
     Gordon, of London, England, claims the defendants charged her $310 a day to treat her daughter for depression and severe anxiety disorder.
     But Verney says she spent 7 weeks as an "abject captive" and was "constantly frightened and fearing for her life."
     According to the 34-page complaint: "During her stay Elizabeth was subjected to sleep deprivation, denied food, and yet forced to eat and prepare meat, which was abhorrent to her as a vegetarian. The ranch threatened her with restraint and force-feeding with a tube if she did not comply. The ranch forced physical labor and excessive exercise in extreme temperatures. It forced her regularly to put her hands in a sink filled with bleach to wash dishes until they bled, leaving to this day scars on her knuckles.
     "Staff's verbal abuse was unrelenting, humiliating both in private and in group 'denunciation meetings' where she was made to list her faults and listen to her peers taking turns denigrating her and her faults, and what they disliked about her, not as therapy but out of relish.
     "Staff regularly threatened Elizabeth with physical violence, including potential suffocation if she tried to run away. They told her daily that she was a bad person, and described her as 'disgusting, stupid, manipulative, pathetic and bad.' They screamed at her, punished her for crying and for having panic attacks that caused fearful hyperventilation.
     "They forced her to maintain stress positions for many hours at time during the first few days at the ranch, not allowing her to rest her body against any structures, to stretch or to lie down, putting great pressure on her back, neck and joints, all of which was extremely painful. They forced her to sleep on a wooden slab without a pillow or mattress even though she already suffered from ongoing back pain from an injury that her parents had told the ranch about.
     "She was often not allowed to wash for days at a time or change her dirty clothes. They forced her to sleep in clothes that had animal feces on them.
     "Bullying and abuse between those in the program was not only overlooked but actively encouraged. When Elizabeth informed staff about a 13-year-old boy's being bullied by older teens in his dorm room, a staff member said the boy deserved it and joined the ringleaders in taunting and humiliating her all the more, and then excluded the boy from group activities."
     Verney says she was also forced to attend church, "although she and her family are not Christian and found some of the teachings against her beliefs."
     The complaint continues: "In some ways the most harmful experience was the emotional abuse inflicted by her appointed 'therapist' of uncertain credentials, who criticized her, led a denunciation meeting against her, told her that she was a bad person and was 'pretending' rather than suffering from true anxiety or depression, thereby refusing to treat, validate, or even acknowledge the deterioration of her mental health at the Ranch. Notwithstanding being cast as a counselor and liaison between Elizabeth and her parents, she lied to Elizabeth's family about Elizabeth's welfare and physical and mental health, and lied about her parents' communications to the Ranch about Elizabeth; and facilitated, enhanced, and concealed Elizabeth's abuse so as to dissuade her family from making serious inquiry about Elizabeth's welfare and, in order to extort further funding, claimed that Elizabeth needed to remain at the Ranch.
     "Elizabeth saw that animals at the camp were seriously abused and neglected. She was told of animal torture witnessed by other teens, such as the burning of a live rat on a camp fire (apparently the creature was repeatedly tossed into the fire by a member of staff until it died). One staff member showed Elizabeth a knife he used to castrate farm animals without anesthetic, describing the animals' screams, as he knew that she was an animal lover. Dogs were left for days without water in extreme
     "The Ranch intercepted, read, and confiscated Elizabeth's mail. Staff made her write false and glowing letters. Staff censored and manipulated all communication with her family. They lied to her about communications between the Ranch and her parents and vice versa. Staff told her that her parents were colluding with the Ranch to 'punish' her because she was a bad person, that they did not really love her, were angry with her, and were not sure whether they were ever going to come and get her.

2
There has been a new lawsuit filed describing "torture" of a 15-year-old girl in 2005. I'm researching behavior mod programs, and I wanted to know if anyone went there since 2006 and had similar experiences? Either post here or contact me directly.
Thanks, ArtLew7;
            http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/06/27/47850.htm
  SALT LAKE CITY (CN) - A mother claims in court that "sadists and psychopaths" at Turn About Ranch, a residential treatment center in Escalante, subjected her teen-age daughter to "torture," including hours of stress positions, threats to suffocate her, exposure to animal abuse and regular public humiliation.
     Elizabeth Verney and her mother, Julia Gordon, sued Turn About Ranch and Aspen Education Group, both California corporations, in Federal Court.
     Turn About "purport(s) to be a Utah licensed residential treatment center" in Escalante. It's owned and operated by the Aspen Group, according to the complaint.
     Verney, now 22, claims Turn About subjected her to "torture" in 2005, when she was 15.
     The ranch billed itself as a place to treat "young people with low self-esteem, depression and mental health problems," according to the complaint, and "boasted [of] daily private therapy sessions, horse riding and outdoor activities with all staff trained as childcare experts."
     Gordon, of London, England, claims the defendants charged her $310 a day to treat her daughter for depression and severe anxiety disorder.
     But Verney says she spent 7 weeks as an "abject captive" and was "constantly frightened and fearing for her life."
     According to the 34-page complaint: "During her stay Elizabeth was subjected to sleep deprivation, denied food, and yet forced to eat and prepare meat, which was abhorrent to her as a vegetarian. The ranch threatened her with restraint and force-feeding with a tube if she did not comply. The ranch forced physical labor and excessive exercise in extreme temperatures. It forced her regularly to put her hands in a sink filled with bleach to wash dishes until they bled, leaving to this day scars on her knuckles.
     "Staff's verbal abuse was unrelenting, humiliating both in private and in group 'denunciation meetings' where she was made to list her faults and listen to her peers taking turns denigrating her and her faults, and what they disliked about her, not as therapy but out of relish.
     "Staff regularly threatened Elizabeth with physical violence, including potential suffocation if she tried to run away. They told her daily that she was a bad person, and described her as 'disgusting, stupid, manipulative, pathetic and bad.' They screamed at her, punished her for crying and for having panic attacks that caused fearful hyperventilation.
     "They forced her to maintain stress positions for many hours at time during the first few days at the ranch, not allowing her to rest her body against any structures, to stretch or to lie down, putting great pressure on her back, neck and joints, all of which was extremely painful. They forced her to sleep on a wooden slab without a pillow or mattress even though she already suffered from ongoing back pain from an injury that her parents had told the ranch about.
     "She was often not allowed to wash for days at a time or change her dirty clothes. They forced her to sleep in clothes that had animal feces on them.
     "Bullying and abuse between those in the program was not only overlooked but actively encouraged. When Elizabeth informed staff about a 13-year-old boy's being bullied by older teens in his dorm room, a staff member said the boy deserved it and joined the ringleaders in taunting and humiliating her all the more, and then excluded the boy from group activities."
     Verney says she was also forced to attend church, "although she and her family are not Christian and found some of the teachings against her beliefs."
     The complaint continues: "In some ways the most harmful experience was the emotional abuse inflicted by her appointed 'therapist' of uncertain credentials, who criticized her, led a denunciation meeting against her, told her that she was a bad person and was 'pretending' rather than suffering from true anxiety or depression, thereby refusing to treat, validate, or even acknowledge the deterioration of her mental health at the Ranch. Notwithstanding being cast as a counselor and liaison between Elizabeth and her parents, she lied to Elizabeth's family about Elizabeth's welfare and physical and mental health, and lied about her parents' communications to the Ranch about Elizabeth; and facilitated, enhanced, and concealed Elizabeth's abuse so as to dissuade her family from making serious inquiry about Elizabeth's welfare and, in order to extort further funding, claimed that Elizabeth needed to remain at the Ranch.
     "Elizabeth saw that animals at the camp were seriously abused and neglected. She was told of animal torture witnessed by other teens, such as the burning of a live rat on a camp fire (apparently the creature was repeatedly tossed into the fire by a member of staff until it died). One staff member showed Elizabeth a knife he used to castrate farm animals without anesthetic, describing the animals' screams, as he knew that she was an animal lover. Dogs were left for days without water in extreme
     "The Ranch intercepted, read, and confiscated Elizabeth's mail. Staff made her write false and glowing letters. Staff censored and manipulated all communication with her family. They lied to her about communications between the Ranch and her parents and vice versa. Staff told her that her parents were colluding with the Ranch to 'punish' her because she was a bad person, that they did not really love her, were angry with her, and were not sure whether they were ever going to come and get her.

3
I'm a reporter looking at some Aspen Education programs and the broader "troubled teen: industry and I'd like to get some frank views through personal interviews with parents or alulmni about the quality and approach of Aspen Institute for Behavioral Assessment . What's quality of assessment, diagnosis, treatment --- and impact it had on you? What about cost?

Further details forthcoming after we speak or communicate by email.


Thanks, ArtLew7

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