Fornits
Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => The Ridge Creek School / Hidden Lake Academy => Topic started by: Anonymous on August 08, 2006, 12:53:25 AM
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Is anyone aware of this program at HLA? It is not in the Handbook..We were not told of any such program other than Ridge Creek...Apparently it is where the children are sent to a separate wilderness program run by Ridge Creek where the children are required to carry 30 lb. sand bags all day on their back..? Where did this come from????? Two water bottles all day, two rationed meals and dirt sleeping with no blankets???
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This program started right as I was graduating. It started (if my memory serves me) with a couple girls who got coke in. They sent them on a 7-day intervention. It was more (MUCH more) intense than Ridge Creek, but shorter. From what I heard it was pretty nasty, and very hellish. I went to RCI, and it really wasn't that bad. It was crap, and didn't do anything for me, but wasnt the harderst wilderness program I went to. But the interventions sounded terrible.
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I know about Restrictions and have read about Challenge.
http://wwf.avigation.net/viewtopic.php? ... cks#200980 (http://wwf.avigation.net/viewtopic.php?p=200980&highlight=rocks#200980)
http://wwf.avigation.net/viewtopic.php? ... cks#198442 (http://wwf.avigation.net/viewtopic.php?p=198442&highlight=rocks#198442)
How is Intervention different?
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An intervention usually comes at the order of Len Buccellato (sometimes from the head of the counseling dept). It is typically reserved for a kids that do something outrageous such as bringing a heavy drug onto campus, or seriously beating up another kid. It is meant soley to make a kid miserable enough to not do what ever they did again.
It rarely makes lasting changes to the kid, but the real purpose is to send a message to the rest of campus that that kind of behavior will lead to seriously miserable consequences.
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It was stated above that
"children are required to carry 30 lb. sand bags all day on their back..? Where did this come from????? Two water bottles all day, two rationed meals and dirt sleeping with no blankets???"
Can you comment on that?
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They do not sleep on the dirt. They are given "ridge rests" which are pads used to seperate the person from the ground. They do alot of hiking during that time, but they are fed and are given plenty ofwater. The majority of the rough part about intervention is the amount of exercise they get during the 7 days or whatever length of time it is. I am unsure of the sandbag portion, but I do know that they have to carry packs...much like at Ridge Creek.
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An intervention usually comes at the order of Len Buccellato (sometimes from the head of the counseling dept). It is typically reserved for a kids that do something outrageous such as bringing a heavy drug onto campus, or seriously beating up another kid. It is meant soley to make a kid miserable enough to not do what ever they did again.
It rarely makes lasting changes to the kid, but the real purpose is to send a message to the rest of campus that that kind of behavior will lead to seriously miserable consequences.
How often are there serious physicals there (kids getting beaten up)?
How often are kids caught with drugs/alcohol?
Have you witnessed other types of incidents such as sexual assaults or staff having sexual relations with kids?
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This was posted in the Mission Mountain Forum:
"Another aspect of behavior modification used by Mission Mountain School, called an ?intervention?, is a period of intense physical work, reduced sleep, stricter rules and more intense group therapy. It is used for breaking into an ?underground?, the secrets the girls would keep from the group in order to be sneaky or plan a run. During an intervention we would have very strict inspections of our work, work all day in the hot sun, and if someone was resistant, or we didn?t pass inspection, we would start the day over again. This was used to ?break? down our defenses so that we would share what was going on with us. When an intervention lasts long enough, one gets physically, mentally and emotionally worn out until there isn?t enough energy left to hide ?what?s really going on?. The longest intervention I was on at the school was 22 days."
http://wwf.avigation.net/viewtopic.php?t=16759 (http://wwf.avigation.net/viewtopic.php?t=16759)
How does HLAs Intervention compare? Is "working in the hot sun" all day really necessary to get to "what's really going on"?
That hasn't been my experience. Comments? I don't recall ever reading anything that resembled this in any of my counseling courses. Might someone be inclined to make something up to get off Intervention?
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According to one family, 2 water bottles, 2 pre-packaged meals..the children slept on dirt, and did not have blankets... Apparently there are letters and phone calls to the school regarding what transpired....they stand by their claim....
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According to another mother, her son and another boy were forced to carry a very heavy metal pipe on their shoulders through the
woods in near freezing temperatures wearing only a tee-shirt and jeans. The weather was wet so their clothing got saturated as
did their sleeping bags. They had no shelter so they slept in the
frigid weather out in the open. They were given minimal food. This intervention
lasted 5 days and by the end of it this one boy had lost approximately 15 pounds and was seriously ill with a high fever.
If this is not child abuse and endangerment I don't know what is.
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This was posted in the Mission Mountain Forum:
"Another aspect of behavior modification used by Mission Mountain School, called an ?intervention?, is a period of intense physical work, reduced sleep, stricter rules and more intense group therapy. It is used for breaking into an ?underground?, the secrets the girls would keep from the group in order to be sneaky or plan a run. During an intervention we would have very strict inspections of our work, work all day in the hot sun, and if someone was resistant, or we didn?t pass inspection, we would start the day over again. This was used to ?break? down our defenses so that we would share what was going on with us. When an intervention lasts long enough, one gets physically, mentally and emotionally worn out until there isn?t enough energy left to hide ?what?s really going on?. The longest intervention I was on at the school was 22 days."
http://wwf.avigation.net/viewtopic.php?t=16759 (http://wwf.avigation.net/viewtopic.php?t=16759)
How does HLAs Intervention compare? Is "working in the hot sun" all day really necessary to get to "what's really going on"?
That hasn't been my experience. Comments? I don't recall ever reading anything that resembled this in any of my counseling courses. Might someone be inclined to make something up to get off Intervention?
An interevention is simply meant to be a punishment. No insight is really expected. It is simply suppose to be miserable enough for them, so that the never want to do something like they did again. It is kind of like a "Code Red" that you saw in the movie "A Few Good Men". There is nothing written about it in HLA's literature, but it does happen.
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According to parents, no forms are filled out, as with Ridge Creek.
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If they pulled this hit on my kid without my advice or consent, I would fucking freak out on those bastards. I'd be on the road, locked and loaded, looking for some face time with the director.
I just cannot understand, for the life of me, why on earth do HLA parents allow this type of nonsense to be inflicted upon their children without raising hell and holding these idiots and quacks to account for their actions.
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From when I worked there, they did do conference calls with the parents and counselors. I am not sure the extent of what they told them about the "intervention", but I do know they had the calls and received consent. (At least verbal.....and to what degree they divulged about the program, I am not sure)
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If they pulled this hit on my kid without my advice or consent, I would fucking freak out on those bastards. I'd be on the road, locked and loaded, looking for some face time with the director.
I just cannot understand, for the life of me, why on earth do HLA parents allow this type of nonsense to be inflicted upon their children without raising hell and holding these idiots and quacks to account for their actions.
It gets even better...
HLA does get your consent before doing anything like this. But here's the kicker...If you don't give your consent, you will be told that you need to pick up your child and find another placement. The rationale is: "if you are not going to follow our reccomendations for what is best for your child, then we cannot help you and you need to find a place better suited for your needs"
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According to parents, they are not informed exactly what "Intervention"
entails....It sounds like the children are basically subjected to the 'whims'
of those they are 'entrusted to....
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According to another mother, her son and another boy were forced to carry a very heavy metal pipe on their shoulders through the
woods in near freezing temperatures wearing only a tee-shirt and jeans. The weather was wet so their clothing got saturated as
did their sleeping bags. They had no shelter so they slept in the
frigid weather out in the open. They were given minimal food. This intervention
lasted 5 days and by the end of it this one boy had lost approximately 15 pounds and was seriously ill with a high fever.
If this is not child abuse and endangerment I don't know what is.
I remember that. That was right after I graduated, and one of boys was a very good friend of mine. It was kind of my fault that he went, and I still feel horrible about it after hearing everything that happened while he was there... Even though Ridge Creek is longer, (28 days), I would much rather do that than the interventions. All of what this person says above, was exactly what I heard happened, over 2 years ago.
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Who iwas the only good man??? Mark Keith??
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If they pulled this hit on my kid without my advice or consent, I would fucking freak out on those bastards. I'd be on the road, locked and loaded, looking for some face time with the director.
I just cannot understand, for the life of me, why on earth do HLA parents allow this type of nonsense to be inflicted upon their children without raising hell and holding these idiots and quacks to account for their actions.
It gets even better...
HLA does get your consent before doing anything like this. But here's the kicker...If you don't give your consent, you will be told that I want you to pick up your child and find another placement. The rationale is: "if you are not going to follow our reccomendations for what is best for your child, then we cannot help you and I want you to find a place better suited for your needs"
HLA takes it even a step further - If parents don't agree to do this, HLA will kick your kid out of their program and then HLA will state that the parents voluntarily withdrew their kid. Because HLA considers the kid "withdrawn" (even though HLA kicked them out), they won't give parents back their deposits or release any type of academic/therapeutic records.
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I was recently at RC and I talked with one of the staff down there about the intervention. Also, I know numerous students that have been on interventions and to quote the person I talked to, "If they don't learn from it, we just have to make it stricter and stricter."
From talking to many kids whom were on the most recent intervention, it consists of pretty much hiking all day with a lot of excessive weight. You are given one Nalgene (I didn't ask about how often you are aloud to refill water). The food you get is consisted of all of the rejected items from people at RC. They are generally the things that no sane person would eat. You are given one scrap (a piece of MRE) per hour of hiking and recently they started making them eat while they hiked. About sleep, they are given minimal sleep. And they do not have to be given it all at once. Again, this is coming from a staff at RC that I talked to, they can put you one the side of the road for 20 minutes in broad daylight at a time throughout the day as long as they get 6 hours total per 24 hours.
My personal opinion on it is that there are some kids there that absolutly need to get their asses kicked and need something to get them in line. With the excessive amount of intimidation on campus, some of the kids that intimidate seriously need to get intimidated themselves. But, it is true that they do not need your parents consent to send you and they do not tell your parents right away and when they do, they downsize it as, "A more intense form of RCI" Quite honestly, that by itself invokes a whole ton of fear upon everybody knowing that they can be accused of something and then they are gone.
Well, this is coming from somebody who was there, so have fun =)
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This sounds like child abuse to me. How is allowed to continue?
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It is child abuse. Think what would happen if a parent tried that shit at home?
It continues because of greedy, self righteous assholes with a fucking savior complex that con gullible or inept parents into believing that teenagers need to be controlled. They view adolescence as a pathology (I know I keep repeating that but it's one of the major issues we're dealing with here), something to be treated or cleansed or beaten out of them. Not unlike exorcisms.
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I always felt that alot of problems stemmed from parents not realizing that parenting is a full time job. Some people should never become parents period.
Says SHH
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I always felt that alot of problems stemmed from parents not realizing that parenting is a full time job. Some people should never become parents period.
Says SHH
should not play God or play dress up as counselors, teachers...it is a dangerous game...
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I was never on an intervention, but I was on a few challenges, and was sent to another wilderness program twice, before ridge creek was operational. I can tell you that when you are on a challenge, your isolated from the rest of gen pop. I was with a couple others on mine. Here's what I can tell you from my expieriances with it.
I along with a few others ran away and were caught. Here was the punishment.
We obviously did not get any sleep the night we ran, but after we were caught we were not allowed to sleep. They didn't give up breakfast that morning, and then took us down to "lower left" and were told to make "big sticks, little sticks" from this big pile of wood. This isn't your average fire wood pile, this pile was about 6 ft high and about 40 meters long. We obviously weren't able to do it all, but but we were at it a for a few days, about 8 hours a day. Now HLA did provide us meals, but since the people who were supervising us are the same people who's shift we ran away on and who got in trouble for it, they didn't let us eat what we were supposed to get. I watched a bunch of my cheese sandwiches and soup get dumped into the creek that day, along with my one fucking apple. We also were made to drink out of the stream. There advice was to "drink were the water is bubbly" My buddy went delerous during this time. He started talking some crazy shit. They love fucking with your food, as you can tell from the diet they fed you when on restriction.
If they weren't throwing your food away they were fucking with the way you could eat it. During this same time this was another way we had to eat our food. They would lay our sandwiches down on the tennis court right on the pavement, then we had to run sprints down the court, then back up for one bite of sandwich. Our soup was dumped on the court aswell and we had to lick it up in push up position. Yes it was our choice to eat it like that I suppose, but with the amount of food we were getting we would take it how we could get it.
Another thing during this same "challenge" that we had to do was try to empty out a stream. I know that sounds wierd and I guess it was supposed to be. It was the beggining of January (right after xmas) and it was freezing cold and we were soaked trying to this. We worked at if for hours, with our meal depending on doing this virtually impossible task. Halfway through it, when it got dark, the staff members said we were a "run risk" and told us to take off our shoes. I was already soaked in my shoes and my feet were cold anyhow, but having my feet in the freezing water was bad. My buddy who was a good deal skinnier than me was so cold he could barely talk right. Greg lyndsee or howerever you spell his name came down and told them to make us put our shoes back on. We did, but we had to tie our shoe laces together, which is when I found that I had cuts on the bottom of my feet that I had gotton from standing on some rocks in the stream that I didn't really feel when I was standing there because my feet were mostly numb. They wouldn't let me have any first aid treatment, or any dry socks and shoes at least. Then they threw most of our meal into the fire pit and told us to wave good bye to it and gave us one cheese sandwich each. There's a lot more that happend to me and my friends on this challenge and a lot of other stuff that happend to me and my friends in general, but I've already wrote enough. If you want to know more you can email me at my secondary email address that I will be checking for the next week. It's [email protected]. Maybe I'll write more on this topic at some later date, but I feel kinda shitty about these rehashed memorys, and I want to go to the bar with my friends. I've had more realizations drinking with my friends than I ever did at HLA. I'm not a sorry loser like HLA said I would be if I didn't complete their stupid program. I'm about to open a small internet based buisness for
extra income when I start college. I also hold down a full time job for the time bieng. HLA is the place parents send their children when normal growing pains are to much for a parent to handle.
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Students, former students, and parents:
CPS is investigating HLA. Please contact Kit Wallace - her information is listed below.
Kit Wallace
706.864.1839
[email protected]
Questions to consider:
- Were students physically attacked by other students and/or staff? Sexually assaulted by staff or other students?
- Were there injuries that required medical treatment, but did not get appropriate treatment?
- She needs specific information about the "Interventions" (not Ridge) and Peachford - what kids endured during those interventions.
- Medication - did kids receive the proper medication or the wrong medications?
- Were kids bullied?
- What type of punishments did kids receive?
- What type of "therapy" did kids receive at HLA?
- What did "restrictions" involve?
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When student are punished with an Intervention, who implements it? HLA staff? Or is the student sent to Ridge Creek?
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When student are punished with an Intervention, who implements it? HLA staff? Or is the student sent to Ridge Creek?
The intervention in initiated by HLA and carried out by Ridge Creek.
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When student are punished with an Intervention, who implements it? HLA staff? Or is the student sent to Ridge Creek?
The intervention in initiated by HLA and carried out by Ridge Creek.
I wonder if any of the RC staff who were involved in interventions are gone?
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Every single RC staff is involved with Interventions, they take rotations
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yes the RCI staff are on the interventions, but its BUCHALOTTO WHO RUNS THE DAMN THINGS!!! THAT PIECE OF SHIT!!
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According to one family, 2 water bottles, 2 pre-packaged meals..the children slept on dirt, and did not have blankets... Apparently there are letters and phone calls to the school regarding what transpired....they stand by their claim....
USDA and any good state Regs require 3,000 calories per day be provided, given their level of physical exertion. In inclimate weather and extreme exertion normal calories should be increased 30-100%. Rationing or denying food for punishment would not be allowed. How many calories in those two pre-packed meals?
Georgia requires programs to follow the USDA "Food for Fitness" guidelines, which is too general. Ga also requires 3 meals per day, plus snacks.
If your child received less than that, you need to file a complaint with the ORS.
Georgia doesn't specifically address the issue of how much water is to be provided per day, only requires it to be clean. Other state Regs require 6 quarts of water per day, so two bottles (quarts?) is about a third what programs in other states are required to provide their participants. Some require electrolyte replacement and daily multiple vitamin.
Georgia doesn't address the weight that children can be made to carry- backpacks and other objects.
Good Regs limit the weight children can carry to 20 percent of their body weight. If the chld is required to carry other items, the total of all weight carried can not exceed 30% of their body weight.
Participants at RC are supposed to "attend an appropriate educational program". Did your child's education continue at RC? My son's didn't. He had to make up 4 weeks of work when he returned to HLA which was stated as one of the reasons he was denied any home visitation that summer.
RC is licensed for 64 kids, therefore the regs require them to have access to 710 acres of land. Do they?
Living quarters are to be heated to a minimum of 50*. Does that imply that they shouldn't sleep outdoors if temps are below 50*?
Interestingly enough, ORS requires that children placed at RC be placed in compliance with the ICPC. Were your children? Mine wasn't.
Parents/ex participants should read through the Regulations for Therapeutic Camps at the ORS site, compile a list of known violations and file a complaint.
If Interventions are done at RC, then the regulations apply.
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I have been on one. Ever gone from Dahlonegah to Atlanta? Well walk that in 7 days and tell me how much you hate your day job!
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Dahlonega to Atlanta is 60 miles. It doesnt take 7 days to walk it. Are you saying you walked to there and back in 7 days? I also never heard of any punishment that involved walking off campus to Atlanta. Only in the mountain area around the campuses. When did this take place? (what year)I am curious of the year because it must have been after I left because I know this never took place while I was there and I want to ask someone I know about this type of "trip" and if they ever heard of a group walking to Atlanta.
I.
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I have been on one. Ever gone from Dahlonegah to Atlanta? Well walk that in 7 days and tell me how much you hate your day job!
The kids on interventions hike at least 20 miles a day in the forest, but no one hikes to Atlanta. I don't think you're telling the truth.
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Once again Sauna "The Bullfrog" Gray believes if she didnt see it, it didnt happen.
Taking a look at your nonsense (again).
Sauna feels that inexperienced underage hikers who are often weighed down should be able to traverse more than 20 miles per day.
See Bullfrog if Dahlonega to Atlanta is 60 miles a trip there and back again would be 120 miles. Cause, and you may not be aware
60 x 2= 120
Thus in order for him to have made the trip in less than 7 days they still would have had to travel a little over 17 miles per day.
Could you do that?
Probably not.
As to the rest of your typical head in the sand responses recall well I was there at the same point you were. While I never had to walk to Atlanta I did have to walk over 120 miles myself during one of these theraputic rituals.
So tell me more about how you know these things never happened.
Also if you ever feel like not being a coward there are still a number of questions youve refused to answer.
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I have been on one. Ever gone from Dahlonegah to Atlanta? Well walk that in 7 days and tell me how much you hate your day job!
The kids on interventions hike at least 20 miles a day in the forest, but no one hikes to Atlanta. I don't think you're telling the truth.
Do you have any real reason to believe he's lying?
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I have been on one. Ever gone from Dahlonegah to Atlanta? Well walk that in 7 days and tell me how much you hate your day job!
The kids on interventions hike at least 20 miles a day in the forest, but no one hikes to Atlanta. I don't think you're telling the truth.
Do you have any real reason to believe he's lying?
I am not the same poster as above, but I was a student there recently. I am pretty sure I would have heard something from friends if they had an intervention where they forced them to walk to Atlanta and back.
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Perhaps I'm wrong, cowdude will have to clarify, but I interpreted that to mean that they walked an average of 10-20 miles a day, depending on whether he meant one-way or round trip.
I didn't take it that they literally hiked to Atlanta.
PS. It's 66 miles to Atlanta- 9.4 miles/ day. Round trip 18.8 miles/day.
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Perhaps I'm wrong, cowdog will have to clarify, but I interpreted that to mean that they walked an average of 10-20 miles a day, depending on whether he meant one-way or round trip.
I didn't take it that they literally hiked to Atlanta.
That would probably be right, from the things I heard from friends and staff (the trustworthy ones), they would hike all around the forest behind RC, usually 20+ miles a day with excessive weight. I knew quite a few people while I was there recently that were on interventions and they never mentioned that.
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I just read through this thread again. I had forgotten some of the earlier postings that go into detail about Intervention and Challenge.
Have you two, who described your experience with Intervention and Challenge, contacted Amy Murphy at ORS?
http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?p= ... bly#211857 (http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?p=211857&highlight=bubbly#211857)
http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?p= ... ing#210801 (http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?p=210801&highlight=padding#210801)
Her office phone number is 404.657.9600 and her fax number is 404.657.9637. She wants to hear your stories. And stories from others who are willing to tell them.
If you'd prefer to email:
[email protected] (http://mailto:[email protected])
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I have been on one. Ever gone from Dahlonegah to Atlanta? Well walk that in 7 days and tell me how much you hate your day job!
The kids on interventions hike at least 20 miles a day in the forest, but no one hikes to Atlanta. I don't think you're telling the truth.
Do you have any real reason to believe he's lying?
I believe I misunderstood what he was saying. I think Deborah has a good point regarding what the poster meant.
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I shall clairify.I ment in distance. about 90 miles of walking. North georgia Mountains. Any Questions?
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I shall clairify.I ment in distance. about 90 miles of walking. North georgia Mountains. Any Questions?
Did your parent(s) know you were being sent on an intervention? Did they approve of it? What were you made to do during your intervention?
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In the middle of it, they were called. Not really much approval. Carry Dead weight and walk. That is it...
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In the middle of it, they were called. Not really much approval. Carry Dead weight and walk. That is it...
Please call Ms. Kit Wallace at Child Protective Services. She can be reached at 706.864.1839. She needs to hear your story.
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/size].
[/b]In the mornings we would wake up way before dawn with ice crystals in our hair and our clothes and shoes frozen solid. Typically the staff would switch out every day and the new staff for that day would wake us up by saying ''GET UP; YOU HAVE 5 MINUTES TO BE READY." And if we didn't make our 5 minute deadline, oh boy, we were given anything between 10 extra miles to 200 extra pounds to carry. FUCK YOU MIKE DUNN YOU POWER HUNGRY PIECE OF SHIT
After at least a week of this, we honestly felt like we were not far from death. We lost feeling in our extremeties, looked and felt anorexic, and could barley walk without stumbling in pain.
Now HLA says that these interventions are run by ridge creek, which technically they are, but its Lin Buchalotto (i know its spelled wrong) who sets them up. Ridge Creek is a great place. It actually helps kids out and does what it says it does. If it was someone who just took orders from Boochy all the time than it would be another bullshit rip-off like HLA. Hes the only good man within a 2 mile radius of HLA/Ridge Creek. Mark Keith has personally told me and many others that he thinks "HLA is complete bullshit." Damn, if it's coming from a professional that there must be some truth to it.[/size][/size][/color][/quote]
The interventions HLA exercised with these children are hard enough to conceive.
Can you imagine what these children felt like being starved, freezing and completely exhausted and then to have the HLA qualified staff inflict even more humiliation with this inconceivable, totally barbaric behavior?
AND WHY THE CLASS ACTION WAS PURSUED.
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i was on an intervention
sweet
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i was on an intervention also. this was before ridge creek had the girl's group, so obviously before they had the boys and girls group... i don't know why but my counselor's told me i was going to go. there was a group of girls out at super restrictions and my counselors said i'd be going out with them. one of the girls had a cast on. our bags were stuffed with logs and a truck drove our sleeping bags to where we had to hike to. We'de hike18-20 miles a day and if we didn't finish by dark we have to keep hiking. No matter what time we got to sleep, we had to wake up at 6:30 and do pt, then start hiking.
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i was on an intervention also. this was before ridge creek had the girl's group, so obviously before they had the boys and girls group... i don't know why but my counselor's told me i was going to go. there was a group of girls out at super restrictions and my counselors said i'd be going out with them. one of the girls had a cast on. our bags were stuffed with logs and a truck drove our sleeping bags to where we had to hike to. We'de hike18-20 miles a day and if we didn't finish by dark we have to keep hiking. No matter what time we got to sleep, we had to wake up at 6:30 and do pt, then start hiking.
How many levels of punishment are there?
Zaps, Bans
Restrictions- Fall Out, Table, Focus
Clean Air
Challenge
Intervention-not listed in the parent manual
Wilderness
And now Super Restrictions? Where does that fit in the lineup? Not listed in the Parent Manual either.
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they haven't used super restrictions in a long time, interventions replaced them
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really? Super was used when I was there in 2002-2004. It was kind of like... the middle point between restrictions and getting sent to RCI/Interventions. I think it was where they stuck the kids while they were still getting the whole story about what happened and figuring out where to send them. I never went but had a few friends who did and thats the way it seemed to us.
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You are all going to get different information on this depending on when the person reporting it was there. Again, this goes back to Len Buccellato being so inconsistent and reactive to how the school is run. Interventions, super restrictions, and challenges (from what I have heard) are basically the same thing with varying levels of intensity depending on when you were there and the kind of mood LB was in at the time. To my knowledge none of these are in the parent handbook.
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my daughter "ran/walked" 100 miles in 26 days. and had heavey things in the backpack. which prbably wieghed 50-75 lbs and because she forgot her water bottle somewhere, she was required to a keep a 20 lb "not forget" rock on her or in her pack for days.
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Of course the theraputic value of this.........?
Shit, I've got nothing.
Nicole could you explain it?
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i was on an intervention also. this was before ridge creek had the girl's group, so obviously before they had the boys and girls group... i don't know why but my counselor's told me i was going to go. there was a group of girls out at super restrictions and my counselors said i'd be going out with them. one of the girls had a cast on. our bags were stuffed with logs and a truck drove our sleeping bags to where we had to hike to. We'de hike18-20 miles a day and if we didn't finish by dark we have to keep hiking. No matter what time we got to sleep, we had to wake up at 6:30 and do pt, then start hiking.
I was on one to Semper fi, kutch!!!
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What's the difference between a restriction, super restriction and an intervention?
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restrictions is the population of students who havegotten in trouble for some reason. after school they are seperated from the general population of campus where they eat, study, work , then hit the rack. super restrictions is either a small group or an individual being seperated from the population entirely. like in the challet or at restriction village. Trust me i was out at the challet on super for a week alone it sucked asshole!!!! an intervention is a group that looks like they might be leaning towards acting out or if len thinks something is going to go bad they go out in the woods for a week. Any more questions and I'll probably know. I got in trouble/ was somewhat respected for sticking to who I really am and speaking my fucking mind. nobody is gonna intimidate me into being any other fucking way, oorah!
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What was it like being at Chalet on Super?
I thought that place was basicly a tar shack. Am I thinking of a different building?
What were your meals like?
Who was in charge of you?
What was your day like?
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You are thinking of the log cabin, I think. The Chalet is a one room house with a fire place, bare wood floors, no heat (other than the fire place), some windows, no bathroom, one closet, and a deck on the front. If you were camping you would think it was wonderful. If you were a kid being punished you would think it sucked. It was definitely not fun for those kids who were there for days at a time. I suppose that was the purpose.
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I was sent to super restrictions once. My super Restrictions was out at restriction village and we wern't warned we were going. We didn't ever knew how long we were going to be out there. We didn't get to take clothes or toiletries. If our toothbrushes and deoderant ever made it out to the woods we were lucky. There were no showers until we went back to student population. A student would be sent to super restrictions if their counselors thought or knew that the student was hiding something, or if the counselors needed to figure out something that was happening on campus. That could be like the student was in a relationship or they broke the drug agreement or if they knew something about someone else, or it could be something bigger. Usually a group of 3-5 students would be sent to super restrictions. It wasn't an everyday thing. Just when it was time to shake up the campus. I was out in the woods for 7 days with 3 other girls, who were there for snorting glucose tablets. I was just there to do fall-out, because I never did in reals(therapy). No shower, same clothes, no toothbrush, no phone call with my parents, Just 3 small meals a day, one which was bread and peanut butter. And basically we didn't get to go back to campus until they heard what they wanted to hear on our fall-out (where we'de tell on ourselves and each other). When we wern't writing fall-out, we were raking, digging holes, you name it, we did it, just as long as the students on campus didn't see us. We slept in sleeping bags on the ground. I woke up in the middle of the night once with a toad on my head. Like I said, I was out there 7 days and the only reason I went back to student population was because they brought a guys group of super restrictions out for an emergency. One boy kicked another boy in the stomach so hard he soiled himself. Some of them were sent to wilderness a few days later. I was just sent back to regular restrictions.
So basically restrictions 24 hours a day for a week with no shower, clothes or toothbrush with a lot less food and liquids, occasionally using leaves as toilet paper(not joking) until someone would bring more... We did make the campus look nice though.
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So, to summarize:
The length of the punishment was not stated- Or it was assumed that you'd stay until you produced the information they wanted. (Sounds like a POW camp)
No contact with parents.
No personal hygiene.
Limited calories and water.
Manual labor.
Sleeping outdoors with no protection from the elements.
All violations of ORS regulations for RCFs. And HLA claims that the RCF regulations aren't appropriate/ too restrictive for their "private boarding school".
And these were Masters Level Counselors issuing this austere and unethical punishment, and sometimes on a hunch? What happened to innocent until proven guilty?
When did this occur? Several alleged staff have posted on Fornits that they stopped limiting calories for Restrictions and that Restrictions ate with and the same thing as the gen pop. Some students have even confirmed that it improved, shortly after RC was forced to be licensed. When the catering company was hire to provide meals. Did all those things just shift to a new catagory of "Super Restrictions"?
By the way, where is Restrictions Village? Is that where the Chalet is? And I assume it's not RC and RC staff were not supervising this punishment. Is that correct?
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How to get to The Shalay and Restriction Village
If you are driving to RCI, the path splits before you get to RCI. If you go down the other path (the one not going to RCI on the right), it splits into two again as you head up. The more visible path is leading to the right and that heads behind the lake. If you head to the left however, you head over a bridge, right after that is the Shalay.
If you continue down the more visible path, it heads behind the lake. At some point about halfway down the path, there is this kinda oldish building with a roof on your left, that is Restriction Village.
Restriction Village and The Shalay are not the same thing and are used for two completely different reasons.
Restricion Village: Super Restrictions and Weekend Restrictions
Shalay: Holding kids before they get pulled, kids who are refusing to go to RCI, kids put on Isolation, start/end point for Interventions.
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"Isolation"?
That's a new one all together.
Is that your interpretation, or was there also a punishment refered to as "Isolation"? If so, how was it different than the other punishments? Might that be for, say, holding a kid who has turned 18, when they're trying to coerce him/her to stay?
Okay, I know there are Masters Level Counselors reading. Do/Did you condone this treatment?
The length of the punishment was not stated- Or it was assumed that you'd stay until you produced the information they wanted.
No contact with parents.
No personal hygiene.
Limited calories and water.
Manual labor.
Sleeping outdoors with no protection from the elements.
Did you ever learn in your psych training that this is unethical treatment of anyone, even prisoners, much less teens.
I can understand the ex-military staff and untrained staff going along with this, but people who have been through six years of school? It's hard to fathom. Do you just go along, or did you believe it was good "therapy"?
Did Buccellato explain to you in the orientation why teens must be "treated" this way? How, and who justified it?
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If this is all true....I am just sickened...my heart is sickened....Please call Kit Wallace at CPS(Child Protective Services)..
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"Isolation"?
That's a new one all together.
Is that your interpretation, or was there also a punishment refered to as "Isolation"? If so, how was it different than the other punishments? Might that be for, say, holding a kid who has turned 18, when they're trying to coerce him/her to stay?
It is more of an interpretation, I mentioned something about kids refusing to go to RCI. When a kid over 18 is pending to go to RCI and they refuse, they go to the Shalay, b/c RC cannot legally accept them unless the kid signs a consent form or something like that. While the kid is at the Shalay, they have a staff watching the entrance to the Shalay 24/7. From when I saw the dorm charts, It was usually an HLA staff. I am not sure though about what happens during the night shift. Also, if a kid is supposed to go to RC, but for some odd reason RCI doesn't want to take them (there were a couple instances of that), the kid was put in the Shalay until the situation was resolved. This usually ended in dismissal.
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What ORS wants to know about your Behavior Modification & Emergency Safety Intervention Model for Use With Children and Adolescents.
Read the Application for Approval here:
http://ors.dhr.georgia.gov/DHR-ORS/DHR- ... .29.06.pdf (http://ors.dhr.georgia.gov/DHR-ORS/DHR-ORS_Provider_Information/Forms%20and%20Applications/DHR%20Application%20for%20Emerg.%20Safety%20Intervention%20Models%208.29.06.pdf)
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So, to summarize:
The length of the punishment was not stated- Or it was assumed that you'd stay until you produced the information they wanted. (Sounds like a POW camp)
No contact with parents.
No personal hygiene.
Limited calories and water.
Manual labor.
Sleeping outdoors with no protection from the elements.
All violations of ORS regulations for RCFs. And HLA claims that the RCF regulations aren't appropriate/ too restrictive for their "private boarding school".
And these were Masters Level Counselors issuing this austere and unethical punishment, and sometimes on a hunch? What happened to innocent until proven guilty?
When did this occur? Several alleged staff have posted on Fornits that they stopped limiting calories for Restrictions and that Restrictions ate with and the same thing as the gen pop. Some students have even confirmed that it improved, shortly after RC was forced to be licensed. When the catering company was hire to provide meals. Did all those things just shift to a new catagory of "Super Restrictions"?
By the way, where is Restrictions Village? Is that where the Chalet is? And I assume it's not RC and RC staff were not supervising this punishment. Is that correct?
There is NO innocent until proven guilty at HLA. In fat even after proven innocent, you're still guilty. They'll find another reason for you to be guilty of something. Restrictions food did get better. It went from cheese sandwiches and soup to what gen. population got to eat. One serving on hot food, no fruit, and only a few pieces of bread. You could make a sandwich or salad. Also just water, gatorade or milk. No juice, which was fine, it wasn't real juice anyways.
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Another term- crisis "shadow" trips. What's that? Where does it fit in the line up of punishments?
In 1996 (until 99), Patrick (Logan) moved back east to join Hidden
Lake Academy as their Assistant Wilderness Director; Patrick ran HLA?s Overnight, 4- and 10-day expeditions and their crisis ?shadow? trips, and directed field training for all wilderness staff.
http://www.snwp.com/staffdetails.asp?id=22 (http://www.snwp.com/staffdetails.asp?id=22)
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Weren't "Interventions" used as a form of "punishment"?
HLA states in their response to the lawsuit "punishments" never happened.
Opinions? Experiences?
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Yes. There were punishments. This is where HLA is going to get bit on the butt. They use the term "consequences", but in reality they are using the term incorrectly. What often happens, by definition, is a punishment. There is just more of a negative conotation with the word punishment, so they don't want to use it.
I have never heard of a "shadow" crisis intervention. I know that HLA has had some wilderness trips that were offered for students who were doing well. The kids were trained as first responders in wilderness first aid. It was pretty popular. I don't think it was called a shadow trip though. I don't know if they still do those wilderness trips.
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they had nothing to do with each other...there was a "super restrictions" which i think got changed to "intervetions" if i remember correctly...they could be totally different things but i know that both terms were used and i think that they were the same thing...could be wrong though...
the other wilderness things were for "good behavior" and were a lot of fun initially then they started not having enough "good" students and had to fill slots that were reserved and i think those last ones were kinda sucky...
but again, i could be wrong...
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You are right and wrong.
Super Restrictions and interventions were two different things. SR was facilitated by HLA staff and not as intense as an intervention. Interventions were facilitated by RCI and from what I understand extremely miserable experiences.
You are right about the positive wilderness trips. I know some were very popular, but others kind of sucked because the truly positive kids were not on them.
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Boy the old time tc's used to call this crap "negative reinforcement". When I hear of it happening today it makes me forget who I am just for a moment and go down there beat the livin shit out of somebody, then rationalize it by saying it's only a consequence of you abusing kids.
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During my time there were wildnerness events that were not part of any punishment, than there were interventions which very much were a punishment.
Often times a "positive" would be sent out with the kids who were being punished during the interventions...as a sort of role model I suppose. This student might be given such perks as a tent versus the tarp the others had, or hot chocolate instead of the water purification tablets... et cetera.
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They used to use water purification tablets? Shit, those things don't even work that well. That's fucked up.
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i hope HLA goes down in this lawsuit because they deserve it. HLAs whole system revolves around punishment, and if the interventions wernt punishment then i dont know what could be
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I think most people hope that HLA goes ahead down the tubes where they belong to be. The sad thing is that even with all the bad press and declining student body, somehow HLA remains open. That is unreal to me!
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Speaking about "Intervention"...the State of Georgia needs to intervene
and close HLA down...they know it and they have dragged their asses long enough.
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i have been on two interventions. i was at hidden lake for 13 months from january 7 2005. i went to ridge creek about 5 times.
interventions are all different. Mark Kieth usually decides how hard or long the intervention will be depending on the situation. I will talk about one I went on in January 06 with 7 other guys. We spelt outside with four sleeping bags for the eight of us. We had only gym shorts and a Tshirt on. We were woken up by Mark Kieth kicking one of us in our sleep. We had to run barefoot around the "island", which is a gravely circle of pavement for about 4 or 5 hours. We hiked out of ridge creek with Iron Mike (a huge heavy Iron Pole), the "Anaconda" a huge hemp rope that gets heavy when it's wet, 5 gallon water jugs, a strecher, and a 200 pound dummy named "herman" made out of a water hose. We would hike about 20 miles a day. It snowed and sleeted a couple of these days. I remember the first night it rained and was so cold none of us slept. We only had a big tarp to pull over ourselves. The staff rationed our meals to 1000 calories a day. They gave us the worst components to the MREs. We would switch off carrying various heavy objects I listed earlier and sometimes carry eachother or "Herman" on the strecher. We were also not allowed to talk to eachother the whole time. This lasted seven days. We were pretty delirious after this and we all lost about 10 pounds each that week. One of my friends got a hernia from carrying all that stuff, and another one got trenchfoot. Im pretty sure we all had a little hypothermia. We were given trashbags to wear when it was raining and sleeting.
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It's seriously not too late to sue.
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dallas...
i dont mean to be a prick....but i call BS
you went to ridge creek five times
you were dropped
and you went through a pretty horrifying intervention...much worse than
anyone from the old days of 24/7 restrictions with only cheese sandwiches.
you say you had to carry all those objects at the same time.
you and I both know, from common personal experience, it's impossible for only eight people to carry all that around, unless they didnt give you any packs to carry, which is unlikely.
And from my experience at RCI, they are VERY serious about hypothermia. judging by what you said, you should be dead by now.
you must've been REALLY, REALLY bad, and done something really fucked up over and over, to get sent to RCI FIVE TIMES. what the hell did you do? bring a kilo and hooked the student body on crack? did you stab someone? did you rape new kids or something? there were some baaaad kids while i was there from 02-04, but i've never heard of anyone who could possibly be bad enough for HLA to impose such extensive punishment.
i know HLA's, fucked up, i know RCI's fucked up, i've been there, done that. i've been on an intervention. i know what it's like. Mark keith is a little brutal...but KICK YOU? i could never see him doing that to a kid. a ranger maybe..but not a kid. I think you really stretched the details abit. if you want people to take you seriously, if you want people to know what it's like, dont stretch and exaggerate. because then it turns out you have zero credibility right from the start.
and if what you are saying is true.
i'm sorry.
in that case, HLA has to be shut down RIGHT NOW.
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The funny thing is everything I said is completely 100% true. I went to ridge creek april 05, july 05, august 05, november 05 and january 06. I knew a kid who had been there I think 7 times. But I was sort of a record holder you could say. Mark Keith has hit kids before, and he did kick one of us that morning
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what did you do though? i'm curious to know.
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getting into a few fights, smoking, running away and being on restrictions the whole time I was at HLA The last intervention was with 7 other boys and 4 of us jumped a kid and the other 4 were using drugs. I never did anything realy horrible but I was constantly in trouble. They kicked me out after I had been at HLA 13 months. I think I only spent about 1 month total not on restrictions or at RCI
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i just checked over my story and i did leave out that they drove some of the heavy items around in a truck and we swapped them out every once in a while. Only once or twice were we carrying all of the items at once. But what I did remember is Mark Kieth saying that was the hardest worst intervention they've ever done. I think it was so bad because we had all been to RCI at least twice. It was pretty bad.
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haha. that sucks man. i went twice + one intervention. i spent my first six months in trouble, then i was out of it most of the rest of the time. the trick is to pretend that youre working, going with the program, being good, etc. that and staying away from mischeif, and therefore from most new kids. that and if you do something stupid, do it alone, that way there's no one to blame for writing fallout on you if do get in trouble. doing shit alone also makes it easier when they pull the whole "you're on restrictions till you admit to doing this thing we know about", because then you automatically know what they could possibly know.
4 kids jumping a kid is not cool. he was a nark, wasnt he? is that why he got beat? i made the mistake of jumping someone once, it's not worth it in the long run, they always fuck you over for stuff like that. it's because it makes the school look bad, so instead of telling the cops they send you to RCI.
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Why are your parents still alive?
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why are yours?