Fornits
Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => The Troubled Teen Industry => Topic started by: cherish wisdom on April 28, 2004, 04:25:00 PM
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PETITION COMMENTS FROM SURVIVORS OF Provo Canyon School 1976-2003
If you are considering this "school" for your troubled teenager please read the following comments. If you are a parent with a child in this "program" realize that the program involves reprograming of both you and your child. Please consider other less drastic alternatives.
G.H. Provo Canyon School is truly abominable. It is an openly avowed behavior modification center, proudly using techniques aimed at destroying the victims sense of self.
L.P. Upon entering that place I was treated like crap. Nobody wnated to know how I felt and I, among everyone else, was not allowed to express a desire to leave the school or we would have dire consequences. I'd never want to be put through that kind of Hell ever again.
S.H This place abused me emotionally, physcially and mentally.
B.R. This institution does nothing in the way of helping students. I saw things go on there that would boggle the mind.
L.H. That place needs to be shut down. They treat kids inhumanely and freeze them in those secluded rooms and if you try to keep warm, they take your clothes away so you end up butt naked. And, sometimes they forget you're in there so you don't get fed.
A.S. I was abused at PCS and contine to suffer from bebilitating back and knee injuries sustained during "punishment" in their investment area.
R.R. I was there for 26 months. I have seen most all forms of abuse there and gone through many myself. The aubse of America's children needs to stop.
M.B.T. My daughter was tortured. It must be investigated. The fact that this institution desroyed two petitions just goes to show how low they will stoop. PCS is a very dangerous place for children and destructive to families.
A.E.T. Patient in 2003. I suffered isolation, seclusion, human restraints, take downs and forced drugging.
N.J. Some of the staff need to be fired because of the 2-faced manipulations, lying, cheating, inappropritate talk, tag teaming, threatening verbal abuse and deceiving.
D.M. A scripture for those employed at PCS who participate in abuse and for the others who cover for it or look the other way:
Matthew 18:5-6 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
(grandmother of survivor)
MM: I lost 2 years of my life in this place. i truly believe thay think they are helping those who enter PCS, but they really are making things much worse.
RR: PCS stripped me of all my social abilities
JF: Unless you lived through the hell we survivors lived through, you will never understand. I didn't need therapy back then, I'm in it now because of PCS. My parents had the money and I ended up paying the price.
DM: Behavior modification can only be kindled in one's own heart. Force is not the way a person is to live their life. Our public policies and laws need to relect what this country really stands for. Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. shut this unlawful, inhumane, ungodly school down.
J.B. I now suffer from post traumatic stress disorder as well as social phobia.. it has been many years since I left PCS and I am still haunted and left with the damage and disorders PCS left me with. I hope and pray that justice will be done.
R.A. Not only do I want this place shut down because of letters I have gotten from my daughter I would like to know how to get her out.
L.A. Did any of these people ever once think about what we went thru at home was probably bad enought without being degraded and made to feel like complete worthless pieces of ****?
C.C. this institution needs to be closed now! Demolished so it does not end up as one of Ashcroft's civilian prison camps.
M.R. That place seriously shattered my nerves and has caused me paranoia and nightmares.
L.C. I was a patient there from may 1991 until December 1992. That experience made my issues worse instead of better. Please stop the cycle and close down the school
M.G. I had an ear infection once and it caused my throat great irriataion and they would not do a thing to help me. They would not even give me a single cough drop. They neglected everyone's medical needs if they could. They only helped people who were bleeding or had a broken bone. There was kid there who complained of pain in his arm and they did nothing. It turns out he had a serious bone infection.
These quotes and more can be found at
http://students.washington.edu/heal/sign.htm (http://students.washington.edu/heal/sign.htm)
Please sign the petition if you haven't already done so. It can be found at
http://beyondbusiness.net/index2.htm (http://beyondbusiness.net/index2.htm)
I do not believe in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.
--Thomas Carlyle
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does provo receive state and/or federal funds anymore?
WP
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how could i find out?
foia?
WP
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The Provo Canyon School is privately owned and operated, although it does receive funds from both state governments and the United States. The school was established in 1973 for the primary purpose of educating teenage boys whose problems are so severe that their treatment and education require a restricted, therapeutic environment. All of the boys admitted to the school have problems of one sort or another, including physical, psychological, and emotional problems, and are handicapped by a general inability to conform to normal behavioral standards. The district court described the school as follows:
The Provo Canyon School is not a school in the traditional ordinary or classic sense. It does offer classes on a secondary level to its resident population, and in most instances does a good job in its formal teaching. Provo Canyon School is also a correctional and detention facility. Students are restricted to the grounds Students are confined. Some students are locked in and locked up with varying degrees of personal liberty restored as each progresses through the institutional program. If a student leaves without permission, he is hunted down, taken into custody and returned.
Provo Canyon School is also a mental health facility. Adolescent males education levee to 1979. the school received $568,278.24 from local school districts. Additional governmental funding dale has . juvenile courts said probation departments and county governments end welfare agencies. 1Ue figure below demonstrate that the school relied heavily upon government financing:
YEAR
GOVERNMENT FUNDS RECEIVED
PERCENT OF TOTAL FUNDS
1973
$ 41,954.113
12.05
1974
131,196.05
25.29
1975
276,325.10
33.74
1976
118,150
13.22
1977
104,258.01
15.96
1978
434,225.50
21.00
1979
429,917.78
33.91
perceived to have mental health or emotional difficulties or who are chemically dependent persons, see counseled and treated. Adolescent makes with forms of learning disability, physical, mental or emotional, are housed. counseled and "taught.." The student population, intermixed and various, is subjected to a form of behavior modification" described by those who run the school as eclectic. Some of its salient features are isolation from the outside world, little or no communication with the outside world, physical confinement, physical punishment, progressive restoration of liberty, investigation and evaluation of student "attitude" and "truthfulness" and "future conduct" through the use of a machine, and counseling.
Regardless of origin, condition or motivation, once arrived, each person during the beginning phases of the school program was locked in, isolated from the outside world, and whether anti-social, crippled or learning disabled, was subject to mandated physical standing day after day after day to promote "right thinking" and "social conformity." Mail was censored. Visitors were discouraged. Disparaging remarks concerning the institution were prohibited and punished. To "graduate" from confinement to a more liberated phase, one had to "pass" a lie detector test relating to "attitude," "truthfulness and "future conduct." Some failed to pass and remained in confinement for extended periods of time
Students generally are admitted to the Provo Canyon School at the insistence of one or both of their parents. Typically, the parents have had extreme disciplinary problems and being unable to control their child have contacted, the Provo Canyon School as a "last resort" Other boy are received at the school directly directly from juvenile courts and probation officers from across the nation. Many of the youths are placed at the Provo Canyon School by the boy's local school districts, with tuition funding coming from state and federal agencies pursuant to state special education laws and the federal Education for All Handicapped Children Act. Plaintiff Timothy Milonas Jr., had resided in the State of Nevada prior to being involuntarily committed to the Provo Canyon School by his mother. Milonas' commitment was a condition of probation imposed by a Nevada juvenile court. Milonas' father thereafter received a coded letter from his son, which letter implied that the son needed assistance. Because of that letter, Milonas' father independently contacted counsel regarding the school and how it was being run. Kenneth Rice, the other individual plaintiff, had resided in Alaska until his involuntary commitment to the Provo Canyon School. Rice was placed in the school pursuant to an order of an Alaska juvenile court. Four months after he was admitted to the Provo Canyon School, Rice ran away from the school, and, before he was returned. he made contact with an attorney and complained about conditions at the school. As a result of the complaints thus made by Milonas and Rice, the present action was instituted.
They probably still receive public funding because they still take kids who are ordered there by the courts. Funny thing - they still use the same abusive measures they were sued for. Obviously they are not abiding by the injunction. They don't use polygraphs anymore but they DO interogate kids and get them to tell on one another. Give me the youth, and Germany will rule the world.
--Hitler
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CW,
I have read the milonas case. I was just wondering if provo was still to this day getting gov't funds. the part of the case about the polygraph is particularly disturbing. the judges took great exception to that practice and called it the most personal of intrusions into one's own private thoughts. that is an ugly case and i sure wonder what they're up to at provo now-adays, and if the gov't has a hand in funding, if juveniles are still sent there, or if boys are still sent there from the psyche ward.
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whoops. you said they do send juveniles there. yep, i'm sure they have replaced the use of polygraph with some other form of torture.
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That case is from the '80s. If PCS is still accepting state funds, they can be sued under "color of state law", unlike other schools that are strictly privately (meaning PARENT) funded.
Why anyone would put their kid in a locked psych hospital is beyond me, unless that child is severally psychotic or at risk of harming themselves or another, the LEAST restrictive environment is always recommended.
Was that the case with CW's kid? If so, experts also say that 90 days is about the norm for keeping a child in lock-down for their own safety and of course, to stablize their condition.
What's with these kids being locked away for many months, even years without due-process? THAT is just nuts!!!!
:eek:
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Honey, I was there for 26months 2 years and 2 months, the only reason why they let me go is because they gave up on me and did not think I would succeed. It is in my paperwork from them, no joke.
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When I was in provo from 2000-2002 we did not have a polygraph, we had what was called a statement of facts. They give you paper and pencil, you sit down at a desk in a corner alone somewhere, do not talk or look at anyone or else you get a class 2 and thenyou are to write down everything that you have done wrong, when you think you are done you turn it in to staff who read it and tell you if you told them the truth or not, another words did you write down what they are looking for, so not only did you get in trouble for what they knew of, but for everything else you did that you wrote down and if you wrote that you did something with someone else they wanted to know they're names all the time and if you refused to tell them you got to go to observation until you were willing to tell them. Often staff did this to get kids in trouble that they did not like and to torque with certain kids also to see if they could make them lash out in anger. it was totally f* up.
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To those who asked if pcs still receives public monies - they probably do because they still take court-ordered youth - therefore the state must pay. This is why the authorites ignored the reports of abuse at this school. They refuse to investigate properly because if they find that it is abusive then others may have a cause of action against the state for placing them in an abusive facility that routinely violates human, civil and Constitutional rights. Please sign the petition to close this horrible den of torture and child abuse. Petition is found at:
http://beyondbusiness.net/index2.htm (http://beyondbusiness.net/index2.htm)
To say the drug war is a failure is like saying the Hindenburg was short a few fire extinguishers.
Carl Hiassen
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Who owns PCS?
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On 2004-04-29 15:17:00, Anonymous wrote:
"Honey, I was there for 26months 2 years and 2 months, the only reason why they let me go is because they gave up on me and did not think I would succeed. It is in my paperwork from them, no joke."
Sheesh, may I ask how your parents feel about that? I mean, unless money is no object here, it sounds like they spent a minor (no pun intended) on an "unsuccessful" program.
Anyway, Anon, Kudos to you for hanging in there so long, hope you are enjoying life on the "outside" ... God knows you kids paid a big price for your freedom.
:nworthy:
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On 2004-04-30 16:03:00, Anonymous wrote:
"
On 2004-04-29 15:17:00, Anonymous wrote:
"Honey, I was there for 26months 2 years and 2 months, the only reason why they let me go is because they gave up on me and did not think I would succeed. It is in my paperwork from them, no joke."
Sheesh, may I ask how your parents feel about that? I mean, unless money is no object here, it sounds like they spent a minor (no pun intended) on an "unsuccessful" program.
Anyway, Anon, Kudos to you for hanging in there so long, hope you are enjoying life on the "outside" ... God knows you kids paid a big price for your freedom.
:nworthy: "
oops, meant to say minor FORTUNE ...
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Provo Canyon School was previously owned by Charter Hospital. The current owner is Universal Health Services. They own 69 hospitals and other health related facilities. They boast profits of over three billion dollars per year.
The web-site is:
http://www.uhsinc.com (http://www.uhsinc.com)
The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.
--William Safire
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This was taken from the Provo Canyon School Petition: Name with held.
My daughter stayed there in the 80's when she was a child. A family friend (doctor) told us it was a private school with lots of fun things to do. My daughter is severe epileptic and it was the medication that had caused her outbursts. The doctors there put her in cages with only her bra and underpants on a mat on the floor and a sheep to keep warm. Also the doctors there were supposed to be very careful about her medicine as they were to consult her neurologist before giving her any medicine. They never contacted him and shw was given medications that caused her to have more seizures that she didn't have at the time. The only way she got out was a friend of mine who worked there told me how they abused her and begged me to get her out. I had the lawyers for disabled people come there as an IEP and then told them we were taking her out. The school didn't have time to get a court order to stop it. I was not even allowed to help her pack and a counselor followed her and heckled her all the time she was packing because they wanted her to react and keep her there. The abuses were numerous and I myself saw many children there crying by what they were suffering when I visited my daughter.
These same abuses are currently occuring. Over 300 girls and boys are in danger of this type of abuse every day. Please speak out and help end this.
...to disarm the people (is) the best and most effective way to enslave them...
-- George Mason
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On 2004-04-30 16:03:00, Anonymous wrote:
"
On 2004-04-29 15:17:00, Anonymous wrote:
"Honey, I was there for 26months 2 years and 2 months, the only reason why they let me go is because they gave up on me and did not think I would succeed. It is in my paperwork from them, no joke."
Sheesh, may I ask how your parents feel about that? I mean, unless money is no object here, it sounds like they spent a minor (no pun intended) on an "unsuccessful" program.
Anyway, Anon, Kudos to you for hanging in there so long, hope you are enjoying life on the "outside" ... God knows you kids paid a big price for your freedom.
:nworthy: "
How my mother feels about it. Hell, there is a whole lot to the story here and not enough time in the world to tell it all. Seriously. My mother never believed me, not at all. I had a buddy working at PCS, I mean I never met her until i got there. but when i did she was just one of those people that i looked at and saw her interacting with other people, staff and kids, asses and respectful, that i was easily able to say, wow, she's a really good person. so i immediately took to her. and she helped me through a lot of stuff. in the long run she has been like a mother to me in her own way, she was there for me when my mother wasn't and disowned me for the time being, when stupid crap went on and many other things, she's even been there for me after i left. well provo policy is that after a patient leaves they may write you and call you at the school but the only way they can contact you and staff contact them back is through e-mail. this policy is only for the first year. so i always called her at provo and wrote her letters and such. after being gone for over a year we called at our homes and such, well some how, after i have been out for a year, provo intercepted one of our e-mails between eachother containing support comments about how much she has helped people in provo and stuff that i gathered from a lot of folks. i've no clue how provo got a hold of this information, but they did and the next morning she went into work there they called her in the office and had a copy of the e-mail and pretty much just fired her without cause and broke they're own policy. and see she tried calling my house, which she never does, and she left a message, so i knew something was wrong right off the bat by her calling my house and the tone in her voice, i could just hear it, so when i finally got a hold of her and hearing all of this, i was livid, i couldn't believe it, cause i love her and respect her so much and it was just like whoa, and the table flipped without warning. and this is when i was starting to cause trouble with provo and my records and lawyers, and they have been looking for a reason to fire her anyways, but that made no difference to me, they took a low blow at me and hurt someone that i care about in the process which only angered me a whole lot further and made me start seeking me revenge on them now more so than ever. i was totally calm, cool and collected when on the phone with her cause i didn't want to upset her or have her know that i was upset by this, but shit man, when i got off the phone i yelled so loud, 'i'm gonna kill those mother F*, who do they think they are, they have no right, this is about me, not her.' i mean i was so upset, i haven't been that mad in a long time, i could of literally put my head through a wall again. my mother asked me what the hell was going on and i slowed down just enough to tell her and she was just like, shit, and i told her what really goes on at provo and then for the simple reason that such a good and honest, hard working person could be fired without cause like that, she believed me, and she has been helping me fight them ever since, she drafts and types up all the letters to them for me cause she's real good at it since we both work in family law, i cc everything to the schoolboard that i had during the time of my stay at provo, the ceo of provo, the ceo of uhs, and my attorney. so now my mom believes me, she still doesn't like to hear about it though, not that i blame her, sending your kid off to some place where they are abused and you don't believe them when they tell what's going on because you yourself have been brainwashed is not a pretty sight, ya know. but i'll tell you one thing, this whole pile of stinky ass shit sure is starting to take it's toll on me, and all i gotta say to that is, thank god for summer camp.
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This was taken from the petition to close Provo Canyon School. Ironically the program has not changed much in 17 years - it is still as abusive as it was then. So don't be fooled into thinking that these things couldn't be happening today. PCS doesn't abide by the laws enacted to protect the mentally ill. Read on......
17 years after being released from Provo Canyon School, I still occasionally wake up with night sweats and panic attacks that I began suffering after my experiences at the school. From 9 DAYS WITH 2 SHOWERS IN ISOLATION FOR A FAULTY URINE SAMPLE (My parents were told that I admitted to purchasing pot on a ski lift while on a visit, even though I was CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING with my father in full view!) to Dr. Gwilliam verbally attacking me when my brother and father arrived for a visit to the point my brother said "I am not going to sit hear and listen to you bash my sister." I had no warning that "Dr." Gwilliam would turn on me.
Both my brother and father were concerned that I was on so many medications that my hands shook and my speech was slurred. Dr. Gwilliam indicated that I needed to be highly medicated to keep me from being violent - even though I had no history at the school of violence, only depression which I was punished for (not adjusting well on the reports – so no privileges). When I had complained to the medical doctor, he only upped my dosage. I was forced to take extremely large doses of medication but was punished for wanting to know what I was taking and wanting off. Considering the issues the FDA is now reporting in such medications as Xanax and other MOI’s and SSR’s, I consider it gross negligence that my concerns were brushed aside as being trivial.
After working steadily for the hotel and school cleaning, to receive a check for only $70 after one year was an outrage. I was told that money had been taken out for outings and personal items, however my mother was paying bills for those same things. She was also being charged quite a bit of money for items that she herself had bought me. No one goes through 2 boxes of tampons a month if there is not a serious medical problem.
And in the end was anything accomplished other than my mother being bilked out of her money? No - because they never addressed any of the issues that had resulted in the total breakdown of my relationship with my parents. No family counseling. I carried the anger with me for another 12 years after leaving before making any changes on my own. I even called to have my medical and psychological records sent to another counselor. After 1 year, all Dr. Gwilliam had wrote fit onto less than 7 sheets. Nice intensive counseling. And after Dr. Gwilliam’s turning on me I did not trust him to tell him anything – just continued to keep it buried as I had before everything came crashing down. No therapeutic, rape trauma, eating disorder or drug abuse counseling provided. No program to help me develop positive and healthy ways to deal with problems. Just intimidated into proper behavior and told that I was the problem over and over and over. Let it be known that after my experience at Provo Canyon School, not only did I immediately revert to my prior self-destructive behavior with a vengeance, but I also began to suffer severe and debilitating panic / anxiety attacks not experienced prior to my admission.
Oh yes - and their "education" was so great that many of the classes taken at PCS had to be retaken at my next high school even though I had passed the classes. I had to retake Algebra II with Trig (same book) because PCS lumped it under "Algebra".
This person was also tortured at PCS.
Men seldom, or rather never for a length of time, and deliberately, rebel against anything that does not deserve rebelling against.
--Thomas Carlyle