Fornits

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An open discussion about the troubled parent industry

Sorry it's taken me awhile to reply, not online that much anymore.
The incident I'm reffering to happened during the Christmas holidays in 1982. The resident who died was Phil Williams, a 16 year old from the state of Maine. Unfortunatly, Phil was a ward of the state, because his father was in jail for killing his mother. Phil was a Coordinator Trainee, and started complaining of having headaches. The staff felt that he was malingering, and doin this just so he didn't have to deal with the book (ie. give haircuts). This esculated to the point where he was GM'd and put in the ring for reacting during GM.(for those that thought the ring was only used for people who were violent, think again)After going 3 rounds, I think, hard to remember after over 20 years, Phil went unconscious and started vomitting profusely. After laying on the floor for around an hour,The "Staff" decided he should be brought to hospital. As for who these staff were, I'm sorry, but I cannot remember. It was a weekend and the regular house staff were not there, that much I remember. For what Director, there 'prolly wasn't one there.It was common practice that GM and Rings to be held with just whatever staff was on duty, no director required.
The following Monday, that hack of a nurse they had, came in to tell the house that what Phil died from was an enbolism and that he 'prolly would have died anyways, regardless of the ring (pretty convienent for Elan, I imagine)
Myself, 2 other residents and a staff member did go to his funeral. I'm glad Elan showed this amount of respect.
As for an investigation, I doubt there even was one. Noone ever came to house in an official capacity and asked questions of the residents. This is most likely due to he had no family to push the issue.
I would like to think that if Phil had recieved proper madical treatment prior to being in the ring, maybe he would have been ok. But this is something I'll never know.

Guard with jealous attention the public Liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that Jewel. Unfortunately, Nothing will Preserve it but downright Force. Whenever you Give Up that Force, you are ruined.....The Great Object is that every man be armed.....Everyone who is able may have a gun.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1888952229/circlofmiamithem' target='_new'>- Patrick Henry

I still get a chill down my spine when I think of that place. For the people who don't know what I'm talking about, Elan 4 was an old Tuberclouces Asylum that Elan transferred into a house. The thing I remember most about it was the "cells" they had, to put people in when they were acting out. It was the kind of place scary movies are made of. Unfortunatly, was sent up there a few times to PO or shotgun the trip. The people being brought there were either handcuffed or nylon tied. The ironic thing was most people going there were from Elan 7. Not Elan 8 or 5. In my own mind, there was a large discrepency on how the differant socio-economic classes were treated at Elan. Enuff of that, back to the subject. Elan 4 was just one big spooky place, electric doors to get in or out and upstairs where the had the cells, made me think... How differant is this then jail? It seems to me, they just wanted to wharehouse as many people as they could, with the least amount of trouble ::armed::

I have found that the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it

--Harry S. Truman

These reports are nothing new. Around '79 or '80, Illinois pulled all thier "wards" out of Elan. Joe Ricci gloated in reports of how one of them, escaped state custody, in order to return to Elan. The whole issue of restraints, WAS NOT supervised by a psychologist. Dr. Davidson wouldn't have know an acting out resident even if he bit him in his arse. The decison came from whom ever was the "top dog" at the time, even if it wasn't staff. They ran into a problem back then, they ran out of handcuffs and had to start using those nylon ties that police use for riots. PO's, or personal over-seers were instructed to keep the person in corner at all costs, which sometimes got extremely violent. I even ended up having to go to Lewiston to the ER due to injuries I received while PO'n. Another problem was, running out of corners to put all these people in. From 1980-1983, I saw the medium age of resident drop from 16-17 to 13-14, atleast that was in Elan 7. I sincerely feel the concepts they were forcing upon these younger people was futile at best. They may have worked well for adult's in recovery, but not on these "kids". We even had one young man, in 7, who was mentally retarded and did not belong there. After a few weeks, they realized this and shipped him out. For all thier "Tight Houses" and other inane attempts at behavior modification, they still lost 1 house, Elan 7, to riots...... ::bangin::

A drug is neither moral nor immoral - it's a chemical compound. The compound itself is not a menace to society until a human being treats it as if consumption bestowed a temporary license to act like an asshole.
--Frank Zappa

In 1982, at Elan 7, I had a friend die after going into the ring. It was always a no win situation, putting new people in to "modify" the behavior of 1 individual. I think, like most things there, it was used as a deterrant. Another cheap ploy to get people to submit. Only in this case it wasn't cheap, a 16 year old died......

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing
--Edmund Burke