SUNHAWK "ACADEMY", St George, Utah

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, you won't find much help on this website - my advice is to continue doing research and meeting the people at the facilities to determine where the best fit is for your son.  This website you've stumbled on will only give you criticism for even considering placement.  These are some angry kids...

AMEN to that!  Although not all here are "kids", there are a lot of angry folks, many with good reason, and many because they are negative followers not interested in proactive helping - only tearing down.

[Anne Bonney]

Unfortunately, you won't find much help on this website - my advice is to continue doing research and meeting the people at the facilities to determine where the best fit is for your son.  This website you've stumbled on will only give you criticism for even considering placement.  These are some angry kids...

AMEN to that!  Although not all here are "kids", there are a lot of angry folks, many with good reason, and many because they are negative followers not interested in proactive helping - only tearing down.

No, what we're doing is challenging parents to use some critical thinking skills and see this industry for what it is.  A money making sham.  I'm 42, went through a program over 20 years ago that nearly destroyed my life.  I'm the parent of two grown children, one of whom scared the living shit out of me for about 6 years or so, so I'm not talking out of my ass here.  

Its real easy to simply dismiss what's said here because of the volatility, but if you slow down for a minute and think about what these kids have been through.  They're angry for a reason.  A good one.  If you're a parent, it should be important enough to you to sift through the so called 'bullshit' to find the meat of the issue.

Don't send your child away.  I would have much preferred juvie to a program.  It doesn't fuck with your soul as much.

[ticked]

Unfortunately, you won't find much help on this website - my advice is to continue doing research and meeting the people at the facilities to determine where the best fit is for your son.  This website you've stumbled on will only give you criticism for even considering placement.  These are some angry kids...

AMEN to that!  Although not all here are "kids", there are a lot of angry folks, many with good reason, and many because they are negative followers not interested in proactive helping - only tearing down.

No, what we're doing is challenging parents to use some critical thinking skills and see this industry for what it is.  A money making sham.  I'm 42, went through a program over 20 years ago that nearly destroyed my life.  I'm the parent of two grown children, one of whom scared the living shit out of me for about 6 years or so, so I'm not talking out of my ass here.  

Its real easy to simply dismiss what's said here because of the volatility, but if you slow down for a minute and think about what these kids have been through.  They're angry for a reason.  A good one.  If you're a parent, it should be important enough to you to sift through the so called 'bullshit' to find the meat of the issue.

Don't send your child away.  I would have much preferred juvie to a program.  It doesn't fuck with your soul as much.

It is sometimes hard to read here because the pain is so palpable. But i have learned a tremendous amount reading here in the past month. Its not pretty reading, but any parent who realizes how many programs, how many kids have similar experiences and that a clear pattern emerges. We had no idea. A parent who is warned here may save their own child the suffering our child experienced.

[Anonymous]

Since this is a necropost, and we don't usually get necrotrolls here (especially on specific programs), I'm going to take this at face value.

You might want to elaborate before you expect any real answers. We can give the names of various therapies and ideas- family functional therapy, accept and understand that your son seriously hates and/or fears you, etc- but without details, how can we give you advice? Going on Fornits and asking for some sort of magic bullet is like going to a doctor and saying "My son has cancer and these guys with their chants and potions say they can cure it, can YOU do the same?!" Of course we can't. Despite whatever the quacks have told you, THERE ARE NO EASY SOLUTIONS. NO ONE CAN FIX YOUR KID. The attempt will probably leave you several thousand dollars poorer and your kid with a lifelong hatred of you. The angry Anonymi of Fornits are proof of this.

Here's an idea I bet you haven't tried: "Hey, son? We've become seriously fucking desperate here, so desperate that we're looking to send you to untrained cult nutjobs from Utah to torture you for several months." Go on, tell him. No, seriously. See what happens! Send him to Fornits for a while. That has some stark jolting effects.

Maybe- just maybe- it will get you talking with him in real terms instead of the usual parental high-handed crap vs. teen deflection dance.

[Anonymous]

Parent: Please be careful of chosing programs, especially out of State.
The State of Utah, in cases of Abuse or Neglect, do nothing.
For instance a few months ago a 14 yr old boy with disablitys died in a Aspen Program, due to Neglect, they did not take his medical problems seriously, and he died alone in a room with a mattress on the floor.
With a medical problem, that could have been taken care of instead they did nothing.  Read on Fornits the Youth Care threads. This is common to happen.  What happened when licensing finds they did not follow procedure, put them on a 90 day suspension, they will try to make it ok, and are back in business.  Most times they shut the program down, and open with a new name, and go merrily on.  
Aspen is owned by a California corporation, yet there are not any programs, schools, thereputic programs in California, they are in Utah why? Because California does not allow abuse.
Licensing in Utah says "we need a national language for child abuse".
? What about kids dieing needlessly when they could have been preventable.  
It is not just deaths, most youth have many mental abuses, and it does not go away.
You may find that your child will be much worse than when he/she went.
Just a few insights to sending your child to a program, I wish I had the power to write all the data, but I do not.
I have lost someone in my family to these programs, and it never leaves your life.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, you won't find much help on this website - my advice is to continue doing research and meeting the people at the facilities to determine where the best fit is for your son.  This website you've stumbled on will only give you criticism for even considering placement.  These are some angry kids...

AMEN to that!  Although not all here are "kids", there are a lot of angry folks, many with good reason, and many because they are negative followers not interested in proactive helping - only tearing down.

Can I send my son to fornits instead of a program then? Is it cheaper?

You sound like you know the answer to my questions about prices.

[Anonymous]

You still there, Dawn?

Horrified yet?

[Anonymous]

I still see parents are sending thier children to concentration camps with happy names. It may have been 10 years ago when I got out of Sunhawk Academy (pre Aspen) but it still effects me everyday, and to think it was one of the better programs.. There have been news stories both on TV and in newspapers about these places and nothing really has been done and people still send thier children to them. What the fuck is wrong with parents? Being a parent myself now I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I will never send my child to one of these places, hell there is a list online of children that have been KILLED at these places! As a parent I BEG you seek counciling not just for your child but family as well... the teen years are hard (don't you remember them?) body confusion, hormones, peer presure, and all the rules you have to pay attention to don't you remember your rebellion, your angst, being pissed off cause you weren't a child but you weren't an adult, the hypocrisies that you saw on a daily basis... Wait a minute... that means its .. wait for it... normal!!! Now I'm not saying that there arn't good programs... I'm sure there may be... but my guess is that its the one that is out patient and around the corner not some hellhole hundreds or thousands of miles away... and they don't tell you that you shouldn't believe anything your child says about the program cause they're just trying to manipulate you and they should NOT say that tough love means that you have to be a emotionally dead to your child's needs (matter of fact fuck tough love.. just LOVE damnit!)... and they arn't going to tell you that all of your child's belongings are from their 'old negative' life and need to be thrown away and they arn't going to tell you that you have to keep things like family deaths and births a secret until the child gets out of the program, and they arn't going to make a child stand up in front of you and tell in detail everything that they've done in their life against their will just so they can get the fuck out. Sorry this has gotten to be a long rant but I will stop here as I could continue and turn the damn thing into a book using my experiences in the almost year I was locked away in hell.

[psy]

I still see parents are sending thier children to concentration camps with happy names. It may have been 10 years ago when I got out of Sunhawk Academy (pre Aspen) but it still effects me everyday, and to think it was one of the better programs.. There have been news stories both on TV and in newspapers about these places and nothing really has been done and people still send thier children to them. What the fuck is wrong with parents? Being a parent myself now I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I will never send my child to one of these places, hell there is a list online of children that have been KILLED at these places! As a parent I BEG you seek counciling not just for your child but family as well... the teen years are hard (don't you remember them?) body confusion, hormones, peer presure, and all the rules you have to pay attention to don't you remember your rebellion, your angst, being pissed off cause you weren't a child but you weren't an adult, the hypocrisies that you saw on a daily basis... Wait a minute... that means its .. wait for it... normal!!! Now I'm not saying that there arn't good programs... I'm sure there may be... but my guess is that its the one that is out patient and around the corner not some hellhole hundreds or thousands of miles away... and they don't tell you that you shouldn't believe anything your child says about the program cause they're just trying to manipulate you and they should NOT say that tough love means that you have to be a emotionally dead to your child's needs (matter of fact fuck tough love.. just LOVE damnit!)... and they arn't going to tell you that all of your child's belongings are from their 'old negative' life and need to be thrown away and they arn't going to tell you that you have to keep things like family deaths and births a secret until the child gets out of the program, and they arn't going to make a child stand up in front of you and tell in detail everything that they've done in their life against their will just so they can get the fuck out. Sorry this has gotten to be a long rant but I will stop here as I could continue and turn the damn thing into a book using my experiences in the almost year I was locked away in hell.

 :tup:  :tup:  :tup:

[Anonymous]

PostPosted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 10:21 am    Post subject:    Reply with quote
i survived "treatment" at sunhawk as well as aspen achievement so mabey i could provide some insight. " first page

anyway i'm back because that place still haunts me, god i just wished so badly me and my mother could have talked first, we were so close. i'm 21 now and our relationship has been damaged scince that incident, its just not the same.  there is no trust; and that closeness is not apparent.


i have a feelin that poster right after dawn scared her strait to those "professional" grifters. i have a feeling the teen is in utah

[Anonymous]

ps. me agin...............

im a 21 year old kid who makes 70,000 a year following my dreams

i am a linux administrator, and all; that wasted time i could hav3e been lerning something....