Some more info:
Critics call them "hell camps;" satisfied parents call them the best thing
that ever happened to their son or daughter. Companies take rebellious kids
aged 12 to 18 into the backcountry for several weeks, teach them how to live
off the land, and overcome their bad habits and bad attitudes. The assumption
is, they then go home to Mom and Dad as responsible young adults.
Aaron Bacon's journey to North Star began in Phoenix, where his parents had
watched him spiral downward into regular drug use, with slipping grades,
conflicts with gang members and bouts of depression. He smoked marijuana
daily, and experimented with LSD, speed and hallucinogenic mushrooms. Aaron
promised to quit drugs if he would be allowed to switch from private to
public school, and his parents agreed. But when his grades and attitude
continued to plummet, his parents showed him a brochure for a wilderness camp
run by North Star. He tore it up in their faces.
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