Archive | May 2013
30/05/2013  

98. Calvary Academy

Calvary Academy is a religious boarding school where teenagers can be held from the so-called temptations of the world. The management fled Wisconsin because legislation was too strict so they wouldn’t have been able to jail the teenagers all year. Another issue was a court case involving charges of Sexually assault which ended in the charges dismissed. In Florida none cares how minors are treated. The state is a heaven for such places as this boarding school.

It does not sound like a fun place to be as a teenager.

Sources:

28/05/2013  

97. Big Cypress Wilderness Institute

This wilderness styled program is used by courts. It is an option to jail but far more dangerous. Even employees who is ordered not to drive students around use their cars. In one incident a traffic accident claimed the life of a young man.

It does not sound like a fun place to be a teenager.

Sources:

24/05/2013  

96. Grenville Christian College

Grenville Christian College closed in 2007. For some students it was a kind of prison where they were held back by a kind of cult organization.

It sounds like it was not a fun place to be as a teenager.

Ms. Buddington’s account of abuse began on the trip to Canada from the self-styled Anglican Community of Jesus, which her hippie parents had joined when they were barely out of their teens (her mother is still a community nun; her father was later kicked out).
She tried jumping out of the car, but was restrained.
Within 48 hours of her arrival at Grenville, Ms. Buddington, now 33 and living in Portland, Me., was pulled from her bed by three staff women in the middle of the night, dragged into a room and berated for several hours for allegedly criticizing the leaders of the Community of Jesus, which had close ties with Grenville. (The cult leaders, known as Mother Cay and Mother Judy, were at the time living on the Grenville campus.) She was then placed on “discipline,” not allowed to talk or attend classes or wear the school uniform and spent her days scrubbing pots, floors and toilets and asking God to change her heart. The several-week sentence, she said, ended only after she wrote a series of letters to the headmaster saying her heart had indeed been changed.
That event, Ms. Buddington said in an interview, was the beginning of four nightmarish years at Grenville, where she experienced constant psychological abuse, isolation, punishment and humiliation at the hands of school staff before eventually running away.
“I was treated as less than human,” she said. She said she lived in constant fear of punishment and was depressed and frequently suicidal. Repeated requests to get psychological help were denied by school authorities.

Update 2016:
A recent article in the media provided addtional information about what took place:
Former students allege psychological, physical and sexual abuse at Ont. Christian school (CTW News)

Update 2020:
Former students who say they suffered abuse at Christian boarding school in Brockville, Ont., win class-action (The Star)

Sources:

22/05/2013  

95. Back to Basics Christian Military Academy

When a boy died at the Back to Basics Christian Military Academy the mother stated that it was “an act of God”.

The authorities didn’t see it so. They saw an unlicensed school being run without knowning what they were doing.

The school closed down and went into hiding. Maybe they are operating in another town. It is not known, but it was for sure not a fun place to be as a teenager.

Sources:

20/05/2013  

94. Arthur G. Dozier School for boys

OK. You don’t get to be sent to the Arthur G. Dozier School for boys if you have not broken the law. It has been so since year 1900 when they opened the place.

But beside the judgment given in court it seemed that the employees did run their own little court. A number of graves. Corporal punishment. Boys who vanished in the system. A lot of cruelty short to say.

In the end it didn’t matter how much they stated that it was all something from the past. They had to close it down.

Now they are trying to sell it for development so this site of shame can be forgotten.

How can this be allowed because it wasn’t a fun place to be as a teenager.

Sources:

19/05/2013  

93. Cedars Academy

The school located near Bridgeville in Delaware was open for 3 decades. Already in 1989 it ran into problems with licensing. It was purchased by Aspen Education Group owned by Romney and one of the sponsors of the Dr. Phil show. It closed in 2009.

A student writes:

My Neil Schwartz Abuse
I broke a window thinking it would get me kicked out. It took Neil a half an hour to show up from his house mean while the staff had me sit down which I did until he showed up. When he arrived I was grabbed by my caller and drug down the fifty foot cement path at knee height by Neil Schwartz. By the time I got to the other building my pants and collar were completely shredded with bloody knees and elbows. Neil through me up the stairs into the other building where knowone else was. He jumped onto of me with his knee in my chest so I could not breath while restrain my arm and put his other hand over my face and pressed down then squeezed as hard as he could while screaming “Don’t be a pussy John, stop crying” for no less than 10 minutes. I was crying begging him to stop the whole time. After Neil stopped he told me if I mentioned it to anyone he would call the police on me for breaking the window and it would happen again. By this point I was terrified of him. I walked away with a swollen bloody lip, …scrapped knees, a severe limp, shredded clothes, and emotional scars and nightmares that I still suffer from. The next home visit I told my parents and they didn’t believe me. That night I slit both my wrists and took a bottle of sleeping pills. I woke up in the hospital the next day. Neil Schwartz is really a sick monster and I will never forgive him for what he did to me. -John

Another student states:

I’ve been sent to many terible places by my parents. Ascent and the Cedars academy were the two worst…

since all the abuse is over and I remain a survivor with intolerable trauma from the emotional and physical abuse from both places and Ascent was shut down, I must fight to raise hell for other places like it.

That is why we must tell the Cedars Academy to shut itself down before we the people take a stand!

contact the cedars and show your discontent so no more kids suffer emotional and physical abuse like I did. The founder of the school (Neal Swartz) threatened to smash my head back into a tree because I called him “f—ing fascist scum.” the headmistress (Mary Pauer)waved a knife in my face and tried to supress my left wing ideaology. The staff stood by and let my 18 year old room mate beat me up each day for my political views. (keep in mind I was like 13 and small for my age, an easy target for a coward like him and his accomplices amoungst the staff.) I am 18 now and this horible school is still up and running. We must stop this madness one placement at a time.

Tell that fascist school that censors left wing literature and abuses kids and punishes kids for making attempts at ending their lives (instead of helping them through it) to f—ing close down or we’ll continue to give them hell.

and tell the wankers Petey Earle sent you!!!

It does not sound like a fun place to be as a teenager.

Sources:

18/05/2013  

92. Devereux Glenholme School

It is marketed as a therapeutic school and is in the public mostly known to have schooled Nancy Spungen, who died while she was in relationship with musician Sid Vicious. Her murder has not been solved.

In 2007 3 students aged between 11 and 17 stole a car so they could drive home and visit their families from they have been cut off for long.

In 2011 a female employee was fired for second-degree sexual assault on a 16 year old student.

It does not sound like a fun place to be as a teenager

Sources:

17/05/2013  

91. Hyde School(s)

Opened in 1966 as one of the first so-called therapeutic boarding schools, this school has a long history.

A student died there in 1988.

More recently it was known when a student escaped and remained hidden for years.

A former student writes on Yelp.com:

If you want your child to become a smiling robot tattle teller, incapable of original thought, then this is the place for YOU!

I was sent to this place for a summer session in the late 90s and as an adult, knowing what I know now, I can adamantly declare this purported “school” is actually a cult; led by people who defend their circular logic with the reminiscence of religious fanaticism. Hyde attempts to ingrain an impractical set of morals, skewed from reality, by way of threatening kids with, what I would call abusive, physical exhaustion at even the slightest suggestion of questioning their odd practices.

If you question their logic, then you must be hiding something and be subject to punishment, otherwise you wouldn’t question them…. right?

The superiors in this cult aggressively threaten anyone who steps out of line with the threat of making their lives a living hell with 3 main tiers of punishment designed to break your soul.

They hire former “students” from the cult to oversee the new “students” and while I was there, half of the staffers were caught high on acid and thrown out. Thats right, Hyde’s system is so infallible that the students they trusted most to guide the newcomers down their road to “integrity” were dropping acid and barking at students.

I just found out they never reported this to my parents at the time. For a school that supposedly holds integrity in such high regard, you’d think they would let parents know they were leaving their kids with a bunch of power tripping acid heads.

Who cares though right? Its only 10s of thousands of dollars out of your pocket!

And now they have the nerve to ask me for donations (I have no idea how they found out where I live).

KEEP YOUR CHILD AWAY FROM THIS PLACE

It does not sound like a fun place for a teenager.

Sources:

16/05/2013  

90. Grove School

It is marketed as a therapeutic boarding school. It is mostly known for a former student named Ariana Jollee who became a famous actress. In 1979 a fire on campus killed two students. More recently a gym teacher was fired due to the way he interacted with the students. Later he went on trial in a molestation trial not involving Grove School students.

Once the environment was relaxed and the school focused on the individual need of students. Smoking was allowed on campus in the 1970s.

More recent students speak of a very strict regime. In 2018 a student committed suicide after being expelled due to behavior which the school according to its own marketing should have been able to handle.

Documents in several lawsuits express concern whether the credentials of the employees are good enough to handle their present target group. Students also have been on the run from the facility.

It does not sound like a very fun place for a teenager.

Sources:

2021 update

An alleged suicide took place at the facility May 2021. The tragic incident is still under investigation.

15/05/2013  

89. Capital City Alternative School

If the clothing is not correct worn, a teenager at this school could be put in handcuffs or shackles.

The school was sued and they stopped this methods, but what are they doing instead? I don’t want to think about it.

It does not sound like a fun place for a teenager.

Sources:

« Older Posts