234. Montana Academy

The first thing students experience when they arrive at the boarding school is that they have to take all their clothes off. Their days are filled with forced labor and little treatment.

A former student states on Facebook:

I was on complete social isolation for two months if it helps at all. I was not able to talk to anybody except for the therapist. The punishment if I broke this rule? NO FOOD. I fuckin hate MA for a lot of reasons, mainly it wasn’t a rehab, it is a behavioral modification facility. One AA meeting a week and fucking retarded Todd is not going to keep anyone sober. Every single person I know who went here either relapsed, killed themselves, or have dissapeared off the face of the earth. I used heroin for 4 months after MA before I checked myself in to a real rehab. I lived with one good friend of mine from MA after we both relapsed in another rehab, and I sponsor another MA relapser from my time. Therapeudic boarding schools are useless as long as they force people to do anything. You have to want to get sober and I don’t think that FORCED PHYSICAL LABOR is the way to make this happen, and yes I am saying that I was forced to do physical labor. I even have pictures of it if you would like to see. I am thinking about just driving up there in the middle of the night with a truck and helping those kids escape. They do not deserve to be treated like they are and there many better places for them besides MA

2020 update

The facility is mentioned in an article where the students were the subject of isolation practise which is not allowed in the state of Montana’s prison system but allowed in so-called private treatment facilities. Read: Former students describe isolation, physical punishments, ‘cuddle puddles’ (The Missoulian)

Sources:

• Testimony from a former student (Tales from the black school testimonial blog)
• STATE BY STATE LIST OF FRAUDULENT OR ABUSIVE CENTERS (Challenging Teen Challenge)
• Factsheet about the school (Fornits Wiki)