Listen Carefully

I hereby decree…

Avoid the following places. Do not use their “services”. Do not trust them. Do not give them your money. Do not entrust them with the life of your son or daughter.

I cannot stress that enough. My decrees often have a somewhat light-hearted quality, as do most of the other pages on the Fortress. But with this I am absolutely serious. This is a matter of life and death. So look at the following list of facilities. I may even add more to the list from time to time. Look at this list.

Academy at Ivy Ridge
Robert Land Academy
Thayer Learning Center
Bethel Boys Academy
Eagle Point Christian Academy
Provo Canyon School
Tranquility Bay
Majestic Ranch
Carolina Springs Academy
Whitmore Academy
Spring Creek Lodge Academy
Summit Quest Academy
Escuela Caribe
Turn-About Ranch
SageWalk

And more. Many more.

What are all these places? These are behavior modification facilities for troubled teens. Maybe you’ve heard of this phenomenon. Parents feel their teenagers have totally gone off the deep end, that there’s no way to set them right again. They are desperate. They are irrational. They are willing to try just about anything. At any cost.

What they fail to realize is the cost is far more than just the thirty thousand dollar tuition.

If you’ve come to this page from a web search on one of these places, then you’ve done more than many of these unwitting parents have done. You’re making some attempt to learn more about the “school” or “camp” before emptying your savings to have a loved one shuffled off there. To learn that the pretty looking brochures and websites put out by the facility itself are outright lies. To learn that most kids come out of these places psychologically damaged. To learn the much worse family situations that ensue afterward. To learn the facility is hardly the learning environment or inspirational getaway you were led to believe it is. To learn that these places are unlicensed, unmonitored, and run and maintained by people completely unqualified to teach, care for, or rehabilitate young people. To learn that students are tortured, raped, and killed at the hands of the people you’ve paid tens of thousands of dollars to in order to get them help.

That’s right. Every facility on the above list has either had students killed at the facility or otherwise are responsible for a sickeningly high number of abuse cases.

Don’t believe me? Check out these links. Read it all.

ISAC

Boot Camp for Kids: Torturing Teens for Fun and Profit

Coalition Against Institutionalized Child Abuse (CAICA)

Stop Brat Camp! (a page I made last year on Tomato World with lots of links to combat that disgusting ABC reality show)

63 Days

The Last Resort

I’ll add to this list later on, as well. Check back now and then for more.

And this barely scratches the surface. Bet that got you down? That’s right. Young people are being treated like this right here in our country, and it’s legal. It’s allowed. It’s seen as a good thing.

But let me ask you something. Think about your son or daughter. Think about all that he/she means to you. Truly think about it. All of it. Finding out you or your wife was pregnant. Seeing your newborn child for the first time. Raising that little person. First day of kindergarten. Christmas mornings. Learning to ride a bike. Bedtime stories. Think about that. Think hard.

Now I want you to picture your son being grabbed in the middle of the night by two enormous strangers who force him out of the house and into a big scary van. Picture him locked all day long in the dark, in a cold empty room, behind a metal door. Forced to run five miles in 100 degree weather. Denied water. Restrained by “counselors” three times his size because he can’t run anymore. Held down. Choking. And before long, he stops breathing. And you are informed of the news later on.

Imagine your daughter beaten every day for failing to recite a passage correctly. Picture her being forced to brush her teeth with the same toothbrush she was just cleaning a toilet bowl with. She is not permitted to contact you. The “counselors” tell her every day that she is just spoiled brat who does nothing but make life hell for everyone. She is denied adequate food. She is denied medical attention. And there she is every night, in pain, starving, sick. Lying there in terror that a male counselor or student is going to come in there and decide to have some “fun” with her. And on many occasions, that terror becomes a reality.

Ask yourself one more thing. Is this the help you’re seeking?