My name is Bryant Hudson. I am a former student (prisoner) at one of the WWASPS programs, Carolina Springs Academy(C.S.A), located in South Carolina miles away from any towns, villages or even major roads. Although it is advertised as a proffesional treatment center for troubled teens, most teens incarserated, as well as myself, find themselves in more of a concentration camp than anything else.
I've heard the horror stories of Jamaica's Tranquility Bay, and Mexico's High Impact. I personly met several students from TB, and I've got to be honest: the WWASPS facilities in the United States, from my experience, are not ran much better. There were no trained proffesional staff whatsoever. No proper education techniques. We, too, attempted to teach ourselves out of old tore up school books (many times several pages were missing). There were ridiculous and pointless rules for everything; EVERYTHING! We were forced to walk on eggshells and look over our shoulders every day while the staff (consisting mostly of minimum-wage-paid men on a power trip) waited with they're fingers crossed for us to break the rules. Breaking the rules led to worksheets, and worksheets led to OP. OP led to restrainment, and restrainment led to severe beatings (we'll get into that later). We were punished for anything you could imagine, including simple every day actions like sitting or standing (without staff's permission) reading, drawing, looking out windows(that weren't barred or covered up) and, yes, even talking! Our basic human rights were taken away, along with all of our legal rights. We couldn't listen to the radio or watch the news. Phone calls were completely forbidden; even newspapers were contraband. The truth is murder convicts on death row have more freedom than we did. Then there were the poor living conditions: cold showers, no doors on the toilets and no swower curtains. No water pressure and poor plumbing. The facilaty was overcrowded. Constantly the staff would take half the boys dorm to a horse stable miles away from the actual facility in a desperate attempt to hide us from DSS. Any medical needs were either ignored or responded to five to six weeks later. When I first arrived there was a serious stomach virus was going around. Everyone who caught the virus were shoved in one tiny room and were given apple juice, no medicine. When I caught the virus I was accused of withdrawing from Cocaine.
Cruel and unusual is the only term I can think of to describe the extreme forms of punishment they used. Although I spent about three months straight in worksheets, I never found myself in OP (observational placement), but I heard the stories, and I heard the screams. If walking past the tiny building, we could hear kids begging the staff to stop. No one really spoke about what went on in OP. I know what I saw, and I saw kids come back after days, weeks, or even months in OP with black eyes, broken glasses, carpet burns on faces, cuts, bruises , and bloody noses. I think the evidence is right in front of us. Untrained staff are restraining kids not even half their size and illegaly beating them. There is somthing seriously wrong with that!! With my own eyes, I saw one of my peers being choked by a staff member because he got out of bed without permission. This man still has a job at C.S.A. On one occasion everyone (exept upper levels) were forced to stand up against the wall with our hands behind our backs for four days and three nights because the directer of the boys facility accused a student of ejaculating in his food. Even though he had no proof we were all punished. When kids were being sent from South Carolina to High Impact or Tranquility Bay, the staff would taunt and torment them until the escorts came. We were often told that our girlfreinds or personal freinds back home were dead and would laugh about it. When one of my close freinds really did die I didn't know if it was real or another sick joke.
That is just a taste of the psychological torment I endured for eleven months at C.S.A. I never really told many people about it. In the program, any information you give to your parents about what is really going on is disregarded as a manipulation letter,and you are punished. I gave up after one month.The reality is that parents are conned into sending their children to these programs with promises of changing their teenager's lives.The truth is they have no idea what is really going on. They have no clue. Those of us who went through this cannot be bitter towards our parents. WWASPS is the real enemy. They are an empire built on conning parents out of there money, not helping teens. When I found this website, I was very encouraged that people are actually speaking out against WWASPS. I am so glad the truth is finally being revealed. It's verry condescending how the WWASPS website shows pictures of kids having fun and how most of the pictures on the website are not even taken at the facilities!
I would strongly advise parents who are considering sending their kid to a WWASPS progamto look at the facts. Four of the facilities have been raided and shut down, and the ones that are open are constantly being investigated and sued on charges of abuse and not having proper liscense. Does that sound proffesional to you?
Aftermath: After more than 10 year the authorities closed the boarding school in 2009. They tried to open under a new name, but it didn't work out. When aminal care groups visited the campus in 2010 they found animals in a such condition that they had to take them into care. The animal abuse case is investigated, but none cared to investigate whether something out of the ordinar happened to the teenagers, who had to live there for many years. Animals count more than human lives
References:
Datasheet about the boarding school from Secret Prisons for Teens
The original story (Cached version of tbfight.com - may take a while to load)
