First, thanks for taking the time to build and maintain this site. I spent more time than I should of looking for TRUE testimonials of what goes on there (TB). I won't bore you with all the details of what goes on there; plenty of people have already done that. I just want to offer my situation/testimonial for anyone it may help. First, thanks for taking the time to build and maintain this site. I spent more time than I should of looking for TRUE testimonials of what goes on there (TB). I won't bore you with all the details of what goes on there; plenty of people have already done that. I just want to offer my situation/testimonial for anyone it may help.
I was "sent", better known as abducted or kidnapped, when I was 17. I had only 6 credits remaining until I was to graduate H.S. with Honors. I'm no angel by any means, and have always had problems with defiance, authority, ... Anyway, removing me from an active medication treatment program, and taking away all that I knew and loved - I to this day don't know how to express the horrendous conditions, lifestyle, and treatment I recieved while I was there. I finished my 6 credits in a little over a month, but as you know, you're imprisioned there until that magic age of 18. Off topic for a sec., I personally witnessed another student (inmate) wait almost 3 months after he turned of age and withdrew from the "program" before accomadations were made to transport him back to the states and his home.
Back to the subject, after finishing academics, which excluded a foreign language (2 years are required in almost if not all US accreditted universities), I had only the option to read or draw for the 8 hours a day allocated for academics. I could tutor level 3's or 4's, but they were definately the minority. (In my classroom, there were 2 out of 50 +/-.) I gained only the ability to skirt around and find loopholes in the rules as to not recieve those petty violations (if I remember, they were referred to as consequences). Already challenged socially at home in the states, being deprived of an everyday, or "typical" social environment taught me to keep to myself. I wasn't to express opinion, emotion, thoughts, or anything else without a staff monitoring who I spoke to and what I spoke about. It quickly became apparent that the easiest way to stay out of trouble was to "shut up, be still, follow orders, OR ELSE!..." I literally sat in a classroom and read the same books over and over for about 5 months. No one really cared about my progress, and although I had surpassed all requirements to move through (up) in the program, my requests were repetitively ignored with some BS excuse. I was trapped!
With 3-4 months until I was to turn 18, I had accepted that there was no way in Hell to accurately depict the true daily rituals to my parents, who would have had me pulled from that "Hell on earth" had they any idea of how I was actually being "rehabilitated". I still remember being so excited the day I was told I was leaving TB, more excited than when I was little and got that "special gift" on Christmas morning. To this day, I have never been more relieved than I was when I was on an airplane out of Jamaica.
Within 2 weeks of returning home, I returned to the same social scene I was "removed" from, within a month I was fixing to turn 18 and had chosen "illegal business" and hotel hopping over living with the people that could have listened to my weekly plea and cries to be moved to a domestic rehab facility. After all, every one of my "monitored" letters home had graphically depicted daily life. It was 2 years before I spoke to my parents again, 2 1/2 before we were again on good speaking terms.
I'm 23 now, and after extensive testing and treatment from licensce doctors, I still have moderate to severe problems with routine social interaction. From age 18, I held several jobs where I was very seccessful, but was presented with the opportunity to attend Tennessee Tech. University on a full ride. (School fully paid, off campus residence fully paid, hell- even full coverage car insurance is paid for me.) My only job- go to school. I'm ending my second year now, withdrawing from school completely (at least college). Since my stay at TB, I've been diagnosed with severe social interaction anxiety disorder, which most DOCTORS attribute to my learned behavior , which I mentioned - "sit down, shut up, be still, OR ELSE". I have also shown symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder, which never presented themselves before TB. There are also other symptoms which never appeared until after I returned home from that terrible place.
I have often asked my parents, now that I have had proper counceling and worked out most of the problems we had, "What could you have possibly been thinking when you decided to keep me there, even after getting a letter weekly begging to be put in appropriate care?" I will be the first to admit that I needed help; I knew that when I got there. But to find out that my "monitored" letters were carefully read my my "team mom" or whatever they were called, then taken out of context and depicted by phone as "calculated manipulation" to be removed from TB, it pisses me off to this day. I don't know what loophole(s) in the law they found, but they had my parents completely convinced that no matter what, keeping me there was the absolute best thing they could do, final word, bar none. I lost six months of my life to daily conditions I wouldn't wish on an enemy.
I was so mad at my parents, it took 2 years come back on speaking terms with them. To this day, I still have extreme anxiety triggered by school or academic activities. I can't approach girls without internal panic (remember, looking at a girl at TB carries the same penalty as sexual relations, a cat. 4 if I remember right.) I've become extremely paranoid with dillusional thoughts and behaviors, especially toward and figure of authority (the campus cops never crossed me, thankfully; there's no telling what would have happened). Like I said before, I was never an angel, and had taken the wrong road in life around my sophomore year in High School. I can't blame my current problems solely on my experiences at TB, but I know certainly they were worsened exponentially while I was there. I could go on and on about how TB made nearly every aspect of my life and it's challenges worse. I don't think I could write 3 things it helped. In retrospect, my parents spent (from my understanding) around $80 US per day while I was there, and believed completely that they were doing the best possible thing to help me. If this testimonial keeps one person from having to go through what I and everyone else who's been there had to go through, and is still having to go through as a result of "visiting" TB, or anything affiliated with WWASP; If I can help one parent choose a legitimate rehab plan or facility for their son or daughter, than the time I took to share this is insignificant.
Please, please! If you have a child at TB or are even considering it as an option, get away from it as fast as you can. It's 5 years later now, and I'm still trying to put my life back together. I don't have the resources to prove how complicated and deceptive the inner workings of this program/orginazition are, but I promise that everything about it is about raking in the money, not helping a troubled youth or teen get their life together.
I'm currently investigating whether or not the Diploma I recieved is even valid, because I've stumbled across a few articles that suggest it may not be. If you have any info. about the Diploma, let me know.
I hope sincerely this has been helpful to at least one person; like I said, If one person gets REAL help because of this letter or this site, instead of being abducted to a place far worse than jail, it was completely worth my time sharing.
I'd be happy to answer any questions, or if you were there around 2000 (I was in the Dignity boys family), email me. xxxxxg@xxxxxx.xxx (Email removed for privacy reasons)
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Thanks again for whoever took the time to construct this site. I always wondered If the real truth would ever be known!
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)
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