Philipe David Garibay at Academy at Ivy Ridge (From:Youthrights.org)

This story was originally written on a webpage created to provide statements for a GAO hearing in 2007. The address is cafety.youthrights.org and it waits for your statement if you believe that your stay at a boarding school included unfair treatment or even abuse. All rights and credits goes to the author Philipe David Garibay, who posted the original story on cafety.youthrights.org

My name is Philipe David Garibay. I attended the WWASP programs for a period of 16 months. I have seen alot and experienced alot of tramautizing events that I will never forget in those 16 months.

I started out at Casa by the Sea in Ensenada, Mexico. I was only there for two months. The first that happended when I entered those big wooden gates. I was met by 4 Mexican Staff members. I was torn away from my family and put up in the top floor, all I could here was screaming and yelling and thumping. I was led into room and told to strip down naked and do jumping jacks. I felt very uncomfortable in this situation, I asked why and before I knew it I was restrained on the ground by 4 mexican staff calling me a "puta" and other degrading words in spanish. They twisted my arms back so I complied and did jumping jacks naked in front of four mexican staff members laughing and joking to eachother at me. They then sat me down in a chair and shaved my head. I was nothing, I was stripped of all rights and my diginity.

I was led into a food area and sat down with a group of other "program kids". They put a plate of boney fish and told me to eat. They said eat it or you get a "refusal". I wasnt hungry and it didnt look appealing at all to me, it made me sick to the stomach. So 2 mexican staff grab me and take me back to the top floor of the building and was told to sit on the floor and look at the wall. My body got sore from sitting and I laid down, next thing I know im being smashed into the wall being told "sit or be bent! sit or be bent!" I was up here for 3 days.

All around me was kids getting restrained and the joints bent around. A boy got his arm snapped from a staff member right next to me. All I can remember is the screams and yells of the kids up there. It was all day and all night, only quiet when I fell asleep only to be woken up to the boy sleeping next to me getting restrained for not going to the bathroom. I was told that I was going to be broken down and "molded".

I was not able to talk to my family via phone and only allowed t0 write to them once a week. I had nothing here, nothing at all, I didn't enjoy life anymore I felt like a rat in a cage being watched and forced to clean and scrub toilets with toothbrushes. They were trying to break me and it was working. I went to "O.P." "Isolation" for a period of 14 days and nights for a offence that I didnt even commit! I could not write t0 my family or anything.

Eventually the Mexican police came in and told us the place was being shut down. Riots broke out all over the facility, I was beaten down my a mexican staff member with soap in a sock. I passed out for a hour due to this. I woke up in daze on the concrete floor. And saw the chaos all over, windows shattered, water streaming all over the ground, poop and urine all over the walls and ceiling, we were fed twice a day for 3 days of this. the police got control over all of us.

I was left there to be only shipped on a bus thru the border back to my hometown of San Diego,California. I was told we were all going home and our parents were waiting for us at "The Town and County Hotel" in Mission Valley. We were escorted the whole way on big charter buses and then contained by a human wall leading in to the hotel. we were locked in a room and watched by "parents of other program kids".

My name was called. I went into a room only to be handcuffed very tightly cutting off circulation to my wrists. I was led into a room with 10+ people in a hotel room. They took the handcuffs off me finally. I was here for 24 hours. Then I was excorted in handcuffs totally humiliated in front of everyone in the San diego airport. "I WAS IN HANDCUFFS AND I WAS'NT EVEN ARRESTED BEING TREATED LIKE A CONVICT" We were all excorted in a group of kids with hancufffs.

I ended up in Ogensburg, New York at the Academy of Ivy Ridge. I was here for about a year.

I ended up in "isolation" here 5 times for all a period of 3 days with no talking or writing to my parents. there was a riot at the academy on May 16, 2006. On that night kids were beating eachother and staff was coming at us with pieces of wood and bats. I watched my family member " Chris Baslios" get beaten with a Mag Lite Extendo flashlite all metal by "Jason Finlinson and Jason Tulip" All you could here was yelling and screaming. I was scared, I wasnt safe, this wasnt rite. W I ended up being slammed into a closet door by "Lucas Smith" for not putting on my uniform. they were using force to make us comply back to there rules. Later on they were trying tofigure out who started the riot. I was led into the program directors room and interviewed by "Jason Finliinson" I had no idea about this. I told him that , then he slammed a golf club driver right over my head I felt it give me a shave on my head. I was lucky to not get hit. he did this 5 times making a hole in the wall above me. I urinated my pants and was very scared. I got kicked out of The academy and ended up being isolated again from all the friends that I made there in my family.

I was woken up at 3:00 am by a escort handcuffed and flown out to Jamaica. I was now at Tranquility Bay. I was put in "o.P." for 4 days isolated from everyone. I was forced to lay on a thin mat that reeked of urine and body smell's on my stomach with my chin on the mat face up.Forced to eat boney meat and fish everyday. If I didnt I was going to have my bones grinded. I was forced to attend seminars" at all of this programs being told stuff that I didnt want to accept, they were trying to force beliefs into me brainwash me and make me a different person. I was oushed thru all of these programs until I turned 18 on Jan 28, 2006. I wanted to leave that Day. I coudnt, I was held there against my will for 6 days till I left.

I endured alot of physical and mental abuse for 16 months at these WWASP programs. Memeorys always haunt me and now I have Post Tramic Stress Disorder and panic attacks all the time and flashbacks of the program. Im 20 I have tried to forget this all , but I cant. I am not the same.

I believe WWASP needs to be re-evaluated as "boarding schools" This was no boarding school. I am not the same. Can we please put a stop to these abusive school? Can you help me? Can you help the future kids that are going to go through this. Can we stop this?

God Bless, Philipe David Garibay (hidden email to prevent spammers - can be found at the source)

References:
Datasheet about Academy at Ivy Ridge at Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora
Datasheet about Casa by the Sea at Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora
Datasheet about Tranquility Bay at Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora
The original statement on cafety.youthrights.com