Montana Academy
I was told I was going to a summer school for one summer. When I arrived at the Montana Academy I was immediately told to remove my clothing and wear a robe so that I could be searched and my items confiscated. I was interred at the Academy for over 14 months.
Isolation rooms
These are rooms with no light and no way to escape. I was locked in this room for hours at a time, given to option to use the restroom, or escape.
Physical labor
Students are forced to saw piles of wood, dig ditches, haul gravel in wheelbarrows, pick up trees and pile rocks.
Physical abuse
Was dragged out into the snow with no shoes on.
Limitation on communication
All calls are listened to and censored, most often with parents. Letters are not allowed to be sent. Letters are censored. Pictures are censored.
Limits on religious freedom
Students are not allowed to pray on holy days and are limited in diet, prayer times, and freedom of religion.
I personally was not allowed to attend the Jewish High Holy Days. When I complained the lead psychologist screamed at me with rage. After this incident he asserted that it was an "echo of my rage" that he was showing and therefore my fault.
I was told on more than one occasion that I would go to hell for being a Jew.
Escape
Students either escaped or attempted to escape on multiple occasions. I attempted to escape in 1998, I fell into a frozen river during the night and was only saved by trekking to a nearby farmhouse with hypothermia and frozen jeans. I was arrested at that location and brought back to the Academy.
There were so many attempted escapes that they enforced new rules where nightwatchmen would physically touch the leg of every student in their beds every few hours.
Drug Abuse
Students would abuse "cocktails" of prescribed medications either orally or by nasal inhalation.
Students would scrape the inside white powder out of light-bulbs and sniff that Students would "huff gasoline" stored in nalgene bottles students would smoke and huff gasoline until they lost control and pours gasoline on themselves.
Attempted Suicide
Multiple students attempted suicide, on one occasion my roommate cut himself very badly, he was punished and it was not until the next day when blood started leaking out of his wrist as he sawed metal rebar "his punishment" that he was evacuated for medical treatment
Educational Consultants
Educational consultants would get benefits for referring students to the Academy. These consultants once, the students are interred, wipe their hands clean of the situation and do not regularly check on the well-being and treatment of their clients
Sex at the Academy
Condoms were forbidden and during sex education I was punished for taking condoms. Students would wrap plastic wrap around themselves with rubber bands and attempt intercourse this way.
Post Academy
Once a student is discharged, the management could care less about that student. The parents are not paying any longer and they are no longer interesting. Students are left wholly unequipped to deal with their non-brainwashed peers. I know Academy graduates that have been to jail for extended periods of time, drug dealers, rampant sex and general disregard for their well-being.
References:
Datasheet about the boarding school at Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora
The original statement on cafety.youthrights.com
I would love to hear more about the day to day life. Also, I know that the programs in general, suck, but there are still times that they weren't terrible... Such as the relationships with the other people or good times.
ReplyDeleteAlso, how was the school?
Day today life consisted of waking up very early, doing chores in the dorm, walking down the icy hill and doing a prayer group and then going to school for three hours and then going to a therapy session or a clan group. Then dinner, then we had to clean up dinner, then we had more chores to do. We can’s consisted of deep cleaning. We had to build the pond. We had a thing called the death march where we had to walk for 10 miles and have 6 gallons of water in her bag until you moved up to the next clan. It was torture
DeleteHey there Ethan I was to a Montana Academy student, I attended back in 2001-2002. I would love to chat more with you. Email me at pfoust2012@gmail.com and put Montana Academy in the subject field ion the email. I hope you get this and reach out dude later :)
ReplyDeleteHe’s on Facebook
Deletethis is fun to read, I'm actually at MA right now, well actually I'm on pass, but i currently attend Montana Academy and I'm graduating in 2 months. Is there anything you want to know?
ReplyDeletethis is fun to read, I'm actually at MA right now, well actually I'm on pass, but i currently attend Montana Academy and I'm graduating in 2 months. Is there anything you want to know?
ReplyDeleteI spent two years at Montana academy. They withheld my high school diploma even though I passed all my classes and completed all of the states required credits for graduation. I turned 18 and legally could have left but was tricked into staying when they threatened to get extended custody and meek me there until I turned 21. I was kicked out A few months later even though the clinical directors told everyone I had chosen to leave. They also convinced my parents that they needed toccit idd all communication with me, as a result I was left stranded in Montana with no money or warm clothes in the middle of a brutally cold winter. I had no way to get back to San Diego where I had lived all my life prior to Montana academy, I was told I would be arrested if I stepped foot on Montana academy property so I wandered the streets alone, I was brutally raped that night and even when I walked back to Montana academy's sky house covered in blood I received no help or offer of medical attention.
ReplyDeleteI attended 2000-2002. If pfoust2012 is who I think he is, the staff happily told every student during morning announcements that he had been hog-tied and taken away. I'm not sure if that is true or not, but we were all horrified.
ReplyDelete