Kimberly Pacent at Legacy Private School (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 Kimberly Pacent, who posted the original story on cafety.youthrights.org

When I was sixteen years old, I was sent to a residential facility in Utah called Legacy Private School. The director of this program was a man named Dan Harrah.

I had never left home for more than a week and had no idea what I was to expect. I was thankful to leave the wilderness program that I had been sent to, but would later regret my gratitude.

When I met Dan Harrah he presented himself kindly. I knew however that something about the place wasn’t right. None of the girls or staff were warm to me when I arrived which made leaving my parents an even more heart wrenching experience. What happened when they closed the door behind them is a blur. Ten months of humiliation, discomfort, physical and verbal abuse and worst of all gut wrenching fear. It is difficult for me to remember exactly what was said because my fear seemed to block out so much of the noise. Dan barged into the room as he always did and attacked me in an attempt to break down any defenses that I had. He called me names and screamed in my face. Most memorably, he told me that he would be embarrassed to have me as his daughter while I was sitting in a hallway, where I was made to sit for three months.

During my three months in the hallway I was not aloud to lean against the walls. When I asked staff members to turn up the heat, they refused. I ate dinner on the kitchen floor. I waited until nighttime when I would cuddle with my stuffed animals and cry myself to sleep while sleeping on a mattress that was laid out in the hallway.

All the while I was made fun of for crying by the staff and girls. I tried to cry quietly to avoid the humiliation. I was imitated by the other girls, laughed at constantly and made to wear hospital scrubs. During a phone session with my mother I began to “whine.” I was told that if I continued to “whine” that Dan would take the phone away from me. He took the phone; I grabbed for it and began to scream for my mother’s help as Dan came towards me. He forced me down to the floor and sat on top of me (Dan is about 300 pounds, I was around 100 at the time). I screamed that I could not breathe. Dan told me that he would not move until I stopped screaming. He said that I tried to take a swing at him, I never remember this happening. I had rug burn all over my face.

The girls were taught to humiliate and verbally attack one another. They were condoned by therapists and staff for doing so. Therapists and staff often joined in the teasing and attacking.

A girl named Susan was most severely humiliated by the group. Her journals were read aloud and made fun of. She was made to wear two pairs of gloves and bandages around her arms after she was accused of trying to hurt herself while picking at a scab. She was made to wear a gas mans uniform with tape across the top because she was accused of trying to show off her body when she bent over and her shirt would slink down. Worst of all, she took poor care of her hygiene, so the girls were encouraged to paint a tool belt for Susan where she would keep her hygiene products. She had to wear the tool belt around all day long and was aloud twenty minutes daily to look at a hygiene book made for small children.

We wore bare feet outside for a long time because the “hallway girls” were considered “run risks.” Later we were made to wear hospital booties and plastic bags around our feet. I was accused of lying intentionally to my parents, to staff and to the therapist, when in reality; I subconsciously lied to protect myself. I trusted no one with good reason. I did not tell my parents the full story of what was going on because I knew that I would be chastised by members of the facility for telling the truth. Before I left, a therapist told the group that a few children would be “recycled” soon.

After leaving treatment I suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. I was severely brainwashed and believed that if I did not return to program that I would probably die or live a life without purpose. Truthfully, I could go on and on about the “tough love” treatment I received at Legacy, but hopefully this short report makes my point clear. Children around the country are subjected to the tough love experiment every day. Most of the privately run institutions are not regulated and the children are given no rights. It is morally incomprehensible that this is aloud to continue. Legacy went bankrupt.

Dan Harrah ran off with another therapist from the program to start yet another identical program for girls in Clearfield, Utah. The program is called Renaissance. Neither therapist’s online biography mentions Legacy at all.

References:
The original statement on Youthrights