Unknown at the Monarch 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, who posted the original story on cafety.youthrights.org

Facility Attended: Monarch School Dates and Ages attended: August 2007-March 2009, Age 14-16 State Facility located: Montana Reasons for being sent to facility: Smoking marijuana every day, parents concern of me getting into harder drugs (did not happen), poor grades, and poor communication with parents. Residence prior to placement: Los Angeles, CA
Accredited (if known – ie. JHACOA): NIPSA Regulated by the state: No. Access to attorney and or advocate: None.

Diagnosis prior to attendance (if any): OCD, Minor Depression, General Anxiety Disorder.
Experienced the following:
Trauma due to escort services: No Description: Was woken up and 5:30 in the morning unexpectedly by two large men hired by my parents. I was asked to comply, and if I choose not to comply they "had the right to take me by force" to Outback Therapeutic expeditions in Utah. Was also escorted from Outback to Monarch school. I

Communication and Privacy Rights Violations: Yes Description: Was not allowed to talk to my parents on the phone until having been Monarch for a month. Once allowed, I was allowed only two 15-minute calls a month that were intensely monitored by staff (they would listen to your conversations and time you. These 15-minute calls were the only one-on-one communication I had with my parents (excluding visits), until I earned the privilege of phone card five months prior to my graduation, and by that time the ideas of the program were so engraved in my mind that I did not tell my parents the truth about Monarch's practices.
No communication with any of my friends until after I had been at the program for ten months and went home for the first time. Even ones who never touched drugs in their life. Parents needed to approve which friends I could write to, and at no point was I allowed to call or e-mail them.
Was required to admit to all past experiences that are humiliating and tell my parents all my embarrassing sexual, drug-related, etc. experiences.
Forced to walk in groups on three or more students to get from building to building, and would need to tell a staff prior to doing so.
Was not allowed alone time unless it was punitive as in a work assignment or bans from others. Often kids who choose to spend time alone were confronted by staff (and sometimes students trained to do so) as "isolating" and would lose the privelage of siting alone to read a non-school related book.

Mail monitoring: Yes

Description: Was required to write one handwritten letter to each parent every week. The letters were read by staff and would be handed back to students if they contained any negativity about the program, were too short in length, did not talk about feelings, and/or

Call-monitoring: Yes

Description: See above

Filtered, Restricted or Interrupted Correspondence: Yes

Description: Was only allowed to go home three times during my 19.5 month stay at Monarch. 1st visit: 5 days. 2nd Vi

Seclusion Used
Yes No
Description:

Seclusion (Self):
Yes No
Seclusion (Witnessed):
Yes No
Description:

Physical Restraint Used Yes No

Physical Restraint (Self) Yes No
Physical Restraint (Witnesseses) Yes No
Peer conducted restraint: Yes No
Description:

Forced labor No, but students were assigned to work during weekends, and would not only take away privileges if the student disobeyed a staff, but also would often (depending on the staff) indoctrinate the student into believing that they were "giving back to the school"if the work was punitive rather than a chore. Staff justified these assignments as "therapeutic", and while hard work can be therapeutic, staff would sometimes forget to take students off "work assignment", and thus have the now subservient teen alone or with one other student in the cold and isolated from the rest of the "community" when lunch and dinner times were occurring.

Restricted Access to the Bathroom Yes, during group sessions, the facilitator (most often a staff leader with no license in clinical psychology) to deny a student the right to go often without reason.


Scare Tactics Yes
Description:


Exposure to harsh elements (ie. Extreme heat, snow or rain) Yes No
Description:

Excessive Exercise Yes No
Description:

Food/Nutritional Deprivations Yes
Description: During intense "emotional growth workshops" , I, along with my peers was feed, but by no means was the food substantial enough to compensate for the energy expelled during such experiences.

Physical Punishment No
Emotional, Physical, or Sexual Abuse by Staff
Yes, in a group session a therapist made fun of the way I was expressing my emotions, and broke a chair in the process. The man was saying that I was a brat and continued on to exaggerate my simple frustration as a three-year-old throwing a fit.


Education and Mental Health Treatment – [ Please rate: (1) Unsatisfactory, (10) Superior]

Individualized Treatment Plan
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Description:

Satisfied with training background of staff members who provided:
Education 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Therapy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Support 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Satisfaction with After Care provided:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Do you now experience any of the following:
Nightmares: Yes
Anxiety: Sometimes, but unrelated.

Additional Comments:

Would you be willing to speak with a parent or family member considering placement at the facility you attended?
Would you be interested in volunteering for CAFETY or subscribing to CAFETY's
newsletter? If so, please visit cafety.org
Would you be willing to share your experiences as a CAFETY presenter at academic
conferences?
Would you be willing to speak with the press, if contacted? (We will contact you
prior to taking such action to confirm.)
Would it be ok to share your contact information with Protection and Advocacy
organizations or Child Protective Service agencies? (We will contact you prior to taking such action to confirm.)
Would you be willing to speak with a parent or family member considering placement at the facility you attended?
If you responded yes to any questions between 1-6, please submit the following:

Name:
Age:
Address:
Tel:
Home:
Cell:
Email:
Myspace/Facebook, etc:
Would you be willing to submit your testimony in support of End Child Abuse in
Residential Programs Act of 2009? (if so, please see link below)

References:
Datasheet about the boarding school at Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora