James at Midwest Academy (from safeteenschools.org)

This testimony was given on the webpage Safe Teen School by the student James. All rights goes to the original author.

My name is James Farris, and I thought I'd send you my story. I am also an LGBT youth. I was at Midwest Academy in Keokuk, IA from Oct 08 to Dec 09 with a one month break nearly directly in between.

Before being sent to Midwest Academy, I was very depressed, had very few friends, and had seen several counselors and even a couple psychiatrists. I had been cutting myself and had one previous suicide attempt. What is ironic about this situation though is that a year and a half after leaving MWA, I was diagnosed with Bipolar I disorder after having such a severe manic episode that I literally lost touch with reality. However, while I was at Midwest Academy, I never once was able to speak to a certified/licensed counselor or psychiatrist. I find it ironic that I now have been diagnosed with a severely debilitating mental illness, but while I was being "treated" for being a "troubled teen," I never received any kind of legitimate mental health assistance whatsoever.

Furthermore, because students cannot contact the police when they feel like they are being abused, there is no government oversight of these programs, and mail and telephone calls are monitored, this leads to staff knowing that they can abuse children and get away with it, too. For example, one time, my family representative had me taken into solitary confinement because he preemptively thought I would act out because of a consequence I received. He, S. Tyler Mcghghy, never even asked me to fill out the consequence, but simply took me into OSS (out of school suspension) because he *thought* that I *might* react badly to the consequence and not fill it out. This clearly violates the premise that OSS or solitary confinement is only used by these people "when necessary" or "for cool downs." OSS is used by these people indiscriminately and in abusive ways.

Furthermore, this same kind of environment leads to staff making threats. Just having a threat made to you while you are in a facility like this is astonishing because you know there is nothing you can do to stop it if the staff member really wanted to go through with the threat. For example, because I got a 33 on my ACT, I was given a full
tuition scholarship to Illinois State University to begin in 2009. However, the same staff member (S Tyler McGhghy, my "family representative") threatened me that if I did not sign a letter stating that I would forfeit my scholarship that he would put me in solitary confinement for 3+ months (the remainder of my stay until I turned
18). Because I was still 17 when the fall semester was starting at Illinois State University, I could be legally kept at MWA against my will before I would have even had a chance to start college. However, it is worth noting that I was an Illinois resident at that time and was never allowed access to legal assistance to seek emancipation as a minor.

Feel free to contact me with any questions you have whatsoever. I try to just stick to the basic facts and the grossest problems with places like this. I believe it's also worth mentioning that the property at MWA is still owned by WWASP.

Thanks for helping to expose this evil industry,


Source

• The original testimony (safeteenschool.org)
• Factsheet about the facility (Fornits Wiki)