Kevin Duffy at Darrington Academy

This testimony was found on Topix.com. All rights goes to the original author known as Kevin Duffy

I went to Darrington Academy. I was at Carolina Springs for 14.5 months, then at DA for another 5 months. The following two paragraphs are concerning Darrington Academy only.

Sexual abuse? Students were once forced to jump up and down wearing only a towel, to ensure they weren't hiding drugs in their bowels. The headmaster himself (if that's the title Richard Darrington went by) lectured me once about masturbation after making the rest of the students leave the room. I'm sure the school kept a tight lid on the incident where an 18 year old boy had sex with a 14 year old girl in the laundry room.

Physical abuse? Literally bursting at the seams. I've seen students thrown against the walls of the shoddy converted trailers we used for activities. I mostly kept out of the way of physical harassment myself by staying quiet, but I was hazed when I first came to Darrington by other "upper level" students. I was forcibly held down and duct-taped to a chair. I responded with the quick and decisive violence one might expect from a 6'3" football player, and was able to remove myself from the chair, though I lost most of the hair on my left arm.

Don't even get me started on the staff (at either facility). The only competent individual I encountered was an outside contractor who provided real psychiatric care to the students at CSA (at additional cost). Any of the other staff could be easily manipulated to serve my needs, provided that I wasn't obvious about it like some of the less intelligent students.

Please feel free to contact me at (Email removed)if you have any questions or comments. Also please not that I do not care to be harassed by program parents. I am aware of all facets of the programs. Maybe sensitivity training is what your child needs; maybe your boy needs someone twice his size to beat him senseless and restrain him using incredibly painful pressure points that don't leave bruises. If you want to talk, I'd be happy to talk, but blind harassment is pointless and will be ignored.

The academy closed some years ago. A police investigation was started looking into claims of abuse at the school


Sources:

• The original testimony (Topix.com)
• Factsheet about the program (Fornits Wiki)