I went to Liahona from January 08 to March 09, and it is an absolutely dreadful place. A wolf masked in sheep's clothing. It is a horrible facility that lies to parents so Clay , the owner, can get as many kids in there to fill up his pockets.
They lie to parents about the disciplinary actions. Some of the disciplinary actions that I am certain are not relayed to parents include; being sat in a chair forced to stare at a wall for 10 hours+ a day, not being given proper nutrition, being forced to do excessive cardio activity (including carrying large rocks and sprints) with seemingly no regard to possible health problems/risks, grown men (the staff) getting physical with the kids simply for refusing to obey, etc. The kids letters are read and censored "if necessary." Any attempts to relay information of disciplinary actions by a student to his parents will result in the student's letter not being sent.
When the kids first arrive they are forced to act like animals in front of their peers. Refusal to do so will end up with punishments mentioned above.
The facility lies to the parents telling them they go on a weekly activity out into the surrounding area. That is not true. In order to go out on the activity the students have to earn it by displaying exemplary behavior (and I mean exemplary). Simply forgetting to push in their chair or to turn off the lights twice would result in a student missing the activity. They also mention on their website the statement that the students enjoy "daily recreational activity". Unless they consider forcing them to run miles on end, and punishing them even more severely for refusing to do so, recreational activity then that is also a lie. Recreational activity mostly only occurs on Saturday and Sunday.
Repeatedly the kids at the facility are used for FREE manual labor, and the staff have the audacity to tell the kids to be grateful for the opportunity to do so. Free manual labor I personally performed while there includes; helping staff members move multiple times (and once the family of the owner) , cleaning up a back yard of a staff members house, landscaping work at a staff members house, and landscaping work at the facility.
The program is set up in a brainwashing fashion that turns the students into obedient, mindless, drones by removing their identity and operating the facility in an authoritative like fashion. The rules are very strict and the punishments are very harsh. For example, writing essays and extra running being dished out to the students for things as small as forgetting to push in their chairs.
They force the kids to memorize meaningless quotes, that are pages long, week in and week out. Punishments for refusing, or failing, to do so are quite severe. The student would miss the weekly recreational activity, and weekend recreations. If a student never does the quote then essentially his stay at the facility is doubled, because advancement in the program would take twice as long.
To top it all off, the ineffectiveness. Behavior of kids returning home usually will recede to to how it was before in a matter of weeks. You hear about it all the time at the facility, kids parents calling and complaining of returned negative behaviors. Some parents still have not figured out the scam and actually send their kids back. I guess Clay is a good salesman.
A boy died at the facility January 19, 2010.
Sources:
- The original testimony (Yelp)
- Unknown - 2010 (Today a child died - memorial blog)
- Factsheet about the program (Fornits Wiki)
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