now this place was HELL. I could write a whole book on this one. when she first got there they searched her, they searched her things, and took away most of it. only t shirts, no solid black blue or red. only blue jeans. the girls had to grow out their hair. the boys had to have their heads shaved. the girls stayed in cabins. there were 4 of them. at night the staff would check on the kids to make sure they didn't run of. the nearest town was 70 miles well so they said and they were in the mountains . a good comparison is the movie Holes. if you havent seen it you should then compare it to this place .mame got in trouble really fast. she had to hike in the snow with just vans, blue jeans, and a thin jacket. she had to eat outside,most of the time she was alone. she tried to run off and they tackled her. they restrained her. this means they push the palm to your arm bending the wrist, laying face down in the ground. this hurt so badly that it would make people scream, even the boys. when there were no cameras and the kids talked back, they would hit them,they would call them names that no one deserves to be called. they shoved them and the kids always ended up on their stomachs. then there was mountain camp. 3 girls two staff. they slept in their own tent. they were not allowed to even look at each other. the staff made them walk in a circle around their tent for hours. would have to haul logs and when they went to sleep the kids had to sleep in their undergarments. it lasted for a week. they couldn't shower, no toothbrush, no change of cloths.
they would shove them into the ground. they had to shovel horse shit and it was its worst when it rained and they made them wear flip flops. another thing they would do is make them pick rocks in the snow for no logical reason. they would have to wake up at 5am, walk back and forth in a straight line while the staff sat in a warm room and watched them. it was always cold. hardly ever hot. the kids would get breakfast at 7am, had to eat outside then walk up this huge hill that lasts 10 miles. they were not allowed to stop until 12 and eat their lunch, bread two slices of packaged meat and a water bottle. this was a group hike. they would walk in a line as a van follows them by their side. they got to go to sleep at 11pm, then the next day it would happen again. since the kids were not allowed to talk, they sang, the vans windows were up so the staff just thought they were singing, but they would be singing their sentences, singing their stories. Mame had a best friend, her name was __. she dresses transgender.l, dressed like a guy. when she came to the Hell they took away her baggie jeans her t shirts and replaced them with skinny jeans. it was humiliating. Mame loved her and still does even though she now lives in new jersey. Mame still hears her screams in her nightmares, the screams and cries of telling the staff to stop hurting her. mame would wake up sometimes with the thought of,“i don't want to hike in the cold”, but then she remember she isn't there anymore.
The facility started as a summer camp called Koos Kamp back in 1959. It moved into the Troubled Teen Industry due to the money in the early 1980's.
Sources:
- The original testimony found on Topix.com
- Sorenson Ranch School (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora)