A stay at Spring Creek Lodge Academy (From: CAICA)

This statement was given to the human rights organization. All rights belongs to the author who wants to be I was there from 1999 to mid 2001.

I was picked up at school by an escort service. I was put in hand cuffs and driven straight to the airport. I was told I was going to a two week campout in Montana, where I would get to go horseback riding, skiing, camping, talk to girls and have a great time all awhile working on my drug problems.

The first week I was there, a student named Chris was playing around after shut down. Laughing and talking, just being a teenager. The “Calvary” was called in to take him to the hobbit. They yanked him off of the top bunk and slammed him on the ground. Two staff held his legs and two more held his arms, and one lay down on his back. He was struggling and cussing. The shift leader proceeded to put his hand around his neck and push down. He started to plead with them that he couldn’t breath and to please let him up. When his cries became more desperate it seemed like the harder they tried to hurt him. The staff ignored his complaints about not being able to breath, and so three of us including myself jumped off our bunks and started to pull the staff members off of him.

They called for even more back up and when they got there we were all restrained in the same manner. We were taken up to the hobbit and we didn’t get breakfast or lunch the next day.

A student by the name of Gabe was viciously restrained in front of the trailer at Spring Creek Lodge. Another student had flicked the back of his ear while standing in a heel toe line, he stepped out of line to tell the kid to quit, and was given a Cat 2 out of area. He started to walk off, and a staff member got him in a rear bear hug. Gabe said a few choice words and stomped on the foot of the staff member. The staff then proceeded to lift him up and slam him down on the asphalt face first. It cracked a few teeth and busted up his lips pretty good.

A young boy of the age of 12 was in the hobbit. He had quite a mouth on him, and he was spitting everywhere. He would spit on staff, on myself and all over the hobbit. The main hobbit staff came in there and told him if he spit on any thing else he was going to mop it up with him. The boy looked up at the ceiling and spit a large one. The staff grabbed him by the crotch and the neck and climbed up on the top bunk and sure enough mopped him up with it and then slammed him down on the tile floor from the top bunk.

The young boy was pretty shaken up by the whole thing.

One night after shut down the cabin was awoken to a blood curling scream from the next room over. Not caring if I got a shut down violation I went next door to see what was going on. Jeff had apparently gotten a piece of glass somewhere on the facility and proceeded to slice his arm up from where your arm bends at the elbow, all the way down to his wrist. Not just one or two cuts, but he went up and down his arm repetitively. On the wall next to his bunk, in large letters written in blood he wrote “FREE ME” then took his bloody hand print and slapped it against the wall and drug it down. It was gruesome. They made another student scrub the wall to get it clean.

There was a young man there who had obvious mental problems. Our case representative told us it was paranoid schizophrenia and I am sure some other ailments. We were having a facility meeting where Cameron Pullan just talked to us about this and that and Daniel kept on blurting out extremely random things. He would interrupt Cameron to ask him when he would be going home, and just really off the wall things. Cameron asked me and another Jr. Staff to get him out of there and take him up to the hobbit. He also told us if he gave us any problems or tried to run away to “Kick the shit out of him”.

Well we knew he wasn’t going to listen to us, and of course he didn’t. We took him up to the hobbit and as we were walking in he suddenly bolted for the woods. The other Jr. Staff and I tackled and restrained him. We got him up in the hobbit and he made numerous attempts to get out with little success. He claimed that he had to go to the bathroom, and there were no bathrooms in the hobbit. The students would have to go out side in a Porto potty that was rarely ever emptied; we the students called it the “Blooper”.

There would be times that it was so full that human waste would be leaking out of the toilet seat and fecal matter was all over it. He went to the bathroom and as soon as he came out he bolted for the woods again. We tackled him pretty hard and on the concrete.

We didn’t know what else to do; we weren’t trained for this kind of thing. To make this long story short, the young man ended up getting pretty beat up from all the times he tried to run.

One time a student was in the hobbit and he asked to use the rest room. They took him out to the “Blooper” and he refused to come out. So the staff working the hobbit in turn dumped the Porto potty over on the door. The young man was covered with a weeks worth of human waste and tampons.

Cameron would have us do some pretty wild stuff just for his amusement. He would call facility meetings and have us all line up on the court with our family’s in a heel toe line (this all being in the middle of winter) and he would randomly tell people to go and jumping the frozen pond right off the side of the court. They would have to break the ice over the pond first. Sometimes he would take students, blindfolded into Thompson Falls, and make them jump off a bridge in to the river. If the students didn’t want to jump, they were pushed.

Towards the end of ones program you must go through a process called trail of lights. It starts off with a big meal and then goes into a strenuous workout. Pushups, jumping jacks, sit-ups, running, and what ever else they can think of. After a long day of jumping jacks, they blindfolded us and started leading us through the woods. They would walk us through creek beds and into trees. The staff was laughing the whole time at our discomfort. They had us climb up a very steep rockslide still blindfolded; several students fell down and rolled all the way down to the bottom. At the end of the night every one had cuts and gashes all over their body from running in to trees and walking through thorn patches, and rolling down rocky hills. It was one of the most pointless processes I have ever been through.

The seminars were horrible. They would make you tell you’re deepest and darkest secrets only to have them rubbed in your face the rest of the time you were there. “My dad molested me when we were younger, my moms boyfriend raped me and she knew about it and didn’t do anything” stuff like this and they wouldn’t let it go. If you didn’t tell them things about you, they would kick you out of the seminars and you couldn’t go back until the next month. You need the seminars to advance in the program to go home.

One seminar in particular, called Accountability would have kids walking around and using all of the knowledge of kids problems, try to tear them down. This pushed a lot of kids to the edge. They would have Jr. Staff standing against the walls as security, so if anyone went out of control, they would restrain them.

Kids restraining kids, kids handing out consequences to other kids. It’s all abuse. If a Jr. Staff member didn’t like you, they could consequent you for absolutely nothing. It is basically up to the Jr. Staff to decide when you are ready to move up and go home.

Parents don’t really know what is going on up there and if the students tell them in letters, the letter won’t reach them and we were punished. The place doesn’t work. I still smoke weed, and drink like a fish. I still have anger issues. People are killing them selves because of this place. Cory a student, who graduated the program and was in my family, ended up killing himself when he got home. A young lady on Oct. 4 of this year hung herself in the cabin; Jeff tried to kill himself because he couldn’t stand being there. These people are not helping any one out, other than the parents who want to get rid of their kids.

The facility closed 2009

Sources:

• The original testimony (CAICA's website)
• Factsheet of the facility (Fornits Wiki)

Melanie at Casa by the Sea (From: CAICA)

This testimony was given to the human rights organization COALITION AGAINST INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILD ABUSE. All rights belong to the author Melanie:

Hi, my name is Melanie and I was sent to Casa by the Sea when I was fifteen years old, I was there for 11 months and then sent to “Tranquility Bay” in Jamaica for another year and a half. Before I was able to return back home. It was the worst experience of my life. All I had done was get bad grades and talk back to my parents. It was a last resort I was told that I would not be able to go home for good until I graduated from the program or turned 18. No matter what I do I still cannot get those memories out of my mind. To this day I still have nightmares about it.

When I came home from school. Waiting for me November 12,1999 was my mom and the police, I was told that I was going to a nice fun "boarding school" and that it was going to be a great learning experience. They showed me the pamphlets and it looked ok, or so I thought. That night two large men, who were there to “escort me”, waked me up. When we arrived at Casa By the Sea, I was introduced and told to strip, they went through my belongings I felt so violated. I was then handed a uniform and told to dress.

I was then escorted by a level 4, and shown around the compound. I was then taken to my room, which had two bunk beds by each wall and a tile step with a cot; five to six girls in one room. I was the introduced to the Alliance family. There I was told all the rules. When a boy passes you were not allowed to look at them. Each time you walked by anyone it was a rule to say compromiso (excuse me). We were only allowed to speak Spanish. It took me awhile to understand the "mamas, my case worked Imelda." If we did not we were punished. There were no razors, mirrors we were only allowed to wear sandals that way it would be harder for us to runaway. We had to ask in Spanish to go to the bathroom get up to throw something out, stand, sit, talk, asked to leave your room, etc. Our mail was read going out or coming in. My belongings and packages my mom sent me were never given back to me when I left.

The first few weeks were hard I got in trouble a lot, and were sent to the worksheet room listening to books on tape. I would then be quizzed on what I heard and if you did not get them all right you were sent back to the worksheet room. They made us sit up straight on the edge of the chair, hands folded in front of you starring at the wall for 8-24 hours at a time listening to the tapes. It was horrible. Also, if you didn’t do as you were told. I was forced to lay on my stomach with my chin up, or touching the pavement, hands tied behind our backs. They would force us to lie in this position for hours, sometimes a few days, until they felt we learned our lesson. Also, had to right a thousand word essays about how we learned our lesson. It was torture if you did not follow these rules or they felt you were being defiant they would beat you; the girls didn’t get beat as bad as the boys. I know of several girls including myself hat had been raped, and tied up for hours until they were done with us. If we spoke about or wrote to our parents about it we were punished the same way again and again.

Every night we had to write up our reflections for the day what you learned in-group, from feedback about your character. We had to finish them and turn them in to our "mamas," before we were able to take a shower or get ready for bed. The water was always ice cold and we were an allotted only 5 minutes. Then lights out by 9 o'clock.

It was also mandatory for each student to attend seminars. Discovery was the first seminar it lasted three days. They did everything in their power to mentally and emotionally manipulate, or try to break you. If you did not pass the seminars you were unable to move up to the next level.

The last two months I was at Casa by the Sea, all the girls were placed in doublewide trails bunk beds lined up on each wall. Two families to one side of the trailer. They put all four families in one trailer, with 4 showers stall and four toilets. When we were escorted to our classrooms the people who worked there would search through all your belongings looking for anything that you were not to have.

I was pulled from class and was told I would be leaving Mexico. I was so happy until I realized I wasn't going home instead I was then escorted to Jamaica. I thought Casa By The Sea was bad until I reached Jamaica. If you broke a rule you were whipped then sent to worksheets and denied food or water until you learned your lesson.

I thought being at Casa By the Sea was torture. When I arrived at Tranquility Bay I realized that they had most of the same rules and punishment techniques as Casa By the Sea had. However, we were not aloud to wear anything on our feet, forced to sleep outside on the ground without a blanket or pillow. The facilities goal was to manipulate us, and forced us to practice their religion. Or be punished for disobeying. When I had returned home I was completely shut down, I. wouldn’t speak to anyone for months. When I was home I was worse than I was before being sent into the program. I had completely shut down emotionally, and physically I am still trying to this day to move on from the experience I have major trust issues with anyone let a lone my parents for sending me there. It was the most horrible experience of my life.

The memories will always be with me, and I have to deal with it everyday. If anyone who was there during 1999 thru 2002. Please e-mail me. It will help dealing with it to talk to someone who was there and knows how things were.

Melanie L.
7-21-06
Los Angeles, CA

The authorities in Mexico forced the school to close in 2004. However the employees and managers managed to envade justice. Sources:

• The original testimony (From CAICA)
• Factsheet of the facility (Fornits Wiki)

A mother's story (From CAICA)

Yesterday we published the testimony made by a teenage girl who was forced to attend Carolina Spring Academy. It was the mother who decided to sent her. Here is her version:

I began having difficulties with my teenage daughter. Several months after the problems began my daughter, Taylor, decided to leave school without permission – which, of course, was a bad idea. I received a telephone call from Taylor’s school informing me of what happened.

Just when I thought things could not possibly get any worse, I was informed by school officials that she had been expelled. I could not believe this was happening to us. With no schools available so late into the final semester, and with her acting out and misbehaving, I did not know what to do.

I found myself doing what many parents would do – looking for answers on the Internet.

As I did a few random searches using key words and phrases like “teen problems at home” and “help with my teen”, I received a number of pop-up ads touting phrases like “Help My Teen” and “Teen Solutions”, each one claiming to offer the same things.

They claimed to specialize in helping the troubled teen. They claimed to have specialty and therapeutic boarding schools boasting to promote education first and foremost, self-esteem, and respect for authority … you name it, they had it. And, it all sounded great … just what the doctor ordered.

Oh, and the biggest thing was that you did not have to be worried about taking your teenager to them because they had a professional transport group that would pick her up for a nominal fee of $1,500.

As I look back now, I still cannot believe that not only did I send my only child away, but I let two strangers come into our home in the wee hours of the morning to take my daughter away.

After eight days of hell slowly went by, I knew something was very wrong. So I trusted my mother’s intuition, and I went to the school, Carolina Springs Academy (CSA) to get her.

On my way to the school another CSA student’s mother called me on my cell phone. After I shared all the horrible thoughts I had and information from the articles I had read, she pleaded for me to pick her daughter as well. I gladly agreed.

When I arrived, I could not believe my eyes – the building, the grounds - nothing that I could see even came close to looking like the beautiful pictures they have on their Web site. As I got out my car, it seemed I had just entered a thick fog.

Even as I stepped onto the porch, things appeared to be strange, right on down to the man raking … who by the way, would not even look my way. The office was not very clean and had a musky smell. When I told the office employee I was there to pick up my daughter, she became – well let’s say - not so nice. When I went on to tell her I was also picking up another child, she became downright rude.

When Tara Hall, the so-called Family Representative, finally arrived at the office she was also unhappy with my arrival and decision. She asked me, “Why? What had changed my mind?” When I shared with her some of the articles I had found and printed out, she got angry and said, “Well, you can’t believe everything you read, especially on the Internet.”

I said to her, “you’re absolutely right.” As luck would have it, I had articles regarding allegations of child abuse and neglect at Carolina Springs Academy which I showed her. With that she got on her walkie-talkie and ordered someone to bring the girls right away.

Of course when Taylor saw me she almost jumped out of the car before it even stopped. I can’t begin to tell you how emotional that reunion was, and still is. My heart hurt as I saw how dirty she was – her hair, her clothes, her overall appearance was dirty. She even smelled dirty. My heart hurt for her.

As I hurried the girls to my car, I felt as if everyone was watching. The three of us agreed they all seemed to have that far-away, foggy look in their eyes. The girls and I were crying so hard you would think we would not have noticed them. But we did.

The drive home was unforgettable. We all felt so very grateful – for the sun, the trees, and the wind that kissed our cheeks as we got out of the car. The two girls told me so many horrible stories … some I still can’t get out of my head, not to mention my heart. I’ve told my daughter a hundred times how sorry I am for sending her there.

I have nightmares - I can’t sleep at night – I am still having a very difficult time forgiving myself for the entire CSA experience. In fact, for as long as I live I do not believe I will ever be able to forgive myself for allowing two complete strangers to enter my daughter’s bedroom in the middle of the night, waking her from a deep sleep, forcing her to get dressed as they watched, forcing her into their car, and taking her away from her home and her family.

What was I thinking?

God help me, because I don’t know. I have nightmares about those two strangers picking up my daughter and never bringing her back. All the while, I’m running and searching for Taylor, and I can smell that horrible smell. And then it gets so bad that I can’t breathe or even move. That’s when I realize I’m no longer asleep.

Scared and confused, I get up to go watch my daughter sleep. I lay there beside her and I take deep breaths just so I can smell her. Then she notices I’m there, and says, “Mama it’s OK, I’m home, I’m safe, and in some way or other it was meant for us to cross paths with that so-called school. God sent us there so we could help others.”

Her words are comforting and at some point we both drift back to sleep. It has been almost a month since we’ve been home. At times it seems she never left. But then night comes, and once again I remember that horrible smell and the two strangers who took my daughter in the middle of the night. This is when I find myself praying to God to give me another chance. This is when I pray that no one will have to go through what I do every time sleep comes.

Please take a moment to read Taylor's story.

(Which was published yesterday and to be found on this blog).

The facility closed down in 2009. Later there was an investigation into animal cruelty when dead animals was found on the abandoned campus.

Sources:

• The original testimony (From CAICA)
• Factsheet about the facility (Fornits Wiki)

A daughter's testimony about South Cariolina Academy (From: CAICA)

This statement was given to the human rights organization COALITION AGAINST INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILD ABUSE. All rights belongs to the author:

Seven Days I Will Never Forget

I would like to share my story about the seven days I spent at Carolina Springs Academy (CSA), a World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS) program.

I was a normal teen who had some issues at home, but I never dreamed the issues were big enough that my mom would have me taken to a place far from home. I understand she was frustrated and the people she talked to made her think they had all the answers for our family.

I woke up in the middle of the night and two strangers were in my bedroom. They made me get dressed in front of them and even made me go to the bathroom in front of them. They said the usually handcuff kids but that if I cooperated they would not use them on me. I was so scared I decided to cooperate with them so they held onto my wrists instead of using handcuffs. I asked to see and talk to my parents but they would not let me. Finally, once we were in the car they allowed my parents to come outside and I was able to say a quick goodbye from the car window.

One of the girls from Imagine group at CSA said when the escort service was taking her through the airport they put their hand in her pants and held onto her panties so they could pull hard and hurt her if she tried to run. They tried that on another girl at CSA, but she would not let them put their hands in her pants. So instead, they attached a dog leash to her belt loop and dragged her through the airport on a leash. She was embarrassed, hid her face in her hands, and put on her sunglasses.

Mr. Billy is the person who transports children. He transports girls alone which doesn’t seem right to me. When my mom came to pick me and another girl up from CSA, she saw Mr. Billy get into a van alone with a girl.

One of the girls at CSA was transported to Tranquility Bay in Jamaica while I was there. The contract my mom signed says they can send kids there without even getting the parents’ permission. They say they will try to reach the parents but if they can’t get a hold of them then the kids can be transported there and they can get a passport for the kids. And if that happens, the parents are responsible to pay for everything.

My first few days:

I spent the first three days at CSA with my host buddy. During that time I was only allowed to talk with her, and only if an upper-level girl was around. For those first three days all she did was teach me about 200 rules. One thing she told me that I thought seemed strange was that I would get fat there and that I would feel great when I left the program. The people who had been there for a while seemed strange to me. Most of what they said did not make any sense.

When girls had been in the program for about six months, they made fun of new girls. They acted like we were crazy for not wanting to be there. Upper-level girls worked in shifts and were responsible to take care of the lower-level girls. Staff did not take care of the girls. Instead of talking with us, usually upper-level girls used hand signals. For example, if they were trying to tell us we could brush our hair they would tap the top of their heads. It seemed really strange to me. I had to have permission to do everything including using the bathroom, and then someone was always with me. I could never talk to anyone or go anywhere within the facility without permission. The girls had to wear skirts but they would not let us cross our legs. Some of the rules were very petty and seemed ridiculous.

We had to be silent most of the time. We talked less than an hour a day on most days and when we did an upper-level girl was always there to listen to your conversation. You could never talk to another lower-level girl without staff or an upper-level there to listen. I felt we were treated very unfairly. For example, if one girl talked the rest of us had to be in bed at 7:30 p.m.

None of us were allowed to shave our legs or armpits until we reached upper-level status. Everyone was dirty because they did not have enough time to take care of personal hygiene or to use the bathroom to have a bowel movement. My mom was shocked to see how dirty I was when she came to pick me up. During the week I was there I was not able to have a bowel movement. The girl that came home with us said she did not remember having a bowel movement the entire month she was there. I never had privacy or enough time.

Boys were mostly skinny while girls were mostly fat. The girls were given large plates of greasy, poor-quality food and were forced to eat at least ½ of what was on their plates. I threw up my first day there. The food is greasy and horrible. The kitchen is filthy.

I was not allowed to go anywhere alone. When girls looked at the field as if they were thinking of running they were told that an old man lives out there and that he shoots anything that’s yellow. We all wear bright yellow sweat suits to make us less of a runaway threat.

In the week I was there we were allowed to go outside only twice for less than an hour each time for PE. There was no real PE and no PE teacher. There were only upper-level girls telling us what to do.

Everything we did at CSA was repetitive. During my stay I was not allowed to go outside every day, I was never allowed off the property, I was not allowed to have fun, and I did not have a regular teacher helping with my school work. There was nothing to do but school work for a few hours and listening to inspirational tapes for hours on end.

I met with my buddy who was on level 2. She explained it “takes forever” to move up a level. I was allowed to talk to my buddy, who was on level 2, for 30 minutes a day. We had to have an upper-level girl there who listened to our conversations, someone who had already attended at least one seminar and who had reached upper-level status. If we were caught talking alone we lost hard-earned points.

Parents must attend brainwashing seminars so their kids can advance in the program. The parents of an 18-year old girl were convinced by the program that their daughter was not ready to graduate and that she should go to another facility, Pillars of Hope, in Costa Rica to finish her program. Her parents wrote her a letter telling her she was going to have to stay to graduate from the program. She cried, no senior prom, no pictures, she was sad she would spend her 18th birthday there. She was pressured to stay after she was 18 by upper-level girls and staff who told her she could not make it in the world, that she would make the same mistakes again, and that she could not make the right decisions. Staff and her parents finally convinced her to go to Pillars of Hope to finish out her program. They promised to give her some spending money and that she could go on the beach so she agreed.

Medical issues:

I saw girls who were very sick while I was there. Five girls were throwing up blood and one looked like she broke her hand. There were about 92 girls in the building that is fairly small so when they were vomiting it was all in the same area. They had nothing like Lysol to clean things up. The staff did not help the girls when they were sick or hurt. Because they did not have any cleaning products or Lysol they sprayed air freshener instead. Staff kept the temperature of the dorms very cold to try to kill the germs.

A.J. had horrible sinus problems and was very sick. She vomited every day after she ate and got in trouble for not eating all of her food. Staff and upper-level girls would not allow her to even lay her head down or let her rest.

I remember when the girls were throwing up Miss K.K. said she wanted to leave to buy some Vitamin C because, like she said, she wanted to get the devil out of her. She said she did not want to take the germs home.

The only time I saw staff helping kids was when they gave out medications. They lost my medication and did not give it to me for two days. Then, when staff finally found it, they tried to make me take more than I should have. When I tried to let them know they were giving me too much they got angry and took away some of my points. I remember one day when they could not find the keys to the medication cabinet. Girls were sick and wanted their medications but could not have them until the next day. Over-the-counter medications were kept in a cabinet with a lock on it. Prescription medications are kept in the office away from the kids in another building.

One girl complained all day that she could not breathe. She was very sick and hit the floor when she passed out. They would not do anything to help her. It was students who took her to bed and changed her clothes. Staff and upper-level girls said she would be accountable and get lost points if she talked. She was supposed to leave the program in 20 days.

Another girl got mad and punched a wall. She had gotten frustrated and was sent to OP. During lunch a staff member told her to move her fingers because they knew she was in a lot of pain. She tried, but her middle and ring fingers cracked and she screamed and cried. They wrapped it and put ice on it and would not take her to the doctor though she begged them to. They kept putting ice on it for 2-3 days. She hit her hand accidentally on the trash, she screamed, vomited in the trash can because it hurt so much, then she hit the floor and rolled around holding her hand. Miss Nancy said they’d get some ice.

The facility:

The bathrooms were filthy. The showers had mold growing on the tiles, the floors were filthy with used menstrual pads left lying around. The bathroom smelled terrible.

The PE area and other areas smelled terrible. We went to “buddy” meetings. We took our blankets because it was so cold, but it was disgusting when I saw other girls’ pubic hair on my blanket. The pubic hair is all over the floor.

The cafeteria was disgusting too. We were not allowed to keep our binders on the table. I did not want to put mine on the floor because it was so filthy.

My mattress had big wires poking through and I could feel them when I tried to sleep. We were not allowed to move once we were in our beds and could not even turn our heads without getting in trouble.

We had to sit Indian style on the hard floor of our dorm to listen to education videos four hours each day, and then on and off throughout the day. We were not allowed to lean against our beds so we had no support for our backs.

During school hours we were forced to sit on a chair and not move or talk. The chairs were close together and it was very uncomfortable.

Sunday was supposed to be “clean day”. We were not allowed to go outside and have fun, not even on Sunday. We cleaned for most of the day and were allowed to watch videos if everyone did what they were supposed to do.

There was no toilet paper in the bathroom for two days. One time I had to use my bath towel. There are no doors inside the building and when you go through a doorway you have to count. There are cameras in the dorms watching as you sleep. They leave a light on at night. They say they have to do that to avoid girls from trying to run away.

Education:

If you don’t do your homework in a regular school the teacher reprimands you, but at CSA the student will reprimand you – you’re supposed to keep your eyes on your books 100% of the time – if you twirl you hair or scratch yourself a student will call you out. Staff only cares about upper-level girls. They don’t even have to do school work, basically what they do is pick on lower-level kids.

School – it’s not school, you teach yourself. I was told many of the girls have fallen behind in their school work since they got there. One girlwas having problems in Geometry and asked to see a teacher. It took 5 days to see one so she was stuck on the same problem all that time. During school you are sitting in the lunchroom with other kids but no one is teaching you. You read a book, do the workbook and turn in your assignments. Then you turn in your notes and take a test. You can take two tests between Monday and Thursday, and one on Friday. You cannot take a test on Saturday. If you do not get at least a B grade you have to do that lesson all over again.

Communication with the outside world:

We were not allowed to contact anyone outside the facility. The only communication was with our parents, and those were monitored. I wrote my mama letters when I could on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Things seemed alright on my first day. I wrote two positive letters to my mama, she got them both.

After I was there a day I knew something was wrong and wrote my mama letters to try to warn her and to tell her the Discovery seminar brainwashes parents into thinking their child must graduate the program, meaning the child will usually be there at least 2 years, instead of 6 months to a year like they tell the parents. She never got those letters. I could not understand why I did not receive any letters from my mama while I was there. A girlsaid staff discourages parents from writing to their children. My mama wrote to me every single day and sent them overnight but I never got her letters.

I did receive a package from my mama. When I saw it, it had already been opened and was at Ms. Lynn’s desk. There was a note to Ms. Tara in the box but no letter to me. My mama said she put an envelope with my name on it saying “I’m coming to get you, there’s something wrong with this program.” I did not get the letter, it was not in the package.

I was told that if parents get close to Ms. Tara she would convince them their child must stay in the program and graduate. I was confused and cried when I saw other girls opening letters from their parents and I did not receive any. Miss Lynn gave me a “break in silence,” and made me write an essay. Everything we did there was repetitive.

Staff:

Ms. Anne is a strange woman, she makes strange comments, is scattered-brained, and does not seem to care about the girls.

Miss Teresa is very mean. When my mom came to pick me and T.R. up from CSA Miss Teresa led us to believe we were being transported to Tranquility Bay in Jamaica when we were really being taken to be picked up by my mama.

Miss Tara, the family representative only spent about 30 minutes a day with the girls, if that. The rest of the time they were supervised by upper-level girls.

The upper-level girls are the ones who take care of the lower-level girls and who hand out corrections. Kids take care of themselves for the most part. The only time I saw staff caring for the girls was to hand out their prescription medications.

Miss Kathy was mean and rude and was in charge of watching us while we slept. She stayed up very late socializing with other staff and upper level girls, keeping us awake. She forced us to sleep with the light on. Most girls did not get much sleep most nights I was there.

Discipline:

One girl told staff and upper-level girls she had to use the bathroom, but they would not let her. Because she was on level 2 and was considered a run risk, she was not allowed to go alone (only upper-level girls can go to the bathroom alone). She had to hold it. Finally, she could no longer hold it and stood up. She said she had to pee and that she was going to go if no one was going to take her. A male escort came in and told her if she did not follow the rules they would take her to OP. He tried touching her and she got angry. She said she was just trying to do her work and go to the bathroom. She told him she did not want to go to OP. He tried to pick her up and she got upset, putting her fist up in the air. I was told she was taken to Tranquility Bay in Jamaica.

If you look at a boy you get what is called a Cat 4, which means you lose a lot of your points.

OP is Observation Placement. Kids are taken there as punishment. I was told if you go there you have to sit in a chair and write sentences, lie on the floor, or stand with your face against the wall. They make you sit in an uncomfortable position. OP is in a small metal shed. It gets very hot in the summer and cold in the winter. I was told they don’t use the heat or air conditioner. I saw that doors inside and outside are dented where it looks like they were beaten.

I was told if you tell anything that happened at seminars you lose all of your points.

I feel very fortunate that my Mama followed her intuition and started doing research about this program. When she read stories of others who had bad experiences, and when she realized this program was about discipline and that they used brainwashing techniques, she came to pick me up. I will always be grateful to my Mama for doing this and for not believing everything someone else told her.

The facility closed down in 2009. Later there was an investigation into animal cruelty when dead animals was found on the abandoned campus.

The mother also has her story about this stay. Her version will follow tomorrow

Sources:

• The original testimony (From CAICA)
• Factsheet about the facility (Fornits Wiki)

A stay at Carolina Springs Academy (From: CAICA)

As the text on the website belonging to COALITION AGAINST INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILD ABUSE states the author has asked to remain anonymous. She attended WWASPS' Carolina Springs Academy program in South Carolina. All rights belongs to the author:

When I was 14, I was acting out -- sneaking out, having sex with my boyfriend, and giving my newly divorced parents some problems. My mom claims she sent me to CSA because she didn't know what I was doing when I snuck out, although a drug test could have shown that I was clean.

I was told we were going to Atlanta to visit friends, but needless to say I was surprised when we pulled up to a solitary farmhouse on a hill. There was no sign, and no nearby homes, and my mother told me this was a specialty boarding school. After a few minutes of refusing to get out of the car, my mom left me there to go talk to the staff.

Looking back, I wish I could have turned the key and gone to California. However, I convinced myself that it might not be so bad, being under the impression that this was a real boarding school. I went into the front office, and the staff seemed normal and were nice to me, considering my mom was there.

I began asking questions -- "I need to re-dye my hair/get my blow dryer/get clothes", and upon being told I couldn't have these things, I was in disbelief. But that was nothing compared to what I faced next. Although I saw it reenacted countless times in my 14 months, the time between arrival and incarceration is a blur.

I remember seeing my mom in the doorway as they made me change into ill-fitting, old orange sweat clothes, scared and angry but unsure of what to say or do. My things were labeled, and most of my stuff was confiscated. I had to keep my hair up at all times, and wore socks with flip flops.

I'm not sure which was worse -- the shock of losing my freedom within a few hours, or the humiliation I felt deep down at where I was. I couldn't believe my mother had actually entered this building and still let me stay.

It was a double wide, and kept anywhere from 75 to 100 girls at a time. It smelled constantly, but especially during the rain, because our clothes would get wet and it was all up to the staff as to whether we could change them or not. The staff also complained of the smell, but blamed the girls -- they told us to wash better, do our laundry more, whatever the scent du jour was, despite the fact that it could take up to a week to get a load of laundry done and many of us were limited to 3-5 minute showers.

In levels 1 and 2, you showered last, so the water was always freezing. Because we were on such a tight schedule, only one shower was allowed per day, regardless of conditions. We walked from building to building, so even if our clothes and shoes got muddy or dirty or wet, we had to keep them on unless we had specific permission from the staff. I remember at least three or four times when I would take my socks off before bed, and the athletes foot had eaten through the skin between my toes.

The food was horrible. I am a vegetarian, but rather than providing protein substitutes, we got double servings of the starch or vegetables most of the time. Unless there was a documented food allergy, we had to eat at least half of each dish, I remember gagging several times and getting a correction for "being a drama queen". Most girls gained weight because of the heavy starch and grease, but when it was brought up by some parents, the "diet" food offered was even worse. It was basically the same thing, only with cheaper ingredients. Level 1 could not drink anything but water, and could not use any condiments on food.

PE was a joke -- it was either Ms. Mary (possibly one of the most miserable human beings on the planet) forcing us to run until we vomited at 7 in the morning, or just walking and talking. Talking was difficult though, because unless you were a level 3 or up, you couldn't talk to a level 1 or 2 without supervision by an upper level. This provided two problems -- many lower levels were left by themselves during PE, and upper levels were overwhelmed with people needing supervision.

"Worksheets" were the buildings behind the kitchen for punishment. Depending on the correction, you had to write 3,000-24,000 word essays, and the staff would sit there and count each word. I wound up missing 6 months of school because of this, and although I got caught up, many girls got behind in school because of worksheets. The teachers at the school were competent, but it could take up to a week to get assistance, especially from the math teacher -- there was one teacher for each subject, and they had signup sheets pages long.

I could write every stupid rule out, but I think the most ridiculous was not being able to look at the opposite sex. Upper levels and staff would actually watch our eyes to see if they moved towards wherever the boys were located, and even if it was a split second, you got a correction. The standards were much more lax on the boys' side though -- the boys were basically allowed to look, and even tried to talk to us a few times. We were forced to keep our heads bowed whenever they were around, it was degrading.

I was accused of giving sexual looks to boys during my first Discovery seminar, this was pointed out in front of the group and I was 'chosen out'. To this day, I don't know what I did to lead people to believe I was trying to get boys' attention, except the fact that I was scapegoated almost my entire time there for being overweight and "goth".

None of the staff in my time there had completed college -- some had gone into the military, but the psychologist was incompetent, and there was an extra fee to see her. There was nothing therapeutic about the staff. Some were nice, others were downright abusive or mean. There is no staff list on the website currently.

Speaking of the website, all but one of the photos used are not located on the actual CSA property. The photo of the big white house used in promo is actually the Belmont Inn in Abbeville -- at least 10 minutes from CSA. Even the brick house in other galleries is not what it leads the parents to believe. It is the office, the students live in double wides and trailers.

A few hundred feet from the girls' trailer is a mansion owned by one of the investors; the seminars are conducted in his basement. This guy is really creepy -- he's at least 50 years old, and took one of the upper level girls out driving in his car by herself.

The upper levels lived in a section of his house for a time until it was discovered they were drinking, smoking, doing drugs, and having sex after hours. If someone were doing these things in my house, I would know, so why did it take one of the upper levels coming clean for it to stop? That's just really fishy to me, as well as Narvin Lichfield's (the supposed owner) less than stellar records. I'm not an expert, but the man has been in a lot of trouble regarding scams and abuse of the program.

The worst, by a long shot, was the medical care available at CSA. Or the lack thereof. I as well as several other girls got walking pnemonia, but nothing was done to treat it; we were not even allowed bed rest. It took me four months to fully recover.

I didn't menstruate for over a year, after several months I brought it up to my family rep, and she told me that it was normal for a lot of girls, despite my complaints of phantom cramps and lethargy. Had I been treated or even examined, maybe I wouldn't be on hormonal medications for PCOS, and maybe I would be able to have children in the future without the help of medication.

But that was not the worst -- probably half of the girls were on medication of some sort, and sometimes the medications weren't filled on time, or had been stopped without the patient's knowledge. I was on 60mg of Paxil, and had to go a week without it, despite severe withdrawal.

There was also no detox program for girls with true drug addictions; a girl arrived when I was at level 3, and I remember her crying and vomiting the first few nights from heroin withdrawal. Another girl had to get her appendix removed, and she got an infection from the staples being loose (something along that line). One night, the staples came out, and the night staff just put them back in and used office staples despite her screaming. Nothing further was done.

Sometimes it took up to 6 weeks to get a doctor's appointment, but the parents have to set it up, so it's useless to go through the family rep. Sometimes the staff would refuse to give out things like Dimetapp (because of possible alcohol content) or Tylenol.

To make this very long story short, medical care was not properly administered or taken seriously.

I've been out of the program for five and a half years now, and I still have nightmares. I've met other students at my university that were in the Program, and all of them have the same horrible memories and fears I do.

I urge every parent who is considering putting their child into a WWASP program to look into the complaints and testimonies not offered on the website or other propaganda. Get the whole story. Don't throw away thousands of dollars on something that will make you and your children a slave to TASKS jargon, look into every other option.

The things CSA claims to offer are what every parent wants -- self esteem, respect, and integrity, but this is a play on emotions. CSA teaches conformity, fear, and all for one. They pit students against each other to break them down emotionally, and rebuild them. We call this "programming". WWASP is a cult, and cannot be allowed to continue.

The facility closed down in 2009. Later there was an investigation into animal cruelty when dead animals was found on the abandoned campus.

Sources:

• The original testimony (From CAICA)
• Factsheet about the facility (Fornits Wiki)