MM32 at the Monarch boarding school in Montana

This testimony was found on Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora. All rights goes to the author MM32, who made the original testimony

I attended the Monarch School in Montana (not Monarch "Academy," btw) from June 2009 to December 2010. I graduated the therapeutic program and came home with a few credits left to be able to complete high school. I've had about a year and a half to reflect back on my experience and I will say this: While I think some parts of Monarch are well-intentioned, I believe that it harms more students than it helps.

The therapy workshops, called "insights," are modeled after similar workshops seen at CEDU and the likes. (Do a google search for CEDU if you're interested in reading some scary stuff about places like this). There are 7 or 8 workshops I believe, most last a day long and consist of very strange therapy exercises. This includes screaming in a partner's face while pretending like they are your parents, getting on your hands and knees and being pushed down to the floor by a staff member and other students while you are supposed to resist, going around in a circle and telling your peers every bad thing you've ever said or thought about them, screaming while beating up pillows, standing up against a wall with your nose touching the wall for a long time while being told that the choices you make are leading you to "fear and death," etc. That list just a tip of the iceberg. These workshops were filled with all sorts of mind games as well as some seriously inappropriate breaching of boundaries, both physical and emotional. Not to mention students who had experience trauma (rape, abuse, etc.) were forced to talk about it with their peers within the first 2 months of being there, when they were still getting to know people, and with no licensed therapist present. In the very last workshop, an intense 5-day one, they had strict rules about not being able to bite your nails, sitting in a certain way, not masturbating when we got back into our dorms at night, etc. If you did any of these things, you had to stand up in front of everyone and admit it. It was very invasive.

On top of that, we were constantly told that if we talked about these workshops with anyone else who hadn't been through them -- newer students, random people, and even our PARENTS -- that there would be consequences.

The rules were over the top too. The dress code was very strict. There was the "only girl rule," which meant that a girl couldn't be sitting at a table with two other boys, but a boy could be in a group of all girls if he wanted. On one hand, physical contact with the opposite sex other than hugging was VERY against the rules, but people of the same sex were pressured into "smushing," which was their word for cuddling (putting a pillow between your open legs and letting a girl lie down on it, etc.). If you didn't smush with people, you would be seen as "resistant." If you developed a crush on a student and other people noticed, you were forced to talk about it in group therapy, where you would have to explain your entire sexual past to that person in front of everyone else, and then you were temporarily placed on "bans" with them, which meant you weren't allowed to talk to them, touch their belongings, mention their name, or even make eye contact with them. Bans were a specific punishment for other offenses as well.

We weren't allowed to listen to any music that the staff didn't like, watch TV, read the newspaper, watch the news, go on the internet unless for academic reasons and supervised, talk about popular culture, watch romance movies, pass notes, crack too many jokes, have a strand of hair in your face (for girls), have unmatching socks on, read comics, read any magazines other than sewing magazines, and use sarcasm, among other things. The rules were very invasive and included strange things like not being allowed to shave pubic hair. Students would get in trouble for things like drinking out of the same cup as a member of the opposite sex. Punishments included being on bans from the entire school (including not being able to look at anyone), being put in isolation (basically sitting at a table with just a notebook and not being able to participate in daily activities), work assignments (which included getting a meal taken away on certain days so you had more time to do physical labor outside), digging stumps out of the ground even if it was raining or snowing, etc.

Staff crossed many boundaries as well. Students were encouraged to share disclosures, which basically was a list of every "bad" thing they had ever done, and staff would do the same. This included sexual disclosures, so I ended up hearing graphic details of staff members sexual pasts during workshops. Staff members would also be physically affectionate with the students (i.e. "smushing"), give them back rubs, and knew every detail of your life and thoughts.

2013 the school became the center of the Free Madi campaign


Sources:

• The original testimony (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora)
• To get madi out of an awful boarding school monarch school (Change.org)
• Datasheet about the school (Fornits wiki)

Unknown at the Monarch School (From:Youthrights.org)

This story was originally written on a webpage created to provide statements for a GAO hearing in 2007. The address is cafety.youthrights.org and it waits for your statement if you believe that your stay at a boarding school included unfair treatment or even abuse. All rights and credits goes to the author, who posted the original story on cafety.youthrights.org

Facility Attended: Monarch School Dates and Ages attended: August 2007-March 2009, Age 14-16 State Facility located: Montana Reasons for being sent to facility: Smoking marijuana every day, parents concern of me getting into harder drugs (did not happen), poor grades, and poor communication with parents. Residence prior to placement: Los Angeles, CA
Accredited (if known – ie. JHACOA): NIPSA Regulated by the state: No. Access to attorney and or advocate: None.

Diagnosis prior to attendance (if any): OCD, Minor Depression, General Anxiety Disorder.
Experienced the following:
Trauma due to escort services: No Description: Was woken up and 5:30 in the morning unexpectedly by two large men hired by my parents. I was asked to comply, and if I choose not to comply they "had the right to take me by force" to Outback Therapeutic expeditions in Utah. Was also escorted from Outback to Monarch school. I

Communication and Privacy Rights Violations: Yes Description: Was not allowed to talk to my parents on the phone until having been Monarch for a month. Once allowed, I was allowed only two 15-minute calls a month that were intensely monitored by staff (they would listen to your conversations and time you. These 15-minute calls were the only one-on-one communication I had with my parents (excluding visits), until I earned the privilege of phone card five months prior to my graduation, and by that time the ideas of the program were so engraved in my mind that I did not tell my parents the truth about Monarch's practices.
No communication with any of my friends until after I had been at the program for ten months and went home for the first time. Even ones who never touched drugs in their life. Parents needed to approve which friends I could write to, and at no point was I allowed to call or e-mail them.
Was required to admit to all past experiences that are humiliating and tell my parents all my embarrassing sexual, drug-related, etc. experiences.
Forced to walk in groups on three or more students to get from building to building, and would need to tell a staff prior to doing so.
Was not allowed alone time unless it was punitive as in a work assignment or bans from others. Often kids who choose to spend time alone were confronted by staff (and sometimes students trained to do so) as "isolating" and would lose the privelage of siting alone to read a non-school related book.

Mail monitoring: Yes

Description: Was required to write one handwritten letter to each parent every week. The letters were read by staff and would be handed back to students if they contained any negativity about the program, were too short in length, did not talk about feelings, and/or

Call-monitoring: Yes

Description: See above

Filtered, Restricted or Interrupted Correspondence: Yes

Description: Was only allowed to go home three times during my 19.5 month stay at Monarch. 1st visit: 5 days. 2nd Vi

Seclusion Used
Yes No
Description:

Seclusion (Self):
Yes No
Seclusion (Witnessed):
Yes No
Description:

Physical Restraint Used Yes No

Physical Restraint (Self) Yes No
Physical Restraint (Witnesseses) Yes No
Peer conducted restraint: Yes No
Description:

Forced labor No, but students were assigned to work during weekends, and would not only take away privileges if the student disobeyed a staff, but also would often (depending on the staff) indoctrinate the student into believing that they were "giving back to the school"if the work was punitive rather than a chore. Staff justified these assignments as "therapeutic", and while hard work can be therapeutic, staff would sometimes forget to take students off "work assignment", and thus have the now subservient teen alone or with one other student in the cold and isolated from the rest of the "community" when lunch and dinner times were occurring.

Restricted Access to the Bathroom Yes, during group sessions, the facilitator (most often a staff leader with no license in clinical psychology) to deny a student the right to go often without reason.


Scare Tactics Yes
Description:


Exposure to harsh elements (ie. Extreme heat, snow or rain) Yes No
Description:

Excessive Exercise Yes No
Description:

Food/Nutritional Deprivations Yes
Description: During intense "emotional growth workshops" , I, along with my peers was feed, but by no means was the food substantial enough to compensate for the energy expelled during such experiences.

Physical Punishment No
Emotional, Physical, or Sexual Abuse by Staff
Yes, in a group session a therapist made fun of the way I was expressing my emotions, and broke a chair in the process. The man was saying that I was a brat and continued on to exaggerate my simple frustration as a three-year-old throwing a fit.


Education and Mental Health Treatment – [ Please rate: (1) Unsatisfactory, (10) Superior]

Individualized Treatment Plan
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Description:

Satisfied with training background of staff members who provided:
Education 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Therapy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Support 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Satisfaction with After Care provided:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Do you now experience any of the following:
Nightmares: Yes
Anxiety: Sometimes, but unrelated.

Additional Comments:

Would you be willing to speak with a parent or family member considering placement at the facility you attended?
Would you be interested in volunteering for CAFETY or subscribing to CAFETY's
newsletter? If so, please visit cafety.org
Would you be willing to share your experiences as a CAFETY presenter at academic
conferences?
Would you be willing to speak with the press, if contacted? (We will contact you
prior to taking such action to confirm.)
Would it be ok to share your contact information with Protection and Advocacy
organizations or Child Protective Service agencies? (We will contact you prior to taking such action to confirm.)
Would you be willing to speak with a parent or family member considering placement at the facility you attended?
If you responded yes to any questions between 1-6, please submit the following:

Name:
Age:
Address:
Tel:
Home:
Cell:
Email:
Myspace/Facebook, etc:
Would you be willing to submit your testimony in support of End Child Abuse in
Residential Programs Act of 2009? (if so, please see link below)

References:
Datasheet about the boarding school at Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora

Jordan McClure at the Monarch School (From:Youthrights.org)

This story was originally written on a webpage created to provide statements for a GAO hearing in 2007. The address is cafety.youthrights.org and it waits for your statement if you believe that your stay at a boarding school included unfair treatment or even abuse. All rights and credits goes to the author Jordan McClure, who posted the original story on cafety.youthrights.org

• Facility Attended: Monarch School
• Dates and Ages attended: February 2006 through May 2007
• State Facility located: Heron, Montana
• Reasons for being sent to facility: Poor Grades, overall defiance Residence prior to placement
• Home Accredited (if known – ie. JHACOA): NIPSA
• Regulated by the state: no
• Access to attorney and or advocate: absolutely none at the Monarch School
• Diagnosis prior to attendance (if any): n/a

Experienced the following:

• Trauma due to escort services: No
• Description: Escorted unknowingly by parents
• Communication and Privacy Rights Violations Yes
• Description Screened weekly handwritten letters, no negativity about the program allowed. Two monitored 15 minute calls per month Forced ultra specific uncomfortable details about past sexual, drug related information and overall exploitation of past experiences used to humiliate and conform.
• Mail monitoring Yes
• Description: manditory weekly letters mentioning nothing bad about the program, screened.
• Call-monitoring Yes
• Description: Two 15-minute calls twice per month.
• Filtered, Restricted or Interrupted Correspondence Yes
• Description: on campus visits for students not already 100% compliant with program
• Seclusion Yes
• Description: 'Solos' on a 14 to18 day outdoor trip, solos lasting up to 2 or 3 days
• (Seclusion) Self: Yes
• Description: was forced to stay on a 'work assignment site' digging a stump out of the ground and was almost crushed by the stump as i was instructed to get it out of the hole i dug around it. on bans, not allowed to talk to, make eye contact or acknowledge anyone, even staff, except for the headmaster and Peer Group Leader and therapist all day solo work assignments often, even on holidays
• (Seclusion)Witnessed Yes
• Description: others on work assignment
• Physical Restraint No
• (Physical Restraint) Self Yes
• (Physical Restraint) Witnesses No
• Peer conducted restraint: Yes
• Description: Peers would put fellow students in stress positions in workshops
• Forced labor Yes
• Description: every day except sunday
• Restricted Access to the Bathroom Yes
• Description: Had to ask permission, during 'workshops' students could only go on breaks. sometimes 5 or 6 hours inbetween breaks.
• Scare Tactics Yes
• Description: self: multiple staff (4 or 5) screaming at the top of their lungs directly at me while the 12-14 other students joined in during group, witnessed this almost every group, had group twice per week, monarch now does it three times per week. pounding it into the kids heads that they 'would be dead' if it was not for monarch. Frighteningly about 80% of the students thought this and talked about it often. during workshops staff would use physical force on students to help put them into a state of hysteria during 'therapy exercises' example: student on hands and knees with students and staff member pushing down on shoulders and mid back and screaming insults and judgements in your ears.
• Exposure to harsh elements (ie. Extreme heat, snow or rain) Yes
• Description: wilderness instructor made all students strip down to under layers ie. long underwear, dowse entire body and until full into the second stage of hypothermia (so we could see what it was like, more for us to fear this particular staff.
• Excessive Exercise Yes
• Description: work assignments often required heavy lifting during one workshop students would run in place as fast as they could until they absolutely could not stand anymore all while being yelled at and told that they aren't trying hard enough
• Food/Nutritional Deprivations Yes
• Description: during workshops kids would be fed cornflakes for breakfast, a cheese sandwich and for dinner macaroni and cheese. kids would be out of it and tired, very susceptible to influence in that state self: denied my vegan diet and was pressured to eat meat, many vegetarian students became meat eaters dude to taunting and harassment by staff.
• Physical Punishment Yes - forced work.
• Emotional, Physical, or Sexual Abuse by Staff Yes
• Description: constant verbal attacks in group as well as other attack therapy techniques. Staff would go off on students in the main hall in front of the entire school and go on and on screaming in the student's face

Education and Mental Health Treatment – [ Please rate: (1) Unsatisfactory (10) Superior

• Individualized Treatment Plan 1 2 (3) 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
• Description: Basically the same treatment for everyone, some students just had to stay longer if they weren't doing "well" enough
• Satisfied with training background of staff members who provided: Education (1) 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
• Description: no training necessary
• Therapy (1) 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
• Description: one therapist with a Ph.D, used the Monarch/CEDU/Synanon therapy mold.
• Support 1 2 (3) 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
• Description: Some of the staff genuinely cared but were tainted by the program. Staff were forced to go through the workshops with the students.
• Satisfaction with After Care provided: (1) 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

• Do you now experience any of the following:
• Nightmares: Yes monthly
• Anxiety: Emotional breakdowns, exactly like the ones that students, including myself, were put into during workshops through bioenergetic and primal threapy. they occur under stress. (this is common among people i went to monarch school with)

• Additional Comments: The staff there are victims as well as the students, this place comes from a long line of places EXACTLY like it, CEDU, Rocky Mountain Academy and now Monarch School. Mount Bachelor Academy, Carlbrook, and Boulder Creek Academy use the same workshop and therapy mold.

References:
Datasheet about the boarding school at Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora
The original statement on cafety.youthrights.com