A stay at Heartland Christian Academy (continued)

This addictional statement was made on Topix.com. All rights goes to the original author

I mean, seriously, who pulls aside people that move into their little "private property" community and say things like:

"So yeah...I'm doing this great thing by helping all these really screwed up kids, women, and men. Our programs are great and really help people get their lives in order and get over their addictions and stuff. But don't talk to the program people, ok? They have issues and stuff. They say they want our help, and maybe they do, but a lot of them just want to keep pretending to be the victim so they never have to deal with their problems. So just keep that in mind."

Cuz that sure seems to be the speech they might get after moving to Heartland. I mean, there are families who avoid "program people" like the plague, won't let any of them near the children, won't speak to them, etc. Some even have the audacity to say to the program people that we need to stop complaining about everything and start appreciating all the blessings heartland is giving us. That we need to stop be so "ungrateful" for "everything Heartland is doing for you!"

Since they are naive, we can forgive them their cruel words. Only those who have been through the program will ever truly understand what it does to a person, and the flaws in the system, and the favoritism, and the holier-than-thou staff that beats down on you. Unless you are an inherently good person, you can't understand without having been through it. But there were a handful of them there, like the Shorts, the Palmers, the Nickersons, the Whites, the Metzgers the Powells, the Newlands, and the Kippings. They all genuinely care about the kids in the program and want to help them learn, heal, and grow. They are wonderful people who will always be in my favorite memories. I hope they continue to do the Host Parent nights every week and that these families continue to participate, because spending time with them, even for a few hours once a week, made life at Heartland infinitely better.

The weeks I spent at the Palmers playing uno and making dinner together made my senior year tons of fun. The games of hide-and-seek with the Nickerson/White kids before church and the times we goofed off during class activities/nonacademic days were always hilarious. The times Mrs. Kipping brought us to her house after school to make delicious cookies was always relaxing. The times Mama Powell interrupted our Life Studies class to go to her house and bake those perfect mini bananabread loaves and listen to hear stories always cheered me up on a bad day. Every afternoon spent working with Mrs. Metzger and the kids was so much fun, so eventful. Every class with Coach Short going on rabbit trails and telling stories and making us laugh makes me smile. I will never forget these great memories as long as I live.

But the people who treat the "program people" like the plague because they don't know better, you really have to wonder how that came to be. What do Charlie and Laurie tell them about us to get them to fear and loathe us? What do the staff and leadership say about us that makes us seem so terrible? And how can you not find it terribly suspicious when someone says that you shouldn't interact with all the program people, if you're a good Christian person who wants to help? I mean, that's like saying,"No, no, let ME handle it, because only I can fix them. Even though you mean well, you shouldn't try to help. They might try to drag you down. Let me take care of this, and please, just don't interfere." Isn that not toally screaming "HEY LOOK- NO CHECKS AND BALANCES!!"

They can't be held responsible for any wrongdoings if they insist that everyone making claims of said wrongdoings is totally crazy or out for attention, can they? If the people who accuse them of abuse, or unkindness, or unfairness are all mental, or just "trying to play the victim" then of course they don't have to ever admit to any wrongs, and then they never have to fix anything. They can do anything they please- that is BAD.

Sources:

• The original statement on Topix.com
• Factsheet about the facility (Fornits Wiki)

A stay at Heartland Christian Academy

This statement was made on Topix.com. All rights goes to the orignal author

For those who are insisting that this school is a good idea, a loving and Christian place, and that the problem is all with the "horrible, messed up children" not being "appreciative of the chance they're given" and other such crap that people spout-- SHUT UP!! I lived there in the youth program for over 2 years, and while there are a few wonderful Christian families, the majority of the leadership is all stuck up, holier-than-thou fakes.

Before going to Heartland, I was a A-B only student, a good kid, my hobbies were drawing and reading, and I had never had any interest in drugs or alcohol. But I did suffer from some serious depression after major bullying in jr high, and my parents thought that this place could help me get better.

Wanting to take me off my meds and surround me with loving Christian people was a great idea--if only that had been the case. Unfortunately, a lot of the staff there doesn't really care about the kids. I've heard female staff tell the girls "If your parents cared about you, they'd have taken you out by now!" and "you wouldn't be here if you didn't have problems!" and other such demeaning, horrible things. It's not a very encouraging environment, to say the least. There are, of course, a handful of very sweet people who really want to help the girls, but there's only so much they can do without getting in trouble.

Want to know what's funny? I was there when Maiah's mom took her out of the program. I remember that. We were very happy that someone had parents who cared enough to listen to our pleas. When my friends tried to save up money and start a website to get me out of heartland, I was treated like a criminal for 2 weeks. They took away my part-time job (where I had been working for a year) and my teacher's aid position which I had been doing for 5 months. They interrogated me and acted as if I had done something horrible, even though all I had said on my friends' site was "please pray for the leadership cuz they need help."

Finally, before they kicked me out, here are some of the things Charlie, the founder, and his wife, Laurie, had to say to me about me: "Without Heartland, you would not have the grades you have! You would probably be dead, or on drugs, or in jail, or pregnant!" "You don't deserve the mission's trip we sent you on! you deceived the other girls into thinking you're a good example, a Christian, but you're not! the devil masquerades as an angel of light!" "you started an anime cult in my school!" (because i drew pictures for girls? because i liked to design outfits? at one point they confiscated a year's worth of sketches and threw them away, without asking at all!) Does this sound like someone who loves children and wants to help hurting teens? Does this sound like someone who can admit their wrongs and try to improve for the better of everyone? NO, it sounds like a selfish person who insists that they are doing God's work: "Look what I'VE done for God!"

At that moment, I knew that they did not love the kids in the program or make any point of getting to know them. They did not care about us or want us to be happy; they wanted to brag about what GREAT THINGS they were doing FOR GOD, using God as an excuse to do what they wanted. And you know, i'm a fairly strong person emotionally, so I really didn't care that they said these kinds of things to me. I mean, it hurts a little, when you think someone is a Godly person and cares about you, then turns around and acts like this.

But you wanna know what really hurt? Knowing that I was leaving behind some very vulnerable girls, as young as 12, in the hands of such people. Girls who had messed up family lives, girls who's step-mothers had forced their fathers to send them away(at least 2), girls who had been adopted from Russia and then abandoned here in the middle of a cornfield, never visited more than once or twice a year (I knew 3 for sure). The sad part is that we really weren't the horrible insane druggies they portray at all

Sources:

• The original statement on Topix.com
• Factsheet of the facility (Fornits Wiki)