Weighed down by the past

I haven't seen anyone really post about this school. But figured it's about time I speak up.

I was sent to several “therapeutic schools” to help resolve my problems. The truth is they did quite the opposite. The majority of my trauma came from the Glenholme school. So let’s talk about that. Looking at their brochures and websites it almost looks like a getaway. Go karts, equestrian, endless activities. But I can say that no fond memories came from that school except the memories of the other students that got me through it.

Each day you were given a piece of paper a token sheet. Your whole day and privileges revolved around these tokens. You’d lose tokens for speaking out of turn, your uniform isn’t perfect, you don’t follow their specific rules the exact way they want you to. And there were levels which were based off of your performance. The highest level you could get offered the privilege of walking short distances by yourself, being alone in your room for short periods of time, choosing your own food to eat. That’s what you strived for that would be the highest point in your life. Their whole system was built to keep you quiet, obedient and out of the way. Which can be the exact opposite of what these “troubled teens” need.

That was just their program the staff were another story. Sure there were a few good ones, mainly the teachers. But very few gave you the impression they were there to help. For most it was a job and ended at that. Your problems were made public, no privacy staff would openly discuss your issues in the company of other students, make jokes at your expense. The real nasty stuff came from when you were alone with them. I confided in one of my classmates my gender identify and sexuality. The staff overheard or found out somehow. I was called disgusting, unnatural as well as numerous homophobic and transphobic slurs and comments. It was easy to ignore at first but then it really starts to break you down. I was told to stop crying or I’d be removed. (Basically brought else where to sit in silence. Students would be gone for hours.) Told that I was making everyone else sad. I was given no support at any time. Taught my problems were my own and not to bother others looking for help. All communication outside was monitored, emails and phone calls. That one time a week you could get on the phone I’d try to tell my parents what was really going on. I was told the phone call would end if I continued for “lying and trying to scare my parents” Those phone calls were precious, you didn’t want to lose them. After a while some people would earn the privilege to go home on the weekends. The staff taught your parents the token system, you had to bring those forms home. Even then you didn’t get a break from them. It was a two+ hour drive from the school to my home. Sunday night heading back to the school I was filled with such a dread it’s hard to explain. I was suicidal and incredibly depressed over the thought of going back. I’ve never wanted to escape something so bad before. You could feel all the happiness being sucked from your body. Not to be overdramatic but it was terrifying.

Twice a week I was sent to the stable to work in the stalls and with the equine, Despite my huge fear of them and repeated begging for other work I was still forced to go. Much went on at that school that I cannot speak on, even six years later it’s too hard. But so many other students suffered too. One student opened up about being sexually assaulted by a staff member. She was called a liar and attention seeker by staff. It didn’t seem like there was any investigation into the matter. Later I would find out that wasn’t the first time something like that happened. A previous staff member had been arrested for repeatedly abusing a student. The school was sued. To this day I think back to that school and all the students still there suffering. Those two years there were the lowest points of my life. I was later diagnosed with CPTSD from my experiences there. The sad thing is this wasn’t an isolated incident. I have spoken to dozens of past students of Glenholme all with similar experiences.

Source
The original testimony on Reddit

Oh my god. This place has made my life a living hell since 2015.

I arrived for eating disorder treatment in January 2015 and stayed for 6 weeks. During my stay, these things happened:

1. An anorexic girl weighing 40 pounds who was attached to an IV and I were made to stand for several hours-for SLEEPING by a nurse named Tai Shelton. When I confronted her about it, she yelled at me until I began sobbing, at which she smiled and walked away (I was on suicide watch at this time. I was also reprimanded by my milieu therapist and both psychiatrists on staff, Dr. Sacco and Dr. Kelly. I later attempted suicide in the facility. The staff never informed my parents.
   
   
2. One of the male staff, Ryan, was extremely flirtatious and inappropriate (I was 14).
   
   
3. Staff members would yell frequently and if they didn't like you, they would put a bad mark on your, "card" for flippant reasons like "You didn't talk enough during lunch". If you got too many bad marks, you were locked in a dark room with literally nothing to do for 12 hours. They withheld therapy and during meals you were made to sit in the corner of the dining room and not make eye contact or speak to anyone but your abusive staff member. When I was placed in that room, they forgot to bring me out to eat meals-three times!
   
   
4. The patients were told that they were not allowed to wear leggings because their legs were "disturbing" to staff. If you can't handle seeing a thin person, maybe you shouldn't work in an eating disorder treatment program?
   
   
5. None of the "milieu therapists" had any kind of degree or certification that pertain to eating disorder treatment. The majority were power-drunk graduate students.
   
   
6. Another staff member, Evan, would often eat candy in front of us during group (NOT mealtimes)-something that triggered many patients-yet would smile and taunt us if we looked at her while she ate it.
   
   
7. The nurses frequently watched us go to the bathroom (claiming to prevent us from purging, even though they were already checking our toilets after we used them) and would roll their eyes and tell us to, "hurry it up!". Many of us had been sexually abused, but they did not care. Once, a staff member, Ashleigh, attempted to watch me even though it wasn't in my treatment plan at that point and refused to let me go to the bathroom until my psychiatrist had to tell her to leave me alone.
   
   
8. The staff often forced us to "ask for support". It didn't matter if you'd finished your meal; you'd get a bad mark if you hadn't asked for support. When you did ask, they would snap at you to do it yourself. When the patients complained, we were lectured about how stupid they were. That is ABSURD.
   
   
9. My parents took plenty of verbal abuse over the phone about how they caused my eating disorder, despite much research at the time indicating GENETICS typically caused eating disorders.
   
   
10. The staff clearly cared more about underweight people and treated those that were at a healthy weight as "whiners". Nevermind that my kidneys, pancreas, liver, and heart were shutting down, right?
    
    
11. I was forced to take laxatives because my psychiatrist threatened to put on my chart that I was, "refusing medication" if I didn't. I lost many hard gained pounds doing that and left with only 0.2 of a pound gained.
    
    

This place did not cure my eating disorder, it made it worse. I can never seek intensive treatment for my ED again because of the trauma I experienced here, even after years of therapy. I still have an eating disorder and have experienced seizures, tooth loss and nightmares because of it.

PLEASE DON'T EVER SEND YOUR CHILD HERE.

Source
The original testimony on Yelp

I apologize in advance for how jumbled this is going to be.

I still remember the exact day that I was sent there. January 27, 2020. I woke up with my "mom" crying at me, saying that I was going to "one of those schools." I immediately jolted up in bed. The lights turned on and I saw a pair of huge men. One of them went to shake my hand, like it was no big deal that they came to abduct me from what I thought was a safe place... My own bedroom! At four in the morning! You might be wondering why this was happening. Well, aside from some behavioral issues and major manic and depressive tendencies, I had attempted suicide the week prior. And how do they react to that? By sending me away.

Anyway, let's fast forward a little bit to when I was being escorted out of my house. When we got outside, one of the men, ("goons" they call them at D.A.) handcuffed me and dragged me to the car, which I am sure only police are allowed to do. I might be wrong. Anyway, when we finally got to the Discovery Academy campus, there were people in the front office. They acted as though it was appalling that I was brazen to them.

Fast forward a few months, I had made a few friends, including a guy we'll call Jon for the sake of privacy. The way the staff treated the outsiders was disgusting, to say the least. It was one thing not to act like a gang member or be white. It was a whole other thing to be gay, like I am. The staff supported bullying and held things called fight nights, (in which they would force the little guys to participate and be beaten up while everyone watched and laughed) in the house, called North House, which was reserved for the lower levels. If the staff didn't like you, they would tell other students to jump you and bully you. Luckily I never got jumped or beaten up, but it was threatened multiple times.

While there, I had to fear for my life on many occasions. Sometimes a knife would go missing from the kitchen, and after having multiple threats to my life from other students, I had reason to be terrified. When I say the staff are bad here, that does not apply to all of them. There were a few who were there to love and support the students, and I credit them for my life. The rare kindness of some people there was the only thing that kept me going. When I leveled up and was able to leave North House, I had endured a week of depressive panic attacks where I would hide from everyone and claw at the skin under my clothes, drawing blood. When this behavior was found out, I was put on reflection, which was a way of isolating someone from the rest of the group by not letting them speak and making them wear a bright blue shirt. If you were to break any rules of reflection, you would be extended for a day.

Often times, the failure of one student would lead to the punishment of the whole group, which made a vicious cycle of harassment and intimidation among the group. Basically, if you f***ed up, thus screwing everyone else over, you were targeted by the other students and were often times assaulted. Anyway, let's move on to the subject of how fights and assaults among the kids there were poorly managed and prevented. One day, my friend Jon, who I mentioned previously, walked down with blood streaming from his mouth and nose. He was the one who was assaulted, yet he got punished after he DEFENDED HIMSELF. I'm sorry, but that really bothered me. That's aside from the paint though. The pony is that if the staff were actually effective, that would have never happened.

And now let's move on to the topic of how corrupt the discipline system is there. D.A. has this idealogy that a failure by one is a failure by many, which I already described before. But worse than that, if you so much as DARE to do anything but be pelted by your attacker, you were put on reflection. In another instance, and read on with caution because this is gross, a guy I knew drank URINE because someone peed in his water bottle, and then was put on reflection. For no reason. I'm sorry, I'm just getting way to upset by this right now. I'll post again soon.

Source
The original testimony on Reddit

The WWASP organization had several programs in Montana. Most know is Spring Creek Lodge Academy where a girl committed suicide.

•  239. Spring Creek Lodge (1000 places You don't want to be as a teenager)

The facility has a long history. First Texas, then Montana when the authorities in Texas took interest in the facility. Some years ago they moved to Missouri when Montana look at new legislation which would mean that the place would under supervision from the authorities.

Hello, my name is Jordan Harrell. After reading a lot of the posts on this forum (both about the Anchor Academy and other homes) i decided i would try and share my experiences and what did/has happened and what is happening to me today because of it. I wanna start off to say that i was never a perfect teen. As nobody ever is. I never did drugs, never drank, never experimented with weird things or got into obsessive amounts of trouble. With that being said, here is what i learned.

I was at the Anchor Academy from January of 2003 to June of 2005 when i graduated high school. I will touch on that first and for most. While you do get to accelerate at school if you so choose, there has been one hamper on my life from their school. They use the ACE packets, and as such, they ARE NOT accredited. Some people may not realize what this means, but to me, it means a great deal. I found out after graduation that when i try to apply to A LOT of schools, they require that i have a state accredited diploma. So, because i do not have one of those, i had to get a GED. Not a massive deal, but not one of the more pleasant experiences. A lot of years of high school that didn't really amount to much in the end. I am not saying im some kind of genius, not saying anything like that...just stating the facts from my point of view anyways.

Upon arriving at the Anchor, i had every personal belonging i had ever owned stripped from me. They took my wallet, my pictures, my friends phone numbers, everything. Literally. Not a big deal, but then as a 15 year old kid it seemed a big deal at the time. I was given a hair cut (which i must say was needed) and set up with a guide. Let me get right down to the good stuff. The Anchor had multiple levels of "leadership" and "communication" levels. I will start with leadership.

1. Leadership: The basics of leadership at the anchor were pretty straight forward, its a tier based system, the higher your "rank" the more privileges/responsibilities/"power" you were given. When you first arrive there, you are placed under someone called a "guide" and you are his "student". As a student, here are the basics of your rules to follow as far as the "guide" is concerned. You MUST stay withing 5 feet of your guide at all times, this is a 24/7 policy. If you go outside of the 5 foot radius, you can be given "complaints" (a point system for keeping track of the bad things you do, the more complaints you get, the more trouble you are in.) If he doesn't like what you are saying, your guide is allowed to put you on silence whenever he sees fit. While on silence you are not allowed to talk without raising your hand. If you do, you get more complaints. You MUST follow whatever instructions your guide tells you to. For example. One of my first guides i ever had once told me to go stand over by my bunk. Just so happens, my bunk was more than 5 feet away from him. Upon arriving at my bunk, my guide told me that i was more than 5 feet from him, so i got complaints for it. When i asked why i was getting complaints for doing what i was told, he gave me more complaints for talking without raising my hand (i had been put on silence). After that, he told me to bend over and put my nose on the bunk. In this position, you must keep your legs straight, and bend over to put your nose on something. Try it with a table for instance. After standing in that position for long enough, it will bring tears to even the strongest of people. After getting off orientation (students, which could take anywhere from 3+ months, 3 months was usually the minimum) you were promoted to what was called a "single". As a single, you were put into a crew (will explain a few) and given free roam of the area within certain limitations (which there were plenty of). If you did well as a single, you were promoted to a guide. I wont go further into that since i have already explained. If you continued to do well ( and were an admitted christian might i add...i will go into more of that later too) you were promoted "maybe" to a crew leader. A crew leader had the same basic function as a guide, except he was in charge of 5-8 singles, guides, and students. He had the same authority over every member of his crew, and also every persons in the anchor who were a lower rank than him. He could put a guides nose on something if he so choose, give out complaints as he saw fit (didn't need to be justified, nobody every justified most the complaints). So you can think of him as a "guide" for 5-8 students. I am skipping a lot of the deeper detail, i can go into that later if anyone requests it. There were usually 5-8 crew leaders or more at any give time. Alot of people to watch out for...just on that tier alone. Next you had a dorm leader. Dorm leaders were in charge of the entire dorm, usually 50+ students. They had all the power that crew leaders have, only they had it over crew leaders as well. Pretty self explanatory. After that came the staff, doesn't need much explanation on that one.

2. Communication Levels: There were a total of 6 communication levels. I will start from the bottom. If you did something really bad, you were placed on "super separation". While on super separation, you were not allowed to talk to ANYONE but your crew leader, the dorm leader, and staff. If you did, you got complaints. If you LOOKED (yes i mean looked, like with your eyes) at anyone other than those people, you were given complaints. Alot of complaints too might i add. Do you have any idea how hard it is to not LOOK at someone? I mean you cant even acknowledge their existence. If they talked, you cant respond, if they told a joke, you cant laugh, nothing, without getting complaints. Next in line was "separation". Same basic principles as super separation, only you could talk to all crew leaders, instead of your own. After separation came orientation student. Same basic principle as separation, except you could talk to any "number 1's" that you wanted to, and your guide, regardless of his communication level. Anyone else that you looked at or talked to, you got complaints. Oh and by the way, if you talked to someone you weren't allowed to, you got swats. With a paddle. They had two wooden paddles. One was smaller named smiley, the other was significantly larger named Proverbs. By the way, this goes without saying i would think, but when kids were getting swats with those, you could hear them all the way on the other side of the dorm. After orientation student came a single. Pretty much the same communication levels as a student, just didnt have to follow someone around all the time. After that was a "number 2". They were allowed to talk to everyone who was a level 2 and above. So if you were a level 2, you could talk to all level 2's and all level 1's. If you talked to or looked at anyone not of those ranks, you had the same punishment as the lower ranks. And last was a "number 1". They were allowed to talk to everyone, with the exception of separation/super separation, unless they were a crew leader.

Now, for the punishment section of this page. Please understand, that while i did not have most of these things done to me, i was around it more times than i would have ever have liked, and i was sometimes put in charge of seeing these punishments executed. The one everyone remembers most is probably peanut butter sandwiches and water. If you did something wrong, as far as school or whatever a staff felt was appropriate, they put you on peanut butter. That was nothing but a peanut butter sandwich (TERRIBLE might i add, you had to choke it down, it was not jiffy peanut butter) and water. You could be put on that for as long as the staff so desired. Which could be months. I can name people, names i will remember forever, who were on peanut butter sandwiches for months. I remember one boy was on it for 6 months straight. He started gagging whenever he tried to eat, so whatever he didn't eat ( he was required to eat 2 each meal) they put them in a plastic bag which he carried around until he ate them all. I can remember him having 15+ sandwiches in that bag. It was disgusting to see. Red shirt was another one that everyone feared. For good reason too. I remember one boy who was on redshirt for over 2 months. You only get 1 red shirt, and 1 pair of pants, which you have to wear all day and all night, every night. They get washed once a week, if i remember right. You did pt (physical training) around the clock. You slept for about 3 hours a night. This is where a part of me goes out to every boy who was ever on this. You usually got put on this for running away, although i remember one boy got put on it for cheating in school and just being a little bit more rebellious than they liked. They tied your feat together with rope, and made you carry a broom over your head everywhere you went. You had to hop around. You stood at the end of your bed with your nose up against your bed while everyone else slept, you ran laps a lot, we are talking like 10 miles a day of laps. They made you dig holes with a spoon, while standing up. You had to bend over and dig the hole while keeping a straight leg. I remember that while one boy on redshirt was doing this, the staff members fed his peanut butter sandwiches to the dog in front of his face, so he didn't get to eat that meal. They would make you dig those holes with spoons, fill them back up with your spoon, and then dig a new a hole, over and over. I remember one boy ran away once ( granted he stole a car to get away...makes you wonder why he wanted to get away so bad) and when they caught him, they tied a rope around his waist, and dragged him around like a dog for...what...2 months? There are alot of things i could say about punishments, but i would keep you reading for hours. If you want to know more, please by all means, let me know. I wonder if anyone who reads this from the anchor remembers the foxy five, or "brother willy's" weekend duty. Or his morning PT. I would love to see that.

The work ethic was valuable. I will say that. They taught you how to work. Granted, in today's world it would be considered slave labor, considering you never got payed for it, even though they often did. Have you picked rocks out of a field for 12+ hours in the blistering heat with people riding you about getting it done faster. There were very few breaks, and very little compassion, and zero money. In the 2.5 years i was there, i never saw a dime. Even though generally you worked for at least 4 hours a day, except, wednesday and Sunday (cause of church). I had to dig trenches, tear down buildings, lay piping, build cabinets, mow lawns, sand blast, and every sort of general cleaning you can think of. I am not saying the work experience wasn't valuable, but you never saw a reward for your effort outside of calloused hands and a sense of accomplishment.

The food, so long as you were not on peanut butter, was very good. They certainly did a good job with food. They kept your bellies full, with a wide variety of courses. The lady staff members did a wonderful job cooking.

There were no fences, there were no guards, you were free to run. Only you were 35 miles from the closest town. And if they caught you, which they ALWAYS did, you got put on redshirt. If you didnt die to the elements in the process.

To touch on now a days, the anchor certainly holds a spot in my memory, it always will. Still to this day i have nightmares about going back there, about the things i went through, and the things i saw others go through. I was rarely in alot of trouble there, i tried to steer clear of it, but i was often around others getting into it. I saw things that would make parents cry. Still to this day i feel terribly guilty about not trying to do more. I have this feeling like i should be trying to help those kids, be trying to get them out of there, but i dont know what to do. I could talk for hours about the struggles young men go through while there. Even while writing this there is a pain in my heart that goes out to all those kids who are sent there. Im not saying some of those young men don't need someone to take them by the hand and lead them in the right direction, but i dont think that this boys home goes about it in the right way. Interesting enough, some people will read this and try to say that i am lying, try to say that i dont know what i am talking about. I dare someone to say that to my nightmares, tell it to the hundreds of boys who have gone through there and now have some sort of anxiety problems. "tough love" is only effective when the person its being done to, knows it is out of love, not when they are so terrified to do anything different they conform out of fear.

And on a last note, religious beliefs set aside, the Anchor Academy for Boys DOES force their religion and their beliefs on you. If you do not believe like them, then you will never gain rank, you will never be treated with respect. The staff there only want you to believe as they do. There is no such thing as a Mormon or Catholic there. If you get caught thinking like that, or trying to follow another religion, or trying to speak about what you believe, the punishments are severe. As bad as what i have listed above. Please, for your children, do not force religion down their throat. From personal experience, it will only make things much worse.

Well, i will end it there, i could keep writing for days, very literally, and fill up pages and pages of information, but most people dont want to read it. This is my attempt to tell the world about what happened to me and what i saw. Take it as you will, there it is. Thank you for reading. Sorry for any typo's, i got kinda emotional writing some of this. The pain is still very real, even 5 years after the fact.

Jordan

Source on Fornits: (Link)

You child would be better off in a prison. The show they put on for our tour is NOTHING like the horrific life my daughter suffered there. As a parent I made a mistake of taking advice from an education consultant and a 8 week program helping my daughter deal with anxiety and depression.

She was NOT at risk for alcohol or drug abuse . She did not lie or steal and she did not harm herself or anyone else. I have heard from others that these "Wilderness " programs have ties to therapeutic schools. I am starting to believe this more than ever because her so called "caring " therapist recommended this knowing she was not at high risk. According to my daughters current therapist she is suffering PTSD because of the trauma she was exposed to at Greenbrier.

PLEASE DO NOT LISTEN TO EDUCATIONAL CONSULTENT or "WILDERNESS PROGRAM " unless you want your daughter to suffer . I suggest you try everything to find a good therapeutic school if you must after trying everything else. I can tell you Greenbrier is NOT a good one at all. I had a gut instinct to get my daughter out of there before the year . The food was horrible , verbal and physical assaults by other students was a re-recurring theme , there is no real education ( be prepared for your daughter to lose a year of proper education ) , theft is as normal as going to the bathroom there !

i forgot to mention for $90,000 a year my daughters therapist was NOT licensed . This place is a scam and so was the program that recommended it. They take advantage of parents that would do anything for their children. It makes me sick that this DISGUSTING place still operates!!!

The original testimony on Yelp (Link)

I was victimized by one of the owners of a Youth Group home in Utah where a a staff member was brutally attacked as he was the only one on duty. My incident occurred before he started his facility, I called the police but they wouldn't do anything to him because of WHO he was within the community and his powerful business partner.

I feel a tremendous amount of guilt, pain, and trauma... I wish somebody would have listened and stopped this man before he opened this facility and what happened. These homes are magnets for shrewd, amoral, and corrupt "business" men seeking nothing more than money. The kids and the pain are not worth their sick obsession with money and power. E-mailing local city council in Utah has been like trying to converse with a cinderblock wall... they protect family names rather than family values. Every name associated with WWASPS, I know or even went to school with and the infamous DACE of Casa Bay, his father was my principle.