DECLARATION UNDER PENALTY OF PERJURY PURSUANT TO 28 USCA 1746
I, Tyson Shulman declare and state as follows:
Name of Program:
Spring Creek Lodge; High Impact
Location of Program:
Thompson Falls, Montana; Tecate, Mexico
Period of Internment (MM/YY to MM/YY)
11/00 to 02/02
Declarative Statement
I was sent to Spring Creek Lodge on Halloween night by my parents via escort service. I was woken up at about 3 in the morning and taken to the airport in San Diego. On the way I was told that my parents were sending me to a program somewhere in Montana and that I would most likely only be there a few months. Little did they know I was just about to begin a never ending nightmare that I still think about daily. Montana wasn’t that bad if you don’t mind structure and being told what to do by your peers or really anyone for that matter. Their were things that when on there that I only heard about and few times witnessed. But besides being locked in a small room “The Hobbit” for days weeks and sometimes months straight for simply not following directions. Where things got really bad for me is when after about a year of meing at Spring Creek my family representative who spoke to my parents once a week had convinced my parents that I needed a kick in the ass boot camp type program. So once again I am woken up in the middle of the night but only this time it was to take a drive with fellow Spring Creeker Chris Obeck I believe was his name all the way to the Mexican border where we were dropped off with Mama Ali and Papa Miguel and taken to the facility. Or should I say tents. I could go on and on about the things that happened to me there and the things I witnessed. But I don’t want to get carpal tunnel. Haha. I will make this brief. It is a facility derived of two army tents one for the boys and one for the girls. Each sleeps up to 20 on Crete slabs that are grounded at an angle. Each kid gets a sleeping bag at night and upon arrival is given the rules in English once and given a water bottle that is to remain his until he leaves. From then on speaking English is considered run plans and is given the punishment of days in R&R. R&R is a chain linked fence about 7 ft by 7 ft. Hard dirt floor is all that is inside. You are made to lay on your stomach for hours on end. To make things worse they would sit on you and run your chin into the ground until it was raw it would eventually scab and if that scab ever bled it would be considered self infliction and you would be given the same consequence if not worse. We were told to graduate you were required to run 2,000 laps and do a certain amount of worksheets. All of this was done barefoot. For every consequence not matter how minor you would lose 80 laps. On a good day you would run a couple hundred. Consequences were easy to come by when sneezing without permission or itching yourself with out permission is considered a violation. We ate the same thing every day. Holiday or not. Oats in water for breakfast, beans and rice for lunch and chicken and rice for dinner. All made fresh onsite by students. Needless to say the food was horrible. I witnessed at 13 year old by the name of Jeremy that arrived and on his first day could not finish his oatmeal. They were forcing him until he finally puked it all up. Then the proceeded to force him to eat his own vomit off the dirt floor. Well he kept throwing up until they finally just through him into R&R. When I arrived there were no running toilets and only a small spicket that ran or should I say tricked out with cold water to use as a shower. Of which was a whopping one minute. At night we all shared one bucket. I witnessed the staff brutally murder two stray dogs. Numerous beat downs. Embarrassing punishments. And much more. After being there a few weeks I was chosen along with two others to build a septic system for the outhouses. Bottom line there was a leak. It filled up and to fix the problem they forced me to swim in urine and feces infested water to fix the problem. Then forced me back to work until the sun went down. A lot more happened that I chose not to share online. High impact from what I am told was not a part of WWASP but believe me it was affiliated and profited from them. I believe all but one kid I met there was from a WWASP program such as casa or cross creek. These programs need to be stopped. I cannot believe that these places are still running. They just change names and even sometimes use old facilities such as the Thompson Falls location. Anyways. I will hopefully have time to write a book one day about my experiences. But that will just have to wait till I am one day ready to really let go. I hope this helps. But it sure made me feel better. On a side note to any parent reading this. The outcome of these programs for kids is not the greatest. A majority fail and get worse actually. I would say about 90% of the kids I knew in the program have either been incarcerated, in rehab and unfortunately quite a few have passed away. Just do yourself and your child a favor and physically go to the facility yourself and don’t just fall for their setup walkthroughs for parents. Say what u want. It’s your kids life. If you care. Good luck to all my fellow survivors
I give WWASPSurvivors permission to use this statement. I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct.
Executed on(date: MM/DD/YY): 11/29/13
