I was originally housed in south Carolina, until the facility I was in; was due for an inspection, and then me and three other young men where moved to a lake house in North Carolina. During our 1 week stay there, 2 of the Kids being held there decided in the middle of the night to steal our guardians vehicle & about $2000 dollars along with his jewelry. We woke him up when noticed them missing and from there we where sent to Coasta Rica where I spent about 5 weeks before the American embassy came in to question the students because allegations of torture and neglect had reached home. I was incredibly grateful at this time for them showing up because we had indeed been treated absolutely horrible. The embassy asked to speak with students from the facility and somehow I was in that group. I remember speaking to the agents from the embassy, before they left they told me and the other 12 kids in the room; that if the coordinators at Dundee ranch didn’t make the changes necessary within thirty days we had the option of being sent home and/or relocated, depending on what our parents wanted. We spoke amongst ourselves and hatched a plan to tell every single kid there that they where holding us against the rules and that the embassy said we had much more freedom and rights than they were giving us. We wanted to start the collapse of the entire facility along with the program. we had no idea how quickly things would escalate. By the next day there was mayhem throughout the entire ranch. There was no order what so ever kids where walking out of the facility as if it where their own back yard. Me and a few others decided to try to make it to the embassy on foot that night. After the first attempt the staff at the facility tracked us down and brought us back willingly ish. Later that night we decided to leave again, this time making it all the way to san jose. We spent the night in a local park waiting on the sun rise so we could go to the embassy to let them know how bad it had gotten at Dundee ranch; but before we could leave the park we where surrounded by police and camp staff with bull horns demanding we come out of hiding and be taken back to the facility or else the police would arrest us and we would be lost in their systems for quite sometime seeing as how we where minors with no identification. I have many vivid accounts of abuse and neglect and many other troubling details of my time with this organization. I myself went through many types of “course correction” if you will…… WWASP, jail, rehab , etc. Now I am 36 years old I hold a fulltime and very respectful job, along with a business on the side. I am married and would love nothing more than to give back to troubled youth anyway I can. I hope this story and anything else I can do has some impact at all.
