Darrington Academy Survey
 
Name: Zachary Bland
 
Age and year of admittance: 16 on entry date on Feb 2 2007
 
How long was your stay at D.A.? 17 months and two days
 
How long have you been back home? 11 months
 
Before the program did you have a serious drug problem? Yes
 
Before the program were you admitted to any other residential treatment, for instance a mental hospital? No
 
Before the program did you have a criminal record or spend time in Juvenile Hall? No
 
Where you court ordered, or did your parents choose to send you to D.A.? Parent ordered
 
Was there a medical admissions process? Yes
 
Were your medical records considered before you were admitted into D.A.? No
 
Did you sign yourself in (give consent) to receive “treatment” at D.A.? No
 
How much was your tuition? 4000 a month
 
Do you think you were given a “proper” education at D.A.? No I do not
 
In your opinion were the teachers, good teachers? Did they have degrees and certifications? I love the teachers
 
How many school credits did you earn? 12
 
Did you receive a diploma from D.A.? No
 
Was a certified medical professional available to students at their request? Yes
 
Were proper check ups, dental cleaning, and medication observation appointments held regularly? No
 
If you got sick were you given adequate treatment and rest? Yes
 
Were you ever refused medical care because staff said that you were “faking it”? Yes
 
Was a medical service offered for drug detox or drug rehabilitation? No
 
Was there any kind of “Drug Education” available for students who had used drugs in the past? No
 
What is the name of your case manager? What was their role in your program? Who?
 
Was group therapy considered to be of a confrontational nature? Oh my God yes
 
Do you feel you were forced to confess to things you did not do in order to progress in the program? Always
 
Were students encouraged to accept that they were alcoholics or drug addicts? Yes
 
Was this required to advance in the program? Yes
 
Were students encouraged to follow a 12 step program in order to earn levels and graduate D.A? I thought it was 6 steps but yes.
 
Were students encouraged to accept a “higher power” contingent to their recovery? Yes
 
In your opinion, How was the food quality? Was it prepared properly? I ate because I was hungry, I didn’t care what it tasted like.
 
Did you ever go hungry? Were you given proper portions? Was food ever withheld as a punishment? Yes . No . Yes.
 
Did you gain a lot of weight? were you forced to eat more than you were able to eat? No, I have a high metabolism.
 
Please describe the “Fear Factor” games, including what was in the “Fear Factor” food. How did you feel about this? It was all fun and games to me.
 
Were upper levels or any level students asked to babysit the staff’s children, or taken to the staff’s house for any extended period of time? Well, as an upper level, we more like played with their kids and we did go to certain staffs houses for a treat of sorts.
Where you aware of anyone being restrained and isolated from the group? Too many times.
 
What reasons were these people restrained? (please describe actual events) Not wanting to eat food. Walking slower than the staff member wanted, not answering a question, going on a hunger strike, talking back, fighting.
 
Where stress positions utilized? Were there more time in isolation given if the student would move or shift weight? No
 
(Please describe the rules and structure that would pertain to a level 1 student.) Basically, you were nothing, you couldn’t talk and you were not human, but a robot I guess you could say, but all in all, you were trash.
 
Was contact with your parents limited? Where your letters (to and from) intercepted? Were your letters opened, read, crossed out or cut? Once a week for letters and by my knowledge yes, they were read and edited by staff.
 
How long before you were able to speak to your parents on the phone? Were your phone calls monitored? About 3 months and yes all of my phone calls were monitored.
 
If you felt you were being abused, was there anyway you could get to a phone and have a private conversation with your parents, child services or an officer of the law? NO
 
If you wanted to leave were you discouraged to tell your parents how you felt? Were you afraid that you would be punished if you were to describe any incidents of abuse to your parents? We were discouraged and would get in trouble for telling our parents how we felt and the staff would tell our parents that we were trying to manipulate them.
 
Were there other students (upper levels) assigned to watch over you? what was their role? did they give you consequences? were they allowed to restrain you or monitor the isolation area. As an upper level, yes we were assigned to watch over and give consequences to lower levels and the staff would sometimes give permission to restrain others.
 
Were you allowed to speak, stand, eat, go to the bathroom and do other normal activities of your free will? HELL NO!!!!
 
How often were you allowed to speak freely? and to whom? were you not allowed to speak with others in your group? PE and leisure, other than that, silence was allowed.
 
Did you have to walk in line? How often? Were there consequences if you did not line up properly? Lower levels walked in lines and yes there were consequences for such actions.
 
Would you be given a consequence if you forgot something? (for instance, your water bottle, a pen or a book) Yes, a Category Two.
 
Were your personal items inspected by other students? (upper levels?) with or without your presence? Yes, we were told to do item searches for lower levels.
 
(Please describe the rules and structure that would pertain to a level 4 student.) Giving consequences, more privileges, more responsibility, a lot more was expected “program and seminar” wise.
 
What were the requirements in order to progress in the level system? Was approval from the other upper levels required? You had to give in and suck up your pride to progress. Yes.
 
What kind of staff responsibilities were upper levels given? Cleaning the facility, serving food, giving consequences, basically, doing all the dirty work the staff didn’t want to do.
 
Did upper levels have to “baby sit” the lower levels? How often? Yes, about every day.
 
Were you expected to dole out punishments (consequences)? Ruthlessly
 
Were the rules upper levels enforced specific to the rule book or were the definitions of those rules assumed? (or sort of passed down as a tradition, basically could you give a consequence for “neglect” for any number of things) Traditionally
 
Did an upper level have to power to influence a child being taken to the isolation room? Were upper levels required to watch or participate in restraint? Yes and yes
 
Were upper levels required to give visiting parents a glowing testimonial of their experience in the program, or make testimonial videos or letters? Yes, it was BS.
 
What would happen if a student mentioned anything bad about the program in front of a parent? Were students afraid of punishment if they told the truth? They would probably have to restart their program from level 1 and yes, I do believe there was fear.
 
How easily could an upper level get dropped (start the program over)? What infractions would make an upper level drop and what level did they usually go back to? Too easily, I got dropped for no reason at all, it was complete injustice but since I was less than a human to those people there was nothing I could do about it.
 
What is your opinion on the effectiveness of the method of Behavior Modification that was used at D.A.? Almost nothing.
 
Considering long term effects, do you think the program has an effect on your life today? Positive or negative? It has both.
 
Do you believe that the program acting within the means of “Tough Love” was appropriate treatment for you in your adolescence? Yes.
 
Do you believe that the staff and junior staff usually acted within the US standards for health, safety and well being of the students? Hell no.
 
Sincerely,
Level 6 graduate of the program,
Zachary Bland.