Blog
Survivor Testimony
We Speak For Them to Be Heard.
Laurel Heights/ Costal Harbor – Hannah
Okay so I’ve been inpatient twice, once for sixth months when I was sixteen in Atlanta ga. at laurel heights and once for five months at the age of seventeen at costal harbor in Savannah ga. There was a lot a verbal abuse, physical restraints that ended with in...
Open Sky/ New Haven – Allison F.
Like many wilderness “therapy” programs, Open Sky was a feeder program which sent me to yet another abusive facility called New Haven. As bad as Open Sky was, I might prefer frostbite to the neglect and abuse I endured there. New Haven’s biggest issue was severe...
Cross Creek – Abbie
Hi.. I hope it is okay I post here. I was lead to this site after watching a show regarding Cross Creek and other Teen Help institutions. I'm not a survivor, yet I am a parent survivor. My daughter Ashley was there in 2000. Parker was her therapist. I feel so deeply...
Excel Academy Conroe Texas – Heather M.
My name is Heather [REDACTED]. I was sent to an abusive therapeutic boarding school for troubled teens when I was 15. Aside from being sexually abused as a teenager I was sent in hopes of getting help. The school was shut down for abuse. An officer was imprisoned...
Sunset Bay Academy – Andrea
My name is Andrea and I am a survivor of the troubled teen industry. I was sent to Sunset Bay Academy (a WWASP affiliated program) in June of 2010 at the age of 16 when it was located in Rosarito, Mexico in what is now the Motel Camino Inn. I was there for six months,...
Sunset Bay Academy – Jocelyn P.
I was only 13, when I was in a short term residential. The minute I got out, was the moment I was told I was not going home. That same day, I was being driven to Mexico for a long term residential. It took many hours due to traffic and border control. I was driven...
Never Give Up Youth Healing Center – Paris C.
i was about 10 years old at this facility i was there till i turned 15 and it was in the middle of nowhere and they were really abusive and most staff had intercourse with most of the patients and it was a private owned facility and out of nowhere sometime cops would...
Provo Canyon School – Paris C.
I WENT THERE IN 2014 WHEN I WAS 9 YRS OLD I REALLY DONT LIKE FACILITIES BECAUSE WHEN I WAS ADOPTED AT THE AGE OF 7 FROM THAT AGE TO NOW BEING A 17 YR OLD FEMALE STILL INNA FACILITY I UNDERSTAND MY FIRST DAY THERE I WAS REALLY UPSET CUZ IT WAS A NEW ENVIRONMENT AND MY...
Casa by the Sea – Joe L.
I attended WWASP location Casa By The Sea from [PHONE REDACTED]. I left when I turned 18 after being subjected to major abuse and placed into solitary confinement for at least two months prior to leaving. I was forced to eat food with my hands and lay face down all...
Spring Creek Lodge – Courtney L.
I was one of the very first kids to attend spring creek lodge my parents chose out of the first seminar and pulled me out shortly after but that was not the end I unfortunately sent back there and the second time I was (rescued)in the middle of the night but I knew...
Thompson Falls – Greg P.
My brother was troubled and had been to military school, vocational school etc but then when 17 in 1997 spent some time at Thompson Falls SCL. I was just a little kid so don’t remember it all but just found an old letter and looked up the address and discovering this...
Cross Creek Academy – Stacy G.
Hello! My name is Stacy [REDACTED], and I am a survivor from attending Cross Creek Academy. I was in Cross Creek for roughly 22 months. I was taken in the middle of the night by 2 people not knowing who they were. I was told I can walk out voluntarily or be put into...
Provo Canyon School – Rachel
I was placed at Provo Canyon School by the state of California. I had run away from an abusive home, and had a lot of behavior problems stemming from the abuse so California decided to send me to Provo. Some of my memories are vague, but I do remember being...
Spring Ridge Academy – Raelyn
I was sent to Spring Ridge Academy, a therapeutic boarding school, when I was 17. I’d been a high-achieving, straight-A student my whole life and I had a lot of friends. I knew my parents loved me but they fought a lot of the time, so by middle school I was already...
Academy at Ivy Ridge – Will
I faked an appendicitis so that I would be transported to the hospital and from there make my escape. The doctor decided to perform and appendectomy on me anyways and when I woke up from surgery my family was there. I told them all of the brutality that was happening,...
Sunset Bay Academy – Natasha
How my friend killed himself and SBA didn't do shit, they knew he was gonna do it but later then I talked to DR. Hugo and he said, "we couldn't do nothing, because he already had a Choice" It was a normal day at my school in San Diego, some girls had gone to the park...
Darrington Academy – Jack
I was a student at Darrington Academy, a WWASPS school in Blue Ridge GA. I was enrolled in 2006 and left in 2007. In my time there I witnessed multiple accounts of child abuse. Physical abuse from grown adult “chaperones” whose credentials were unknown. Mental abuse...
Provo Canyon School – Tanya
After several years of being an out of control teenager my Mother was at her wits. In 1989 at the age of 15, I was taken from my bed in the middle of the night along with another girl from my home town by 2 large males and a female. They took us to the airport, we...
Tranquility Bay – Tammy
My name is Tammi and I am a WWASP survivor from likely the worst time at the infamous TranquilityBay, Jamaica. Further, once I had been there for 22 of the 24 months I attended, they shortened the program drastically; wasn't I lucky? Anyways, just as I began to see...
Second Chances Southern Utah – Morgan B
To start this out i want to say how unbelievably freeing and releasing it feels to have found so many people who have been through what i’ve been through and seen what i’ve seen. My time at scinsu started in august of 2020, i was 14 years old. I went to scinsu because...
Diamond Ranch Academy – Elise
I left DRA with a PTSD diagnosis from the treatment I received there. On my first night, they told me to get into bed, but I wanted to call my mother because I believed they had illegally kidnapped me against her will (long story, but not outlandish since they took me...
The Truth will set them free!
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