I survived Sunset Bay Academy in Tijuana Mexico. I was sent to SBA in May of 2016. I was there for about a year. During that time I was molested and raped by staff. I was physically abused almost daily. They would use withholding food as a punishment. I had my shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, and shower privileges were taken away for almost 3 months. During those 3 months, I was given 2 pieces of bread and a piece of cheese for meals. They took my mattress, pillow, and blanket away after I tried to kill myself. I was forced to sleep on the tile floor out in the living room hallway where the boys could watch me and the male night staff would have me sleep. I had male and female staff follow me into the bathroom to watch me use the restroom and shower, I mean like standing right in front of me and staring. Observation is a garage with 2 man-made rooms that are about 4×4 feet. There are only 3 walls and there are cameras inside as well as a security member who watches you. There is no AC in it and we are given one glass of water twice a day. I was taken to observation where I was forced to stand for 2 hours and 45 minutes then allowed to sit for 15 minutes, I cycled through that for 16 hours every day for months. I had suffered a knee injury while in SBA and was refused my right to see a doctor. If I ever sat down before my 15 minutes of the allotted time. I was jumped on and restrained by grown men. Because of all the standing for months on a knee injury and forced labor, I had to get knee surgery after SBA. My doctor said he had never seen a knee injury this severe in a minor and that my knee had the damage of an 80-year-olds. During my time in “observation” I was given a few pieces of lettuce and a scoop of tuna (I’m allergic to tuna and they knew that) And if I was lucky I got a bowl of cereal that was about the size of my fist with cornflakes. I was sexually grooming into a relationship with my female teacher. I was refused my right to send/receive letters and phone calls to my family for about 8 months. There was a time I was on about 8 meds and they refused to tell me what they were for. There is a lot more that happened there. There is also a lot more that I don’t personally remember because I have cPTSD. I’ve been out for 5 years and to this day I am working on what I went through in therapy. I have horrible night terrors and have tried to kill myself multiple times. The worst part is there are days where I will get thrown into flashbacks of something I didn’t remember happening, and it feels like I’m really there like I’m back in Tijuana. Those episodes can last a few minutes to whole days. I will hurt myself and those around me because all I see is Mexico. I will say not all kids had it as bad as me. Unfortunately, my parents knew about everything that was going on and they didn’t care and that encouraged staff to continue doing it. I was sent to SBA after attempting to kill myself by overdosing. After being in the hospital for 3 days and then being sent to a psych word my parents decided to ship me off. Even though I had never shown any signs of depression or suicidal ideation to them before (My dad is a pastor and my mom is a therapist which is ironic) I actually requested my records from SBA recently, and what they sent me was complete BS. I got like 6 therapy notes and my intake paper. With weekly therapy, I should have gotten over 52 therapy notes. I don’t want to keep going on and on. But that place is horrid, it is a literal place of nightmares. The school itself isn’t legal. They have been shut down about 3 times. They reopen the school under the same name with that same staff every time. If you would like to look into it, the school’s name was Casa by the sea and California leadership academy. I know there were more than those too, but the names themselves are hard to find. Anytime anyone tries to speak out we get threatened with murder. Breaking code silence has some testimonies from SBA on it. Or if you look up Sunset Bay Academy and read their reviews you can see some other students who have suffered like me. it’s difficult because they’re technically based in Tijuana, so you don’t have to follow the same laws as us. And they also pay parents to write fake reviews. I am possibly in the process of filing a lawsuit against them, but it’s extremely difficult.
