Academy At Dundee Ranch/Pillars of Hope
The Academy at Dundee Ranch was located in Orotina, Costa Rica. It was owned by Narvin Lichfield. Lichfield also owned Caolina Springs Academy, in Due West, SC. In May 2003, the school was shut down by Costa Rican child-welfare authorities due to claims of child abuse and the faciliy’s non-compliance with child-welfare laws in Costa Rica, including the fact that children were being held against their will. When they were informed of the school’s closing, and their constitutional rights under Costa Rican law, the students rioted. The Costa Rican authorities investigated both the school, and its staff. Lichfield was arrested. He was charged with ordering the physical and emotional abuse of children. The result of the trial, however, was that although authorities found that the claims of child abuse and neglect to be substantiated, Narvin Litchfield was found innocent of actually ordering the abuse.
The facility reopened in late 2005 as Pillars of Hope, a program serving youth age 18-22.
As with most WWASP schools, education at Dundee Ranch was lacking, and students have reported that instead of school books they had to make due with illegally photocopied versions of real books.
The facility dwindled down until only a handful of students were left. Staff members Mark Friedman, and his wife, Marsha, were contacted by most of the remaining students’ parents and asked to take remove the remaining students. They did so willingly. The facility now appears to be closed.
Narvin Lichfield is named as a defendant in the Turley lawsuit against WWASP.
– Mattie
Staff
Narvin Lichfield
Narvin has had a long and checkered history with WWASP. The brother of Robert Litchfield, Narvin appears to have gotten his start with WWASP in 1998 when he opened Carolina Springs Academy, functioning as both owner and Administrator. He then went on to open, concurrently with CSA, The Academy at Dundee Ranch in Costa Rica in (year) . In 2003, Dundee Ranch was shut down by Costa Rican Child welfare authorities due to allegations that children were being held against their will (illegal in Costa Rica) and were being abused. Officials also found 100 of 193 students did not have the required immigration papers. Litchfield was arrested and charged with abuse and violations of international law. He was then ordered by the state of South Carolina to stay away from CSA until the case resolved, which wasn’t completed until 2007. But Narvin kept busy, re-opening Dundee Ranch under the new name Pillars of Hope (or “Pilares de Esparanza”.) POH was billed as facility for 18-22 year-olds, but there are mulitple reports of children under 18 being held there. In 2010, CSA was closed. Narvin vowed to reopen, but backed off that claim when he was arrested by authorities in South Carolina in 2011 after he was pulled over and determined to have been driving on a suspended license and without insurance. He was also served with 3 summonses regarding bad checks written on CSA’s closed checking account totalling about $2,000. Narvin was also named as a defendant in two other lawsuits, namely Lexington Insurance Company vs. Carolina Springs et al., a personal injury suit, and the Turley class action suit.
Randall Hinton
Randall Hinton was something of a jack-of-all-trades for WWASP. He first staed working for WWASP as a tech at Brightway in 1992. After two years at Brightway he moved to the Cross Creek in 1995, working there for one year. He then served as Assitant Director for Spring Creek in 1996, then took a job in the same role for Tranquility Bayi 1997. After Tranquility Bay, in 1998 he again served as Assistant Director, this time for Carolina Springs, working under Narvin Litchfield. In 2001 Litchfield gave him the job as Director at Academy at Dundee Ranch. Hinton also appears to have spent 3 years working for Teen Help, the marketing arm of WWASP. In 2002, Hinton left WWASP to work in another school, but came back in 2006 in order to serve as Director of Royal Peak/Royal Gorge Academy in Colorado. Ginton was arrested on chrages of child abuse by authorities in 2007 and the school was shut down in 2008. Hinton was convicted in 2007 of one count each of third-degree assault and false imprisonment. He served 25 days in jail and one year of probation. Hinton appears to have left WWASP.
Survivor Testimony
No Care in Carolina, No Hope in Costa Rica – By Mattie Smith
Gallery
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I was held at Rancho dundee when i was 16, it was true in your face abuse. We were abused in everyway they could think of. I am still traumatized. It ruined me emotionally, spiritually and physically. I pray that the sick people who have made millions of dollars on the suffering of young people stop abusing the vulnerable and change or shut down their sick, inhuman brainwashing program and try something that is supported by science and does not screw you up for the rest of your life.
I am now 25 years old and am interested in what i can do to help others that have gone thrue the same thing.
Here is my new page…Learning as I go on this…check out http://www.AntiWWASP.us to see over 565 former abuse victims joined on one site!
i luckily arrived only about 5-7 days before the embassy showed up. this place has haunted me throughout my entire life. i can’t imagine how anyone else has been able to cope being there longer than i was. this place was a nightmare. i can’t remember anyone’s name mainly due to my complete shock of arriving there under false pretenses.. i had no clue where my dad was leaving me until i was already stuck. i hope all of you are doing well & are living the best you can.
What’s up cody. I ‘m not sure if you remember me but I was your “hope buddy” as they call it. I like to catch up with you and see what happened after the riot because you totally disappeared. I’ve heard stories of you getting lost in the rain forest amongst some other rumors. Hit me up at duck_boi421@charter.net if you reply i would like to exchange phone numbers to talk more..
hey dustin! you remember me bud!? sean bates, one that escaped for a while..i remember yuou well hmu man. seanpaulbates@hotmail.com (512)-777-8780 ANY ONE THAT WAS IN DUNDEE FEEL FREE TO HMU.
What’s up everybody this is (cory) Jones remember Cody Welch already redeemed awful I’ll member Andrew in it it’s me the guy they got everything rolling in Costa Rica with Orion I miss everyone you especially you Kobe and they got you that one time I thought you were done then nobody’s going to have a believe our stories man sitting in the woods to Costa Rica with no passport eating mangoes sure we can get mango hit me up 727444 2205 I like to hear from anyone ago that were there with me
I was at dundee six months after it opened and left after a year. We didn’t have uniforms when I got there. But they told my mom we did. She was promised that we would have the finest teachers and education. When in reality we were the teachers with no books. I living in 100 degree weather with no air conditioning. Being forced to be silent 24/7, the 500 rules and work books was probably the worse part of it for me. I was the oldest girl there ( I had turned 17 shortly after my arrival). So I only stayed a year. Talent night was the funniest time. I ever had there and I had put a Non-denominational church together because for some reason. They wanted to force us to become Mormon. Meeting the children I met there. Plus the church was the only thing that kept me going. Even though I’ve had no contact with any of the children since I left. Which saddened me a lot and took a while to get over. To be honest with you. I didn’t want to leave because I felt like I was leaving them behind in hell.
Cody it’s me CJ and they were taken off when they came in the cafeteria so we had to write back we were in a group meeting the big group me and they always had every week one time a week let’s know what was going down that week they came in and said that we had a rice bag I stood up and told her let’s go get our street clothes bag and it just got escalated from there man most people won’t believe our story Man it was scary at points it was fun then at the end of the day to change you I was but if you see this hit me up 727444 2205 I got to talk to each other again but I miss you bro thank God we survive in a 14-year-old child now all custody
My name is Spencer I was at dundee in 2003 and during the riot. I was one of the younger ones at 13. I think it’s time we all get together and put these crazy Mormons on blast. Me and my family were never the same after this experience and their mind games also manipulated my parents forever after. Marvin was a pedo weirdo and I remember him always trying to be nice to all the girls who were sexually abused. He had his family there trying to spy and manipulate to make things seem ok. Such a terrible man. He was like a Fidel Castro….. we would be tortured and mistreated and every other week he would show up and treat us to a movie night and try and push the Mormon crap on us and give us ice cream. Like we were supposed to kiss his feet or something and he was god. I didn’t take well to the bullshit and spent my whole time in worksheets or OP that also meant I only ate rice and beans for breakfast lunch and dinner and water only. Worksheets had its perk though, it had a little air conditioning and a bathroom with a door and Wilbur the guy in charge was nice enough to let you poop in peace for about 3 minutes. You were assigned an amount of words to write on paper like 3,000 or more at least and I would write jiber jabber cause Wilbur did not read English or care he would just count. Eventually they caught on so I had to write rap songs.then they had a few of us rebels go on work days which was a range of things. One day I had to rake leaves for 8hrs in the sun in a jail like compound he was building that he said he was gonna keep us kids that were too bad for to be with the rest and some days I would be helping the workers welding and moving the metal triple bunk beds. We slept in a 10×8 3 walled room with 3 bunk beds 3 high so 9 guys and one wall was open but no ac. Basically jail without the bars. I was low rank so got the top bunk and the roof drain was right above me and would leak on me while I slept. Tarantulas the size of my hand coming out the bed post! One kid fell off the top and all most got paralyzed. Everyone had bad rashes breaking out from bad laundry. I remember shower time was 5 minutes in and out the building. Like you had 5 minutes to go shower poop and hand wash your clothes and throw them in dryer and be back in line or you were screwed. So basically 60seconds to shower. Shower water came out of a hole in the wall solid stream and like 60 degrees. I got sick and almost died had to have a shot on my butt and dragged to a room where I woke up a day later still sick. They never told my parents a thing. I went in weighing 175 and left at 125 and my parents cried when they saw me all malnourished. This guy deserves to rot in prison and we all should own all his land to have a yearly retreat to ease our broken souls. I would love to go public about this experience. I have a pretty good memory of all the crap. Especially the kid younger than me that was beaten and restrained almost every day for hours while we would sit in our beds and listen to his screams. I wish I could remember peoples names from then. I do remember this kid leandro Cabrera, he was my buddy at the one seminar we ever went to and I felt bad for him. His mom and him came to visit one day and they said if anyone acts up or says anything they would beat us. And they made us all get dressed up nice and sit quiet in school reading. His mom fell for it and he got stuck there…Feel free to email me if anyone wants to talk or get together and figure out a way to make sure the whole work knows how bad this Mormon cult really is. Sorry for the essay but honestly I could go on and write a book from all the stuff I remember.
Testament to Abuse at Narvin Litchfield’s Dundee Ranch academy in Costa Ricca 2003—abusive teen behavior modification center that was shut down..
By Cody Seth Crawford
My life began as an uneventfull birth at a local hospital in Portland Oregon, on September 26 1986 I was a good baby as my mother puts it. I was not a crier and would sit where I was put. I was the second male child of two proud parents, Ted and Robin Crawford. My dad worked at Boeing as a machinist and my mom was still working real estate selling mobile homes. I was the first Newberg school district kid to be put into early intervention. (Special Ed.) in 1991 for unspecified central auditory processing disorder’s. School was tough for me as I was always the butt of jokes and it seemed like people would just choose me as a easy target for their frustrations. Fast forward to when I was eight and lucked out by getting big role in a movie! I was cast as Michael Cunningham in the Hit NBC miniseries “DEAD BY SUNSET” 1995. I also did a lot of radio and television commercials, and was a cast member of the Portland Opera for 2 years.
I did not start drinking until a neighbor that owns a vineyard and was trusted by my family would give me wine mixed with kool aid when she would volunteer to watch me and my brother…We ate cheese pizza and got smashed..and I was only nine. I subsequently was abused and did not report it at the time. My father took my movie money and split the day before my tenth birthday.. All the abuse was kept hidden from my mom, who does not drink. This went on until I was 11.
I was 13 when I started using Cannibis to calm my anxiety and fears .. At the time I thought of it as a medicine that kept me stable as I had a new diagnosis of NON VERBAL LEARNING Dissability,, My friend channing Hammonds introduced me to the drug. I was in 8’th grade and the only student that was in special ed. And the nova program(talented and gifted) at my school..I was doing a special project on medical marijuana for the Nova class and got in too deep into the druggie culture at the school.. I was arrested for distributing! My name was associated with cannabis so I was to blame. I was no longer able to self medicate away my life problems with cannabis(pre-trial drug testing), so I switched back to alcohol.. This was a horrible mistake. My friend channing lived a rougher life and came from a broken home. It was not a great leap for us to steal the first couple of cases of wine from the Red Barn tasting room on the Maresh Winery in Dundee Oregon. We each had a motive, mine was to suppress pain and take back from my abusers, channings was money(he sold his part he did not drink). We stole wine from the same place three times. This was all one summer in 2001. My drinking increased and four more teen boys were subsequently involved in stealing alcohol with me. I finally got to trial and all the charges were stacked so high I saw no exit. I had been in and out of the Yamhill county detention lock up more times than I could count by then. But My mothers sister Jamie Baxter offered hope! Jamie and Jeff(her husband) told a wonderfull story of therapeutic youth reform through the wonderfull WWASP program(world wide association of spaecialty schools)…I was rooting for it too, since Judge Collins gave me an option of graduating the wwasp program before my 18’th birthday or be award of the state till I was 21. Jeff Baxter testified in Collin’s courtroom about how the wwasp program had saved his own son steven(my cousin) and how I would not receive corporal punishment. And how all my special needs would be met! The program had a representative testify over the phone as the Judge looked through the glossy pamphlet about Dundee Ranch. I was so hopefull that I would finnaly get the therapy that I so desperately needed! Reality check, my mom was court ordered to pay 2,000 a month in tuition when she had lost her job. I was released from juvenile hall and my mom and sister drove me to sanfrancisco where I got a passport in only two days. Then I was on a plane to Sanjose Costa Ricca. I was positive and so hopefull.
My first day at Dundee, after driving for what seemed like hours in the middle of a huge jungle and past smoke spewing volcanoes and crossing a mountain range the climate was like someone left the shower on highest heat and shut the door. I was sweating, and had on shorts, My mom and sister were not allowed to examine the school , they only got to see the preplanned show they put on for all parents and officials. I said good bye and that I loved them.. Narvin Lichfield ; Mr Bailey and Locksley and Conrad had the control now. I was always trained to make eye contact with the people around me(special education) this was the first thing I was in trouble for since it was against the rules at Dundee. We ate nothing but rice and beans and water( I had not earned the privaledge of meats and juice) I was in shock at the conditions. I was new and lowest level so I had a bunk in the hall,no airconditioning, no mosquito nets, and we slept under a tin roof. There was bats and birds and all maner of insect that lived with us. As I recall the ( dorms I was in housed over 100 boys) It was about 7o feet by 25 or so. The upper level students had rooms that slept from five to 8 students and they had fans or airconditioners mounted in the windows..The windows with bars on them. We shared a toilet that was regularly clogged..There was no soap to wash my hands, and no toilet paper most of the time and we would use old magazines or worksheets that you would have to do when vilating one of the many rules. We did line count first thing in the morning and before lights out..All students were required to walk in line formation to the front parking lot and Hollar our number in order. We had forty five seconds to a minute to jump out of our bunks and get our shoes on and be at that count..twice a day. The upper level students were allowed to give us punishments, there were many cases of intimidation and black mail of first level students. Our education was a complete skam! The textbooks were nothing more than very badly photocopied textbooks with many of the pages unleagable and any color chart in theme made absolutely no sense! I was promised I would be allowed to use my special education laptop for my diagnosis of AUTISM. This was stopped by upper level students complaining to Daniel (family representative) that it was unfair that I was allowed to type assignments on the computer. I was accused of smuggling in marijuana! Mr. Locksley claimed to have found three cannabis seeds in my belongings. Instead of fighting them I had learned to go along with the program. So I wrote a 15, ooo page S.A. in pen about how I had smuggled it in and what were my intentions. I consider it the greatest work of fiction I could ever write. I was not allowed a meal or restroom breaks until I completed the S.A. This was more than one day, but Mr. .Locksley helped me with the content and told me specifically what to write. Then I was put into Observation placement for one day… it is a little shed with two bare rooms about 7×7 and my face was pushed into human excrement by one of the staff.I was not allowed to look to see who. I was then made to kneel on my knees with my nose on the wall for the rest of the day. I was not allowed water and there were little stones that hurt to kneel on so much. I remember crying and being told that was punishable too. I also have a knee disorder that is genetic and is called Osgood-Schlatter Disease that made this worst. I survived the punishment and was allowed to attend my first and only “SEMINAR”. The seminar was led by a red haired woman that appeared to be late forties /mid fifties.I had trouble telling if she was a she even. I remember beating the floor with a towel and cussing about how much I hate my parents (this was required of all Dundee students) we were screaming, crying, and forced to do this if you wanted to graduate. The girls we never saw were at the same seminar( in the computer lab) and were made to get up on the little “stage” and admit to being sluts and prostitutes , to call themselves bitches and whores! The audience was encouraged to join in.and did cheerfully. I had never read the lord of the flies but this was it! I was partnered up with a young woman. (About 14) that whispered to me she was raped at the school by staff. I was so concentrated on my own program that I did not do anything about this and knew to keep silent, don’t look people in the eyes and just stare at the ground. I was sick the whole time at the place, with some form of dysentery. I received no medicine for this and sometimes was not given my allergy medicine( I was allergic to rice) I had an asthma attack every day during forced exercise in front of the calm looking swimming pool. I remember MR. Baily say “look children, the nice cool water. You will never get to touch it” We did one to three hour workouts depending on the mood of the staff and if it was to unbearable for the staff to even sitting drinking ice water watching us. I would hear other kids screaming and begging for help from the observation placement, when they would return they would be silent and sometimes have many bruises on their body and face. We were not allowed access to a phone, my grandma was dying and I got one phone call of about 3 minutes, and they hung it up once I told her that it was bad there. The school was shut down and raided by the Costa Rican’s shortly thereafter and I was told I could leave. So I first left on my own through the jungle. I was caught by Mr. Locksley and Conrad (Jamaican staff/enforcers) they caught up to me in a mango grove. I picked up a tree branch then dropped it. Conrad and Locksley were on me and slapping me in my face… They got a call on their warlike talkie and I was put on the back of a motorcycle and driven to the school again. This time I got right off at the gate and ran to the Costa Rican police and he looked just as shocked at the situation. There were kids running loose, staff chasing kids, upper levels chasing lower levels with sticks. I saw a Costa Rican woman and asked her to save me. I walked out the front gate past the armed guard with for other kids. We all jumped in the back of the P>A>N>N>I> truck which was driven by the woman. Me and C.J. jumped out at the first town and flagged a taxi, the Taxi driver knew we had no money and only drove us to a little bar. We asked them for Water. We got real ice water! The police and the woman pulled up and we got back in the truck. I remember throwing my Dundee Ranch shirt out on the dirt road… A Farwell to that chapter of my life. Me and the others were sent to a police substation were we all tried to call home. I do not believe any of us got through. It was nighttime now and we were loaded into a range rover that was set up for search and rescue. The one girl with us was intimately involved with one of the other boys now so they had a nice drive it would seem. We were taken to a children’s shelter, given a happy meal each and me and CJ went to the park right up the block to find a payphone, I remember a costariccan man trying to talk Spanish to us that had followed us from the shelter. At the park Cj met a drug dealer and bought a joint for a handful of skittles the police had given him. We stood there smoked it right in front of the PANNI worker. I was calmed down then and wanted to get more happymeals. Me and CJ were transferred to a Bars on everthing child orphanage in San Pedro. To me I thought it was a prison and a little boy from Jamaica that was there who was the only English speaker told me about how he was there for two years and had not seen his parents the whole time. I asked if he wanted to come, He said he was afraid. He was a big help and held my belt while I twisted it around the bars to the laundry room, I used a wooden leg I tore off the bunk beds as a leverage device. I had to strip nude to slip through. I then found myself locked in another room with no windows to get through, there was a metal roof however and I piled washing machines on washing m
achines and kicked with everything I had. It was noisier than a storm! I got through and jumped from the edge of the roof over a razor wire fence which was a 12 – 14 foot drop. I was out to find the United States embassy, and was praying to be reunited with my family. I was not reported missing by wwasp or the costariccans for ten days… I met my mom at the airport along with some journalist I had contacted through a Good Samaritan Named Isaac Wabe that was my street guide for the week.
This is a very simple condensed history of my time at Dundee Ranch.
Feel free My email is blusharp14@gmail.com or my phone number is1 (931)279-8197
Hi everyone,
My name is Olivia and I am a journalist with a media company based in New York City. We are in the process of researching and producing a documentary about “behavioral modification treatment” and the allegations of abuse that go on at centers like Wasp. If you (or anyone you know) would be willing to talk more about your experience, please reply to this comment with your email and we will be in touch. We are looking to hear your stories so please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions. Thank you.
Can you leave your email?
My name is Matthew Adkins I was there when I was 15-16 years old
Please contact me for more information on a survivor.
There is a documentary on Netflix about a boarding school called Then program. Which made me get on my phone and start googling bc it triggered all of my Dundee Ranch memories. I was also there when the riots went down and the place closed down. I was always in worksheets and in OP. That’s where you had to stand and put your nose on the wall for hours on end and at one point I was so tired that I just sat down. I was put on my stomach and my arms behind my back being pulled up. I remember screaming in pain. I remember hearing other people scream on different days as well. This particular day they put their knee in my back and where my bra was it left a bruise. When the place got shut down just a couple of days before the child welfare people came and took pictures of me and asked a bunch of questions. I thank god those people showed and it was shut down. They were building a boot camp and I know I was headed there. I met a lot of good people that I won’t ever forget! I’m 37 years old now and am still just as free spirited as I was back then. It’s not a crime! Anyone that has been there call always give me a shout. 270-226-3762
Or look me up on Facebook.
I wonder where those people are now? I certainly hope not around any kids. I remember Marvin’s wife having a black eye at one point. I went off “campus”and danced when the families came to visit. So I got to know them a little better.
Disturbing to say the least.
Dundee ranch 2003
Sean bates here 5127778780 I was in dundee for 1 year and 8 months please feel free to contact me if you are making a documentary
Feel free to contact me
My email is blusharp14@gmail.com or my phone number is1 (931)279-8197
What’s up, this is Darren O’Connor. I was enrolled @ Dundee for almost 2 years. I know most of the people commenting here. What’s up guys?! Been a long time! Olivia, feel free to contact me about any info on making a documentary. If I can be of any help, let me know. I can be reached by email at dmo1985jr@aol.com or by phone @ (504)508-4688.
I was sent to CSA in 2008, and POH a few months later in Feb 2009 where I stayed for 9 more months. I was beaten by other kids, fed grade D food (jails get better food) and mentally abused by the staff members. I don’t know if you’ve already completed your story, but I would like to talk about my experience. Anytime I tried to tell my parents about the real happenings at these “schools” my phone call would be immediately disconnected by the supervising staff member. It wasn’t until I gave up and worked the program that they started hearing my cries for help. I was pulled from the program in November 2009 after having my eye busted open and my nose broken. The place was full of gang members from numerous cities, and it was pretty much a jail. We were not allowed to talk for 85% of the time. Kids were beaten so badly by other kids one got a broken arm, one even had amnesia from a concussion. It was terrible, and these people deserve to be in prison for operating and condoning such behavior.
I can help you.
Olivia,
I was at Dundee Ranch for 13 months of absolute hell. Feel free to contact me at jenifercalhoun30@gmail.com
My name is Jena hair, sterno at the time. I was one of the last 3 to leave Dundee Ranch
Academy, just to get sent to Tranquillity Bay academy in Jamacia. I would love a chance to Tell my story an get it off my chest.
Dundee ranch 2003
Olivia,
Please contact me at joshuajrodman@gmail.com I was also at dundee ranch and have a story to tell.
Hi Cody my name is Josh Rodman. We were at Academy at Dundee ranch together where we witnessed torture and abuse at a high level. It has been a long time and I am in Costa Rica see what my possibilities are about taking action. The email that was sent to you from someone in Costa Rica was my contact. I have a lot of contacts here in Costa Rica and I have disposable funds we can use. Cody or anyone else please give me a call so we can figure out a plan to take this people down. I am all in and I am trying to talk to people at the newspaper here in Costa Rica. I will also be going to the place where we were tortured and raped to see if it is still up and running. Anyone at Dundee please give me a call. I know a lot of you are hurting in ways just like myself. Cody I would like to speak with you as well as i knew you and we have the same goal. Please contact me at joshuajrodman@gmail.com 202-631-1046
I was there right after I turned 13, youngest one on the facility almost up until the riot.
Hey guys , This is Cody Seth Crawford and All my old contact info has changed as I am currently serving a 5 year sentence for “using a slingshot against swat team ” So as we can see the trauma has left me with some ongoing problems in how I react to authority in times of having guns or weapons pointed at me. codylockedupcrawford@gmail.com is my new e-mail and I am now living like a king at the coveted and world renown “OREGON SATE HOSPITAL” my phone is 971 304 8963…So I would love to help any of my fellow survivors of this EVIL empire of schmucks in any way I can. The Journey is a long one and we have got to get some closure on the traumas we lived through. When I was writing about mine I ended up going insane, I was sexually assaulted by 2 older classmates, no they were not classmates but fellow P.O.W’s of a brutalized program aimed at destroying your dignity, identity, and soul. Do what we must to destroy these programs and to be the guardians of justice for those whose innocence has not yet been ravished!
Olivia,
Please shoot me an email it has been awhile but I have something important for you.
so narvin and his brother turned this place from a boarding school to a resort and spa! they were not allowed to start a school again due to the charges narvin received while running dundee ranch… check it out! the video is of the academy its pretty funny, they call it a “multi million dollar” resort!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJEIq844z6g
and here is the actual web page! and they even have a survey to take to see if your a good fit for the resort! kinda like they had a survey for the parents of the WWASP victims to take to see if their child needed to come to the program!
http://allinclusivecostarica.org/
I am Daniel. I was there for about 180 days. I got there early 2002 (14 and 1/2 years old), very shortly after it opened. I was one of the first. I was a short Hispanic kid covered in scars. Perhaps some of you remember me. This placed messed me up pretty bad. I mean, I was messed up beforehand, but this place ruined me. As soon as I got out, I was hooked on hardcore drugs, living in shelters, and on the fast track to prison. I went to prison at the age of 16. I was released at the age of 25 (about two years ago). I am on the right track now. I have a 4.0 GPA in Physics. I hope to get a PhD. If any of you remember me, or just want to talk about our experiences, my email is dr7507@aol.com. I’ve actually never had the opportunity to talk about these experiences. I suppose it would have been therapeutic to do it immediately after, but better late than never, I suppose…
Hi my name is Brent Poulston and I was at pillars of hope for a while and I witnessed alot first hand and was made an example out of on more than oneoccasion. I have been to the hospital with broken bones at Carolina springs academy and at pillars of hope. If anyone has any questions or wants to talk more give me a call or text at 2398390072 I remember everything like it was yesterday.
I was in Dundee for 6 months left and went to Montana the day before the riot. Right after PC1. May of 2003. I’d like to help if I can, I know the toll it takes. I’m 30 now I was there when I was 17. I’d love to help in whatever way I can. I don’t agree with the way we were treated and I would love to help speak out against it.
Hi.
I wanted to comment on the piece written about Dundee Ranch. I just read it and also the comments from former prisoners, I don’t feel comfortable calling you guys residents. I’ll say up front, that I don’t have any history with any of these places in what I’ve quickly learned is called simply, “The Troubled Teen Industry”. I learned about it on a cold Monday morning in early November of 2015 when I ran Dr. Phil’s name through Google. I had the TV on in the background and he was concluding an episode of his show where he was talking to a girl about going to some place for residential treatment in a nice place.
After I ran his name through Google, I found a few results which were news pieces detailing how he was being looked at because of sending kids and one girl who’s name escapes me right now to different schools which engage in abusive practices. I think it was in one of those articles where someone referred to the whole operation as “The Troubled Teen Industry” so I looked up that term and found many results most of which were disturbing.
I wasn’t ever a prisoner at any place within that industry so I don’t know truly what it was like for any of you, but I do understand about ideas driving systems such as this which are utopian and that’s what I’d like to speak about.
That morning in November when I began reading about the industry, I came across Aaron Bacon’s story and many others. All that month, I researched the subject and even read a book called “Help At Any Cost” and got more information, especially on how the whole industry was started in the first place. I even saw a documentary on this very site about Tranquility Bay and various other WWASP prisons,.
I continue to research it, but November was when I learned the most about it. I was horrified at first, then pissed that all of this has happened and is still happening.
We live in an age where we’re taught to be terrified of children. Parents are taught this and childless people such as myself are taught in various ways to view children, be they young kids or teens as being manipulative and easily prone to criminality. This is nothing more than Pseudo Psychology at best and Pseudo Science at worst and mainly trash that I could easily see Steven Pinker packing in to another book about how we don’t have any impact on others around us.
As a society, we’re brainwashed to believe in utopian ideas. We’re taught and manipulated in to believing that if we externalize evil on to others and see evil as outside us and if we can make the evil like us or if we can’t and we have to cast them aside at best or kill them at worst, then we can progress to our sun-lit utopia.
In Sam Harris’s book “The End of Faith” he talks about how we should deal with Middle Eastern prisoners who were held in Cuba in relationship to “The War on Terror” which is another utopian vision which has cost many lives both foreign and domestic. Harris talks in one passage about how some ideas according to him, might be so dangerous that it might even be ethical to kill people for even believing in them. He then goes on to say that if we can’t fix the problems of Islamic terrorists, then we might have to consider a nuclear first strike of our own on The Middle East. He goes on to say that that would be a horrible thing and would cost countless lives, but that it might be the only last resort given what islamists believe.
Harris reduces practically the whole Muslim population in the world to a tiny subset of terrorists and criminals who are deserving only of torture and death if they can’t be made to see his way of thinking.
Like Harris, various people who run The Troubled Teen Industry believe in the torture, abuse and neglect of children as a necessary good to benefit society. They convince people that kids are being put in these places for their own good and that they’ll come out a better person, a perfect person. They assure us that being tough on these kids and being physical with them is the only way to save them. This is the kind of garbage one hears from utopian thinkers.
Abuse, torture and neglect of children isn’t the final and last resort of trying to save them or anyone else. It’s not the regrettable outcome to make the world a better place. It’s what these thugs and murderers need to tell themselves, then the public to justify exploitation, abuse and hate of “The Other”.
These utopians who run this industry no longer know what it means to be human. They see a world only in black and white and without nuance. To explain a child’s unusual or at times even destructive behavior isn’t to excuse and to love children and make sure they’re cared for properly isn’t coddling them.
So in closing, I want to talk a little about regulations some are pushing for The Troubled Teen Industry. First, allowing free-market ideas to drive these places which is basically profit over people mentalities, is helping these issues of child abuse and sometimes even murder to happen. If by regulation we mean breaking the back of these free-market ideas and also destroying these places at the same time, then I’m for that. If by regulations we mean that we should pass laws making it illegal to do what they’re doing to these kids and we try to enforce these regulations and leave the places opened, then I do not support that.
To advocate those types of regulations gives the message which is a lie that the horrors of this industry are just more horrifying cases in an otherwise good system of truly caring people. This is a lie as I said, it isn’t true. Utopian ideas are nonreality-based and they’re fanciful by definition, because to live in a utopia, to believe that you can fix problems real or imagined within kids or adults without understanding the constraints of reality is to live in a place other than the reality-based world. The deadly utopian vision of The Troubled Teen Industry is just that, a deadly utopian idea which deserves to be discredited as strongly and as urgently as have been the ideas of white supremacy, Ex-gay Therapy, Nazism and Eugenics. So should we advocate for any regulations for this deadly system, it should be only for regulations which again, break the back of free-market ideologies which drive this in the first place.
As for parents having problems with their kids, in some of my research, I’ve come to understand that some kids were sent away for nothing more than listening to Heavy Metal and one girl was shipped off only because she began playing the guitar. In other words, we’re brainwashed in to supporting this system of hate and abuse by way of being shown stories of the kids who are in to drugs and drinking at early ages which eases us in to a false belief that the industry targets only these types of kids when the reality is that a kid could be thrown in to one of these places even for so little as that they’re gay or that they’ve learned an instrument their parents don’t want them to play. Long story short to parents, stop trying to make your kids in to carbon copies of you and let them be who they’re trying to be and let them find their own identities! For the ones who are making bad choices in their youth, I’m finding that for all practical purposes, some of the parents of the drinking and drug-using kids have provided such deplorable and abusive homelives for this subset of kids that them turning to drugs or drinking more or less was unfortunately, an inevitable outcome. So parents, if you want to have happy kids, then give up the love of easy answers, stop throwing your kids to quack doctors we call Psychiatrists who poison them on ADD/ADHD poisons and other Psychiatric poisons then label their behaviors as diseases they don’t have and actually get back to being parents, assuming you ever knew how to be parents in the first place!
The one last thing I wanted to add, was that I’ve wanted to do whatever I can to help people who’ve suffered through these places. I don’t know what that might be, but I’d want to be able to do something. Having said that, I’ll add my e-mail at the end of this.
Should anyone want to communicate with me about this industry any further and their experiences and whatever I can do to help fight these freaks, my e-mail address is vector18@msn.com and I can be reached there anytime.
James
I was there in 2003 as an 18 year old from October of 2002 to March of 2003 my mom pulled me from there in March of 2003 I remember the Jamaicans and mr loxley and his buddies, my counselor was Peter, I don’t remember many names but I left before all the bad stuff happened my email is monarchs1985@yahoo.com my name is Keith
I was at Dundee there during the riot! Interesting place to say the least! Remember you Sean bates! We had to eat rice and beans for dinner that night you were in my dorm and you and the other kid ran when we went to the showers!
sean i think i remember you its a part of my life i dont remember much off
email me monarchs1985@yahoo.com
I was like the 34th child when I was there at Dundee. sorry guys I couldn’t help with The riot. That place I will never forget. I still sit putting my feet together lol. I’ll never forget about the water they had us drink all the time. Just like jail the best place to be was in the back working in the kitchen.
Email: Ajayalbright@yahoo.com
I was also there with my little brother during The riot. They let us go then brought us back and held us in the prison type compound until we were sent back home.wish the best for anyone that was there with us it was a shitty time to say the least
It was bad in there i spent most of my time in op and worksheets i never thought i was going to make it back home alive they where treating bad only got small meals and had to drink water the hole time the place did not help me it made me have nightmares for long time the had ripped all of my ligaments in my knee and did not help me after that i was in pain the hole time and they would not take me to er till the end of my stay
On the 20 year anniversary of the authorities marching in I visited the old site. It’s clearly been deserted for years. I have a bunch of cooks pictures and videos if anyone wants to see
Hugh maxwell For some reason I felt drawn to going back there the moment I left. I don’t know if anybody remembers me. But I was the oldest female there when it first opened. I got there probably about 6 months. After first open and I was there for a year and a half. Basically I turned eighteen and my mom had learned about all the fraud. My mom went bankrupt after that.
She spent all her life savings so I could go to that school.
Anyways I was the only female from georgia. I started the talent shows and the church that was not Mormon. I meant so many amazing kids that I wish I could have contact with now. Like the boy that played the acoustic guitar with me. In the talent show. I wanna say his name was cody. Or one time because we were good. We got to go to the beach for a minute while we were getting our passports and we got to talk to everybody while we were in the Van. And it was just so much fun getting to know everybody. And everybody’s story and not being on silence 24/7. But I really need somebody to talk. That was in this situation. I don’t know if there’s a different group that everybody’s joined or what? But I have been diagnosed with 4 different forms of PTSD and the main one is Cptsd. It’s from an abusive childhood but also from this encounter and experience in my life. I need help with trying to control it. And I want to see if anybody else may have gotten the same prognosis or diagnosis and see what they do. Because it’s just getting worse the older. Thank you all so much and I hope so many friends. This and leads to me into a newer site. God bless
Chelsea I think I wan n that beach trim with you. So hard to remember all the details of my time with n the program fiat at Casa By The Sea and the Dundee
The released document The Program on Netflix has me reliving my past. I was one of the first 5 girls at Dundee and was always in OP because I refused to play by their rules. They tried to make me lie and say I did drugs and was all these other “bad” things. I was there for 13 months and left just before the riots. The abuse mentally, emotionally and physically was awful. If anyone remembers me find me on FB or email jlc850117@gmail.com
I just watched the full Netflix documentary and WOW!! I wasn’t in any of the torcher camps or anything like that but reading all your comments is unbelievable what you all went through. Hopefully with the Netflix documentary exposure to the animal “Leachfield” and others like him are finally put in prison where may real justice may be served on him and the others. They should take ALL their money, houses, cars anything with value and use it to compensate each and every one of you and other survivors. I really hope this exposure to the evil will bring a small bit of peacefulness to each one of you. It was hard for me to write this without saying F or many other explicit wording as evil should be addressed. Im not a very religious man, so I say, I hope each one of you can at some point in life find a better moment to remember those horrible months. I wont say to try and forget, I’m sure that would be impossible.
Hexee
L.A. (Boyle Heights), CA
I was in Carolina Springs Acdemy for 2.5 months then Pillars of Hope in Costa Rica for 4.5 months. October 28 2006 to May 28 2007.
It’s insane to watch The Program and have all these mixed emotions brought up again from repressed memories. I wish my Mom was alive to be able to SEE how things were for us.
For me to have lived the life I did, have 3 children of my own now & watch them grow into the amazing human beings they are.. is a blessing. You couldn’t pay me to bring that abuse onto a child that we went through.
I feel like I’m still dealing with the aftermath from that hellhole. I pray all my brothers & sisters are doing well & are healing. <3
Hello fellow survivors! I was also there from December 6, 2001 until a couple days after the Riot in May of 2003. It has been a long time for all of us. Watching that new Netflix documentary has wanted me to reach back out to those who survived what can be easily described as a Costa Rican death camp. A lot of these names that have posted are familiar to me and I truly hope that all those who were at ADR are alive and well. I know we have all suffered from our experience there and most, if not all, still deal with the aftermath. Love to all to those that are out there and reading this. Feel free to contact me if you want to talk. william@odonnell.legal
My name is Jayleen and I love reading a hearing about all your stories and all that went on and how you survived…. I’ve never been in a situation like you guys but I have suffered my own abuse as a child with family and babysitters that would take care of me but this isn’t about me….. but I got so invested in the documentary about what went on that I was wondering if you gouge could continue to make more documentary about this and open up about you stories and tell the world about what’s really going on I say this because I feel the more people that come out about the stories in the program that are not what they show or say they are to potentially put a stop to these type of programs or to educate parents to really look into what they are researching and reading and hearing to no take every word for what it is because in reality it could be something so much more and you don’t even know it and now your kids are suffering trama when they shouldn’t be…. So I love that a lot of you guys are coming out and reaching out to each you guys needed that but at those times all you guys had where eachother but where forced not to have relationships with anyone so now knowing you guys can come together again and be able to be free is a beautiful thing
My heart goes out to each and every one of you.
Hi There, Ashley Nicholas, I was a staff member at Dundee Ranch when it opened. I was only there for about a month and a half before I was hurt by another Staff member and almost died from a brain injury. I was also a former student at Cross Creek Academy for 1 months Graduating in August of 2001. My story at Dundee Ranch is one that did not get very much attention, and the person guilty of hurting me fled Cost Rica and never had to deal with the consequences of his actions. I have forgiven the situation, but obviously Dundee Ranch along with Cross Creek have a big footprint in my life. I am very sorry to hear the experiences a lot of you had as well, as my purpose of going to work at Dundee was to help, and I wish I would have gotten to!
I’m 34 years, I was held at Rancho Dundee, I am still traumatized and I am a damaged adult, I have been silent and blocked memories for years, they broke me and broke me as a child for a long time, I never imagined being in this present remembering how much it hurt, today I live in Cartago, Costa Rica but my mind still continues in that place on some occasions, they desensitized me.