CHILD ABUSE CW. Not explicitly but it's about the TTI so. You know.
Link to tweet, link to my post discussing the Troubled Teen Industry if you are unaware what a therapeutic boarding school is.
On this list, you can see some of the things that were against the rules at Spring Ridge Academy (still open today). You can see how many points you can lose for each infraction. And a good thing to remember is losing even 20 points is a lot, as many of these places can only earn 10-20 points each day. Points is the only way to level up and leave. Some of the more severe rule-breaking would result in solitary confinement or other extreme punishments like not being allowed to eat, having to do extra hard labor, or sitting and staring at a wall all day. I'm not sure if SRA specifically does solitary anymore, but I would be shocked if not.
Also some of these things are purposefully vague. "Attention seeking" (-25, so over 2 days worth of points) can be anything from asking to go to the bathroom too often, 'claiming' to be sick or in pain, or walking in front of a staff member of the opposite sex without permission. So then maybe you'll go to another staff to say how you are sick again, hoping to get medicine. Now you'll be docked 50 points for "staff shopping" and maybe even -25 for "lying" too. "Lying" can be telling the truth but the staff just doesn't believe you. And many of the times, you can do something innocent and get docked points for any reason they see fit.
And this isn't even getting into how even the smallest rulebreaking -- like sitting on a table -- will lose you points but also may result in you getting tackled and unsafely restrained by multiple staff members.
Anyways :brace-cowboy:
It astounds me how these schools are allowed to remain open when they're not staffed by licensed psychologists/therapists and have a notorious history for being abusive. Conspiracy part of my brain thinks it's on purpose, to keep perpetuating a cycle of trauma and violence on younger people who grow up to either go into the military, prison, or become abusers in their own life in their own way.
It's depressing to see previous students become staff members themselves too... I have a lot of thoughts on it and sympathy to those specific students. It's hard to want to leave (wanting to stay institutionalized can be a real thing for some survivors), it's hard to go to college, hard to get a job because they withhold so many of your transcripts. But yeah, it's fucked up.
Mostly it's allowed to exist because these owners are supported by politicians, and the owners support politicians through donations.
Yeah I know about the Elan School and it's ties to Joseph Ricci who tried to become a politician. Mitt Romney is also apart of the troubled teen industry. Synanon had it's tentacles spread out pretty far.
Yep, and the industry has close ties to the Raegan and Bush family<3 Cause of course it does<3
robert lichfield donated like... a million (iirc) to Republican party over the years.