I was fifteen years old. I had many problems at home and was doing poorly in school. I attempted suicide. I spent four months in an inpatient psychiatric hospital. Following my stay at the hospital, I felt I had only two options: return to the environment that caused me to want to kill myself or find another option. I found a tape in the lounge area of the hospital describing a sanctuary for my soul and development for my mind. It was Provo Canyon School (PCS) located in Provo, Utah. I begged my mother to let me go. Since insurance would pay the tuition costs, she approved my enrollment. Neither of us had a clue what horrors awaited me in Utah.
I was punished severely for breaking
rules that were never made clear.
Fourteen years later I still suffer from the permanent knee and back
damage that were caused to my body.
Describing what has happened to my mind and my perception of the world
is nearly impossible. I witnessed
and/or experienced beatings by staff, being drugged, being threatened with
death, and absolute renouncement of anything that resembled independent
thought. At PCS we were not allowed
books of our own choosing to read.
There was no library. We were
not allowed music of any kind. We were
not allowed television. We had no
calendars and the only clocks in the entire compound were in the classrooms
that we entered only a few short hours Monday through Friday. There was no way to calculate how long we
were there. We were not allowed paper
or pencils except upon request with an explanation and later proof that we used
the items for their intended purpose.
We were only allowed to use paper and pen to do assignments or write
immediate family. I wrote my mother and
my grandmother as often as I could to beg them to let me come home. Every appointment with my “counselor” I was
threatened and warned to not say anything negative about PCS or else I would
suffer the same consequences as a fellow prisoner/student who had been beaten
severely and was currently in a wheelchair, possibly for life. After three months, my mother and
grandmother came to Utah and demanded my release. I believe that if they hadn’t, I would not be here to write this
article today.
My experience is not unique. Many teenagers in America are being sent to
“snake-pit” schools, boot camps, and wilderness programs. In these programs pre-teens and teenagers are
subjected to, “padded and locked ‘get right’ rooms, wrap mats, wooden cages,
body bags, electric shock, behavior modification drugs, brainwashing, corporal
punishment, sensory deprivation, enforced silence, teen guards, panic locks,
flashing lights and alarms.” (An American Gulag by Alexia Parks, p.
5) One teenage girl reported, “I saw a
girl tied to a counselor and dragged along a rocky trail, (the counselor)
pulling her hair and calling her worthless.” (An American Gulag by
Alexia Parks, p. 237) I received an
e-mail message from a one survivor of PCS stating, “I hate that fucking place.
I was there 4 years ago and am still having bad dreams. I was in investment for
4 months straight and (have) just as many if not more horror stories
than anyone else.”
These behavior modification programs are
frightening. And, what may be even more
horrifying is that parents actually elect to send their children to these
hellish places because it is more convenient than actually doing the job of
parenting. Parents can pay these
programs an extra $10,000 to request transportation of their defiant one(s) to
the lock-down facility they have chosen for their rebellious child(ren). For the extra $10,000 two bouncer-looking
men will come to the home or school of the child, escort them by coercion or
use force when needed. The forces used
to abduct the child include shackles, handcuffs, and drugging. If taken from home, it is usually at night
when the child is sleeping or alone in his/her room. Screams for help go unanswered by family as he/she is taken into
the night to the new prison.
“Parent-funded, lock-up schools have
been called the second fastest growth industry in the U.S. next to the building
of prisons... Lock-up boarding schools
are becoming trendy for desperate parents who can afford to pay for the private
incarceration of their child.” (An American Gulag by Alexia Parks, p.
6) It breaks my heart to know these
facts and research this subject so close to my heart. I get e-mails all the time from survivors and from parents and relatives
who are desperate to save loved ones who have been sent to one of these
programs. In my mind, it should be an
obvious task of our “liberty loving” country to shut down these places. Unfortunately, many of them are exempt from
regulation or allowed to self-regulate by declaring asylum under such pretexts
as “freedom of religion.”
I want to know where the freedoms of
the children come in to play. I believe
all sentient beings should be free of suffering, fear, torment, and
cruelty. I can’t imagine what it must
feel like for all of those children who know that their parents want them in
these lock-up facilities and that their parents refuse to believe their
experiences when they return home adding more insult to injury.
Luckily, for some,
parents are willing to listen and rescue their children from these dens of
terror. My mother, in an e-mail message
to the mother in the following sentence described her experience in rescuing
me, “My
daughter was pale, thin, and looked as though she were a lost soul. I cried so hard when I saw her and was so
glad to be able to take her home.”
Another mother trying to free her
son from PCS wrote, “Angela, they have my child on 40 mg of Adderal, 0.25 of Risperdal
(Anti-psy), 40 Mg of Celexa, (anti-depres.) allergy meds, asthma meds, peak
flow meter DDAVP 0.2 Mg, Singular 5 mg.
I am looking all these meds up on the internet.
I do not think I will be able to sleep at all until I get my child out of that
place.”
How do we free the rest of the
children? Some have suggested a
chidren’s bill of rights or amending the constitution. Others think that going through legal
channels takes far too long and is too uncertain. Children are in desperate need of help now and at risk of being forever
lost, some physically, and most mentally, to the world. To learn more about this issue, please visit
the HEAL website and links.
HEAL
SAO 33, Box 352238
Seattle, WA 98195-2238
http://students.washington.edu/heal
(206)898-0973