Posted on 12/26/2022 10:31:50 AM PST by Morgana
At 2 a.m., teenagers are woken up to strangers in their bedrooms. Then, they’re driven hours away, often to the midwest. What awaits them is abuse, hard physical labor and sadness– all paid for by their parents.
This is the story of many children in the troubled teen industry. The troubled teen industry is a name coined by survivors for the system of underregulated residential youth treatment facilities. Many parents send their children to these programs for drug and alcohol use, mental health, eating disorders, disabilities, conversion therapy and more.
These programs promise to rehabilitate teenagers from their troubles. Instead, the facilities pocket most of the payment, and force the children to endure hard physical labor and verbal, physical, emotional and sexual abuse.
It is estimated that between 120,000 to 200,000 young people reside in some type of group home, residential treatment center, boot camp or correctional facility, according to the American Bar Association. At least 50,000 of these children are placed there by their parents, and stay there for a year or more.
A report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office “identified thousands of allegations of abuse, some of which resulted in death, at residential programs across the country and in American-owned and American operated facilities abroad.”
Despite this abuse, the industry receives an estimated $23 billion dollars of annual public funds, according to Breaking Code Silence. Yet, most of these facilities are not regulated by the government. They receive even more money from parents who send their kids to these facilities.
In the past few years, survivors of this industry took their stories to social media, especially TikTok. There are thousands of stories under the hashtags #BreakingCodeSilence and #ISeeYouSurvivor. These stories range from those of wilderness therapy, where children are forced to hike for miles and live in the wild with a lack of basic hygiene and food, to stories of sexual abuse.
Paris Hilton is the most famous of these survivors. The reality star turned DJ became a face of the movement against the troubled teen industry, opening up about her parents sending her to a therapeutic boarding school in Utah in the 1990s.
In an opinion piece for the Guardian, Hilton discussed being sent to “obs,” short for observation.
“It was solitary confinement in a tiny cinderblock room with nothing but a drain and a roll of toilet paper. The room was freezing cold, and I was almost naked. I paced until I couldn’t stand up anymore. Then I huddled on the floor and rocked back and forth, forcing myself to think about the life I would create for myself after I got out,” she wrote.
Hilton also discussed being sexually, physically and mentally abused. Tik Toker Dasogoloff, known as Dasha, stated that as a 14- year-old in a facility, she was frequently dragged by staff members from one building to another, leaving bruises on her arms. She was forced “to sit and listen to my peers and staff berate me for incredibly insignificant things, and would often get called vile names for doing something such as rolling my eyes or daring to point out how screwed-up their treatment of residents is.”
If kids tried to tell their parents what was going on, there was usually a staff member sitting right beside them on the phone. Then, the child would lose phone privileges while the parents were convinced that their child was manipulating them.
Grown up survivors are using the internet and social media to their advantage to bring awareness to these unaccountable facilities. While the industry takes profits, parents and children lose money, and their humanity.
I had a similar experience (worked as a plumber in College). I DID NOT KNOW what place it was at first.
A friend went into social work, and would tell me they would lose a lot of people to trafficking. Troubled kid would go into the system, and get lost. Later found in a morgue somewhere. A few she found were lured into prostitution, a few into the drug trade.
Not all places are bad. Probably not the majority of them. But they attract predators.
Here is my take.
Some kids are heading to that place no matter what you do. A guy I grew up with, who was my friend, was one.
At some point, my Dad sat me down and said that while my friend had treated me with respect and very kindly, he was “a bad dog” and was heading to an early grave. I hated that, but he did.
Looking back, I can see it. He had been in and out of programs, homes, and support systems. More than I can believe. Yet he chose to go back into the life, and ended up on death row.
Some people are going to be lost.
Really? The absence of fear of violence, or an actual invitation for it by a 4-5 year old is not an indication of pathology - her's or someone else's? Perhaps it is better to exasperate a child?
My one size fits all comment was obviously lost on you.
Ephesians 6:4 teaches a different lesson as I see it. How can an exasperated child become a humble servant that loves God?
Why are these people still walking the earth?
“The absence of fear of violence”
Violence associated with spanking. Hmmm. Sounds like you’ve been reading too much of Dr. Spock, or his disciples.
Not all of these programs for “troubled teens” are like this so this is a sweeping generalization. Parent’s should research the background of such an organization very carefully before sending their child to one. If they do not, they may end up with a child in worse shape than before. Hard work is not in and of itself bad for a child. Children today are not expected to exert themselves to do anything so the slightest chore can be considered abuse.
Maybe, maybe not. This is good advice to those whose temperament convinces them that there is a simple solution that fits every situation and will solve the problem. I just watched an interesting talk by a neuroscientist whose genetics and brain scans confirmed he was a sociopath. His ancestors were well known for their murderous exploits. Yet, he found a niche where he was a great benefit to mankind. If he were treated with cruelty an the wrong time, his path would have been much different, little doubt.
Not at all. You would make a great target in a child abuse litigation.
“You would make a great target in a child abuse litigation.”
I know, Karen, that spanking is VIOLENCE. We’re used to you gals, but fortunately in Red States you have a lot of work ahead of you to tell me how to parent my kids.
Because government does an absolutely perfect job of running schools. NOTHING nasty, perverted, dangerous, or abusive EVER happens in a government school ...
That is a very encouraging story, glad you made it.
One of my cousins was involved in such a situation: adopted a kid of about 12 years age (don’t recall exactly), who turned out to be a very pathological individual. They had to have him involuntarily “committed” a couple of times, and when he turned 18 they had to cut all ties with him. He was abusive, manipulative, dishonest, destructive, all in all a real mess.
The troubled adopted/fostered child and teen is very real.
Removing them to therapeutic foster homes or institutions is a real option.
Exactly. Seen people blow their inheritance on these kids. Both bio and adopted.
There is a point where one has to step away and let the kid right its own ship. Sadly not all do.
I wondered what Gary Larson had been doing since he retired, so I did some searching. He just released a few cartoons called "New Stuff," dated 11-29-22. Click on "Enter" in the green box.
Warning: his old stuff was better. I hope he keeps trying to get his mojo back:
It is easy for people to judge what they don’t know.
Why Comrade Bob, did you just engage in name-calling against a fellow FReeper? Why that's against the rules and people's accounts might be banned. You said so this morning yourself, being so concerned about the decline in posting standards on this board.
Homeschool is no guarantee.
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