All lies - try 45 girls to a unit not 12. They look like mid-century mental hospital rooms.
I was here in 1986-1989 and staff steals from you. If you say anything, 24 hours lock up for you my earrings were gone and the witch had the nerve to wear them to work claiming they were hers. There was nothing I could do plus because I said something I was locked up 24 hours straight in a dirty room with no mattress. Btw my mom had the earrings custom made for me and my best friends 6th grade graduation that included our birthstones to make them more personal on top of the design so how would she have the same pair??? … she wouldn’t that’s how ugh!!!
Do not send your girls here it really messed me up worse than I was I’m 43 now and still have a reoccurring nightmare where I wake up and I’m there it is terrifying every time I have it and it’s been happening since 1989. I always wake up and I’m crying I literally have tears in my eyes because I’m locked up there in my old room and it’s dark and so sad the feeling is just despair!
Don’t do this to your girls it ruined my relationship with my mom I never trusted her again and was hurt she actually put me in this prison that is what it is it’s horrible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They made me feel like I was nothing and put me down every chance they had because they said I was conceded or I thought too much of myself … how does one do that and why would they want me to feel like less of anything.
My friend June Pena hung herself when I was there I’ll never forget the look on her face hanging in the laundry room “ever” !! By the way June was 14 and that’s as far as her life went I hate this place and everyone who works here old hags just under paid pissed off jealous evil witches then they have a website called “working at excelsior youth center” complaining about the girls and how they laugh at them with one another “how professional” !!! And saying that they are horrible, dirty (hygiene wise not true) also some claiming the girls are too much trouble and not worth it and they’re too hard to deal with. Well they knew where they were applying what did they expect sweet valley high? And if that’s how they feel about the girls why work there to begin with? To take it out on the girls that their life didn’t turn out as they hoped I mean if they feel like they were too good for the job they should have got a better education or married a doctor like I did I guess they’re the ones who really needed the help … bums!
Sources:
- Excelsior Youth Center (Rehabs reviews)
- 74. Excelsior Youth Center (1000 places You don't want to be as a teenager)
I just read this comment I was there as well , I remember when June died at 14 ending her life. I dont wish what I went through on my worst enemy , it was horrible
ReplyDeleteWas this in genesis--- I have frequent dreams of finding graves in the basement of that cottage but no one will fess up to them being there. I was there from 2000-2002. About the documentary. I've been given all permission from valerie- to continue on with seeking y'all out to help. There were some bum
DeleteS in TBE road but I'm willing to help you .
June was a very good friend of mine. Remember when she shaven her eyebrows off cuz she plucked them too thin?? We were out by the swings(a effing playground)not too much longer after that she hung herself. The staff thought it would be a great idea to have a field trip to her funeral. I could go on and on with all the issues I did not have upon entering but sure had leaving. took another 20 years to try and repair myself. Thank god they were shut down I was there and graduated in 1989 as well..
ReplyDeleteshaved!!
DeleteI "graduated" from there in 1982. Looks like Excelsior has been ABUSIVE since the beginning! I wish we could sue them!
DeleteYou can now!!
DeleteBut only for sexual stuff! But ffs, wasnt that disgusting pelvic exam with the speculums tossed in a bucket of cold grey water and reused on multiple girls suspect enough to count..
I have am attorney hmu!!
I went there 7 years ago and I have held so much anger against this place since. I know all the girls there would always talk about the place being haunted by a girl who had hung her self in the auditorium but now it’s been proven that a girl did hang herself. That is terrifying and I’m so sorry..it was pretty bad while I was there. Staff would end up breaking these poor girls ribs and arms by being severely aggressive and never were investigated once. I am also aware that one girl had slit her wrists in the bathtub and the staff waited several minutes before actually contacting paramedics. The nurses weren’t certified so we were being drugged up into zombies and there were false cameras so the male staff were touching 11 and 12 yr old girls naked in the center of the courtyard. Poor girls would be locked up in white cold rooms for hours if a staff member didn’t like them. I remember vividly being brought to a room across from another and the image was horrifying. This girl had blood all over her face and the walls were plastered with it. She was screaming in pain and the staff just sat talking and laughing with each other as she suffered. She was half naked being refused hygiene products or clothing.
ReplyDeleteI still have nightmares to this day and I actually ended up losing my sanity there. I have never been happier to hear that they’re shut down.
We are working on a documentary about Excelsior. If any of you would be interested in speaking to us, please email valerie.lynn07@yahoo.com
ReplyDeleteI was there in 1982! And I have much to say about the Excelsior Abuse Center!
DeleteI would love to be apart of the documentary
DeleteI was there 1985 to 1989
DeleteI was there then as well
DeleteI was there from 1989-1992 and I'd love to share my experience with you. Although their methods at times were unethical and a bit extreme Excelsior actually helped me.
DeleteI have been trying to reach out since 2020 about this. Please don't forget to finish this documentary so many of us are counting on you to finally give us a voice and the acknowledgement that we so desperately deserve.
DeleteI was there in 95-97 & saw & endured years of abuse physically and sexually and im so glad this is finally being exposed for what really happened to the girls! My 1st hour there a girl lied & said I planned to run away while they took us to the movies & they restrained me breaking my collar bone & put me in IU for 6 days I had no idea why i was locked up like a prisoner in pain with only a sheet of paper & those tiny golf pencils told to write down why i was in there. I had no idea on the 6th day a staff member finally came in & told me what was said i told them I never said that & besides I was from a tiny town & aurora was giant compared to my town i wouldn't know where to go if I left anyway but they of course didn't believe me and I was in iu for 16ish days before I was finally let out because I was forced to write that I planned on running away just to get out. I was never given medical treatment for the broken collar bone & honestly never truly found out it was broken til i aged out at 18 & had an xray for something else & a broken bone when healed shows up on x-rays. I endured sexual abuse and physical abuse there. I had nobody outside I could talk to cuz the therapist had to approve ur phone list & I didn't have any family to call so I was not allowed phone privileges. I had teeth busted out due to being slammed into concrete face 1st & i wasn't fighting or anything but i was upset crying because i didn't want to be taken to iu for something I hadn't done. A girl & staff member accused me of stealing because the girl stole my tapes & I took them back they were guided meditation tapes i was given by one of the several training councilors the ones in college who were given my case because the regular therapist had too many cases to see everyone. I was told by a regular therapist that I was promiscuous and that to correct my behavior I needed to kno what "appropriate" sexual contact was & he would ask me inappropriate questions about my sexual activity which at 15 was non existent. He would massage my shoulders and back & then my thighs asking me if I had ever given a blow job & if I knew what it was. It was horrible!! They expected me to do the therapy yet I kept having to start over cuz my therapists were not there permanently only in training for college so I constantly had to start over. This place deserves to have all its dirty secrets revealed & im glad they are finally getting exposed!
ReplyDeleteI was there in 1982 and I saw the same! What an abusive place! Parents who send their girls there should be ashamed of themselves!
DeleteI also was there but in 1978 n 79, briefly for 9 months but they wanted me there till I was 18. I got placed off campus to an area towards Denver with another group of youths. I earned kitchen duty after 9 months and talked another girl into escaping with me. We made it thank God and I am glad we did. My best friend was at the Excelsior campus which is why they separated us but when she got released after 2 or so years she hung herself! That place didn't help me at all and was a pretty intense atmosphere. I remember being in class there and always seeing the short haired redhead trying to escape. Sadly she never made it but guards always caught her, sometimes would just let her run and then go after her. There were quite a few of us from here in Alaska. Alot from Chicago and just all around the U.S. but yea all bad memories of there.
ReplyDeleteI was there in 1982. Same thing! I was a victim of child abuse and I became a runaway from home! I didn't do drugs or drink! I was just a scared-of-my-mom child! I was put into a "jail cell"! Excelsior only added to my PTSD! Which is chronic now! Excelsior also sent me back to my abusive mother. Really? Where was their care for me? "F" them!
ReplyDeleteI also attended EYC for 2 years from 00-02 I was only 10 when I came to EYC I had already experienced some of the worst childhood trauma and when I got there it got worse all types of experience I’ve already experienced from sexual,mental,physical & emotional abuse EYC is not a place you should send any child to if you want them to get help I still have traumatic stress disorder from being here after I left here I was never the same it took the little bit of light I had left!
ReplyDeleteWhich house were you in? I was also there during this time and distinctly remember a 10 year old in my cottage. I've always wondered how she turned out.
DeleteI was there in the mid 1980s still have nightmares to this day that I wake up back in there. They locked me in the TLC unit for three months straight when I got there. Solitary confinement for months! I am still traumatized by my almost four years at Excelsior and have severe PTSD that I still suffer from to this day. Glad I am not the only one speaking out about this nightmare of a place!
ReplyDelete