fourceawakens at Summit School in Nyack, New York

This testimony was found on Reddit. All rights go the original author known as fourceawakens

From what I understood from some of the other students, it was a country club among "therapeutic residential programs".

The good was that the campus was beautiful, the food was tasty (and they let us work in the kitchen for cash), we had a little autonomy over dorm life, and we got frequent mall/movie trips assuming we didn't fall afoul of the points system.

The bad was... nearly everything else. Poorly maintained school buildings, frequent use of restraints, completely inappropriate room assignments, bullying (neuroatypical kids particularly) in full view of staff, apathetic teachers playing Farmville behind their desks, dorms effectively run by abusive cliques.

Some of the staff were overtly racist or homophobic, some were hard drug users. The "therapeutic" component was wildly inconsistent in quality and often resulted in some really fucked up situations for students. Police were called to campus on a weekly basis to deal with the aftermath of fights, and a lot of people kept shanks or other improvised weapons in their rooms. I knew several kids there who'd been on room restriction (outside of school and meal hours) for the majority of their time there for really petty shit. There were rumors of organized sexual abuse going on in the "worse" girls' dorm, but the people who perpetuated those rumors were pretty unreliable in general so idk. Many of the students were over 18 but still stuck there for one reason or another. Drug deals were extremely common.

The murder was pretty common knowledge on campus but it wasn't really talked about because a) what is there to talk about when you're 16 and stuck in that place? and b) the staff got really alarmed whenever it came up. Found an old yearbook that had both the perp and victim in it, was good for a few laughs. I was unsurprised to hear of the suicide, and very surprised that one hadn't happened during my time there - though there were a few serious attempts I heard of.

If anyone wants specifically personal anecdotes, pm.

A murder took place on the campus a decade ago. For reasons unknown they didn't screen two boys and put them together even their diagnoses should have spoken against it. Tragedy struck and one of the boys flew out the window. The other boy was put in prison properly too sick to realize what he did.

Years later in 2014 a girl was found dead. This time it was suicide or at least so it was ruled.

Sources:

• Summit Nyack "alumni" (The original testimony on Reddit)
• New York: Upper Nyack: Student Charged In Fatal Plunge (The New York Times)
• 15-year-old's death at Summit school ruled suicide (Lohud)

Carrie Williams at Island View RTC

This testimony was found as a comment to an article. All rights goes to the original author.

Someone above said you have to trust the marketing material. I have one thing to say to that – don’t. As far as Island View is concerned, I was there the day half the pictures on their site were taken. My team mates and I watched, confined in our group rooms, as they paraded models on to campus to take those.

Much like the poster directly above me, I was placed at IV at the age of 15 and am also now 24 (can’t help but wonder if we knew each other). To this day, I have recurrent nightmares about the place and large blocks of my time there have been edited out by my own mind. I have since been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from the 18 months I spent there. I was accused of lying over and over again when telling the truth. I was held back in my treatment by manipulative, vindictive girls that were supposed to be my team mates.

At one point while on “Individual Focus”, a so-called therapeutic treatment that consists of sitting in your chair, staring at the wall and not being allowed to speak, even to staff, I was routinely denied access to the bathroom. I was also denied the medication I had been prescribed by one of IV’s doctors, which lead to severe withdrawal symptoms that I was then accused of faking. At one point, I was put on a heavy anti-psychotic without myself or my parents being fully informed of it’s side effects. Come to find out, one of them is eye sight deterioration. I have had reading glasses since I was 17 because of that and my eyes continue to go downhill.

The boarding schools I have heard great things about. As far as lock downs like Island View? I wish I could say the same. Even though I was in a “therapeutic environment”, I was denied treatment for my addiction, staff claiming it could negatively impact other girls. I was denied the diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder, a condition that made my early years on my own a nightmare. I was also denied the diagnosis of hypoglycemia and tourettes while there. As far as my most major disorder at the time, trichotillomania (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichotillomania), I was denied treatment for it over and over again and was instead made to feel ashamed of it as I already had for years and was accused of self harming and doing it for attention.

All I have to say to parents thinking of sending their child to Island View, or someplace like it, is don’t. Fully research anywhere before you condemn your child to a lifetime of nightmares like mine did to me.

Sources:

• Choosing an adolecent residential treatment center for your teen (Troubled teen blog)
• Island View (Fornits Wiki)

Jame Smith at Island View RTC, Aspen Achievement Academy and Oakley School

This testimony was found as a comment to an article. All rights goes to the original author.'

As a former resident/student at Island View RTC, Aspen Achievement Academy and Oakley School I would advise all parents in being very careful about where they choose to send their children. (I first attended Island View at the age of 15)

I understand that your child may be experiencing many problems in the home and may need to live somewhere away from home but it is very important that parents are able to assess just what kind of place their child actually needs in solving these problems. Many of these lock-down and Residential Treatment Centers will take just about any child regardless of the severity of their problems. But the problems your child is experiencing can escalate as a result of the constant in-your-face types of therapeutic treatments used as well as the level of strictness that these facilities enforce in their rules.

Before deciding to send your child to a center such as Island View RTC (a lock-down) I would first see if your child could be successful at a therapeutic boarding school such as the Oakley School or the Hyde School (if it is still around). If your child refuses to go to such a school there are always SHORT-TERM wilderness programs with which afterwards the child will most likely agree to goto a therapeutic boarding school rather than an RTC program. Therapeutic boarding schools offer lots of support in accepting children with problems, however from my experience at the Oakley School I was able to be myself.

At Island View I felt as if I was constantly being brainwashed – and I still have recurrent dreams about the place to this day at the age of 24. In addition, it seems that the success rate of students coming from therapeutic boarding schools is much higher. I have kept in contact with many people from the past programs I attended. Sadly, quite a few have committed suicide, some have joined the porn industry, become prostitutes and many were teen mothers. On the contrary, at Oakley many of the students went onto college – including myself (graduating with a B.A. last year.)

Island View forces the child into undergoing therapy almost 24/7 – and the only option the child has in completing the program is to go along with what they are being told to do – many pretend just so they can get out and therefore they have no ability to deal with things in the real world since what is going on behind the locked doors is nothing like the real world at all – much more closer to jail in actuality. At a therapeutic boarding school the child can learn that they can still be a normal teenager – they just need a little more guidance than they are able to receive at home. These schools are much more like regular schools with a few more rules and a little less privacy but on a much more minimal scale.

Hopefully, this helps any parents who are in search of a place for their child.

Years after a suicide Island View RTC has been sold. Aspen Achievement Academy has been closed down after numerous deaths in the wilderness industry forced them to downsize. Oakley school still exists but it currently under new ownership.

Sources:

• Choosing an adolecent residential treatment center for your teen (Troubled teen blog)
• Island View (Fornits Wiki)
• Oakley School (Fornits Wiki)
• Aspen Achievement Academy (Fornits Wiki)