Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - 14 Year old Dies at Thayer Learning Center

Irishsean · 03-17-2005, 07:12 AM

I'm sorry, my last post was a bit rushed, so I'll go thru and list my disagreements now.

This kind of forced treatment has been proven ineffective years ago, but clueless parents who are up-in-arms fall for their brochures of lies hook, line, and sinker.

Where do you get this information? I am currently taking classes towards getting my LSAC, and one of the first things we were taught is to remove the person completely from the situation that allows them access to drugs.

These are private schools with no government regulations, and they’ve been torturing and/or killing kids for many years.

No government regulations? I have to go thru a complete background check every 3 months to get certified by the DHS to have contact with the kids, I also have to go thru mandatory scheduled and random drug tests, and tests for certain diseases. I am required to be an EMT first responder, keep my CPR up to date, and take courses in verbal de-escalation and non-harmfull physical restraint. I have had to actually restrain a child a few times, but they were in situations that if I did not, either the child or someone else would have been seriously injured. After each time this happened, I have to fill out aproximately 15 pages of paperwork, that is in turn given to the head of the program, the child's therapist, their parents, and DHS. Each time is completely reviewed, interviews conducted, and facts checked out.

Not only do kids receive severe abuse in these places, they are not treated by professionals. All of these places I speak of are run by counselors with the lowest level of degrees or not even out of school yet. Many (if not all of them) hire “recovering addicts with no education to “counsel” (torture, abuse, punish, break) these children.

This is the statement that rather upset me. During our last conversation on this subject, I told you that yes, I am a recovering addict. I have been clean for almost 4 years now, and part of my penance to myself for what I put my family and friends thru is to spend the rest of my life helping others to get out of or avoid the same things I went thru. What I do in the program is not counsel, I merely spend time with the kids, escort them to and from school, make sure they get to doctor and dentist appointments, answer questions, help them with their homework, take care of any problems they might have, and enforce the program rules. The enforcement of the rules are simple, it runs on a system of merits and demerits. The merits come from being helpfull, completing courses in school, politeness, keeping your room clean, and similar things. Demerits come from being rude, not following staff directions, cheating on homework, swearing, telling "war stories" (glorifying drug use, gangs, violent behavior) and similar common-sense rules. If you recieve more demerits than merits, you go to worksheets. Here, rather than spend your leisure time playing games, watching movies, or playing sports, you listen to educational programs, and take tests on them afterwards to make sure you were paying attention. You still get 2 hours of outdoor physical exercise every day while in worksheets, and this includes everything from calisthenics to playing basketball.

I think I do have a clue what I am talking about. I have worked for a WWASP program for nearly 3 years now, and have never seen the kind of behaviour you blindly attribute to all youth programs. I am sorry you and others have had a bad experience in programs, but they are not all the same. By putting all programs of this type in the same category, all you are showing is an irrational fear, and the inability to intelligently discuss differences between them. I am sorry if you take my defense of my job as an attack against you, but I am not going to allow anyone else to attack my job, or myself here without defending them.

You know, especially after our conversations in PM and IM Pinkie, about how I feel, and I think a lot of your comments in this post were personal jabs at me. I am upset that you used private conversations about the problems I have had in my life, and how I am dealing with them as attacks against myself and my work.

If anyone else has any questions, and can converse rationally and keep an open mind, I am willing to answer anything here or in PMs if you would prefer.

03-17-2005, 07:12 AM	#41 (permalink)
Irishsean edited for content Location: Austin, TX	I'm sorry, my last post was a bit rushed, so I'll go thru and list my disagreements now. This kind of forced treatment has been proven ineffective years ago, but clueless parents who are up-in-arms fall for their brochures of lies hook, line, and sinker. Where do you get this information? I am currently taking classes towards getting my LSAC, and one of the first things we were taught is to remove the person completely from the situation that allows them access to drugs. These are private schools with no government regulations, and they’ve been torturing and/or killing kids for many years. No government regulations? I have to go thru a complete background check every 3 months to get certified by the DHS to have contact with the kids, I also have to go thru mandatory scheduled and random drug tests, and tests for certain diseases. I am required to be an EMT first responder, keep my CPR up to date, and take courses in verbal de-escalation and non-harmfull physical restraint. I have had to actually restrain a child a few times, but they were in situations that if I did not, either the child or someone else would have been seriously injured. After each time this happened, I have to fill out aproximately 15 pages of paperwork, that is in turn given to the head of the program, the child's therapist, their parents, and DHS. Each time is completely reviewed, interviews conducted, and facts checked out. Not only do kids receive severe abuse in these places, they are not treated by professionals. All of these places I speak of are run by counselors with the lowest level of degrees or not even out of school yet. Many (if not all of them) hire “recovering addicts with no education to “counsel” (torture, abuse, punish, break) these children. This is the statement that rather upset me. During our last conversation on this subject, I told you that yes, I am a recovering addict. I have been clean for almost 4 years now, and part of my penance to myself for what I put my family and friends thru is to spend the rest of my life helping others to get out of or avoid the same things I went thru. What I do in the program is not counsel, I merely spend time with the kids, escort them to and from school, make sure they get to doctor and dentist appointments, answer questions, help them with their homework, take care of any problems they might have, and enforce the program rules. The enforcement of the rules are simple, it runs on a system of merits and demerits. The merits come from being helpfull, completing courses in school, politeness, keeping your room clean, and similar things. Demerits come from being rude, not following staff directions, cheating on homework, swearing, telling "war stories" (glorifying drug use, gangs, violent behavior) and similar common-sense rules. If you recieve more demerits than merits, you go to worksheets. Here, rather than spend your leisure time playing games, watching movies, or playing sports, you listen to educational programs, and take tests on them afterwards to make sure you were paying attention. You still get 2 hours of outdoor physical exercise every day while in worksheets, and this includes everything from calisthenics to playing basketball. I think I do have a clue what I am talking about. I have worked for a WWASP program for nearly 3 years now, and have never seen the kind of behaviour you blindly attribute to all youth programs. I am sorry you and others have had a bad experience in programs, but they are not all the same. By putting all programs of this type in the same category, all you are showing is an irrational fear, and the inability to intelligently discuss differences between them. I am sorry if you take my defense of my job as an attack against you, but I am not going to allow anyone else to attack my job, or myself here without defending them. You know, especially after our conversations in PM and IM Pinkie, about how I feel, and I think a lot of your comments in this post were personal jabs at me. I am upset that you used private conversations about the problems I have had in my life, and how I am dealing with them as attacks against myself and my work. If anyone else has any questions, and can converse rationally and keep an open mind, I am willing to answer anything here or in PMs if you would prefer. __________________ There are no absolute rules of conduct, either in peace or war. Everything depends on circumstances. Leon Trotsky