shortridge academy

[Anonymous]

shortridge was a horrible expierience, and while i was there one of the counselors who was leading the group therapy and advising us why not to engage in bad behavior was accused of having sex and giving alcohol and ciggerettes to some of the students, and was then fired. theres an idea of what a great place shortridge academy was

[Anonymous]

Warm Regards.

A teenager I care about is currently enrolled at Shortridge Academy. His parents had him abducted in the middle of the night and "transported" to some teen wilderness camp. After about 10 weeks, he was "transported" to therapeutic boarding schools.

From what  have read, it is very creepy.

Can someone tell me what goes on there? Are there any alums?

Thanks

Hey this is a grad from shortridge.  It is a good place.  They don't hurt us or make us do bad things.  The kids sent here are kids that need to get away from the places they came from so that they can make better choices in the future.  Drugs ruined most of us and here we can actually get away from them and not be tempted by it.  The staff here help us find out why we had such problems in the past.  We are all ok and we don't get abused.  Thanks for the concern but were doing just fine here.

[Anonymous]

shortridge was a horrible expierience, and while i was there one of the counselors who was leading the group therapy and advising us why not to engage in bad behavior was accused of having sex and giving alcohol and ciggerettes to some of the students, and was then fired. theres an idea of what a great place shortridge academy was

I am also a graduate from Shortridge Academy. I am an atheist personally, and the school never threw anything of religious nature at me. It helped me take a look at what has been hard in my life, and encouraged me to deal with what is difficult through self-reliance and developing interpersonal relationships.

- Kids are never physically hurt at the school.
-The situation mentioned above, was one bad apple, in 6 years of the schools existance. This was a one time deal, and something that I am ashamed to have seen from both a staff member, and from students.

There might be bad places out there, but this is not one of them.

[Anonymous]

Incredibly blatant fake last two posters are incredibly blatant

[Anonymous]

I am going to write this for whoever at any point will find this helpful.

My name is Ellen hassinger and i was sent to Shortridge in December of 2006 as a sophomore, i stayed for 18 months and 1 day, and graduated the program without my high school diploma, at the end of June in 2008.I came home ready to start senior year and am currently a senior at my school back home, and I am about to graduate high school this upcoming June. I have been home for ALMOST 1 year now, and i am still unsure how shortridge has impacted my lifestyle outside of the school. i was sent there by my mother because i was involved in a drug confiscation at my home school, and my mom really was worried about my decision making and wanted me to stay in school, while still having the opportunity to figure out the reasons behind why i was making those decisions. shortridge definitely helped me figure it out, we were in groups 3 times a week usually, and sometimes we had workshops (every 2 months or so), those times were where i was able to get feedback and advice from students and staff on issues that either they knew about, or didnt know about. not everyone is forced to speak, so if you don't know what to say on the issue...you don't have to. but by hearing things that i didnt always want to hear, and by simplifying my life i was able to start the process of making better decisions - and if not making better decisions, knowing the difference between right and wrong and knowing why i'm doing what i am doing. mostly, i am nervous to write this and i feel like i cant say what i am trying to say about my school because i know that if i mess it up, someone is just going to leave a rude comment tearing apart what i'm saying because i didnt say it correctly or whatever.

i made some of the best friendships at shortridge. i was never abused by any staff. i was never involved in anything with the staff that made me feel unsafe, because i wasnt the type of student there that would allow that to happen to myself. the point is, if you learn by what they help you see, and you listen to the feedback, and the stories of you, and the other students you will do wonders for yourself. it is a really simple place. you don't get a lot of leeway, and it can be a huge challenge to come there straight from home, which is why most students go to wilderness before. i never felt a religious standpoint from the school,  i never felt like they pushed their ideas on to me. now, i can only speak on the shortridge that i knew. it is a very peer-based program, and the students run a lot of meetings, and are responsible with holding the students who are newer to the program accountable to all the rules, like tucking in your shirt. there is a lot that goes into the school and i dont think that anyone can speak on it unless they went there, worked there, visited there. because it is nothing like i would've expected it to be.

the transportations have nothing to do with the school, those are private programs that are not a PART of shortridge.

you can say i'm a fake person, i am not. you can rip apart my words, you can doubt what i am saying but it doesnt change that i said it. i love my school, i love what it did for me, and i love the person that i am. i am not 100% sober out of the school. i am not always happy. but having this experience under my belt, and knowing what i know about my life and meeting the people i met there was so worth it. it is a good place. stop judging.

you can look me up on facebook if you want to know who i am or ask me more questions about this school.
Ellen Hassinger
or you can email me
ellenhassinger@yahoo.com

I have nothing to hide. the students who posted above me are not fake. if you think i am, email me. i am here. thanks.

[Anonymous]

I have been home for ALMOST 1 year now, and i am still unsure how shortridge has impacted my lifestyle outside of the school.

what i meant by that was, if you think the model student who is suposed to come out of there is happy as  can be, doesnt fight with their parents, is sober, and doesn't struggle at all in life, that isnt me.

if shortridge was supposed to make me never want to smoke another cigarette or whatever, ever again. it didnt do that for me. but it did help me as i said before. just clarifying.

[blombrowski]

Ellen,

Thank you for your post.  I'll keep this short.  I'll try to use an analogy.  Please understand that this is a gross simplification of the issue.

Say you have a cold.  Now while it might be appropriate to stay home take some rest and stop doing the things you were doing before you got the cold you wouldn't say take an antibiotic for the cold, because a cold is viral.  

But let's say you did just that.  You drank your orange juice and had your chicken soup and stayed home and didn't do anything stressful and you took your antibiotics.  And after a week you were all better.

If you didn't know that antibiotics didn't have any effect on colds you might think that it was the antibiotic that made you not sick anymore.  But even though you thought that you would be wrong.  The reason you weren't sick is because you did all the other things you were supposed to do when you have a cold, that and as long as you don't do things to make yourself sicker, colds go away after time.

Shortridge Academy = Anti-biotics manufacturer

An anti-biotics manufacturer may not be "abusive", but when they look the other way when people take their drug when they don't need it, that makes them unethical.  Shortridge may not have been involved in the Escort, but they accepted you no questions when you walked in the door.  That makes them unethical.

I could go on for hours with the nuances, but I'll leave you with this, there are at least three separate questions that can be asked:

1.  Did shortridge help you personally  
2.  Is there another intervention that could have worked just as well and been less intrusive, one that you may not know about yet
3.  Did shortridge's intervention cause anybody else in the program harm

While you may think question #1 is sufficient, in truth it's questions #2 & #3 that are the most important.  If you feel that the program helped you that's your perogative.  You can see the poster before who felt differently.

[Anonymous]

Incredibly blatant fake last two posters are incredibly blatant

No, sorry Guest...I am a real person...feel free to PM me (I imagine this website has that?), whatever really.

The other poster, prior to mine, is also a real person...nice try though??

[Anonymous]

I don't know how good a place it is...I do know that the staff and funding was all CEDU related. I went to CEDU and know these founding  members of shortridge.
nothing was right then when I knew them and I can't think its changed much- they think if kids are not like them, they're bad, wrong and fucked up. I know they are straightedged one siders not seeing the host of issues that bring them the kids in the first place.
All the staff are like kissing cousins not ratting on eacthother for all the crazy shit that went on with other staff and  :karma: former students. I hope all their lies catch up with them.

[Anonymous]

I'm currently a student at Shortridge Academy, a few weeks away from graduating the program with my high school diploma. I've been here almost eighteen months, and I don't regret any of it. We aren't mistreated here at all, and while we have a lot of restrictions, none of them are unneeded, based on the actions of kids here in the past. I came here because of my drug use, dysfunctional relationship with my parents, inability to keep up with my schoolwork, and general lack of a future. Since my arrival here on February 11th, 2008, I've earned three years of high school credits and am graduating only two months behind schedule; I can interact with my parents without everything being a fight due to improved communication and, honestly, the space that we took from each other when I came here; I've been clean for almost a year and a half; and I'm attending college two weeks after I graduate. This school didn't make these things happen, I did, but it did help me immensely in my attempts in doing so.
I have no complaints about Shortridge. It's a good place, and it's become more of a home to me than I would have ever imagined it could be. Given that fact, I hate hearing people piss on it like this. I understand that you don't know anything about the school and have only your own assumptions and estimations of how situations like this might play out and feel, but it's still unpleasant how inaccurate all of this is. We are not physically, sexually, or emotionally abused, or in any other way mistreated here. I have been in abusive situations in the past, and this is not one. I've gotten a lot out of this program and I'm a much happier person now than before I came here. The friends I've made here are some of the best friends I've ever had, and the people are some of the most amazing I've ever known.
Yes, people don't always like it here, but the best things that happen to us are also usually some of the hardest. I haven't always went along with the program this willingly, and I'm known here among the staff for openly questioning anything that seems off-whack to me. But I've had a year and a half to evaluate this school and my experience here, and I've come to the conclusion that it's a good thing. I don't regret a moment of it.
I'm a person who stands up for what I believe in and love, and this strength is partially due to my time here at Shortridge, and Shortridge is both of those things for me.
And yes, I, too, am real person. You can find me on facebook (under Eryn Fekete and Erin Fekete), and on myspace (myspace.com/bloodxnxaccident).

"Worried", I'm sure you've already spoken with Josh, and know that he's fine here. If this is the Josh that is still here today, you probably know that he's set to graduate at the same time as myself, in only a few weeks from now. I hope you had fun with this forum, in the meantime.

[Anonymous]

1.  Did shortridge help you personally  
2.  Is there another intervention that could have worked just as well and been less intrusive, one that you may not know about yet
3.  Did shortridge's intervention cause anybody else in the program harm

1. yes
2. If you're talking about escorting, yes and no. The choice to get me escorted to wilderness was my parents', not the school's. I attended wilderness twice, and the first time I was not escorted at all; similarly, I was not escorted from wilderness to Shortridge. The only reason I was escorted to begin with was the fear from my parents that I would run away and they would lose me forever if they tried to be reasonable with me. If you're talking about the program at Shortridge: who knows. Maybe yes, maybe no, but I do know that Shortridge is one of the less-intrusive programs out there, and it did help me. Could I have been helped from something even less intrusive than this? Maybe. But I wasn't: I was helped through this program, and I have no regrets about it. Isn't that enough?
3. No

And no, Shortridge doesn't just let people walk through the front door, no questions asked. There's a long reviewing process of every potential student before they're accepted, and a lot of questions are asked. It's unfair to assume that Shortridge is that blind or uncaring the previous treatment of the kids they accept here.

[Anonymous]

1.  Did shortridge help you personally  
2.  Is there another intervention that could have worked just as well and been less intrusive, one that you may not know about yet
3.  Did shortridge's intervention cause anybody else in the program harm

1. yes
2. If you're talking about escorting, yes and no. The choice to get me escorted to wilderness was my parents', not the school's. I attended wilderness twice, and the first time I was not escorted at all; similarly, I was not escorted from wilderness to Shortridge. The only reason I was escorted to begin with was the fear from my parents that I would run away and they would lose me forever if they tried to be reasonable with me. If you're talking about the program at Shortridge: who knows. Maybe yes, maybe no, but I do know that Shortridge is one of the less-intrusive programs out there, and it did help me. Could I have been helped from something even less intrusive than this? Maybe. But I wasn't: I was helped through this program, and I have no regrets about it. Isn't that enough?
3. No

And no, Shortridge doesn't just let people walk through the front door, no questions asked. There's a long reviewing process of every potential student before they're accepted, and a lot of questions are asked. It's unfair to assume that Shortridge is that blind or uncaring the previous treatment of the kids they accept here.

It’s very disturbing when a supposed victim of abduction refers to that experience as "escort." Elizabeth Smart insisted that her kidnapper was her loving husband despite persistent police questioning. I wonder, if her own parents insisted the same, she would have professed love him, her husband, a year out? I wonder if this is person is a program troll. God, I hope so.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGtRVugNjcY

[Anonymous]

I came here because of my drug use, dysfunctional relationship with my parents, inability to keep up with my schoolwork, and general lack of a future. .

No future, huh? Death, insanity, or jail, right? Where have I heard that before?

Why would a "dysfunctional relationship with your parents be something you would have to "work on"? I'd think that would be mom & dad's fault. They’re the adults here. In marriages, I've never heard of a wife being held prisoner or separated from her husband because of “her dysfunctional relationship with him.” Such would never be encouraged or tolerated, therapeutically or legally. Yet, a relationship which your parents are solely responsible for, you are blamed for.

[Anonymous]

1.  Did shortridge help you personally  
2.  Is there another intervention that could have worked just as well and been less intrusive, one that you may not know about yet
3.  Did shortridge's intervention cause anybody else in the program harm

1. yes
2. If you're talking about escorting, yes and no. The choice to get me escorted to wilderness was my parents', not the school's. I attended wilderness twice, and the first time I was not escorted at all; similarly, I was not escorted from wilderness to Shortridge. The only reason I was escorted to begin with was the fear from my parents that I would run away and they would lose me forever if they tried to be reasonable with me. If you're talking about the program at Shortridge: who knows. Maybe yes, maybe no, but I do know that Shortridge is one of the less-intrusive programs out there, and it did help me. Could I have been helped from something even less intrusive than this? Maybe. But I wasn't: I was helped through this program, and I have no regrets about it. Isn't that enough?
3. No

And no, Shortridge doesn't just let people walk through the front door, no questions asked. There's a long reviewing process of every potential student before they're accepted, and a lot of questions are asked. It's unfair to assume that Shortridge is that blind or uncaring the previous treatment of the kids they accept here.

It’s very disturbing when a supposed victim of abduction refers to that experience as "escort." Elizabeth Smart insisted that her kidnapper was her loving husband despite persistent police questioning. I wonder, if her own parents insisted the same, she would have professed love him, her husband, a year out? I wonder if this is person is a program troll. God, I hope so.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGtRVugNjcY

OOps I misread you. You are still locked-up. I bet your Shortridge defense will truly prove to the guards, and your detainee group that you have really "accepted responsibility for yourself" are "trustworthy" and are "ready to go home."

Almost all of us made the same kinds of statements when we were in your position. Any "school" that accepts human beings delivered in chains is a gulag, a criminal organization, and a participant in violation, imprisonment and murder. Disgusting. Shame.

[Ursus]

3. Did shortridge's intervention cause anybody else in the program harm

3. No

One thing that is disturbing about this particular Q&A is that some former students at Shortridge Academy have posted to the contrary. We also know most of the founder's background as well as that of certain staff members which gives me, at least, great pause as to what actually goes on there.

I have no doubt, Eryn, that you probably believe your answer to be true and completely honest at this point in time. Perhaps it really is a good place for you, and you have benefited from your time there.

How unfortunate, however, that you are blind to some of the damaging effects Shortridge can have on others, despite that social awareness is probably one of the "values" you are supposedly learning there. Ya gotta wonder just how much "good" this degree of tunnel vision can do for long term prospects.

To my mind, Shortridge Academy is clearly a place that serves some kickass Kool-Aid.