Hidden Lake Academy

[Anonymous]

***It is hard to work in a place where you see kids who are there for supposedly being very manipulative being MANIPULATED themselves.

This was my observation as well. Ironically, the majority of parents are manipulated too.
How did you see the kids being manipulated?

I've heard that the 'restriction diet' was changed when the catering company was hired to prepare balanced meals. Is that accurate?
Do those on restriction eat the same meals that the others do? Or is it still cheese and white bread sandwiches? Do they have the same amount of time to eat? Do they still eat outside on the curb? Are they PT'd if they aren't finished and therefore, don't throw away their plate when trash comes around?

[Anonymous]

HLA employee,
Explain this comment:

I'd just like to point out that many of you are arguing and fretting over what trickles down to second/third/fourth hand information.

Second, third, fourth-hand information? On what do you base that comment? Can you provide examples of each? Or is that some off-the-wall exaggeration in order to embellish your 'deceptive' defense?

Your post is a prime example of program manipulation:  Claim that you are not doing precisely what you are doing.

I've always wanted to ask this to a program person.... Are you confused in that respect? Is it that you really don't see what you're doing Or do you believe that we're all just too ignorant to see that your words/actions aren't congruent?

[Anonymous]

http://amazingforums.com/forum/BS4/254.html

posted 2/7/05 5:15 PM        
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I am a rare adult survivor of HLA - I got out IN FEBRUARY 2005,with a little sanity left. After teaching special education for nearly 20 years, I only survived 6 months at HLA. The kids don't feel they can talk to their counselors - maybe its manipulation - maybe not, so they told me things, but I was not in a position to do much except listen without criticizing them and then report safety concerns.ACTUALLY I REPORTED A SAFETY CONCERN TO A COUNSELOR (D.S.) THE DAY I LEFT. IT WAS ABOUT A GIRL WHO HAD JSUT RETURNED FROM A PSYCH HOSPITAL FOR TRYING TO COMMIT SUICIDE WHILE SHE WAS ON "clean air" _ where there is supposed to be extra supervision - THE GIRL HAD CUT SEVERAL MORE TIMES (mostly small stuff)DURING THE 24 - 36 HOURS SHE HAD BEEN BACK AT HLA AND TOLD ME SHE DIDN'T FEEL SAFE AND THOUGHT SHE NEEDED TO RETURN TO THE PSYCH HOSPITAL - I TOLD DOUG S. - ONE OF HER COUNSEWLORS ABOUT IT AND HE SAID "WELL, TELL HER TO CUT AGAIN AND THEN WE'LL SEND HER BACK TO THE PSYCH HOSPITAL." They certainly can't tell their parents their real feelings and experiences without being punished for being manipulative by those who are assigned to monitor their mail, email and phone calls. HLA is not the panacea for all teen problems - most of which kids grow out of or learn to use to their advantage in the business world. Some HLA kids need counseling, some need AA, some need psych hospitals; most need love and time to mature - most are there because their parents were MANIPULATED BY ED. CONSULTANTS AND HLA advertisements. Want a GREAT LAUGH? Go to "struggling teens.com/archives/2001/6/visit01.html" this is a site from "Woodbury Reports, Inc." some ed. consultant deal out of Idaho. This site, while only a few years old, certainly did not describe the HLA I just left. The article claimed the campus was attractive - that's about the only info. I can agree with in their entire review. All the "players" names have changed, except Len, who still owns it and seems like a decent guy, only he leaves the "Mice to play" while he does all his other business things and they do whatever they find most convenient (and maybe even sadistically fun). The article says all teachers are certified - try maybe 20%! The site claims all the kids have IEPs - not! Even if they come in with an IEP, HLA does not have to abide by it because they are a private institution. 100% do not attend college! The cafeteria does not over look the lake - maybe they visited on a rainy day! Restrictions kids get less food and water and are supervised by folks with questionable objectives. Most of the counselors are straight out of college with no experience, so they buy into what the administrators feed them about treating kids in a very punitive way and being constantly suspicious, not to mention telling them behavior modification works. It has been proven that behavior modification in humans is temporary at best.PARENTS - DO YOURSELF AND YOUR WALLET A FAVOR - BEFORE PICKING ANY BOARDING SCHOOL, VISIT UNANNOUNCED AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, AFTER PLACING YOUR KID IN ONE, VISIT UNANNOUNCED. Refuse to be treated like a mushroom- kept in the dark and fed crap! (Parents need to know when their son has been beaten up by a group of homophobic guys. (Some of the kids who came to tell me their problems were gay and felt they were being discriminated against because of this by their counselors and others.) Parents need to know when their daughter has stepped in big puddles of blood first thing in the morning that were left behind by her suicidal roomate. Parents need to know that group therapy has been shown to be more harmful than helpful for "cutters." THIS IS ALL SERIOUS AND FROM THE HEART BECAUSE I TRULY CARE ABOUT THESE KIDS.

[iknowcedulies]

Tell us about  that rudy  who cared only about how much he could extort from parents  and his ass got fired  for stealing funds  and he ran to arizona.    tell us about this ignorant  control freak   and did he feed you crap about mel wasserman  whose molesting put him in the ground .

[uptitegran]

please register and contact me for a private discussion.

[SHH]

I was a spouse of one of the employees there, and who is still there. I lived on the campus for 4 years. I spent 7 years total visiting the campus. There were bad employees fired for not behaving properly and being out of line. There were bad situations every now and then. But I also witnessed kids making up stuff about counselors that I knew were lies personally to try to get out of the school. Most of the kids were good kids, but wanted attention from their parents and instead got shipped away to a boarding school by their rich parents who didnt want to deal with them. Some of the kids were not so good. But nevertheless, most of the employees there that I knew, really wanted to do good and help the kids grow and mature. I personally was a witness to the school for 7 years and yes they are licensed, and accredited by several organizations now. As with any school, just like my old high school, there are bad apples, and bad things that happen. But overall, I never saw abuse, or harassment, or neglect. They werent even allowed to restrain the kids if they ran away off campus. They were only allowed to follow them in a car or walk behind them and try to talk them out of it. Then they were required to call the sheriff once the kid went onto the main road. Be careful judging a whole school because of former employees being less than professional. That is why they are FORMER employees! And personally I think the campus is a very pretty place, you should have seen it before the improvements! I lived on the campus for 4 yrs and thought it was always clean and pretty.

[Anonymous]

Shhh,
I haven't heard one parent complain about the physical appearance of the facility. It was immaculate, on the outside. In this case, you certainly shouldn't judge the content of the book by its 'cover'.

I heard that the "lake" was so toxic that you couldn't swim in it or eat the fish. What do you say?

I have come to realize that the words abuse, harassment, and neglect are defined very differently by program supporters.

If you know anything about the methods, then you certainly know about the 'restriction diet'. Using the average person's definition, restriction and the diet associated with it would constitute abuse and neglect. Would you like to give a shot at defending white bread and cheese sandwiches for potentially weeks or months on end? Would you subject your own child to that?

And that's just one method of many that we can debate if you're up for it. If you saw no abuse, neglect, harrassment... your eyes were closed.

What was your role at the factility? How is it that you had access to the participants?

[SHH]

My access was that I lived there, on campus...ate at the cafeteria sometimes...my ex mother in law was one of the first cooks there so I knew all about the menus. I participated in the bonfire at halloween, watched the plays, sledded with my children and the students down the big hill when it snowed, my children played in the stream by the 2 fields and the little bridge. I worked parttime printing progress reports for the teachers..thats how I had access. I was a spouse for 7 years and a parttime employee for a year. My eyes werent closed, I knew almost every bad thing that happened. And knew about almost every person fired for not behaving in a manner appropriate. Yes there are bad apples but you cant judge the ENTIRE school and staff because of that. Its an unfair generalization And by the way, I caught and ATE the fish that swam in the lake, so it couldnt have been THAT toxic! LMAO be careful about rumors..they tend to get weirder the more they get passed down :smile:

[Anonymous]

You missed a question which I will expand:
Using the average person's definition, restriction and the diet associated with it would constitute abuse and neglect. Would you like to give a shot at defending two small boxes of cereal for breakfast, and white bread/cheese sandwiches for lunch and dinner, for the duration of restriction which could potentially be and is frequently for weeks or months on end? Would you subject your own child to that?

[SHH]

a direct answer to your specific question posted above...I had never heard of a child being on restriction for months...thats ridiculous...the longest restriction I heard was a week or two. And it wasnt only cheese sandwiches. And by the way, what kid eats more than 2 boxes of cereal for breakfast? a week of cereal, fruit, sandwiches and juice and water wont kill anybody. And they do have a nutrionally balanced menu now. Ive personally eaten at the school probably more than 50 times and thought it was fine. It was my mother in laws cooking for the first few years! LOL

[Anonymous]

***I had never heard of a child being on restriction for months...thats ridiculous...
the longest restriction I heard was a week or two.

You are mistaken. Yes it is ridiculous, and it does happen. My son was on restriction the better part of his first 4 months. And was frequently on restriction for the duration of his time there for petty and minor infractions- ocassionaly due to the fabrications of others who were required to 'fall out' on their peers. One week of restriction strings into the next until you?ve been on restriction for months.  I was ?warned? to expect that he might get sick on our first off-campus visit? Why might that happen if he?d been consuming the appropriate calories and a variety of food? 'Might' get sick? He was already sick. I spent my entire visit with him treating diarrhea that he'd had for three days. He was very thin and his skin was dry and gray, like a lizard. He looked like a refuge. Madame, that is not ?therapy?. It?s abuse and neglect of a sadistic nature.

***And it wasnt only cheese sandwiches.

Yes, cheese sandwich, a cup-of-soup, and a piece of fruit for lunch and dinner for extended periods of time. And while ?a week? of this won?t ?kill anybody?, as you say, it is in violation of Georgia regulations for RTCs, which states:

1) A child can not be denied meals as punishment.
2) Meals must follow the USDA Child Care Food Program requirements.
   The Food For Fitness Program with Wilderness Programs or excessive exertion.
3) Meals and snacks must vary daily.
4) Additional servings must be offered, above the standard requirements.

It matters not whether it was for a week or months, it is wrong to limit calories and variety of food as a form of punishment for any length of time. I would think the other aspect of restriction were more than sufficient punishment?  No contact with peers, no talking unless spoken to, out of the dorm early for PT, manual labor to fill all free time, no reading for pleasure, not allowed into the dorm until 9pm. Not to mention, limited time to eat, and taking meals outside the cafeteria on the curb, and further punishment if you didn?t toss your plate when trash came by. Why tamper with their nutritional sustenance? There is no justification for this.

***And by the way, what kid eats more than 2 boxes of cereal for breakfast?

You apparently are not aware of how much growing boys consume. Two small boxes of cereal would be an appetizer in my home.  USDA recommends 2,800 calories a day for teen boys. More if there is excessive physical exertion or exposure to the elements.

***And they do have a nutrionally balanced menu now.  Ive personally eaten at the school probably more than 50 times and thought it was fine. It was my mother in laws cooking for the first few years! LOL

50 times in 7 years? That doesn?t constitute much observation. Was HLA required to fire your mother-in-law and hire the catering company to provide those ?nutritionally balanced? menus? The food situation definitely improved after the Office of Regulatory Services completed their investigation, based on the feedback I've received. It doesn?t excuse the fact that HLA flew under the radar and violated those regs for 7-8 years prior to being forced to change. I would think that any reasonable person in the business of housing children 24/7/365 would educate themselves about the nutritional requirements for teens and the regulations in the state they are operating. Anything short of that would imply a covert agenda. At $5,000+ per month, there is not excuse for not feeding the kids properly.

Please show me any research that supports the notion that using food as punishment is a useful and humane thing to do. It's not even allowed in prisons.

[SHH]

My mother in law was not fired, she moved back to her home state. And she switched her job description from the kitchen to another department several years before she quit. As far as restriction diets, the kids eat what the other kids are eating in the food line, and have been for several years. And I have a teenage boy myself, who is overweight, and if he ate that many calories in one day he would gain even more weight. I am FULLY aware of dietary needs, I have 2 children currently and raised 2 others. If your son was sick, I am sorry for that, but I doubt it was due to the cheese sandwiches and soup. Alot of the information you people are posting and reading on here are old practices AND exagerations. Why dont you find some people who post about the good things that have come about with the kids? Like some of the ones I met who came out of the program with a new respect for themselves and others and who went onto ivy league schools? You are judging an ENTIRE program based on employees who were fired for not behaving appropriately and a few bad experiences, and that my dear, is unfair.

[spots]

You are judging an ENTIRE program based on employees who were fired for not behaving appropriately and a few bad experiences, and that my dear, is unfair."

I think YOU are whitewashing a whole program, simply by saying there were a few Bad Apples and they were promptly fired.  This does not seem realistic to me.

I AM judging the ENTIRE program by the long-term pattern of lying.  Our Anonymous parent obviously was not told of her son's restrictions, health, or diet during the first several months of his stay at HLA.  In fact, she says she was told he was doing, basically, fine.  To warn of impending sickness on a visitation is Covering Your Ass, bigtime.  This is an unbelievable warning from the school that is supposed to act as a surrogate parent.  Can you imagine picking up your kid from his joint-custody "other parent" and having the stepmom tell you he may throw up on the plane, but "Don't Worry, he's just not used to FOOD".  Unbelievable that you would condone and excuse such a condition from a school to which you are entrusting your child.

If you raised a total of 4 children, did you often feed the whole family at the dinner table, and set one kid off on the front porch with a paper plate of Spaghetti-O's and an apple because he rolled his eyes when you told him to take out the trash?  Did you make scrambled eggs, toast, and applesauce for Sunday breakfast, except for the one kid who failed to completely clean his room...and who was sent out to the porch with two boxes of cereal [2 boxes Frosted Flakes = 2¼ oz. cereal + ½ cup milk = 240 calories].  Was this a common form of punishment in YOUR house?  If so, maybe that's why you think it's OK in a very expensive, totally unaccountable boarding school situation.  I'm convinced that, if you did this to your child in your home, Child Protective Services would be on you like snot on a stick, especially if your child showed up in his school with a palid complexion, lethargic, and downright sick.  Oh, and Lady, if you think your fat teenager gets fat eating a little bit more cereal, milk, and fruit, you're nuts.  It ain't the cereal and milk that's making him a candidate for public medical assistance in the next decade.

HLA lies, hides, and excuses, and you are guilty of protecting the whole shady system, finding an occasional whipping boy-employee who *individually* is responsible for many children in the school not receiving food in accordance with USDA nutriontional guidelines.  You're disgusting, my dear.

[Anonymous]

Several years? How long exactly? And why did that change ocur, in your opinion? Given, that you apparently see nothing wrong with the 'previous' restriction diet.

I don't mean to be rude, but if your son is overweight, how much do you really know about proper nutrition? There is a difference between 2800 calories of nutritious food and 2800 calories of junk food with no nutrition. Usually results in overweight. Perhaps you should consider one of the new 'fat farm' programs, where I'm sure the calories are severly limited.

Please don't attempt to tell me what I observed with my own eyes. My son was sick, and while it may not have been directly related to having eaten inadequate nutrition (cheese sandwiches) for months, that situation certainly would create a condition that made him more prone to illness. Too many cheese and white bread sandwiches also resulted in him becoming dependent on flonase in order to breath. Never was a problem before. Where are the fresh vegetables? The two tablespoons that might have been in the cup of soup are inadequate. Two slices of american cheese does not provide adequate protein. Do you know the consequences of inadequate protein? Do you know how it affects one's ability to think and process information?
And don't pretend to know how long my son was on restriction. I have a very lengthy journal of his time there and the numerous weekly calls reporting that he was yet again, on restriction.

I don't know any kids who had a good experience. And I seriously doubt that you genuinely know how these kids are doing. How their social life is, how their relationships with their parents are, how they honestly feel about having lost two years of their lives. And chances are good, they wouldn't tell you the truth, because that is how they have been conditioned. Not to complain.

No shh, you have totally misperceived. I am not judging an 'ENTIRE' program "based on employees who were fired for not behaving appropriately and a few bad experiences". I am challenging the very foundation- the structure and nature of the program and their methods (which by the way are taught to the employees). I believe it to be flawed by design. The majority of my complaints are toward the program, as I know very little about the individuals, except the few I had direct contact with.

This is something one might expect from a program owner who was previously a used car salesman, but inexcusable given that the owner is a psych professional. He, of all people, should know better. I would be please to no end to hear him 'justify' the restriction diet. I gave several staff the opportunity to do so. They declined. The headmaster described it to parents as 'sparse' and 'approved by the health dept'. Both blatant lies, shh.

[Anonymous]

Further, I'd like to add that I think you are an excellent representation of the average program staff who would observe kids eating cheese and white bread for extended periods of time- but be so enamored by the program or attached to your livelihood- that you wouldn't report it to the appropriate authorities.
In that regard, you too Ms Shh, are guilty of the neglect these kids endured. Any rational adult should know that this is not right.

But, yes, I can hear your defense... restriction was only for a week. True the average restriction was a week, and how many weeks strung togther to results in months? Too many.

And 50 visits to the cafeteria in 7 years hardly qualifies you to defend how long anyone was on restriction. You were an occassional guest, not making daily or even weekly observations.

In your defense, perhaps you were told that restriction was only a week and happened infrequently. If that is the case, you should take your own advice and stop speaking from a place of authority as one who knows the intimate details. You are obviously presenting things as fact that you have no real knowledge of. And you have the nerve to accuse others of lying and exaggerating. You may have to restructure the images in your mind. All was not well, and I am not the only person who will attest to that.