The Cult in a Boarding School

"And some students sent in the ring were even pregnant." Considering students were restricted from any physical contact, and that the adult abusers could punish the children however they wanted... That alone is extremely horrifying despite how understated it is.

“You want to act like a baby, you get screamed at” Pretty sure you aren’t supposed to scream at babies.

Charges not even being filed against the school for the death of the kid shows how complicit the parents are in this: they didn't even care.

I went to this school. It’s been 25 years, I still can’t just sit down and watch this, but I scrubbed through it and read the transcript - your presentation looks very good and thorough and accurate, and you seem to have a very gentle and thoughtful way of presenting it. Thank you for sharing our story with others. These schools cause long term, complicated harm.

“Joe Ricci was diagnosed with lung cancer.” That’s good! “He only suffered with it for six months.” That’s bad.

Holy shit, to escape that hell hole only to run immediately into a disgusting monster. That poor girl.

I was sent to a facility like this when I was 14. I'm in my 40s now and the trauma of the facility still impacts me and my relationships, my habits, my trust, and my behavior to this day. Even thinking of it still causes a feeling of searing panic in my stomach. The facility closed this year and there's almost nothing that has made me as happy as finding that out. The way these facilities abuse and isolate you for the rest of your life can't be explained

Phil’s story is absolutely heartbreaking. The kid didn’t go down without a fight, and with that alone he deserves a ton of respect. Ricci and the rest of the Elan staff have a spot reserved for them in Hell.

“We’re an equal rights facility.” Well, everyone’s got equal rights if nobody has them to begin with.

Let's be fair, any parent who signs their child away knowing they will be kidnapped at night is a pretty shitty parent to begin with.

It's insane that parents are so comfortable with not being able to contact their kids. I went to a boarding school which was the polar opposite of this (voluntary, fun, a place to explore who you are and break rules with other kids for a year) and the only reason my parents let me go was because they had seen it with their own eyes, could communicate with me all they wanted, and got to go home every few weeks. How could any parent just send their kid across state lines and let them stay there for years with limited communication? Makes me sick.

I was in one similar to this. Was forced to strip naked and lay on a cold hard floor for hours in a tiny 8x8 square room that was padlocked. There was a tiny window where staff would watch me. And it was cold. No blanket, nothing. No underwear or socks either. First time I got put in there, I got a cold because of it. The reason? I was feeling suicidal (which was completely valid considering the circumstances), and they encourage you to talk to staff when you feel that way so they can "talk you down". Turns out that actually means throwing you butt naked into a cold room with concrete floors. Girls would frequently be stripped naked by or under the eye of male staff. I was 15. Others were much younger. Some were adults under 21 that were wards of the state. They made us wear plain blue shirt and pants, unless you were a "runner", then you were stuck in a bright yellow jumpsuit. Those sucked really bad during the summer because it was long sleeved. There were community showers and toilets like prison with scheduled use times, we walked in a line to and from the cafeteria and to the on-site school building, got locked into our rooms multiple times a day for hours with nothing in there but a Bible and our beds, were forced to be active outside for hours in the heat of summer with no consistent source of water. It was hidden way out in the middle of the woods in Rural Missouri where it was sure to go unseen by the outside world. We were allowed one 10-minute phone call per week, so we could choose to either call our caseworkers and beg for another placement, or spend 10 minutes talking with a loved one. The woman who decided everything for us was the most heartless person I've ever met. She was abusive to everyone, even staff members. She would smile when something bad happened to a child in front of her. I saw it If a kid had a breakdown, they called in the "crisis van", which was a van full of strong men who would physically subdue the resident, often painfully for the resident. I am severely traumatized and was physically injured more than once, as well as psychologically abused. I have been unable to find a therapist or drug yet that can help me. The reason I was there? I was a foster kid with depression, and they didn't want to take the time to find me a foster family. Sadly this was the case for many other children I met there. And I went to multiple facilities like it, but this was by far the worst. Valley Springs Youth Ranch in Black/Lesterville, Missouri. They paint themselves as a "treatment facility" for troubled youth, but it's really just legal child trafficking. Don't send your kids away. Become foster parents for teens if you can. And most importantly, hold these people and facilities accountable.

It is so incredibly fucked up that that poor girl managed to escape from Elan and the first person she found, coming straight from hell, abused and killed her immediately. My god. May she rest in peace.

The fact that this place closed down only 10 years ago. Is frankly scary.

One of my best friends who sadly passed away a couple years ago was "snatched" the same way they describe here. He was able to somehow slip away while foghting back and ran escaping the two men sent to grab him from his bed. He called me and i picked him up. He was terrified. Allthough he did know that they were sent to brimg him to one of these "boarding schools". He was eventually caught and sent, and he came back worst then he was before. He would go into fight or flight mode with no reason and become delusional. These problems haunted him until his untimely death. He lived a lifr of crime and drug use. Allthough his original personality would shine through a lot of the time, he could become quite dangerous when he would become paranoid. Drug use and crime haunted him until his death a couple years back. He was my friend, and i believe that these schools are just as criminal as our governments and woul be the way we all get treated if they had it their way. Horrible things for a young kid to go through. Parents need to reach out to their kids. Not abandon them to some behavioral mod program. This shit is real, and very unsettling.

My bf was born in the early 70s and went to something exactly like this. He still can't describe his experience without crying his eyes out and he's one tough dude.

Hey guys! Fun fact! The "troubled teen" industry still exists and kids are still legally kidnapped to attend these camps just in case anyone was wondering.

The parents are at fault for this still existing, if your kid is acting inappropriately, then take him to therapy, not a "camp"

The phrase "for profit behavior modification" sent chills down my spine