Cedu Documentary in Progress
March 14th, 2008 — -Hi hi hi,
I’m back from three weeks in Cadeefawnya (the home of Gov. Arnold), where I, along with my intrepid co-producer Jessica Pentland, traveled the state, catching up with interviewees for our Cedu documentary project.
We interviewed (and I’m counting in my head) … 11, or maybe 12 former Cedu school grads and escapees, plus two former staff (one very much “with the program”, one very critical).
I had a wonderful time meeting (and re-meeting) everyone, hearing and learning and remembering that very, very strange and often troubling experience of being a… captive? student?… of the Cedu school.
The footage is in editing right now, but I will update regularly, and post a thing or two as clips become available.
Thanks to all who interviewed, thanks to those who gave use of their homes, and all who gave their time and openness and energy to re-visiting an often daunting and haunting past and subject.
very bests, more soon,
Liam
More on the Cedu Schools and therapeutic/”tough love” boarding schools:
May 1st, 2008 at 3:07 pm
More here: http://liamscheff.com/daily/2008/04/30/whats-a-cedu/
May 9th, 2008 at 11:01 am
Hi,
I heard from psy @fornits that you have info about the cult awareness network categorizing cedu as a cult. Do u have a link for that? I need it for something I’m writing:
Barbra Walters is promoting her memoir where she discusses her daughter’s salvation at a “special school”-cedu.
I’m using this opportunity to get journalists reporting that cedu was an abusive, torture oriented, thought reform center.
Please contact the gawker or jezebel sites
http://jezebel.com/
http://gawker.com/
(relevant emails are listed there)
with your own experience at cedu, and any pertinent info you’d like to add about its history, synanon connection, and in particular info about Jackie, Bab’s daughter.
and contact me at about the cult awareness network
May 9th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Hi Lilly,
If you want to contact me, then email me privately through my contact page. You ask for links, and info, but I don’t know who you are or how to contact you…
May 9th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Hi Liam,
I thought I left my email in the mail section. O.K. I will contact you through email now. Thanks.
August 18th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
I attended Boulder creek academy from march of 03 until it was shut down. i witnessed first hand the abuse and brainwashing cedu provides and how things got worse as the schools entered financial turmoil. I would love to discuss my experience and expose all of their creepy and bizarre mind melting “workshop” experiences. I still have original notebooks containing all writing assignments from “workshops” like the I and Me. Email me if you want to know more about cedu.
September 15th, 2008 at 10:36 am
wow I’d love to see this when it’s done! I was in jessicas dorm at rma. I attended Cedu for a year then rma for a year! So glad this is being done!
October 1st, 2008 at 8:22 pm
I’m a CEDU survivor and I’d like to be involved in your project. Please contact me.
October 8th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
OMG! I did not know Barbara Walters’ daughter went to CEDU, and she thinks it saved her daughter???? Poor thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know my parents thought CEDU had helped me until my dad was diagnosed with a brain tumor and I got so scared that I would never get to tell them what happened to me that I finally told them about what REALLY happened there… and they were shocked and devastated.
I am SO grateful that I have a mother who cares for me enough to help me through getting over the trauma of what they did to me. I pray earnestly that Barbara Walters’ daughter know the truth of CEDU’s abusive ways and has the courage to admit that she was wrong, and side with her own child. What a travesty!!!!!!!!
October 9th, 2008 at 11:00 am
To Noah,
I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings. Boulder Creek Academy reopened promptly, and though the management is new, the horrors remain the same. RMA is “closed” but is in fact merged with BCA. See http://www.bouldercreekacademy.net. My niece has been there for 32 months with no home visits.
Auntie Em
October 20th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
I have to say i am a little dissapointed by some of the responses that are being written on this site. I attended CEDu from 8/95-12/97 when I graduated. Did I feel that a lot of things were abnormal about the school? Yes of course I did. However with that being said there are certain things that I learned that help me to this day. To anyone that was abused or restrained that is not cool to me at all. However I still have some of my best friends in the world from CEDU, and I would love to be honest about all my experiences at CEDU, regardless of if they were positive or negative. When I put everything into perspective CEDU helped me a lot, because i refused to be brainwashed and took from it the things I felt appropriate. Please contact me anytime and to all the CEDU survivors i hope you are all doing well.
Darren
October 21st, 2008 at 7:22 am
Darren,
I hope no one knocks on your experience, but some folks here are not too willing to see the perspective from the other side of the line, whichever side of the line you may stand. Maybe the word you were looking for was ’surprised’, not ‘disappointed’, to be fair to all.
Some of us had pretty miserable times there. Speaking for myself, I feel like 2 years of my life was completely wasted. Did I make some great friends? Yes. Did I learn some survival techniques? Yes, for sure. But beyond that…
Maybe, in your era at Cedu, things were better, less intense, or you just focused more to get more out of it, OR, as we’re starting to discover, some of us had more time to reflect back on what really happened. I had seven more years than you to stew on this stuff. So again, kudos to you for finding some positive life lessons. I wish the positive outshined the negative for more of us Cedu survivors.
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:33 am
The thing I have noticed from my cedu page Liam is that there were different “era’s” in the school where the majority of students enjoyed the experience or the majority of students had a very BAD experience. I have noticed that 88-92 was a VERY BAD era.
The problem here is that it is not appropriate to discount anyone’s experience. Neither of us were there during their time and visa versa.
Rudy left around 94 and if you look at patterns of abuse, the backlash would have been a softer program.. more caring until the next “hilter” came into power. The program also changed over the years and in 1992 they DID instate some sort of classes in upper school which I have heard turned into a semi-regular school like atmosphere (for the upper school of course)… Cascade even had 48 hour propheets instead of 24 hours so the kids could sleep 8 hours in between sessions. Also, before Rudy took power (late 70’s early 80’s) he was just a drama teacher and Jill was just an art teacher and they were very well liked and accepted by the student community.
One thought is provoked when I write that last statement….. Power reaps corruption.
Whatever the experience by a student through the years, it MUST be known that at OUR TIME… what they did to us was not only abusive but ILLEGAL! You cannot keep minors up for 24 hours using interrogation methods and other systematic problems during OUR time. It should make all of us relieved that others going through a semi-similar version of our program DIDn’t get fucked up by it. It doesn’t make what we experienced any less by any means. So both sides should not be discounted here.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Hi to the above commenters,
Whether you claim to have loved, hated, or tolerated your Cedu or Cedu-type experience, the details matter.
The daily functioning of these schools is of utmost importance in creating an accurate history: the Raps, the untrained, invasive staff, the Synanon methodologies, the Propheets, the Smushing (mandatory or forced adult/teen and teen/teen cuddling).
These are the details, and they are in evidence in the stories of everyone who has asked or agreed to be interviewed for the documentary.
The largest shift at Cedu, as some of you can attest to, occurred in the mid-1990s, with the inclusion of drugs, psychiatric drugs – and these, now, often forced as the therapies had been forced.
I’ve interviewed individuals from at least five schools – De Sisto, Cedu CA, Cedu Idaho, Mt. Bachelor, Benchmark – and the programs all follow the same path. This is not an isolated phenomenon, and it is not just “personal” or individual. It is a large-scale, though quite secretive phenomenon, and it requires some work to unearth the details.
If you have a story to tell, and you wish to be interviewed for the ongoing project, which may result in a book, let me know, and I’ll get in contact with you.
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:16 pm
Damn, I would have loved to be involved in this. I have some things to say about this place. Especially the unqualified staff that fucked most people including myself up, emotionally. I’m a grad of rma 1998. Let me know if there’s anything I can help with.
-sarah
December 29th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
I was at Cedu in the ‘94ish era. I rememeber I was in Pamelas “Family”. CEDU is a time in my life I never talk about—a void in my past. Not having that traditional Highschool education gives one a different perspective on things , hence I feel having gone to CEDU has a lot to do with who I am today, part of which is feeling like an outsider when those conversations about Highschool come up. So it’s comforting to hear so many speak out. I would love to buy the documentary , I’ll put it on that empty space on my book shelf where my Highschool yearbook was supposed to go……keep me posted
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:14 pm
I was really glad to have found this site. I was at the Cedu middle school from 2004 until 2005 when it shut down. I was the last person on campus. Reading all these bulletins and watching these clips had a bittersweet effect on me. If you need any help with interviewing or anything im here. I have a bunch of propheet cards, diarys, and pictures.
Finally people speak out about this horrifying experiance.
February 22nd, 2009 at 8:04 pm
hey im a former student from boulder creek academy, i was there when everything went to hell in a hand bag. when cedu got shut down. it was absolutly the greatest day of my life! there is a group on facebook called bca surviors, check it out. i think you will get a kick out of it. Facebook Link
March 6th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
I would like to hear from anyone who went to cascade in the early 90s. my email is ekajata17 [at] hotmail.com
March 9th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
I’ll keep this short and just make two points since I could write a book about book lol. I have Tourette’s, and I was diagnosed about a year and a half prior to me being sent to Cedu. Cedu told me to stop using my Tourette’s as a cop out and so on, well that’s like telling a paraplegic to stop faking and walk. I never learned to deal with it and to this day have issues I now can relate to my not being allowed to learn how to deal and live with it. Also I was forever hurt by their (L)academic program.
I never did catch up and college ended up out of the question tho I tried ( again with my learning disabilities I never was allowed to address, getting best of me.) I fought that school tooth and nail (screeching in Dokken Fashion!) and was berated and torn apart for it. I knew it wasn’t going to prepare me for real life, cause those rules were nothing like the real world. I was never Cedu’s whore, I never just rolled over and took it, hell less than two weeks prior to my grad (Dec 95) I was put on indeff’s. And in past years I have found pleasure and satisfaction in seeing people, some of whom at the time were considered poster children for cedu’s results stand with indignation over the experience.
March 9th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
Hi Chris,
Thank you for writing and telling your story here, it’s much appreciated. It was a strange experience, to be sure, and I’m pleased that opening it up has been generally good for people – therapeutic, revealing, painful, but probably quite useful… I think it’s prompted us all to examine this very odd bit of the hidden culture that we were a part of (or subjected to).
Do you know about Fornits? It’s another great forum for these discussion – you may be able to track down old peers, etc.
http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=11
Again, thank you for being so open and talking about the experience. It’s been a relief, honestly, to finally get so much of this bizarre experience out of my system and into daylight – and I’ve heard the same from the others who participated in the documentary. It’s good to just be open about it – “We had this very unusual, goofy, strange, uncomfortable, and often abusive experience, here’s how it went – and it probably shouldn’t have!”
I am pleased that groups like ASTART and CAFETY (see blogroll) are making strong efforts in pusing for legislation to make these programs become ethical, transparent, etc.
Nothing’s perfect, but that’s a good thing, I think. Hope you are well, and being good to yourself. Check out fornits, and stay in touch.
March 17th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
Hi Liam,
I just finished watching the clips of the documentary on You Tube. First I would like to say that I am horrified…I mean REALLY and truly horrified by what I heard. The truth is that even the most delinquent behavior doesn’t warrant the kind of abuse being reported on your documentary. My heart aches to think of all the people who survived, and didn’t survive this place. My concern remains, even given the closing of this school, regarding the staff and the possibility of their future “professional” endeavors. Being a 27 year old teacher, I cannot fathom participating in such a program….
Having said that I would like to encourage you and others to give your viewers more thorough information regarding the practices and the routine at Cedu. Having never attended the school or any similar school, I was left wondering if/how parents were not informed by their children that they were being forced to hate them and hate themselves. Was it a school? Was it accredited? Was it a correctional program?
Also, how was one’s time in the school determined? How much information did parents have before enrolling their children?
Another question I have is how former students related to their parents after their release…both initially and long term?
Furthermore, how is it that in the state of California a man who participated in a gang rape would be allowed to work with youth? Was he never convicted, and if so would there be any way to report him, in order to prevent him from being able to work with youth again?
I hope you won’t take offense to my suggestions/questions, perhaps these are facets of the experience that you have already covered, but have not previewed…I am just so profoundly disturbed by what I saw, that I am very curious…which really means that you’ve done an excellent job!
April 29th, 2009 at 6:59 am
I went to NWA in the spring of 1996. It seemed like an outdoor youth detention center, which it in fact was. I saw many people get restrained roughly by untrained staff members. I spent many nights outside in tents, since I didnt like going along with the programs that they had going on. I have a boyfriend now, and when I was at NWA, the anti homosexual (i dont say homophobic because, it was clearly just hate talk) , I was not able to come out to my parents until I left that school.
At NWA i was sarcastic and flippant the entire time of the program. I was on so many full times that they sent me to Ascent to do their wilderness program. It was supposed to be a six week program but I got “repeated”, so I did the program for 3 months. I will say I was in the best physical condition of my life. The PT work outs there were so amazingly intense that when I went to basic training at Ft. Benning georgia, the workouts I recieved there didnt really compare in intensity. For example there was an ex special forces soldier there named Brent who would have use do 1000 to -1500 jumping jacks. You know how long that takes? Nearly two hours.
The camping experience and snow shoing through the local mountian regions was awesome, Im really glad I got that experience.
After Ascent since NWA didnt work they put me at BCA. At first I thought BCA was so awesome because in comparison to NWA it had a nicer library, nicer buildings, and if you got put on a full time you were not rescricted to a tent on a wooden pallet , you just had to do work assignments and sleep in your nice bed. I liked that. I was on work assignments a lot because again, I was underground they said. My dirt lists never snitched anyone out, but I was snitched out many times and because I didnt tell on myself or others I was denied many many days of school edcuation to do things like sort huge rocks for the paths or pull weeds all day. I think the idea there was to lower the cost of groundskeeping by turning the children who were on punishment into free gardening and upkeep for the place.
The propheets were intense and brainwashing. The music, the stupid things, all the kids watching these other kids come out with their hands raised and being laid praise in front of all the other kids at night after the workshops. They made it like this incredible thing that everyone should want to do, and at the time I did. Curiosity I guess. I played lots of chess there , it was fun to do chess tournaments in town and I enjoyed setting up chess tournaments at BCA. Funny thing was it wasnt like normal chess clubs, we were all these bad kids and so we would gamble by playin chess against eachother. Because they “stirpped you of your image” things like nice soaps and shampoos which you were allowed to have your own personal kind were a premium. Because cologne was banned , deoderants that smelled like colognes were also prized.
Matt Muchinski and Alex Godfries were my best friends there, some of the laughs that I had with my classmates were some of the hardest , most sincere laughs Ive ever had in my life. The night staff was *so* fucking crazy and hickish, telling us wierd stories all the time and such.
I attempted to run away several times, and generally got caught and sent to Pinecrest hospital in Cour De’ Alene Idaho. I was treated by Dr. Gumprecht who over perscribed anti psychotics to me until i felt at one point i was just walking through my life like the air was filled with jello. Id feel tired all the time, set my head down on the table during lunch or breakfast and drool a puddle on the floor.
I was on “bans” a lot, which meant that the other students would be punished for talking to me, and I would be punished for talking to the other students.
Eventually I refused the high dosages of xyprexa that I was forced to take (which later was involved in a very messy lawsuit because of the brutal side effects) alongside depakote. I was 18 and a half when I walked off into town to do my own thing. Nobody told my parents I was leaving, they told them I was crazy. I spent my first few nights in a local Bonners Ferry’s persons trailer. It had lots of ants and stunk, but they had cheap beer and satellite tv. Matt Short, who was a local kid that I knew because his mom worked at NWA and sent him there helped me out too. I went down to the Bonners Ferry employment office and found one of the nightwatch working days there, you could imagine the look on his face when I walked in and told him I needed a job, since its practically like having one of the prisoners from the prison you work at all of the sudden show up and want to work at taco bell.
Im rambling now… just my two cents take it or leave it
May 11th, 2009 at 9:08 am
Thank you Liam for doing this documentary. I just finished watching all the youtube clips. God it brings me back and of course I’m in tears. My memories of CEDU are hazy. I only lasted there 6 months after 3 attempts at running away and finally making the break when I hid out at a friends house and my mom refused to pay for the private detective that would find you no matter what but cost like $15,000. She’d already given CEDU so much money and was tapped out. My mom told me she was required to sign over my custody to the school and they finally returned custody to her a few weeks after she wouldn’t pay for the detective and no one could find me. I do remember being on 10 different medications they fed me each night, maybe that contributed to my hazy memory. In any event I am looking forward to watching the doc when it’s done. Thank you for all your hard work. CEDU survivor 1992.
May 12th, 2009 at 7:46 am
I just wanted to say how great the footage on the doc is coming out. Watching it really brought me back to my CEDU stay in 1992. I finally escaped the school after 3 run away attempts. The goal for my mom sending me there was to keep me off Crystal Meth which I’d been using when my dad died. That is probably the only positive thing from my experience I did not take that drug while there. But CEDU was feeding me 10 pills a night of pharmaceutical drugs so in the long run what was gained. I didn’t kill myself while I was there but thought about it. I’m just glad I survived the experience though it’s been a long hard road out of the brainwashing hell that was CEDU.
CEDU Survivor ‘92