Cedu Documentary - Selling the Schools - Cedu Brochures
August 17th, 2008 — -
Brochures, circa 2000, for the Cedu Schools. (click to enlarge).
I invite you to look at the glossy images below, and compare that with the testimonials from ex-Cedu (and Cedu-type) schools, listed at Cafety.org [here and here] and Fornits.com.
In the forums at Cafety and Fornits, ex-students, and a few staff and parents, share stories of invasive and abusive programs, run by untrained and often dangerous individuals, whose primary qualification for working with troubled youth (or young people sent away by wealthy, but irresponsible parents), is that they were and are extremely troubled themselves.
But in the brochures?
The only thing we have to fear is…advertising. What happened to the idea of “truth in advertising?” What kind of parent sends their child away, based on advertising? What kind of child gets sent to a Cedu-type school?
“Saving Lives, Healing Families, and Creating Hope since 1967,” is the mission statement on the front of the brochure [top image]. Was this true?
Was Cedu a school in 1967? When did it become one? What were the roots of Cedu?
Cedu Schools were bought by the Brown schools in the late 1990s, then closed in 2004. But Cedu-type schools abound.
Mt. Bachelor, DeSisto, Elan, Swift River, Tranquility Bay, and more. It’s a growing, mostly unregulated industry.
- What rights to teenagers have to determine the course of their lives? What rights should teenagers have once they are sent away to boarding, “reform” or “therapeutic” programs? None? Some? What are the rights of a teenager? What should they be?
- What happened to staff people who worked at Cedu? Has there ever been a class-action lawsuit against the Cedu schools? What about schools that hire ex-Cedu employees? Are these employees required to inform employers about previous involvement with the controversial school?
Or do they pretend it never happened?
- Do ex-students have a right to speak critically about their treatment? What rights do adults, who’ve been through these schools as young people, have in reporting it today? What outlets exist for addressing and correcting the damage that has been done?
- What can we do to make these issues public in the minds of educators and school administrators? In the minds of the creators of mental health programs in public and private schools?
What would you say to a parent who’s considering sending a child to a school like Cedu, and holding a glossy brochure as a promise for a better future?
August 17th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Do you have info on the HYDE schools? My son went to CEDU and had a horrible experience there.
August 17th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
I know that if you go to the above listed link for Fornits, there are some sub forums for Hyde schools, which you can find many links to many other sites there as well, official and non-official.
Here it is again:
http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=43&sid=7f8442d7c17e96f3669b77ad7fc9fa90
August 17th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
Hi Susan,
I don’t have any materials for the Hyde school. What can you tell me about it? Did your son also go there? Fill me in.
Liam
August 18th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Effen lies!!!!
August 19th, 2008 at 6:56 am
Cedu Research Notes:
Coalition of ex-students seeking program transparency and teen rights:
http://www.cafety.org/
Coalition of professional therapists seeking oversight of teen programs:
http://astart.fmhi.usf.edu/
“An alarming residential care phenomenon that has been occurring since the early 1990s has been linked to reports of mistreatment, abuse, and death.”
fact sheet for prospective parents:
http://astart.fmhi.usf.edu/AStartDocs/factsheet.pdf
ex-student testimony:
http://cafety.youthrights.org/wiki/index.php?title=Submit_Your_Testimony
Gov oversight -
http://cafety.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=573&Itemid=95
cedu forum:
http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=11&sid=7035ff676754282dc7340cfd43e32933
death on campus:
SPOKESMAN-REVIEW Newsfiles on Rocky Mountain Academy (1994-1999)
Tuesday, July 19, 1994
BOY HANGS HIMSELF IN DORMITORY
http://www.teenliberty.org/RMA.htm
Section: THE HANDLE - Page: B3
http://www.mountain-news.com/articles/2005/03/31/news/news1.txt
I Me wrote on Jul 27, 2008 11:50 AM:
” CEDU student 1981-1983. My memories are not all good ones and I am still angry about the lies and trash that the staff told other staff about me and others from the school. Several people that I went to school with committed suicide because of the head games. Some came out of the Summit workshop thoroughly messed up for life. The closing does not make me happy-it just validates everything that I knew about the schools from the time I went through it. CEDU did not save my life, I did, it did not give me a new understanding of myself, I allowed myself to learn from my own personal experiences. Anyone who says that it was CEDU who saved them needs to do a reality check. Good luck promer CEDU students–I hope that some day that the scars will heal and the brain washing may be undone. ”
A note responding to a Mother Jones article that goes to the ‘we visited Cedu’ idea:
http://www.motherjones.com/news/update/2008/05/when-is-tough-love-torture.html
Surprise inspections would really be the only thing that could possibly show *some* places in their true light, but you could visit CEDU unannounced any day of the week and it would look like a ski lodge. Granted, all of the people cuddling with each other may look weird, but everyone seems to be smiling, so I guess its ok. You’d have to actually pull a surprise inspection on a rap or propheet to really see the kind of stuff that happened. And getting a kid to snitch to an inspector while they were still at the place? Forget it. Both you and I know what would happen to us if we did that.
Rape (one of the known incidents):
http://www.teenliberty.org/RMA.htm
FEDERAL JURY SIDES WITH WOMAN IN RAPE LAWSUIT
EMPLOYER ORDERED TO PAY $164,595; COUNTY HASN’T FILED
CRIMINAL CHARGES
Section: THE HANDLE
Author: By Susan Drumheller Staff writer
Illustration: Color Photo
Caption: Armstrong
An “intervention specialist” who delivers kids to private behavioral schools and camps in North Idaho was ordered by a federal jury to pay a former employee $164,595 for allegedly drugging and raping her.
Twila Stephenson filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against Richard Armstrong of Bonners Ferry, Idaho,
in November 1996, accusing him of slipping drugs into her drinks, then raping her.”
——
An article on the closing:
http://www.mountain-news.com/articles/2005/03/31/news/news1.txt
A FORMER STUDENT SPEAKS OUT
A former CEDU student, Hannah Hoffman, 30, “graduated” from the facility in December 1993 and is currently studying anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley.
“It is a great relief to hear of the closing of CEDU schools,” Hoffman said. “Although the concept of helping troubled youth seems honorable, the execution of such a concept was disastrous in this setting. Many of us can now move forward knowing that no other adolescents will have to go through such a traumatic experience.”
Not all children and parents share Hoffman’s feeling about CEDU and a fund has been established to assist CEDU staff members who are now unemployed. Details of that fund have not been announced.
WHAT CAUSED
THE DOWNFALL?
Several CEDU employees pointed to pending litigation against CEDU Education and citations received by the schools as probable contributors to the company’s downfall.
In mid-February the California Department of Social Services, Community Care Licensing Division, issued several citations at the two Running Springs campuses. At a non-compliance conference on March 10, CEDU reportedly admitted it had systematically violated the rights of children under its care. However, a copy of that document was not made available at press time.
Two lawsuits are currently pending in San Bernardino Superior Court against CEDU. The first involves a New York father and his daughter alleging CEDU interfered with their right to speak, write and visit.
George Locker from New York, who filed his suit in September of last year, explained “there are a number of lawsuits pending in San Bernardino County, and also in Idaho. In Idaho, a group of parents and children allege a pattern of neglect and abuse at two CEDU facilities, one of which closed soon after that lawsuit was commenced.
“As the truth has emerged about CEDU,” Locker stated, “it simply became unviable.”
The family of Daniel Yuen filed the second suit. Yuen, 17, was last seen leaving CEDU on Feb. 8, 2004, just two weeks after he arrived in Running Springs. He was 16 at the time of his disappearance.
“My son was last seen in the San Diego area,” the boy’s father, Wayne Yuen stated. “I wished I never sent my son over there and he does not have to run away. He still is missing and we wish he is safe and coming home soon.”
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August 19th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
OMG!!!! “Time tested”?!?! “Proven methods”?!?!?!
What the HELL are they even talking about?????
“College Prep”?!?!?! WHAT????????!!!!!!!
They should have been sued just for all the LIES that are in the brochure!!
Getting “English Units” for smooshing and telling people your cop outs does NOT prepare you for college… or normal human behavior for that matter.
“Math Units” for chopping wood 30 hours a week DOES NOT PREPARE YOUR FOR COLLEGE.
“History Units” for drawing a picture of my INNER CHILD DOES NOT PREPARE YOU FOR COLLEGE!!!
And where is this “Proof” they so clearly own? That it worked for who? Mel’s bank account?! There are hundreds of us that can beg to differ with these insane claims in this “brochure”…. HUNDREDS of graduates who were NEVER ASKED HOW THE PROGRAM WORKED FOR THEM.
I’m so frustrated.
Who wrote this brochure anyway. I wanna have a little chat with them.
August 20th, 2008 at 8:38 am
You know, that’s an interesting line: “Time-tested and proven.”
But no list of “proofs” or studies, or “tests.” (I assume there were tests, if it’s “tested” over “time?”)
Where are the studies that show that the Synanon-type heroin cure is an effective ‘therapeutic treatment’ for “troubled teens.”
They’re not listed. No “tests,” no studies, no clinical assessment, no validation by any professional association. (Imperfect as professional organizations can be, shouldn’t there be some third-party oversight of a program that acts as a captor and keeper of hundreds of children?)
No, not for Cedu-type programs.
Isn’t that interesting?
So the question goes, what kind of parent do you have to be to send your child to away for 2.5 years to a “time-tested” “back-country,” rural, isolated and locked-down mountain-wilderness ‘campus’ (that students are not permitted to leave - and hardly able, given the local physical environment).
Three factors are true:
* You’ve got to have money, or be willing to spend money you don’t have,
and
* You’ve got to be willing to part with your child/teen for years at at time,
and,
* You’ve got to be willing to risk your child’s safety and well-being on a bet that somebody else can do the work of a parent better than you were able or willing to.
“Solutions for Troubled Teens.”
What’s a “troubled teen?”
Is the neglected child of a wealthy drug-abusing celebrity a “troubled-teen?”
Is the abused child of an upper-middle class violent alcoholic businessman a “troubled teen?”
What kind of “troubled teen” were you?
Most of the young people who I knew at Cedu were children of neglectful, narcissistic parents. Some, but not all, and not most, had a problem with drugs or alcohol. Many had been sexually abused. Many were adopted.
Many had parents who’d made a life-long practice of paying third parties to do the disciplining for them - parents who sent their kids away as punishment, but then spoiled them at home.
A small, very small minority of the kids I knew at Cedu, I would classify as anti-social personalities. I can think of only a few who were probably on their way to being sociopathic. Most were a mix of confused, traumatized, alternately punished severely and spoiled, and neglected coupled with being undisciplined; many had divorced parents among whom there was a disparity in treatment - one draconian parent, one permissive and un-disciplining parent.
If I think of it from the perspective of an adult today, my mind struggles with the idea of letting someone else be a parent to one’s own children.
I think of the years I personally spent alone, raising myself, or being shipped back and forth to one set of truly immature parents or another, who then left me to take care of my own needs for the most part.
My life story makes me terribly aware of how unnecessary the Cedu schools are for parents who bother to make being parents the priority - over career, over ego, over alcohol, over personal fears and failings.
And where a child is truly behaving in an inexplicable manner, due to unknown and perhaps unprovoked factors, what good does isolation on a mountaintop in Cedu-type school do to address the real problems (whatever they are)?
September 6th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Wow, I was not a rich kid by all means.. came from Chicago with the biggest chip on my shoulder and felt the whole world could , well kiss my @#$%.. Thanks to the Tony Mills, Eric meltzer, Twila. Well I am 43 now and have 2 awesome boys and I am a better person from it. now do not get me wrong i know there was some messed up stuff like catching john peeking through our dorm windows etc.. kinda creepy.. but in all.. i made and met some awesome people along the way.. so looking for ya.. Eric, Bill Mosier, Raymond Roth, Drina Deniro ( yes roberts daughter) 1983 or so…..