Liam’s Daily…

Cedu survivors, grads and escapees - tell me if this looks familiar?
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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?
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The Cedu Schools put their students through at least nine overnight and/or multi-day “emotional growth experiences.” Graduates and survivors of the schools can tell you the unbelievable details – or you can read them about some of them here.

Below find the scripts, by which former drug addicts, alcoholics, criminals and drop-outs put the children of middle and upper class neglectful parents through the 60s-70s mind-warps they invented.

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Hello, hello, Cedu survivors, escapees and graduates… and likewise, to all from similar, sister and satellite programs (the Benchmark, NWA, Tranquility Bay nexus).

I’m working on a documentary about the subject, in an effort to tell some stories and elucidate some hidden histories from our lives - the time we spent in strange isolation from the world, in one of these very odd schools, with their very odd, and then often invasive and abusive, philosophies.

This blog up for you to say hi, drop me notes, post links, ask questions, or fill me in on what you’re reading and discovering about the schools.

I’ll be posting video clips as editing continues. The basic premise is as follows: Make this work available to a wide audience, the widest audience, but especially, to those who will want to know about these schools: that is, parents who are considering sending their child away; or, a young person, who is being sold on the idea of going.

Don’t be shy, or strangers. Do check in, do post relevant links, do be friendly, and not afraid of making your experience or opinions known about the bizarrery we call Cedu.

What are teen “tough-love” and “behavior modification” programs like, from the inside?

You can discover at least a little by reading “What it takes to Pull Me Through,”, by a writer named Dave Marcus.

Reading the book, I recognize all of the details - the forced labor, the bizarre, unregulated, unprofessional group ‘therapies’; the tactics of humiliation, isolation and coercion. I have to say, however, that while the author shows a good facility with chronology, he seems to have done little to no research on the effectiveness, ethical nature - or legality - of what he was witnessing. Read the rest of this entry »

An excerpt from our upcoming documentary on the perilous world of ‘therapeutic boarding schools’ for teens. Here Dr. Nicki Bush talks about A-START, (the Alliance for the Safe, Therapeutic and Appropriate use of Residential Treatment), and their recommendations for parents, and teens, who are considering boarding-school therapies as a solution to teen and family problems.

You can visit the A-START webpage Here, and download a color PDF of their guidelines yourself Here

More to come…

Funny question? Funny word. Not so funny meaning, to those who experienced it (though we laugh at the ridiculousness of it, at times)…

Who knows what a ‘Cedu’ is? And what do you want others to know about it?

And what do you want the future to know about places (whoops, it is a place, gave it away) like Cedu?

I await your responses….

Okay…Some hints for the curious Hint, Hint, Hint, Hint.

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.
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