The American Child Torture Industry: Cons and Cults Disguised as Schools - Because Discord and Roblox aren't bad enough.

[Xarpho's Return]

I watched Cruel Instruction and felt like they "got it", on one level, but were forced to make it into something digestible and palatable for idiots with weak constitutions. It's a Lifetime movie. We know who watches Lifetime. It touches on things, but then it handles the gruesomeness of it all with the depth and horror of a kid chewing with their mouth open to make you gag during lunch in 3rd grade. Doing this right should be visceral and painful. You should feel sick. This missed that mark. They say "dial nine", but there's absolutely none of the brutality of the program that term came from.

Maybe I'm too bitter to be ruffled by what ruffles normal people? Meh. I think it's like a highschool production, personally.

I can't imagine it "working" without basically making it an exploitation film for sadistic hebephiles.

 

[doodoocaca]

I can't imagine it "working" without basically making it an exploitation film for sadistic hebephiles.

As it is, it would still make one handed viewers titillated. This worry comes up a lot if you're trying to show the raw reality of this shit. I've spoken at length about this with other survivors and authors. The unanimous consensus?

SHOW THE TRUTH PERIOD
Don't traumatize your actors

EDIT:
There is survivor-made prior art, Over the GW. As in the GW Bridge.

It was watered down, but still accused of exaggeration; when the real deal was told to normies they shat a brick, lol. This was, admittedly, a bit sugar coated, but it still shows it's doable.

Going farther than this did would quickly veer into cult territory.

 

[doodoocaca]

Narvin continues sneeding like a moron:

In the words of the survivor who is so kindly using a diff tool for us:

Narvin Lichfield's latest edits on his Facebook post are fun. Looks like he's trying to insinuate he will go after Katherine Kubler and Netflix legally. Also, alleged "defamation" is not the same as falsely yelling fire in a crowded theater. You also cannot be criminally charged for defamation. It's a civil tort.
You left the evidence, you twit! Not only did you leave the evidence at AIR but you left it at CSA too! Go cry with Butter about it!

Tranquility Bay 2.0 is getting investigated by Jamaica!(Archive)

A program in North Carolina had a suspicious death back in February. A poster claims it's being closed but no press releases or news links have yet to materialize:


Also, OP IS A FAGGOT: I thought Bob was the grandfather. Bob is actually your uncle, if you are Nathaniel Lichfield. Robert Lichfield is Narvin's elder brother. In penance I will go to my own OP.

 

[gsv2w3erfe4]

I don't know if there's any special department in charge of this. She should tell her husband if shes worried about them doing something, at least so he knows what's going on. You can talk to the police or try to get a restraining order, but I don't know how easy that would be in this case.

There's rape victim advocacy groups and hotlines (maybe like RAINN) who might be able to give better advice on what to do.

I can't edit this post anymore, but she should also save or back up any messages the staffers send her.

 

[gampboonerisms]

If anyone knows what person should do

I can't edit this post anymore, but she should also save or back up any messages the staffers send her.

Get a gun, get some lessons, archive everything, get an attorney, get a bank box, print out everything, tell her husband, put all paper and digital copies in the bank box, give the attorney copies of everything, and bait them into telling her/ the attorney what actually happened at her academy. "remember the good times" and see him burn in jail.

 

[doodoocaca]

To conclude this week, on this most Good of Fridays, let's talk about "The Teen Whisperer", Mike Linderman!


Behold the faggot

For starters, his book on Amazon(Archive) is chock full of people calling out his prior abuse, his involvement at Spring Creek Lodge (former WWASPS program!) and even highlighted pictures of depositions in addition to calling out his involvement in the suicide death of a kid at SCL:



Before going more into his involvement with the authorities, let's talk about the creepy shit this faggot does with his former patients:

Spoiler: Screenies

Wow. He tries to groom kids after they escape a program they went to that he worked at. Jesus Christ.

Back to his involvement with authorities:

Spoiler: Screenies

Ah so his license was put on probation because he did not maintain appropriate boundaries. He then had it suspended for things quoted in the board of behavioral health document such as "I struggle with lack of physical attention", "I am quite fond of you," "You are super hot," "You are hawt," and "You have a GREAT body." He also once told a child he cannot sleep due to "to(sic) much sexual energy."

As of 12/31/2023 he was on Active Probation, not sure of his status now, besides being a creepy pedo faggot.

Happy Easter!

 

[joker jimmy]

EDIT:
There is survivor-made prior art, Over the GW. As in the GW Bridge.

This is exactly the kind of depiction I was looking for and also immediately became too much for me. Jesus Christ.

 

[doodoocaca]

This is exactly the kind of depiction I was looking for and also immediately became too much for me. Jesus Christ.

Really? I forget just how fucked up and scarred I am. lol. Yes I'm laughing about this, if I don't it would kill me. I guess I'm still used to this fucked up shit.

Mind telling me what's hard to handle so I can just get a data point on this? I'm clearly fucked up and my sense of what's too much is far from the norm.

EDIT: OK, I blocked shit out from Over the GW somehow. It actually does show a lot, but, the artfilmyness can get in the way, and a lot of details are "blink and you'll miss it". The fever-dreaminess might help reflect the mindfuck in a sense, but if I was fortunate enough to be filming my own work I would make it much more direct and naked in its portrayal. It might also be "I would focus on other things than Nick Gaglia did."

The strip search, the gang restraint, the gang beatings, the mummification in the blanket, etc, to me, is "yeah, that seems accurate" but doesn't make my hackles get raised. Even the invasive questions like when the creepy facilitator's getting on them about wet dreams and masturbation (this is entirely par for the course with 'Straight' Inc, btw) is to me "yeah, okay, so when do we show the real shit?"

The Real Shit™, Real Horror Hours - and I mean hours and hours - are when everyone is singled out, one at a time, and completely torn into, humiliated, and destroyed in front of, and by, a group of people. That does so much more damage than anything else, and I really do not know how to say that except to say it. That still fucks me up.

Which is why I wish someone would show exactly that, but, I don't know how.

Could it be written? Sure. Would that really show the world how fucked this is and help stop it compared to showing it on video? The documentary's clips of the crying girl in the dunce hat out in front of the group, or the other one where someone's own parents are tearing them to shreds, and all involved say back and forth "I love you!" glosses over it in the sense that someone could show a picture of a concentration camp but not necessarily get into all the gorey details of of it.

I am quite sure you also realize it was watered down for the camera.

Straight's "raps", CEDU's creepy sharing circle shit (I forgot the name) and the "shmooshing" when everone has to cuddle puddle, kids and staff, WWASPS' reflections every day, and monthly-6weekly seminars? That's the white hot horror. That's what makes people disassociate so much they keep doing it after they get out. That's what makes peoples eyes defocus if they're in a situation they don't like.

And every single kid HAS to join in on that, every single one. Everyone had to hurt everyone else. This is still worse. If you take anything from this screed of mine please get this.

The other thing that is hard to convey is the inescapable, pervasive, immediate-as-a-panic-attack-or-suffocation sense of dread. It's like wet concrete or lead blankets piled on top of you and you can't get respite unless you're in bed. I really wish telling people this could work. It can't. It just doesn't fucking work. Survivors can clearly do a screenplay, as Over the GW demonstrates, but fucking stupid normie faggots go "THAT'S NOT REAL" (because I don't want it to be) "YOU'RE EXAGGERATING!" (because I can't handle this) and it fucking infuriates me.

Also, besides the culty shit, the complete destruction of your person and psyche from being humiliated and low-blowed by staff and other kids, the grooming and manipulation, or the more violent and 'honest' predation, is commonplace. For every Amy Ritchie or Mike Linderman there's also a John Free.

Kids are enduring this shit RIGHT NOW, and if you talk about it, inevitably, someone wants to clutch pearls and huffnpuff about how upset they are to hear it from an adult victim, and it makes me want to take a bat to their kneecaps.

I'll leave you with something from a Straight Inc survivor. Not to shock, not to wallow, but to help you understand the mindset:

"Not long after I got out of Straight, someone spiked my drink and I was gang raped by his friends. It didn't bother me that much at the time. It wasn't as personal as Straight. It wasn't as malicious as a rap. It felt to me like they just wanted to make use of me, not personally destroy me and hurt me."

It took me a very long time to understand this. I was just as shocked when I was told as you likely are reading this now. I had to remember and process what I had gone through, and hear what others had too. It's been close to 20 years.

I'm trying to dig at the root of this, and besides malice, the only thing that really captures the essence of this is betrayal. Not just from someone you should trust hurting you, or other victims being made to hurt you, but humanity itself.

 

[Sprate Header]

"Not long after I got out of Straight, someone spiked my drink and I was gang raped by his friends. It didn't bother me that much at the time. It wasn't as personal as Straight. It wasn't as malicious as a rap. It felt to me like they just wanted to make use of me, not personally destroy me and hurt me."

Jesus fucking Christ

 

[doodoocaca]

Did you not read about the seminar done to that one tranquility bay survivor who had the forced abortion?

EDIT: I should flesh seminars out soon.

 

[doodoocaca]

Trails Carolina at Lake Toxaway, recently investigated for the suspicious death of a 12 year old within 24 hours of arriving at the program, was found to have violated licensing rules for mental health, developmental disabilities, and substance abuse services, has had its license revoked. (Archive)

The department said these violations put all campers at risk.

In a statement, Trails Carolina officials said,

"We were surprised and disappointed to learn of the state’s intent to revoke the program’s license, given the progress we’ve made and continue to make. More than 2,500 children and families have benefited from Trails and we will continue cooperating with the state to satisfy their concerns so we can continue providing compassionate quality care to kids and families for whom every other treatment option has failed. We understand the situation’s immense media pressure and the impact such pressure has on state agencies doing their best to serve the public and act in the best interest of children and their families. The basis for some of the state’s conclusions are unclear, since it indicates policies it had approved, and in some cases helped create, are noncompliant. We have always valued our good working relationship with the state and hope to focus on what matters most: providing our students with the highest quality of care in a compassionate healing space."

I was hoping to keep things positive today, but I came across Provo Canyon School's own words about the use of "Booty Juice". Indeed, the difference between a program and psychiatry is 12 vs a dozen.

 

[Anticipointment]

Trails Carolina

Trying to find how this boy died.

“The child was sent for autopsy to Winston-Salem as his death appeared suspicious since he had arrived at the camp less than 24 hours prior to his death. An autopsy was conducted on 02/06/2024 and the forensic pathologist conducting it stated to investigators that death appeared to not be natural but the manner and cause of death is still pending.”

https://myfox8.com/news/north-carolina/trails-carolinas-license-revoked-by-ncdhhs-after-12-year-olds-death/

https://archive.ph/oMgFq

Death appeared to be not natural.

Here is the search warrant:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24432614-transylvania-county-trails-carolina-search-warrant

Tried to archive on multiple sites, it won’t do properly but did save a bit.

https://archive.ph/GRLRL

But look, here are the important points of it:






Camp not cooperating (despite saying differently) & wouldn’t let them talk to the other kids. Wtf…

Another article:

https://archive.ph/iwD87

Edit also I don’t think there license is permanently revoked they can get it back if they (pretend to) comply with some things. Not sure. And, this is the second kid that died there. The first was in 2014. They allegedly got fined 12k for that & were good to keep going.

 

[doodoocaca]

One of John Free's victims posted again, detailing how Free wants to kill him for coming forward, and some still brainwashed survivors were openly discussing helping Free find said survivor. The survivor already told the police.

Happy Easter.
So, big news. I was told on March 21st that a former staff member of Ivy Ridge wanted to kill me. Like, he supposedly asked survivors who support him and even met up with him last weekend on the 23rd and 24th for my address and everything, or so I was told. Which I did believe, I guess, because how else would people specifically know where he is rn? Anyway, I took it straight to the D.A. and the cops in my area but it scared the shit out of me. I've been sleeping with my couch against my door for weeks. That, coupled with reliving my trauma and my family exploding because of the documentary, has made my life a waking nightmare. But now I'm done being quiet. I'm done keeping my mouth shut. I'm also done listening to and interacting with people who say they had good experiences with him.
The fact is, he is a sexual predator and a psychopathic monster who orchestrated innumerable attacks led by other students against people he didn't like in the bathrooms every time he was on shift in my family. If you can still support him or play Devil's advocate then you are honestly not someone I want to associate with at all. Ever. Especially since the survivors saying he's a good guy were probably among the upper and lower levels who took part in my own personal torture or at the very least were privy to the knowledge that it was happening and did nothing.
Yes, I understand that brainwashing is a thing and stockholm syndrome exists, but tbh there were only like five or six people, total, in my AIR family who didn't take part in my torture, too, and I know multiple people in other families were aware because everyone talked about this shit back then. I have memories of seminars with people from other families that, prior to said seminars, I'd never even seen who specifically asked me about it and even teased me after they learned my name and who I was.
But this is also why I want to clarify something very, VERY important: I forgave the kids who hurt me back then years and years ago, long before the documentary came out, because when I got older I realized two very important things. First, they never would have had an opportunity to hurt me had certain evil staff members not regularly given them the chance to do so -- ON PURPOSE, SOMETIMES EVEN PLANNED WITH SOME OF THE FORMER STUDENTS BTW -- and secondly, they were also kids trapped in a terrible situation.
If you were one of the kids who beat on me? Yeah, don't worry, I forgave you years ago. I'm not mad anymore and I hold no ill will towards the people you've become in the present.

Sure, choices were made to hurt me, but honestly? If it wasn't me, it would have been someone else. There was always at LEAST one punching bag or scapegoat on the boy's side because it made for quicker program progression. Only one person ever spoke up and tried to stop me from being hurt, and HE was not only beat up, he was also tortured for a while in the same exact way because he stood up for me. And because of it, he was forced to beat on me later by other students so he wouldn't be a target any longer. He apologized to me about it in my dms a few days ago, he had no memory of it until he found a correction he got about it, but I did remember.
Mostly because I never forgot.
All in all, what happened to me back then at the hands of other kids was wrong. Absolutely wrong. But I forgave the kids who hurt me, despite the lasting damage their attacks did to my body, collectively with the alpha staff's "restraints" over time.
However, I have not and will never forgive the adults and "staff" who put their hands on me when I was twelve and thirteen. And I also won't forgive anyone who supports them in the here and now. I've seen survivors defending my biggest abuser these last few weeks and tbh, not knowing whether its safe to talk about what happened to me has been horrible.
But I've decided that I don't care.
If he or anyone else associated with him tries to force their way into my home, be careful: my relatives are legally locked and loaded.
I have proof it happened and I am 100% not alone in my experiences.
Alexa and Katherine said that abuse thrives in silence. That's why I'm done being quiet.
So, in all sincerity?
Fuck you, John Free.
And another big fuck you to John Powers, Chris Showers, Josh Hammond, Kieth whatever the fuck your last name was, James Kroeger or Krueger or however you spell it. All of you are monsters cut from the same cloth and you all deserve to be in prison right now.
Happy Easter and much love from the "piggy" whose "mother should have swallowed him."
Yeah. I haven't forgotten.
None of it.

Images attached are the same as those posted by the survivor himself, in a public group, depicting people who are now adults - except for my redactions of the faces in those pictures. While they are now adults, and the boy is the poster himself at a younger age, I don't feel comfortable showing a child's face in this context.

 

[doodoocaca]

More Ivy Ridge information just dropped, including a NY State investigation that went nowhere, accusations of abuse from two new staffers, and a plethora of horrid details regarding the abuse from Amy Ritchie and other partners in crime. Do note the Amy shit is so bad I'm struggling with it, so, it will be in a spoiler for the sensible and wise. Read at your own peril. I'm keeping it here so it can't be forgotten.

With regards to New York - mods knew, as always:

"SED's review of AIR's program and policies revealed health and safety deficiencies."
"...given AIR's population, the nature of AIR's behavior modification program, reports of physical and sexual abuse, the facility's remote location and children's ioslation from their parents and/or guardians, a careful review of AIR's policies was clearly warranted."

Documentation turned up instructing family reps on how to manipulate parents:




A new abuser has entered the chat, one John Raymon, who sexually assaulted a teenage girl claiming she needed a mammogram:



Chris Showers is named by two students, including Nick from the "Porchfix" ('pitchforks' said in a jumbled manner) Podcast, and videos which I will link will show him in the act:

In John A3 30 04 Study Hall a child is shoved, manhandled, then thrown to the ground by two men for unknown reasons.
In Terry L window 10 9 04 a child is put in a head lock, thrown into a wall, and then onto the ground for looking out of a window. Warning, this one is visibly and surprisingly bloody.

For those still reading, time for the Amy Ritchie horror show! The Sun, again, reports on this monster(Archive)


Behold the shecunt from hell.

I won't share it all, but I'll share the "highlights":

Amy Ritchie, the former director of the girl's program at Ivy Ridge, was first sighted by The U.S. Sun returning home in Ogdensburg, New York, on Thursday evening.

Within days[of the documentary coming out] she was put on leave from her job at a local psychiatric center where she works as a mental health therapy aid while an internal investigation is carried out.

Five Ivy Ridge alumni named that alleged abuser as Ritchie in an exclusive investigation published by The U.S. Sun on Saturday.
Ritchie has not been charged with nor accused by law enforcement of committing any crimes. However, at least three of The U.S. Sun's sources named in that investigation say they have recently reported Ritchie to the District Attorney's office for sexual abuse.
The St. Lawrence District Attorney, Gary M. Pasqua, confirmed his office is investigating dozens of historic physical and sexual abuse claims at Ivy Ridge but declined to confirm if any alleged victims had named Ritchie in their complaints.

All seven of the ex-students interviewed for The U.S. Sun's exposé about Ritchie said they want her to face criminal charges for the abuse she stands accused of.
They also all voiced concern that Ritchie had been allowed to work at another WWASPS facility, and more recently at a psychiatric center, exposing her to even more vulnerable individuals.

Four of the students alleged in separate interviews that they were groomed and molested by Ritchie over several months while attending Ivy Ridge as teens in the mid-2000s.

A fifth former student recalled how she was instructed to escort another underage classmate to Ritchie's room after hours.

She then detailed how she sat in the same room while the alleged abuse took place – saying it dawned on her years later how "f**ked up" it was.

Two other students independently verified claims about Ritchie's grooming pattern and the reported culture of fear she instilled within the school.
Even after almost two decades, one of Ritchie's accusers, Alexa Brand, who appeared in The Program, said she still feels scared about how Ritchie might react to her telling her story.

"Even today, coming forward, I worry about hurting her feelings or her being mad at me for telling the truth," she said.
Alexa has accused Ritchie of repeated sexual abuse throughout her two years at Ivy Ridge and even after she graduated.
She says Ritchie first used the "love bombing" tactic to gain her victims' trust, showering them with affection and physical touch, and becoming a much-needed maternal figure for them in an otherwise loveless place.

OK, nothing new, just corroboration of what Alexa said and The Sun has said prior. On to the bad shit:

Cynthia:

"There are some parts of my memory I don't have, it's completely blank, and I'm working with a therapist to recover them," she claimed.
"I have a couple of memories, one in intervention, where everything suddenly goes blank. I remember I was having a breakdown, and another staff member pulled me into Amy's office and closed the door behind me.
"I remember [Amy] was sitting on her stupid wooden desk, and she was talking to me with such kindness, telling me she was here for me and everything was going to be okay.
"And I remember feeling at the time, 'Thank God for Miss Amy. Thank God she's on my side because I don't feel like I have anyone else.'
"And then she put her hand on my shoulder and it goes black.
"I can't see it, but I remember the sensations, I remember the sounds, I remember the smells, I remember it feeling like a dream or a nightmare.
"Thinking about her just makes my skin crawl."

Kristin:

For Kirstin Schwab, it was the opposite. From day one, she said Ritchie "had it out" for her.
Every morning for her first few weeks at Ivy Ridge, Kristin had to go to Ritchie's office to show Ritchie her arms and legs and prove that she hadn't suffered any new self-harm.
Kristin claimed she had to remove the majority of her clothing during the encounters but was allowed to keep her underwear on.
Ivy Ridge's rules stated that at least three people had to be present in any encounter between a student and staff; either two staff members and one student, or two students and one staff member.
When she was forced to strip down, Kristin said there was usually one of Ritchie's "favorite" students in the room with them.
"She had this group of favorites whom she would give special treatment to," said Kristin.

"And they'd be the ones sitting on her lap or cuddling with her. It was really weird.
"For most of the time I was there, she was very cold to me. If you weren't in her little group of people hanging all over her lap and whatnot, she would make your life hell."

Kristin said Ritchie never treated her with kindness, only cruelty.
Every morning, lower-level Ivy Ridge students were given just 15 minutes to wake up, get showered, get dressed, and line up in the hallway before class.
Conditions inside the school were dirty. Many of the girls had mold in their hair or had extreme cases of athlete's foot.
The vast majority of the girls also smelled – some worse than others.
Those deemed the worst offenders would be singled out by staff for designated showers during the school day, four of The U.S. Sun's sources recounted.
Kristin was part of those chosen.

Spoiler: Bad shit

During the first encounter, Kristin claims she was pulled into the shower room by Ritchie and another female staff member, who told her to remove her clothes and that they were going to "teach" her how to wash herself.
"Once I got in, they grabbed my underwear and were passing it back and forth, sniffing it and making comments about the smell," alleged Kristin.
"And then they came into the shower with a washcloth to bathe me like a toddler."
Kristin claims she was sexually assaulted in this manner by Ritchie at least 10 times in the school's showers during following interactions.
Kristin said she doesn't recall Amy removing her clothes "but there were definitely multiple times where she came inside the shower and was touching me," she alleged.
"She has a washcloth in her hands but I don't think the washcloth ever touched me – it was her hands," she said.
"And she would tell me over and over again all these nasty things, that I'm dirty, that I was disgusting, that she had to do this, that nobody was ever going to love me.
"It was so degrading."

Kristin's allegations were independently confirmed by another student who claims she would often have to stand outside the shower stall while the alleged abuse took place.
The student, speaking on the condition of anonymity, will be referred to as "Jane" throughout this story.
Jane, who spent more than two years at Ivy Ridge, said Kristin was a walking target of Ritchie's.
Often, Jane would allegedly be called to the shower room to serve as the third present party for Kristin's shower sessions, she claimed.
"I remember she would make fun of Kristin [...] she would talk about the weight she'd put on, tell her that she was smelly and that nobody wanted to be around her, and she'd do it in front of anyone listening – it was just so cruel," recounted Jane, who was 15 at the time.
"But I knew I couldn't say anything or tell anyone because I got all these benefits because I was in Amy's good graces.
"I had to keep my mouth shut because I didn't want that happening to me."

Jane:

Like Alexa and Cynthia, Jane claims she was groomed by the girls' dorm director for months.
"It started with candy bars," said Jane. "She'd give me a Hershey's bar and then it turned into special activities, like going outside and playing soccer or basketball and things like that."
One of the privileges afforded to Ritchie's favorite students, all of the women said, was fulfilling tasks away from their peers, like cleaning.
Eventually, Jane said that Ritchie asked her if she'd be willing to clean her personal quarters on campus, which she agreed to do.
"She told me to come and sit down next to her, and she started showing me these photos of her and her dog, telling me things about her personal life that I feigned interest in because I wanted to get away from my dorm," recounted Jane.
"And this continued for about six months, just spending more time with her, and eventually she started brushing my hair, massaging my shoulders, and so on, but I didn't think it was wrong because I saw her as a mom-type figure."
One night, Jane claims that Ritchie came to her room after curfew and started talking to her as she was lying in bed.
Ritchie then allegedly asked Jane if she could lie down next to her, to which the 15-year-old told her she could.
"She started talking and then pushed my hair behind my ear and started heavy-petting," Jane claimed.
"I remember it getting sexual in the bed, and I remember just laying there pretending I was asleep because I didn't know what to do.
"And then she got mad at me because I didn't react in the way that she wanted.
"She got so mad at me, that she told me she wasn't going to waste her time with me and stormed out of the room.
"The first thing I thought was, 'F**k, I f**ked up.'"
Jane claims that after that night, she was demoted down two levels in the program.
She spent the next weeks earning back the points, and after reviving her status, she claims to have caught Ritchie smirking at her in the hallway.
"I knew what that smirk meant," said Jane. "I knew what she wanted me to do, so I did it. That's how it all started.
"She came into my room or invited me into hers and I'd know what that meant.
"Amy made me feel like if I told anyone it would ruin our relationship. So I kept it close because I knew she was my only way out of there."

Two other students:

Two other students who attended Ivy Ridge between 2003 and 2006, Michelle Rue and Julie Peysakhova, claimed they'd both observe Ritchie coming into the girls' dorms at night.
Felicia Sanger, who attended Ivy Ridge between 2005 and 2007, claimed she'd often be told to secretly escort her roommate to Ritchie's quarters after hours.
Following the school's three-person rule, Felicia alleges Ritchie would distract her with TV or some other entertainment while Ritchie sexually abused her friend.
"I remember at some point looking over to see Amy – who was dressed in a red flannel button down – with her breasts and bra exposed, cuddling my roommate," alleged Felicia.
"It took me until my 20s to realize what was going on was f**king gross.
"And I felt terrible knowing that I'd kind of hand-delivered somebody I care about to a predator [...] that's been really hard to come to terms with."

Post Program:

After leaving Ivy Ridge, Alexa, Cynthia, Kristin, and Jane were contacted by Ritchie in some way.
The last time Felicia saw Ritchie was a week after graduation in March 2007, when she went to visit a friend from Ivy Ridge after a member of the friend's family died.
Felicia said she was surprised to find that Ritchie had also traveled to the girl's home for the funeral and had been invited by the friend's family to stay the night.
They all slept in the basement, and Felicia says Ritchie and Felicia's friend shared the same bed.
"[The friend's] parents thought they had a unique relationship. They thought they could trust Amy, and that the relationship was normal and healthy," claimed Felicia.
Eventually, Felicia's friend asked her parents to stop inviting Amy over, saying it "made her too uncomfortable."

Alexa also asked her parents to stop inviting Ritchie over.
She told The U.S. Sun even after her parents cut contact, Ritchie would continue to reach out to her occasionally on Facebook, attempting to reminisce about times at Ivy Ridge.
The St. Lawrence District Attorney and the New York State Office of Mental Health have been contacted for an updated comment in response to this story.
Last week, DA Gary M. Pasqua told The U.S. Sun that his office had been flooded with calls alleging physical and sexual abuse at the boarding school.

One of the many texts she sent her victims post-program:

 

[NyQuilninja]

 

[doodoocaca]

The Fucking Psychological Torture Post™
Fuck This Gay Earth Edition

The common thread stretching across this entire industry, the thing that haunts survivors more than any physical scar ever could, the essential thing that wraps it all up together, is constant emotional & psychological torture. Based off of my research and experience, I would break down how this manifests into four categories:

• Institutional domination & control
• Daily, small group attack therapy and random humiliation by staff
• LGAT (Large Group Awareness Training) style attack therapy marathons
• Staff predation, be it with the program's complicit blind eye, or as a part of the program itself.

Institutional Domination & Control:
The program, and all staff within it, have comprehensive control over all aspects of the environment within the program and all of the kids within it. This is often called "Milieu control." How you speak - if you can at all - how you walk, where you look, how you sit, how you lay, every aspect of your living, conscious experience is under control that is maintained under pain of isolation, pain, and humiliation.

The Program in its dive into WWASPS programs talks about regimented walking, asking to cross thresholds, no looking out of windows or at other people, and so on. It mentions how use of a bathroom for hygiene or elimination is controlled; this is par for the course. Other programs can go in different directions. CEDU was notorious for forced cuddling called "smooshing" between kids of either sex, which could happen at any time, and even between kids and staff of either sex, which often came after LGATs (I'll go into this below) or initiated by higher level, more groomed kids against any level at any time.

Besides that, diet is controlled, or food could be denied; access to medication is controlled, or forced; as my most recent megadump on Amy Ritchie demonstrated, denying hygiene and then mocking the child for body odor or having moldy hair and athlete's foot is nothing out of the ordinary. Indeed, both sexes had to earn access to deodorant, with only boys having access to razors without earning it as some sort of privilege.

As a means to induce a breakdown, control the defiant, or just make examples, the use of restraint, solitary confinement, and other "prison like" expressions of control are commonplace. Isolation is so used and is such a terror that it has gotten specific names such as "OP", "The Hobbit", "Investment, "OSS", and the like. Restraint can be used after provoking a child to react, or without pretext. "Bans" such as not allowing anyone to talk to the kid at all under threat of the same treatment or worse were common, as was forcing them into punitive uniforms, generally sweats, marking them as lacking any privileges or rights. Wearing signs that could say anything, or carrying heavy objects was also common, be it a box full of junk or papers, rocks if it was a wilderness program, are also par for the course.

Last but absolutely not least, communication control with the outside world, and access to the outside world, even looking out of a window or at the sky, is strictly controlled. High Impact, which was a camp inside of a chain link fence, did not allow kids to look up, instead forcing them to stare at the ground. Many programs disallowed looking out of windows, or at the opposite sex. Looking people in the eye could be forced, or denied.

Communication was regimented, controlled, and often denied. Mail was censored. Speech often had to be asked for and was not always granted. Phone calls were denied and monitored when allowed. No access to the authorities or ombudsmen or lawyers or guardian ad litem is ever granted to my knowledge. Even in program group, besides having to beg before asking to ask with staff, communication with other kids was based on level and subject to "bans" to punish and isolate a kid for any reason, and often subject to blanket rules against other families or dorms, or the opposite sex. Programs like CEDU could go the other direction and force admissions and openness at any time.

Most actual communication was discreet, though how good one was and how fortunate a kid was to find others with the same skill and their particular situation was up to chance. Bunkmates whispered, line structure had whispering, notes could be passed, but the fear of being caught and punished - or your friend being punished - was omnipresent. It kept you going, but all any of them wanted was a call to a parent or friend on the outside, or just escape.

It should be obvious that such an environment is incredibly stressful to the point of being traumatic, and will wear down anyone in time, especially children. The constant control from the group and indeed the leaders of the group, be it staff or particularly charismatic staff and directors, breaks down any sense of self and makes people into robots as they disassociate from the pain and boredom, and comply out of fear. Eventually, one becomes literally brainwashed as a result of this and what I will go into below, as one becomes little more than part of a group, and what is left of the individual is so terrified, or awestruck, by the power structure of the program, that they submit without hesitation.

Small group attack & humiliation:

This is the "meat and potatoes" of a program and is consistently found across all of them without exception. "Group" held among the entire program, or subsets of it - "family," host family, dorm, class, bunk, whatever - consists of little more than ridicule, cross-examination, mockery, forced confessions, invasive, humiliating questioning about private things, and the group screaming in the face of the singled out victim to the point that ears ring, spittle flies, and sinuses dump. It is important to note that every kid in the program has their turn being singled out, and, has to participate in attacking the other singled out person, or they will be punished even more severely than facing the group as they would otherwise.

While this is bad even in an otherwise "normal" school or institution, this is almost always used in conjunction with the milieu control I described above. Adult programs will often feature this in isolation, though they are trapped in the program due to being court-ordered as diversion for drugs or nonviolent offenses. CEDU was not as physically restrictive as WWASPS, for instance, but was remote and the mindfuck was just as much of a mental barrier as a locked door or gate.

If this reminds the reader of struggle sessions, that's because they are essentially the same. As I wrote in the OP, a senate report on such practices found it to be equivalent to north Korean brainwashing techniques. Group dynamics will break people very easily, and being trapped with a group that hurts you and forces you hurt other people only makes it all worse, and compounds the trauma with the guilt of hurting another victim.

This can include anything from insult and mockery of appearance, weight, the child's actual past traumas including abuse, rape, neglect, abandonment, or accidents, and forced confessions to nonsense (such as Alexa becoming "crackwhore" in Ivy Ridge despite never having done drugs in her life!). The kid's behavior in the program is constantly under scrutiny and filtered through the groupthink and shibboleths of the program, so any slight mistake becomes another reason to be screamed at and forced into a hysterical breakdown.

Prior behavior, be it drug use, experimenting with sex or masturbation, or any traumatic event from the past, such as being bullied or teased, or abuse from a parent, or even accidents that took their parents life are all fair game. These prior behaviors, real or imagined, were used to humiliate the kid, make them feel bad, broken, dirty, and wrong, and force them to depend on the program. Forcing kids to admit that they had nonexistent drug problems has fallen out of fashion, but used to be a big part of the mind game and carried more weight than it does now. Sickeningly, sexual abuse or experimentation was, and is, commonly highlighted and used against kids, and since most of them are adolescent, the effects should be obvious.

While it is not as common with the small groups as the larger ones, love bombs can happen at the end, further breaking the person and making them defer to the group over the self, and making them even want such further actions to feel affection and love in an otherwise austere, loveless environment. MDMA high like experiences are reported with this, though not to the degree of an LGAT. Breaking to break, followed by breaking into reconciliation, is a common cycle and progression. I would compare it to an abusive relationship and trauma bonding. Destroying the capacity to think and replacing it with dependence on the group and fear of the group, leading to conformity, was the real objective of this, in addition to literally programming the kid to have no boundaries and instead just dump everything to anyone, at any time.

Finally, staff can call group, or "a rap", at any time, for any reason, or just individually harass and humiliate a kid, at any time, for any reason. CEDU would call raps or send a child to seek a rap to break themselves down. WWASPS would lean on physical abuse before reflections at the end of the day.

Straight incorporated was just a rap all day long, making it notorious for doing LGATs all day, every day.

Large group attack & humiliation:

Spoiler: Other LGAT specific clips here

LGATs, also called Seminars, or Propheets, or Workshops, or Experiences, are not present at every program, and generally done monthly at those that feature them - with the notable, daily exception of the former Straight Incorporated - and is much like what was discussed above. However, this is not merely improvised, done within a small group, or over within mere hours. This lasted for 18 hours a day, with CEDU's running for over 24 hours at a time in some cases. As Alia puts it at 5:40 above, it's a storm of hatred and psychosis, hours and hours of blood curdling screaming and booming music.

While the dynamics are largely the same, the scale and intensity goes from being hellish to the deepest pit of hell. The entire program is present, mixing all dorms or families together, and breaking the usual division of the sexes. All sense of the outside world and reality itself is removed, to the point that clocks and watches are not allowed, daylight is prevented from shining in, overhead lights are turned off entirely or up to uncomfortable brightness at random times, emotional music is played, access to a bathroom for any reason is limited, and sleep is limited. The comparisons between this and interrogation or brainwashing, much like small group attack, are frequent and strike me as accurate.

Large attacks also featured probing into the past, pathologizing normal, private behaviors, forced admissions that had to be then internalized and acted upon in a 'stretch' or other form of performance, and cross examination by staff, high level students, and the entire group, same as the smaller attacks, but the duration and scale was longer and the intensity was higher.

As traumatic as these are, memories of them are rare and fragmented when present at all. As I've discussed when talking about "Lifeboat", any pretense of therapy falls away as the objective of forcing complete breakdown, over and over, to everyone present, while forcing everyone else to join in breaking the singled out person until it is their turn as well, becomes apparent. I cannot think of any therapeutic reason to force mindfucked, delirious, humiliated-into-a-MDMA-high children to really believe they were dying and force them to beg to live. I cannot because there is not one nor can there be one.

Lifeboat was not the be-all, end all, however, it was only the worst of many things that were nearly as bad. Seminars could include anything from wearing a literal label and acting it out, such as Alexa and "Crackwhore," or a Tranquility bay survivor I posted about who was labeled "Dirty Dolly," who was sexually assaulted by the facilitator and all the boys present, is par for the course. So too are things such as being put in double binds until someone breaks down, forcing the head someone sitting on the ground between their knees and screaming until they panic, break, and sob in turn, or simply terrorizing children by having the largest, scariest men present single them out and intimidate or restrain them.

In addition to the attacks, double binds, and unfair games, performances were often demanded of the kids. "Stretches", that is, an improvisational dance and singing cover done to a popular song, were forced upon everyone present, in front of a group that had just finished shredding everyone present over and over. If the performance was not good enough they would be "chosen out" and have to do it again. This gets as bad as boys in drag doing "I'm too sexy", or making victims of sexual assault dress up in slutty christmas outfits and perform "Santa Baby."

Besides breakdowns, which were instrumental to all programs, and central to some such as CEDU, psychological reformation and inculcating helplessness & vulnerability was also present at many programs. Internalizing groupthink and shibboleths and using them against others before it's used on one's self to make 'stepford kids' out of the kids in the program was a central aspect of the WWASPS seminar.

All forms of group attack center around turning off thinking and forcing emotional reactions, where one seeks to avoid being singled out and attacked, and wishes to conform to the group to find safety and comfort. LGATs shattered people to the core, and daily attacks kept people vulnerable and made sure the LGAT "took" as long as they were in the program, and in programs without LGATs, the daily attacks inevitably wore them down just the same, at a slower rate.

Predation:



Those who read the thread know about Amy Ritchie, John Free, and Chris Showers from Ivy Ridge. I've also spoken about Cheryl Sudweeks & Randall Hinton, though there isn't much news about them yet. Predatory behavior is far from being some accident. As the extensive and growing testimony about Amy Ritchie shows, in addition to 20 years of feedback from other survivors I've gotten on my own, the program makes use of enforcers, particularly scary disciplinarians or sadists, and manipulative groomers to instill fear, maintain control, and have a way to deal with resistant kids.

It might seem like a blind eye, but it's more like a covered ear and an averted gaze. The program knew. The staff knew, the directors knew; they called the shots. This is simply how the program works. Amy Ritchie had girls mid breakdown taken to her office. John Free was given free reign to rape boys and break cryers. Chris Showers and "The Alpha Team" were wielded as weapons against the violently resistant.

If someone was resistant, the program might have a particularly violent staff or group of staff work them over, or the particularly sadistic have freedom to do what they saw fit. If someone like Amy got her hooks into dozens of kids, she could exert great control over them and maintain the culture of fear and dependency that the program needs to operate. They were all like this. If someone had to be taught a lesson, a room out of sight - but well within earshot - was always handy, and cameras could be turned off or just not present in the first place.

It would likely be brought up in the next seminar, too.

Sources:
I found an amazing playlist covering CEDU more comprehensively than I expected to find on YouTube. I already put some of those videos above. Archive sites aren't working for me right now to amke new archive or I'd make some and link (when they're back up I'll sprinkle sources above). I was, however, able to save all public videos from the playlist, and will attach them here:

Spoiler: CEDU Documentary here

CEDU's playbook was copied by a lot of the industry - CEDU's summit script is very exactly like WWASP. CEDU is gone, however, same as WWASPS, so it's yet another case of a well studied window into what's going on now, downstream of it. Similar things, variations on these themes, are happening right now. Even if it wasn't, this has to be remembered so another cult like this can't come into being ever again.

https://www.unsilenced.org/program-archive/us-programs/california/cedu/ If one searches for "propheet" in the search box you'll find find heaps of of documents. I'll download it tomorrow and upload it here, writing this wore me the fuck out.

https://www.reddit.com/r/troubledteens/wiki/index/cedupropheets/ (Archive)

I'll be coming back to edit this, I just needed to get something out already once I had enough uploaded to hit post before losing my work again.

 

[Sprate Header]

CEDU was notorious for forced cuddling called "smooshing" between kids of either sex, which could happen at any time, and even between kids and staff of either sex

This is one of the most disgustingly insidious things I've ever seen, especially when paired with the testimonies in the video. The staff were 100% getting their rocks off to this shit, fucking hell

 

[doodoocaca]

This is one of the most disgustingly insidious things I've ever seen, especially when paired with the testimonies in the video. The staff were 100% getting their rocks off to this shit, fucking hell

For what its worth, CEDU is long gone and the overt, part-of-the-program sexual weirdness is too. Smooshing daily is bygone. Post-breakdown lovebombs are here and there, but mostly part of predatory grooming.

The attack and destruction of their psyches, however, is still going on.

EDIT:

OK, so, shitty question time: Is thorough "telling" okay, or do I need to "show" with examples? Worked out processes, or even a narration of how it goes? Can everyone follow it? This is dreadful but text only has to be written once, so I might as well get it over with if it would help people understand this.

I'm thinking I'll do a few 'examples' for the first three categories in a spoiler, unless this is just pissing extra hard into the wind.

 

[REGENDarySumanai]

I will not be surprised if one of these places get shot up.

 

[bliblblblbbllb]

Can anyone advise me of an op-sec friendly way of sharing 1st hand materials? I am a zoomer retard.
I was in a (now shut-down) program, although it was not as egregious as most of what is detailed in this thread. I have kept a box of paper materials and have photos from that time that I want to make public somehow, but I'm not really sure if there's a opsec-safe way to do that. I have no interest in doxing myself or opening myself to people from the past finding out I'm talking about this.