Gone to the Crazies by Alison Weaver

Gone to the Crazies: A Memoir, Alison Weaver. New York: HarperCollins e-books, 2007, 2008.  241 pps.


     Alison Weaver is an only child. She came from an affluent family that lived in Manhattan and also spent time at their second home in Connecticut. She went to an expensive private school.

     Things changed and the Weavers arranged to have their daughter escorted to Cascade School in Whitmore, California.

     Weaver has mixed emotions about that time in her life. Cascade School [now closed] was founded by a former "counselor" of Cedu in Florida. Once Cedu became official, Mel Wasserman had to dump some of the original staffers. They went out into the world, spreading the philosophy and methods employed at Cedu. Some of the methods were borrowed directly from Synanon-- a cultish long-term residential drug "treatment" program. The rest of the methods appear to have been cobbled together from sources which included primal scream therapy. The result at Cascade School was rather bad education but substantial group "therapy" conducted by people who were not qualified to do so.

     Cascade used the vocabulary that Cedu facilities used [http://wiki.fornits.com/index.php/CEDU_lingo] along with nine special forums called "profeets" [shades of K. Gibran, EST, The Forum, and Life Spring] which the kids were required to attend and participate in before "graduation." In other "rap" or group sessions, the kids were required to scream, yell, and cry on demand.

     Although the Cedu facilities officially went bankrupt in 2004 or 2005, indications are that a few of them may be back in operation and are being watched by folks who monitor troubled teen torture industries and cult-like programs.

     Alison Weaver had some hard times after getting out of Cascade School. She did not join any twelve step program but reports that she no longer takes street drugs and that having a singular glass of wine is no cause for her to panic these days.

sapphoq reviews says: Alison Weaver's memoir was an easy and engrossing read. I found her recollection of her feelings as a child and pre-teen to be entirely believable. [Some reviewers found them to be canned]. Although towards the end of the book, the author reveals Cascade School's connection with Cedu it was apparent that she did not know the history behind the crap she endured at the time that she was going through it. I'm glad that she got out alive. Although she is not fond of the internet survivor boards, Alison Weaver has managed to survive and even thrive in spite of her experiences at Cascade School. Recommended as a cautionary tale to parents who are considering "educational consultant services" for their "troubled teen." Old hippies and those who are involved with protesting against such institutional abuse may also like this one.

p.s. I too believe that Alison's word should have been power.

Tough Love by Lillian Speerbrecker

Tough Love:  Truth Behind The Troubled Teen Industry, Lillian Speerbrecker.  Munich: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG, 2013.  e-book, 38 pps.
website:  http://safeteenschools.org/home.html 
twitter:    @SafeTeenSchools


Lillian Speerbrecker was a teen living in Michigan with her father and her step-mother.  She was taken by two hired "escorts" from her home to a WWASPS facility in Mexico known as Casa by the Sea at the end of May in 2004.  After that facility was shut down by the Mexican authorities, she was then taken to Midwest Academy [MWA] in Iowa.  The author was one of the "lucky" ones.  On February 11, 2005 she got expelled [!] and her dad took her back home to Michigan.  Unfortunately, her father to date of publication had never come to terms with the abuse that she suffered at the hands of the WWASPS program staff.

sapphoqreviews says:  Yet another book by a survivor of the culture of abuse at WWASPS.  Tough Love confirms-- once again-- that during "group therapy" sessions and/ or seminars-- teen girls who had been raped before arrival at a program were called sluts and shamed because of their rapes.  Another item that the book confirms is the overuse of isolation rooms for days on end with those punished being made to sit in certain positions all day except for meals.  It was also mentioned that a staffer at MWA had actually been a detainee at Tranquility Bay but had bought into the ideology so well that she was given a job in Iowa.

I was ecstatic to discover that Lillian Speerbrecker has created an organization called Safe Teen Schools which can be found at: http://safeteenschools.org/home.html  and on Twitter at: @SafeTeenSchools.

I have said this before and I will say it again:  I believe the survivors who have reported horrific conditions and abuse.  Period.

*potentially triggering* *WWASPS* Come Back by Claire Fontaine and Mia Fontaine

If you are a survivor of a WWASPS teen industry facility or other abusive place please please please ~ STOP ~ and ask yourself if you want to read this particular book review.  Mia Fountaine was placed in Morava in the Czech Republic and then at Spring Creek Lodge once Morava was closed.  The book Come Back glorifies WWASPS, its' staff, its' methods, and its' programs.  You may not want to read this review.  If you find it too triggering, please x out this page.  I care about you and you have gone through way too much already in the troubled teen industry. 

Come Back: A Mother and Daughter's Journey Through Hell and Back, Claire Fontaine and Mia Fontaine.  New York: HarperCollins e-books, 2006.  e-book, 332 pps.

Sigh.  It had to happen I suppose.  A whole book justifying some of the abuses inherent in the WWASPS ways of doing things,

     [ http://radicalsapphoq.blogspot.com/2012/12/w.html 
       for a brief history and timeline if you are unfamiliar                  
      with WWASPS.  A search engine will reveal quite a
      bit more on many many other sites maintained by survivors]. 

embracing the alternative history that WWASPS provides to its' adherents, singing the praises of the troubled teen industry that is at the core of WWASPS and Spring Creek Lodge and Morava [or whatever they are calling themselves these days].  The Pullin brothers appeared in the same sentence as the word "love."  Just one example of the Fontaine team buying into WWASPS.  Geez.
One thing that has not changed its' name is The Hobbit.  The Hobbit is a tiny building to which a recalcitrant teen is brought for an unspecified period of isolation.  It is punishment.  Justifying its' use by the sentiment that the particular teen housed in there doesn't know that she can change and she has the tools to do so is sickening.  It repulsed me.  The images of a teen banging on a glass window, screaming and crying.  Yeah.  By all reports, The Hobbit continues to exist at Spring Creek Lodge [or whatever its' current name is these days... keeping track of all of the name changes induces vertigo].

This is The Hobbit.  A small room where a teen was placed into forced isolation.  The shelf is actually a "bed."  The walls and floors have been described as "disgusting" and full of feces and urine.  A Focus On: Spring Creek Lodge has now been published at: http://radicalsapphoq.blogspot.com/2013/04/wwasps-focus-on-spring-creek-lodge.html.  Picture was taken from: http://wwaspsurvivors.com/wp-content/gallery/spring-creek/307893_857215012653_57202884_38839285_1862728866_n.jpg . 

The description of a "Discovery Seminar" courtesy of David Gilcrease and company, at the time of the book-writing called Resource Realizations, Inc., was also nauseating to me.  In other places on the web, Gilcrease has been described by survivors as being a cult-like figure, greasy, and creepy.  I can't vouch for any of that since I have never met the man.  Certainly, the description of a few things that went on in Claire and Mia's seminars lend credence to the idea that the seminars are pseudo-pop-psychology at best and dangerous to the unhinged at worse.

I could go on.  The Fontaines wax eloquently over Morava-- the "school" in the Czech Republic that got shut down-- and what a shame that a couple of kids who lied about being abused there were able to get the place shut down.  The description of the food did in my sensitive stomach.  The descriptions of the rest The acceptance of the culture at Morava was enough to leave me gasping for air.
Morava was the first place that Mia did time in.  She was quickly transferred to Spring Creek Lodge when Morava closed and the beat went on. 

sapphoq reviews says:  Yeah, while the writing style of mother and daughter displayed native talent, Come Back is a relatively useless dual-memoir.  This book adds nothing to the debate on the troubling troubled teen industry.  Survivors of WWASPS and other places would do well to skip this particular piece of propaganda [unless they are in a place with their recovery where reading this trite garbage might encourage them to continue to educate the masses about what life was/is really like in a WWASPS facility].  Others would do well to read Maia Szalavitz instead.  Again, parents for crying out loud, please do your own research before agreeing to sign your teen up for a stint at any of the Mormon gulags that is WWASPS.  Or any other behavioral treatment facility, troubled teen facility, residential facility, rape and death camp.
Totally and emphatically not recommended.

Morava was closed.  The folks running it never answered in a court of any law to any of the abuses that [legal word: allegedly] occurred there.
Spring Creek Lodge is reportedly closed and the facility in Montana has been sold.

[legal crap: The opinions expressed here are mine. I could be wrong.  But at least no teens were raped, beaten, or killed in the manufacture of this review.  Which makes this blog post much safer than time spent by a teen at Spring Creek Lodge.  Just saying].    

Help at Any Cost by Maia Szalavitz

Help at Any Cost, Maia Szalavitz.  New York: Penguin Group Inc. [Riverhead Books], 2006.  e-book. 297 pps.

I happened upon Help at Any Cost while doing some research on the troubled teen industry.  I saw some names I have been becoming increasingly familiar with-- Robert Lichfield, Ken Kay, David Gilcrease, et. al.  Maia Szalavitz found the one staffer who worked at W.W.A.S.P.S. who in my book is a true hera-- Amberly Knight-- a former director who complained about the conditions at Dundee Ranch to the authorities and quit.  Chapter Five is very thorough and dedicated to all things W.W.A.S.P.S.  The other chapters flesh out the history of Synanon, Seed, and KIDS.  Maia Szalavitz also discusses how group treatment went among the original tough love crowd, exactly what was wrong with the whole tough love movement [something which I myself did not know, and from my background I really should have], lawsuits and court dates, and the difference between abuse and addiction especially as how that difference pertains to teens.

sapphoq reviews says: Help at Any Cost is a valuable addition to the discussion of the troubled teen industry.  The historical background is one that I much appreciated.  The whole idea of love being a commodity to be earned if one behaves is repugnant.  An easy read that is highly informative.  This book should be read by any parents considering sending their teens off to a behavioral modification residential program as well as by professionals who work in any addictions fields.