#OpLiberation

Raised children for 8yrs and bioligal takes them back only to abuse and send to Provo Canyon School (psych facility)

A submission from a reader:

My letter to Social Services

Tricia Smith, MSW, MPA

Program Manager I

SSA/Children and Family Services

This email is being sent to you as a formal complaint against the agencies practices regarding my niece Amber Ellis and nephew Robert Ellis.

I have cared for these children along with their grandmother for approximately 8yrs. Calls were made to the agency for suspected child abuse while they were living in Chino Hills CA. Sharon Collins contacted me and requested that I bring Amber Ellis to her office to be interviewed. During this phone conversation she informed me that the father placed the call to the agency and was accusing the mother and not me of child abuse.

The father who only is allowed visitation through divorce proceedings picked up Robert Ellis after his admission on a social networking site that he had taken medication with a goal of overdosing. Robert stayed with his paternal grandmother once his father picked him up. Robert was later returned to their mother after the court of Long Beach denied his request to amend the orders of visitation.

Shortly thereafter both children were living with their mother and emailed cries for help, made phone calls to authorities and complaints to school counselor regarding abuse. Sharon Collins received a photograph of Amber’s bloody arm and request for help. Documents provided by the court reveal a summary where Sharon Collins states that there were no visible scars on the child which is false. Another false statement was made where Sharon Collins implied that I give monthly updates regarding the children. Sharon and I have not been in contact. I have sent emails of concern or dissatisfaction regarding the handling of the case but never were we in communication at that time.

Statements made to the paternal grandmother by the social worker are of concern. There was a threat made that if the children were returned to their mother that she would put them in the system and instructed the paternal grandmother that from there she could attempt custody. On one occasion Sharon Collins told me that if the children were not in my care that she would take them into custody but at a later date she denied making the statement.

Approximately 7 months ago when Robert tried to overdose Sharon told me that the case wwas closed and there was no evidence of abuse but now that guardianship proceedings are in effect, the summary from Social Services states that the neglect was substantiated in the case of Robert. This conflict is of concern because during the 7month period he continued in his mothers care and social services was aware that he was not enrolled in school for that 7 month period.

If steps were taken to secure his safety he would not be sitting in a mental facility where his constitutional rights have been stripped. He is in a facility that has a history of neglect and abuse. I have spoken to several families and survivors who were detained there and am working with PR for media attention.

Today the family, along with the paternal father is denied communication with Robert and Amber is now missing. It is possible that their mother also sent Amber to the facility in Utah. A separate complaint with dates and recordings will be constructed within the following weeks.

All calls made to Marty Lawrence and supervisors have been ignored. All calls and email sent to Sharon Collins have been ignored. The case regarding Amber and Robert was closed as unsubstantiated abuse allegations but today we learn neglect was determined. Sadly he remained in the home and our calls to social services were ignored.

# Provo Canyon School

# Troubled Teen Industry

# troubled teen

# Tricia Smith

# UHS

# Universal Health Services

# submission

Wow, just wow...

In September 2009, after admitting to my parents that I was atheist, I was abruptly woken in the middle of the night by two strange men who subsequently threw me in a van and drove me 200 mi. to a facility that I would later find out serves the sole purpose of eliminating free thinking adolescents.

These places exist IN AMERICA, they’re completely legal, and they’re only growing. It’s the new solution for parents who have kids that don’t conform blindly to their religious and political views, let me explain: After the initial shock of what I thought was a kidnapping, it was explained to me that my parents had arranged for me to attend Horizon Academy (http://www.horizonacademy.us/) because I admitted to them that I was atheist and didn’t agree with a lot of their hateful views. Let me give you a detailed run-down of my experience here: To start off it’s a boarding school where there is literally no communication with the outside world, the people who work here can do anything they want, and the students can do absolutely nothing about it. The basic idea is that you’re not allowed to leave until you believably adopt their viewpoints and push them off on others. The minimum stay at these places is a year, an ENTIRE YEAR, that means no birthday, no christmas, no thanksgiving etc.; my stay lasted 2 years. The day to day functioning of this facility is based on a very strict set of rules and regulations: you eat what they give you, do what they tell you (often just pointless things just to brand mindless submission in your brain), and believe what they tell you to believe. Consequences for not adhering to these regulations include not eating for that day, being locked in small rooms for extended periods of time and the long term consequence of an extended stay. There’s a lot more detail and intricacies I could get into, but my main purpose was to spread awareness to the only group of people I feel like could do something about this. Feel free to ask me anything about my stay, I could go on for days about some of the ridiculous things I went through.

Kids abused in treatment centers speak out on nationwide radio show, Thurs, Jan 19, 7-10pm ET

From Mark Levine on facebook:

OK, it’s set. My next show on survivors of institutional abuse will be Thursday, January 19th from 7-10 pm ET (6-9 pm CT, 5-8 pm MT, 4-7 pm PT). All are welcome to call in, but survivors of CURRENTLY EXISTING programs will be given preference. That is not to diminish the suffering of those under programs that have been shut down, but I feel like we should, in a fire, focus on the immediacy of victims who are burning before addressing the real and important needs of those who have been burnt but who aren’t in immediate danger. Please spread the word.

You can listen live on MarkLevineTalk.com, and it will be permanently housed here: http://marklevine.tv/torture-in-america-kids-abused-in-treatment-centers-speak-out. If you have troubled listening on Mark’s site, try http://www.lesliemarshallshow.com/stream-live/.

Call in #’s:

888-488-MARK (6275)

or

888-6LESLIE (653-7543)

They will also be posted on his website at the time of the show.

Please spread the word.

Mark is a fantastic host, he has been incredibly kind and supportive. If you missed his past shows, here they are:

What’s Worse than Teen-Age Drug Abuse? Drug Programs Abusing Teenagers

September 15, 2011 (Part One)

http://marklevinetv.com/?p=9046

Abuse of Teenagers in Drug Programs

September 16, 2011 (Part Two)

http://marklevine.tv/tba-i-host-leslie-marshall-show

This Bush Crony Has Blood on His Hands!

November 10, 2005 (Part One)

http://radioinsidescoop.com/?p=481

The Bush Crony Who Tortured American Teens

November 13, 2005 (Part Two)

http://radioinsidescoop.com/?p=482

Radio show exposing the horrors of the ‘troubled teen’ industry, Thurs 12/29, 7 -10pm ET

Mark Levine of Inside Scoop is hosting another coast-to-coast radio show to give survivors of abusive teen residential facilities the opportunity to speak out! You can listen live on www.MarkLevineTalk.com, and it will be permanently housed here: http://marklevine.tv/torture-in-america-kids-abused-in-treatment-centers-speak-out.www.MarkLevineTalk.com, and it will be permanently housed here: http://marklevine.tv/torture-in-america-kids-abused-in-treatment-centers-speak-out.

Call in #’s:
888-488-MARK (6275)
or
888-6LESLIE (653-7543)
They will also be posted on his website at the time of the show.

Please spread the word!

Heartbreaking submission from a survivor of teen torture

I’m really glad I found this movement and blog. I’m the victim of institutional abuse and medical malpractice that went on since I was about fifteen until just recently - I’m now nineteen years old. I have Medicaid and my HMO only allowed me to attend one hospital for in-patient psychiatric care - St. Clare’s Behavioral Health, Boonton, NJ. My outpatient facility was at the same hospital’s Denville, NJ campus.

I was misdiagnosed as bipolar for what I think is the purpose of gathering more fee from my insurance company. I have major depression and Borderline Personality Disorder, but I was forced onto several heavy duty mood stabilizers despite never having any manic or hypomanic behavior. When I was fifteen years old, I was prescribed Lithium, which was raised to 1500mg, enough to take down a 300 pound man with manic psychosis, by the time I was seventeen. I had no emotions and I believe I have permanent neurological damage from lithium therapy. The doctor who persistently kept me on lithium while inpatient insisted I would have to be on lithium for the rest of my life. A quick google search of his name resulted in a report that he has a history of medical malpractice.

I have had adverse reactions to every single mood stabilizer I’ve been put on. I got the rare rash on Lamictal and Tegretol made me walk like I was drunk. Still, my most recent prescriber, a nurse practitioner, ignored my pleas to be taken off of mood stabilizers, as all they did was make me worse and I knew it. She said it was “just labels,” and that she did see “manic behavior” in me. This “manic behavior” was normal functioning as the result of being on an SSRI. I was perfectly rational albeit childish because that’s just in my nature. She said this was mania and cut down my SSRI, leading me to become more self-injurious and suicidal.

I don’t think I’m just paranoid. My parents also think that this hospital has been attempting to improperly and heavily medicate me to keep me in their system and collect more money from my HMO. Until recently I was always on four or so medications at one time - usually including one or two mood stabilizers, an atypical antipsychotic (all of which ended up contributing to tardive dyskenesia that my nurse ignored and continued to swap me around on different atypicals for about a month, despite my fear that if I stayed on them the tardive would become permanent), an SSRI antidepressant and sometimes an anti-Parkinsonian because my side effects were so severe. I was absolutely miserable on these cocktails. More recently I refused them altogether and weaned myself off chemicals with the help of a very low dose of a tricyclic, and now I’m unmedicated and my thoughts are much clearer than they have ever been.

My only problem is that I have severe anxiety that comes on very suddenly, and I’ve been pushing to be put on a benzodiazepine for as-needed basis since July. The last time I was in the hospital I requested one, but they said they’d give me Ativan in the hospital but would not allow me to leave with a prescription because of my “chemical habits.” I smoke cannabis socially and do so to help with my anxiety. If they would prescribe me a benzo, I would no longer need to smoke cannabis. However that’s too much of a problem for them to even consider. During that same hospital stay, a man who went on a week-long benadryl bender that resulted in cognitive damage remarked in group that the doctor had put him on Klonopin.

More recently St. Clare’s kept me in a group program that was making me worse. I cannot function in groups to begin with because I feel like I’m being ignored and helping people more than they’re helping me, and since I’m a fairly new adult I was seated in a room with older adults I could not relate to, who also could not relate to me. I’m the survivor of an abusive relationship and I started to talk about it for the first time in years during group and a man who had been heckling me the entire group told me to “just grow up.” I had a panic attack and vowed to never return to group again because it wasn’t helping, but my clinician guilted me into coming to group for another two months while she conveniently “forgot” to put my referral in for individual counseling for several weeks. During this time, the only therapist I trusted there who I had an established history of working well with and making progress with left the practice, and the dialectical behavioral therapy I was supposed to start attending again was discontinued. I had been begging to leave the group program for months.

I want to bring my situation to justice because I feel like it’s completely immoral, but my parents have been urging me not to. I have no idea what I should do.

# troubled teen industry

# therapy

# St. Clare's Behavioral Health

# depression

# borderline personality disorder

Listen tonight (12/3) @ 8pm on http://freedomslips.org. This is a very exciting show, Kevin has incredible guests lined up. There will be veteran activists and survivors discussing all aspects of the troubled teen industry.

Vicious the Villain.: Dont be a fucking retard, read this.

queenofbeasts:

I was in a wwasp program and was released 5 years ago. During my stay there I was abused in every which was possible. Below is a link to a facebook group called “Stop WWASP” so Im sure if people join the movement, that peace of shit will be brought down . If i could describe it to you in a way you…

Pro-Love: Sometimes I post my poems on tumblr [A.K.A don't read this?]

foryoublue94:

[Trigger Warning for abuse/violence, gay slurs, suicide, death]

So… a long time ago I read a book in which a girl’s mom sends her off to a “behavior modification school.” Not too long ago, I also watched the movie “Boot Camp” in which a similar thing happened. I didn’t really give it a lot of…

TWO shows covering the troubled teen industry this week!

The first is TONIGHT, 12/1, at 8pm: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/harm-reduction/2011/12/02/surviving-straight  

The second is Saturday night, 12/3, at 8pm EST on http://freedomslips.com. Kevin Allan, who has hosted two fantastic shows about the troubled teen industry, is dedicating another show to survivors and the cause. Guests include an all-star line up: Ginger McNulty, Bill Boyles, Jodi Helm-Hobbs, Marcus Morton Chatfield V, Susan Hawthorne Lawrence, Lee Goldman and many survivors who will call in to share their stories.

Check out Kevin Allan’s awesome radio show about OpLiberation!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT7ZVkadJDA, or download the mp3 for free here: http://www.mediafire.com/?ufjzqwmba5f00mw

It is an amazing show, Kevin Allan was sensitive yet appropriately outraged. All of the people that called in were fantastic, they got a great discussion going. It went so well that Kevin spontaneously added a second show that, unfortunately, was not recorded, but he has been fantastic to provide us with the entire first show. Kevin will be doing more shows on freedomslips.com in the near future, we will keep everyone posted when we know the details.

  Also, if anyone would like to host a radio show about the troubled teen industry, Kevin has generously offered to get OpLiberation set up with our own internet radio show! You wouldn’t need any special equipment, just a Skype account. The details are being worked out, it looks like there will be some flexibility. You could host one show, or a few, or do a weekly series. Email Kevin Allan at masterofmanythings@yahoo.com if you are interested.