Idk how a parent being told they will be unable to contact their child directly for months on end isn't a HUGE red flag. These are the kind of parents who worry more about their kid making them look bad than their kid's actual welfare.
Read a graphic novel based on one survivor's accounts, and you hit the nail on the head. The kid's only "offense" was smoking weed ONCE. He was abducted from his home in the middle of the night. When he'd worked his way up to visitation outside the school, his parents didn't believe him and he ended up having to Pepper spray them to get away. Last I heard his parents still refused to believe how awful the school had treated him.
I remember learning about the Elan school in a psych class. It always baffled me how the two founders felt that punishment didn’t help kids and instead needed truly personalized therapy; but the end result was creating a literal cult that abused kids from Day 0. Freaking insane.
Im guessing it was never really about helping. Sometimes even professionals will feel like bad kids deserved to be punished, but in the confines of their old jobs where they had bosses, supervisers, oversight, etc they couldnt really act on those feels and likely couldnt even really talk about them openly. Once they had their compound in rural Maine free from oversight and with limitless authority they started acting on their feelings and started beating the kids into compliance and figured out how to expand their power over time. Seeing how quickly Dawn latched onto a random trucker, and seeing how many of these kids were likely promiscuous beforehand (that sort of stuff is a common complaint of parents like theirs) it wouldnt surprise me if they also sexually abused the kids as well which offered the leaders more power and further incentives.
It’s probably worth extending this insight to other kids who run away- they are also generally running for a reason. Adults are far too quick to dismiss children’s reports of what happens to them.
Her mom was essentially an accessory to her murder for abdicating her parental responsibility. All you need to know about a cult like this can be seen when they abduct your kid in the middle of the night. She didn't want to have to do the work of being a mother and now with her daughter dead she got that wish. I can't say I have any sympathy for her since she played a key role in making that happen.
Yes. I get so frustrated when law enforcement dismiss missing person cases because "they probably just ran away". Like, even if that's the case, there's still something wrong??
Yup yup. Should be common knowledge. Hard to believe that the system is a better spot for some people than with their guardians. I think there's a real problem with lazy and bad parents in America.
The scary part is that these kind of establishments are common. The troubled teen industri, tti, is so scary and harmful. Many other places are even worse!
That's why utmost shame should be brought to them. It would make me happy to see riots like there was for some of the BLM movements, only for the heads of these prison camp to be smashed to oblivion by the heels of their victims.
happy my mom was smart enough no get me living elsewhere whit another family for said drugs problems she been a good girl like look at the case of this video its where i may had been in place like THIS!!!!!!MY life went well better whit none of these fake family and i dont care it was worth it be whit my drug gang having point 0 respect for me 13 year old to 18 it was also so worth not to get exorcise why????? cause this is occult persecution and attack im born to be whit these spirit also satanism is legal witchcraft to be whit demon is legal religion dont get it it was also regrettable for the disease i had cause i took pot smokes drug from 13 but its where it got me i can see any spirit i can have information about. they look amazing even angel even demon and this is only 2 type i love you god i love you gentleness you a joy be more in me anytime i love neutral i love ether gods i love devil love evil devil lived here you see a weird wizard hating on the horrible people doing that in the video there is no toxicity going on
My buddy in Arizona got sent to one of these by his mom. Same thing, snatched him in the middle of the night. He called it “treehab” except there were no trees. They were forced to march through the desert with only enough supplies to get from supply point a to supply point b to prevent runners. If you run they have choppers, dogs, and a goon squad to track you down. He said if he was given enough food and water he would’ve enjoyed the experience and probably been open to reform. Instead he just hated his mom for forcing him to suffer the torture and kept on fucking up. Sad to see.
And yet, you have flag of fascist country in your avatar, country that established similar schools all over to indoctrinate kids into genocidal SS-like ideology of bandera. Go figure. Turn your brain on and start supporting the side fighting the nazis.
Had a friend with an similar experience. Granted they were a bit wild, cutting themselves, doing drugs, destroying property, not going to school, and generally being an actual psychopath. The parents just sent them off to a group in Montana, in the mountains miles from civilization. Go camping with horses for weeks on end, without enough food or proper directions in those mountains to get back to civilization, just trapped there for whatever nonsense socialization therapy they had in mind.
there is tough love and then there's the elan school. Where parents pay people to abuse their kids for them and it's all legal. Paris Hilton made a doc about her experience at an elan type school. And it is the biggest reason she says she has a strained relationship with her mother to this day. I don't blame anyone who can't be close to their parents after sending them here and paying for them to abuse their kid.... NO WAY
Situations like the Elan school are why my mother and I had two passwords between us. One was a safety password that would be given from her to someone else in the event they needed to pick me up in case of an emergency, so I'd know my mother authorized it and they were safe. The other was so one of us could tell the other that we were in danger if we were being observed or held against our will, and the word could easily be slipped into a pretty normal sentence without seeming off. (Interestingly, we established these when I was a toddler, but we didn't end up using them until she was much later in life aside from one incident when I was a child.) I like to think that if I used that word while on the phone with her at that camp, she'd take me seriously and intervene.
My mom did this with my sister and I. If we were in danger or something of a stranger/kidnapping we were instructed to ask them the password. If they didn’t know it we knew to flee and ask for help. I also taught this feature to my child. There are so many sick and disturbing people out there, it’s a disgrace. Men driving pass in cars showing themselves to you on a walk home from school. Getting grabbed and held as a sex slave, pornography and the list goes on. We as parents are to “Protect” our children. And not to do something like this. Don’t have kids if you think you’re going to be a horrible parent, give them to a family member whose going to show them love. Or get yourself some help!! And as far as forgiveness goes, you can choose to forgive them but don’t do it because they “want” you to. As someone else stated “they can feel heat on their asses and don’t want to be in hell.” Those types of people deserve to be in hell!!!!
How sad. Kids cannot be taught how to be good and kind through abuse. I have a challenging child, incredibly smart, deeply emotional. Over the years I've tried many things with him, and what I found was, he need kindness, he needs me to stay calm when he is out of control, he needs understanding, but he does need reasonable boundaries set and held to. These things make out of control kids feel safe and If they feel safe they can grow out of these phases of misbehavior. They don't need to be screamed at, hit, or given outrageous punishments.
Im glad I was hit when I was young, to be clear hit and not abused! You only need to look at the kids today for proof! Much higher rates of suicide, crime, teen pregnancies etc etc Kids benefit from structure and discipline as it prepares you for real life!
It's wonderful that you found that worked for you and your child but you shouldn't judge others not knowing their specific situations. What works for one does not work for the other. My niece most definitely did not respond to the actions you advise- she just continued to get worse and physically violent. Unfortunately, outside of a private therapist, there's no resources available to help deal with situations like that.
My brother went to one of these schools a long time ago. It was awful. They came in at 4am and like you said, basically abducted him. They took him 6-7 hours north to the Florida/Georgia line, to a farm in the middle of NOWHERE. They weren’t allowed to call and talk to anyone, including family, for 6 months. After 6 months they were allowed to write letters that were heavily monitored. My brother described food depravation, sleep deprivation, constant praying and church services (it was a Christian camp). When my brother finally came home nearly 2 years later, he was completely brainwashed and militarized. It was a Christian, military boot camp for troubled youths. Just like this camp. He told us stories of kids escaping, only to be shot when they tried passing through farmer’s land that was close to the camp. The camp was in the middle of nowhere, with a couple farms around it. That’s all there was for miles. They even told the kids that they’re welcome to try and run. It was nuts. The school is now shut down. Thank God.
@@leigha2814 yes. He does. He was REALLY out of control at the time, and my parents were afraid that he was going to end up getting locked up on something serious if they didn’t take drastic measures. My mother is extremely regretful for sending him there, but he also agrees that he was really out of control at the time. So they both recognize how bad it was and how bad he was, and they both understand why it happened, and they just wish it didn’t.
I wish your brother and your family all the best in the future. What a horrible story but glad your brother was able to get out. Sometimes parents are so stressed that they just go the "desperate times call for desperate measures" mindset. And back in the day, 45 years ago for my memories, things were just swept under the carpet and not discussed.
I personally know a girl (now a young woman) who was forced into this school, and abused. She participated in the documentary, behind the scenes, as she was still so petrified of retaliation from people loyal to the school. She recently made attempts to take her own life. This is sad, sad, sad stuff.
@Midge I hope she gets the actual help she needs. It honestly sounds as if the place was operated the same way a cult would be operated. You might pass on to her that stuff dealing with cult recovery may be helpful. One thing that's so infuriating about these alleged "therapeutic schools" that are the opposite? Parents are **trying to do right by their kids** when they put them into these schools. The parents' trust is MASSIVELY being betrayed, as well as the kids'.
What always gets me is that the thought of someone grabbing my kid out of their bed and taking them away is a nightmare. I'm not sure why these parents believed this would be the way to more compliant children. This would wreck me and make me hate and distrust my parents forever.
There are so many “schools” like this all over the US. My best friend in hs was sent to one. She was kidnapped in the middle of the night during our junior year, I didn’t hear from her or find out what happened until we reunited when she came home when she was 19. She tried to unalive herself two times after coming home. She had bipolar disorder and the “school” didn’t treat her mental illness at all. What she and thousands of other kids have gone through is horrific. My friend was deeply traumatized by her experience and was never the same. I know the school is overshadowed in this story by the girl being kidnapped by a murderer (which was obviously horrible). But I don’t think people realize how common these places are and that kids are there right now being traumatized and have nowhere to turn for help.
This happened to a friend in high school. She got excellent grades and was a really nice person. Unfortunately, her parents were incredibly strict and lost their minds when they found the remains of a joint in her room. She was terrified from the start and it only got worse. It took years after she got home to become normal again.
@@sophiewhitehouse6718 normal doesn't mean good or healthy. It just means it's common. I'm not saying this girl should have been punished so severely for it, but your implication that it being normal means it should be acceptable is also wrong.
@@_StormfatherI agree. There are much better ways the parents should have dealt with it. Smoking any substance is very unhealthy and harmful, specially for underage children and teenagers. It should not be encouraged. But the parents chose the totally wrong way to deal with it and their daughter only got damaged by that. Not logical how parents think that strangers that do not love their kids somehow could raise and correct them better than them.
My heart goes out to the kids who were forced into that place and others like it - the comments on this thread show how deep the rot goes and how many lives were tarnished, ruined, and shortened by such places. I'd never even heard of places like this before today. Thank you for sharing and for giving context to the young lady's situation - too often missing young people are dismissed as "runaways" as though running away is a childish whim, not an action born of strong emotion and usually a legitimate cause, and those who are taken miss out on the crucial first 48 hours as parents/carers/educators are simply told to sit tight and wait for the child to cool off and make contact.
The fact that a child’s rights can be so easily signed away by their parents sincerely scares me so much. These kids did indeed need help, but their own parents would rather give them away to random strangers who would essentially kidnap them in the middle of the night.
You cant really put all the blame on the parents. Back then there was no internet so no way to look up reviews. The people that ran these facilities would make the parents think that this would help their child and that they would be cared for.
@@bri_guy508 Yeaaaa, hell no. It doesn't take an internet, but half a functioning brain and not parents that can't bother to even try so they can just throw their kid off to somebody else so they can clean their own hands and blame them if the kid still doesn't turn right.
@@bri_guy508 You'd think not sever visiting the school, never seeing your kid, and them not responding to any of the content of your return letters would be a red flag. Many parents visit summer camps before and while their kids are there and often pick them up and that's just a matter of days or weeks. These kids were in for years. That's pretty definitive "stick your kid away and forget about them" behavior.
@@lukez7733 It's a serial killers paradise. So many abandoned buildings to hide a body in. Drove through there once. Place looked like a demilitarized zone. Drive around not through.
I was one of those kids who got churned through the Troubled Teen industrial machine (wilderness bootcamp), but came away mostly unscathed...except for the trauma of being kidnapped in the middle of the night by two strangers who flew me across the country and drove me 4 hours into the woods. It's been 19 years and I still can't sleep without a locking bedroom door.
r/JoeNobody is an amazing comic made as a kind of self-therapy chronicling how he survived Elan, how much of himself he lost, and how he (eventually) came home. I’d highly recommend it to anyone who wants a firsthand account of this fucked up place
The introduction about getting kidnapped in the middle of the night is exactly how my parents thought I should be “transported” to the “troubled teen academy” in the wilderness they sent me to, River View Christian Academy in Whitmore, CA. They hired two strange men in a van to come to our house at 3:30am demanding I get dressed and come with them. I thought I was being trafficked. My “trouble” was an eating disorder. It’s so disturbing how a person under 18 can have every basic human right signed away by their parents. This industry is alive and well.
I stayed at an 18 month program that was very similar to that of élan, minus the fight club. But we had lack of sleep, malnourishment, brain washing, they made me wear a toilet seat around my neck for a week. If someone escaped they punished everyone by deep cleaning the whole house for 12hours to sometimes days. They would sit you I front of everyone 30+ guys each took their turn yelling at you and berating you. They made us write essays for hours everyday and we were not allowed to talk to each other during. Couldn’t use the phone and we did chores all day long.
Wow, it’s hard to believe these institutions are permitted. Side note: wasn’t Paris Hilton put in one of these places? I watched her doc and she described being “kidnapped” in the middle of the night and she suffered a lot of trauma there and attempted to escape (may be missing some details, it’s been awhile since I’ve watched it).
And wait, the school was found to be abusing kids and was still allowed to be open and practice what they were doing for more than 30 years after they got caught being abusive?!?!
I am always conflicted when watching these videos. Everything in them is tragic/horrifying, which is sad. However, I am always happy when Scary Interesting uploads because the quality of his videos and genuine concern/mourning for the people involved is unmatched!
I'm always kinda iffy about "normal people" true crime channels because they're profiting off the dead and it's unlikely that they share any of their revenue with the victim's families despite making money off of their trauma, but Scary Interesting is different. It feels educational and he's very respectful.
That's called 'cognitive dissonance'. I know what you mean. I don't want bad things to happen to people, but I enjoy hearing about bad things happening to people.
The girl had a horrible fate in this lifetime I can’t ever imagine. She was abused at home, then sent to be more abused at the horrible school. Then she had the courage to breakfree but to encounter the sadistic rapist/murderer. I don’t really know what she had done in the past (lives) but it is too much. RIP THE BRAVE GIRL.
Funny enough, the reason I started this channel was because I was listening to videos just like this, bored at work. I'm happy to be paying it forward. Thanks so much for supporting the channel!
Unbelievable that such a hell on earth place can exist for that long. What unimaninable horrors must these poor kids have gone through. How could the parents do this to their own children?
You know, I think if I signed my kid up for a specialized school for undisciplined teens, and representatives of that school drove up to my house in the dead of night, barged up into my kid's room and started screaming at them I'd be calling the whole thing off. If I had a weapon some of those representatives would probably require some time in the hospital afterwards.
That's the worst part about it all - the parents knew about what circumstances their children would be picked up in and actively consented to the "kidnapping". They wanted this to happen because they saw it as a part of scaring the kids into obedience. These parents are just as sick as these counselors
@@spacejasontoddthe scaring part isn't that bad. Giving delinquent kids a much-needed wakeup call without hurting them can be very beneficial. It's everything that happened _after_ that which is a problem.
@@_Stormfather I don't think you quite understand the sheer psychological damage just this "scene" would cause, especially to someone still growing. I'm talking parts of your brain are either permanently stuck in development stage or busted altogether, forever. It's not a coincidence active warfare soldiers and kidnapping victims BOTH deal with PTSD.
@@spacejasontodd you're right, there is a reason. It's because they both suffered trauma. But there's a world of difference between _actually_ being kidnapped, and being temporarily scared into _thinking_ that's what's happening.
7:30 jesus christ i had a flashback because of this story. In Florida there was a school called Kingsberry or Kneekay academy that i was forced into as a young man. Nobody believes me when i tell them the horrors i have witnessed and been subject too myself. The story is nearly identical.
I saved myself as a young when I was attacked by an adult. I stabbed him with a pencil and ran. He got only a portion of what he deserved, but getting that broken pencil out of his arm was probably hard. It's a good thing I kept my No.2s sharp. I'f you're being abused or attacked, fight back with everything you have and do as much damage as possibleand run as far as you can and fight anyone who tries to take you back. I'd rather go to prison or be killed than live like that. You can't rely on anyone else to save you and going along will usually get you killed or worse. That's why I'm always armed now. I'll control my own destiny or die trying.
Yea, when I hear stories like this I know that as a young man I would have fought back in some very ugly ways if I were being abused like these kids were. I would not have tolerated it at all. It would have been a fight to the death or I would have conspired with others to flee or form a rebellion. Peer pressure did not work on me at all as a kid, I woulda said f you to the entire camp and still been confident in myself.
@@joebauers3746 Remember: You're saying that as someone whose upbringing DIDN'T involve this scenario. It comes across as victim blamey to say you would've handled it differently by XYZ means. If that 'fight to the death' actually ended with you left with severe injuries, and restrained, and isolated, but alive and in constant pain - your will would diminish faster than you realise. A forced feeding tube would keep you alive whether you wanted to resist or not. If, after MONTHS of being kept in that state, you were given 1 chance to do something small - stand in a crowd of people screaming at 1 other kid - you CAN'T say for sure you wouldn't rationalise it as justified. Especially when you didn't have half the experiences you had which enabled you to safely develop that self-confidence. People always think they would remain silent and resist, like, military torture - but ask anyone with a chronic pain condition what strain that puts on you. I had a problem which caused me pain for about 10 months. It wasn't even that severe as far as pain goes - I love MMA and I can take a fair bit! - but it was unrelenting. It catches you at your weakest points, it gets inside your head that "this is just how it is now". A constant desperation for relief - try X supplement, Y sleeping position, any snake oil just on the off chance it works even a little. And mine was managable - not even close to what some people deal with. Unless you've experienced something like that, or really listened to people who have, you can't understand HOW much trauma and constant pain changes you. From a position of safety, it's always easy to say 'fight back' or 'I wouldn't have tolerated it', but the reality is always very different. Psychological abuse works for a reason, and can work on anybody, especially when coupled with constant physical abuse.
Imagine exactly the same structured "school" but you are forced to speak Spanish from the first moment you arrive but you don't know even a little bit. That was my experience when I was sent to Casa By The Sea in Ensenada, Mexico. It was super traumatizing. I was there from ages 15 to 17. I still suffer from PTSD and nightmares have plagued me since. And I'm freaking 36 now! It's never ending. You just learn to live with it. Watching this brought up some serious PTSD for me haha. It's like Casa took Elan's effed up curriculum (for lack of better word) almost exactly. We never had fight clubs thank God but everything else was the same. Down to our "Counselors". The counselors just spoke the best English so they were the ones in charge of talking with our parents and acting like they had a degree in psychology and child development. I don't think they had much past maybe high school if that. I can go on for days about how messed up that place was. It's heartbreaking to hear she was put in a position to be murdered because of that evil place. I can 110% understand her overwhelming need to get the hell out of that place. I felt it every second of every day while there. My heart hurts for her.
I feel for you, but there is no such thing as forever damaged. You still need help, but you need to want it, and also, given the state of the world, I hope you are in a place where medical is free OR you can afford it.
Whatever Dawn did within her family, it didn't merit Elan "school" and her mother was a fool for 1) not looking further into Elan and 2) watching how they captured her and doing nothing. Authorities should have been investigating her mother, not sympathizing with her.
I would bet actual money the mother wasn't a fool for not knowing but more like she didn't care. After all, the cnt had no problem with the way they took her daughter to the "school".
I first read this story in a book, Dawn's problems were largely caused by her mother's... questionable life choices and the school, not through any genuine delinquency of her own. The trucker she fell in love with was killed too, people who looked at the case later realized he was killed first and that was why he never showed up at the truck stop where she was waiting for him. People think she started hitch hiking with the idea his route might have changed, and the going theory is she and the trucker were each killed by a different serial killer. Dawn was unidentified for years before all this was uncovered, for a long time she was an unidentified Jane Doe that the town community she was found near called Summer because they didn't know her name.
To be honest. I've watched a full 1 hour video on elan school like 2 years, and just explaining what went on in this school would be enough for a scary interesting video. No jokes when i saw the name in the thumbnail i immediatly got flashbacks from that video, truly bone chilling story
@@MM-jf1me yes absolutely, only that it's in french. The channel's name is "feldup" if you do understand french. Not sure if he has it translated or not
@@ugfugf5080 Haha, thank you! I don't know French, but I'm sure someone will come across our comments and find your recommendation very helpful. There are sure to be good documentaries in English and the narrator mentioned a few while telling the story so I'll probably try to track those down when I'm feeling up for learning about a depressing topic.
I have heard Dawn's story minus that the staffer she called was from Elon... I work with behavioral disorder teens and it's not a pleasant but it is rewarding to see our students move on in life with good emotional role modeling as a base. Teen emotions are so high and some are abnormally adverse to societal norms, we all need to learn to function in the world in a "normal" manner, spewing profanities and threats at teachers, bosses, neighbors etc is not acceptable. The abuse at Elon was horrific, it's sad that it ran for most of 40 years.
At least someone understands. Once you work in a school system and see tremendously antisocial kids that basically undermine the entire school, you realize that there needs to be alternatives so they can hopefully become functional adults.
But why do these kids become this way? Isn't it the parents' fault for spoiling their kids, not correcting their behaviors, making excuses for them, and not disciplining them properly since the day they learned to walk and talk? There's no reason for these kids to feel they have a right to act they way they do smh, the rest of the world isn't there to put up with their shit
@@Sophiedabombbaby no, its not that simple - there are many, varied reasons for people to not be "normal" or enough so, and its not "spoiled kids" You are very ignorant, it seems, so I hope you dont voice opinions on this matter or... and I hate to say this - attempt to educate yourself on this. There are many youtube videos, so its actually easy.
@@SDMev1982 yes, but the problem is, places like Elan are rather typical and far too often they go to a place like that or something far too close. If schools were better funded , this would be less of a problem.
What a horrible story. The people who created this school should've never been allowed near children. Also, what kind of scumbag parent lets their kids essentially get kidnapped? Vile.
Many, many parents. So much so that it has a name: gooning or getting gooned. It happened to a friend of mine in highschool, she was traumatized and slept with a weapon under her pillow afterwards
My husband was sent to a boys camp that was later found to have abused children. He said the only thing that kept him from abuse was the fact that his parents were one of the few that actually showed up every Sunday for church. That’s kind of sad, because it’s not even like his parents really cared. They just wanted to show good face.
I looked up Elan school on the Google Earth app after I watched this video and you can see how incredibly remote the school was. In the photo section there is an image of a teen girl wearing a humiliation board in front of the class (at least I think that what it was). In another photo there appears to be a young teen girl who is wearing an actual dunce cap whilst doing her work. It seemed that the school was pretty upfront on their methods. Great video as always. Take care and much love from the UK 🇬🇧
Good work, Scary. The treatment boarding school for teens industry is taking what's probably a genuine need, and exploiting it. These places are poorly regulated and often abusive, from what I can tell.
I find it really bone chilling to think about the 100s or 1000s of institutions just like this that we don't know anything about and are still operating with relative impunity in the US and the world...
I have heard of these schools before but its only now I realized where their tactics sound familiar from. The "attack therapy" thing sounds exactly like the Synanon cult. Having everyone yell at one person is exactly what they would do.
My heart hurts for Dawn and what she endured. Along with the other "students". The original "plan" for the school sounded good but those two lunatics ended up creating a nightmare. They should have been charged with abuse and neglect of minors.
this sounds very similar to where paris hilton was held as a young girl. if youve never seen the "this is paris" documentary, its really eye opening and disturbing
Really well done and informative! Edit: the failures of our families, educational institutions & the bureaucratic nightmare of a federal government we have led to schools like this existing.
I have a child with mental health struggles. Places like this are the worst possible thing a parent can do to their child. My kiddo has spent time in a couple of psychiatric hospitals, never more than a few days at a time. Phone calls and visits were allowed EVERY DAY. And they actually had activities my kiddo enjoyed, and my kiddo was made to feel safe in those places. THIS is a forking travesty. They should be illegal. Please, any parents whose child is struggling, DO NOT go to places like this.
This kind of "school" is legal and common. It is entirely legal to send your kids to a torture camp for years and years and every single one of these places is rife with abuse.
@@4FYTfa8EjYHNXjChe8xs7xmC5pNEtz At the very least, there's far too little regulation. A lot of them are in Utah _just to avoid a lot of regulation._ So, their business model works better when they can be shady? A wilderness school k1lled a kid on a hike in Utah, the child died of dehydration/heatstroke. The adult counselor wasn't well-trained, IIRC thought the kid was faking. ...Which is effed up, I have only a smidgen of medical training and I can probably tell if someone's starting to have heat problems.
This is about as bad as those four children that were severely abused by their foster parents, and were finally caught and put in jail. the children were finally taken out of that abuse and put into new foster care where those parents also abuse them severely....... it doesn't get much worse than that. I just looked it was the Turpin family
the Turpin kids- those were their real parents who abused them. There are 13 brothers and sisters. The Parents actually just went to court a few years ago and got life. But you are right the foster care families they went to were just as bad if not worse. And the system knew but did nothing to help the kids out. Just imagine FINALLY feeling like you're free from hell and the only life you've ever known was about to change. And when it does the only thing that changes is the people who torture and torment you are now strangers and not your parents.... It's so sad that the system didn't let those kids go to stay with family, because they did want them but they wouldn't let it happen....
I went to Penninsula Village in Knoxville Tennessee as a kid in 2006. It was similar in some ways to Elans modes of confrontation therapy. There were some things at PV that were debatably more traumatizing and abusive. There are many places like this still today. The troubled teen industry is horrible. I've been to prison as an adult and nothing will ever compare to what I went through at PV. It's still the only thing I really have nightmares about. Don't trust other people with your children, no matter how hard it is to raise them.
Thanks for another one Mr Scarry Interesting. That's hard to believe they could treat those poor students like that. I guess 1 thing I've learned from listening to these is never underestimate what a human can do to another human being. As always looking forward to the next
Let's not forget that Michael Skakel, a Kennedy cousin and suspect in the murder of Martha Moxley, was a student at Elan. It's gotten bad press from day 1. Horrible.
There are way too many "schools" and institutions like this that exist. I don't know how they are able to get around the law for so long; it baffles me. People are sick and monsters out there just love taking their authority too far just because they can.
As soon as you mentioned the boarding school, I knew what this would be about. I just watched a video by Disturban about it roughly a week ago. Edit: It was that video by Nexpo, not one by Disturban. I was thinking of a different video.
I worked in youth care. There was a time where the philosophy of care was "it's the kid's fault", which clearly it can't be, THEY'RE KIDS. These programs like boot camps in the 90s would take the kids from their homes and put them in strict environments like the military. Sometimes the kids would show huge improvement in the camps, but it was usually because they were getting a regular schedule and proper food and were away from the toxic family dynamic. Many forms of "treatment" for "problem" children usually stemmed from the child being abused or mistreated, but PARENTS WOULDN'T DO THAT (and also they have the money) so maybe it's the kid's fault? The "who cares, give me money" people who were the loudest. Many people at the time knew it was wrong, but money talks. Loads of disabled kids got shipped off to these or other homes where they were continually abused because it was easier to blame them than adapt their lives. Thank you for focusing on that part of the story, it's important to remember these things happened and are happening now. Fight them if and when you can.
It's not the kid's fault for being raised poorly, but it is the kid's responsibility to fix their behavior and become a functioning adult. Telling them that other people are to blame for all their problems is not the way to accomplish that.
I'm surprised to haven't seen it in the comments already, so I'm recommending the webcomic Elan School by Joe Nobody, if you want to learn more about one former student's experience. He describes in details his experience of living at Elan, the systems of abuse implemented there, but also how this trauma affected him after he was out. I find it emotionally hard to handle, but it's an important read.
Florida is a terrifying place to live. In Florida there's what they call Red Flag Laws, are laws the government uses as weapons if they "suspect you of a crime or have committed a crime" (broad terms) to silence anyone they deem a "threat". Red flag laws also make it if an "authority figure feels threatened to any capacity " they can authorize search and seizures of your private property or dwellings. These laws also can make it to where you may be detained indefinitely with no warrants or authorization no judges or jury. I have ben ubject to these laws many timesin my life. No lawyers or cops came to rescue or help so in the end it comes down ole stick (bang bang). Thats true reason Florida has so many "mass shootings" its desperate people who've bee truly backed into a corner in every shape and form of the words
I know this from Nexpo and its how I got first introduced to that channel. I shall just upvote and move as I know this story and its sad/depressing to say the least
I was 5150d multiple times as a child and it traumatized me so bad and my mom was the reason I was acting out cuz she was beating me. It made me hate authority and now I struggle daily
Thus is what Paris Hilton was subjected to, really. I have admiration for her as she has a survivor's group and didn't whine about it for money. Her parents did not believe what she said was happening there including abuse, only reason she got out was threatening her father she would expose everything the minute she got out, she waited 2o years before she spoke of this publicly.
as a maine resident it’s horrifying to think about the fact that just a couple miles away there was a school that pulled this shit. i remember hearing about it when i was younger and being so scared to the point where my parents had to tell me multiple times that they wouldn’t send me there. the amount of crazy things you can get away with in the woods of maine is wild, be careful wandering around here
I've seen documentaries on Elan and I'm shocked it wasn't closed until 2011. Great video! I didn't know the full story on that poor girl who ran away with the truck driver. Just horrible. I totally blame that on the school. It sounded so hellish and if I'd been there I'd have probably tried to book it too.
I wish I could say I'm surprised the school lasted as long as it did but I'm not. Our American Justice system is broken as hell so of course a school for troubled kids would be the same.
OMG, so much in my mind in response to this! As another commenter put it, it's an absolute injustice to tell Dawn's story without talking about the school. That's such a big part of all this! Second, when he said she was originally from Indiana, I thought this was going to be about another such school that operated in Indiana for years, and thankfully has been shut down, I believe. They didn't have a fight club (as far as I know), but so many of the other things described here happened not just there in IN, but also even more so in this school's campuses in the wilderness of Canada, and in a small town in the Dominican Republic. Kids who tried to run from the Indiana campus were automatically sent to the DR, because the US didn't control what went on there. Students at this school were frequently kidnapped from their homes in the middle of the night with parental permission. I believe it, and other schools like it, eventually led to the creation of a documentary called Kidnapped for Christ, if I remember the name correctly.
Yep this happened to me. I was professionally kidnapped, and, while I’ve heard of this particular school in the video, I was taken to a behavior modification program in Mexico. I was there for 2 years, until it shut down for allegations of child abuse, and I was taken directly to an identical school in upstate New York. I was there in total from age 15-18. Yea we weren’t allowed to talk either. Sounds very similar. Our letters were heavily censored too, they just simply wouldn’t send them if we tried to tell our parents what was going on. Needless to say, I have ptsd now.
Nightmare in elan school 🏫 elm school….. I was in bore school when I was a kid fight club and rape was common I was never raped but beaten to an inches of my life and more then once. I was singled out but this isn’t about me . This type of !schooling is more common then people think 🤔 all around the world 🌎 some places it still goes on … it’s not normal so speak 🗣out about it as hard as it is …. And the poor girls that got away and killed 😢
My cousin went to a sister program of Elans 😂back in the early 90's when I was just a kid. She originally went there because she was disobeying her parents completely and would runaway for weeks on end but the main thing was she started dated a guy that was in his 20's when she has only 13. When she was 16 they (the organization) kidnapped her, ziptied her, put a black cloth bag over hear head and drove her to across the country. She stayed there for almost 2 years until my anut & uncle deemed her "fixed." Little did they know within a month of her getting back she started seeing the same guy again and shortly after she turned 18 was pregnant and already moved out. She has 4 grown kids now and still with the guy lol. The program didn't work unless the point was to induce unnecessary trauma.
![[ ออกกอง ] วัยหนุ่ม 2544 โลกหลังลูกกรง..ทัวร์กองถ่ายหนังใน "คุกของจริง" | JUSTดูIT.](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/vB--aOkZCpw/mqdefault.jpg)
Idk how a parent being told they will be unable to contact their child directly for months on end isn't a HUGE red flag. These are the kind of parents who worry more about their kid making them look bad than their kid's actual welfare.
The kind of person that sends their child to a place like this doesn’t care about their child and probably knew how bad these places are. Also America
@@murkyseb exactly! They should face charges!
Some parents are stupid
very well written. As i parent i simply can not understand it.
Read a graphic novel based on one survivor's accounts, and you hit the nail on the head. The kid's only "offense" was smoking weed ONCE. He was abducted from his home in the middle of the night. When he'd worked his way up to visitation outside the school, his parents didn't believe him and he ended up having to Pepper spray them to get away. Last I heard his parents still refused to believe how awful the school had treated him.
I remember learning about the Elan school in a psych class. It always baffled me how the two founders felt that punishment didn’t help kids and instead needed truly personalized therapy; but the end result was creating a literal cult that abused kids from Day 0. Freaking insane.
"Absolute power corrupts absolutely" - I don't remember who said it
@@confusion9950 Lord Acton. If I remember right, the full quote is, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
@@Lawrence_Talbot that sounds alot better! I'm stoned af right now lol 😂 thank you!
@@confusion9950 me too bro 🤣 have a great day :)
Im guessing it was never really about helping. Sometimes even professionals will feel like bad kids deserved to be punished, but in the confines of their old jobs where they had bosses, supervisers, oversight, etc they couldnt really act on those feels and likely couldnt even really talk about them openly. Once they had their compound in rural Maine free from oversight and with limitless authority they started acting on their feelings and started beating the kids into compliance and figured out how to expand their power over time. Seeing how quickly Dawn latched onto a random trucker, and seeing how many of these kids were likely promiscuous beforehand (that sort of stuff is a common complaint of parents like theirs) it wouldnt surprise me if they also sexually abused the kids as well which offered the leaders more power and further incentives.
It’s probably worth extending this insight to other kids who run away- they are also generally running for a reason. Adults are far too quick to dismiss children’s reports of what happens to them.
Her mom was essentially an accessory to her murder for abdicating her parental responsibility. All you need to know about a cult like this can be seen when they abduct your kid in the middle of the night. She didn't want to have to do the work of being a mother and now with her daughter dead she got that wish. I can't say I have any sympathy for her since she played a key role in making that happen.
Correct.
Absolutely agree
Yes. I get so frustrated when law enforcement dismiss missing person cases because "they probably just ran away". Like, even if that's the case, there's still something wrong??
Yup yup. Should be common knowledge. Hard to believe that the system is a better spot for some people than with their guardians.
I think there's a real problem with lazy and bad parents in America.
The scary part is that these kind of establishments are common. The troubled teen industri, tti, is so scary and harmful. Many other places are even worse!
It's insane how bad the industry is
That's why utmost shame should be brought to them.
It would make me happy to see riots like there was for some of the BLM movements, only for the heads of these prison camp to be smashed to oblivion by the heels of their victims.
lol... i don't think so...
happy my mom was smart enough no get me living elsewhere whit another family for said drugs problems she been a good girl
like look at the case of this video its where i may had been in place like THIS!!!!!!MY life went well better whit none of these fake family
and i dont care it was worth it be whit my drug gang having point 0 respect for me 13 year old to 18
it was also so worth not to get exorcise
why?????
cause this is occult persecution and attack im born to be whit these spirit also satanism is legal witchcraft to be whit demon is legal religion dont get it
it was also regrettable for the disease i had cause i took pot smokes drug from 13 but its where it got me
i can see any spirit i can have information about. they look amazing even angel even demon and this is only 2 type
i love you god i love you gentleness you a joy be more in me anytime
i love neutral i love ether gods
i love devil love evil
devil lived
here you see a weird wizard hating on the horrible people doing that in the video
there is no toxicity going on
@@SgtCarter69 advocating for riots like that is one way to be labelled as a domestic terrorist.
My buddy in Arizona got sent to one of these by his mom. Same thing, snatched him in the middle of the night. He called it “treehab” except there were no trees. They were forced to march through the desert with only enough supplies to get from supply point a to supply point b to prevent runners. If you run they have choppers, dogs, and a goon squad to track you down. He said if he was given enough food and water he would’ve enjoyed the experience and probably been open to reform. Instead he just hated his mom for forcing him to suffer the torture and kept on fucking up. Sad to see.
I didn't know Holes was real
@@MemoryDealer I had this exact experience. It is very real.
@@lemur7493 sorry to hear it big dog!
And yet, you have flag of fascist country in your avatar, country that established similar schools all over to indoctrinate kids into genocidal SS-like ideology of bandera. Go figure. Turn your brain on and start supporting the side fighting the nazis.
Had a friend with an similar experience. Granted they were a bit wild, cutting themselves, doing drugs, destroying property, not going to school, and generally being an actual psychopath. The parents just sent them off to a group in Montana, in the mountains miles from civilization. Go camping with horses for weeks on end, without enough food or proper directions in those mountains to get back to civilization, just trapped there for whatever nonsense socialization therapy they had in mind.
there is tough love and then there's the elan school. Where parents pay people to abuse their kids for them and it's all legal. Paris Hilton made a doc about her experience at an elan type school. And it is the biggest reason she says she has a strained relationship with her mother to this day. I don't blame anyone who can't be close to their parents after sending them here and paying for them to abuse their kid.... NO WAY
Situations like the Elan school are why my mother and I had two passwords between us. One was a safety password that would be given from her to someone else in the event they needed to pick me up in case of an emergency, so I'd know my mother authorized it and they were safe.
The other was so one of us could tell the other that we were in danger if we were being observed or held against our will, and the word could easily be slipped into a pretty normal sentence without seeming off. (Interestingly, we established these when I was a toddler, but we didn't end up using them until she was much later in life aside from one incident when I was a child.)
I like to think that if I used that word while on the phone with her at that camp, she'd take me seriously and intervene.
That's smart. All people should have something like this.
That’s a good mom right there
Oh now that’s awesome . I gotta do that with my own kids . Your mom sounds amazing
My mom did this with my sister and I. If we were in danger or something of a stranger/kidnapping we were instructed to ask them the password. If they didn’t know it we knew to flee and ask for help. I also taught this feature to my child.
There are so many sick and disturbing people out there, it’s a disgrace. Men driving pass in cars showing themselves to you on a walk home from school. Getting grabbed and held as a sex slave, pornography and the list goes on.
We as parents are to “Protect” our children. And not to do something like this. Don’t have kids if you think you’re going to be a horrible parent, give them to a family member whose going to show them love. Or get yourself some help!!
And as far as forgiveness goes, you can choose to forgive them but don’t do it because they “want” you to. As someone else stated “they can feel heat on their asses and don’t want to be in hell.” Those types of people deserve to be in hell!!!!
"So I'd know that mother authorised it and SHE WAS safe"*
How sad. Kids cannot be taught how to be good and kind through abuse. I have a challenging child, incredibly smart, deeply emotional. Over the years I've tried many things with him, and what I found was, he need kindness, he needs me to stay calm when he is out of control, he needs understanding, but he does need reasonable boundaries set and held to. These things make out of control kids feel safe and If they feel safe they can grow out of these phases of misbehavior. They don't need to be screamed at, hit, or given outrageous punishments.
You are a smart and loving mother
AMEN...
VERY WELL SAID...
You are a diamond in the rough and very special especially in today's world. Excellent comment 😊
Im glad I was hit when I was young, to be clear hit and not abused!
You only need to look at the kids today for proof! Much higher rates of suicide, crime, teen pregnancies etc etc
Kids benefit from structure and discipline as it prepares you for real life!
It's wonderful that you found that worked for you and your child but you shouldn't judge others not knowing their specific situations. What works for one does not work for the other. My niece most definitely did not respond to the actions you advise- she just continued to get worse and physically violent. Unfortunately, outside of a private therapist, there's no resources available to help deal with situations like that.
My brother went to one of these schools a long time ago. It was awful. They came in at 4am and like you said, basically abducted him. They took him 6-7 hours north to the Florida/Georgia line, to a farm in the middle of NOWHERE. They weren’t allowed to call and talk to anyone, including family, for 6 months. After 6 months they were allowed to write letters that were heavily monitored. My brother described food depravation, sleep deprivation, constant praying and church services (it was a Christian camp). When my brother finally came home nearly 2 years later, he was completely brainwashed and militarized. It was a Christian, military boot camp for troubled youths. Just like this camp. He told us stories of kids escaping, only to be shot when they tried passing through farmer’s land that was close to the camp. The camp was in the middle of nowhere, with a couple farms around it. That’s all there was for miles. They even told the kids that they’re welcome to try and run. It was nuts. The school is now shut down. Thank God.
jesus fuck, I'm so sorry, this is absolutely horrible
Does he still talk to your parents?
@@leigha2814 yes. He does. He was REALLY out of control at the time, and my parents were afraid that he was going to end up getting locked up on something serious if they didn’t take drastic measures. My mother is extremely regretful for sending him there, but he also agrees that he was really out of control at the time. So they both recognize how bad it was and how bad he was, and they both understand why it happened, and they just wish it didn’t.
I wish your brother and your family all the best in the future. What a horrible story but glad your brother was able to get out. Sometimes parents are so stressed that they just go the "desperate times call for desperate measures" mindset. And back in the day, 45 years ago for my memories, things were just swept under the carpet and not discussed.
Is he still "brainwashed" as you put it?
How did he cope with it?
I personally know a girl (now a young woman) who was forced into this school, and abused. She participated in the documentary, behind the scenes, as she was still so petrified of retaliation from people loyal to the school. She recently made attempts to take her own life. This is sad, sad, sad stuff.
Hilarious.
my buddy went there and went from troubled teen to severe alcoholic young adult
@Midge I hope she gets the actual help she needs.
It honestly sounds as if the place was operated the same way a cult would be operated. You might pass on to her that stuff dealing with cult recovery may be helpful.
One thing that's so infuriating about these alleged "therapeutic schools" that are the opposite? Parents are **trying to do right by their kids** when they put them into these schools.
The parents' trust is MASSIVELY being betrayed, as well as the kids'.
@@rydz656 Troll
@@rydz656 troll... dont interact
What always gets me is that the thought of someone grabbing my kid out of their bed and taking them away is a nightmare. I'm not sure why these parents believed this would be the way to more compliant children. This would wreck me and make me hate and distrust my parents forever.
There are so many “schools” like this all over the US. My best friend in hs was sent to one. She was kidnapped in the middle of the night during our junior year, I didn’t hear from her or find out what happened until we reunited when she came home when she was 19.
She tried to unalive herself two times after coming home. She had bipolar disorder and the “school” didn’t treat her mental illness at all. What she and thousands of other kids have gone through is horrific. My friend was deeply traumatized by her experience and was never the same.
I know the school is overshadowed in this story by the girl being kidnapped by a murderer (which was obviously horrible). But I don’t think people realize how common these places are and that kids are there right now being traumatized and have nowhere to turn for help.
This happened to a friend in high school. She got excellent grades and was a really nice person. Unfortunately, her parents were incredibly strict and lost their minds when they found the remains of a joint in her room. She was terrified from the start and it only got worse. It took years after she got home to become normal again.
I once had a conversation with a lady who does pathology including drug testing, and even she said it's normal for a teen to smoke weed
@@sophiewhitehouse6718 normal doesn't mean good or healthy. It just means it's common. I'm not saying this girl should have been punished so severely for it, but your implication that it being normal means it should be acceptable is also wrong.
@@_StormfatherI agree. There are much better ways the parents should have dealt with it. Smoking any substance is very unhealthy and harmful, specially for underage children and teenagers. It should not be encouraged. But the parents chose the totally wrong way to deal with it and their daughter only got damaged by that. Not logical how parents think that strangers that do not love their kids somehow could raise and correct them better than them.
My heart goes out to the kids who were forced into that place and others like it - the comments on this thread show how deep the rot goes and how many lives were tarnished, ruined, and shortened by such places. I'd never even heard of places like this before today. Thank you for sharing and for giving context to the young lady's situation - too often missing young people are dismissed as "runaways" as though running away is a childish whim, not an action born of strong emotion and usually a legitimate cause, and those who are taken miss out on the crucial first 48 hours as parents/carers/educators are simply told to sit tight and wait for the child to cool off and make contact.
The fact that a child’s rights can be so easily signed away by their parents sincerely scares me so much. These kids did indeed need help, but their own parents would rather give them away to random strangers who would essentially kidnap them in the middle of the night.
They PAID for it. When I heard they were there for years I stopped being mad at the schools. How many parents had to ignore what they were told?
You cant really put all the blame on the parents. Back then there was no internet so no way to look up reviews. The people that ran these facilities would make the parents think that this would help their child and that they would be cared for.
@@bri_guy508 Yeaaaa, hell no. It doesn't take an internet, but half a functioning brain and not parents that can't bother to even try so they can just throw their kid off to somebody else so they can clean their own hands and blame them if the kid still doesn't turn right.
@@bri_guy508 it was closed in 2011
@@bri_guy508 You'd think not sever visiting the school, never seeing your kid, and them not responding to any of the content of your return letters would be a red flag. Many parents visit summer camps before and while their kids are there and often pick them up and that's just a matter of days or weeks. These kids were in for years. That's pretty definitive "stick your kid away and forget about them" behavior.
Born in Gary indiana?! Sheesh, already a bad start for her.
No kidding, thought the same thing myself when he said that. Poor girl, hope she finds her love and peace now.
@@lukez7733 It's a serial killers paradise. So many abandoned buildings to hide a body in. Drove through there once. Place looked like a demilitarized zone. Drive around not through.
Michael Jackson was too
What her being born in Gary have to do what with happened to her?? So if she wasn't living in Gary, "would she still already have a bad start" ?
Your so focused on where she’s from more than what Happened the poor girl is really sad… smh
I was one of those kids who got churned through the Troubled Teen industrial machine (wilderness bootcamp), but came away mostly unscathed...except for the trauma of being kidnapped in the middle of the night by two strangers who flew me across the country and drove me 4 hours into the woods.
It's been 19 years and I still can't sleep without a locking bedroom door.
I hope you’re okay
r/JoeNobody is an amazing comic made as a kind of self-therapy chronicling how he survived Elan, how much of himself he lost, and how he (eventually) came home. I’d highly recommend it to anyone who wants a firsthand account of this fucked up place
I read that. It pisses me off that his parents refuse to acknowledge they were wrong for sending him there.
It is an injustice not to mention the school. I'm glad you told her whole story.
The introduction about getting kidnapped in the middle of the night is exactly how my parents thought I should be “transported” to the “troubled teen academy” in the wilderness they sent me to, River View Christian Academy in Whitmore, CA. They hired two strange men in a van to come to our house at 3:30am demanding I get dressed and come with them. I thought I was being trafficked. My “trouble” was an eating disorder. It’s so disturbing how a person under 18 can have every basic human right signed away by their parents. This industry is alive and well.
I’m really sorry that happened to you
Are you ok?
I got gooned too! To wilderness as well
@@Infntpaccout1100.3x
Would you like to elaborate?
Did your parents ever apologize? I hope so! I hope you are ok now. I am so sorry this happened to you.
I stayed at an 18 month program that was very similar to that of élan, minus the fight club. But we had lack of sleep, malnourishment, brain washing, they made me wear a toilet seat around my neck for a week. If someone escaped they punished everyone by deep cleaning the whole house for 12hours to sometimes days. They would sit you I front of everyone 30+ guys each took their turn yelling at you and berating you. They made us write essays for hours everyday and we were not allowed to talk to each other during. Couldn’t use the phone and we did chores all day long.
I was sent to one as well. 22 months of absolute horror.. smh pretty traumatizing to say the least
Wow, it’s hard to believe these institutions are permitted. Side note: wasn’t Paris Hilton put in one of these places? I watched her doc and she described being “kidnapped” in the middle of the night and she suffered a lot of trauma there and attempted to escape (may be missing some details, it’s been awhile since I’ve watched it).
And wait, the school was found to be abusing kids and was still allowed to be open and practice what they were doing for more than 30 years after they got caught being abusive?!?!
I am always conflicted when watching these videos. Everything in them is tragic/horrifying, which is sad. However, I am always happy when Scary Interesting uploads because the quality of his videos and genuine concern/mourning for the people involved is unmatched!
I'm always kinda iffy about "normal people" true crime channels because they're profiting off the dead and it's unlikely that they share any of their revenue with the victim's families despite making money off of their trauma, but Scary Interesting is different. It feels educational and he's very respectful.
Same
That's called 'cognitive dissonance'. I know what you mean. I don't want bad things to happen to people, but I enjoy hearing about bad things happening to people.
The girl had a horrible fate in this lifetime I can’t ever imagine. She was abused at home, then sent to be more abused at the horrible school. Then she had the courage to breakfree but to encounter the sadistic rapist/murderer.
I don’t really know what she had done in the past (lives) but it is too much.
RIP THE BRAVE GIRL.
your videos always save me from boredom at work. I like the slight change in pace!
Funny enough, the reason I started this channel was because I was listening to videos just like this, bored at work. I'm happy to be paying it forward. Thanks so much for supporting the channel!
Unbelievable that such a hell on earth place can exist for that long. What unimaninable horrors must these poor kids have gone through. How could the parents do this to their own children?
They get lied to. They fear for their kids and get sold a solution by charlatans.😭
@@grmpEqweer well said
@@lisaperry5999
Thanks.
@@grmpEqweer yw
The Charlatans only like families with deep pockets.
Imagine paying someone to abuse yr kids 24/7
@@grmpEqweer idk, the idea of hving someone kidnap my child in the middle of the night is a big deal breaker dont you think?
thank you so much for doing dawn justice and describing the full context of her situation without any of the implied blame, she deserves that dignity
You know, I think if I signed my kid up for a specialized school for undisciplined teens, and representatives of that school drove up to my house in the dead of night, barged up into my kid's room and started screaming at them I'd be calling the whole thing off. If I had a weapon some of those representatives would probably require some time in the hospital afterwards.
That's the worst part about it all - the parents knew about what circumstances their children would be picked up in and actively consented to the "kidnapping". They wanted this to happen because they saw it as a part of scaring the kids into obedience. These parents are just as sick as these counselors
@@spacejasontoddthe scaring part isn't that bad. Giving delinquent kids a much-needed wakeup call without hurting them can be very beneficial. It's everything that happened _after_ that which is a problem.
@@_Stormfather I don't think you quite understand the sheer psychological damage just this "scene" would cause, especially to someone still growing. I'm talking parts of your brain are either permanently stuck in development stage or busted altogether, forever. It's not a coincidence active warfare soldiers and kidnapping victims BOTH deal with PTSD.
@@spacejasontodd you're right, there is a reason. It's because they both suffered trauma. But there's a world of difference between _actually_ being kidnapped, and being temporarily scared into _thinking_ that's what's happening.
@@_StormfatherAnd you base this on what?
7:30 jesus christ i had a flashback because of this story. In Florida there was a school called Kingsberry or Kneekay academy that i was forced into as a young man. Nobody believes me when i tell them the horrors i have witnessed and been subject too myself. The story is nearly identical.
U should write a book on it
Disgusting that people involved with Elan have never faced any punishment and currently many have successful political careers.
I saved myself as a young when I was attacked by an adult. I stabbed him with a pencil and ran. He got only a portion of what he deserved, but getting that broken pencil out of his arm was probably hard. It's a good thing I kept my No.2s sharp.
I'f you're being abused or attacked, fight back with everything you have and do as much damage as possibleand run as far as you can and fight anyone who tries to take you back. I'd rather go to prison or be killed than live like that. You can't rely on anyone else to save you and going along will usually get you killed or worse. That's why I'm always armed now. I'll control my own destiny or die trying.
Yea, when I hear stories like this I know that as a young man I would have fought back in some very ugly ways if I were being abused like these kids were. I would not have tolerated it at all. It would have been a fight to the death or I would have conspired with others to flee or form a rebellion. Peer pressure did not work on me at all as a kid, I woulda said f you to the entire camp and still been confident in myself.
@@joebauers3746 Remember: You're saying that as someone whose upbringing DIDN'T involve this scenario. It comes across as victim blamey to say you would've handled it differently by XYZ means.
If that 'fight to the death' actually ended with you left with severe injuries, and restrained, and isolated, but alive and in constant pain - your will would diminish faster than you realise. A forced feeding tube would keep you alive whether you wanted to resist or not. If, after MONTHS of being kept in that state, you were given 1 chance to do something small - stand in a crowd of people screaming at 1 other kid - you CAN'T say for sure you wouldn't rationalise it as justified. Especially when you didn't have half the experiences you had which enabled you to safely develop that self-confidence.
People always think they would remain silent and resist, like, military torture - but ask anyone with a chronic pain condition what strain that puts on you. I had a problem which caused me pain for about 10 months. It wasn't even that severe as far as pain goes - I love MMA and I can take a fair bit! - but it was unrelenting. It catches you at your weakest points, it gets inside your head that "this is just how it is now". A constant desperation for relief - try X supplement, Y sleeping position, any snake oil just on the off chance it works even a little. And mine was managable - not even close to what some people deal with.
Unless you've experienced something like that, or really listened to people who have, you can't understand HOW much trauma and constant pain changes you. From a position of safety, it's always easy to say 'fight back' or 'I wouldn't have tolerated it', but the reality is always very different. Psychological abuse works for a reason, and can work on anybody, especially when coupled with constant physical abuse.
Great content and thanking for broadening your channel content. I love listening to you!
Imagine exactly the same structured "school" but you are forced to speak Spanish from the first moment you arrive but you don't know even a little bit. That was my experience when I was sent to Casa By The Sea in Ensenada, Mexico. It was super traumatizing. I was there from ages 15 to 17. I still suffer from PTSD and nightmares have plagued me since. And I'm freaking 36 now! It's never ending. You just learn to live with it. Watching this brought up some serious PTSD for me haha. It's like Casa took Elan's effed up curriculum (for lack of better word) almost exactly. We never had fight clubs thank God but everything else was the same. Down to our "Counselors". The counselors just spoke the best English so they were the ones in charge of talking with our parents and acting like they had a degree in psychology and child development. I don't think they had much past maybe high school if that. I can go on for days about how messed up that place was. It's heartbreaking to hear she was put in a position to be murdered because of that evil place. I can 110% understand her overwhelming need to get the hell out of that place. I felt it every second of every day while there. My heart hurts for her.
❤
I feel for you, but there is no such thing as forever damaged. You still need help, but you need to want it, and also, given the state of the world, I hope you are in a place where medical is free OR you can afford it.
Whatever Dawn did within her family, it didn't merit Elan "school" and her mother was a fool for 1) not looking further into Elan and 2) watching how they captured her and doing nothing. Authorities should have been investigating her mother, not sympathizing with her.
I would bet actual money the mother wasn't a fool for not knowing but more like she didn't care. After all, the cnt had no problem with the way they took her daughter to the "school".
I first read this story in a book, Dawn's problems were largely caused by her mother's... questionable life choices and the school, not through any genuine delinquency of her own. The trucker she fell in love with was killed too, people who looked at the case later realized he was killed first and that was why he never showed up at the truck stop where she was waiting for him. People think she started hitch hiking with the idea his route might have changed, and the going theory is she and the trucker were each killed by a different serial killer. Dawn was unidentified for years before all this was uncovered, for a long time she was an unidentified Jane Doe that the town community she was found near called Summer because they didn't know her name.
When a school starts act less of it and more of a prison cell ...
You know things about to get waaaay downhill to a tragedy.
To be honest. I've watched a full 1 hour video on elan school like 2 years, and just explaining what went on in this school would be enough for a scary interesting video.
No jokes when i saw the name in the thumbnail i immediatly got flashbacks from that video, truly bone chilling story
Is the video you watched available on TH-cam?
@@MM-jf1me yes absolutely, only that it's in french.
The channel's name is "feldup" if you do understand french. Not sure if he has it translated or not
th-cam.com/video/7eM7pb5M5DU/w-d-xo.html Nexpo's video on Elan School
@@ugfugf5080 Haha, thank you! I don't know French, but I'm sure someone will come across our comments and find your recommendation very helpful. There are sure to be good documentaries in English and the narrator mentioned a few while telling the story so I'll probably try to track those down when I'm feeling up for learning about a depressing topic.
@@MM-jf1me nexpo made a video in english about this place as well, "the cult in a boarding school"
Scary interesting deserves all the attention he’s getting with all his hard work. un like these other crime channels that lazily use ai voices
And the owners of those channels get butt hurt when you tell them it's obvious they are using AI voices with a poorly written script
I have heard Dawn's story minus that the staffer she called was from Elon... I work with behavioral disorder teens and it's not a pleasant but it is rewarding to see our students move on in life with good emotional role modeling as a base. Teen emotions are so high and some are abnormally adverse to societal norms, we all need to learn to function in the world in a "normal" manner, spewing profanities and threats at teachers, bosses, neighbors etc is not acceptable. The abuse at Elon was horrific, it's sad that it ran for most of 40 years.
At least someone understands. Once you work in a school system and see tremendously antisocial kids that basically undermine the entire school, you realize that there needs to be alternatives so they can hopefully become functional adults.
Elan.
But why do these kids become this way? Isn't it the parents' fault for spoiling their kids, not correcting their behaviors, making excuses for them, and not disciplining them properly since the day they learned to walk and talk? There's no reason for these kids to feel they have a right to act they way they do smh, the rest of the world isn't there to put up with their shit
@@Sophiedabombbaby no, its not that simple - there are many, varied reasons for people to not be "normal" or enough so, and its not "spoiled kids"
You are very ignorant, it seems, so I hope you dont voice opinions on this matter or... and I hate to say this - attempt to educate yourself on this. There are many youtube videos, so its actually easy.
@@SDMev1982 yes, but the problem is, places like Elan are rather typical and far too often they go to a place like that or something far too close. If schools were better funded , this would be less of a problem.
What a horrible story. The people who created this school should've never been allowed near children. Also, what kind of scumbag parent lets their kids essentially get kidnapped? Vile.
Many, many parents. So much so that it has a name: gooning or getting gooned. It happened to a friend of mine in highschool, she was traumatized and slept with a weapon under her pillow afterwards
My husband was sent to a boys camp that was later found to have abused children. He said the only thing that kept him from abuse was the fact that his parents were one of the few that actually showed up every Sunday for church. That’s kind of sad, because it’s not even like his parents really cared. They just wanted to show good face.
I looked up Elan school on the Google Earth app after I watched this video and you can see how incredibly remote the school was. In the photo section there is an image of a teen girl wearing a humiliation board in front of the class (at least I think that what it was). In another photo there appears to be a young teen girl who is wearing an actual dunce cap whilst doing her work. It seemed that the school was pretty upfront on their methods. Great video as always. Take care and much love from the UK 🇬🇧
Good work, Scary.
The treatment boarding school for teens industry is taking what's probably a genuine need, and exploiting it. These places are poorly regulated and often abusive, from what I can tell.
I find it really bone chilling to think about the 100s or 1000s of institutions just like this that we don't know anything about and are still operating with relative impunity in the US and the world...
as soon as i heard about the nighttime kidnapping thing i knew it was gonna be related to the troubled teen industry. really fucked up stuff
Thanks Sean, great vid, love the 2 story mix. I think you did both stories justice 👍
I have heard of these schools before but its only now I realized where their tactics sound familiar from. The "attack therapy" thing sounds exactly like the Synanon cult. Having everyone yell at one person is exactly what they would do.
Yes, "attack therapy" was used in Synanon indeed! It is not recognized as an actual type of therapy like CBT or talk therapy nowadays, thankfully.
My heart hurts for Dawn and what she endured. Along with the other "students".
The original "plan" for the school sounded good but those two lunatics ended up creating a nightmare. They should have been charged with abuse and neglect of minors.
And the scary thing is, there are still places like this today
Any “teacher” at one of these “schools” deserve the worst possible type of punishment.
this sounds very similar to where paris hilton was held as a young girl. if youve never seen the "this is paris" documentary, its really eye opening and disturbing
Really well done and informative!
Edit: the failures of our families, educational institutions & the bureaucratic nightmare of a federal government we have led to schools like this existing.
I have a child with mental health struggles. Places like this are the worst possible thing a parent can do to their child. My kiddo has spent time in a couple of psychiatric hospitals, never more than a few days at a time. Phone calls and visits were allowed EVERY DAY. And they actually had activities my kiddo enjoyed, and my kiddo was made to feel safe in those places.
THIS is a forking travesty. They should be illegal.
Please, any parents whose child is struggling, DO NOT go to places like this.
This kind of "school" is legal and common. It is entirely legal to send your kids to a torture camp for years and years and every single one of these places is rife with abuse.
LOL. I doubt that! 😂
No it's not stupid😂😂😂
Name one.
@@4FYTfa8EjYHNXjChe8xs7xmC5pNEtz At the very least, there's far too little regulation. A lot of them are in Utah _just to avoid a lot of regulation._
So, their business model works better when they can be shady?
A wilderness school k1lled a kid on a hike in Utah, the child died of dehydration/heatstroke.
The adult counselor wasn't well-trained, IIRC thought the kid was faking.
...Which is effed up, I have only a smidgen of medical training and I can probably tell if someone's starting to have heat problems.
This is about as bad as those four children that were severely abused by their foster parents, and were finally caught and put in jail. the children were finally taken out of that abuse and put into new foster care where those parents also abuse them severely....... it doesn't get much worse than that. I just looked it was the Turpin family
the Turpin kids- those were their real parents who abused them. There are 13 brothers and sisters. The Parents actually just went to court a few years ago and got life. But you are right the foster care families they went to were just as bad if not worse. And the system knew but did nothing to help the kids out. Just imagine FINALLY feeling like you're free from hell and the only life you've ever known was about to change. And when it does the only thing that changes is the people who torture and torment you are now strangers and not your parents.... It's so sad that the system didn't let those kids go to stay with family, because they did want them but they wouldn't let it happen....
Even if their kid's was showing clear signs of being serial killers, to subject their kid's to this abuse, is a reflection of their parenting skills.
I went to Penninsula Village in Knoxville Tennessee as a kid in 2006. It was similar in some ways to Elans modes of confrontation therapy. There were some things at PV that were debatably more traumatizing and abusive. There are many places like this still today. The troubled teen industry is horrible. I've been to prison as an adult and nothing will ever compare to what I went through at PV. It's still the only thing I really have nightmares about. Don't trust other people with your children, no matter how hard it is to raise them.
I'm sorry this happened to you.
Thanks for adding more context to this story, it truely matters!
40 years to close the 'school' .. that's insane. But what happened to the founders, Ricci and Davidson??
Great video! I'm always glad to see one of your videos come up on my feed!
This place was worse than any prison.I saw another documentary about it a few years ago.
Thanks for another one Mr Scarry Interesting. That's hard to believe they could treat those poor students like that. I guess 1 thing I've learned from listening to these is never underestimate what a human can do to another human being. As always looking forward to the next
Let's not forget that Michael Skakel, a Kennedy cousin and suspect in the murder of Martha Moxley, was a student at Elan. It's gotten bad press from day 1. Horrible.
That's pretty interesting, no wonder he was so messed up compared to his brother
There are way too many "schools" and institutions like this that exist. I don't know how they are able to get around the law for so long; it baffles me. People are sick and monsters out there just love taking their authority too far just because they can.
there are still "treatment centers" like this open today. they may not initiate physical fight clubs but the mental abuse is astounding to hear about.
As soon as you mentioned the boarding school, I knew what this would be about. I just watched a video by Disturban about it roughly a week ago.
Edit: It was that video by Nexpo, not one by Disturban. I was thinking of a different video.
I just heard about it as well. Man, it's a deep deep rabbit hole
I watched the whole video by Nexpo As well.
I also watched that. Pretty crazy
Sounds like what is still going on today with the Troubled Teen Industry, this one just happened to take place in Maine.
I look forward to these more than I should, thanks brother man. You're a legendary story teller.
Love the content bro.
Keep up the good work.
Horrendous… your videos always keep me on edge though, you’re a good story teller
I worked in youth care. There was a time where the philosophy of care was "it's the kid's fault", which clearly it can't be, THEY'RE KIDS. These programs like boot camps in the 90s would take the kids from their homes and put them in strict environments like the military. Sometimes the kids would show huge improvement in the camps, but it was usually because they were getting a regular schedule and proper food and were away from the toxic family dynamic. Many forms of "treatment" for "problem" children usually stemmed from the child being abused or mistreated, but PARENTS WOULDN'T DO THAT (and also they have the money) so maybe it's the kid's fault? The "who cares, give me money" people who were the loudest. Many people at the time knew it was wrong, but money talks. Loads of disabled kids got shipped off to these or other homes where they were continually abused because it was easier to blame them than adapt their lives. Thank you for focusing on that part of the story, it's important to remember these things happened and are happening now. Fight them if and when you can.
It's not the kid's fault for being raised poorly, but it is the kid's responsibility to fix their behavior and become a functioning adult. Telling them that other people are to blame for all their problems is not the way to accomplish that.
I'm surprised to haven't seen it in the comments already, so I'm recommending the webcomic Elan School by Joe Nobody, if you want to learn more about one former student's experience. He describes in details his experience of living at Elan, the systems of abuse implemented there, but also how this trauma affected him after he was out. I find it emotionally hard to handle, but it's an important read.
Florida is a terrifying place to live. In Florida there's what they call Red Flag Laws, are laws the government uses as weapons if they "suspect you of a crime or have committed a crime" (broad terms) to silence anyone they deem a "threat". Red flag laws also make it if an "authority figure feels threatened to any capacity " they can authorize search and seizures of your private property or dwellings. These laws also can make it to where you may be detained indefinitely with no warrants or authorization no judges or jury. I have ben ubject to these laws many timesin my life. No lawyers or cops came to rescue or help so in the end it comes down ole stick (bang bang). Thats true reason Florida has so many "mass shootings" its desperate people who've bee truly backed into a corner in every shape and form of the words
I know this from Nexpo and its how I got first introduced to that channel. I shall just upvote and move as I know this story and its sad/depressing to say the least
I was 5150d multiple times as a child and it traumatized me so bad and my mom was the reason I was acting out cuz she was beating me. It made me hate authority and now I struggle daily
Thus is what Paris Hilton was subjected to, really. I have admiration for her as she has a survivor's group and didn't whine about it for money. Her parents did not believe what she said was happening there including abuse, only reason she got out was threatening her father she would expose everything the minute she got out, she waited 2o years before she spoke of this publicly.
as a maine resident it’s horrifying to think about the fact that just a couple miles away there was a school that pulled this shit. i remember hearing about it when i was younger and being so scared to the point where my parents had to tell me multiple times that they wouldn’t send me there. the amount of crazy things you can get away with in the woods of maine is wild, be careful wandering around here
To me, The Parents who sent her there are guilty of being accessories to their daughter's murder and if I was the DA, I would have prosecuted them
I've seen documentaries on Elan and I'm shocked it wasn't closed until 2011. Great video! I didn't know the full story on that poor girl who ran away with the truck driver. Just horrible. I totally blame that on the school. It sounded so hellish and if I'd been there I'd have probably tried to book it too.
Would love to see more like this one
I really enjoyed this one! Very interesting stuff, and looks like it might go even deeper. Thanks!
Isn't that the school that Paris Hilton was put into?
Christ, this sounds like a cult that would exist in the Fallout series....
Scary and interesting 👍
Man, sometimes all I can say about this shit is "people are evil."
I really dig this new addition you have brought to your channel! Making it more diverse and scaryly more interesting. 😂
I try not be disagreeable for the most part but I hope Dawns parents lived the rest of their lives with extreme regret.
all of the parents who think that sending their kid to places like this should live the rest of their lives with etxreme regret.
@@Monk-eee I'm bet they ain't not self aware enough to have any kind of second guess on their actions tho.
Nexpo's video on Elan is so good. It's sad to hear about the stuff that went on at that school, but he does a good job talking about it.
R.I.P young lady x😢
I be bricked up when I see a new post from you on my home page
Thank you Sean, rest in peace Dawn, rest in pieces Elan
I wish I could say I'm surprised the school lasted as long as it did but I'm not. Our American Justice system is broken as hell so of course a school for troubled kids would be the same.
OMG, so much in my mind in response to this! As another commenter put it, it's an absolute injustice to tell Dawn's story without talking about the school. That's such a big part of all this! Second, when he said she was originally from Indiana, I thought this was going to be about another such school that operated in Indiana for years, and thankfully has been shut down, I believe. They didn't have a fight club (as far as I know), but so many of the other things described here happened not just there in IN, but also even more so in this school's campuses in the wilderness of Canada, and in a small town in the Dominican Republic. Kids who tried to run from the Indiana campus were automatically sent to the DR, because the US didn't control what went on there. Students at this school were frequently kidnapped from their homes in the middle of the night with parental permission. I believe it, and other schools like it, eventually led to the creation of a documentary called Kidnapped for Christ, if I remember the name correctly.
Yep this happened to me. I was professionally kidnapped, and, while I’ve heard of this particular school in the video, I was taken to a behavior modification program in Mexico. I was there for 2 years, until it shut down for allegations of child abuse, and I was taken directly to an identical school in upstate New York. I was there in total from age 15-18. Yea we weren’t allowed to talk either. Sounds very similar. Our letters were heavily censored too, they just simply wouldn’t send them if we tried to tell our parents what was going on.
Needless to say, I have ptsd now.
I would go NC with my parents if I were you. They should have researched the place before sending you there.
totally think that the school killed her
ty for mentioning it and giving her humanity
cause too many of these schools still exist
Elan School: "We're concerned with how the juvenile just system treats kids, so we're going to treat them worse."
Nightmare in elan school 🏫 elm school….. I was in bore school when I was a kid fight club and rape was common I was never raped but beaten to an inches of my life and more then once. I was singled out but this isn’t about me . This type of !schooling is more common then people think 🤔 all around the world 🌎 some places it still goes on … it’s not normal so speak 🗣out about it as hard as it is …. And the poor girls that got away and killed 😢
My cousin went to a sister program of Elans 😂back in the early 90's when I was just a kid. She originally went there because she was disobeying her parents completely and would runaway for weeks on end but the main thing was she started dated a guy that was in his 20's when she has only 13. When she was 16 they (the organization) kidnapped her, ziptied her, put a black cloth bag over hear head and drove her to across the country. She stayed there for almost 2 years until my anut & uncle deemed her "fixed." Little did they know within a month of her getting back she started seeing the same guy again and shortly after she turned 18 was pregnant and already moved out. She has 4 grown kids now and still with the guy lol. The program didn't work unless the point was to induce unnecessary trauma.
What happened is so heartbreaking. She didn't deserve all of what happened to her, and she only wanted to find her love. 😢
I will never understand how this could EVER sound like a good idea to any parent.