(sigh) Message: "I've failed as a parent. Here's some money. Fix my mistake for me." Answer: "We have a great institution modeled after the Khmer Rouge. You'll love it."
In defense of the parents, I think, as stated the parents didn't truly know how bad it is. Nowadays, everything is cruel and unusual. Take a phone away from a child for the night because they refuse to do their chores, which is almost rated as child abuse.
My mother was at Elan. For the first 12 or so years of my life I can't remember her talking once. My grandmother had to raise me because of how my mother was. I found out just after my mother passed in 2016 that my father was one of the employees there. I can only imagine how I was conceived. I never knew much about my mother, despite her being in my life for 30 years. Fk ELAN. Thank you for making this episode Simon & team.
How many times in America have we heard about the physical, psychological and sexual abuse of teens in these "treatment" and detention centers? When are we going to end this pattern of abuse in the name of "helping" teens?
We hear about it a LOT!!. Parents are going to have to look up the definition of unconditional love, spend time with their children guide them thru life, and always tell them the truth. And for God sakes, have parents and child therapy if they weren't shown those things by their parents. You can't teach what you don't know of..........
It is illegal in a lot of parts of the U.S. Unfortunately, most of these now are located in Utah, because that's one of the states that allows it. They also have some of the loosest standards for therapists in general in that state (not that any of these places have actual therapists, good or bad ones).
Seeing as how you are talking on the ELAN school in this one, you should do research and a video on Turnabout Ranch, the reform camp that Dr. Phil used to advocate for and would send troubled youth from his show to. The amount of atrocities committed there have been heavily covered up over time, but several people have concerning stories about their time there. For reference, Danielle Brigoli, aka Bhad Bhabie (the "cash me outside" girl), was one of the troubled youth sent to the ranch. I'm pretty sure it has since been closed down due to various scandals, but that would be another fantastic Into the Shadows video for you guys!
Paris Hilton also went through something similar in Utah with the Provo Canyon School. It's disturbing just how pervasive this stuff is in the US (and I assume beyond.)
@annmareeofoz as far as I understand it, America is far from the only nation to do this sort of thing... but I'm not sure of anything else beyond that.
Paris has done advocacy against those camps because of her experiences. It's wild that her and Kim K. are concerned with social issues these days, never would have guessed.
@andiward7068 isn't it absolutely wild to think that those two would become some of the loudest voices in regards to these? Star power helps bring many things to light, good or bad... but most seem to be bad over good. Lol
I also want to say to any parents out there who have a teen who is struggling, do not fall for the snake oil these places are selling you. My own kiddo had an extremely difficult time, had been diagnosed with intermittent explosive disorder, among other issues. It sucked, NGL, but the way to go is therapy. Hospitalization. Therapy. And LISTEN to your kid's therapist! Do what you have to, to help your kid. A place that takes your kid away and completely cuts off contact is not a safe thing. Every time my kiddo was hospitalized, every single time, the staff there welcomed and encouraged parental visits and phone calls, every single day. If they are discouraging this, that is a red flag. And yes, I've been in severe debt, collections, wage garnishment, all of it. And you know what? The troubled teen industry will charge you EVEN MORE. Do what you can, do the best you can, and do not trust places that say they'll "fix" your child. That's not how any type of healing, mental, emotional, physical, not how any of it works.
@@biazacha Thank you. I wish this was the norm, though. I feel like what I do for my kids is what you're supposed to do as a parent. But I do think in general younger generations are raising their kids better than the older generations have. I think it's become less authoritarian, which is a good thing. These are scary times right now. I hope you're safe!
The cult Synanon and their “therapy” approach “Game” heavily inspired the tactics of Elan School. This connection is so clear having watched videos of both. The videos and survivor accounts are eerily similar.
Ugh. Same ideas were the basis for the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs multiple facilities. American Samoa, Jamaica, Mexico, Montana, Utah all had "schools" run by WWASP. I was in the one in Mexico. The ones that were not in the contental US were cheaper by at least half. But my numbers are from over 20 years ago. Mexico was 2k/month. I was more messed up and knew more about how to get away with doing whatever I wanted, including drugs, after I went than I did before I was sent.
My sister lives across the lake from the "ruins" of ELAN. You can still see bits of it from Range Pond, where it is located. I didn't know about it until we were driving by in their boat, and she told us about it. Absolutely unbelievable cruelty. Can't believe it lasted as long as it did.
My older brother was "sent away" after being in JD. He wasn't cured of anything when he came home one night, but he didn't explain. The next day the papers told how the school caught fire just after lights out at 9:00 pm. and burnt to the ground. I could see his logic: it is hard to keep you in something when there's no something left. Ah well, that was over 60 years ago, and he passed on a decade ago. It's just ghosts in the wind now .
I live in Maine my whole life, but I only heard of Elan a few years ago when I saw it in a video. This really horrifies me, institutions like this should not be allowed to exist. $300,000 to ensure your kids will never talk to you ever again.
If they're available in your country, Netflix has at least two documentaries about this awful industry: The Program: Cons, Cults and KIdnapping, and Hell Camp: Teen Nightmare. Chilling and hard to watch, but so important. These places are everywhere and only growing in number.
My husband went to a school like this. There's a Netflix documentary about the group of schools he went to called The Program and it's traumatic to watch and the conversations I've had with him about his time there is heartbreaking. We call it child prison and that's with his experience of actual prison later on in life (shocking! These programs didn't actually set him up to be a productive member of society! Who could've guessed?) He had to do a lot of work to undo what that "school" did to his mental health. He's doing great now, but these places need to be destroyed.
I remember after getting dragged out of my house in the middle of the night, thinking my parents must have been murdered because why else would I be literally dragged from my room in the middle of the night..halfway through the drive from the NYC area (fort lee nj) my kidnappers told me this was on orders from my parents..didn’t believe it because I had “loving parents” .. it’s pretty fuzzy because it was 2003 but after a few hours of my ripping my skin trying to undo the bindings they had my mom on the phone, telling me I was going to a “camp school”.. if by camp you mean torture camp. hardest whiplash ever. I’m now nearly 40, recently I was talking to my mom about something very trivial (we were clothes shopping) and as I was trying on over expensive ugly clothes she asked “you don’t trust me??!???” she looked me in the eyes and asked me that and I laughed and laughed 😂 trust??⁉︎ seriously? I wish I had died instead. After all these years after what you did you think “trust” is a part of our relationship?⁉︎ what a freak.
@@rackynjeff I'm so sorry she put you through that and also that she still doesn't understand what she did. I hope she does somehow realize, although it might destroy her if she has even a shred of love, empathy, and decency, and it seems she does because you still interact with her. But she needs to face it regardless, or she can't even begin to deserve forgiveness, or at least that's how I see it. And I don't just mean from you. You can forgive or not as you see fit- that's entirely up to you and I cannot take that from you. I don't even want to. But I believe that when people do wrong, do unjustified harm to others, the universe itself will balance the scales in time. Maybe in the afterlife. Maybe in the next life. I think it's better for people to face their wrongs and suffer for them, even if only with pangs of the conscience, in this life so they have less to worry about carrying over for later. But not everyone has such beliefs, and that's okay too. This is just what I think, that's all. Anyway, good luck. I hope you are doing well.
I went to ironwood Maine. This was the evolution of Elan school. Certain things described in this video doesn’t match to what I experienced as things definitely evolved. But other things such as the legal kidnapping, the “corner”, which was evolved into reflection, same exact thing tho. It sucked a lot and I still have trauma despite being out a few years. The reasons for getting sent to reflection stayed about the same. The showering stuff, we only had 3 minutes and we could only shower every other day despite working tirelessly in the barn. The list goes on and on. It hurt me more than it helped. Ironwood was located in the forest of Maine. Speaking out, was impossible, every communication was monitored. When I first got to ironwood we had to ask staff members to sit down or stand up, to enter or exit a room, etc. even the less crappy evolution of elan, ironwood, was still just immoral.
Parents were physically abused as children, but regard themselves as people that have "come out just fine" even with the repressed traumas. That's why they think it's fine to send their kids to the same abusive environment, scarring them for life.
I agree with you, but now our kids think they are owed everything and have no respect. I'm not sure the removal of all forms of punishment is good either.
@@Sadenshard One too many parents don't respect their children as human beings, and view them as living extensions. No one asked to be brought into existence. Plenty of parents think they are owed respect just for doing the love Tango for 30 seconds, and providing the basement level bare minimum. Same parents think they can treat children however they want without consequence, and get upset when those kids give back the same energy.
@@Sadenshardthe carrot and the stick doesn’t work if you only use one of the two. I’m not advocating for physical punishment, it’s just about rewarding good actions and punishing bad ones. If any reward or punishment is disproportionate to the cause, it will not work either. Not saying it’s easy, and everyone is different so rewards and punishments should vary, but seriously, most of these parents who sent their kids to torture camps should be send to prison.
I recently listened to an episode of Behind the Bastards about the desert camps for troubled teens, which had a lot of these same tactics, plus exposure and dehydration. This whole thing is so effed up.
I listened to an in-depth postcast about ELAN and it's just incomprehensibly horrifying. Anyone who has a modicum of empathy just *can't* understand how this kind of place works/ed. The fact that so many kids were just straight up blindfolded and kidnapped from their beds (and it STILL happens for others in this "Troubled Teen Industry") is just.... I can't say incomprehensible enough.
Reminds me of 'Job Corporation of America' in Vergennes, Vermont. Same as this Elan place. Immediately stripped of your stuff--anything you brought with you from home, don't expect to get it back. Showers were every other day, had to be up at 5am to start cleaning the dorm areas. I hated that pit. 20+ yrs later, I still have nightmares. My mother certainly never gave a shit about what they did as she never bothered to even visit. Not Once. Not once did she even call! So, if you send your children there don't ever expect them to speak to you because we both know who sent us there. I'll NEVER forgive her for sending me there in the 1st place as I wasn't a 'juvenile delinquent.' I wasn't robbing places/people, breaking into places, none of that, she was just pissed because I had my own mind and she couldn't tell me what to do. A lot more to that story but I don't think anyone wants or needs to hear/see it.
Having watched several documentaries on places like this meant to “scare them straight” I can see where the model came from now. Some of these “schools” are in other countries to keep the kids from running away.
The whole point of scared straight is to scare the crap out of kids, then let them go with that fear in the back of their minds. elan was just torture.
It's not to keep them from running away. Kids still ran even in the Mexico facility while I was there. They're in foreign countries because they were less than half the cost to operate.
I remember commercials for the Elan School all through the 70’s. I was in elementary school and there was plenty of humiliation as punishment even in public schools. It honestly was damaging. I have no idea why it was so prevalent.
My mom says that the assumption is you'll strive to be better if you're knocked down a peg (elans logic basically). At least that was her intent. I didn't go through elan levels of torture, but it still screwed me up nonetheless. I wasn't a bad kid, just had untreated adhd that made it so I wasn't your standard "good" kid.
Elan survivor here... this is one of the better researched and produced short videos that I have seen on the topic. There was a video by iilluminaughtii that was exceptional because it came out before The Program, but this is better produced and researched, and more sharable. Thank you. My only critique would be that while Joe Ricci constantly sold his ideas of tough love therapy, he was not actually as much of a believer in his own product as shown. In the later days at Elan, they were taking in kids who had learning disabilities, taking in kids to cover up crimes etc, not people for whom any sort of argument about needing "Tough love" could be made. If you have any questions or need any clarification on topics covered in the video, or anything else, please let me know. From the survivors, thank you again.
Fellow survivor here. It's so great to see productions casting light on it. It helps to be able to use videos like this to show people. I'm not always believed. I still can't believe this was part of my teen life.
My father tried to have me sent there when I was a teenager (mid 1990's) and one afternoon my grandpa and great uncles on my mom's side took my father out for a drive and "a chat" and when they got back he never brought it up again, not even for a second.
@@stephendaly5795 Ya I call bullshit. My father in law is an ex army ranger and long time LA county sheriff's deputy. He's in his late 50s. If he took me for a chat I'd fuck his ass up Soo fast. Lmao. Father time is undefeated and being a father isn't being easily swayed by other people about your children. If I made a decision about my child,it's coming to fruition. Period.
I’ve been an avid Amy & David Sedaris fan for years & never made this connection. How deeply sad for all who survived & unfortunately continue to suffer in these programs
A really good but HIGHLY disturbing look at both Elan and the after effects of being a part of that environment is the comic Joe Nobody vs Elan School (or Joe vs Elan School) written and drawn by a survivor of the school. There were chapters that legitimately had me sobbing or feeling nauseous. It's finished now but the author is planning on a physical copy. He claims to be one of the people who started the online movement to get Elan shut down though he has remained anonymous under his pseudonym Joe and does admit there are embellishments especially in the years following his "graduation" but it's still a very good and hard hitting story.
That’s the story I read. I never got to the part about his graduation, just the part where he ran away, got kidnapped again, and then decided to play along for a bit.
I read the series from start to finish and it’s a TOUGH read. It’s really good, though! I hope Joe’s doing okay these days. He went through the wringer.
I watched the documentary and it is an understatement to say shocking. Sadly, many males especially as adults ended up in prison or had committed suicide if they hadn’t already passed in Elan “care”
This video barely even scratches the surface of what went on there. There's a graphic novel written by a former student called Joe Vs. Elan School that goes into great detail and it's truly one of the most disturbing things I've ever read.
I'm seriously shocked that ELAN stayed open for as long as it did, I don't care what a kid had done to get themselves into that hell hole, nothing justified the way that the kids were treated. Also, assuming they're not dead, Goldberg and Ricci should be serving prison sentences.
Prison sentences should be for child abuse, sexual abuse, assault, and murder. All of them should be charged with all of the aforementioned, whether they participated in it or not, they knew it was going on...........
Google Judge Rotenberg Center, still operating and using their patented (issued an actual US patent) GED electroshock device. They claim it’s for behavioral modification, the UN says it’s a torture device, and I’m inclined to go with the latter
@@vimicito Beats me, personally I’m inclined to agree with the UN that it’s a torture device and at 90ma dangerous. 15ma across the heart is fatal if I recall correctly. That being said I’ve been hit a few times by 42Kv ignition coils, hurt like heck and just made me more pissed off. I personally doubt it effectively modifies behavior, more like pain submission. But they swear by it and have been winning court battles over it. Which is disturbing
@@vimicito Auto repair, the ignition coils in modern cars run between 42-50Kv, but only about 2-3ma, on par with an average taser. So not enough to cause serious harm, but more then enough to make my arm feel weird for a few hours, hurt like heck and elicit every curse word I could think of. Which kind of makes me think that GED device is more pain compliance then behavior modification. Good to hear he made a full recovery, that kind of voltage/amperage and arc flash injuries are no joke.
Places like it are still around today. Conversion therapy is currently fully or partly legal in every country on earth except Canada, Mexico, Ecuador, Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, Norway, Greece, Iceland, and New Zealand.
you're extremely oversimplifying it. Simon does an excellent job of demonstrating that the parents were not aware and were manipulated into not knowing about any of the abuse happening. Yet you come right to the comment section and misrepresent them.
@@ThomasHendrickson isn't that what comments are best for? Misrepresentation and oversimplification of the subject? Personally this isn't the first I've heard of it so I already had some existing knowledge. Even Simon didn't even get ALL the way into it.
Thank you. It's not Simon's fault, but he's paid a "writer" to rearrange sentences from a documentary.... My comment before I looked for other people who realised it is
PLAGIARISM much? Love your channels Simon, but whoever gave you this script took it word for word from a recently uploaded documentary about the "troubled teen industry". They switched the order about, but seriously, it's word for word. Not your fault, but not ok either. You paid for them to rearrange some sentences
I haven't seen the video that was plagiarized, but in the writers defense, there's only so many ways to describe these abuse factories. They have a specific jargon that's used. I've watched a few mini docs on the programs, and while most of them are really good at covering the physical abuse, this is the first one I've seen that's even mentioned how extreme the mental and emotional abuse is.
I know how that life. When i was a kid i was sadly put in several horrible abusive schools for kids with behavioral problems just because i enjoyed medieval history and i am transgender and because my parents abused me for it and took everything i enjoyed because they didn’t like it and that also they wouldn’t let me be me and rightfully so made me sad and angry because i just wanted to be myself and be at peace. I was never a violent person in the beginning i became that way because i kept getting hurt and tortured for being me. I have endured torture at several schools i was put in by my parents to change me. It doesn’t help kids it hurts them. I know that from my own experience. I will tell you that i never broke. I kept fighting for who I am and sadly i was hurt a lot for it. I am currently 29 years old and I live on my own. I do everything I ever wanted. I work as a professional medieval reenactor and I reenact the executioner and teach people about torture and execution throughout history. I have complex post traumatic stress disorder from the torture I endured from my childhood but I go to therapy and am now doing what I love to do. I will tell you that those schools never helped me and they did not change who i am or my interests or passions. In fact it made me want to be myself in a peaceful safe way even more and that is why i never let anyone change me and I fought hard to be myself when I should not have had to. Those type of schools still exist and they are absolutely disgusting. I hope they all get shut down someday no kid deserves to be hurt manhandled and tortured just because they want to be themselves or they are struggling with something. There are other more effective ways to help innocent children. Harming children is not the answer. Parents love your kids no matter what. Kids grow up and have their own personalities and emotions. Be kind if they struggle be kind and have patience to help them understand what is happening don’t torture them. Torturing innocent people just for being themselves is unacceptable and downright disgusting behavior. I actually have no issue with torture or execution when a person tortures and murders innocent people and I do believe in some cases it is necessary. But I do not feel torture is necessary to change someone’s personality or beliefs or interests. I know and relate to this video I went through it but came out the other side and I am safe and happy now. And at peace.
@@bunyipdragon9499 thanks for the kind reply. I am thankful I am doing okay now. I share my experiences and struggles to help others not feel alone I do not want anyone to go through what I have been through so I share to encourage others and spread awareness and understanding of people who are different but genuinely good people.
In the early 1980s I went through a program called ADAPT at the bulloch house in Grand rapids Michigan. It was for youthful offenders ran by project rehab. 21 months I spent there because I was hard-headed. It was a 6-month program for young people between the ages of 16 and 21. I was never in trouble with the law again after what I endured there. We had general meetings and encounter groups. It was better than the alternative of going to prison and I had an ulterior motive to attend. I wanted to change my way of thinking in my aggressive responses to confrontation before I attended prison. Otherwise I never would have come out of prison. It completely changed my behavior and I am eternally grateful for it. I am in my 60s now and have had a good life since then.
I want to know how to advocate for children seeking medical care after they tell us about the coersive control including sometimes violence properly without that putting them further at risk when their parents find out they complained.
They have no contact with the outside world to complain until they've been through the abuse, and. usually have inflicted it on other new kids that haven't earned the privilege of being "trusted". They're usually not in much danger of anything other than being shunned by their parents. By the time they can tell people what happened, it's usually their own brain, memories, and feelings of guilt that are their biggest danger. Learn how to deprogram cult survivors. There's a LOT of brainwashing in these places. The most messed up thing I ever heard was staff telling a girl that she needed to take responsibility for her uncle molesting her when she was 2. She needed to figure out what she did to make him do that to her. If you want to help the people who survive these abuse factories, that's the kind of things that you're going to have to help people face.
What's scary to me is the fact that this description doesn't shock me at all. I went to a primary school with similar attitudes (in 2000's Russia), and it wasn't even a school for troubled children - no, it was actually one of the poshest schools in the city. My parents finally moved me to another school in the second year, after one of my classmates told her parents that she would rather commit you-know-what than go to school (at 8 years old!) because of all the psychological and physical abuse that our teacher perpetrated. Thank god it wasn't a boarding school...
When you're a parent, you have a moral obligation to protect your child from harm as best you can. Not subject them to it. These places are a stain on our society, and sadly still exist. It's madness.
Bullies create more bullies. We need to stand up to this insidious behaviour. I teach my children and grandchildren. "The standard you walk past is the standard that you accept."
This is unfortunately still very much happening in the US. Elan-like institutions sprout like mushrooms after rain in Utah even today. The culture of total ignorace of human rights and children's rights in the US is down right disgusting and extremely worrying.
Seeing how the responses run to people speaking out about their experiences in similar institutions, the attempts to silence are still running strong. Seems any toe over the line in your youth deserves immediate and extreme reaction. Folks, any thought that is why there are laws against child abuse pretty much everywhere?
This place was just replaced by those Teen Wilderness Camps. Teenagers can be difficult but sending them away to a place like this is never the answer!
Great video Simon. Can you please do a video of the "Lad School" in Exeter, Rhode Island? It was a school for feeble minded children in the early to mid 20th century, a lot of kids died there. The buildings have been torn down, but there is a rehab on the grounds that is extremely haunted. I know, I saw some really scary stuff there.
Just FYI, you may not want to mention the haunted thing to Simon. He'll just deny and ridicule it. I think he's a great person who does great stuff, but just like the rest of us he's not perfect. I would like to see a video on it. Hopefully with less dismissal of people's paranormal experiences for once.
I went to a place like this in Wyoming called mt. Carmel Youth Ranch. It was hell. Had to beat each other and they starved us. Ran 12 miles to church every day in cowboy boots.
"Far away from the public's prying eyes" literally none of the troubled teen industry takes place within easy view of the public. Lack of regulation and oversight is as vital to their business model as the steady stream of teens with exasperated parents is.
Not taking the focus off Elan here, but I’m just pointing out that there is also…. Lots of school like that in China, abusive, under the radar and with even kids dying.. it’s less unknown to the world, even to the Chinese public. It’s really sad
China has legitimate concentration camps, entire facilities designed to eliminate the Uighur people, and whoever else is deemed unfit to live in normal society. I'm not American, and think it's a bit of a mess, but China is on a different level.
Talk about opening the doors for PTSD. The former students had their futures ruined. Imagine trying to live within the strict guidelines adhereing to ridiculous rules.
episodes 264 and 265 of "And That's Why We Drink" cover the Elan School (second half of each episode, if you don't want to listen to the paranormal half). They also covered a case in episode 352 that involved a teen who was sent to an Elan School in Maine, but his time there isn't really covered--it's more of a "oh hey, not so fun fact, he's connected to this horrible place we've talked about before".
Robert Evans (Behind the Bastards) did a couple of episodes on the Elan School in 2021. He also recently covered Steve Cartisano (the guy who started the camps in Utah) a couple of weeks ago.
I watched Children of Darkness a few years ago and I strongly feel like there are so many more schools like this. These schools are more than likely in certain quiet places of the world. Boarding schools in general have gotten a negative connotation to them; more than likely well deserved.
As a victim of the troubled teen industry in the US, unfortunately none of this is not surprising and is still going on. Edit: I went to Discovery Ranch for Girls, Utah. I was there for a year and a half, and I still have nightmares weekly, it’s been four years, I know I’ll be living with those nightmares till I die. Edit again: I’m more than willing to answer questions.
@@RussetPotato you mean the wilderness camps? No, it’s a long-term RTC, I did get sent to a wilderness camp in Idaho called Bluefire or something. You dodged a bullet.
@@Tinybopplewere your parents ignorant of what went on? What’s the relationship like with them today? Have you had any therapy since leaving? Did it(therapy) help?
@@miked451 While I’d like to hope that they just didn’t know, they were also desperate to get me help. I wasn’t a drug user or anything, but extremely suicidal. My relationship with them is choppy at times, but we stay in contact. We got a therapist that helped us work through everything.
@Tinybopple, are you doing okay? I know people who have gone through these "programs" and they don't come back the same. I know one of the people who does the midnight pickups, and she's a snakey bii... person
i’m unsure if it’s the same but i watch a lot of videos of escaped cultists (shoutout cults to consciousness). the IBLP is famously known for running these schools as “christian boarding schools for kids with behavioral issues”. anyways it’s all the same premise and the “restraint” makes me think of what many survivors of IBLP facilities went through. 2 people holding down each limb with all their weight for up to hours at a time. sometimes people on their chests. so those minors who died from “restraint” were likely crushed or could not breathe and it breaks my heart
My half-brother was sent to a school similar to this. Don’t recall the name but it was in either Utah or Arizona? Seriously messed him up. The abuse he suffered was all kinds, from both the adults supposed to care for him and the other teens there.
Part 1 of the treatment program often included a pilot program. Where kids were sent to a wilderness program while being observed for future placement.
I'm wondering just how many people who had to get themselves diagnosed with autism as a teenager or adult spent this whole video waiting for the shocking punishments...
Parents said after , (forcing her to live there), she lived there for 2 years she was never the same… But did they ever check in on her? Clearly not… at least not beyond hello child of mine I’m abandoning. 🤢🤮😢 it probably wasn’t just the school abuse that drove her to no longer being with us… granted it was clearly the worst trigger for her. “Why won’t my parents stop this,” is a very damaging message to have stewing in the head for two whole years of abuse. Sh!ts real gross all around.
When Simon said Poland Maine I choked on my water because I'd never heard about this before and I live near there. What the fuck. How was this just forgotten
This sounds exactly like the Stanford Prison Experiment, which was such a terrible situation, it had to be terminated after only 6 days because of the irreparable mental and emotional harm it caused; and these were fully formed and mentally developed adults. I can't imagine how this would play out in a child. And there are reports of severe. abuses in South Korea and Japan where children are sent because of internet addiction that mirrors these problems
I just watched the episode of Romania's House of Horror with the prison sadism camp that did a bunch of war crimes and I've gotta say I'm noticing some parallels in the punishment strategies...
reminds of when we here in the UK used to have the "short sharp shock" young offenders detention centers, 1979-1990, it was a militery style harsh regeime, the threat of being sent there was like the bogey man when i was a pup 😁
I am very autistic. If i were an American teenager in the 90s I would have MOST DEFINITELY been sent here, and that thought fills me with dread. I would have died in that place. Either from the beatings or by my own hand out of despair.
Fixing bad behavior by subjecting them to even worse behavior. Is there anything sadder than that girl who was obviously desperate for approval and affection being forced to hold a sign saying she's weak. I wonder what happened to her.
I believe that this was the place where a girl was sent completely innocently by her parents. I think they were in the Philippines, and they were just looking for a good boarding school in the US to send their daughter. Based on the marketing, this was the one they picked.
What kind of unfit parent would put their child someplace that's like a military boot camp thinking it will " straighten them up"? The people who ran this operation are criminals. If any one of their ex prisoners(that's what they were) sought retribution; could you blame them?
@@avr8844 Thousands, possibly tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of kids have been and are still being abused in places like this all over the country and the world. Is it really so strange that one could end up using the internet and end up on this video? I think not. There is no need to assume everyone is always lying for attention. Sadly the world is just way more messed up than most people realize. I wonder if that's good or bad, that most don't know. If they knew, would they change it? Or would it remain the same but everyone would just be more depressed about it? Guess I'll never know.
I have a high school friend that was sent to "Rocky Mountain Academy in upper Idaho". Pretty similar, but apparently not violent. Nor today degrade students. I guess it did get shut down due to sexual improprieties, though. People like Roseanne Barr and state senators sent their kids there.
This is some strange business. It sounds like some kind of Wes Craven movie, you know like The People Under the Stairs. All such enterprises should be closed and their founders jailed for willful abuse. Not only jailed but flogged. How are such enterprises permitted to exist?
I hadn't realized that Tiffany Sedaris had been sent to Élan. In everything I've read that her brother David has written about her, I don't recall that ever being mentioned.
Elan " students" didnt always pay. Alot of foster or group home kids were sent. This place was hell. My " crime" i was a cronic run away from absive foster parents.
![[#2024MAMA] ROSÉ (로제), Bruno Mars - APT. | Mnet 241122 방송](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dgGqD28J6aQ/mqdefault.jpg)
(sigh) Message: "I've failed as a parent. Here's some money. Fix my mistake for me." Answer: "We have a great institution modeled after the Khmer Rouge. You'll love it."
LMFAOO
imagine paying that much money to have someone torture your own child
Exactly!!
In defense of the parents, I think, as stated the parents didn't truly know how bad it is.
Nowadays, everything is cruel and unusual. Take a phone away from a child for the night because they refuse to do their chores, which is almost rated as child abuse.
😏💯👍
My mother was at Elan. For the first 12 or so years of my life I can't remember her talking once. My grandmother had to raise me because of how my mother was. I found out just after my mother passed in 2016 that my father was one of the employees there. I can only imagine how I was conceived.
I never knew much about my mother, despite her being in my life for 30 years.
Fk ELAN. Thank you for making this episode Simon & team.
I am so, so sorry.
that sounds terrible, i hope your mother is in a better place now.
It takes courage to share like this
My gods. I am so sorry.
Your grandmother raised you though she undoubtedly sent your mom, her own child, to Elan?
How many times in America have we heard about the physical, psychological and sexual abuse of teens in these "treatment" and detention centers? When are we going to end this pattern of abuse in the name of "helping" teens?
Probably when people stop having kids
We hear about it a LOT!!. Parents are going to have to look up the definition of unconditional love, spend time with their children guide them thru life, and always tell them the truth. And for God sakes, have parents and child therapy if they weren't shown those things by their parents. You can't teach what you don't know of..........
It is illegal in a lot of parts of the U.S. Unfortunately, most of these now are located in Utah, because that's one of the states that allows it. They also have some of the loosest standards for therapists in general in that state (not that any of these places have actual therapists, good or bad ones).
We have been hearing it for decades, it's disgusting that nothing is done.
The "troubled teen industry" is a total disgrace and should be shut down!!
Seeing as how you are talking on the ELAN school in this one, you should do research and a video on Turnabout Ranch, the reform camp that Dr. Phil used to advocate for and would send troubled youth from his show to. The amount of atrocities committed there have been heavily covered up over time, but several people have concerning stories about their time there.
For reference, Danielle Brigoli, aka Bhad Bhabie (the "cash me outside" girl), was one of the troubled youth sent to the ranch. I'm pretty sure it has since been closed down due to various scandals, but that would be another fantastic Into the Shadows video for you guys!
Paris Hilton also went through something similar in Utah with the Provo Canyon School. It's disturbing just how pervasive this stuff is in the US (and I assume beyond.)
@annmareeofoz as far as I understand it, America is far from the only nation to do this sort of thing... but I'm not sure of anything else beyond that.
Paris has done advocacy against those camps because of her experiences. It's wild that her and Kim K. are concerned with social issues these days, never would have guessed.
@andiward7068 isn't it absolutely wild to think that those two would become some of the loudest voices in regards to these? Star power helps bring many things to light, good or bad... but most seem to be bad over good. Lol
Do one on Synanon, the org that inspired ELAN
Covering this after Pitesti really shows us
*Sometimes.. evil is not so different. It only need a new skin to thrive anew*
my thoughts exactly. The punishments are disturbingly similar. I wonder if the release of this video so soon after was planned.
I also want to say to any parents out there who have a teen who is struggling, do not fall for the snake oil these places are selling you. My own kiddo had an extremely difficult time, had been diagnosed with intermittent explosive disorder, among other issues. It sucked, NGL, but the way to go is therapy. Hospitalization. Therapy. And LISTEN to your kid's therapist! Do what you have to, to help your kid. A place that takes your kid away and completely cuts off contact is not a safe thing. Every time my kiddo was hospitalized, every single time, the staff there welcomed and encouraged parental visits and phone calls, every single day. If they are discouraging this, that is a red flag.
And yes, I've been in severe debt, collections, wage garnishment, all of it. And you know what? The troubled teen industry will charge you EVEN MORE.
Do what you can, do the best you can, and do not trust places that say they'll "fix" your child. That's not how any type of healing, mental, emotional, physical, not how any of it works.
Wishing the best for your fam, your kid is lucky to have a decent parent like you
@@biazacha Thank you. I wish this was the norm, though. I feel like what I do for my kids is what you're supposed to do as a parent. But I do think in general younger generations are raising their kids better than the older generations have. I think it's become less authoritarian, which is a good thing.
These are scary times right now. I hope you're safe!
The cult Synanon and their “therapy” approach “Game” heavily inspired the tactics of Elan School. This connection is so clear having watched videos of both. The videos and survivor accounts are eerily similar.
Sam Hyde's Fishtank show is based on both Elan and The Synanon cult. He wants to make a cult because he's too lazy to have a job.
Ugh. Same ideas were the basis for the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs multiple facilities. American Samoa, Jamaica, Mexico, Montana, Utah all had "schools" run by WWASP. I was in the one in Mexico. The ones that were not in the contental US were cheaper by at least half. But my numbers are from over 20 years ago. Mexico was 2k/month.
I was more messed up and knew more about how to get away with doing whatever I wanted, including drugs, after I went than I did before I was sent.
My sister lives across the lake from the "ruins" of ELAN. You can still see bits of it from Range Pond, where it is located. I didn't know about it until we were driving by in their boat, and she told us about it. Absolutely unbelievable cruelty. Can't believe it lasted as long as it did.
My older brother was "sent away" after being in JD. He wasn't cured of anything when he came home one night, but he didn't explain. The next day the papers told how the school caught fire just after lights out at 9:00 pm. and burnt to the ground.
I could see his logic: it is hard to keep you in something when there's no something left.
Ah well, that was over 60 years ago, and he passed on a decade ago. It's just ghosts in the wind now .
Very poetic...my condolences to you and your family for your loss.
I watched a documentary on Elan before and it hasn't left my mind since. Glad you are covering it
Was it the Nexpo one? If not I suggest checking that one out next cause it's an incredible vid on it as well!
I watched the one where they interviewed people that went there. Very scary
I live in Maine my whole life, but I only heard of Elan a few years ago when I saw it in a video. This really horrifies me, institutions like this should not be allowed to exist. $300,000 to ensure your kids will never talk to you ever again.
If they're available in your country, Netflix has at least two documentaries about this awful industry: The Program: Cons, Cults and KIdnapping, and Hell Camp: Teen Nightmare. Chilling and hard to watch, but so important. These places are everywhere and only growing in number.
Thank you! 🙂👍 I have a recommendation too: there is a webcomic called elan * school! (TH-cam won't let me put "dot" so I put asterisk! 🙂)
My husband went to a school like this. There's a Netflix documentary about the group of schools he went to called The Program and it's traumatic to watch and the conversations I've had with him about his time there is heartbreaking. We call it child prison and that's with his experience of actual prison later on in life (shocking! These programs didn't actually set him up to be a productive member of society! Who could've guessed?) He had to do a lot of work to undo what that "school" did to his mental health. He's doing great now, but these places need to be destroyed.
I remember after getting dragged out of my house in the middle of the night, thinking my parents must have been murdered because why else would I be literally dragged from my room in the middle of the night..halfway through the drive from the NYC area (fort lee nj) my kidnappers told me this was on orders from my parents..didn’t believe it because I had “loving parents” .. it’s pretty fuzzy because it was 2003 but after a few hours of my ripping my skin trying to undo the bindings they had my mom on the phone, telling me I was going to a “camp school”.. if by camp you mean torture camp. hardest whiplash ever. I’m now nearly 40, recently I was talking to my mom about something very trivial (we were clothes shopping) and as I was trying on over expensive ugly clothes she asked “you don’t trust me??!???” she looked me in the eyes and asked me that and I laughed and laughed 😂 trust??⁉︎ seriously? I wish I had died instead. After all these years after what you did you think “trust” is a part of our relationship?⁉︎ what a freak.
@@rackynjeff I'm so sorry she put you through that and also that she still doesn't understand what she did. I hope she does somehow realize, although it might destroy her if she has even a shred of love, empathy, and decency, and it seems she does because you still interact with her. But she needs to face it regardless, or she can't even begin to deserve forgiveness, or at least that's how I see it. And I don't just mean from you. You can forgive or not as you see fit- that's entirely up to you and I cannot take that from you. I don't even want to. But I believe that when people do wrong, do unjustified harm to others, the universe itself will balance the scales in time. Maybe in the afterlife. Maybe in the next life. I think it's better for people to face their wrongs and suffer for them, even if only with pangs of the conscience, in this life so they have less to worry about carrying over for later. But not everyone has such beliefs, and that's okay too. This is just what I think, that's all. Anyway, good luck. I hope you are doing well.
I went to ironwood Maine. This was the evolution of Elan school. Certain things described in this video doesn’t match to what I experienced as things definitely evolved. But other things such as the legal kidnapping, the “corner”, which was evolved into reflection, same exact thing tho. It sucked a lot and I still have trauma despite being out a few years. The reasons for getting sent to reflection stayed about the same. The showering stuff, we only had 3 minutes and we could only shower every other day despite working tirelessly in the barn. The list goes on and on. It hurt me more than it helped. Ironwood was located in the forest of Maine. Speaking out, was impossible, every communication was monitored. When I first got to ironwood we had to ask staff members to sit down or stand up, to enter or exit a room, etc. even the less crappy evolution of elan, ironwood, was still just immoral.
I'm so sorry, that is fucking terrible. You deserve better 💜
Oh man, they made you... Reflect critically on your actions?! 😱 and they limited access to a limited shared resource? 😱😱
...what got you sent there in the first place?
@@benjamingamache6441I imagine you have to be born to careless parents
@@terribletimes902 yea that's probably a good start but it's no guarantee you'll end up there.
Wired seeing my home state in a Simon Whistler video. Thank you for sharing the story of Elan victims.
It is indeed weird seeing our home state considering it’s never mentioned in anything
These places/programs still exist. People still send their kids to these “camps” and kids are still being abused.
Did you watch to the end? That’s literally the last thing Simon talked about..
Parents were physically abused as children, but regard themselves as people that have "come out just fine" even with the repressed traumas.
That's why they think it's fine to send their kids to the same abusive environment, scarring them for life.
Religion poisons the brain
I agree with you, but now our kids think they are owed everything and have no respect. I'm not sure the removal of all forms of punishment is good either.
@@Sadenshard
So Spotlight and Conservative 'traditions' are ok?
Old Boomers are the most spoiled generation ever!
@@Sadenshard One too many parents don't respect their children as human beings, and view them as living extensions. No one asked to be brought into existence. Plenty of parents think they are owed respect just for doing the love Tango for 30 seconds, and providing the basement level bare minimum. Same parents think they can treat children however they want without consequence, and get upset when those kids give back the same energy.
@@Sadenshardthe carrot and the stick doesn’t work if you only use one of the two. I’m not advocating for physical punishment, it’s just about rewarding good actions and punishing bad ones. If any reward or punishment is disproportionate to the cause, it will not work either. Not saying it’s easy, and everyone is different so rewards and punishments should vary, but seriously, most of these parents who sent their kids to torture camps should be send to prison.
300.000$ per year?! You could buy at least 10 new normal kids for that kind of money
😑 we gonna need your location
Imagine paying money to have your children tortured.
😂
How do you? ... How do you know that information 🧐🕵️
Myeah...but if you buy 12 the 13th one is free...always good ta have a few spares...
I recently listened to an episode of Behind the Bastards about the desert camps for troubled teens, which had a lot of these same tactics, plus exposure and dehydration.
This whole thing is so effed up.
I listened to an in-depth postcast about ELAN and it's just incomprehensibly horrifying. Anyone who has a modicum of empathy just *can't* understand how this kind of place works/ed. The fact that so many kids were just straight up blindfolded and kidnapped from their beds (and it STILL happens for others in this "Troubled Teen Industry") is just.... I can't say incomprehensible enough.
The fact that this is an "industry" is just messed up.
It’s so weird having lived through it and having actual people acknowledge that it was just as bad as I remember
@@rackynjeff I’m sorry you went through that. You were failed by every adult who should have been taking care of you.
Reminds me of 'Job Corporation of America' in Vergennes, Vermont. Same as this Elan place. Immediately stripped of your stuff--anything you brought with you from home, don't expect to get it back. Showers were every other day, had to be up at 5am to start cleaning the dorm areas.
I hated that pit. 20+ yrs later, I still have nightmares. My mother certainly never gave a shit about what they did as she never bothered to even visit. Not Once. Not once did she even call! So, if you send your children there don't ever expect them to speak to you because we both know who sent us there. I'll NEVER forgive her for sending me there in the 1st place as I wasn't a 'juvenile delinquent.' I wasn't robbing places/people, breaking into places, none of that, she was just pissed because I had my own mind and she couldn't tell me what to do. A lot more to that story but I don't think anyone wants or needs to hear/see it.
Sounds like your mother never really wanted a child in the first place. I'm so sorry.
@@Kat-amber-t2z Thank you, your comment is very much appreciated. And you're right, she didn't
Fwiw, Im sorry that you had such a worthless mother.
@@StainsStainsStains Your kind words mean more then you know. Thank you
Having watched several documentaries on places like this meant to “scare them straight” I can see where the model came from now. Some of these “schools” are in other countries to keep the kids from running away.
@@acmhfmggruAbuse is abuse you freak
@acmhfmggru wow, I hope you never have children.
The whole point of scared straight is to scare the crap out of kids, then let them go with that fear in the back of their minds. elan was just torture.
It's not to keep them from running away. Kids still ran even in the Mexico facility while I was there. They're in foreign countries because they were less than half the cost to operate.
@rackynjeff the schools in Samoa, Jamaica, Mexico, Montana, and Utah by WWASP were just as bad as Elan.
I remember commercials for the Elan School all through the 70’s. I was in elementary school and there was plenty of humiliation as punishment even in public schools. It honestly was damaging. I have no idea why it was so prevalent.
My mom says that the assumption is you'll strive to be better if you're knocked down a peg (elans logic basically). At least that was her intent. I didn't go through elan levels of torture, but it still screwed me up nonetheless. I wasn't a bad kid, just had untreated adhd that made it so I wasn't your standard "good" kid.
Elan survivor here... this is one of the better researched and produced short videos that I have seen on the topic. There was a video by iilluminaughtii that was exceptional because it came out before The Program, but this is better produced and researched, and more sharable. Thank you. My only critique would be that while Joe Ricci constantly sold his ideas of tough love therapy, he was not actually as much of a believer in his own product as shown. In the later days at Elan, they were taking in kids who had learning disabilities, taking in kids to cover up crimes etc, not people for whom any sort of argument about needing "Tough love" could be made. If you have any questions or need any clarification on topics covered in the video, or anything else, please let me know. From the survivors, thank you again.
Fellow survivor here. It's so great to see productions casting light on it. It helps to be able to use videos like this to show people. I'm not always believed. I still can't believe this was part of my teen life.
My father tried to have me sent there when I was a teenager (mid 1990's) and one afternoon my grandpa and great uncles on my mom's side took my father out for a drive and "a chat" and when they got back he never brought it up again, not even for a second.
@@stephendaly5795 Ya I call bullshit. My father in law is an ex army ranger and long time LA county sheriff's deputy. He's in his late 50s. If he took me for a chat I'd fuck his ass up Soo fast. Lmao. Father time is undefeated and being a father isn't being easily swayed by other people about your children. If I made a decision about my child,it's coming to fruition. Period.
@@stephendaly5795because they were in the matrix and it never actually happened
We are in the matrix and we never happened
Not even for a second?! That’s crazy!
you are very lucky
I’ve been an avid Amy & David Sedaris fan for years & never made this connection. How deeply sad for all who survived & unfortunately continue to suffer in these programs
A really good but HIGHLY disturbing look at both Elan and the after effects of being a part of that environment is the comic Joe Nobody vs Elan School (or Joe vs Elan School) written and drawn by a survivor of the school. There were chapters that legitimately had me sobbing or feeling nauseous. It's finished now but the author is planning on a physical copy. He claims to be one of the people who started the online movement to get Elan shut down though he has remained anonymous under his pseudonym Joe and does admit there are embellishments especially in the years following his "graduation" but it's still a very good and hard hitting story.
That’s the story I read. I never got to the part about his graduation, just the part where he ran away, got kidnapped again, and then decided to play along for a bit.
I read the series from start to finish and it’s a TOUGH read. It’s really good, though! I hope Joe’s doing okay these days. He went through the wringer.
@@SadCelosia He really did. I want to get the physical copy once it's out because if anyone needs support it's him.
@@ferretyluv I would finish it if you're inclined to. It's worth the read.
You just brought back a flood of memories reading that comic, that was a very tough read!
I watched the documentary and it is an understatement to say shocking. Sadly, many males especially as adults ended up in prison or had committed suicide if they hadn’t already passed in Elan “care”
This video barely even scratches the surface of what went on there. There's a graphic novel written by a former student called Joe Vs. Elan School that goes into great detail and it's truly one of the most disturbing things I've ever read.
I survived the troubled teen industry in the 90s. I still have nightmares and I'm 43.
I'm seriously shocked that ELAN stayed open for as long as it did, I don't care what a kid had done to get themselves into that hell hole, nothing justified the way that the kids were treated. Also, assuming they're not dead, Goldberg and Ricci should be serving prison sentences.
And the fact that it wasn’t shut down, it just ran out of money so had to close… that’s insane…
Prison sentences should be for child abuse, sexual abuse, assault, and murder. All of them should be charged with all of the aforementioned, whether they participated in it or not, they knew it was going on...........
Google Judge Rotenberg Center, still operating and using their patented (issued an actual US patent) GED electroshock device.
They claim it’s for behavioral modification, the UN says it’s a torture device, and I’m inclined to go with the latter
@@vimicito Beats me, personally I’m inclined to agree with the UN that it’s a torture device and at 90ma dangerous. 15ma across the heart is fatal if I recall correctly.
That being said I’ve been hit a few times by 42Kv ignition coils, hurt like heck and just made me more pissed off.
I personally doubt it effectively modifies behavior, more like pain submission. But they swear by it and have been winning court battles over it. Which is disturbing
@@vimicito Auto repair, the ignition coils in modern cars run between 42-50Kv, but only about 2-3ma, on par with an average taser. So not enough to cause serious harm, but more then enough to make my arm feel weird for a few hours, hurt like heck and elicit every curse word I could think of.
Which kind of makes me think that GED device is more pain compliance then behavior modification.
Good to hear he made a full recovery, that kind of voltage/amperage and arc flash injuries are no joke.
This place was still around in the 2000s? That’s insanity
Places like it are still around today. Conversion therapy is currently fully or partly legal in every country on earth except Canada, Mexico, Ecuador, Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, Norway, Greece, Iceland, and New Zealand.
Nexpo covers this in more depth if people are interested
His video on it is eerie to say the least.
Parents were wild back in the day.. "Here's $300,000 take my child away and abuse them for me please"
I guess my parents just saved the 300k 😂
@@goosenotmaverick1156 did it work
I'm sure it wasn't the case of all of them, but I'd bet a lot of the children's behavioral issues stem from shitty parents.
you're extremely oversimplifying it. Simon does an excellent job of demonstrating that the parents were not aware and were manipulated into not knowing about any of the abuse happening. Yet you come right to the comment section and misrepresent them.
@@ThomasHendrickson isn't that what comments are best for? Misrepresentation and oversimplification of the subject?
Personally this isn't the first I've heard of it so I already had some existing knowledge. Even Simon didn't even get ALL the way into it.
When you can copy-paste most of the script from a video on the Pitesti prison and a school for teenagers, something has seriously gone wrong.
Thank you. It's not Simon's fault, but he's paid a "writer" to rearrange sentences from a documentary....
My comment before I looked for other people who realised it is
PLAGIARISM much?
Love your channels Simon, but whoever gave you this script took it word for word from a recently uploaded documentary about the "troubled teen industry".
They switched the order about, but seriously, it's word for word. Not your fault, but not ok either. You paid for them to rearrange some sentences
That's a fire-able offense in the WhistlerVerse.
@@andiward7068It’s a lawsuit of the employer offense in the realverse 😂
I haven't seen the video that was plagiarized, but in the writers defense, there's only so many ways to describe these abuse factories. They have a specific jargon that's used.
I've watched a few mini docs on the programs, and while most of them are really good at covering the physical abuse, this is the first one I've seen that's even mentioned how extreme the mental and emotional abuse is.
I know how that life. When i was a kid i was sadly put in several horrible abusive schools for kids with behavioral problems just because i enjoyed medieval history and i am transgender and because my parents abused me for it and took everything i enjoyed because they didn’t like it and that also they wouldn’t let me be me and rightfully so made me sad and angry because i just wanted to be myself and be at peace. I was never a violent person in the beginning i became that way because i kept getting hurt and tortured for being me. I have endured torture at several schools i was put in by my parents to change me. It doesn’t help kids it hurts them. I know that from my own experience. I will tell you that i never broke. I kept fighting for who I am and sadly i was hurt a lot for it. I am currently 29 years old and I live on my own. I do everything I ever wanted. I work as a professional medieval reenactor and I reenact the executioner and teach people about torture and execution throughout history. I have complex post traumatic stress disorder from the torture I endured from my childhood but I go to therapy and am now doing what I love to do. I will tell you that those schools never helped me and they did not change who i am or my interests or passions. In fact it made me want to be myself in a peaceful safe way even more and that is why i never let anyone change me and I fought hard to be myself when I should not have had to. Those type of schools still exist and they are absolutely disgusting. I hope they all get shut down someday no kid deserves to be hurt manhandled and tortured just because they want to be themselves or they are struggling with something. There are other more effective ways to help innocent children. Harming children is not the answer. Parents love your kids no matter what. Kids grow up and have their own personalities and emotions. Be kind if they struggle be kind and have patience to help them understand what is happening don’t torture them. Torturing innocent people just for being themselves is unacceptable and downright disgusting behavior. I actually have no issue with torture or execution when a person tortures and murders innocent people and I do believe in some cases it is necessary. But I do not feel torture is necessary to change someone’s personality or beliefs or interests. I know and relate to this video I went through it but came out the other side and I am safe and happy now. And at peace.
💜💜
/hugz
@@vulcanfeline thanks for the kind comment. Hopefully you have a great day. I always appreciate kindness
@@bunyipdragon9499 thanks for the kind reply. I am thankful I am doing okay now. I share my experiences and struggles to help others not feel alone I do not want anyone to go through what I have been through so I share to encourage others and spread awareness and understanding of people who are different but genuinely good people.
I am so glad they didn't break you and that you are doing what you love, living as you wish, and at peace now.
In the early 1980s I went through a program called ADAPT at the bulloch house in Grand rapids Michigan. It was for youthful offenders ran by project rehab. 21 months I spent there because I was hard-headed. It was a 6-month program for young people between the ages of 16 and 21. I was never in trouble with the law again after what I endured there. We had general meetings and encounter groups. It was better than the alternative of going to prison and I had an ulterior motive to attend. I wanted to change my way of thinking in my aggressive responses to confrontation before I attended prison. Otherwise I never would have come out of prison. It completely changed my behavior and I am eternally grateful for it. I am in my 60s now and have had a good life since then.
I want to know how to advocate for children seeking medical care after they tell us about the coersive control including sometimes violence properly without that putting them further at risk when their parents find out they complained.
Social workers and school counselors get training for exactly this.
They have no contact with the outside world to complain until they've been through the abuse, and. usually have inflicted it on other new kids that haven't earned the privilege of being "trusted". They're usually not in much danger of anything other than being shunned by their parents. By the time they can tell people what happened, it's usually their own brain, memories, and feelings of guilt that are their biggest danger.
Learn how to deprogram cult survivors. There's a LOT of brainwashing in these places. The most messed up thing I ever heard was staff telling a girl that she needed to take responsibility for her uncle molesting her when she was 2. She needed to figure out what she did to make him do that to her. If you want to help the people who survive these abuse factories, that's the kind of things that you're going to have to help people face.
What's scary to me is the fact that this description doesn't shock me at all. I went to a primary school with similar attitudes (in 2000's Russia), and it wasn't even a school for troubled children - no, it was actually one of the poshest schools in the city. My parents finally moved me to another school in the second year, after one of my classmates told her parents that she would rather commit you-know-what than go to school (at 8 years old!) because of all the psychological and physical abuse that our teacher perpetrated. Thank god it wasn't a boarding school...
Imagine paying 300 grand to send your kids to a North Korean prison camp.
Was in school during the 60's and 70's graduating in 1978. Better to be sent to the principal's office. Cheers from Tennessee
One of my best friends was sent to that school. It's absolutely tragic.
When you're a parent, you have a moral obligation to protect your child from harm as best you can. Not subject them to it. These places are a stain on our society, and sadly still exist. It's madness.
Me: Camp Green Lake from "Holes" is the worst thing to happen to a teenager.
ELAN: Hold my beer.
There are far more schools like this one than you know. The boarding school I went to was very similar. Very
Bullies create more bullies. We need to stand up to this insidious behaviour.
I teach my children and grandchildren. "The standard you walk past is the standard that you accept."
What a disgrace. What a failure of a parent to send a child to such a place.
This is unfortunately still very much happening in the US. Elan-like institutions sprout like mushrooms after rain in Utah even today. The culture of total ignorace of human rights and children's rights in the US is down right disgusting and extremely worrying.
Seeing how the responses run to people speaking out about their experiences in similar institutions, the attempts to silence are still running strong. Seems any toe over the line in your youth deserves immediate and extreme reaction. Folks, any thought that is why there are laws against child abuse pretty much everywhere?
Aside from the hefty price tag, this sounds like the Sunlight Home in Stephen King/Peter Straub's book, The Talisman
Excellent and very disturbing book.
He gets most of his inspiration from Maine so it's not surprising.
Please make a video about The Judge Rotenberg Centre, what happens there is barely covered and the institute is still operating today.
I think he did once but I can't find it on any of his channels. Wonder where it went?
I went somewhere like this. This is real. Children are living like this today.
This place was just replaced by those Teen Wilderness Camps. Teenagers can be difficult but sending them away to a place like this is never the answer!
Great video Simon. Can you please do a video of the "Lad School" in Exeter, Rhode Island? It was a school for feeble minded children in the early to mid 20th century, a lot of kids died there. The buildings have been torn down, but there is a rehab on the grounds that is extremely haunted. I know, I saw some really scary stuff there.
Just FYI, you may not want to mention the haunted thing to Simon. He'll just deny and ridicule it. I think he's a great person who does great stuff, but just like the rest of us he's not perfect. I would like to see a video on it. Hopefully with less dismissal of people's paranormal experiences for once.
I went to a place like this in Wyoming called mt. Carmel Youth Ranch. It was hell. Had to beat each other and they starved us. Ran 12 miles to church every day in cowboy boots.
In the words of Simon "the past was the worst"
"Far away from the public's prying eyes" literally none of the troubled teen industry takes place within easy view of the public. Lack of regulation and oversight is as vital to their business model as the steady stream of teens with exasperated parents is.
My mother made me stand in the corner.
No worse than the old boarding schools for indigenous people.
Honestly this sounds like it could’ve all been avoided if folks were better parents
Not taking the focus off Elan here, but I’m just pointing out that there is also…. Lots of school like that in China, abusive, under the radar and with even kids dying.. it’s less unknown to the world, even to the Chinese public.
It’s really sad
China has legitimate concentration camps, entire facilities designed to eliminate the Uighur people, and whoever else is deemed unfit to live in normal society.
I'm not American, and think it's a bit of a mess, but China is on a different level.
Talk about opening the doors for PTSD. The former students had their futures ruined. Imagine trying to live within the strict guidelines adhereing to ridiculous rules.
Would LOVE a more in-depth episode on this!!!! Maybe a cascrim
seriously i want a major investigation into the people who are responsible for the curriculum
Check out Paris Hiltons documentary "Breaking Code Silence." She's done a lot of work to shut these schools down
@matguy1000 NEXPO did a great vid on the Elan School a few years back
episodes 264 and 265 of "And That's Why We Drink" cover the Elan School (second half of each episode, if you don't want to listen to the paranormal half). They also covered a case in episode 352 that involved a teen who was sent to an Elan School in Maine, but his time there isn't really covered--it's more of a "oh hey, not so fun fact, he's connected to this horrible place we've talked about before".
Robert Evans (Behind the Bastards) did a couple of episodes on the Elan School in 2021. He also recently covered Steve Cartisano (the guy who started the camps in Utah) a couple of weeks ago.
I watched Children of Darkness a few years ago and I strongly feel like there are so many more schools like this. These schools are more than likely in certain quiet places of the world. Boarding schools in general have gotten a negative connotation to them; more than likely well deserved.
As a victim of the troubled teen industry in the US, unfortunately none of this is not surprising and is still going on.
Edit: I went to Discovery Ranch for Girls, Utah. I was there for a year and a half, and I still have nightmares weekly, it’s been four years, I know I’ll be living with those nightmares till I die.
Edit again: I’m more than willing to answer questions.
The Utah survival camps? I almost got sent to one of them in the mid and late 90s.
@@RussetPotato you mean the wilderness camps? No, it’s a long-term RTC, I did get sent to a wilderness camp in Idaho called Bluefire or something. You dodged a bullet.
@@Tinybopplewere your parents ignorant of what went on? What’s the relationship like with them today? Have you had any therapy since leaving? Did it(therapy) help?
@@miked451 While I’d like to hope that they just didn’t know, they were also desperate to get me help. I wasn’t a drug user or anything, but extremely suicidal. My relationship with them is choppy at times, but we stay in contact. We got a therapist that helped us work through everything.
@Tinybopple, are you doing okay? I know people who have gone through these "programs" and they don't come back the same. I know one of the people who does the midnight pickups, and she's a snakey bii... person
These organizations continuously get away with it, nobody faces consequences, kids are treated as property at best.
This sounds like a type of drug rehab known as a T.C. which is still popular to this day with the judicial system.
i’m unsure if it’s the same but i watch a lot of videos of escaped cultists (shoutout cults to consciousness). the IBLP is famously known for running these schools as “christian boarding schools for kids with behavioral issues”. anyways it’s all the same premise and the “restraint” makes me think of what many survivors of IBLP facilities went through. 2 people holding down each limb with all their weight for up to hours at a time. sometimes people on their chests. so those minors who died from “restraint” were likely crushed or could not breathe and it breaks my heart
Oh wow. That's horrific. How are those programs and the people running them nor charged with murder or manslaughter?
Sounds like a Caribbean cruise compared to Dozier in Florida though.
I have lived in Maine my whole life and never once heard of this. Wild!
My half-brother was sent to a school similar to this. Don’t recall the name but it was in either Utah or Arizona? Seriously messed him up. The abuse he suffered was all kinds, from both the adults supposed to care for him and the other teens there.
Part 1 of the treatment program often included a pilot program. Where kids were sent to a wilderness program while being observed for future placement.
An example is Aspen Achievement Academy operated out of Coral Reef Utah
I'm wondering just how many people who had to get themselves diagnosed with autism as a teenager or adult spent this whole video waiting for the shocking punishments...
I've lived around 45 minutes away from this town for my entire life, and have never even heard of this place's existence... this is crazy...
Parents said after , (forcing her to live there), she lived there for 2 years she was never the same…
But did they ever check in on her? Clearly not… at least not beyond hello child of mine I’m abandoning. 🤢🤮😢 it probably wasn’t just the school abuse that drove her to no longer being with us… granted it was clearly the worst trigger for her. “Why won’t my parents stop this,” is a very damaging message to have stewing in the head for two whole years of abuse. Sh!ts real gross all around.
sounds like my foster home, 24 years ago. Only allot less witnesses.
When Simon said Poland Maine I choked on my water because I'd never heard about this before and I live near there. What the fuck. How was this just forgotten
I wish this channel was more Simon like. I want your random opinions/thoughts/tangents whistle boi
This sounds exactly like the Stanford Prison Experiment, which was such a terrible situation, it had to be terminated after only 6 days because of the irreparable mental and emotional harm it caused; and these were fully formed and mentally developed adults. I can't imagine how this would play out in a child.
And there are reports of severe. abuses in South Korea and Japan where children are sent because of internet addiction that mirrors these problems
I just watched the episode of Romania's House of Horror with the prison sadism camp that did a bunch of war crimes and I've gotta say I'm noticing some parallels in the punishment strategies...
Charter Behavioral System
True
reminds of when we here in the UK used to have the "short sharp shock" young offenders detention centers, 1979-1990, it was a militery style harsh regeime, the threat of being sent there was like the bogey man when i was a pup 😁
At first I was like, oh yeah I have heard of those places… as you continued describing it my mood changed quickly
I am very autistic. If i were an American teenager in the 90s I would have MOST DEFINITELY been sent here, and that thought fills me with dread. I would have died in that place. Either from the beatings or by my own hand out of despair.
Elan is the main location for the events in Joe versus Elan School, a web-based graphic novel.
Wow every time I hear about this story I am absolutely horrified. I simply can’t believe they were able to operate so long
This reminds me too much of your previous vid on the Pitesti Experiment.
High time for the "Troubled teen industry" to be strictly regulated.
I had 2 friends that went to a similar style of school in Alberta in the 80s. The stories they told were pretty horrible.
Dude I live in Brunswick Maine how did I have never hear about this
Fixing bad behavior by subjecting them to even worse behavior. Is there anything sadder than that girl who was obviously desperate for approval and affection being forced to hold a sign saying she's weak. I wonder what happened to her.
Lmao as if this was a thing of the past. I went through this at an elan-model school in the mid 2010s
Which one?
I believe that this was the place where a girl was sent completely innocently by her parents. I think they were in the Philippines, and they were just looking for a good boarding school in the US to send their daughter. Based on the marketing, this was the one they picked.
You should talk about the Judge Rotenburg Education Center.
They should, but the institution is still active, and a lot of these so-called schools are more than willing to sue critics.
I’m reasonably confident that Robert Evans covered it on Behind the Bastards.
He did a while ago, I don't know if the video is still up since they are incredibly litigious
What kind of unfit parent would put their child someplace that's like a military boot camp thinking it will " straighten them up"? The people who ran this operation are criminals. If any one of their ex prisoners(that's what they were) sought retribution; could you blame them?
Interesting. I would like to know what came of the two guys who ran it? Surely they were not allowed to just walk away?
0:01 - Oh god, i remember my teenage years... what a turbulent time! 🤦🏻♂️
Fraud
@avr8844
We assume you are talking about yourself.
You have something to say?
@@avr8844 Thousands, possibly tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of kids have been and are still being abused in places like this all over the country and the world. Is it really so strange that one could end up using the internet and end up on this video? I think not. There is no need to assume everyone is always lying for attention. Sadly the world is just way more messed up than most people realize. I wonder if that's good or bad, that most don't know. If they knew, would they change it? Or would it remain the same but everyone would just be more depressed about it? Guess I'll never know.
I have a high school friend that was sent to "Rocky Mountain Academy in upper Idaho".
Pretty similar, but apparently not violent. Nor today degrade students. I guess it did get shut down due to sexual improprieties, though.
People like Roseanne Barr and state senators sent their kids there.
This is some strange business. It sounds like some kind of Wes Craven movie, you know like The People Under the Stairs. All such enterprises should be closed and their founders jailed for willful abuse. Not only jailed but flogged. How are such enterprises permitted to exist?
The beard length changes are starting to throw me off 😂
I hadn't realized that Tiffany Sedaris had been sent to Élan. In everything I've read that her brother David has written about her, I don't recall that ever being mentioned.
Elan " students" didnt always pay. Alot of foster or group home kids were sent. This place was hell. My " crime" i was a cronic run away from absive foster parents.