From the Bend Bulletin, November 15, 2009
Ever unconventional, long controversial – The school’s history is a twisted one, involving atypical therapy methods and company mergers, good intentions and success stories, but also cases of what some, including the state, call abuse. The story behind the academy’s closure.
An era ended when Mount Bachelor Academy closed Nov. 3, following allegations of child abuse by the state Department of Human Services.
The private school for troubled teens, located 26 miles east of Prineville, was one of the last of its kind — a school whose methods originated in the Synanon self-help group, which was widely considered a cult by the late 1970s.
It’s also a school that counts hundreds, if not thousands, of devoted graduates and parents who swear that Mount Bachelor Academy put their children on the right track, or even saved their lives.
And for years, MBA was a flagship of Aspen Education Group, a company that grew to become one of the biggest providers of therapeutic, emotional-growth and weight-loss facilities in the U.S. In 2006, that company was swallowed by an even bigger fish, CRC Health, an arm of the private investment firm Bain Capital.
The roots
According to veteran educational consultants, Mount Bachelor Academy was one of the last schools founded on a therapy for troubled teens that originated at the Southern California school called CEDU.
Three educational consultants, including a former CEDU staff member, said the school’s founder, Mel Wasserman, drew from Synanon’s ideas when he started the school.
Synanon began in the 1950s as a Southern California group designed to help “dope fiends” and drug addicts who didn’t have other options for treatment at the time.
In a 1977 article, Time magazine describes the early Synanon method as a “no-nonsense, self-help program that included the ‘game,’ a rugged encounter session in which participants acted out their inmost hostilities. Learning the truth about themselves supposedly helped them stay off drugs or booze.”
The group, according to Time and other contemporary news accounts, eventually required its female members to shave their heads, men to get vasectomies and married couples to swap partners. In 1980, three members of the group pleaded no contest to charges of attempted murder for putting a rattlesnake in the mailbox of an attorney who had sued the group. No one suggests that any of the most unseemly aspects of Synanon were ever part of the CEDU curriculum.
San Francisco educational consultant Alice Jackson said she was impressed by CEDU the first time she visited the school, in 1974. Wasserman and his wife were caring for dozens of “kids off the street,” many of whom had serious substance abuse problems.
“I was first of all astounded by the magical personality that (Wasserman) had,” Jackson said. “I had great admiration for his dedication for these kids.”
Lon Woodbury was admissions director at CEDU for several years and now is an independent education consultant in Idaho. Woodbury said Wasserman “watered down” the Synanon ideas for the school.
“Mel Wasserman was influenced by Synanon, and so used the confrontation model watered down quite a bit in the founding in CEDU,” Woodbury said. “It continued to be watered down and was much less confrontational than it was in the early years.”
The abuse allegations at Mount Bachelor Academy by the Oregon Department of Human Services hearkened back to the earlier practices at emotional growth schools, Woodbury said.
“Some of the things the state had said surprised me because those were things they were doing years ago when it was more acceptable,” he said.
The Oregon Department of Human Services complaint against MBA found that some of the therapeutic methods at the school were “punitive, humiliating, degrading and traumatizing,” including “sexualized role play in front of staff and peers, requiring students to say derogatory phrases about themselves in front of staff and peers, requiring students to re-enact past physical abuse in front of staff and peers, permitting staff to engage in the usage of derogatory names, phrases and ridicule of students and deprivation of sleep.”
Wasserman died in 2002, according to Woodbury’s newsletter on therapeutic schools, Woodbury Reports.
Starting out in Central Oregon
In 1987, College Health Enterprises, a group of Southern California hospitals, decided to start an emotional-growth boarding school for teenagers, somewhere in Central Oregon.
According to a history of MBA on the school’s Web site, the school tried to start in Powell Butte, but “a few difficulties with permits” led founder Linda Houghton to locate at the former Mark’s Creek Lodge, in the Ochoco National Forest.
Woodbury, Jackson and education consultants Doug Bodin and Tom Croke all agreed that CEDU methods were the basis for early emotional growth methods at Mount Bachelor Academy .
Jackson is listed on the MBA history page as one of the consultants who was an important source of student referrals in the school’s early days. She endorsed the school at the time, Jackson said, but gradually grew to believe the model needed to be updated.
“At that time, the programs were very much about behavior management, and they were rigid in their length of stay,” Jackson said. “Some of those things that happened in that model were not what we would think would be OK for kids (today).”
Croke, a consultant in Pennsylvania who runs the Web site FamilyLight.com, agreed that the methods pioneered at CEDU-style schools, including sleep deprivation and confrontational therapy, are now considered inappropriate. But that was less clear in the early days of the industry, he said.
“One problem I have with the naysayers, while I really do not like in 2009 that kind of work, I also think to go back in hindsight to 30 years ago and damn the people who created this as if they were money-grubbing child abusers. That simply wasn’t true,” Croke said.
Rather, those people were well-intentioned but lacking today’s knowledge, Croke said. Indeed, the methods spread to at least six other schools, because they were seen as effective at helping many children.
“Anecdotally, they were successful with a lot of kids,” Croke said. “What is not as well documented are the casualties that were associated with that.”
The Bulletin contacted Houghton and four other former top MBA officials. Houghton and three others did not return messages. Former MBA Director Dennis Crowell declined to be interviewed.
Aspen Education Group
In 1997 or 1998, College Health Enterprises spun off Mount Bachelor Academy and a handful of other youth facilities into the company that became Aspen Education Group.
Aspen quickly grew to become one of the largest owners of therapeutic schools and wilderness camps in the nation by buying independent facilities and starting new ones of its own.
Woodbury, the Idaho consultant, said part of Aspen’s success was a policy of allowing each facility to retain its own character, rather than imposing a single corporate culture.
“They tried to maintain the uniqueness of each culture so that the differences would remain,” Woodbury said.
It now owns four facilities in Central Oregon, including the academy. Its largest concentration of youth programs is in Utah, where it owns nine facilities.
Utah Licensing Director Ken Stettler said the Aspen programs in his state are generally well-run.
When problems do occur, “our programs have been very good about responding to those things,” Stettler said. “They do the right things by getting it fixed.”
Stettler said none of the Aspen programs had incurred a major violation since he started in his position in 2002.
However, three children have died in Aspen-owned facilities in Utah since 2004. Two deaths were suicides. The other happened in 2007, when 14-year-old Brendan Blum died of a bowel obstruction, after counselors failed to call for medical assistance, despite his complaints of stomach pain, loss of bowel control and vomiting.
The school, Youth Care of Utah, had the proper procedures in place and wasn’t at fault, said Stettler.
“The school itself had trained the staff in the policy and procedure in reporting of illnesses, and those staff had failed to follow the training that was provided,” he said.
A fourth teen, 16-year-old Sergey Blashchishen, collapsed while hiking in Lake County and died on the scene in August. Blashchishen was on a trip with Aspen-owned SageWalk, a wilderness school based in Redmond.
The incident is under investigation by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and the state Department of Human Services. DHS ordered SageWalk to temporarily close in September.
Aspen declined to make any of its officials available for an interview with The Bulletin. In a written statement, Aspen Senior Vice President Mark Dorenfeld said the company takes steps to ensure precautions are taken across its facilities.
“To best serve (students’) special needs, we have established best practices and safety protocols within our policies and procedures to enhance the level of care,” Dorenfeld wrote. “These policies and procedures incorporate all critical elements of care, from health and wellness protocols, to staff training, to therapeutic practices.”
Dorenfeld also said some media accounts of what happened on the trip have been inaccurate. When asked to specify what Dorenfeld was referring to, a spokeswoman said the company “could not comment further.”
An old model
Several boosters of Mount Bachelor Academy in its early days said the school didn’t do enough to update its methods over time.
Bend psychologist Michael Conner has worked with facilities for troubled teens in the past and lists Mount Bachelor Academy founder Houghton as an educational adviser for his company that consults with parents of troubled children. Conner said the school was originally designed for teens in need of emotional growth, but not intense mental health services.
“What the program was when it was founded is not the least bit related to what the program became,” Conner said. “(It) became quite overfilled with a high number of clinical and severe patients, which the program was never designed (for).”
Jackson said she stopped referring children to Mount Bachelor Academy nearly 10 years ago.
“I have not used it for a number of years as I saw it deteriorating and hanging on to an old model that was really no longer useful,” Jackson said.
Croke agreed.
“I can tell you that that didn’t surprise me,” Croke said, of the state’s charges of abuse. “It was irresponsible of (Aspen) to allow that kind of programming to continue to go on in the year 2009.”
Earlier this year, The Bulletin spoke with 10 former students — several of whom had positive experiences at Mount Bachelor — who described one or more of the practices mentioned in the state’s complaint.
Despite the concerns of professionals and some students, a legion of parents and former students say allegations of abuse are overblown and that unorthodox methods, such as using a week or even a month of manual labor as punishment, get results.
Beth McKinnon’s 16-year-old son, Quinn, had been at MBA for six months when the school closed two weeks ago. McKinnon, a licensed family therapist in Santa Cruz, Calif., said she felt entirely comfortable with the program at Mount Bachelor Academy .
McKinnon, like many parents of former students there, grew emotional while talking about the program’s benefits for her child. It’s the only place where Quinn has ever felt comfortable in a group, she said.
“I would hate to see these schools get shut down because a few people felt they were humiliated and embarrassed at what they had to go through,” McKinnon said.
CRC Health
In 2006, Aspen Education Group was purchased by the even larger CRC Health Group, an arm of the Mitt Romney-founded private investment firm Bain Capital Inc. Since the merger, though, CRC’s performance has been lackluster.
The down economy hit CRC hard. After recording a $1.5 million profit in 2007, the company lost $141 million in 2008, according to the company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The recession created a double-whammy for the company: Families were less able to afford the steep tuition — Mount Bachelor Academy charged $6,400 each month — and tighter credit markets meant they had difficulty securing loans to make up the difference.
“In 2008, we experienced a significant decrease in demand for services in our youth division as a result of declining economic conditions and the inability of families to access the credit markets to fund tuition,” the company’s annual report said.
The end
In April, Oregon DHS opened an investigation into allegations of abuse and neglect at Mount Bachelor Academy . On Nov. 3, the agency found nine confirmed allegations of abuse and ordered the school’s license temporarily suspended. MBA Executive Director Sharon Bitz initially said the school would appeal the suspension, but last week, CRC Health filed a mass layoff notice with the state, indicating it would not attempt to reopen Mount Bachelor Academy . The academy’s owners Mount Bachelor Academy is one of more than 30 facilities owned by Aspen Education Group and designed to treat troubled teens. In 2006, CRC Health, which owns more than 145 schools, clinics and camps, purchased Aspen. CRC’s Oregon facilities
In Central Oregon:• Mount Bachelor Academy (Prineville)• SageWalk (Redmond)• New Leaf Oregon (Bend)• NorthStar Center (Bend) In the Portland area:• Burnside Clinic• Belmont Clinic• Alder Clinic• Tigard Clinic In Southern Oregon:• Medford Clinic Source: CRC Health Group… But years of troubles 1988: Mount Bachelor Academy is founded by College Health Enterprises, a group of hospitals in Southern Cali-fornia, at the former Mark’s Creek Lodge, pictured at right, in the Ochoco National Forest. 1997: Aspen Education Group is spun off into an independent company by College Health Enterprises. The company includes Mount Bachelor Academy and about five other schools. 1998: First allegations of abuse at Mount Bachelor Academy . The school is cleared of wrongdoing by the state Department of Human Services. 1998: Aspen Education Group purchases NorthStar Center, a Bend independent- living facility for young adults 18-25. The center had operated independently since 1991. 2004: New Leaf Academy, a girls-only boarding school in Bend, is acquired by Aspen. The school was founded in 1997. 2005: Aspen acquires Redmond-based SageWalk: The Wilderness School. SageWalk was founded in 1997. This year, the school was featured in the ABC series “Brat Camp.” 2006: CRC Health, a conglomeration of treatment centers and weight-loss camps for adults and children, purchases Aspen Education Group for $280 million. CRC Health is controlled by Bain Capital, a private equity firm that now manages about $60 billion in assets. 2009: April: The state begins investigation of abuse allegations at Mount Bachelor Academy .• August: A camper at SageWalk, 16-year-old Sergey Blashchishen, collapses while hiking and dies at the scene. The case is still under investigation by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.• September: The state orders SageWalk to send its students home.• November: Mount Bachelor Academy ’s license is suspended by DHS after an investigation finds nine confirmed counts of abuse and neglect at the school. Aspen Education Group files a layoff notice with the state of Oregon, indicating that it does not plan to reopen the school. Sources: Securities and Exchange Commission filings, Aspen Education Group news releases, Bulletin research The academy’s offspring A handful of former Mount Bachelor Academy instructors and counselors went on to found a number of other facilities in Central Oregon. At least one was later acquired by Aspen Education Group, while others are still independent.• College Excel: Founded in 2003 by Jeannie Crowell, who worked at Mount Bachelor and later founded NorthStar Center. The school is for young adults who are preparing for college or who had trouble transitioning into college.• NorthStar Center: Founded by Dennis Crowell and Jeannie Crowell in 1991. Dennis Crowell was also a founder and one-time director of Mount Bachelor Academy . NorthStar was purchased by Aspen Education Group in 1998.• Ohana House: An independent living house in Bend for women from 17.5 to 30 years old. It was founded by Malia Mullahey, who began at Mount Bachelor as a mentor in 1994, according to a company news release announcing her hiring. The academy’s parent companies and their Web marketing practices Mount Bachelor Academy and its parent companies — Aspen Education Group and CRC Health Group — have a reputation for aggressive marketing techniques, most notably through a variety of Web sites tailored to parents of troubled teens. The sites include byparents-forparents.com, adoptionissues.org, overweightteen.com, yourlittleprofessor.com and teenboarding schools.com. They’re presented as information portals for parents seeking information, not advertising sites for the schools. All of the sites except for yourlittleprofessor.com, targeted at parents of children with Asperger’s syndrome, note on their home pages that they’re funded by CRC Health. The sites don’t make clear, though, that CRC Health owns all of the schools referenced on the sites. The current incarnation of the sites is much more transparent than earlier versions, education consultant Tom Croke wrote in a review of Aspen’s marketing apparatus. Before last year, CRC didn’t disclose that it owned those sites, said Croke, who discovered the connections. Because parents are often making those choices during times of stress, they may be more likely to accept those pitches. It’s self-evident, said consultant Doug Bodin, but bears repeating that parents shouldn’t rely on the Internet when it comes to researching facilities to send their troubled children.“It’s like going on the Internet to do your own open heart surgery,” Bodin said. “Anyone can throw their testimonials out there; everyone can give you a list of enthusiastic students.” Before making those decisions, parents should speak with an educational consultant or mental health professional who knows about the treatment options and climate of each facility, Bodin said.“Parents are having to make huge decisions involving lots of money at a very vulnerable time,” Bodin said. “Too often, parents can miss their own role in helping their child.”— Keith Chu, The Bulletin
This is all true. I went to Mount Bachelor Academy in 1992 and it was ridiculous. Sleep deprivation, isolation, over medication, and humiliation were all part of the daily routine. How do I sue these people?
I had my liberty violated by this so called school that was really just a prison without walls. I was forced to undergo sleep deprivation, had to listen to the same song over and over again for hours upon hours on end, was verbally and psychologically abused. The thing that haunts me the most is the abuse that I was coerced into inflicting upon my fellow students. I took my best friend and I put him in a fake diaper and had twenty people tell him he was acting like a baby. I told young women who were victims of rape that they were acting promiscuously and needed to watch the way they interact with members of the opposite sex. I told young girls of fourteen or fifteen that they were sluts and attention seeking whores. I will probably never be free of the guilt I feel for having done these heinous acts at the behest of the staff members at this school. This place was a dungeon of horrors and thank god it is finally shut down.
Thank you for speaking out. I do not know which is more cruel- that they did it or that they forced kids to do the same wicked ideas that dwelled in the minds of the staff. I forgive each and every student that humiliated me. Not your fault. I am so glad that I experienced the side of life people do not even know exists. Everyone assumes that rich kids have it easy. I was not rich by any means, but I saw these millionaire parents that were just as cold as ice towards their own flesh and blood. That was what saddened me most- after being sent to Aspen and realizing that some people just do not deserve to have kids. Thank God I went through what I did because, although totally horrific, I felt so deeply sorry for every kid trapped there and I hope that can always keep me from becoming a sociopath like so many staff members clearly must have been. I wonder where they sourced those people?
Me too! I was there in 2000 2001, the life steps were extremely cruel I was made to act out my molestation on a stage in front of all the piers and have them go one by one tell me what I could have done to change that behavior I had to jump up and down like a cheerleader and spell out victim when I told them things that it happened to me they put me in groups and other people and groups and wood persecute them these lifesteps had pure lack of sleep throwing fits on mattresses hitting a mattress multiple times with a tennis racket in the promise life Step screaming for random people to get their cock out of my mouth they had groups telling you you were not allowed to shave certain parts of your body they would put you on bands with talking to people writing projects facing against the wall with complete isolation where they would leader read everything out loud to everyone else and make fun of you for it the list goes on and on and on and on and on
Yup everytime i here bridge over trubled water i curse these people. The worst part is i looked up to some of them at the time. @ Katherine Snodgrass i was also there in 2000, glad to hear that you made it out in one piece. Deff rember sleep deprevation and being made to run laps and only eat vegi trays till we accepted that they were right and we were wrong. Malia Mullahey is still at it down in bend with the ohana house. i dont know if its becouse she was really mean to me or if i really noticed this but it seems that she was very close to those young girls she would have following her around. I never did figure why mba fired her before getting shut down but my money is on either that or stealing funds from the school for her private gain. I really dont like that lady, was really petty to me when i was at mba. anyway
I was at sagewalk a couple years before Sergey died, the abuse was horrendous. Sleep deprivation, starvation, not being allowed to relieve yourself, being forced to eat rotten and undercooked food, being forced to eat food I have severe allergies to, being denied water, being forced to hike miles and miles carrying 2/3rds of your weight, sleeping in the snow, being verbally harassed, being physically assaulted if you attempted to run away, being blindfolded, being denied access to legal counsel or the ability to contact the police or your family, a complete lack of oversight from any state licensing programs that allowed the operation of the facility, being completely stranded in the middle of nowhere where no one can monitor the ongoings at the facility, being denied proper medical care and access to emergency facilities, being forced to relive sexual trauma, not to mention the lack of proper hygiene not having access to running water, toilets, showers, or sinks for months. Verbal and psychological abuse, the list goes on and on. I’ve tried contacting a couple different lawyers who have been involved in suits with Aspen and they all say they’re done taking cases against Aspen (I assume this is because they’ve all been settled out of court and they’ve agreed to drop charges and not file more suits against the company). I too would like to seek legal recourse against this company.
They made my kids believe I abandonedthem. Not allowing me to call them or see them saying I had parental rights. My ex husband had the money even though he was an ex felon and I had a stable job with the state. My kids were never allowed to talk to me. Now I know why. I am sick to my stomach. Unbelievable
Reading this really saddens me. I had two children attend MBA and it saved their lives. We are not rich and scraped together every penny so that our children would have a chance at leading normal, happy lives. Many of these children came from wealthy homes and had problems that couldn’t be managed in mainstream schools. For five years we went to every parent seminar. We saw laughter and love everywhere on campus. The staff were loving and respectful to us, the students and our children. They both have nothing bad to say about their separate time there. They were able to graduate from high school which they probably wouldn’t have if not for MBA. We are thankful for Mount Bachelor Academy and it’s program. It worked.
My sister worked there , she also has an abusive ” school ” ohana house , in bend oregon now, unbelievably .
She is a scary human being. Im sorry if she traumatized you . The svars i have from knowing her , are still part of my life. Im 57 .
I too witnessed the abuse of power in this undeniably cult school. It’s no wonder things are still so black and white here. People saying MBA saved their lives to ruined their lives. This is cult mentality. I attended MBA for 11 months in 1993 until I ran away. One male teacher molested 5 other students and one teacher in my Truth lifestep confessed he mugged an old lady and could of killed her.., I broke confidentiality and told my mom and other students of this distressing news.
I was made to feel awful for not keeping his secret. Oh yay, I am the crazy one for not allowing a teacher who may of murdered an old lady?There were few teachers who had any sort of credentials for therapy.
Today I am a licensed marriage and family therapist who specializes in PTDS.
MBA has caused a lot of former students major mental disorders. This insanity has got to stop
I am responding to Trish Mullahey’s post; I don’t know if you will see this. MBA, and your sister, Malia, destroyed me. I’ve spent nearly twenty years piecing myself back together. I still have nightmares about her. It has always sickened me that she is still operating under the guise of helping people. I beg that if you have anything to report or know someone who was at Ohana House who is willing to say something, please check our breakingcodesilence.net and have them tell their story.
I live in Oregon its a nightmare of a place that no kid should ever have to be put through ironic its a Christian conference center lol karma will find its way there
I went to Northstar in 1997 and I can say nothing good about that place. The owners were mean, uncaring and only out for $. They encouraged negative relationships between residents. The things I heard and saw still bother me to think about. This place was supposed to help me grow as a person and all it did was make me want to cry daily. When I wasn’t crying about being there I was being encouraged to relive past events in my life that did not need relived. Places like this should be held to standards and not unregulated.
just read maybe 1/3 of the article and then scrolled to the comments and just holy shit!
i was sent there for 2 years 3 months and 14 days and actually graduated the program (as we called it) all the comments above are true! malia ALWAYS had a troupe of young students with her, she was my lower school mentor and we would spend the night at her place down the gravel road past the dumpsters
she was odd, but not nearly as abusive as Janine
but yes all is true, sleep dep, repeated songs for hours, disorientation of time of day. it was when we went through the SUPER SECRETIVE “life steps” which you were not allowed to tell anyone about if you had gone through them. making them even more scary with all the anxiety and dread before during and still now.
i couldn’t tell you how long we were up. the windows in la mancha were always boarded up and the mirrors were always covered, no watches or clocks allowed.
above in that comment about abusing young kids, i was that girl you called a whore and a slut … then i became essentially you, the “in agreement” kiss ass like everyone else (out of real fear) and did the same thing to the younger girls in the program as i went into middle and upper school
i think there was one more school between lower and middle wasn’t there, too long ago to remember maybe i’m thinking of bridge conquest.
i’ve blocked most of my experiences out honestly but yes, it’s sadly all true.
it had its moments and it appeared normal to the untrained eye…………..
instead of that spelling out victim activity one you wrote above, i was told to go around and tell my peer group one by one that “if they wanted to my friend then x,y, z”
they were trying to tell my i was a conditional friend. as if that was a bad thing? and that was just “scratching the surface” they said right?
to be put on bans for saying or just KNOWING something, have to stare at a wall and spill your soul on paper until you start believing your own thoughts or fantasies were pure evil and “out of agreement” leading you to believe that you’re scum and your days were get up, clean your dorm, breakfast (staring at a wall), dish crew, work project (some kind of manual labor) lunch (staring at a wall) dish crew, group (for over three hours on MWF and T&TH you continued your work project, more writing assignments, dinner dish crew, more writing assignments (on bans this whole time) bed, then you get to get up and do it all over again the next day and the next, i couldn’t tell you how long these “self studies” could last weeks or months depending on your mentor’s mood.
i was put on bans with all of the male students and staff for so long they “forgot” to take me off, they told me i was too sexual, ok…. i was a 14 year old virgin, why did every single person just scream at me for being a tease and a slut or “running after guys like a puppy dog” while one said student (call her K) kneeled and panted like a dog mocking me!
don’t forget the cool part when we all had to hold a sheet over each one of our peers so they couldn’t break free from underneath and you couldn’t breathe while Lean On Me or Beautiful Boy was looped over and over until you knew nothing else. if i get stuck under a blanket i panic badly till this day. we had NO outside supervision it was an anything goes cult and i was scared shitless and did whatever they told me to do. even though the main facilitators “mentors” weren’t even college educated!
or how about the Promise?!?!?! ya that was the one that screwed me up for life.
cold dry ass wheat bread pb&j sandwiches and stupid vegetable trays! i know natty zamora had better food in her kitchen cause i worked for her meal prepping (my first job)
screw that commercial kitchen! two of everything except the sterilizer.
we had to eat kosher there! can someone still explain that to me?
just imagine NO BACON for over 2 years. all the red meat was drained of its blood (halal meat) no thanks!
or how about those pig buckets in “the promise” while being mocked and psychologically abused in a dark room with NIN and Pink Floyd playing, litter covering the floor, rags and sheets hanging spray painted with obscenities, i mean shit you can’t make this shit up!
or how about the HOURS UPON HOURS watching back to back crazy movies, natural born killers, drugstore cowboy, charles manson documentaries, all sorts of messed up movies. then asked to write down what we felt and thought, the more violent, sexual and drug content the more the staff were satisfied that you’ve “gone for broke” on your “dirt list” and let’s not forget if you merely sneezed they would start the whole damn movie over again!
i can’t use simple green to clean my house to this day, had a mental breakdown 2 years after i graduated from there and am still picking up the pieces.
another extremely tough part about going there was not being able to see your friends and family. not being able to talk to them, having all of our mail read so we couldn’t tell anyone what was happening.
the only reason that place was able to do what they did for so long was because life steps weren’t daily.
but the mentality you were sucked into was truly a prison, the campus was beautiful! but it was so awful and filled with manipulation and hidden agendas you never knew what was going to come next. you could be punished for no reason. i NEVER broke any of the 3 major agreements and i was treated worse then those who did. having to dig trenches, run laps and do wilderness as a “support student” are you fkn kidding me Janine!
still seeing a psychiatrist, fck you mba and all tti abusive treatment centers a big fck you!
#iseeyousurvivor
#breakingcodesilence
all in all i’ve grown up and moved on with my life got married etc, but my mental health was not adequately diagnosed and treated when i was there. my illness became worse and finally when i was just about to go to leave home for college like a normal teen, i ended up crippled panic attacks, depression, ocd, drug addiction and then some. and the memories from there have been something i’ve held onto thinking i needed to face and spread awareness about these messed up places.
but i’m meeting A LOT of people online right now who’ve been in the same position.
nomatter how hard you try and how much you write you can never explain how your mind got screwed with, and if you have lived through it, YOU ARE NOT ALONE!
If anyone has additional information about “schools’ affiliated with Aspen, WWASP, Aspiro, Brown Schools, Elan……please email me at WWAASPrecord@gmail.com
I am a graduate of Sunrise Beach/Browning Academy/Cross Creek Manor/Cross Creek St George Internalization Facility
If anyone has additional information about “schools’ affiliated with Aspen, WWASP, Aspiro, Brown Schools, Elan……please email me at WWASPrecord@gmail.com I am a graduate of Sunrise Beach/Browning Academy/Cross Creek Manor/Cross Creek St George Internalization Facility
@Annie I have a lot to report on Ohana house but that website shows as invalid. Is there another forum to talk?
Still reliving the trauma. Every thing everyone wrote above is 100% true besides that family member who said it saved their kids life and they’re in denial of what they put their child through.
To Eli and Annie, there’s still survivors on Facebook in different groups that reference breaking code silence and also CAFETY which isn’t really around as an org but it’s affiliated with survivors of TTI.
I was able to run away from MBA in 1995 after I was there for two months fortunately. I do remember a student named Annie, don’t know if you are who I remember though. The Annie I remember followed me around some while I was there, I think she was assigned or maybe just decided to shadow me? I never found out, I was focused on getting the heck out of there. I do remember Malia also, have seen her once at at natsap conference, it was creepy.
I’m glad this article is still up as record of some of the events that shit the school down finally. I have family members even more that even 25 years later can’t accept that I might have done the best thing possible by escaping that place. It helps to know what was going on and I’m so grateful I did not stay. I ran because the it seemed the upper classmates were the most creepy, I remember people “scared” to go away from the school, where they were yelled at frequently by peers, and all I knew is I did not, WOULD not, want to end up like them.
I was diagnosed with MS at age 20, with no family history of it, and I’ve wondered many times about the ACE score impact of these experiences, because I’ve met a lot of survivors and a HUGE number of us are suffering from autoimmune conditions. #iseeyousurvivor #breakingcodesilence #cafety
Kosher, Suws, bends, abuse, staff were predators. Anyone who spent time at mba knows what what I’m talking about…
Forever young.
If anyone is willing to speak publicly (be named in an article) about their experiences with Malia Mullahey, a previous counselor at Mt. Bachelor and current owner of the Ohana House in Bend, please contact me at saneinthemembrane@outlook.com
She still poses a risk to our communities, still uses abusive tactics, and has made millions off this business she has no formalized training in. I am shocked there have been no sanctions for the damage she has caused, and I am working to make sure there is acknowledgement of this on a more public level. I cannot shut the business down by myself, reporters need corroboration. Please help!
Did Malia Mullahey work as a guide at Sage Walk? I can’t find any pictures of her online and I can’t remember her field name (or whatever they called the names they gave us) but I believe this is the same woman who was one of my guides during Sage Walk.
Hoping sister Trish sees this and can answer.
Anonymous on 10/12/20 totally true.. I was there nearly 3 years from 93-96 beginning at age 13..have panic attacks when I think or read about it like last night when I read this thread. I try to forget about it but doesn’t really happen..the life steps lasted days with sleep deprivation and screaming and loud repetative music (i have aspbergers and hate that, hate talking to a lot people ..especially “group” 3x a week for 4 hours each time) and then when the life steps were completed each time they presented you with a brown paper liquor store bag filled with a bunch of positive messages in it about you and how everyone loved you so much and how you are such a great person etc…no wonder I love drinking so much.i need to try and forget about this more but really cant apparently, this school ruined me..thanks
I attended MBA at age 14 in the year 2000. Maliya malehee flew to Hawaii and came to my home to assess whether I was messed up enough to come to that school. A few weeks later, I was kidnapped out of my home by 2 strangers who flew me to Idaho and I had to complete a wilderness program in the middle of a desert, and after I was sent to mount gotchelor Academy in Prineville, Oregon.Malia lived in Hawaii for many years so she considered me a “special case “. When I arrived at MBA most of the students already knew who I was because Malia had told them about the new student who would be coming from Hawaii.I Was put on self studies where I had to face the wall for days. I went through 2 lifesteps where I was then dropped a peer group so I was gonna have to stay longer.
What went on in the lifesteps was very abusive. Having to relive traumatizing events. I am still messed up and will be forever because of this school. FU MALIA MULLAHEY my name is Stacey and I guarantee you will never forget me, neither will any of the students who attended the school when I did.I was originally in peer group 18 but was eventually dropped to pg 19. Luckily on a home break at Christmas time, I was able to convince my parents to let me stay home. Malia was so upset. She wouldn’t even take calls from. She told other students never to talk to me again. They couldn’t even say my name at the school without getting in trouble. Even people who were friends with me at the time II have been told by a few of my friends that the school saved them but it traumatized the s*** out of me. I’m a drug addict on methadone and I’ll be on it for the rest of my Li. Still have nightmares about this school. At 1 point they made me camp. In a tent and 20° weather on top of a hill by myself for 3 days. Nobody checking on me.
I was so happy when I found out the school closed down. But I am so upset to hear that Malia is still employed Under the guise of helping at risk youth. A few times she brought me home and I slept over at her house. I remember other students being jealous because they thought she was taking a special interest in me just because I was from Hawaii and it was true. Anytime I would refuse to do something. It was malea who would come in and enforce The punishment which included dragging me into group sessions throwing me in the middle of a room with 20 kids around me telling me how horrible I was I hope
She rots in hell. If it wasn’t for a few staff. Members who were actually good people. I don’t know if I would’ve made it. I know a couple years before I attended the school A boy went Into the Woods and hung himself with a vacuum cleaner cord. I’ve heard some crazy stories and I’ve been through it. I’m so sorry to anybody who went to the school.