In the summer of 2011 Lily got in touch with the owner of Midwest
 Academy, a private boarding school that lily attended when she was 15. During her stay Lily experienced mental, physical and the threat of
 sexual harassment all in an attempt to work there "behavior
 modification" program. Things Lily experienced there have led to a lot
 of issues in her adult life, she suffers from PTSD and falls into
 pretty heavy depression at times. When she got into contact with Ben
 Trane he assured her a lot had changed and things were no longer the
 way they were when she was there. He invited us down there for a visit
 to see the school and how it had changed. We went down in late October
 and sat in on there elements 1 seminar. As far as Lily could tell
 things did seem different, the seminar was a lot less aggressive and
 seemed to be turning in the right direction. Shortly after our visit I
 was in contact with Ben and we discussed a job opportunity at MWA for
 me. I have always had a strong passion for working with troubled youth
 and this situation seemed perfect. We discussed my family and I moving
 to Iowa, housing to be covered by the school and I told Ben I would
 need to at least make forty thousand per year to make the move, that
 was fine so we started planning the move. We were in Iowa on Janruary
 1st 2012. Ben put us up in a building that use to house 18 year old
 students of the school, I didn't plan on living in a steel building in
 the middle of a truck stop parking lot, but it was huge and nicely
 converted living space so we figured we would see how it went. To my
 surprise I quickly learned I would be making $7.25 an hour and
 starting out as a dorm parent. I didn't mind the idea of working my
 way up but we had discussed me coming down there to help Ben with more
 of the day to day operations of the school, it was obvious when we
 visited in October that he needed help in a bad way when it came to
 running the school as the owner/director. But we had already moved
 down and the idea of working with troubled youth was enough to make me
 set the idea of making minimum wage aside and see how it would work
 out. 
One of the first things that surprised me about MWA was some of the
 staff that was in positions of power running the facility. Lets start
 with academics because you would think spending four thousand per
 month or more to have your child at MWA, academics would be one of the
 biggest priorities. The women that oversees the academic department of
 the school (Mrs Sarah) was the schools secretary just a year or so
 prior to our arrival. First let me get out of the way that Mrs. Sarah
 has no qualification what so ever to be over seeing the academic end
 of any type of school, let alone a school for troubled youth that are
 already way behind in school when they arrive. To say this woman was
 overwhelmed is a huge understatement! She was clueless as to how she
 should have been doing that job, and she did even worse day to day 
when she was under pressure or felt any type of stress, which in a 
facility like this there is always stress. I personally witnessed 
students needing her help go 4-5 days without a word from her, and in
 most cases they could not move on in there studies without her help,
 it was also sad to see how obvious she made it to each student how
 much of a bother they were. Disorganization was another downfall of
 Mrs. Sarah, I saw several times when a student would ask for something
 and she had no clue how to answer the question or even go about
 getting the answer. Her management skills when it came to handling the
 teachers that came in to help the students was also extremely poor,
 talking to the teachers I quickly learned most of them were very
 unhappy and were not planning on sticking around because of how this
 woman ran this department. As a staff member you would think you could
 go to her when helping a student yourself but that was out of the
 question, when you would ask her about anything you either got the
 cold shoulder or she made it seem like you were interrupting the most
 important day of her life and she was not happy you were bothering
 her. Mrs Sarah always seemed on the verge of a nervous breakdown and
 she has no business working with or around children, especially
 Troubled youth with a lot of problems to begin with, having her in
 that position is doing more damage than anything, I feel the practice
 of pushing kids through school just so they finish is a dangerous one,
 I hate to see it happen so much in the public school system, I did not
 expect to see it happening at a facility such as MWA. 
The next person I had the pleasure of meeting was Mr. James. Who use to
 transport children for schools, basically go in there room in the
 middle of the night and drag them off to a facility, some times in
 restraints sometimes not. James has no business working with troubled
 youth in a one on one or a group setting. He was a family rep for a
 few kids, I don't think he took that role very serious. One of his
 kids had pants on that were to short, torn in the rear, stained beyond
 repair and he refused to get him a new pair. I got him a new pair
 myself but was surprised to see him the next day and see he was back
 in the disgusting pants he had on before. This same student also had
 no gym shoes, so Mr. James got him a pair of women's tennis shoes from
 an old storage room. Mr. James said "he is going to learn not to try
 and manipulate me..." Really? I didn't look at requesting basic
 essentials as manipulation. Mr. James also had very bad bad anger
 issues. We were all trained and certified in restraining these kids in
 a very non violent way, the times I had to do it, I was able to
 restrain some of the most violent and angry kids at the facility
 without injuring them in any way or even making them feel threatened.
 The first example was when a student threw a fit in the gym and was
 testing the staff, his intentions were very clear to everyone around,
 he wanted to see how far he could push us. Mr. James started to escort
 him to OSS and the student spit in his face, James picked him up
 slammed him against the wall and held him off his feet for a good few
 seconds before he proceeded to put the student in what is referred to
 as the "chicken wing" (NOT part of our restraint training) and took
 him to OSS. the second incident was when a student got violent in the
 gym, was approached by a staff member and Mr. James, while Mr. James
 held his arms back the student proceeded to head butt the other staff
 member breaking his nose, Mr. James picked the student up in the air
 and slammed him down on the ground as hard as he could. I do not know
 if the boys arm was broken, this happened right before I left. Mr
 James carried himself in a very aggressive, I'm bigger than you type
 of attitude, one of those guys who always has something to prove to
 everyone, even the students. He still transports kids for MWA but has
 to hire a driver because of his inability to drive because of previous
 DUI's. In my previous job a big part of my day to day activities
 included reading people, there body language especially. James always
 came off very aggressive towards everyone, when having a conversation
 with him it always felt like an interrogation by the police. I only
 saw the aggressive characteristics get worse when things were
 stressful and there was a lot of pressure, his anger is something he
 can not seem to control. To be in a position of power over troubled
 youth, and to be able to pick one of them up and slam them to the
 floor hard enough to cause injury is sick, that reason alone James
 should be no where near children in this setting. I think it's only a
 matter of time before a child is seriously injured under his supervision. 
Shasta has just became the director of the school when I arrived. The
 first thing she said to me was "your fiancé gave me my first black eye
 when she was a student here, she kicked me in the face during a
 struggle in OSS..." I took it as a light hearted comment in passing,
 but little did I know she was still holding a pretty big grudge
 against Lily for kicking her in the face. One of my biggest problems
 with Shasta is her "Big me, Little You" way of running things. With
 everyone from the employees of MWA to the students, Shasta makes it
 very clear who is in charge and wants everyone to understand the power
 she holds. As someone with a strong management background I have
 learned the way to show those around you who is in charge is by being
 a strong "Leader". Shasta is not a leader in any way shape or form.
 She has her right hand man, Mr. James, and they walk around with there
 heads held high thinking everyone respects and fears them. Not one
 student in that facility respects either of them, and the staff only
 puts up with them because they are in positions of power. Again, like
 other situations previously stated, this is another one that is
 causing more damage to these kids than anything. If you talk to the
 students they will tell you Ms Shasta is another case of unfulfilled
 promises and for someone who is there to "help" most students can
 expect to wait 5 or 6 days before she responds to any of there
 requests. A very disturbing pattern I saw in her behavior was the fact
 that she looked at any and all requests by students as being
 "manipulation" whether it was a request for something material in
 nature or something having to do with emotional issues or problems. It
 seems to me that these kids are only cattle to be herded around in an
 efficient manner and nothing else, and as she now hold the directors
 position at the school, that is a dangerous way of doing things.
 
The next member of the administration team I worked with was Ms. Kathy.
 One of the few kind hearted and truly caring people at MWA. Being in
 charge of the Family Representatives she has a full plate. She deals
 one on one with the parents and kids when they first arrive before
 being assigned to a rep. A bit overwhelmed at times but you could tell
 she really cared for these kids. She was always open to my ideas as a
 family rep and pretty much gave you the go ahead for working with any
 student on your case load in a creative one on one manner. One very
 scary practice that is seen at most schools like mid west is the fact
 that every student is treated the same. They are brought in, stripped
 of there identity and everything that makes them who they are whether
 it is good or bad. Would it take a lot of time, money and effort to
 treat each of these kids on an individual basis? Absolutely but that
 is what is going to help these kids, not a cookie cutter approach of
 treating them all the same. Ms. Kathy was one of the few that I saw
 believed in this way of thinking. Her work load is just way to big to
 allow her to monitor each situation to make sure this practice is
 being put into effect. It was nice to work with someone who seemed to
 really care about these kids and wanted to make a difference. Another
 staff member who worked very close to Ms. Kathy was Mr. Devon. Devon
 is another great example of the type of person we need working with
 these kids. Motivating, energetic and a very outside of the box
 thinker when it came to coming up with ideas and challenges to help
 these kids. In the little time I was able to work with Devon he helped
 me more as a family rep than anyone in the school. My only complaint
 is there was not enough hours in the day for Devon to work one on one
 with the family reps and students. The last staff member that I worked
 with that also held themselves to a high standard when dealing with
 these students was Ms. Cindy. I did not get to work with her much but
 the time I was able to spend with her I saw a lot of caring and kind
 hearted actions carried out towards the students. Ms. Cindy demanded
 respect but she earned and deserved it and the students knew it. When
 Kathy, Devon or Cindy walked out of a room you would look around to a
 bunch of faces left thinking hard about what they had just herd, not
 to a bunch of faces with rolling eyes or looks of disgust like you
 would see when Shasta or James or Sarah would walk out of a room after
 addressing the students.
 
The dorm parent team was made up of a couple of previous students, a 
previous family rep who hated the kids more than the typical person 
hates there worst enemy, and a couple of people who look at that
 position as a way to abuse power and push kids around in the form or
 worthless and completely counter productive consequences. I loved each
 and every time I was accused of being "soft" on the kids when I would
 let each student explain there side of the story when it came to them
 getting a CAT 2 or higher consequence. I saw nothing wrong with
 letting a student (in a respectful manner) explain there side of the
 story when they were accused of breaking a rule. I found that when
 doing it that way, even if the student was in the wrong and received
 the consequence they handled it much better and it almost never led to
 them getting more consequences because of how they handled the
 situation. This never took up to much time or made us late for an
 activity, but none the less other dorm parents hated this practice and
 I was always being told to stop. It really irritated me when some of
 these dorm staff would start the day off by giving a student 10
 consequences before breakfast was even over for things that can be
 corrected with a second of guidance or direction. How is that supposed
 to be productive? How is that student supposed to be motivated to make
 changes in his or her life and work any program if they loose any
 chance of gaining any points before they day really even starts. This
 is something that happens day to day, there are even numerous cases of
 a staff member doing this to the same group of students they really
 don't like every day they work. This was reported to administration
 several times and nothing ever changed. If you went to Shasta you got
 to typically explain the situation, get some by the book heartless
 response and see no follow through. If you went to James you saw
 within 30 seconds that he could care less and that you were bothering
 him. So now your left watching this endless cycle run day after day of
 kids making no progress because of these power tripping dorm partners
 who got off on being a bully. No one can say dorm parents work at MWA
 for the pay, as a dorm parent you are paid less than $8 per hour and
 you work from 6:30am-10:30/11:00pm, typically you work a couple of
 days then have a couple off but coming from someone who has worked
 very labor intensive construction jobs, I have never been as exhausted
 as i was at the end of a dorm parent shift, mostly you are emotionally
 and mentally drained, but if you love helping kids it's worth it, but
 in no way are you able to make a decent living. As far as the family
 representatives go, we were able to work more one on one with the
 kids, but just like with the dorm parents, most of the family reps
 used the cookie cutter approach with there kids and in no way had
 individual plans of action in place for each situation. As a family
 rep you are paid a little more than a dollar an hour more than the
 dorm parents so again the situation does not allow for one to make a
 decent living.
 
The food situation left very little to be desired. The kids are fed a
 good amount of food, and like any school there were days were the food
 was enjoyable. But I will never forget the days of expired yogurt and
 the times you would find mold on the bread. Most of those problems can
 almost be expected in that type of setting. My biggest problem is the
 quality of the food served. Parents pay enough for there kids to be at
 a facility like MWA you would think the food should at least taste
 good. They would make things like spaghetti, chicken fried steak even
 fish, but those dishes that I just listed, I personally could not
 stomach any of them. They tasted so bad I would rather not eat than
 eat what they were serving. So like a lot of other problems I saw at
 MWA if they would put more of an effort into the meals it would
 improve 100%. For example, take some care as to the way you cook a
 dish and the end result is night and day. I just don't think the
 kitchen staff possessed the ability to make a decent meal. I looked
 forward to the days when we had walking tacos ( hamburger meat with
 taco sauce poured into a small bag of Doritos)
 
As far as medical care at the school, they made a much needed change
 shortly after I arrived. They brought in a new nurse and an assistant
 to help her. But it was very clear how fast she became overwhelmed. A
 student could submit a med request and never hear from the nurse about
 the issue. Sometimes a student would send in a request that there leg
 was bothering them really bad, she would go look in on them during gym
 time, see what they were doing and call it good saying "they look
 fine". That is unacceptable to me! If you go to any state run juvenile
 facility or even jail, any resident that has a medical request, even
 the ones doing it for attention get to see a member of the medical
 staff and have a full evaluation of there issue before a judgement
 call is made. In my opinion it is not worth the risk to the students
 to save on cost the way Midwest Academy does on medical staff. Medical
 concerns regardless if Shasta or James thinks they are manipulation
 should be taken very seriously. Staff would even be warned about a
 specific student who had been talking about a medical problem or had
 submitted several med request forms about a specific issue, we would
 be told "Student A is trying to manipulate out of doing gym, don't let
 them manipulate you and make sure they are doing each workout or give
 them a consequence." When James slammed a student to the floor he
 could not move his arm and in my opinion there were signs of a severe
 sprain if not a break and he was never taken in for medical treatment
 while I was there. Weather or not each and every student is getting
 adequate medical care should not even be a question in my opinion.
 
I find it interesting how much we hear about how "bullying" in schools
 today is causing so much harm with today's youth. We all have
 experienced the wrath of a bully in one way or another in our lives.
 In public school there was always those one or two bullies that got
 there joy from picking on a student smaller and a lot less aggressive
 then themselves. Now a days with all of the school shootings and 
violent outbursts, study after study has been done on the effects of
 bullying and how much that type of atmosphere contributes to the 
violence we are seeing today. Now remember on average we are talking 
about a couple maybe a few students being the "bully" in a school, now
 imagine a whole school full of bullies, and not only are most of the
 students bullies but the teachers are bullies to. It made me 
absolutely sick to see a staff member bully the students, after several
 complaints to administration about this it was finally clear to me
 that this was the mentality of the program. Every single consequence
 written by staff is logged in the system at the end of the day. Your
 telling me it did not send red flags to administration when they would
 see for example, a specific staff member write two or three specific
 students enough consequences to loose 1000 points or more in one day,
 and this only happened with this specific staff member! So not only is
 this behavior logged each night, but administration receives
 complaints by other staff and students (both upper and lower level)
 and nothing is done. How in God's name can anyone defend that behavior 
and say they do not promote the bully mentality when they allow this to
 go on. If the classic bully mentality and behavior is so dangerous in
 public schools, then what a we creating in the thousands of kids 
dealing with it at this magnitude? If a lower level student wants to
 reach upper level status then they have to take on this bully type
 behavior. At one point or another during there program they will be
 forced to bully another student, typically with nonsense consequences.
 There was always a group of 6 or 7 students that were the target for
 students trying to advance. Almost weekly you would see one of these
 students become the target of a student that was voting up that week.
 They would give consequences for things like raising there eye brows
 while in line, coughing, scratching there head, sneezing, taking a 
deep breath while frustrated, and one consequence would always turn 
into four or five for that student because they felt attacked and spoke 
out about it, well speaking out was not allowed! What do all children 
do when very upset? They roll there eyes or breath deep well this 
typically led to them receiving 5 or more consequences because they 
became the target of a student who was "working" their program. This is 
another great example in my opinion of just how little we are doing for 
these kids when they are put through a program such as this. 

There is a constant debate amongst program kids as to weather or not
 there is abuse that goes on at these facilities. There is cut and dry
 video proof of extreme physical abuse at other facilities like MWA.
 Especially schools associated with WWASP, ASPEN, CERTS, CARE, ASCENTS,
 UHS, and other similar organizations. Other than the physical abuse
 handed down by Mr. James I can say no kids are beaten at MWA. But I
 caution you, there a a lot worse things than just physical abuse. The
 mental abuse cause by social isolation is very wide spread in today's
 youth, especially with youth that are in detention centers, prison,
 even private boarding schools. Emotional abuse that stems from telling
 a kid they are nothing day after day is also apparent. You don't have
 to punch a kid in the face to be guilty of abuse, stripping a child of
 there identity, taking them away from everything they know, forcing
 them to conform to rules that go well above and beyond unfair, forcing 
them to become a bully towards there peers, and censoring all 
communication even with parents can and will lead to long term 
emotional and mental problems such as PTSD, Anxiety disorders, extreme
 depression, increased suicidal thoughts, these a just a few of the
 issues seen in kids coming out of these programs. Is this the outcome 
for every child that goes through a program? Absolutely not, there are
 a fair amount of kids who sail through a program such as MWA without
 many setbacks or long term emotional effects, and its easy to say if
 one can do it that way everyone can, if you say that then it is scary
 to think just how much you don't remember what it was like at that 
age. 

OSS is something I am asked about the most since I left MWA. I agree,
 having an isolation room used for a cool down period if a child is out
 of control is needed in these types of places. But when it is used to
 house a child who won't follow rules for weeks even months on end,
 there is a huge problem with that type of punishment being allowed.
 Some use the argument that it is there choice to be in there, and in
 some cases for the first day maybe two yes that is the case. But after 
48 hours I never saw a kid wanting to be in those rooms, but because he
 had a hard time sitting in the 24 hour structure he never got out, or
 a student would be on hour 19 or 20 and a power tripping staff member
 would restart there 24 hour structure because they scratched there 
nose or moved without asking. Structure at MWA was sitting on your butt
 with your legs either straight out or Indian style, you raise your 
hand to ask to move, stretch or switch positions. I dont known many
 well behaved children who can sit in one spot for 24 hours in perfect
 structure, let alone a child who has a hard time listening or sitting
 still in general. One specific example of how bad the OSS rules and
 regulations were had to do with a student on my case load who was in
 OSS from day one when he arrived. After 3 days I went to
 administration and voiced my concerns, I did not feel this kid could
 keep structure to there standards on his best day for a full hour, I
 was told it would be looked into. I had the next two days off and I
 was surprised to come in to him still in OSS. When I saw him in there
 I immediately took him out of OSS got an upper level and we took him
 outside for a walk and some fresh air. I told administration that as
 long as he was in there I would be doing this every 24 hours. I was
 told that was not allowed but I had a hard time following that rule,
 this went on back and forth for weeks until he was finally pulled by
 his parents. Some kids would use OSS as a tool for sure. They got 
frustrated and wanted a break, I encouraged them to do this when there 
was no other way to get calmed down, I was told by the shift leader that it was manipulation and no they could not take a time out if they
 went in they had to stay for a minimum of 24 hours. I noticed a lot of
 kids getting worse and worse the longer they sat in OSS, you would get
 your occasional out burst, throwing of feeces, urinating on the walls,
 screaming at staff, but these were clearly acts to gain attention. 
When they would pull paint chips off the floor and scratch themselves
 until they would bleed was concerning to me. They were not "cutting"
 in the way someone cuts for emotional relief, they were scratching
 themselves, yes you could say for attention but when attention seeking 
takes a turn to self mutilation I think the issue goes a little deeper.
 But since the only real certified counselor on the grounds was barely
 even there, nothing was ever done as far as thing being looked into on
 a psychological level. You read that right, we had once certified
 counselor, he spent time with some of the kids here and there but
 never what I would call "quality" time, and one specific student I had
 on my case load as a family rep who could have used him the most only
 saw him once the entire time he was at the school. The only other form
 of therapy was what they call "group" a staff member who has been
 through the E1 and E2 seminars can run this group, not a licensed
 therapist. Kids were pushed to talk about there personal issues at
 home, everything from drug problems, to sexual abuse, to feelings,
 while in a group of 20 or more students at a time, with no therapist
 present. It can be a motivating and uplifting time for the students if
 done correctly.
 
I guess it's easy to say we need to care for and treat these kids on an
 individual basis and stop with the cookie cutter approach for every
 student when your on the outside looking in. But now after being on
 the inside looking out, I can say with even more certainty that this
 HAS to happen. A ,to of people are so fast to jump up and say "I
 didn't see any abuse at MWA, and I was there for over a year...".
 There will alway be those students who come into programs like this
 one and sail through with out much trouble, they easily conform to the
 rules and do what they have to in order to get out. That makes up
 about 20% of the student body at MWA. But what about the other 80%,
 just because those of you who found MWA easy and you didn't see kids
 tied to poles being whipped or locked in dog cages, does not mean
 abuse is not happening. Please don't be naive enough to think because
 you found it easy other kids are not being messed up for the rest of
 there lives because of that program. When the proof is right in front
 of you, it's hard to ignore. When so many kids are coming out of these
 places a lot worse off than before they went in we have to ask
 ourselves why! The statistics for the number of kids coming out of
 places like MWA and being clinically diagnosed with things like PTSD,
 Severe Depression, and Anxiety disorders is really scary. Ben himself
 agrees that some type of regulation needs to be put on schools like
 this but nothing is being done, and enough money is changing hands to
 ensure that government regulation is not any where in the near future
 for any of these facilities. They will continue to charge five to six
 thousand per month per child, hire extremely under qualified dorm
 staff, keep the educated counseling staff to a minimum, and have again
 very unqualified staff running the facility.
 
I started to see a scary trend right before my time was done at
 Midwest. Upper levels falling back down to level one, and when they
 did that they would come out and say "I was faking it, I couldn't fake
 it anymore this program is a joke and I am no better off than before I
 came here..." We'll the fact that they were forced to be sober is one
 way they were better off during there time at MWA but I started to
 wonder if this was just a hiccup in the system with a few students or
 if it was more wide spread. I talked to a total of 17 upper levels at
 the time, some male some female, I am in no way blowing it out of
 proportion when I say that 15 of the 17 that I talked to all said the
 same thing, that program in no way helped them. The only positive
thing they experienced was the drug classes with Mr. Gary but those
 were to few and not often enough. Every one of them said they will
 probably use drugs again when they get out, as well as most of the
 other things they were doing before coming to Midwest. Then I wanted
 to see if it went even further. I was able to talk with 9 recent
 graduates that had finished the program at MWA and all 9 were back to
 either using drugs, and or drinking at the same if not a heavier rate
 than before they came to the school. Over half were not living at home
 and all but one were not in school. I know talking to a total of 26
 does not consist of the entire MWA alumni, but that mixed with
 everyone else I have talked to in the past year does show an alarming
 trend in program graduates and students that have been pulled. If
 administration would give it just a little attention I think they
 would see something needs to change, well between Shasta and James
 they think they are doing all they can for these kids and nothing more
 can be done so maybe new administrators is what this particular school
 needs. More care needs to be taken with each student having a custom
 program to cater to there needs and formed around there problem areas.
 Yes it can be done, I'm sick of people saying that would take to much
 time and money. That is an excuse and it should no longer be accepted.
 Kids are being sent to places like MWA for help and most of them are
 coming out worse than they went in. I have seen this first hand and
 experienced these things myself as a staff member as well as having my
 fiancé having been a student when she was 15. I have herd the saying a
 few times "be cautious of the leaders we are creating today..." And
 that couldn't be more true. More troubled youth today are coming into
 there young adult years with more mental illness than ever before and
 we have to look at why. We can tell these kids to get over things that
 have happened to them all we want but that does absolutely nothing.
 The care given for mental illness in America is a huge debate right
 now, we need to be even more careful of the mental illness we are
 responsible for creating!
 
I had always herd about what a nightmare the seminars were for students
 and parents at facilities like MWA. I was happy to see that Ben had
 taken MWA away from the extreme tortuous tactics used by organizations
 such as WWASP for there seminars. His seminars were a lot better and
 seemed a lot more geared towards personal reflection and development
 and not so much attack therapy. But I was still seeing a scary pattern
 with these seminars. Students going through them coming out saying
 "what a joke" and getting nothing from them. I personally got a lot of
 out the E1 and E2 seminar that I had to go through, but I am an adult
 past the time in my life where I am struggling with the things these
 kids are today, I was open and ready to grow going into them, from the
 kids point of view it was something they had to do to advance and see
 there parents. I think the new way Ben is conducting the seminars
 would be a lot more effective if the program itself was revamped and
 completely restructured from the bottom up. Everything from how the
 kids are orientated when they come in to the point and level system to
 the consequence system and even the staffing of the school needs to be
 changed. They really need to start looking at how each of these kids
 can be helped on an individual level and stop herding them around like
 cattle. This is no way a personal attack against Shasta or James but
 they are the two I saw cause the most harm and be the most closed
 minded to change. And when they don't like you let me tell you they
 will try anything and everything to discredit you. Everything from
 accuse you of stealing meds out of the med room to stealing items from
 students. And with absolutely no proof of there accusations, and even
 proving there accusations to be false, when they're dead set on you
 not being a part of the staff nothing will change there minds.
 
The very scary truth of the matter is, we are allowing organizations to
 operate outside of most laws in order to make a profit off of
 "caring" for troubled youth. Most government run facilities are not
 much better, most are extremely under funded and under staffed and
 over populated, so as you can see overall to say this is a HUGE 
problem is a very big understatement. But since when did it become ok
 to sit around and let children be treated this way so Mom & Dad can
 sleep better at night knowing there son or daughter is in a secure
 location and that secure location can make money hand over fist. Ben
 has a lot of wonderful ideas and he seems to really want to help these
 kids, but without opening his eyes and really looking at what is going
 on and rebuilding his entire program from the ground up, these
 horrible things will continue to happen day in and day out.
 
Testimony By: Nathan T.