A child sits in a chair, face hooded, wrists, legs, waist, and neck strapped in complete mechanical restraint. Another child huddles in the corner of an isolation chamber. Meanwhile a staff member claims “The best part of the chair is watching the kids cry and scream like a fucking child . . . that’s what makes it worth it.”

These are not images from Abu Ghraib, though a casual observer could be forgiven for thinking so. These are images submitted as evidence in a lawsuit against the Wyoming Boys’ School in Worland, Wyoming, a state-run facility “designed to improve outcomes for at-risk boys in a highly structured, safe, supportive, and healthy environment,” per their website.

The quote above is attributed to Wyoming Boys’ School risk management officer Thad Shaffer.

These images just scratch the surface of the abuse alleged in the lawsuit. But tracking down any substantial, verifiable information on the facility’s use of physical, mechanical, and chemical restraints can be hard to pin down.

Falsification of Reports

During a deposition, former staff member Clark Les Urbin claimed that “[a]lmost every incident report” was falsified during his tenure at the facility from 2022-2024. According to the filling, Urbin claimed that WBS ordered staff members to downplay the level of force used by staff members during incidents, and that the use of euphemistic language covers up the reality of the situations.

“For example,” claims the lawsuit, “when staff threw a child headfirst into a wall, the incident report merely stated the child was ‘physically managed.’”

Urbin also frequently raised issues with his superiors about the quality and truthfulness of such reports. At one point, he claims to have told Shaffer that he would not sign a report because it was false. According to Urbin, Shaffer responded by saying “sign it or find a new job.”

Lawyers for the Wyoming Department of Family Services, which runs Wyoming Boys’ School, argue that Urbin’s personal observations are limited to his specific time at the program, and can’t be generalized to prove widespread, ongoing patterns.

Wyoming Boys’ School superintendent Dale Weber claimed in an affidavit that “[a]ny such conduct, if it occurred, was undertaken independently and contrary to WBS policies, training, and procedures.”

Solitary Confinement and Due Process

According to the court documents, WBS staff avoided using the term “solitary confinement.” Urbin describes the phrase as a “no-no word.” Instead, they use sanitized phrases such as “out-of-community status,” “detention status,” or “administrative holds.” However, the plaintiffs’ expert witnesses agree that the techniques used by the school constitute severe social and environmental isolation without any meaningful social interaction.

According to the June 12 filing, youth were kept in a small, 8-by-10-foot concrete cell, sometimes for 23 or 24 hours per day. Staff allegedly covered the small window in the door with magnets to eliminate any external visual stimuli.

During times of being “out-of-community” or in “detention,” the lawsuit also alleges that students would be denied basic necessities, such as bedding during the day, physical exercise, phone contact with family members, and any educational instruction or mental health therapy.

Former WBS independent living coordinator Robin McIntosh claimed in his deposition that “you’re removing a kid from other kids and you’re putting him by himself in a locked room without any contact from his peer group and limited amount of communication with staff.” To McIntosh, that clearly denotes solitary confinement.

Such punishment could allegedly be used to punish minor infractions. Documented infractions that the lawsuit alleges resulted in solitary confinement include sitting incorrectly in a chair, failing to raise a hand before speaking, and passive-aggressive behavior.

The plaintiffs also claim a lack of clear due process with the punishment, with no ability to appeal the punishment and often unclear expectations of how long the punishment would last.

While WBS does not deny the use of isolation rooms, and admits that it is generally aware that isolation can impact a person’s mental health, they claim that the use of such measures are not punitive but rehabilitative. The facility also claims that their use of solitary confinement is lawful.

Restraint Chair

The lawsuit draws on reported incidents to show that plaintiffs were confined to a restraint chair dozens of times during their stay. One plaintiff was placed in the restraint chair 8 times in 12 days during June 2021.

These restraints, complete with a hood over the face of the teen, would last for up to eight hours per day, despite a warning label on the chair claiming that detainees should not be left in the chair for more than two hours due to the risk of injury or death.

The defense denies that the restraint chair was used as a punitive measure, instead claiming it was a necessary tool used for transporting uncooperative youth, and that it was an approved, regulated piece of safety equipment.

Lawsuit Filings

As always, TTI Watch provides copies of all of the records we uncover during our investigations. Additional documents will be uploaded here as they become available.

06122026 Response to Defendants' Summary Judgment Motion

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PDF of the June 12, 2026 response to the defendants' summary judgment motion.

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Kelly Douglas, Public Information Officer for Wyoming Department of Family Services, responded to a request for comment on this lawsuit. We have included it here in full.

“The safety and security of the students and staff at the Wyoming Boys School is paramount. The Wyoming Department of Family Services cannot comment on an active court case. We will issue a statement after the case is completed.”

TTI Watch continues to investigate this story, as well as the current conditions at the facility. We have several open records requests and interviews scheduled, so this investigation will be updated in real time as more information becomes available.

As of July 6, 2026, the Utah Department of Health and Human Services has revoked the operating license of Provo Canyon School. All services must be terminated by August 6.

The school has been facing legal trouble since a May 12 incident left a student unconscious and bleeding from the mouth. The Utah DHHS found that the school failed to provide proper access to medical care for the student. You can follow all of our past coverage of the school here.

We have several open records requests pending with the State of Utah. As more details become available, this story will be updated in real time.

At the time of publication, neither Provo Canyon School CEO Tim Marshall nor Springville Site Administrator Dave Campbell have responded to a request for comment. We have also asked them for their plan to transition students and terminate services by the deadline. Any response will be added if and when it comes in.

Edit 7/7/2026: Open records requests have been answered. We are publishing redacted details of every reportable incident so far in 2026.

As part of the ongoing investigative efforts of TTI Watch into Provo Canyon School, recent open records requests have shown over 140 cases of reportable restraint so far in 2026. No fewer than five incidents over the duration of the records provided required professional medical attention.

All records will be published here as part of the investigation.

Here are all available records thus far.

2026 Reportable Incident Details

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The results of detailed report log request. Identifying information has been redacted.

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Provo Canyon School Records

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Initial results of an open records request into Provo Canyon School by TTI Watch.

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In a press conference held on Monday, June 15, Aleah Corona announced she was filing a lawsuit against Provo Canyon School after the school failed to adequately protect her son.

TTI Watch covered the emergency response from DHHS to the incident earlier this year, and we are continuing to investigate.

The Incident

The lawsuit alleges that on May 14, 2026, a 13-year-old teen, A. C., was assaulted by another resident at the school. “The other resident — believed to be significantly older, larger, and more aggressive than AC — attacked AC and slammed him onto his head. AC lost consciousness,” according to the lawsuit. “The initial confrontation, escalation and the ultimate assault were observed by non-medical personnel who allowed it to happen as a form of punishing AC.”

Allegedly, Provo Canyon School refused to call 911 for the incident, instead attempting to provide medical assistance to A. C. themselves. The lawsuit claims that, rather than an isolated incident, this failure to call an ambulance exemplifies the school’s “instinct for concealment and self-protection that has defined its institutional culture for over fifty years.”

Once they realized that the injuries A. C. sustained during the attack were too extensive to be treated in-house, staff members drove the child to Timpanogos Regional Hospital in Orem, Utah.

Per the lawsuit, “Timpanogos Regional Hospital immediately recognized the severity of AC’s injuries and transferred him emergently to Primary Children’s Medical Center,” where he was diagnosed with a fractured jaw, traumatic head injury, and intracranial hemorrhage — bleeding on the brain. He underwent surgery and is facing “lasting neurological consequences” from his injuries.

According to the timeline in the lawsuit, “The Emergency Room physician at Primary Children’s Medical Center was confused why police had not been called when there had been an assault and battery of a minor, and appropriately called law enforcement.” This phone call set off the chain of events that brought this event to light and led to the Utah Department of Health and Human Services to take emergency action against the school.

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Utah’s Response

The DHHS investigated the incident and, on May 19, a week after the initial assault took place, concluded that the failure of the school to act resulted in a one-hour delay in A. C. receiving medical care. In response to these findings, the state took emergency action, which includes:

• A prohibition on admitting new residents.

• Mandatory compliance with enhanced monitoring inspections and investigations.

• Retraining of staff regarding emergency response procedures and resident supervision.

• Payment of costs associated with additional inspections.

• Conditions remaining in effect through approximately June 18, 2026 unless modified earlier.

The Lawsuit

The lawsuit, which names over 50 defendants, including the school, its parent company Universal Health Services, school CEO TIm Marshall, and various staff members, claims the defendants are guilty of negligence, gross negligence, and medical malpractice.

The plaintiff, A. C.’s mother Aleah Corona, is seeking damages for medical costs, pain and suffering, emotional distress, and punitive damages for gross negligence.

This lawsuit has the potential to have huge financial and social impact. If a jury agrees that the plaintiff deserves punitive damages for gross negligence, the amount it assesses will likely be very high for the fine to feel like an actual punishment to Universal Health Services, which brought in over $11 billion in revenue in 2019.

The lawsuit is also a tier 3 lawsuit, which is a Utah legal designation for the most complex lawsuits that seek a minimum of $300,000 in damages. This designation also means the lawsuit will have a higher standard of evidentiary responsibility and a broader scope of discovery, which could lead to more details about the practices in the school becoming not only public but verified in court.

Provo Canyon School

Opening in 1971, Provo Canyon School is one of the oldest youth residential treatment facilities of its kind in the state of Utah. Its history makes it one of the most recognizable and infamous facilities in the troubled teen industry. It has been the subject of much media coverage, as well as advocacy from survivors like Paris Hilton.

The school has been the subject of countless allegations, lawsuits, and investigations, and has a documented history of abuse spanning decades. One of the earliest lawsuits against the school, Milonas v. Williams (10th Cir. 1982), resulted in an appellate decision that included a clear condemnation of the school. “The Provo Canyon School is not a school in the traditional ordinary or classic sense.... Provo Canyon School is also a correctional and detention facility. Students are restricted to the grounds. Students are confined. Some students are locked in and locked up with varying degrees of personal liberty restored as each progresses through the institutional program. If a student leaves without permission, he is hunted down, taken into custody and returned.”

That decision also spoke to the difference between the written policies of the school and the actual care that students received. It confirmed that “excessive and inappropriate use of isolation and physical force took place.”

The lawsuit contains a litany of incidents ranging from 1978 until 2023 to establish a history of abuse at the school.'

Full Lawsuit

TTI Watch has included a PDF of the lawsuit and all relevant documents. As the investigation into the incident continues, more documents will be published on our website.

Lawsuit

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PDF of the lawsuit.

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Exhibit A

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A court order ruling that a facility's failure to protect a minor from assault is not "health care" under medical malpractice law.

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Exhibit B

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A mandatory pre-litigation notice detailing intent to sue Provo Canyon School for delayed emergency medical care.

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On Tuesday, June 2, 2026, a student died at the Montana Youth Challenge Academy in Dillon, MT.

According to sources with knowledge of the investigation, a 17-year-old from Missoula, MT, was found dead at the academy, but police do not currently consider the death to be criminal. The current class of cadets are set to graduate on June 20.

The Montana Youth Challenge Academy is one of 45 National Guard Youth Challenge Programs that exist across 27 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. According to the national program website, the academies serve “15½ – 18-year-olds who have diverted from traditional academic pathways so that they may become contributing American citizens. It utilizes military-type training based on structure, discipline, and consistency to teach struggling adolescents the skills needed for their future success, embodied in eight core components—academics; physical fitness; health and hygiene; citizenship; life skills; job skills; leadership/followership; and service to community.”

This training comes in the form of a 20-week residential program followed by a 12-month post-residential phase, which includes mentorship and other resources.

Since 2020, seven Youth Challenge programs around the country have closed or announced an imminent closure, many of which were plagued by repeated investigations and allegations of abuse.

An outpouring of support for the cadet and his family, as well as current cadets and staff, have flooded the conversation surrounding the incident. However, several former cadets and family members have also shared stories of bullying, abuse, and staff indifference, as well as calls to increase staffing and training.

Former cadet Ashleigh Berns, who graduated from Montana Youth Challenge Academy in 2023, told TTI Watch that she witnessed fights between the cadets nearly daily. “One of my friends at the time was attacked by another female cadet who had turned finger nail clippers into a shank,” said Berns. “The staff didn’t do anything about the fights at all. nor did they report the attack on my friend until the next day. There were only a few good seargents when I was there. … The other staff members pretended like nothing happened and everything was normal.”

The Montana Youth Challenge Academy website claims “our program combines best practices in positive youth development from both educational and military models. We provide a safe and structured environment where students can learn and grow.”

In a statement issued to the press, Brig. Gen. Trent Gibson, Adjutant General of Montana, said “As a father, my heart breaks for this young person’s family and all who loved them. … After 26 years with the Montana Youth Challenge Academy, including serving as the former director, I know firsthand how much the staff care for every cadet who walks through the door.”

In the same statement, the program also asked for “privacy and compassion during this difficult time.”

The Beaverhead Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to comment on this story.

TTI Watch will continue to investigate the story and update this article as the investigation progresses.

On Monday, June 1, Unsilenced launched its highly anticipated volunteering program. The nonprofit hopes to utilize survivors and advocates alike to further its goal of “ending institutional child abuse through advocacy, education, research, survivor support, and systems change,” according to a briefing.

“We're incredibly excited to officially launch Unsilenced's volunteer program and create new opportunities for people across the country to support our mission of ending institutional child abuse,” said Timothy Pitoniak, Senior Director of Volunteer Programs and Partnerships at Unsilenced.

The program is in the first phase of its launch, with more opportunities coming on line over the course of 2026. In this phase, volunteers can choose to get involved with the Street Team and/or Special Projects.

“As we launch the program this summer, our immediate focus is on our Street Team and Special Projects volunteers,” Pitoniak explained. “These opportunities allow people to support Unsilenced through community outreach, awareness-building, research, digital projects, and other short-term initiatives that help strengthen our work.”

Street Team

The Street Team is described Unsilenced’s “grassroots ambassador network. Volunteers help expand awareness of the organization's mission through social media engagement, community outreach, event promotion, and advocacy efforts. Participants can contribute remotely while helping amplify survivor stories, educational resources, and opportunities for public engagement.”

Special Projects

The Special Projects allows volunteers to “provide support across a variety of organizational initiatives and mission-driven projects.”

Unsilenced characterizes Special Projects as a wide range of tasks that have various levels of scope and commitment, with volunteers able to contribute as their time and expertise allow. Projects could include things like:

• Research and data collection

• Website and digital projects

• Social media support

• Resource development

• Community engagement initiatives

• Administrative and operational support

Future Opportunities

Pitoniak highlighted the future opportunities available to volunteers as well. “While our initial volunteer offerings are intentionally limited as we build the program, this is just the beginning,” he said.

“In September, we plan to expand into additional volunteer opportunities, including our Survivor Support Team, Outreach Team, and Digital Investigation & Information Gathering (DIIG) Team. These programs will help us connect survivors with resources, increase public awareness of the Troubled Teen Industry, support advocacy efforts, and strengthen research and investigative work that advances accountability and justice.”

The DIIG team will help with online research, asking volunteers to take an active role in digging through publicly available records and data and contribute to investigations that help the nonprofit advocate and educate in a more meaningful way.

The Outreach Team is an opportunity for the networkers out there. Its main focus will include building bridges and connections between survivors, advocates, organizations, policy makers, and others who are interested in ending institutional child abuse.

While the Outreach Team is focused on connecting outward, the Survivor Support Team is all about inreach. Volunteers with this team will have the opportunity to support survivors with resources, education, and community building.

Finally, Unsilenced will be looking for professionals who want to partner with them. These can be policy makers, lawyers, healthcare and mental health workers, or anyone else who believes their experience can help the cause.

“Volunteers have always played a critical role in advocacy movements, and we’re looking forward to building a nationwide community of people who want to make a difference,” added Pitoniak. “Anyone age 18 or older is welcome to apply, complete our orientation process, and explore ways to get involved.”

Onboarding

Volunteers who are looking to join the team at Unsilenced will be given structured training as part of their onboarding, including a mission orientation, training materials, a Code of Conduct, introductions to fellow volunteers, and access to volunteer resources.

The nonprofit has taken steps to ensure the volunteer process is trauma-informed, prioritizing volunteer wellbeing alongside impact.

The initial interest in the launch, even before June 1, was very high.

According to Pitoniak, “We've been encouraged by the response we've received so far and are excited about what's ahead.”

Volunteers interested in those programs can contact the Unsilenced volunteering team or fill out the interest form or visiting their website. The planned launch date for the next phase of volunteer programs is in September.

Provo Canyon School is facing an emergency action from the Utah DHHS after an incident on May 12 left a student unconscious and bleeding from the mouth, and staff failed to call for emergency help.

A week later on May 19, the Utah Department of Health and Human Services issued an emergency agency action. DHHS findings concluded that the actions of the residential treatment facility resulted in a one-hour delay in the teen receiving medical care.

While TTI Watch is awaiting the records, which we will publish in full on our website, sources close to the investigation indicate that the following stipulations have been imposed against the school:

• A prohibition on admitting new residents.

• Mandatory compliance with enhanced monitoring inspections and investigations.

• Retraining of staff regarding emergency response procedures and resident supervision.

• Payment of costs associated with additional inspections.

• Conditions remaining in effect through approximately June 18, 2026 unless modified earlier.

Separate from this incident, the school is already facing a public outcry following inspection findings that a staff member allegedly punched a resident, causing injuries severe enough for the child to require stitches.

According to a statement given by school CEO Tim Marshall to a local FOX affiliate, “Provo Canyon School maintains comprehensive safety procedures and ongoing monitoring practices designed to protect and support our residents.”

Provo Canyon School became one of the programs at the center of the public debate around the troubled teen industry after Paris Hilton came forward about abuse that she suffered while attending the school.

On April 8, 2026, 9 women filed a federal lawsuit against Indiana Teen Challenge, also known as Central Indiana Teen Challenge or The Refuge Girls Academy, as well as operators Dave and Dawn Rose, for “the systematic abuse, neglect, trafficking, exploitation and forced labor of the Plaintiffs while they were minors and residents at Indiana Teen Challenge, Inc.”

The women, identified as Emily DuPuis, Eliana Greenfield, Christine Hong, Autumn Mays, Haven Murdock, Kirah Oswald, Hannah Scragg, Chelsie Turlich, and Kristin Williams, allege that “from the moment they arrived at CITC, Plaintiffs and other residents were abused, neglected, humiliated, physically assaulted, spiritually coerced, given simplistic and largely meaningless “workbooks” in the guise of education, and forced to perform a variety of physically hard, dangerous, and even bizarre and cruel unpaid labor.”

Central Indiana Teen Challenge, or CITC, is part of the larger, national network of programs known as Adult & Teen Challenge USA, a Christian-based network of resources and residential treatment facilities that operate under the auspices of Assemblies of God U.S. Missions.

Assemblies of God is the world’s largest Pentecostal denomination and has been the subject of the year-long investigation by NBC News called Pastors and Prey. This investigation purports to expose “decades of sex abuse and cover-ups.”

The lawsuit alleges punishments that range from forced isolation as long as thirty days to forced consumption of “every bit of food on her plate at every meal, without consideration as to whether she was a vegan, a vegetarian, allergic to certain foods, the food was dangerously undercooked, or she simply abhorred certain foods.” The lawsuit further alleges that residents of the program “were forced to continue eating even as they vomited while seated in the dining room.”

According to another allegation in the lawsuit, “the Plaintiffs who ultimately ‘graduated’ from CITC discovered that they did not have a valid diploma, and that the ‘schoolwork’ they did while at CITC was not accredited by any educational agency or institution. Therefore, Plaintiffs found when they left CITC that they were significantly behind their peers in their education and could not expect to attend college. In fact, a GED was their most viable option, a revelation that was shocking and traumatic to all of them.”

While the Adult & Teen Challenge website describes their accreditation process, it does not mention any accreditation requirements for educational programs. However, the Refuge Girls Academy’s website emphasizes educational opportunities that include personalized schoolwork for high school credit and Advanced Placement classes.

“The damage done to our clients through this program affects how they interact with the world and how they see themselves, their futures, their families, and their faith. They want their voices to be heard,” said Gregory L. Laker, lead attorney for the women, in a statement. “We are privileged to help them, to seek to hold Central Indiana Teen Challenge and its leadership accountable, and to take steps to end the abuse they and hundreds of other teen girls endured.”

Neither Adult & Teen Challenge USA nor the Refuge Girls Academy immediately responded to a request for comment.

I also didn’t want the stigma of trauma. I didn’t want my new friends to see me as a collection of things that happened to me. I didn’t want people to define me based on what I had been through or what their preconceived notions of what a “troubled teen” was.

Looking back, I think part of that was because the programs that I attended, namely the therapeutic boarding school Carlbrook, stripped away my sense of self. I was afraid that people would see me as the damaged kid who went to a program like this because I didn’t see anything when I looked in the mirror. I couldn’t look at myself and see that emotional core that defines a person. They took that from me. And they did it because it is easier to control people when you supplant their identity with something of your own making.

It was 2007 when I began my journey into this industry, starting with the wilderness therapy program Second Nature Blue Ridge (now Blue Ridge Therapeutic Wilderness). Why, then, am I just now beginning to speak out?

First, when I got out of Carlbrook, I spent just nine days at home before going straight to college. My life changed dramatically and I was busy trying to form a new identity. I thought I could just forget what happened and move on. Add to that the fact that I was thoroughly institutionalized - like all survivors of cults and intense behavior modification programs - that I didn’t really understand the full gravity of what I went through.

This was also before a lot of the research and advocacy for survivors in the TTI had gone public. Most of the narrative around these programs was coming from people like Dr. Phil, a noted proponent of programs like this who regularly sent child guests on his show straight into places like Turn-About Ranch. Also the mainstream conservative politicians of the time from Nixon to Bush had spent decades praising these “tough love” programs as the answer to why children were just so darned bad these days. To say that speaking out against these programs fell on deaf ears is just the best case scenario. At worst, I watched several peers face ridicule and disbelief, with people telling us that we deserved what we got for being such bad kids.

For me, there was a clear turning point. In 2026, nearly 17 years after graduating Carlbrook, my parents casually told me they had helped a family friend who had adopted a kid out of foster care find a therapeutic boarding school for that kid who, at just twelve years old, had been showing signs of extreme behaviors like climbing trees and not coming down until the fire department had been called.

Now if that doesn’t sound like the sort of behavior that should get a child - one who has undergone the trauma of foster care and adoption - locked up into programs that will further abuse and traumatize that child, it’s because it isn’t the behavior most people expect.

The vast majority of people assume that kids get sent to programs like these for doing heroin or running with gangs. Perhaps at one point that was what programs like these purported to treat, but these days the educational consultants and other entry points to this industry are pathologizing perfectly normal teenage behavior and convincing scared parents that these actions will end up with their child dead or in prison if they don’t get help right then.

Of course, we know this isn’t true. Most teenagers act out. It is actually a normal and (usually) healthy act of experimenting with independence. And most teenagers will grow out of their impulsive behaviors long before they face the worst-case consequences that these fearmongers predict.

I am starting to speak out and advocate for survivors of this industry because I needed someone who would do that for me. And it would be a betrayal of that version of me who was crying out for someone to fight for them. And so I decided it was time to start fighting for the hundreds of thousands of kids who are still getting sent into these programs.

But this isn’t advocacy based in anger. I am angry. We all are. You’d have to lack any sort of empathy not to be angry at the things that are done to these kids. But what I want to do with this platform is educate. I want to investigate the businesses that profit off of these children. I want to help parents make better decisions and avoid sending their kids to a program that will forever change their relationship. I want to work with therapists, social workers, survivors, journalists, and legislators to build a network that will create meaningful regulation for these industries and resources for the survivors.

Anger is great for tearing things down. And there are certainly elements of this industry that need to be torn down. But it will require more than that to build real change. And that is what I want to do. I’m hoping you’ll join me.

In December 2007, my parents told me that I was going to go to a four-week Outward Bound program for teens, complete with zip lining, camping, and adventure. I am an Eagle Scout, so this sort of outdoor activity appealed to me. After my parents left, I was strip searched. It was my first time, but far from my last.

I was at Second Nature Blue Ridge, a wilderness therapy program in Clayton, Georgia, for seven weeks. We had no tents; each participant was given a tarp that we would use to construct a shelter each night. The weather was brutally cold. Many nights would get into the single digits or below zero. Many mornings I would wake to find my jacket frozen into a solid brick.

In 2007, Georgia was in the middle of a long-running drought, so the entire region was on a fire ban for the vast majority of the time I was in the program. When we were allowed fire, we had to create it ourselves with bow drills. Most of the time, any heat we had would come from hot water in our water bottles. Our staff had propane stoves to cook for themselves while the students often had cold, dry ramen or raw beans and rice softened in creek water.

The “therapy” that was on offer consisted of irregular meetings with a man who gave us assignments like “draw a perfect circle.” The real assignment was trying to divine what lesson the activity was supposed to teach you. I spent weeks trying to convince my therapist that I understood that there was no such thing as perfect. The actual lesson? You just had to ask for help. Before wilderness therapy, I was happy to ask for help.

Another critical part of wilderness therapy was the accountability letter. This would actually become a recurring theme during my journey. My therapist instructed me to write a letter to my parents explaining all of the bad stuff I had done. I told the truth. I had been angry. I had gotten into fights with bullies. I had yelled at my mom and dad. I was impulsive and I swore and I listened to loud music. In short, I was a teenager.

My therapist read the letter and told me to redo it. I wasn’t being honest. So I wracked my brain looking for anything else I could add to it. Multiple times we went back and forth. He told me he knew I had been drinking, having sex, doing drugs. It wasn’t until I lied that they determined I was telling the truth.

This problem is endemic in the troubled teen industry. Because the industry only works if it is bringing in more and more victims, we see this incredible scope creep. What was originally intended to help hardcore drug addicts and true juvenile delinquents was expanded until the people feeding kids into this machine were pathologizing normal teenage behavior.

These letters, which all participants in these programs are required to write, are then used to convince the parents that their kids are dangerously out of control and they should be sent to another program. On February 14, my parents picked me up from Second Nature Blue Ridge and drove me to the Carlbrook School in South Boston, Virginia.

I’ll never forget my first day. I was taken on my tour of the campus and informed that I was going to be on bans with all students in the Lower School part of the program. Bans were a sort of communication restriction. When on bans with a person, you could not speak with them, make eye contact with them, sit near them, or make any acknowledgement of their existence.

I went to the bathroom and greeted someone who I was told was in my peer group. He replied “I’m on bans.” I laughed and introduced myself. I’ll never forget the fear in his eyes when he repeated “I’m on bans” and rushed out of the bathroom. I had assumed that the rules would be followed in front of adults and then disregarded when alone.

How wrong I was.

The most insidious part of these programs is that they are exceptionally talented at population control. The most effective way to manage a population is to have the population manage itself. Your peers were often the most vicious enforcers of the rules. You would disclose details of your life and your peers would find the cruelest time possible to twist those disclosures into attacks. We were bred into the program’s attack dogs, foaming at the mouth to tear into one another.

People that I trusted and loved at that program have said by far the worst things to me that I’ve ever heard. Some of this “feedback” has stuck with me and will echo in my mind for the rest of my life.

And yet, I will never blame the other students for anything they did. We were doing anything and everything we could to get by. The cruelty was a way to keep attention off of you. It was performance theater. It was survival. And I won’t begrudge any of my peers for surviving that place. Goodness knows so many of us didn’t survive.

At some point, I will write about my time at Carlbrook in real depth, complete with interviews with people who attended the program with me. But today is not that day. I will end this portion of my story by saying this. I came out of Carlbrook changed. What I went through there was not normal. It was traumatic. But sharing my story has helped me begin to heal. I would encourage any other survivors to do the same, in their own time. This site will always have a place for survivor testimonies. If you would like to add yours to the list, please get in touch.