Share Your Story

If you are a survivor of the Troubled Teen Industry, a parent who sent their child to one of these programs, or a former staff member from a program, we’d love to hear from you. Sharing your story is often an important step in the healing journey.

Survivors

There are a few ways for survivors to share their stories. The first is through submitting a survivor testimony. This is your story in your words. TTI Watch will make any appropriate grammatical edits, but you will have full approval before publishing the testimony.

We also want to hear from survivors if you have specific claims or stories you think we should investigate. When you get in contact, please provide as much detail as you want. Our tip email inbox is encrypted and source anonymity will be protected at all costs.

We will also occasionally put out calls for interviews for survivors of specific programs. If you are responding to a call like this, please contact our tip email directly with the name of the program in the email subject.

Parents

Often parents are the first people manipulated by this industry. Educational consultants, therapists, even other programs will try to convince parents to place their kids in specific programs. Those programs often provide financial kickbacks or finder’s fees for the referral.

We want to hear from parents about what led them to make the decision to place their child into these programs. We are always looking for parents to submit paperwork, marketing materials, recordings, stories, or any other type of tips.

Staff

If you worked in a troubled teen program, we’d love to hear from you as well. Often it is the adults who come forward from these programs that finally tilt the balance of evidence both in the public eye and in legal proceedings.

We want to listen to your story. We want to know about what you witnessed, what you experienced, and what you were told about what you were doing. If you have any tips about unethical practices, please let us know. We are always looking for staff members to go on the record, but we also maintain the option for anonymity when making reports to us.

Informed Consent

We strive to maintain the highest possible ethical standards when conducting interviews. That starts with ensuring informed consent for all parties. Before scheduled interviews, participants will be offered an informed consent form to sign. Interviewees are always free to refuse any questions or stop at any time. Participants are also free to withdraw consent for interviews or request anonymization at any time.

Trauma-Informed Reporting

As a survivor-led platform, using trauma-informed reporting techniques is extremely important to us. As we cover stories across the Troubled Teen Industry, we will always try to protect the emotional well-being of the people that we interview. We acknowledge that talking about our experiences can be retraumatizing, so it is the standard procedure to let interviewees set the pace.

Privacy and Levels of Anonymity

We use professional standards to protect our sources. Notes, recordings, and other files are held in encrypted folders and labeled with neutral code. We offer full anonymity for sources, including pseudonyms and modifying any potentially identifying information. However, we encourage all interviewees and sources to understand and advocate for the appropriate level of anonymity they wish to utilize. It is also important to note that the same interview or source can utilize multiple or all of these levels of anonymity for different aspects of their story. Part of informed consent includes clearly confirming the level of anonymity any time it changes.

On the record

When conversations are on the record, it means that any and everything the source says can be used and directly quoted, and the source can be directly identified in published reporting. This provides no anonymity for the source, however it often results in the most impactful and transparent journalism.

On background

When a source chooses to provide information on background, it may not be directly attributed to the source. Sources may be described as fully as possible, for example “a former survivor of Second Nature Blue Ridge” or even “a survivor who attended the Carlbrook School in 2013,” but no attribution will be used without the consent of the source.

On deep background

Information provided on deep background cannot be attributed to the source. Reporting would use phrases like “it has been learned that…” or “a confidential source has reported that…” Sources operating on deep background are encouraged to provide contact to another source willing to corroborate the information also on deep background whenever possible.

Off the record

Information provided off the record can only be used to provide context and understanding of an issue to the interviewer, and not reported in any way unless another source is willing to provide or corroborate the evidence on the record or on background/deep background. Often off the record is most helpful when it can lead an interviewer to make accurate open records requests. If a source informs an interviewer that a program failed to disclose failed accreditation, for example, the interviewer can then potentially use that information to request information on the accreditation and then interview parents or staff members if they were informed of the failure.

If you or anyone you know has a story to tell, please do not hesitate to reach out to me directly. You can use the button below or send me an email. The tip email used for contact with this substack is encrypted.