Family Foundation School, over 100 former students commited suicide

[HerNameIsBuffy]

As uncomfortable as I have been reading this thread I am struck by the awesomeness of post after post of bravely sharing stories of struggle and survival...the support for those with mental illness leaping off the screen.  For the visceral anger at the stigma and the ignorance.

We will never stamp out ignorance, but in this thread the scales are tipped so heavily toward compassion toward victims and logic that it makes me ridiculously proud to be a member of such a community.

When the societal POV is skewed similarly it will be easier...and people like those posting in this thread give me hope we'll get there.   

 

[Hashtag Blessed]

1 hour ago, OGEmoji said:

And anyone who argues that a person who is a murder or rapist isn't mentally ill had a lot of studying to do. Mentally healthy people do not intentionally harm others, and to argue otherwise is illogical.

Sorry to pile on, but this is an absurd thing to say. Mentally sound people can and do harm others on purpose. All. The. Time. You don't have to be crazy to be cruel, selfish, immoral, or violent. It is a convenient lie we tell ourselves that only someone who's wrong in the head would do such horrible things as rape and murder. But that is a dangerous lie that blinds you to the predators that live perfectly normal, everyday lives. Rape and murder are often committed by people who are seemingly normal, some might even say kind or gentle. They just saw their own desires or needs as more important than someone else's life. It is a logical leap that isn't even that difficult for your average sane person to make, given the right set of circumstances. For some people, human lives have less value, but that doesn't mean they would be classified as mentally ill. 

This really sticks in my craw because I know someone in my life who is incredibly selfish, mean-spirited, and cruel. She's not a murderer, as far as I know, but she's not a good person. And as I've shared the story of this woman with other people, they're shockingly quick to call her crazy. Which, to me, feels like letting her off the hook for her actions because she's not crazy, she's just a selfish jerk and she's 100% responsible for all the harm she does to the people around her. Could she benefit from some therapy? Probably, but so could literally everyone on the planet. Plus, this sort of thing perpetuates the stigma that actual mentally ill people are more likely to be dangerous, cruel, and violent. Which is demonstrably false. 

 

[formergothardite]

It doesn't matter if the teens originally decided, hey, doing drugs will be fun, and got sent there when their parents found out.  The things done to people at that school is enough to break the soul of a mentally stable person who wasn't addicted to drugs. The school took at risk teens and instead of helping them actively caused massive amounts of harm. Harm that will cause a lifetime of problems. They did things that would easily drive someone to taking drugs in the hopes it would help them forget what happened to them. Yes, the school hurt children and set some of the path to suicide. 

Here is another story I found.

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is is how the Thought Card Sanction works- So I have just finished reading all my thoughts. The students are picking apart every one of them, the staff are cursing at me, calling me some of the worst things I have ever been called. I am completely exposed. Any fear that I've ever had about what people think of me is confirmed. After a couple of weeks on this sanction I will become so worn down, so convinced that I am are a horrible human being, that I won't ever want to talk again. They give me a bible and a rosary to numb my thoughts and I gladly accept them. I am so disgusted with myself and with how judgmental everyone else is that I get tricked into seeing God as the only wholesome thing there is. I have just moved from the First Step (admitting that I am powerless over my own fucked-up thoughts) to the Second Step (I have come to believe that a Power greater than myself can restore me to sanity). In the process I have come to hate myself and humanity so much that I will probably spend many years suicidal and friendless. This is a mild but archetypal example of how the Family School works. It forces you through the steps, brainwashes you into thinking you're a totally hopeless fuck-up, and surrounds you with so many prayers and hymns that you eventually become a mindless, submissive zombie chanting the Serenity Prayer. 

http://tales-from-the-black-school.blogspot.com/search/label/Allynwood Academy

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Why did I get in so much trouble?s,  I had no drug problem never got in trouble for lying, never complained, got mostly all A's and B's (except on Work-Sanction) wasn't violent, or a brat. I got in trouble because I was "too quiet." 

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While I was there, not once did they bring up the fact that I have an anxiety disorder. They said I didn't talk to people because I was lazy and defiant.And they would not stop punishing me until I could interact with the rest of the kids there. And obviously, the more they cursed me out and punished me, the less I wanted to talk to them. So they put me in a corner, or in a broom closet, isolating me further. They have some weird fucking logic at that school. Then they were punishing me for being depressed. There were no other reasons to punish me, so they just decided to fuck with me for being quiet and sad, until I became more quiet and more sad than ever, and then my dad took me out. 

So this school took a child with anxiety issues and tortured, isolated and humiliated him to the point when he left he felt worthless and suicidal. I think it would be safe to blame the school for him ending up feeling like killing himself. 

[AliceInFundyland]

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