IF this is true, it would appear so. Children are property, and parents can commit their kids to a private school like this, regardless of reason.....

http://www.reddit....ing_to_my_parents/

It's a parents job to teach their children what they want them to learn, whether a child appreciates it or not. As a child you do not have the luxury or right to be a "free thinking adolescent". If you can't stand living with your parents rules then go get emancipated, get a job and move out. Then you can worship satan all day long if you want, or become a mormon with 6 wives or whatever it is that your parents disapprove of. This article just sounds like some whiney rebellious teenager whose parents got sick of his/her bs.

I would never send my kids to anything like that, but thats my choice as a parent. I visited the schools website and it looks like it's geared towards trouble makers and not brainwashing christians. There is no religious iconography at all, and no prayer or any other religious services listed on their schedule or activities pages. Neither are there any religious buildings listed on their campus map, not even a chapel. I'd wager it had little to do with the brat being an atheist and more to do with him/her having behavioral issues.

Most kids sent there aren't going because they want to, so I would imagine they would not view the experience as being positive. My wife went to a similar school and she actually did enjoy it, but always tells me stories about plenty of other kids who didn't.

I guess my point is ... "institutionalized for being an athiest" = false.

Posted by MrGreenJeans ...brainwashing christians.

don't they already come pre-brainwashed?

It's simply the religion of Capitalism. The facility exists to play on the fears of the ignorant and scam them for piles of money, promising to deliver whatever it is that the parents want to hear... and as time goes on, the story and presentation changes to keep the money coming in.

I'm not sure about the state of teen drug rehab facilities these days, but I know that there were plenty of them popping up in the 80s and 90's that operated like this. The bottom line was all that mattered. "Participants" were little more than dollar signs to the people running them, and the presentations made to parents were almost like extortion, convincing them that they would be neglecting their children's welfare by not having them locked away, doing everything that they could to increase fear, panic, and hopelessness.


I have no idea about Horizon Academy, but they certainly throw around a lot of the key phrases
"willing to do whatever it takes to help your child" - Don't you want your child to succeed?
"defiance, school troubles, drug or alcohol issues and anger-management difficulties, disrespectful to parents and authority figures with entitlement mentality" - seems to describe most kids to some extent

And, my favorite... they offer unofficial advice about how to treat their exorbitant tuition as a tax write off.

These kinds of places are a godsend for some people. It is exactly the kind of environment that would work wonders for kids with specific challenges. But it doesn't take long before the people running a place like this realize that they could do so much more to help the kids if they only got more participants, and it doesn't take much longer before getting new participants is the most important part of their business model, whether the program is the right fit or not.

Back in the day when you could beat some manners in ya kid, these places were few and far. I think you will see more problems the more you allow the state to raise your child. This has nothing to do with religion or profit. Just common sense.

Posted by jeepdave I think you will see more problems the more you allow the state to raise your child. This has nothing to do with religion or profit. Just common sense.

No state is raising anyone.

The only raising going on is by corporatism, which demands that dull eyed cows consume their message and buy their products.

Posted by MutantMandias No state is raising anyone. The only raising going on is by corporatism, which demands that dull eyed cows consume their message and buy their products.

Only the weak minded to blame.

Posted by jeepdave Only the weak minded to blame.

I agree. But it's all that's holding America together at this point.

Posted by MutantMandias I agree. But it's all that's holding America together at this point.

We will never be better than our worse reality tv program.

And yet, the content of the worst reality tv show is not nearly as brain damaging as the majority of the commercials that reality shows exist to shove down the watcher's throats, like geese being force fed for foie gras.

But, to get back on topic, America is an institution already. So sayeth Wonko the Sane.

Posted by MutantMandias And yet, the content of the worst reality tv show is not nearly as brain damaging as the majority of the commercials that reality shows exist to shove down the watcher's throats, like geese being force fed for foie gras. But, to get back on topic, America is an institution already. So sayeth Wonko the Sane.

But, what is the alternative? The weak minded support the country as a whole. So, do we make everyone wise and risk the collapse of society or do we let them be bliss in their mediocre life and let the few who know how to work the system keep it flowing correctly?

Posted by jeepdave let the few who know how to work the system keep it flowing correctly?

Haha! You're funny!

Posted by MutantMandias Haha! You're funny!

It is true though, unpleasant but true.

After a painstaking search (that took the better part of 5 seconds) I found that Horizon Academy was named in a lawsuit alleging:

children were:
• Forced to eat their own vomit
• Kicked, beaten, thrown, and slammed to the ground
• Bound and tied by their hands/and or feet
• Chained and locked in dog cages
• Forced to stay in isolation for long periods of times
• Locked in small boxes or cages
• Locked in basements
• Forced to lie in or wear urine and feces as a method of punishment
• Forced to clean and scrub toilets and floors with their toothbrush and then use the toothbrush afterwards

That's maybe an eighth of the list I copied, and these were the first allegations mentioned; I didn't cherry-pick them.

I, for one, WANT my kids to be free-thinkers. I have never indoctrinated them in any manner of belief. They're totally free to make up their own minds. Oddly, my youngest decided when he was 5 that God didn't exist, but believed in Santa until he was 12. Go figure.

Let's start a KickStarter project to send MrGreenJeans there.

Sadly I am too old. It is nice to know I'm on your mind though

The camps over seas are a lot worse. I knew a kid that was sent to a youth treatment center in Mexico that was liberated by rebels as the conditions were so bad. The wilderness rehabs are pretty spotty too. As someone that went through a small sample of that system I will say that it is about profit, not treatment or the state. One of my best friends got sent to a school along those lines because she happened to wear a trench coat after columbine. I can tell you stories...

Oh, and I had perfect attendance through high school no matter how many times I was sick or suspended. The school I was attending got money per student per day. The school was then audited then repoed one day.

So blame your parents, they must have had something against you to send you to some concentration camp where you're forced to eat your own vomit. I'd be looking into emancipation. Like I said, I'd never send my kids to one of these places. For every good one theres one or more bad.

Posted by MrGreenJeans So blame your parents, they must have had something against you to send you to some concentration camp where you're forced to eat your own vomit. I'd be looking into emancipation. Like I said, I'd never send my kids to one of these places. For every good one theres one or more bad.

I haven't been in that system for some years, cupcake. You're typing to someone that has some measure of experience in a world you know little about. You might gain some insight by hearing out that perspective.

Not all parents are so well informed and this is an institutional issue as much as a profit driven social problem. I wasn't sent to the camps, but I was at a school that had a large student body in and out of those types of places. I was kicked out of public schools and sent to the "non-public" district; that is, not exactly private school, not exactly juvy, not exactly continuation. Those places operate in a very real gray zone.

What are schools going to do with kids that are "behavior problems" but haven't committed serious crimes? They can't keep them in the general population, but can't send them to a real prison. Similarly, some kids get sent to these places by the courts. Sometimes it is parents with the best of intentions. I do doubt that a court would send a kid to a prison camp in Jamaica or Mexico though, no matter how fancy the brochure is. It's messy, and the fault to me ultimately is with profiteers and institutions, not necessarily social rules, family units, or values.

On a side note, it was the rich kids that make up the highest portion of the death toll (death from drugs, stupid shit, etc) at my school. I think there were at least a half dozen kids that died at my school of 150 or so in a period of about 4-5 years. Poors did alright, if not over achieved or stumbled into better positions a few years out.

sorry cupcake, since you said you had perfect attendance I assumed you were saying that your attendance didn't save you from being sent to a camp.