Boot Camp Hearing: Cynthia Harvey

Cynthia Clark-Harvey, mother of a 15-year-old girl who died at a wilderness program, makes an opening statement at a U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor hearing concerning cases of child neglect and abuse at private residential treatment facilities.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• child
• abuse
• neglect
• boot
• camp
• private
• residential
• treatment
• facilities
• boarding
• school
• juvenile
• justices
• education
• labor

[Mallira2]

@TheInstantPickle The kids that were there me included were just normal teenagers and they treated us like criminals.

[Mallira2]

@TheInstantPickle I'm pretty sure its the same one i went to in 2001. Well the one i was sent to was called the catherine freer wilderness expedition. They hike you from dawn till dusk only stopping for a few short breaks. You cant talk the entire time. I remember there was this one kid it was his 3rd trip out and he just wanted to go home. instead of talking with him about it they started dragging him down the trail. Also there was one kid they was sent by his parents for being gay.

[TheInstantPickle]

@thealpha5599 Might the program have had a name? I went to the verysame one two wilderness boarding school deluxe nonsense, and was wondering if you'd be interested in offering your story for a report I'm currently fashioning.

[thealpha5599]

(5th post) across the country to live in the woods for 3 months. If these places were any bit professional, they would have recognized that I SHOULD NOT have been there and had me sent back home. But they were receiving some of my inheritance (thanks to my guardian), so they had no problems with keeping me and convincing me that I am a destructive force. My boarding school was 10 times worse than wilderness, but that is another story. I just wanted to give my little informal testimony.

[thealpha5599]

(4th post) Unlike most kids there, I was different I never did drugs, drank alcohol, physically hurt myself, or performed any other self-deprecating behaviors. I was actually an A+ student finishing his applications to some ivy league colleges. Why did "need" to be there? Because my parents died 5 months earlier in a car crash, leaving me an orphan. I was depressed...who wouldn't be? My new guardian knew nothing about therapy and before I even saw an outpatient therapist, he decided to ship me

[thealpha5599]

(3rd post). when I refused to walk back to camp. I was laying down 70 yards out of camp. One man was well over 200 pounds and sat directly where my lungs are while another took my shoes and socks off my feet so I wouldn't run again. It was -5 degrees F out. They isolated me when I didn't do as they please (never acting out, but for example, not completing an assignment). I was forced to make my own fire and cook my own food. I didn't know how to make a fire yet, so I sat there in the snow cold.

[thealpha5599]

@Imsocool4321 (I posted another comment before this). Personally, I was abused emotionally, mentally, and physically. In wilderness, they made me lift a 70 pound pack as well as 2 5 pound water jugs when hiking for 8 miles. I complained of back problems and reminded them of my double hernia surgery. They said I was lying so I wouldn't have to do it. They tackled me to the ground on sharp jagged rocks, cutting me profusely, when I attempted to run away. They restricted my breathing when I...

[thealpha5599]

Its been going on this whole time, even as we speak. I was sent to two of these places. One was a wilderness program and another a "boarding school." I am a firm believer in limited government. However, I also believe that government does need to step in to fix the injustices of businesses. This isn't a Big Business type of thing. But just as you commented, there is an entire network of businesses designed to take advantage of "troubled" youth. That is not right.

[Imsocool4321]

Since when do we send people to boot camp to help them get over being suicidal?