We were driving through absolutely middle of nowhere western Washington once, forest everywhere, and started seeing signs like “do not stop for teens” or “don’t pick up hitchhiking kids”. We figured it was likely a cult or conversion camp since there weren’t any jouvies in that area, probably we would have ignored the signs and helped someone out if they asked
Wonder if one of them is secretly a basilisk from the boiling isles?
Troubled teen program? Is it gay conversion or a child molestation camp?
Probably all three.
Edit: jesus they are stranded on an island in fucking Alaska. I can only imagine how little oversight there is (which is why it’s so isolated) and how much abuse must occur there because of it.
There another place in Washington state called Secret Harbor School. According to Wikipedia, there were 52 escape attempts over three years
Its probably similar to elan.school. Schools where “kidnapping” is a thing are fucking disgusting
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I grew up in the same area as this place had no idea it existed. So messed up thinking about what was happening 20 minutes from my house and it ran until like 2011!
Escape is the first duty of every prisoner.
— Worf
Die.
— Worf
“And people say that I do not have a sense of humor.”
The picture made me think it’s a landslide news.
Given how “therapy” programs like this are, at best, complete bullshit and, at worst, full of fraud and abuse, I’m leaning on supporting the kids here.
Honestly even if the place is totally fine and treats the kids well, they’re teens doing silly teen things, slap on the wrist at most…
These “silly teen things” could have very well ended with themselves or someone else dead.
You can’t blame kids for trying to get away from camps if they’re abusive.
For anyone not aware of what goes on in some of these camps, give this a read: https://elan.school/
Trigger warning.
Nowhere did I say kids shouldn’t do whatever they can to escape abuse, I wholeheartedly agree with that. I was addressing the fact that the original comment was saying that there should be no consequences regardless if it was an abusive environment.
I hear you and admit that I did misunderstand your point. Thanks for chiming in and clarifying. For the record, I didn’t downvote you and I’m sorry you’re being misunderstood overall.
That’s not a good enough excuse to not treat them like the children they are, with compassion and empathy. Scare mongering helps exactly nobody.
There was a recent case in NC where a 12 y/o was found dead with his underpants off and the camp obstructed the investigation and continues to maintain the death was accidental even after a coroner ruled it was not. It’s the second death at that camp as well, previous one was in 2014.
“Both young men are back and safe and things are settling well.”
Fuck these backwards turds that think this is ok.
Fuck parents and family that think signing up kids to these “therapy” programs is a good thing.
17-year-old from Idaho and a 14-year-old from Minnesota were attending the wilderness retreat Passages Alaska for troubled youths
In a situation like this, it would be good to hear what they have to say. They are cut off from social media, completely deprived of the ability to communicate with someone to represent their point of view. This is terrible and the place is likely awful for them to have tried to escape like this. I hope one day when they get out of there they let people know if it was a terrible place.
Calling this a therapy program is like calling leeches a cancer treatment.
Passages Alaska, founded in 2020. The website is incredibly vague on whom the therapy they use is for. They claim it’s for teens who “struggle with anxiety, depression, technology addiction, low self-esteem, and failure to launch” which is, as stated, incredibly vague.
Actual medical anxiety and depression isn’t the fault of the person and needs medicine, not “mindfulness therapy”. And I have no idea what “technology addiction” is. This sounds like parents who are mad at their kid being on their phone all the time.
It seems to be some New Age-y nonsense with a bunch of meditation and yoga BS.
I don’t think it’s meditation and yoga, it’s stuff like backpacking and survival skills.
And deprivation and abuse.
Mine didn’t involve that.
This is just one of numerous abusive things conservatives do to their children to “toughen 'em up”.
Conservatives should not be permitted to be around children.
The cruelty is the point.
Going through their website, they seem incredibly bland. The only thing that really started ringing alarm bells is that one of the staff has a degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Liberty University (!!!).
Oh, that’s more than an alarm bell. This is part of a cult. Liberty University graduates are pretty much always brain-broken Christofacists.
100% chance that this place doubles as a conversation camp by design.
The other people seem mostly fine. I am somewhat bothered by several of the staff being in the process of earning their degrees, and also worried because where they are earning them is left unsaid.
The founder studied at an actual reputable university.
“Failure to launch”…?
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The arrested were 14 and 17. The parents must have known ahead of time their 14 year old wasn’t going to be able to get out. Faith: what we have in sky people, not those that we raise/educate. Hmm, maybe that should say something about the parents. Nah let’s blame it on the teachers first, and the kids second.
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Oh, is that what the phrase is supposed to be about? Gross.
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At best that translates to confidence courses, networking with other kids, and learning to disconnect. Which can be great. But if that was the case they’d advertise it. At worst, (and people are trying to escape so … yeah) it’s a crash course in manhood type place where they think Hollywood’s version of basic military training is too soft.
