Elan School
elan.school
elan.school
If you're in a similar boat: Elan School was apparently a behavior modification/"therapeutic" boarding school in Maine that engaged in some extremely controversial practices: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Élan_School
The comic is an autobiographical tale of a person that was forced to attend this facility against their will at the age of 16, ostensibly via kidnapping. It's really harrowing stuff.
EDIT: brevity
Not that I'm doubting any intentions here, but I think dressing this up as "extremely controversial" might be under-selling or burying the lede a bit. Had the practices (the ring, isolation, management structure) that occurred at Elan been done on adult prisoners, they would have with absolute moral certainty been seen as war crimes of the highest order. The fact that this happened to children and had the level of corruption and money behind it to persist for as long as it did should give one extreme pause, and the reprehensibility of the institution should not be "controversial," but rather condemned.
Indeed I would agree that this is really harrowing stuff. Just wanted to add that if you're going to look into this without any prior knowledge be sure that you're ready to be exposed to several levels of trauma.
War crimes are when you break the rules of war. America mistreating its own population does not amount to war crimes.
I'm pointing out that most kids were "coming from group homes" and therefore placed there by CPS. And this is not the worst CPS in the US has done to kids by a long shot, in fact they're still at it. Now with "ABA".
They rename the basic technique again and again, brainwashing with constant violence, inducing 24/7 stress, executed in practice by near-minimum-wage idiots rather than anyone with real training (or, frankly, intelligence), which then "necessitates" constant violence when children grow (you could, of course, also allow those kids a normal life, but no, they "have to be kids". So for instance the standard reaction in smarter autistic people, RAPIDLY becoming independent, has to be punished severely). But the basic premise of 24/7 stress with violence to make it inescapable has not changed.
Of course, the violence means that sometimes "accidentally" the kids get hurt, sometimes maimed or killed. That hasn't changed. Now when I say accidentally I mean they attacked these kids violently, and killed them, and they really meant to use that violence. They merely did not mean for that violence to end their lives. Of course, that's, at best, second degree murder. Nobody, of course, has gotten any serious punishment for such incidents, never mind people running or using ABA institutes.
https://sociallyanxiousadvocate.wordpress.com/2015/05/22/why...
After reading this and the previous thread on these programs, I really get the impression that this is the fundamental driver behind it. Some people in comments try to paint a picture of desperate parents at their wits end taken in by the program's lies, but these kids didn't wake up one day and decide to have a lot of problems. I strongly suspect that most were simply neglected and abused by horrible parents that had them and didn't want them and did a shit job being a parent to them because they are narcissistic assholes, the sort of shit people that American society churns out with ever increasing frequency. That sort of people believe things that sound like easy fixes for their years of failure to actually be a good parent, and the child suffers even more for it.
They often cannot get services locally, cannot get kids into anything in patient, cannot get discipline going.
It's a weird dichotomy. You let your kid walk to park alone, you could face jail time. You send them to one of these camps, no issues.
In addition to criticizing these program's I'd love to see better suggested options for often desperate parents, especially for kids who are a bit older.
A lot of bad actors, but these schools have an opening sometimes where other systems are not stepping up.
Interesting but disturbing. Happy that such hell-hole is now closed.
There is also a documentary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_Darkness (available on Netflix) about the school.
I will second this -- I found it the other night and made it 8 pages in before it was too much to keep going
I absolutely believe this darkness continues to exist in the world—maybe in the US, definitely elsewhere; and it should not fucking exist.
I don't understand how the school could exist for so long, conditions were straight up evil - how did nobody publish that in a mainstream newspaper?
When the kids told them, they were usually not believed because these were kids with a history of bad behavior already.
There's a few new entries to the comic that I should read, but I don't know if I can.
A lot of these treatment methodologies are descended from what was done at Synanon. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43uD12ooM7U is a good primer video on this.)
I can't help but think that similar yet broader tactics are in play with the way we are governed.
* Our reality is mediated for us by screens and education. These determine what we can conceive of. For our parents and peers too. This is under control of government+corporations.
* We defer to experts, are not 'discouraged' from individual opinions or from exercising free speech. Dissenting from acceptable opinion will mean being downvoted, de-platformed, labelled anti-vax, pro-putin, etc.
* Collectivised behaviour is encouraged, individuality, independent thinking is discouraged except in narrow bands - eg developing some software solution for a corporation, or art to help sell a product.
* Money is God.
* Personal verification of knowledge is pfff, impossible! so individuals have to accept the provided belief system, with experts mediating everything health, diet, even morality (ethics committees). Unverified and unverifiable science is our religion.
* Its acceptable to have corporations and governments owning your private data.
* This all perfectly normal.
* Etc
Anyway, I'm pretty sure we are all living in a cult - what we experience is not naturally unfolding. I also think we all know this too, but are in various stages of denial about the scope - it is far more comforting not to engage. Don't look within, don't try to know for oneself, heaven forbid.
I made it only 20 slides into this comic. I didn’t have it this bad but it triggered memories of the high-control group (a term much better and more descriptive than “cult”) I used to be part of.
There’s definitely some tried and true methods of mentally destroying and controlling human beings.
Notable alumni
> Tiffany Sedaris, artist, and sister of Amy Sedaris and David Sedaris. Tiffany's two years at Élan is cited in her sibling's writings and interviews as deeply traumatic to her, and a direct cause of her inability to form normal relationships with her family members. After decades of struggling with mental illness, Tiffany ultimately committed suicide in May 2013.[23][24]
> Michael Skakel, convicted in the murder of Martha Moxley. The case drew media attention largely because Skakel is related to the Kennedy family.[5]
> Ben Weasel, of the punk rock band Screeching Weasel.[13]
> Phil Williams Jr. died at age 15, after being forced to participate in the school's notorious boxing-ring punishment.[25]
One interesting side effect is that the author’s art is evolving as they write the episodes.
The scariest part for me is to think where else are things worse than that? I have led an extremely sheltered life by comparison.
https://omny.fm/shows/behind-the-bastards/part-one-elan-scho...
Im 10 pages in, taking a break because its too heavy ..
Random thoughts come to mind, given recent events, such as how a whole populace can be subjugated by regular abuse and misinformation .. and follow the whims of a despotic cult-leader. [ It strikes me most Russians have no idea whats going on in Ukraine, or are happy to pretend its not really happening. Why do millions have to have their lives uprooted by the decisions of one person ? ]
How many of us have the wherewithal to question the cultural rules we were brought up with, or the persistence to improve or change things, fighting a life-sapping bureaucracy ?
I fortunately live in a liberal democracy with excess food and security, with only first-world problems .. and yet .. it seems 85% of the citizens want action on climate change, while our elected leaders are hell bent on burning as much carbon as possible - so I have to ask, am I even living in a democracy ?
As a software dev, Ive been long thinking that almost all of our systems are far too centralized, and thus too brittle .. banking/currency/payments, social media, communications, food production, energy supply, politics, military, shipping/trade/transport, workplaces, education ..
yes, all of this is off-topic, but there are echoes .. we do have to keep re-remembering the Holocaust, because we are the same humans.