Things are not looking good for Mount Bachelor Academy, one of those special boarding schools for rich kids with problems. The state Department of Human Services has suspended the Prineville school’s license and told parents to take their kids away.
And this morning’s Bulletin reports that the Crook County Sheriff’s Office is looking at a possible criminal investigation.
The problems at the academy have been known since last April, when a number of students and at least one employee reported cases of physical and psychological abuse.
TIME magazine wrote back then that “according to 10 students, two separate parents and a part-time employee interviewed by TIME … Mount Bachelor Academy regularly uses intensely humiliating tactics as treatment. For instance, in required seminars that the school calls Lifesteps, students say staff members of the residential program have instructed girls, some of whom say they have been victims of rape or sexual abuse, to dress in provocative clothing — fishnet stockings, high heels and miniskirts — and perform lap dances for male students as therapy.” Students allegedly also were deprived of sleep, food or use of the bathroom as part of their “therapy.”
Bend merchant and blogger Duncan McGeary sees a funny side to this, speculating on whether it will add to Central Oregon’s reputation as the world epicenter of weirdness: “Holy Cow. Right up there with the deer fragger, the pregnant man, and the balloon lawn chair guy.”
For me, the story of Mount Bachelor Academy raises some more troubling questions. Such as: “Why the hell did it take the state so long to shut the place down?” Six months seems like more than enough time to either verify or discredit allegations made last April.
And the April accusations weren’t even the first red flag: According to TIME, similar charges led the Oregon DHS to investigate the academy back in 1998.
Second question: Why are places like Mount Bachelor Academy allowed to operate in what appears to be a virtual regulatory vacuum? The company that owns it, the Aspen Education Group, operates 16 other boarding schools and camps all around the country. These programs are not cheap: Tuition at Mount Bachelor Academy ran to $6,400 a month.
Aspen’s website provides no information beyond vague generalities about the therapies used or the credentials of the staffs at its schools. The website’s list of corporate officers doesn’t indicate that any of them hold an MD or Ph.D.
The site does, however, offer an “assessment test” to help parents decide if they should send their child to an Aspen facility, asking among other things whether he or she has “disregarded family rules and parental guidance” or “had problems in school (i.e. poor grades, challenging authority, etc.)” (Try to find a kid, especially a teenager, who hasn’t done those things at one time or another.)
Mount Bachelor Academy and other boarding schools that use a similar “therapeutic” approach also have an unsavory intellectual pedigree.
According to the TIME story last April, “The techniques that Mount Bachelor allegedly uses, while unconventional, are not new. They are similar to the tenets of the once popular ‘human potential movement’ of the 1960s and ’70s, which purported to change people’s lives through intense emotional experiences. The movement grew out of the practices of Synanon and other California experiments in utopian living, which later helped spawn so-called large group awareness training programs, such as LifeSpring and est.
“Synanon began as a drug-rehabilitation program before morphing into a controversial cult” – which was disbanded after being involved in various criminal activities – “and is credited with putting forth the idea that confrontation and boot-camp-style breakdown tactics could cure teen misbehavior and addiction.”
“Although many people report being helped by cathartic seminars, studies suggest that programs like LifeSpring do not produce lasting change,” the TIME story continues. “Indeed, in the 1980s and early 1990s, LifeSpring lost millions of dollars in lawsuits related to suicides and psychiatric hospitalizations of participants. Most mental-health experts today strongly disagree with the use of brutal confrontation or humiliation as therapy — particularly for vulnerable youths who have troubled pasts.”
Now for the third and probably most troubling question: Why, after so many horror stories have come out, do parents continue to send their children to these schools? I’m sure most of them have their kids’ best interests at heart – or think they do. But I can’t help wondering how many just want to get a troublesome child out of the way and are willing to pay heavily for it.
This article appears in Nov 5-11, 2009.
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One of the most troubling aspects of the unfolding story was when the director of the school cast aspersions on the character of the kids doing the accusing in response to The Bulletin’s questions in April. Regardless of whether the whole thing’s true crime or not, care providers are supposed to ALWAYS have the best interest of their wards at heart, and slinging mud at kids isn’t exactly the sign of someone who cares.
As to Mr. Miller’s final question: Accumulating enough money to send a child to one of these schools often comes at a very high cost; sometimes that cost is borne heavily by the children.
I am pretty disappointed with this article. As an alumni of Mount Bachelor Academy living in the Bend area it is insulting to have the institution I graduated high school from be called a “school for rich kids with problems.” The name Mount Bachelor Academy is on my current resume as well as academic record. This ignorant statement could potentially hinder opportunities for me, as anyone who has read this article would probably frown on a “rich kid with problems.” The other problem I have with the statement is that it is not entirely true. It is true that a large population of the students come from wealthy families, however there were also families who put up 2nd mortgages on there homes, borrowed money from extended family, and went into serious debt to cover the cost of Mount Bachelor Academy. In the Supreme Court Case of Forest Grove School District v. T.A., the court ruled the student’s former public school must pay for MBA’s tuition, another example that not all students were “rich kids.” The article does bring up some other valid points, but next time, do your homework.
This article, among many others that have been written, are tirelessly beating a dead horse. I am also an alumni of Mt. Bachelor Academy who resides in the Bend area, and I find these articles to be completely disrespectful of the hard work that I went through at the school not only just on my self, but with my family as well. Many students come into the school with a variety of “issues” as well as family dynamics. Many of the students from what I remember of my experience had severe issues with compulsive lying. It comes to no surprise to me that a resentful student would exaggerate an experience making it sound horrific to anyone who had not witnessed the experience themselves, in order to try to get “pulled” from the program. The “ex part-time employee” was a driver who did not see first hand any of the accusations that were made, and was eventually fired from the school due to lack of boundaries with students (would knowingly allow students to break rules that all staff were required to have students adhere to). Then after being fired, the clearly resentful ex employee, decided to get their spouse (who works for the Bend Bulletin) to write a tarnishing article on the school. Yes some of what was said about the school was true to some extent, however never did I EVER see a student come out of a “lifestep” with out a smile on their face, and feeling as though they were on an emotional high! Every staff member who I ever connected with was absolutely compassionate, and gave their lives to helping kids overcome negative behaviors. The staff members were often overworked( spending many overnights there in order to show up to an early shift the next day when they worked late the night before. They were under paid, often not making enough to compensate them for their degrees. The people who worked there would make the kids there apart of their lives, since it is often difficult to not take home the daily problems that came with the job. The staff members of MBA worked there because they wanted to be there, they wanted to help kids become successful adults by giving them tools they could use in real life to overcome tough situations. I also am aggravated about the slanderous comments that are being made about the school, since I too use MBA on my reference. My family in no way used MBA as an easy way to get rid of me as a “problem child”. My family used any and every possible solution in order to get me to become a part of the family, however nothing worked. Sending me to a therapeutic boarding school was the hardest and most devastating decision that my family ever had to make, and in the end it was the very best decision for my well being.
I do think this article has some valid points. But I can also understand the feelings of those who attended MBA and feel they benefited from it. To “apparently abused”: You are lucky that you had a good experience at MBA since from what I have read, many others didn’t. I have tried to read all I could find online about this situation, but you have information that I have not seen, especially about the ex part-time employee whose husband wrote the Bend Bulletin articles. That is interesting. I was wondering how you were able to find this out, and if I have missed some articles along the way. I also have not seen anywhere anything about the reasons why she was fired. I think you are the first with this news. How did you know this? Keep your good memories of your school, it is your memories that count for you. It is sad, though, that some kids do not have good memories.
The point that all of these supporters of MBA refuse to acknowledge is that the STATE found many things going on to be abusive. The definitions of abuse are in place so that a person can not simply say “oh sorry but I don’t find it abusive, so it’s not.” I left that school 17 years ago and still feel that many things that happened there are unacceptable in any situation. I have also seen the lasting damage that is still with many of my fellow classmates. If a person feels like they weren’t abused there, more power to you, but the state thinks you were and the students who feel they were abused have been vindicated.
“Yes some of what was said about the school was true to some extent, however never did I EVER see a student come out of a “lifestep” with out a smile on their face, and feeling as though they were on an emotional high!”
THIS IS NOT TRUE. EVERY LIFESTEP HAD ABOUT 15 KIDS. FOR EVERY LIFESTEP, AT LEAST ONE KID WAS NOT FEELING AN EMOTIONAL HIGH AND STUDENTS WOULD BE TOLD TO GIVE THIS KID SPACE, THAT THEY WERE DEALING WITH A “TOUGH LIFESTEP”.
A quick calculation: 125 students X $6,400 a month = $800,000 per month. If nothing else it was capitalism at it’s grubby best. Someone was making serious money, and it wasn’t the staff. I’ve been by the facility many times, it’s beautiful, but it would require a slight fraction of that 800K to maintain, good riddance.
I am so sad that DHS believed that Different constituted bad and imoral. Which is totally inaccurate. I am a alumni from the first original students. I was not a rich kid, I had a family that did everything to get me into the school as a last ditch effort to change my ways so I would not die. Everyone I knew had run out of other options, and were leading destructive lives and everything else tried had failed. I was in the group of first iriginating students, i spenta total of 3 years there 2 years in program and 1 year as an intern. I am blessed everyday with that experiance and because of it i am living a succesful life with 4 beautiful children, i life I would not have had if it wasnt for MBA. Lifesteps seem to be this big thing that was done to us. First of all it was not done to us, we were apart of a group that worked through issue and trama that happened in our lives. I know for me through some of the tools they used to help me get my mind back in the moment because most of us block out bad stuff, it got me to my feelings so I could deal with what happen. I agreee some thing are probvabl;y controversial. However no one was ever abused. Everyone saying how it should be closed where do they suggest these kids that have failed through other programs and traditional therapy go?? Do parents just give up, do they put them in group homes to babysit them and abuse them til they can be thrown out???? it like accupunture its definiltly not common and its kind of controversial but for some it cures them from disease. No one should judge the book by the cover and unless you have suffcient knowledge you should not be knocking the school. I must say how its ironic DHS can go after the school which the state was never really happy to have but cant go after the abuse that goes on daily in fister care, retiremenet homes, group homes. Someone had a personal vandeta, like one article i read from a well known source it was left out of the story that they were an ex student that had failed and been kicked out..
I never heard that Oregon had anything against MBA – if anything, I’m sure it helped the economy of Prineville and Mitchell with visiting parents and family.
People who overwhelmingly support the practices at MBA often claim there was no abuse, and that the school was unfairly targeted for its unconventional practices. They label advocates of the abuse findings as immature at best and liars at worst. While I think it must be acknowledged that many advocates of the abuse findings use similarly derogatory terms (for example, calling supporters of the school “brainwashed”), it is difficult for me to see the logic of MBA supporters’ claims:
1. They say the unconventional practices at MBA were ONLY that – unconventional, NOT abusive. Yet they provide no evidence – no evidence that loud music, sleep deprivation, or confrontational therapy is effective for teens. These therapies are unconventional for a reason: they have not been found to be effective. I personally am an advocate of unconventional practices – if we always just do what the experts say is safe, not only will we restrict innovation, but we will inhibit our own individual participation and commitment. However, such things should still be use appropriately – even if I think yelling at a child will do them some good, it still does not mean it is an appropriate therapy.
2. Another common claim is that people lied about what was happening at MBA, or that they had other personal reasons for persecuting the school. Initially, this is right; Of course our experiences at the school were personal! Of course we are all reacting personally to recent events! I don’t think it is unfair to question whether those “against” the school had personal vendettas, but I do know it is false to say that, because of that, the findings are erroneous. Truth does not depend on the speaker – it is the truth whether a liar or an honest man says it.
3. Finally, I have to admit one thing that gets me a bit angry: Some people say that it couldn’t have been abuse and students couldn’t have been that upset at the school, because THEY COULD HAVE LEFT ANY TIME. I agree that I don’t think staff would have restrained a student walking out the school and down the road. But that’s because they would have called the police, who would have picked the student up. I’m not saying they shouldn’t have done that – an unsupervised teenager may be in danger, and is certainly a liability for the school. I am just pointing out that it was as simple as “you can just walk out if you don’t like it.” Honestly, I don’t really need to go into all the reasons why that actually wasn’t the case. What is most important is that these students were, in fact, minors. They were NOT adults, they were NOT emancipated, and their parents could compel them to be wherever they liked. Even in the case of older students, who may have reached the age of majority, it was not a simple “you are free to go” situation. Students faced with that choice knew much more about what it really meant: for most, it meant no home to go back to, and it certainly meant no resources (we weren’t allowed to keep money at the school). What “you are free to go” really meant was that they could walk away from the school with nothing, and most of the time they were walking towards nothing – nowhere to go, and no way to get there. I suppose I would be pretty proud of myself if I’d had the guts to walk away anyway – perhaps I could have figured something out, found some extraordinarily generous people to help me. But I was not at the school because I was a capable, trusting, courageous child – I was hurting, sad, and confused.
Finally, I also want to address the concern that people who are glad MBA was closed want troubled teenagers to either be at home (sometimes an unacceptable situation) or in, basically, a lockdown facility. This is so completely untrue that I wonder at why someone would even suggest it – it calls to question the attributions they are making.
I hope I was clear – I’m a bit tired, and it’s late. Also I got a little worked up writing that, but tried not to write anything angry. Sometimes, when I do that, my tone is not uniform and it can be easy to read accusations into what I am writing. I do not write this to accuse or degrade anyone – I wrote it because I believe there are some questions that are being avoided, and some ideas that need to be questioned.
it makes me sick to read all these accounts from the kids who really got something out of mba. Its pathetic and truly disheartening to know that these people have been ‘brainwashed’ virtually beyond repair. I have eaten alot of lsd and have learned to appreciate a certain fluidity in my perspective as life changes, however, also, and largely due to my experiences at mba, have been confronted with the possibility that self deception is really possible. Now I’m not claiming that I have in fact fixed myself of all these problems but I do recognize what I feel to be the core issue in this hoax of ’emogroschoo”. The students are coerced into changing, this created a moral dilemma, which is destructive. This, in my opinion, is the whole reason these places should be shut down.
I attended this school for about 2 months before running away and hitching to Portland…best decision I ever made the school was PSYCHOTIC and encouraged the kids to lie, to break each others trust, and so much worse. Psychologically traumatizing experience and I am SO glad that I got away back in 1995, special thanks to that person who claimed to be an off duty officer of some kind for giving us a ride. I bet it was well known how demoralizing that school was.
i am an alumni of mt.bachelor academy. i can say that the lasting effects of the forced “emotional growth” has impacted my life in such a way that im surprised that im still alive. i am completely unable to trust others, and unable to share truth with others because of how judgmental people as a whole are. this was demonstrated again and again in lifesteps. i was called a beaner, wetback, etc… and it was considered therapy. i do wish to throw my full throated support to sharon bitz. i went through the forever young lifestep with her, both of us participants, and later she ran the la mancha lifestep and others for my peer group. her kindness and devotion touches me to this day, i dont believe that she would ever have allowed students to be put in harms way, physically or emotionally. although i strongly disaprove of the methods, of which my life is still reeling from the effects, sharon is a good leader, worthy of trust and benefit of doubt. for the record, my only real troubles started after i graduated from mba. things got out of hand from there. im not my “innerchild” anymore, and rubberman is the least of my worries. im not the weak shell i was when i was at mba anymore, im a different kind of animal now. to my peer group, whoevers left, we’ll always have rome.
If you think making a 15 year old boy dress up like a chippendale and pretend to be a stripper, right down to the skimpy underwear (given to him by the faculty) in front of 8 of his peers and two faculty is not abuse… fuck you. Imagine if your neighbor got you and 8 friends together, locked all of you in the basement and forced you be a stripper or give lap dances to each other… that neighbor would be in prison for a long time.
I attended this school – all of the allegations I have heard are undeniably true. Young girls were sexualized and forced to wear fishnet stockings and french maid costumes. After dancing and acting sexually towards their peers as they were coerced to do by the staff at this so called school, they were told what sluts they were, and how they needed to analyze their relationships with the opposite sex. Doing this to teenage rape survivors is especially egregious. Students were encouraged to enact abuse upon fellow students, unspeakable things were said to others in the name of “therapy,” although they were always careful not to use the word therapy, but instead called it all “group,” due to legal reasons. They were not trained therapists. They were random people who found themselves working in rural Oregon and calling themselves “coordinators,” or a variety of other titles. Of course, now many of them list “therapist” in their list of work experience, and I know for a fact that some continue to work with children to this day, which disturbs me greatly. What went on at this school was absolutely not OK and objectively immoral, the older I get the more sure I become of this conclusion. I’m sure many of the staff members convinced themselves of the ultimate morality of their actions, but the truth remains. Reread the first 2 sentences of this post and honestly tell me that was not morally wrong. It was really screwed up, and shame on any adult who convinced themselves that such actions were justified. They were wrong. You were wrong. Even if you had good intentions, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.