![]() | The examples and perspective in this article may not include all significant viewpoints .(September 2018) |
Allynwood Academy | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Location | |
![]() | |
, United States | |
Information | |
Type | Private High School |
Motto | Building Character. Changing Lives. |
Religious affiliation(s) | Interfaith |
Established | 1984 |
Enrollment | closed |
Student to teacher ratio | 4:1 |
Campus | 158 acres (0.64 km2) |
Color(s) | Blue and Gold |
Athletics | n/a |
Mascot | Falcon |
Website | allynwood |
Allynwood Academy, formerly the Family Foundation School, was a private, co-educational, college preparatory, therapeutic boarding school located in Hancock, New York. [1] The school was in operation from 1984 through 2014, when it closed due to declining enrollment amid a raft of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse allegations made by alumni in a grassroots "truth campaign." [2] [3] [4] At least ten lawsuits have been brought by former students since 2019, in which plaintiffs claimed that strip searches, hard labor, isolation rooms, physical restraint, and sexual assault were rampant at the school in the 1990s and 2000s. Three of the lawsuits were settled in October 2021 for undisclosed sums. [4] A front-page New York Times article in 2018 reported a pattern of at least one hundred deaths by overdose and suicide among alumni, the vast majority before age 40. [5]
The school was founded in the 1980s by Tony and Betty Argiros, who were recovering alcoholics following a twelve-step program. As a part of their own final step in the program, they took into their home young people who were recovering from substance abuse. They became foster parents to many of these adolescents and provided some with homeschooling education. After the number of foster children began to exceed the allowable limit for New York State, they sought and obtained legal status for their home as a licensed school. [6]
Over time, the school grew beyond the Argiros home into a campus that includes a main school building, boys' and girls' dormitories, a chapel, food service, laundry services, art and athletic facilities.
In 2000, the Argiros children assumed control over the day-to-day operations of the school. [7]
In October 2013, the Family Foundation School changed its name to "Allynwood Academy", which the school stated was due to a change in program structure.
Citing a decline in enrollment, the school closed at the end of the 2014–2015 academic year.
The Family Foundation School program was based upon three core goals: maximize academic potential; develop spiritually and emotionally through a 12-step program of recovery; grow and mature psychologically through the 12-Step program as well as group and individual therapies. Students at the school were divided into "families" of roughly 30 students and 6 staff members. The family groups ate together, during which time "Table Topics" served as an opportunity for the group to address any negative issues presented by individual students.
The school operated year-round, with two 25-week school terms, [8] and employed a residential behavior modification program that was chiefly based on the twelve-step approach. [8]
The school served high-school age (grades 9–12) children that had problems with various addictions (e.g. drugs, alcohol, food, sex, gambling or gaming) [9] and/or other psychological challenges. [10] Students were typically recommended for placement at the school by a social worker, school guidance counselor, or psychologist. [9]
The Bridge was a program added circa 2012–2013 for participants ages 18 to 20. [11]
The Family Foundation School was accredited as a school by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, [12] [13] the New York State Department of Education, [12] [14] and was accredited as a behavioral health care facility by the Joint Commission, [15] a private not-for profit quality assurance organization.
The school was a founding member of National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP) [16]
The Family Foundation School's extracurricular programs included sports teams, drama productions, musical programs, an art department and a wide variety of clubs. [9] Students also participated with members of the local community through religious associations, scouting, Rotary Club, Job Corps, the Sullivan County BOCES, and various other community service projects in the Hancock, NY area. [17]
The school's performing arts program presented full-scale musicals, drama productions, winter and spring choral concerts that were open to the public, [9] and was a regular participant in the North American Music Festivals. [8]
In 2004 and 2005, the school's debating team won the Seventh annual Delaware-Otsego Bar Associations Forensic Speech Tournament, a regional debating competition. [18]
The school soccer team won the championship in the New York State Class D, Section IX Conference in 2005. [19]
In 2009, the school's Math Team earned an honorable mention in the 2009 Moody's Mega Math Challenge, for their presentation examining the effect of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus program on employment in the United States. [20]
The Family Foundation School employed over three-dozen educational professionals, counsellors and support staff, and maintained a 4:1 student-teacher ratio. [8] [21] [22] About half of the school's faculty and staff members have been through a twelve-step recovery process. [6]
The school's English and Philosophy instructor and middle school principal, Jan Cheripko, is the author of nine books, [23] has won numerous national and international book awards and has been a featured speaker at the National Council of Teachers of English, the International Reading Association, and numerous other New York State and Northeastern U.S. regional education conferences. [24] He has also conducted graduate teaching accredited workshops on how to reach at-risk students through writing and literature. [25]
Family Foundation School alumnus Wells Thompson is a midfielder for the Colorado Rapids, [26] a Major League Soccer team in the United States. He began his professional soccer career with the New England Revolution, where he played from 2007 through 2009. [27] [28]
A Family Foundation School Alumni Association was established after the school held its first alumni reunion in September 2006. More than 125 former students from around the United States attended the reunion. [29]
The Family Foundation School was one of several residential programs for special-needs adolescents that were discussed in United States Congress Committee on Education and Labor hearings in 2007 and 2008, regarding a policy of using students to discipline other students, including chasing, capturing, and restraining runaways from the facility. [30] [31]
The school responded by declaring its support for the efforts of the committee to keep children safe from harm, adding that the school had since modified its crisis-management methods to meet the standards of both the New York State Department of Education and the Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI) program developed by Cornell University. The school also stated that since 1999, all school faculty and staff are required to be trained in Therapeutic Crisis Intervention techniques. [32] Following the April 24 hearing, several parents of former students, a former student, and a former staff member wrote to the committee in response to the negative testimony, providing positive reports of their own experiences with the Family Foundation School. [33]
Beginning in 2007, Community Alliance for the Ethical Treatment of Youth (CAFETY) conducted a campaign against the Family Foundation School. In October 2009, a local newspaper reported that CAFETY had sent a letter to residents of Delaware County, claiming abusive conditions at the school, including excerpts from former student testimonials. The letter directed residents to an anti-school website for more information about the alleged abusive conditions. Delaware County law enforcement, social services officials, and the school stated that the allegations in letter were based on past issues that had been corrected by the school. CAFETY disputes this claim, saying that its concerns about alleged abuse are based on written complaints by students who attended the school as recently as 2008. [17] CAFETY members have also taken part in rallies in other areas of the country, where experiences at the school were addressed. [34] Former students have stated that they were restrained with blankets and duct tape for hours at a time, and that some students were forced to eat everything on their plate, and would not be fed subsequent meals until they did so. [35]
Allegations of abuse prompted an unannounced inspection of the school in 2010 by several New York state agencies. [36] The inspectors reported that they had not found any "current instances of abuse or neglect," but they continued to have concern about reports provided by former students, several of whom gave accounts of "strikingly similar and troubling experiences". [37]
On July 31, 2014, citing financial challenges from declining enrollment, the school announced that it would be closing its doors eight days later. [3] An outpouring of support however, prompted the school to remain open for 15 students and minimal staff through the end of 2014, [35] while the remaining 70 employees and students were either laid off or asked to leave, respectively. [2] In addition to financial challenges, it has been suggested lingering accusations of abuse by school staff members played a role in the school's declining enrollment and eventual closure. [35]
The World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools was an organization based in Utah, in the United States. WWASPS was founded by Robert Lichfield and was incorporated in 1998. WWASPS stated that it was an umbrella organization of independent institutions for education and treatment of troubled teenagers. Many outside observers believe, however, that the WWASPS-affiliated institutions were actually owned through limited partnerships, many of which have used the same street address by WWASPS or its principal officials or their close relatives. WWASPS is connected to several affiliated for-profit companies. These include Teen Help LLC, the marketing arm of WWASPS and the entity that processes admissions paperwork; Teen Escort Service, a teen escort company that transports teenagers to WWASPS facilities; R&B Billing, which does tuition billing and payment processing; and Premier Educational Systems, LLC, which conducts orientation and training workshops for parents whose children are in WWASPS facilities. WWASPS claims to have "helped" over 10,000 students with issues related to personal behavior. Some participants and parents give positive reports of their experiences, but others say that WWASPS programs were abusive. WWASPS has faced widespread allegations of physical and psychological abuse of the teenagers sent into its programs, resulting in a lawsuit filed against the organization in 2006. WWASPS officials report that the organization is no longer in business, and the facilities originally under it no longer associate with the name, but because of ongoing litigation, it has not been dissolved.
A behavior modification facility is a residential educational and treatment institution enrolling adolescents who are perceived as displaying antisocial behavior, in an attempt to alter their conduct.
Mission Mountain School was a therapeutic boarding school for girls located in Condon, Missoula County, Montana. It operated from October 1, 1990, to August 16, 2008. On that date, the school graduated its last class and ceased operation, announcing that its founders would be on sabbatical.
Archmere Academy is a private Roman Catholic college preparatory school located in Claymont, Delaware, United States. 514 students were enrolled for the 2020–21 academic year. The academy is co-educational and is run independently within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wilmington.
St Gregory's College Campbelltown is an independent Roman Catholic single-sex and co-educational comprehensive and specialist primary and secondary day and boarding school, located in Gregory Hills, near Campbelltown, a south-western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. With specialist expertise as an agricultural school, St Gregory's College provides a co-educational environment for students in the Kindergarten to Year 6 primary school; and a boys-only environment for students in the Year 7 to Year 12 secondary schools.
Wilderness therapy, also known as outdoor behavioral healthcare, is a treatment option for behavioral disorders, substance abuse, and mental health issues in adolescents. Patients spend time living outdoors with peers. Reports of abuse, deaths, and lack of research into efficacy have led to controversy, and there is no solid proof of its effectiveness in treating such behavioral disorders, substance abuse, and mental health issues in adolescents.
Academy at Ivy Ridge was an independent privately owned and operated for-profit behavior modification facility in Ogdensburg, New York. It marketed itself as a boarding school. The 2024 Netflix documentary series The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping documented the conditions at the facility and the lasting impact it had on the people who attended it.
Aspen Education Group is an American company that provides controversial therapeutic interventions for adolescents and young adults, including wilderness therapy programs, residential treatment centers, therapeutic boarding schools, and weight loss programs, which have been accused of torture and abuse. Since November 2006, Aspen Education Group, with corporate offices located in Cerritos, California has been a division of Bain Capital's CRC Health.
The National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP) is a United States trade organization of therapeutic schools, residential treatment programs, wilderness programs, outdoor therapeutic programs, young adult programs, and home-based residential programs for adolescents and young adults with emotional and behavioral difficulties. It was formed in January 1999 by the founders of six programs within the "troubled teen industry," and its board of directors consists of program owners and educational consultants. As of 2021, all but one of those founding six programs have been shut down in the ensuing years for a variety of reasons, including child abuse, neglect, licensing violations, and successful class action lawsuits.
A residential treatment center (RTC), sometimes called a rehab, is a live-in health care facility providing therapy for substance use disorders, mental illness, or other behavioral problems. Residential treatment may be considered the "last-ditch" approach to treating abnormal psychology or psychopathology.
Élan School was an abusive behavior modification program and therapeutic boarding school in Poland, Androscoggin County, Maine, US. It was a full member of the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP) and was considered to be a part of the troubled teen industry. The facility was closed down on April 1, 2011, due to reports of abuse, many from former students, dating back to its opening in 1970.
The Thayer Learning Center or TLC was a military based, Christian boarding school boot camp for troubled teens in Kidder, Missouri from 2002 to 2009. The program enrolled over 100 students and costs run up to $4,000 a month. The program stated that it "... changes, reunites, and restores hope to families across the nation." There has been some controversy in past years. The center is one of many facilities for troubled teens listed on the watch list on the International Survivors Action Committee (ISAC).website. For more information on the ISAC allegations, see the ISAC website here..
The Community Alliance For the Ethical Treatment of Youth (CAFETY) is an advocacy group for people enrolled in residential treatment programs for at-risk teenagers. The group's mission includes advocating for access to advocates, due process, alternatives to aversive behavioral interventions, and alternatives to restraints and seclusion for young people in treatment programs. They have also called for the routine reporting of abuse in residential treatment programs, as well as federal government oversight and regulation of residential treatment programs.
CEDU Educational Services, Inc., known simply as CEDU, was a company founded in 1967 by Mel Wasserman and associated with the troubled teen industry. The company owned and operated several therapeutic boarding schools licensed as group homes, wilderness therapy programs, and behavior modification programs in California and Idaho. The company's schools have faced numerous allegations of abuse. CEDU went out of business in 2005, amid lawsuits and state regulatory crackdowns.
A therapeutic boarding school is a residential school offering therapy for students with emotional or behavioral issues. The National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs listed 140 schools and programs as of 2005. Many therapeutic boarding schools in the United States have been connected to the abusive troubled teen industry.
West Ridge Academy, is a youth residential treatment center based in West Jordan, Utah, USA. It seeks to provide clinical services, education, and other programs for teens, both girls and boys, that are identified as at-risk. Until 2005, the Utah Boys Ranch was male-only. In early 2005, it opened new, separate facilities for girls and changed its name to West Ridge Academy. It is a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation under the name Children and Youth Services, Inc. The academy states that it provides "quality clinical services, education, and experiences which promote spiritual awareness, personal accountability and change of heart." The facility has received criticism for past abusive practices toward residents, including facing lawsuits in 2008, 2010, and 2012 by former students. In 2016, the application to transition West Ridge Academy into a charter school, named Eagle Summit Academy, was approved by the Utah Board of Education after including caveats to keep public and private funding separate in the school's budgets and to ensure the safety of the new charter school's students.
Mount Bachelor Academy was an Oregon private co-educational therapeutic boarding school providing help to families of adolescents experiencing emotional and behavioral disorders including, minor Depressive Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Substance abuse, and ADHD as well as help for teenagers and families struggling with adoption issues. The typical student was between 14 and 18 years of age. The average length of stay was 14 to 16 months.
Elevations RTC is a residential treatment center in Syracuse, Utah, for teens ages 13–18. The facility was formerly known as Island View Residential Treatment Center until 2014, when it was acquired by Syracuse RTC, LLC, which does business as Elevations RTC. The Elevations campus is shared with Seven Stars and ViewPoint Center.
Shepherd's Hill Academy (SHA) is an accredited and licensed Christian therapeutic boarding school located in Martin, Georgia, United States, that provides year-round residential care and a private school for grades 7 through 12.
The troubled teen industry is a broad range of youth residential programs aimed at struggling teenagers. The term encompasses various facilities and programs, including youth residential treatment centers, wilderness programs, boot camps, and therapeutic boarding schools.
2009: Appeared in 25 regular season games, starting 17 and recording one goal and two assists…Overall, made 31 appearances, including SuperLiga and U.S. Open Cup.
2008: Made 19 regular-season appearances, including eight starts.
I really don't think I would be here if it wasn't for The Family School.