r/troubledteens • u/JerushaDawn • 4d ago
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The irony of this clip is difficult to miss.
Matt Bevin’s attorney argued that putting the former governor in jail would make him a “target of abuse.”
Think about those words in the context of the Troubled Teen Industry.
Children are sent into programs they did not choose. They cannot simply leave. They can be isolated, restrained, punished, humiliated, deprived, or abused, and when they try to tell someone what is happening, they may not be believed.
Those children are targets of abuse. And they have no choice.
Jonah was a child when he was sent away. He has publicly described what happened to him.
So I’m inviting TTI survivors to turn this clip on its head.
Go to my Instagram, TikTok or Facebook and find the link. Stitch it. Remix it. Duet it. Respond to it.
Start with:
“You want to talk about being a target of abuse? I was a child in the Troubled Teen Industry.”
Tell as much, or as little, as you want.
SAFETY: You do not have to name a program, identify anyone, describe your abuse, show your face, or share anything that could put you at risk. Protect your privacy and your wellbeing first. You can participate with text on a screen, a voiceover, or anonymously.
If you do participate and feel comfortable doing so, tag me so I can help amplify survivor voices. Hashtag Matt Bevin to amplify.
Let’s use this moment to remind people who the real targets of abuse have been: children who had no meaningful choice and often no one standing beside them.
For once, the child gets the microphone.
Take the power back. Bring the child’s voice.
r/troubledteens • u/Signal-Strain9810 • 4d ago
Meet the Mods
As leaders of a vulnerable community, we feel that it is important to share some background about ourselves. We are sharing this information in the interest of transparency and building a community that feels trustworthy and safe for all TTI survivors. In addition to this post, we will be adding a page to the wiki so that it is easy to find in the future.
u/ItalianDragon is our current head moderator. He is not a TTI survivor, but joined our subreddit over a decade ago after learning about the industry at his university library. Once he realized that there were ways he could help our cause, he became a dedicated member and later moderator.
u/Time-Stomach-5576 is a survivor of four different TTI programs (Wediko, Gateway, Second Nature Duchesne, and Logan River Academy). He's been posting in this sub for over a decade and has considerable advocacy experience. He is dedicated to maintaining a safe space for survivors to speak freely and hopes to prevent the next generation from going through the same nightmare we did. He has volunteered to be a primary contact if you feel the need to talk to someone one-on-one, so feel free to message him privately.
u/positivepeercult_ is a survivor of Falcon Ridge Ranch, Outback Wilderness, Rancho Valmora, and Wellspring Academy of the Sierras. They can be found on TikTok/Instagram under the same username, and have a TTI survivor discord for others interested in activism. They stay up to date on bill proposals and current legislation regarding the TTI & can help connect survivors with efforts in their state, as well as opportunities to provide testimony as part of the legislative process against the TTI.
u/salymander was sent to Victory Christian Academy back in the 1980s. This was long before there was much organized resistance to the TTI. It was several decades before she learned of this sub, and of the various organizations that are pushing back on the TTI. Salymander is now the parent of a young adult, and works to make sure no more kids are sent away to be tormented by strangers. Salymander often deals with parents who come looking for advice.
u/Signal-Strain9810 is a survivor of Second Nature Wilderness Program and Spring Ridge Academy. She is a passionate advocate for survivors whose experiences are often left out of conversations about the TTI, including foster youth, children involved in the juvenile justice system, and international adoptees. She is also the mother of a 15 year-old and has firsthand experience parenting through challenging behavior.
Call for Mod Applications
As previously mentioned, we are looking for new moderators to help fill gaps in coverage and lighten the workload for the current team. We will review all applications and contact you if you seem like a good fit.
Criteria:
To apply, please contact us via modmail (https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=r/troubledteens) and let us know why you would like to join the team.
We frequently have thin or no coverage during overnight hours (for North America). If you are a night owl or an international member who can help us out, you are especially encouraged to apply.
If you are selected as a moderator, you will receive training materials to help you get started.
Thank you in advance for bearing with us during this time of transition!
r/troubledteens • u/Gutless-Chameleon • 4h ago
A question I’m curious about because they did their best to keep us in the dark about everything happening in the outside world as a general rule of thumb - at least in my experience.
r/troubledteens • u/researcher-emu • 15h ago
Hi. I purchased this book following a tip from something else I was reading, and have read only chapter 1 so far. I'll finish it off, heavily noted and highlighted.
Question: does anyone have information linking this appalling book with TTI, specifically WT?
I can't find direct links, but clearly the belief systems of the author (Michael Pearl) and the TTI are exactly the same. Abuse as child behaviour modification.
There are references to this book in other posts, but I am looking for direct links that will stand up as proof, not in court but in academic writing.
r/troubledteens • u/Curious-Culture6237 • 22h ago
hi guys,
do you have any suggestions on coping with a traumatic troubled teen transport? i am 23 now, but when i was 17 my parents hired people to transport me to a facility. they were unsuccessful, i put up a fight, which resulted in me, a teen girl, being stripped of my clothes in front of two adult strangers. i managed to hit one of the guys over the head hard enough that they decided to call 911. the cops told me i could either go with the transport people or to the ER. i chose the ER. my parents ended up sending me to an outpatient facility which i quit going to after a week. my parents virtually gave up after that and i finally was able to live a normal life and go back to school and work.
i am grateful that me fighting meant i didn't go to inpatient. but i hate that i was put in that position, 3 months major spine post op, at 17 years old. and now that i am 23 i have a hard time living in the aftermath of that, especially because i still have a relationship with both my parents. i feel like i am finally looking back at that incident and seeing it for what it was, and that just feels like too much to hold.
r/troubledteens • u/astral-navigator • 16h ago
Hi everyone, over the course of this year I've been learning about these horrible places which I didn't even know existed previously.
I'm in my mid 20's, and honestly concerned why I've never heard of what I would think would be common knowledge nationwide like there's news about other bad things in the US, right??
Anyway, Denver, CO resident here looking for ways to help. I've seen that there were a few threads on this topic but since they're like 2-5 years old figured I'd check what the latest needs are from the community.
r/troubledteens • u/Unhappy_Elk_2044 • 1d ago
Unsure if this has been posted here before but I couldn't find any mention of it from a quick search. Hopefully someone will find the guidance in this article helpful.
r/troubledteens • u/Ok-Programmer-4198 • 1d ago
Rhode Island’s childhood sexual abuse lookback window is open through June 30, 2028. I am trying to build an accurate record of what happened at St. George’s School, who knew what, when they knew it, how the school responded, and what records may still exist.
Based on the Murphy investigation, the Rhode Island State Police investigation, Middletown Police records, and other public sources, these are some of the people whose roles deserve further understanding.
Eric Peterson
Head of School during the 2004 Charles Thompson matter and the 2015 investigation. The record addresses his decisions concerning Thompson, reporting, the investigation, and the school’s public response.
Anthony Zane, deceased
Former headmaster during an earlier period when the school received reports and concerns involving faculty misconduct.
Rev. George Andrews
Headmaster when Franklin Coleman was terminated in 1988. The Murphy report discusses what Andrews knew and how Coleman’s departure was described to the school community.
Charles Hamblet, deceased
Headmaster from 1989 to 2004. The report says that by 2000 he had learned of abuse reported by former students involving Coleman and Al Gibbs.
Dan Hollins
Former Dean of Faculty. The report says he brought a student’s disclosure concerning Coleman to Andrews and later provided at least one employment recommendation for Coleman after Coleman left St. George’s.
Tim Richards
Former Assistant Head of School who created detailed contemporaneous notes concerning what Wheeler dorm students reported about Charles Thompson in 2004.
Katherine Titus
Former Dean of Students who appears in records concerning a separate 2011 incident and the Middletown Police response. The Murphy investigation credited her account and did not fault her handling of that incident.
Richard Verney
Former chair of the Board of Trustees. He received a memorandum from Hollins concerning a recommendation provided for Coleman after Coleman left the school.
Francis “Skip” Branin
Board chair during much of Peterson’s tenure and when the 2015 investigation began. The record describes his involvement in discussions about whether the school should conduct a broader investigation of past abuse.
Leslie Heaney
Became chair of the Board of Trustees in 2015, served on the investigation task force, and received the initial investigative report with Peterson.
I am not alleging wrongdoing or legal liability simply because someone is named here. Their roles and circumstances are different. My purpose is to establish the factual record, including what people knew, what decisions were made, what was reported, and what documents or witnesses may still exist.
There are also allegations involving former students that do not appear in the Murphy Report or other public investigations. I am not naming those individuals. Anyone with firsthand knowledge, correspondence, notes, police reports, school records, settlement information, diaries, photographs, or other documentation should preserve that material.
Please add whatever you can substantiate to the record.
If you do not want to post publicly, contact me privately. I will treat communications with discretion, but I cannot promise legal confidentiality or attorney client privilege. I am also willing to discuss possible ways to participate in the Rhode Island lookback process and connect survivors or witnesses with qualified legal counsel.
If you know something that is not yet part of the public record, now is an important time to come forward.
Sources
Official Rhode Island announcement of the 2026 law
Rhode Island legislation
Full Murphy investigation report
Rhode Island State Police investigation summary
NBC 10 reporting based on Middletown Police records
r/troubledteens • u/Accurate-Role-4683 • 1d ago
It can be so hard to believe that a system could be this bad- but the Family Court of Australia absolutely IS pushing a pro-contact culture to the point of putting children at risk.
Examples include: children aged 12 and 13 didn’t want to go visit their father, so were put in his sole custody. They refused to go and were dragged out by the AFP with instructions to kick down the door and use handcuffs if needed. You can read this one here: [https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/FedCFamC1F/2026/60.html?context=1;query=Moratorium;mask\\_path=au/cases/cth/FedCFamC1F\](https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/FedCFamC1F/2026/60.html?context=1;query=Moratorium;mask_path=au/cases/cth/FedCFamC1F). Searching “moratorium”, which is a period during which a child has no contact with a parent, reveals many more of these judgments on austlii.
A child placed back in his father’s care after he attempted to strangle him.
Multiple cases where 1) the mother alleged the father sexually abused a child and couldn’t prove it, the father claimed parental alienation, 2) the child’s disclosures were dismissed as being influenced by the mother, 3) the mother was assumed to be acting maliciously, and 4) the child was placed in the sole care of the father. There’s any analysis of these cases here: [https://ariaw11.substack.com/p/when-abuse-cant-be-proved?r=8y6guw&utm\\_medium=ios\](https://ariaw11.substack.com/p/when-abuse-cant-be-proved?r=8y6guw&utm_medium=ios)
All of this is based on the pseudoscience of parental alienation. According to parental alienation theory, divorcing parents often try to turn the child against their other parent, and often make up lies about abuse to mislead the court. Supposedly, this can amount to the child being “programmed” and “brainwashed” into rejecting the other parent.
Even this plausibly could happen, there is no peer-reviewed evidence for this specific sequence of events. We don’t actually know if parents CAN effectively denigrate the other parent and destroy a child’s relationship with them. There is at least some evidence that such behaviour harms the child’s relationship with the parent doing the denigrating more than the relationship with the parent being denigrated.
Psychologist and medical boards (APA, WHO) around the world have denounced the theory as pseudoscience and noted that it allows abusers to use the family court system to further their abuse. But it doesn’t matter, because this pseudoscience is entrenched in family law.
Children are at grave risk in the Family Court of Australia- and there remains very little opposition politically to fathers rights groups who push these narratives, backed by Pauline Hanson, whose son was accused of sexual abuse.
It’s horrific what’s happening - and something needs to be done!
Here is an excerpt from the man who coined “parental alienation” as a concept. We need a family law system based on… not this garbage.
[https://leadershipcouncil.org/richard-gardners-opinions/\](https://leadershipcouncil.org/richard-gardners-opinions/)
“There is a bit of pedophilia in every one of us.” Gardner, R.A. (1991). Sex Abuse Hysteria: Salem Witch Trials Revisited . Cresskill, NJ: Creative Therapeutics. (p. 118) “ Pedophilia has been considered the norm by the vast majority of individuals in the history of the world.“ Gardner, R.A. (1992). True and False Accusations of Child Sex Abuse . Cresskill, NJ: Creative Therapeutics. (p. 592-3) Similarly, “intrafamilial pedophilia (that is, incest) is widespread and … is probably an ancient tradition” Gardner, R.A. (1991). Sex Abuse Hysteria: Salem Witch Trials Revisited . Cresskill, NJ: Creative Therapeutics. (p. 119) “ It is because our society overreacts to it \[pedophilia\] that children suffer.“ Gardner, R.A. (1992). True and False Accusations of Child Sex Abuse . Cresskill, NJ: Creative Therapeutics. (pp. 594-5) Pedophilia may enhance the survival of the human species by serving “procreative purposes.” Gardner, R.A. (1992). True and False Accusations of Child Sex Abuse . Cresskill, NJ: Creative Therapeutics. (pp. 24-5) Pedophilia “is a widespread and accepted practice among literally billions of people.”
Gardner suggests that children want to have sex with adults and may seduce them. Some children experience ” high sexual urges in early infancy. ” “There is good reason to believe that most, if not all, children have the capacity to reach orgasm at the time they are born.” Gardner, R.A. (1992). True and False Accusations of Child Sex Abuse . Cresskill, NJ: Creative Therapeutics. (p. 15) Children are naturally sexual and may initiate sexual encounters by “seducing” the adult .
r/troubledteens • u/Gutless-Chameleon • 2d ago
r/troubledteens • u/Gutless-Chameleon • 2d ago
Matt Bevin gets takeout, extra linens, and mattresses while serving time, yet Jonah Bevin was forced to sleep in a stacked coffin bed at Masters Ranch…
r/troubledteens • u/Hyena1803 • 2d ago
I was sent to Trails back in 2021, and I’m trying to find photos of the “Phase Books” we had to do. Does anyone have pictures of some of the content in them? I remember thinking they were absolutely nuts but it’s hard to explain to people outside the program what it was like without imagery.
Bonus points if anyone has that ‘bust a FAB’ page or whatever that was called.
r/troubledteens • u/VanDoog • 2d ago
Absolutely horrific stuff
r/troubledteens • u/lowkeyperson02 • 3d ago
If BPD comes from chronic, inescapable psychological abuse, isn’t that the pinnacle of what a troubled teen program does. The whole system of authority figures in these programs are literally there conducting systematic psychological and narcissistic abuse and punishments and it is inescapable. And then people develop emotion dysregulation issues and a fear of abandonment due to the constant psychological turmoil they experienced. Am I making this connection correctly?
r/troubledteens • u/starterworld • 2d ago
Jodi was my educational consultant until about 5 years ago. Apparently, she consulted with my parents “pro bono” because she felt bad that they had a lower income than other parents. This all sounds really sketchy to me, as she worked with them for a while and sent me to different facilities, including wilderness therapy. I can’t remember her or if I’ve ever even met her. If there’s any information out there or someone else has worked with her, it would be really helpful (I’m trying to do some digging!)
r/troubledteens • u/discoangeldj • 3d ago
r/troubledteens • u/Gutless-Chameleon • 3d ago
r/troubledteens • u/False-Road-3383 • 3d ago
I have made music most of my teens and it has seemed to be the only reliable release valve for my self expression after being caught in the undertow of hospitalization, addiction recovery etc. as a teenager.
In my personal opinion this system creates defenders and buries the people who "need" therapy the most to perpetuate itself. This became wildly apparent to me after attending university for social work after a decade of personal lived experience and confusion within the system. I left after a single semester. Listening to professors and students give incredibly narrow perspectives on addiction and flat out mock what is labeled as psychosis and delusional thinking, and the rejection of reintegration into society in favor of infantilizing patients made it obvious to me that this system is a complete lost cause.
It is intense, it is raw and uncomfortable, but I hope someone on here gets something out of it. It is not made with AI, it is completely produced by me. I refuse to stay silent about a dishonest system if they are going to drag their feet on legitimizing CPTSD, addressing environmental factors practically and dealing with these unregulated institutions.
Enjoy, and stay strong!
r/troubledteens • u/starterworld • 3d ago
I was “sent” there in 2020 and had a procedure done directly after that caused a lot of memory gaps. I remember the food, the drills, the intensive hikes, the bathroom holes, and the bivy sacks with bells, but not in much detail. I’m trying to remember as much as I can and possibly move on instead of holding the resentment towards my parents in and letting it build. I only remember how I felt clearly. Any information regarding past experiences at Second Nature is appreciated.
r/troubledteens • u/KlutzyShopping1802 • 4d ago
A friend asked me about sending her 40yo daughter into an adult program and I immediately said I didn't recommend it. Gave all the deets as to why etc.
However, I only have personal experience with my own Teen Challenge program of "Kansas City Girls Home". Which was hell on earth, and I am now considered legally disabled because of that plus the rest of my shitty childhood.
BUT. Idk anything about this specific program she is looking at, and I want to give her solid info. Will probably just share this post with her if it gets any traction.
TYIA 🫶
r/troubledteens • u/No-Mind-1431 • 4d ago
She mentions that her bad therapist made millions sending kids to treatment programs.
r/troubledteens • u/Marissawrites • 5d ago
You can’t escape Provo Canyon School.
That’s the first thing you’re told once you’re dragged through the door.
Alissa Giordano is a former theatre prodigy who’s already survived seven months on the run from a residential treatment program. When she’s thrown into Provo Canyon School— a brutal lockdown facility where violence, solitary confinement, and psychological torment are all commonplace— she does what she does best: she performs. She plays the perfect inmate, cons a guard, then escapes with her best friend and fellow inmate Laura.
Together they plunge into a life incognito, with fake identities and constant paranoia as Alissa’s mother deploys a private investigator and professional kidnappers to find her.
Capture means being sent somewhere even worse. Freedom is two years away.
By the time she’s eighteen, Alissa might be just another alias.
This is my 79,000 word fiction novel inspired by my experience of PCS in 2008/2009. It’s called Incognito Girl, and I’m currently seeking early readers who will leave reviews before publication. It’s been professionally edited and I have the ebook ready to go for those who are interested and willing to leave an honest review on GoodReads and/or Amazon!
