Troubled Teen Years

[phoenixx]

Most of you are aware I was a rowdy, rebellious, Punk/Sk8 teenager. Some are aware I was frequently in trouble with my parents, my teachers and with the law. A handful are aware that honey and I were considered "troubled", "bored", "gifted" and a thousand other labels. A very few are aware my honey was the same kind of kid and that we met during high school. Not many are aware the high school was a "therapeutic reform school" and we there on court orders from our respective states. It was not the first time I was forcibly "sent" somewhere, but it was the last.

When we were there, the school was a lot harsher than is described in the book written by a fellow grad who came a few years after us. State authorities visited it once and made them tone down the punishment, sleep deprivation tactics, food withholding, isolation and other things that went on. Apparently, though it was technically "easier' to "do your time" there after we left, it wasn't any less weird and traumatic.

Support Allison Weaver (the author) a fellow grad of the school, and learn what damage honey and I had to undo later in life if you're curious: Gone To the Crazies

The school was a truly weird and freaky place, where some very scary stuff happened until they shut it down in 2004. I give it credit for only two good things in my life: a renewed focus on my studies that bumped my GPA from a .25 to a 4.0 and got me into college, where I earned two degrees; and honey, whom I would not have met without going there.

[frazzledspice]

This sounds as if it would be a good book for teens to read.

My daughter has a friend who is in juvie right now (the juvenile detention center.) This is the first time that she's ever been friends with someone who wound up there. I am wondering if it might be good for her to go and visit...

To make a long story short, her friend has really strict parents (dad and stepmom.) Her mom was heavily into alcohol and drugs and is currently in jail. Well, this little girl, who looks like a little doll, is, on the surface, really functional. My daughter became friends with her when she played Lady Macbeth and my daughter played Hero in 'Much Ado' in the school Shakespeare festival. The girl takes challenging courses and gets good grades...

But underneath, she was a mess. Her boyfriend was a high school dropout with a DWI for alcohol and drugs (but he's "beautiful," my daughter said......) She tried to drink and smoke pot whenever she had a chance. Because my daughter was older, she frequently begged her to pick her up and be her cover, and she frequently wanted to meet her bf at our house for her rendezvous...

"She's like my little sister," my daughter said. "I'm trying to get her to straighten out so that she doesn't go through some of the hard things I've had to go through (i.e. a hard breakup with a boy who was "beautiful.")

Well, when parents discovered what she was up to, they took away her cell phone, locked her in her room, and wouldn't even let her go to orchestra practice.....so she ran away from home, and when the police found her they told her she either had to go home or go to juvie. And she picked juvie....

Now I had just written a human interest piece about a volunteer at juvie who, on a visit one day, met the boy who robbed her house Christmas day and forgave him and continued to volunteer....

Even though it was juvie, I don't think my daughter would last a day there.....no makeup? No Chi's? Baggy black and white striped clothes? Stuck in a cell?

And I am wondering how this girl is doing....and I think her parents' strictness is driving her rebellion, but don't know, at this point, whether foster care would be better for her.

Is running away from home when you're 15 a crime?

I am going to check out the book. Thanks.

[theworm[$]]

I knew most of your "story", but not that the school was such a horrific place. You done good! thanks for the info about the book.