Hi everybody...I'm new here, and am very happy to have found a place where people recognize how terrible cults are. I used to attend a so-called "Thereputic-Boarding School" named The DeSisto School. And yes- it was a cult. One of the main underlying catches of this terrible place was to receive thousands of dollars from "tricked" parents of abused children from this cult of a school. They lied to the general-public, by advertising this place to be a thereputic-environment for troubled teens....then once the child is enrolled, their contact with their parents/ families gets totally cut off, their basic needs are not met in numerous countless ways, kids were put in corners for months on end for doing things as small as picking at their fingers-not a way to abusively "discipline" a child....to say the least. Kids were molested by the staff. The kids were forced to feel unnecessary guilt, by having to write down ALL of their "guilty" feelings/ and or actions, and if they did not do so, you were forced to sit facing a wall for hours, days on end, then to loose your clothes, your food, water, dignity, sanity, etc........Well, I could go on and on but I've only started. Some of the other main cult aspects and qualities were, that we were brainwashed to believe that our parents were "bad"..(I never figured that one out), there was a "weird" slang or language there that was totally cult-like, The man that ran the place thought he was "god-like"; and had an unusual interest in little boys...he was very "separate" from society as a whole- from legal disputes, to literally controlling the staff & students into doing things that to say the least are not normal. Whenever I questioned why things were the way they were, I was cursed and yelled at by the students, as if they were afraid that they would not be "loyal" out of fear to the dominators, that something very bad would happen to them if they did not obey the "bizarre" rules & standards. Well, now I am 23 years old, and had to be literally de-programed after leaving the place of 5 years. I am in private therapy now, and suffer from flash-backs, post traumatic stress disorder, depression, and severe low self-esteem. If anyone has had an experience like me, I'd love to here from you...thank-you for your time.

Hi Midnight,

I was very moved by your story :cry:

Never experienced anything like that myself but it sounds absolutely evil. So I googled and found this

[www.isaccorp.org]
[i:e975f79786]
DeSisto School

The DeSisto School had been operating in Massachusetts, but closed after an investigation into allegations of child abuse.

The school transferred many students to a sister-school in Mexico.

News reports indicated that the school was trying to reopen in Vermont.[/i:e975f79786]
--
And there is a loooot of discussion of it here with several people recounting similar experiences to you

:cry:

[fornits.com] some of them mention they might try to get some legal redress against the school.

Thank-You, kath for your kindness & thoughtfullness. Its nice to come across a person that actually knows about places such as this to communicate with in an eye-to-eye level. I too have been on the (ISAC) site and thankyou for posting what it said there here, because I want as many people to know about this terreble place as possible. I also appreciate the other site, and I glanced at it.....and saw all those people that either attended the school, or had some other tie with it- then it startled me in a painfull manner, and brought back some creepy memories, but don't worry because I needed to read that and face reality...... I'm willing to do anything that will help me to heal from the past, including faceing it....Thank-You once again for your time & consideration...... :wink:

Here is another link about what should be called, the troubled parent industry.

[fornits.com]

There are frightening accounts from students sent forcibly to these treatment centers. The topic came up here on Cult Education after Dr. Phil sent a child to one of these centers. The girl ran away from it and, of course, Dr. Phil has provided no followup info on what happened. With a little research, a link was found between LGATS and the methodology in these centers. It turns out that Dr. Phil sends kids to these centers on a regular basis and contracts with an escort service to get them there. Wouldn't be surprised if he has a financial interest in Aspen Education.

If you do a search in the Large Group Awareness Training forum, there is a thread entitled Troubled Teen Industry.

With my work in a mentoring program for abused children, this topic is chilling because the kids in my program are prime candidates for being sent to these centers. I did not realize just how many programs there are out there like yours.

[fornits.com]

Quote
MidnightSoul
Hi everybody...I'm new here, and am very happy to have found a place where people recognize how terrible cults are. I used to attend a so-called "Thereputic-Boarding School" named The DeSisto School. And yes- it was a cult. One of the main underlying catches of this terrible place was to receive thousands of dollars from "tricked" parents of abused children from this cult of a school. They lied to the general-public, by advertising this place to be a thereputic-environment for troubled teens....then once the child is enrolled, their contact with their parents/ families gets totally cut off, their basic needs are not met in numerous countless ways, kids were put in corners for months on end for doing things as small as picking at their fingers-not a way to abusively "discipline" a child....to say the least. Kids were molested by the staff. The kids were forced to feel unnecessary guilt, by having to write down ALL of their "guilty" feelings/ and or actions, and if they did not do so, you were forced to sit facing a wall for hours, days on end, then to loose your clothes, your food, water, dignity, sanity, etc........Well, I could go on and on but I've only started. Some of the other main cult aspects and qualities were, that we were brainwashed to believe that our parents were "bad"..(I never figured that one out), there was a "weird" slang or language there that was totally cult-like, The man that ran the place thought he was "god-like"; and had an unusual interest in little boys...he was very "separate" from society as a whole- from legal disputes, to literally controlling the staff & students into doing things that to say the least are not normal. Whenever I questioned why things were the way they were, I was cursed and yelled at by the students, as if they were afraid that they would not be "loyal" out of fear to the dominators, that something very bad would happen to them if they did not obey the "bizarre" rules & standards. Well, now I am 23 years old, and had to be literally de-programed after leaving the place of 5 years. I am in private therapy now, and suffer from flash-backs, post traumatic stress disorder, depression, and severe low self-esteem. If anyone has had an experience like me, I'd love to here from you...thank-you for your time.

heres some links. I went there from 98-99, you might know me


[www.bridges4kids.org]

[www.teenliberty.org]


it was a cult that employed numerous brainwashing techniques, scammed literally countless MILLIONS A YEAR (an accountant friend has their financial records), and was ultimately shut down by the state for human rights violations.

Thank-You cren...BTY, are you Crenshaw? I'm Jessica H......If you are Crenshaw, aren't you still in the DeSisto group on MySpace?....-Just curious...I was wondering because, I know that many people don't like me from the school, & I get short of scarred whenever I come across them. I didn't know you even knew about this sight....Well anyways, thankyou for your kindness acknowledgment....take care...

There is a very cool group that you can join full of members of DeSisto from all years. It's at MSN Groups.com. You have to apply to join but it's free and you won't get spammed. There are people there from the 80's through until the school closed.
There was a reunion of us inmates in NYC on Cynco de Mayo this year. I went on campus and took some pix. It's rotting, if that makes you feel better :)
I hope you read this. I see you posted this in Feb...
Cheers,
Dave G (Stockbridge 80-86 (Lifer?))

my name is tim(not really). I worked at desisto school for 6months as a staffperson can a private investigator for the commenwealth of mass. The school did have problems yes. It is my professional opinion that the is no underlying cult activity. Yes some of the staff were excentric and odd. but all and all the school was behind code, just started to offer CPi training, and had many non-saftey related Health and human services codes to come up to date to. The educational system there was excellent. All of the students needs were met. There were isolated incidents only in the recent. If anyone can prove to me otherwise of the toture chamber and cult activities please write back. I would be interested in hearing more from the past students

The education sucked! I spent as much time working (doing hours) as I did when I was in "school". Therapy came first. That was OK but it did interfere with school. I wouldn't call the place a cult. AMD acted like he thought he was some sort of Guru (Mostly dressed like one more than anything).
"Tim", When were you there? Your post is unclear... were you an investigator for the state working undercover or what?
The academics sucked. Plain and simple. I am not sure if every teacher there even had the credentials to teach what they were teaching. I am in no way saying the faculty didn't care. Most of them were excellent and very caring (Very young). We thought they were so old and had all the answers until we reached and surpassed their age and realized that 22 isn't very old :).
Cheers,
Dave G