Wow - Sounds exactly like Introduction to the Landmark Forum. Good for you for keeping your wits about you and getting out. Those poor kids. Fortunately, people are taking action against these types of prisons, for lack of a better word. Some of the schools are being closed down.

Thanks for telling your story here.

Hope

I remember DeSisto. I once lived in Great Barrington, a nest of filthy cults. The DeSisto School was operating there because that town was probably one of the most abuse-friendly and cult-friendly places in America.

Our children as well as some teachers were attacked by the feminist cult that operates in that area (as well as others). You can read about that in the book "Who Stole Feminism?" by Christina Hoff Sommers. She describes the mob attacks on a mathmatics and a political-science professor at Simon's Rock College.

[www.amazon.com]

I was a receptionist at that college at the time. Children in the middle school were also being attacked by mobs of other children, and one of them leading the little mobs was the daughter of a group leader in the feminist cult. Imitating what she saw her parents and the other adults practicing. Hoff doesn't write about that part, but her description of what the adults were doing is chilling.

There was a whole population of adults in that town who came in with the DeSisto School, the Waldorf School, and some others who promoted cult politics into everyone's lives.

Everyone should expose the DeSisto School and expand the exposure, please! Thank you SOOO much for opening this thread!

James Bernardo was murdered in the middle of that child-abuse cult madness. His killer, Lewis Lent, was not connected to any school and he lived in North Adams, but was certainly able to hide because of so many child-abuse activities going on, some of which definitely involved the Great Barrington Police Department. Bernardo's grandparents lived near Great Barriington and his father worked in Great Barrington and he often spent time with other children his age in Great Barrington, and all of them were terrified of stalkers, before the word was even common. We had an informal parents' watch group set up to protect our children and we knew something terrible was going on and the police were protecting the abusers. Many of the abusers worked at those schools and had the protection of people like DeSisto. The child-porn rings fed off the foster care system there, too. It became obvious during the six years between Bernardo's murder and Lent's arrest that certain police were more concerned about protecting the rings than about finding a killer. A few police had to defy their bosses in city hall in order to get the job done, as far as it got done.

[www.nytimes.com]

The cults of Berkshire County are a subject all their own. DeSisto is certainly one of the main culprits.

(Stockbridge and Great Barrington are next door to each other. All those little towns in Berkshire County had common populations and employment patterns.)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/07/2010 11:03PM by dsm.

"I worked with some of the therapists at previous social service and government agencies (clinical staff was remarkable) Please if there is anything i can do to help please feel free to ask me anything."

I wonder if the staff were "tipped off" to you since some therapists knew who you were. They may have told the fat man that you were a state investigator and he may have hidden things from you.
You also said that the staff had a 1-1 ratio and they checked the kids rooms before bed. I never saw that but it could have changed after I left in 86.
Cheers,
Dave

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I was a student at DeSisto in Howey, FL from '85-'87; it was a very painful part of my life. So much so, that at the age of 42 I am still googling DeSisto which brought me to this site. I incurred many traumatizing experiences there, memories I cannot forget. I was not a bad teen, just misunderstood. My belief is that DeSisto brainwashed parents and definitely imposed cult-like practices. I am a parent of 2 incredible sons, and I would never put my children through what I went through. My parents have never apologized for not being there for me when I really needed them most; they refuse to even talk about my years there.

It amazes me that people from the 'outside' did not question the practices of the school, and actually doubt the accounts of the students that actually lived through this experience. The bond shared with the former students of DeSisto are incredible, and the negative effects of our experiences at this school are lifelong.

This is total insane bullshit
I went to DeSisto in Fla for about a year around 1979 and it was unusual but amazing and saved my life.
They never turned us away from our parents and I am dear friends with many of the people I met there and we all feel it saved our lives even 40 years later.
We loved most of it and feel it was what we needed to get the structure to become adults that succeeded in life.