If "Tim" is a state investigator, he should produce some credentials - his real name, and the contact information for the office he works for. I think his posts are very suspicious. He appears to be defending the program and he has way too much information about the razor blade incident. Unless he proves who he is, assume he's working for the school, trying to track down people who can make statements against it so as to be able to discredit them. A real investigator would know that this is a possibility and won't be insulted.

HELL I WENT TO THE DESISTO SCHOOL, I WAS THERE FROM 98-2000 I THINK OR 2001 I RAN AWAY AND THEN MY PARENTS GOT TOLD TO LEAVE CASE THEY WERE NOT DOING ANY THING IN THE PARENT MEETINGS.
I HAD A HARD TIME AT DESISTO I NEVER HAD SO MUCH ANGER TILL I WAS THERE. MY FIRST 1 AND HALF WAS HELL THEN I GOT REAL CLOSE TO A FEW STAFF MEMBERS. BUT BESIDES THEM THE SCHOOL SUCKED. I FEEL LIKE I GOT CHEATED WITH MY EDUCATION. BAD OR NOT WE WERE KIDS AND CHAOLL WAS SUPOSSED TO BE INPORTANT. WELL ANY WAY I AM GALD THA IT GOT SHUT DOWN NOT TO BE A BITCH BUT THERE WERE SO MANY THINGS ABOUT THAT PLACE THAT WERE OFF. I WAS THERE FOR A FEW GOOD MEMORIES AND LAUGHS SOME THAT I STILL THINK ABOUT AND LAUCH AT. WELL IF ANY ONE WAS THERE DURING THIS TIME YOU CAN E-MAIL ME I WILL REVIEL MYSELF. I HAVE ALOT MORE TO SAY ABOUT THE SCHOOL BUT IT CAN WAIT TILL NEXT TIME.
spanishluv1@yahoo.com

Has anybody had a good experience? I had a very positive time there. Sure I felt rebellious and alot of the ways were different to what i'd experienced before. But the school gave me emotional tools that have helped me to become a healthy strong adult. I don't feel that the school was a cult, just unique and it's a real shame that it turned sour in the end. I'm sure it must have helped so many troubled teens and thier parents!

dear karenb,

First of all i don't work on behalf of desisto school. my identity is none of your concern. I just gave my opinion based on my observation. Desisto school is closed. the building is rotting. the former staff have all but vanished through out the country. Dawn was a high risk kid. she should have been in a hospital setting. from what i recall the school would not give up on her. I have read many posts as to the "cult" issues. frankly speaking they are bullshit!! it is my observation that though desisto school had some issues. if they had been more willing to work with OCCS and not give up the school would still be open. I have worked at many residential schools. I have seen misappropration of funds, drugs, staff misconduct with students. agressive restraints. as far as neglect goes take a look at valleyhead school. the owners have more money than god and pay off DSS and the commenwealth. if any school should have a fourm it should be that one. i wish all of the people in the forum well. take care and move on thats all you can do.

sincerely,

Peter

I attended DeSisto in Stockbridge from '85- '87...that is, for the time I was actually at the 'school' and not on the road.

Was it a cult?

Maybe.

I think DeSisto was different for different people, and it depended on what time period you attended. My years were tough ones, and yes, I would have to say it was a 'cultish' experience. I certainly feel like I am just starting to come to grips with what I experienced there. It was not a positive experience by any means, and Michael certainly was a cult like figure.

DeSisto was a segregated environment. You were cut off from the rest of the world, staff and 'student' alike. The parents attended meetings, and went through the same brain washing the kids/staff went through. I call it brain washing, because that is exactly what it was. Student were pitted against each other. Back stabbing and betrayal were rewarded, all in the guise of 'caring'. It was a brutal environment. The monkeys were left to work it all out in the jungle. Confrontation was encouraged. A whole dialect was developed; "turn-ins", "leashed", "sitting group", "take downs" and being "sheeted". Group upon group, with everyone confronting each other, and if you were confronted, it was time to cry to show your remorse and understanding. Should you disagree, you were in denial.

My friend and I smoked a cigarette in a closet. I turned us both in. I did it because I knew I would be praised and viewed as though I were taking responsibility and making progress. He was never my friend again. At the time, I thought that was just a sign of how little progress he was making, but in the end, it was just that he knew loyalty and was stronger than the peer pressure we faced to conform. He was leashed. Then he was 24 hour leashed. Then he was sent to the Farm. I never saw him again, because he ran away and never came back.

I ran away a number of times. Two years after the final time, I learned that my parents were still paying $26,000 per year tuition. After all, I was still part of the school.....just "on the road". Pretty cult-like, don't you think?

My parents would not talk to me, because those were the rules. I felt abandoned. I was abandoned. All of us were. I lived on the streets of NYC for two years. What was my crime? Oh that's right, at 14 I got kicked out of camp for smoking a joint, and ended up at DeSisto.

For many of us, DeSisto was an exercise in survival. It was an effort to resist brain washing. It was an environment so terrifying, that I chose to live on the streets, rather than be subjected to Michaels methods.

I am successful in life. I have my own business, I am motivated and skilled at what I do. I make good money, I have a beautiful family and great friends. I have seen much of the world, and I am happy with who I am. But I shall never forget DeSisto and I fear that I am just beginning to scrape the surface of the trauma I experienced there.

Jon

Just begining to scrape the surface of the trama you expeirenced there? I know how you feel. Here I am "googling" Desisto 15 years later. I was there in "93-94". I will NEVER forget my time there. To read the other posts for "06", I find it hard to believe how much it changed from when I was there. There were no requirements for the "staff" to have any degrees, some of them had records actually. Michael WAS like "the great OZ" that dictated everything from one location. If you weren't a "steaward", you could not go near him practically. I remember all those nights of dragging my bed into the dayroom where you slept practically on top of one another hoping this was all a bad dream. A girl drinking tons of cleaning solution and not brought to the hospital for over an hour and a half and we had to montior her ourselves to make sure she didn't die...we were kids ourselves. The cleaning of tampons out of the sewer because they would stop up the motor of the pumps, the chizzling of ice in the middle of the night for hours, just because. We de shingled the staff townhouses, with no safetly gear or expeirence in Aprils freezing rain for 12 hour shifts at a time, I remember getting so sick I couldn't even walk, but was expected to go back and continuing working or I was "cornered". I'll never forget them taking away all my clothes and making me wear only a sheet, to sit on a concrete floor and stare at a corner....not being able to move nor speak to another human being because I wouldn't say something Michael wanted me to. I lived like that for 120 DAYS!!!!!!!! We all tried to tell our parents...we were labled, "liars, crazy".....I felt so alone, depressed and began to hate my parents. I was there for the "riots"...there for the "hanging"......I have no clue of this Desisto you people are talking about that followed regulations and the staff were certified and it was so pleasant and there to help the "troubled kids".....all i remember and knew, was the abuse, mistreatment, fear they instilled in us. I was 16 then, and today I am 31....and I HAVEN'T FORGOTTEN ONE SINGLE MINUTE OF THE DAYS I LIVED AT DESISTO!!!!

Ahhhh man..... Lately, I've gotten extremely depressed about nightmares about the place in general, but the one I had the other night was disturbing! They generally revolve around being trapped there, threatened, lied too, mistreated, neglected, manipulated.......ect......but the nasty one was like everything that ever happened there to me was like compacted into a swirling, heaping-mass of "intense" REALITY, that brought me back to some of the saddest days of my life. I went to therapy today, and I was beside myself............One way to describe it was like, being hit by a haunted-ghost freight train.....from hell. When I woke up the morning of my nightmare, I felt as if in a trance.....& physically-like trash, nauseous & all. Thank God, that I had a trusted family member around to comfort me that is well-aware of that hideous place! I don't usually cry from dreams, but it was so disturbing that I felt like there were internal demons stirring.
I really despise how that place/man-(michael desisto) had the capability to ruin individuals and families alike.

I was hired to be a teacher at DeSisto a couple of years out of college and stayed there for only about a month before I left. It was very hard for me to leave because I felt incredibly sad for the students. I grew close to a couple of students in the short time I was there and wanted to stay to help them. But, I knew the school would swallow me if I didn't leave. I was really just a kid myself. I remember calling my Dad and telling him about the school. He said "I'm coming to get you tomorrow" and basically came and ripped me away from that place. After working at DeSisto for a month, I went out in the woods for a week by myself just to clear my head.

Although I only worked there for a short time, I often think about the school and especially the students. I feel guilty for not being strong enough to stand up and help the kids back then. I sincerely hope that any former student of DeSisto that is struggling finds peace and is able to leave the memories of that place in the past. Do not allow the school to have power over you now. You are safe and free to make your choices in life, just as I made the choice to leave way back then. There's no need to run away anymore, just simply leave it in the past and move on. I do not wish to belittle the abuse that you endured at the school. And, I know that it is easier said then done, but that is my sincere hope for you. Please take care of yourselves.

Avery,

What kind of training or agenda did DeSisto provide you with? I'm wondering if their curricula fit the typical LGAT one.

Hi Hope,

I remember I started working at the school in a period where they were in between classes. I was assigned a therapist as all the staff there was in therapy. I only went to one or two of these sessions. I remember the therapist almost pressuring me in to identifying some issue that I had. I think I made up something about having an issue with my father (which was/is total BS).

Looking back, I think the school was trying to make its staff feel like they needed to be there for their mental well being. It seems like they tried to create friction between me and my family in order to somehow keep me more endebted to the school and to cut off/limit my contact with the outside world.

This is the same way the school dealt with students and their parents. I found this to be one of the cruelest practices of this place. The students needed their parents love and support more than ever before, yet they were completely isolated from their parents and made to feel like the only way they could survive was to confirm and become completely dependent on the school for their emotional support.

I also remember going to group therapy sessions with the teachers. Many of the teachers were in twelve step programs. I was told I couldn't smoke, and that I shouldn't drink. I felt that all my personal space and life choices were slowly being infringed upon. It was a pretty scary place.

I will never forget the fear on the faces of the newer students. It was a terrifying place to be sent. I was lucky that I could leave. I told the staff that I was leaving in one of those group therapy sessions. Some people started to cry, others were very angry with me. I remember crying as well in that session because I was made to feel like I let everyone down and that I lied to them. I was told that I needed DeSisto School at that point in my life. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Remember, I was only at the school for about a month. Crazy.

Like I said before, my Dad came and literally tore me away from that place. I remember speeding off with him like we were escaping from an insane asylum. I guess in a way, we were. I still feel guilty for leaving the students and not being able to stay there and help them cope with that place.