Academy At Sisters

Reviews

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  Do NOT send your daughters here. 10 years later and I am starting therapy again just to work through all the trauma. For the parent who reviewed and said she does not see how it would leave anyone "traumatized," did you live there? No, okay then shut your mouth because you didn't live it so you have no right to comment. Some of the staff were very emotionally abusive. I wish I would have started a lawsuit but it is past the statue of limitations so I cant. One of the girls accidentally wet the bed and her punishment was to wear a diaper 24/7 for several months. Humiliation like that is abusive. Certain staff would tell her to shut up when she would try to talk and tell her that she was annoying, they treated her horribly. These staff are getting paid to care for us, I don't care how annoying they might think someone is, if you are getting paid to care for her, you need to treat her with respect. For me personally I had a lot of not great things happen. I spent several days on "house restriction" and not able to talk to anyone and had to sit away from the group facing the wall. Point cards ran our lives which unfortunately caused a lot of us to suffer from anxiety. They only focused on the negatives and not the positives. There were several times I got docked points for things I couldn't control. My chore was irrigation and sometimes blow outs would happen randomly and theres nothing you can do to prevent it. So I had to choose if I wanted to get docked on my school point card for having to leave and fix it or just not fix it and get docked on my regular point card for not fixing it. When I was in the pathways program, there were several occasions that we didn't have any food. The staff wouldn't take us grocery shopping because they didn't have enough people. We didn't have any money and couldn't leave the house. My mom had to order food for my roommate and I and have it delivered on several occasions. I really should have called the police or cps. When your parents are paying over $4,000 a month, one would expect that we would be fed but I guess that is not a priority. I started struggling with an eating disorder while in pathways (which has never happened before that point) so I called to reach out to my case manager the day that she was suppose to come back to work. She didn't come in so I talked to another case manager about it. The next day I repeated the same process since my case manager didn't come in to work that day either. By the time my case manager came back she told me I was withholding information from her and I was in trouble. Even though I reached out for help to other case managers and actively tried to get ahold of my case manager so I could talk to her about it, it was me withholding information. About two weeks before I turned 18 (I had every intention of leaving on my birthday) Rick, who no longer works there told me that he was going to get custody of me beyond my 18th birthday and keep me there for as long as he saw fit even though I had already been there two and a half years. When it came time for me to leave, he told my dad that I wouldn't make it on my own and I needed the academy to survive. Bottom line, this place is a business. They want to keep people there as long as they can so they can make the most money. A lot of the girls on that lovely video on their website are not doing that well, a handful of them are back on drugs and served time in jail or prison. A lot of them got pregnant shortly after they got home and being a teen parent is not really something to be proud of. For all the fellow students on here, I am wishing you the best of luck working through the pain you feel from this place.
  By Julie Olson, September 19, 2017
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  The Academy at Sisters is a great place for troubled-teens. I attended there and it was a great learning experience and came out a better person. The staff are caring and very insightful in helping students. I do not regret my stay there, it was worth my time. Highly reccommended
  By Kelsey Johnson, September 18, 2017
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  If you are considering sending your child away, you are most likely in a desperate situation, as we were. We had our daughter go to the Academy for nearly 1 year and 9 months. We would do it again if we had to. If it weren't for the this group of caring individuals, I am not sure where she would be today. I do not see how it would leave anyone 'traumatized'. The staff is there to care, teach and nurture, not enable, it is up to the child to do the work. My daughter was, naturally, miserable at first, but it wasn't long after she started turning around. It was her will that allowed that. There is also cooperation and participation expected of the parents as well. If there is neither of that, nothing will work. This was back in 2008-2010. My daughter still had some learning to do even after she left, but she is now a thriving, happy, healthy person attending college, working and able to cope with every day life circumstances. Some of the same staff is still there, we (including our daughter) personally keep in touch with some of them. We are so grateful to have our family back together, full of laughter and a deep loving relationship.
  By Elizabeth McKinley, September 13, 2017

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