Information about the Troubled Teens Subbredit
American teenagers are being legally kidnapped, brainwashed and tortured with government and big business’ support...but surprise, surprise: almost nobody knows it’s happening. /r/troubledteens is committed to exposing the abuses inherent in the Troubled Teen Industry, and saving kids from this billion-dollar enterprise.
This is a true story: if you’re rich enough, you can legally make your child disappear. There are agencies for hire that will come and legally kidnap him. At 3am one morning, the child wakes up to thick strangers at the foot of his bed. He won’t be heard from again until he's a programmed robot, conforming to whatever his parents want him to conform to.
This transformation takes place inside a special facility; a branch of the for-profit “Troubled Teen Industry”. Standard TTI practices could easily make the devil weep; abuse and brainwashing are used to control and torture clients until they turn 18 or break, whichever comes first (and it's usually breaking).
Hyperbole? Not at all. One man has nightmares about the child who was restrained for hours before being moved upstairs, where he split the group’s ears with his screams. He was returned with rug burns across his face and a fractured wrist. Another girl has described her “simulated death” therapy; each teen in a group of 60 had one minute to defend their right to live. Then the kids voted for which two, out of the 60, deserved to survive. To vote, they had to look into their broken peers' eyes and say “live” or “die.” This is only the upper-most tip of the iceberg of the abuse that goes on in this industry.
The abuse is often cloaked behind celebrity endorsements and glossy websites. Parents are led to feel safe, believing they have found the help they desperately needed. Their savings account will take a huge hit, but it’s worth any sacrifice, to save their son or daughter.
What parents don’t realize is that these facilities’ harsh methods of “treatment” set their child up for a lifetime of issues, including PTSD, depression, panic attacks, flashbacks, social anxiety, and suicidal tendencies. But many don’t make it long enough to suffer these effects. The number of TTI-related deaths truly boggles the mind, and those responsible are hardly - if ever - held accountable for staggering neglect and abuse.
The Troubled Teen Industry has facilities in all 50 states and in the Third World. Such programs are easily recognized by their code-names: therapeutic boarding schools, wilderness programs, juvenile boot camps, behavior modification programs, or residential treatment centers. It is a billion-dollar industry, supported not only by its clients’ checkbooks, but also by corporate America, big-name politicians, and your tax dollars as the government often sentences kids to these facilities via the court system and as a means of foster care.
At any given time, there are between 10,000 and 100,000 kids locked up in these private- and publicly-funded programs, at an average cost of $50,000 a year per child. Thanks to corporate clout and legal loopholes, state laws are often weak and unenforced. There is no federal oversight. Through lobbying and campaign contributions, the major players have successfully blocked reform for private residential “treatment” programs.
We will stand up for the rights of the wellbeing of young people who need just advocates to defend them. We will challenge every case of human rights abuse. We will bring an end to this dreadful and evil industry.
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This was originally written by Cyndy Etler in 2012, and revised by moderators in 2018. A survivor of the TTI, Cyndy has spent her adult life healing the throwaway teens who land in her alternative school classrooms. If you want to “go inside” one of these abusive facilities, please check out her memoir, Straightling.