Elmore Academy YSI program review: Physical abuse and other abuse 26

the place should not be open for corrections

the program was completely useless and wasted 2 years of my life

i was in elmore 3 months. you could be restrained by a full grown man just for looking at girls. one time i was attacked by a student and the staff did nothing! nothing at all! they make you use the bathroom in front of them too. this place was no good. ruined some formative years of my life. i saw alot of kids get hurt by the staff who abuse the power they are given, not all the staff mind you, mainly the males but some women also abused the power. no learning was done, just their go at brain washing, which i might add did not work. another thing that was messed up is the fact that most of the adults there helping kids are troubled themselves or have had troubled pasts with drugs, gangs, and crime. santiago is a great example of that. sherwood was also a drug user while he worked there. HELP THIS CHILDREN, THESE KIDS NEEDED LOVE FROM WHAT I SAW, MANY COMING FROM UNDERPRIVILEGED FAMILIES OR JUST PLAIN SAD LIVES. also making a kid take cold showers is child abuse.

My son is currently in Elmore Academy MN and every time thiat I go see him he is full of bruises from his head to his feet. He is afraid to tell me what is going on in there so I can only get some of it out of him. He is put in restraints all the time an he says they do it for no reason. He is not a big kid and he covered in bruises, his face always has the biggest ones, like his chin, black eyes, cuts by his eyes from his glasses, bruised cheeks, then his hips, coller bone, shoulders, chest, knees, legs, his arms are full of hand marks and finger print bruises, this is not right and you never get the same story from staff or the ones who are suppose to hear about all things dont even know what happened and supposedly never heard about the incident. What is really going on there. He was even put on restricted calling to where we as family could only call when 3 certain staff were working so that they could monitor his calls by speaker phone to make sure that he is not tell us any lies about the facility or what is happening. Before when I would call I would hear my son being threaten by other kids that he was gonna be stabbed, one staff member just put him in a restraint and he was put un conscious and he got about 10 bruises from it. I feel as if my son may end up in the hospital form these people... That is if he shouldn't have already been brought there from some of his wounds already. His face looks very bad right now and so does his body, this is not a good place from what I am seeing so far, he has been there just over a month and they ain't helping him at all the are hurting him. What does someone do?

I was in elmore academy and it changed my life for the good. i was in marshall hall at the time. im sure the name changed, my team leader was rich varness, he is a verry outstanding man and i will never forget him, he helped me alot . as for the abuse you were only restained if you deserved it, the storys i hear and read on this page sound like boys acting like little ###, when i was in elmore academy your program is what you make it! (mr.nowicky) said that, the exmarine, he was a no[censored] guy and im sure he still is, he was awsome! its sounds to me like the people that are doing their time their are ### alittle too much just wait till they get to oak park heights, if they dont fallow the rules that elmore has to offer then they will learn to, their simple rules, i was sentenced to 6 to 9 moths and i got out in 13 months i wouldnt take it back for nothing because it changed my life and made me a better person! thank you mr.varness, mr.gonsolez, mr.garza all my football coaches the english teacher the science teacher. all the staff that was their when i was their in 2002 were good people granite a couple bad ones but hey they just got started.. ysi is a good program! NTHF

This is not the place was there for 16 months the person top of me does not know how much it changed they do restrain kids for no damn reason other than to bring problems from their home life and take it out on kids or be tough with kids because they were losers or no bodys growing up but not every staff in there was bad some good majority not, seriously they would put kids personal life, like one time they sat us all down in the dorm and the team leader read off peoples most embarrassing things from reports sent with kids to elmore by their social worker or p.o. like how their home life was or is i mean i remember this kid would wet the bed and ### and the staff would actually make fun of this kid in front of all the kids sayin 'your how old and you still wet the bed when are you gonna decide to grow up and be a man and stop pissin on yourself, i mean how can you sleep knowing that your covered in piss?' word for word what was said i mean the kid was like 13 and what was said should never be said and if it ever was said should only be said by the kids parent, and they do abuse kids in restraints like i said to take out anger or to pretty much act tough i mean three grown staff on a teenager with his arms wrenched behind him and they keep pulling up farther saying stop moving, ### YOU STOP PULLING MY ARMS THEN but you couldnt say that otherwise you'd get it worse and everything they know they would get in trouble for they keep secret i mean who are the government gonna beleive delinquents or staff supposedly there to better you and help you. That place is ###ed up and someone should do something or say something instead of putting it off and thinking its ok or forget about it cause your out or your kids out, NO people should NEVER EVER be treated how they get treated there, if it doesnt happen someone will come back and they will have a gun and remember revenge is so ###ing sweet...

Please, if you have been abused at YSI or any other facility, or if you know of abuse happening, file a complaint with the police. If they don't do anything, contact the FBI. Contact your politicians and get them involved. If you are able, document any abuse that you can.

I was in elmore academy in herrera hall...I saw so much abusive they were nice to me but only cause I never talked I was their for 3 months they wanted to extend me for more just because I did not mention my drug use years before I was their. I saw a couple restraints and they did hurt them real bad they made us all look the oppisite way so that we did not witness it. I am still botherex by what I witness during my stay and yes they should stop elmore. Peer from 2010

My name is Jessi Berntson (on Facebook it's Jessi Silvernail), I was is Elmore Academy for close to one year. Dont get me wrong, the place is definatly not the best, but if you do what youre " supposed " to do, the place is relatively ok. Yes, there are some horrible staff who did work there and may be some more who work there now, but I know that there is at least 50% of the staff there who really do care, honostly want to help and DO try their hardest to do what is right. Mr. Jans is an AMAZING staff, Mrs. Vargas is absolutly INCREDIBLE, little Burgi tried to fix the corruption of staff, big Burgi really tried to fix elmore. There are other staff too that i didnt mention but they are also really great. But, there were staff who didnt really care, Ms. Oltjenbruns sometimes it seemed like she did but she didnt try to help all the kids she favored some over others. yes i have been restrained for reasons i shouldnt have but most of the time it was my fault... i have been restrained MANY MANY times, still have scars on my face from one that was unjust and a broken nose too... i have been on escorts, truancy, suicide almost my whole stay there and i have been denied meals because i wouldnt accept my intervention and lessened shower time and sometimes there was problems in the building with the plumbing so we did have to take cold showers, but there was staff there who really did feel bad...and some of them really cant do anything about it because they are not in the right position or dont have any authority do be able to do anything... yes i did have a horrible time...but it wasnt as bad as some say... a lot of the time it really did depend who you were. but i would also like to thank Mrs.Vargas and Mr.Jans for always being there for me and always trying to help... i miss you primary!(Mrs.Vargas)

To OP your YouTube post is just as annoying this one.

Its called doing what you need to do when you need to do it. People aren't just put in a restraint because it sounds like fun, you forget that when a restraint is done that it is not only taxing on the peer but also the staff. What did you adjust to make life better for yourself, its not specifically put in the hands of the staff because you have to work the program.

In this line of work you will have cases of students needing to be put in an escort or physical hold. I will admit that not every hold at Elmore went "as trained" but we did look out for the safety of the students...if there was an issue it was investigated and there was action taken to prevent it from happening again. I workd there for 6 years and I worked with some great kids and families that needed help...and then I also worked with some that were highly disrespectful, played the victim role constantly, and looked for an easy way out. Staff hate putting kids in holds just as much as the kids hate being placed in one. If you get put in a hold...you aren't being compliant and are a risk to yourself or others, if you are injured it's usually because you fight the process. Bottom line. Go Elmore and keep doing what you are...I miss working there and I would still be there if I hadn't relocated.

my name is paul jal i got slammed and sent to the hospital because i walked away from staff my first time locked up and female staff be touching little kids.

Anyone that was there before it closed down?

Yes I was there. and i got out on the 10th of January this year.

Another thing. I worked there. and they said they would pay me. they payed everyone else but me when i get out. When i asked them before i got out. they said "You should get into the mail" but then it never came. so weeks after it didn;t come i gave T.J. Mowers a call.who is the owner of the place, and left a message. he never called back...

I was there three times. i never got any help. i was in restatiants all the time. my un journey hall was crazy. my social worker sent me there because i had problems with being safe. i was not able to do any kind of fun activities and was always being watched by the staff. most of the girl staff were good. it was the guy staff at this facility that abused, hurtand raped some of the girls while i was there. they were always high. i dont blame ppl for running away. this place is worst that prison. we didnt deserve to be hurt or punished like this. all the good staff ended up quiting. dont blame them. there was tons of fights there with the staff and us. i am currently recovering from the abused from mr.stickler. he was a horrible staff. he was always looking down the girls shirts. im glad it is closed. but they say its because of financial stuff we all know its because of the rapes, abuse, starvation, and the drugs. i hope that the ppl who was raped would step out and go public. i know its hard. i will be going public soon. we deserve to have some peace at mind. the last 3 years ive been going to a state hospital and treatment centers due to the fact. if we dont speak out noone will. also if we dont they could be in different treatment facilities hurt innocent girls and boys. we all know what its like to be beated for no reason or for a dumb reason. if ur one of these ppl text me [protected]. im going to anoka state hospital because of the painful memories. if your a mom and dad who wanna send your kid to treatment before you do ask for a interview with the treatment team. if denie your request then they are not good. also gerard academy is a good place for behavioral and mental heath. they help me grow. but im just to damaged. but there are hope for everyone

I was in there 3 months and was the fastest level achieving student. but it was a messed up place. names juan medina

I was there for 4 months and it was just like you are explaining it, it was horrible they sent me there because i smoked that was it there was no reason they couldnt send me to a good treatment. They would get mad at us because we wanted to talk to our family and they would say it was against the law to give more than one phone call I was assaulted 3 times while i was there they never let me call my family or get me help except the last time and they still wouldnt let me call my social worker or my family they had to bring me to the hospital and the doctor said i had a concussion and needed to be woke up every 2 hours they never even tried to wake me up and i finally was sent out of there and my gma was going to sue them for everything that happend but they finally got shut down they deserved it and i am happy no other kids have to go to that place ever again!

I was there for about 3 months. Did what I had to do and never got restrained. I loved my staff. I was there in the year 2008. Because of this place I want to become a counselor of some sort and work with troubled teens. I know I could relate to them. I've been thru alot. And seeing the work they had to do opened my eyes. For the better.

I was in and out of there from 14 to 17 whether it was to do time for a crime that I'd commit or for [censor]ing around in school Elmore Academy was my favorite place to go cause I knew the rules like the back of my hand and it was close to home and WatonwanCounty would send all the homie there so I'd never be alone I was in both Unity and Herrera Hall Ioved throwing rounds with the crips and GDs from the citties Elmore is a place for criminals not these [censor]s that cry cause they gotta do time cause they'll just get slapped up and taken advantage of even when I'd get restraint I'd throw rounds with the staff cause they're [censor]s too especially Comrads [censor] [censor] and the Bergie Brothers and Lanes big [censor] Mrs Vargas was dope she'd share her hot Cheetos with the Mexican kids and there was a fine [censor] staff too tried to [censor] her bit she wasn't down the bed cart lady was fine too a little chubby but a cutie forsure

I was there the summer of 2010. Was supposed to be there for 6-9 months but I played the system. All the staff loved me, I was an A+ student, got to go out for community service all the time, even went on a trip to the cities to a play and museum or some [censor] ha. I didn't think it was all that bad. Got to go home after 61 days because they didn't think I needed to be there haha. Only got in trouble once, 2 days before I was supposed to go home, one of the overnight ladies gave me a note and drawing from one of the boys, staff found it. Had to sleep in the bay the last couple nights. No biggy. Maybe it got worse over time but I didn't mind it when I was there!

I was also in Elmore it was not all that bad there was a lot of combative peers but thats bound to happen with that many kids I enjoyed my stay

I was in Elmore Academy in June of 1998. I was the first kid from Anoka County to go there Judge Lynn Olson had sent me 6 to 9 months I ended up doing 13 and 1/2 I was on ejj extended juvenile jurisdiction. The place was messed up when I was there it was really strict and yeah there was abuse anybody else want to comment or is there any kids that were there that were there when I was there in the late '90s if there is leave a message and let's chat about the good old days at Elmore Academy hopefully talk to somebody soon

my partner was there 2005, he's was physically abused and back was severely injured by staff then they wouldn't let him recieve treatment. he still has back injury to this day