| 
   Name 
   | 
  
   Unit/Position 
   | 
  
  Additional Information | 
 
 
  | 
  Trace Embry | 
  
  Director/Owner | 
  
    | 
 
 
  | 
  Beth Embry | 
  
  Co-Owner | 
  
    | 
 
 
  | 
  Tina Lawton | 
  
  Office Mgr. | 
  
    | 
 
 
  | 
  Terri Ross | 
  
  Marketing | 
  
    | 
 
 
  | 
  Eric Brubaker | 
  
  Program Mgr. | 
  
    | 
 
 
  | 
  Allison Wallace | 
  
  Dir. of Program Development | 
  
    | 
 
 
  | 
  Joshua Wallace | 
  
  Program Mgr. | 
  
    | 
 
 
  | 
  Steve Schyck | 
  
  Principal | 
  
    | 
 
 
  | 
  Nate Tilton | 
  
  Teacher | 
  
    | 
 
 
  | 
  Christina Jones | 
  
  Teacher | 
  
    | 
 
 
  | 
  Paul Mallalieu | 
  
  Teacher | 
  
    | 
 
 
  | 
  Dan Godfrey | 
  
  Consultant | 
  
    | 
 
 
  | 
  Mary Anne Brookshire | 
  
  Counselor | 
  
    | 
 
 
  | 
  Jeremy Brown | 
  
  Counselor | 
  
    | 
 
 
  | 
  Cheryl Harris | 
  
  Equine Mgr. | 
  
    | 
 
 
  | 
  Vikki Paese | 
  
  Counselor | 
  
    | 
 
 
  | 
  Nathan Harper | 
  
  Staff | 
  
  (reported by survivor on November 24th, 2009)  Harper may no longer 
	work at this program. | 
 
 
  | 
  Ian Sharp | 
  
  Staff | 
  
  (reported by survivor on November 24th, 2009)  Sharp may no longer 
	work at this program. | 
 
 
  | 
  Steven McGarvey | 
  
  Staff | 
  
  (reported by survivor on November 24th, 2009)  McGarvey may no longer 
	work at this program. | 
 
 
  | 
  Amin Embry | 
  
  Staff | 
  
  (reported by survivor on November 24th, 2009)  Embry may no longer 
	work at this program. | 
 
 
  | 
  Andrew Dollar | 
  
  Staff | 
  
  (reported by survivor on November 24th, 2009)  Dollar may no longer 
	work at this program. | 
 
 
  | 
  Heather Morrow-Wasko | 
  
  Staff | 
  
  (reported by survivor on November 24th, 2009)  Morrow-Wasko may no 
	longer work at this program. | 
 
 
  | 
  Brett Wasko | 
  
  Staff | 
  
  (reported by survivor on November 24th, 2009)  Wasko may no longer 
	work at this program. | 
 
 
  | 
  Jeremiah Laird | 
  
  Staff | 
  
  (reported by survivor on November 24th, 2009)  Laird may no longer 
	work at this program. | 
 
 
  | 
  Amy Laird | 
  
  Teacher | 
  
  (reported by survivor on November 24th, 2009)  Laird reportedly 
  no longer works at this program. | 
 
 
  | 
  Rebecca Bombet | 
  
  Staff | 
  
  (reported by survivor on November 24th, 2009)  Bombet may no longer 
	work at this program. | 
 
 
  | 
  Victoria Cox | 
  
  Staff | 
  
  (reported by survivor on November 24th, 2009)  Cox may no longer work 
	at this program. | 
 
 
  | 
  Chris Cox | 
  
  Staff | 
  
  (reported by survivor on November 24th, 2009)  Cox may no longer work 
	at this program. | 
 
 
  | 
  Madeline Kiser | 
  
  Residential Staff | 
  
  (reported by survivor via e-mail on September 12th, 2020) | 
 
 
  | 
  Jeimy Madrid | 
  
  Residential Staff | 
  
  (reported by survivor via e-mail on September 12th, 2020) | 
 
 
  | 
  Brazel Marquez | 
  
  Residential Staff | 
  
  (reported by survivor via e-mail on September 12th, 2020) Marquez 
  reportedly no longer works at this program. | 
 
 
  | 
  Alix Twyman | 
  
  Residential Staff | 
  
  (reported by survivor via e-mail on September 12th, 2020) Twyman 
  reportedly no longer works at this program. | 
 
 
  | 
  Haley Clymer | 
  
  Residential Staff  | 
  
  (reported by survivor via e-mail on September 12th, 2020) Clymer 
  reportedly no longer works at this program. | 
 
 
  | 
  Hope Cooper | 
  
  Residential Staff | 
  
  (reported by survivor via e-mail on September 12th, 2020) | 
 
 
  | 
  Lilly Butler | 
  
  Residential Staff | 
  
  (reported by survivor via e-mail on September 12th, 2020) | 
 
 
  | 
  Olivia Johannes | 
  
  Residential Staff | 
  
  (reported by survivor via e-mail on September 12th, 2020) Johannes 
  reportedly no longer works at this program. | 
 
 
  | 
  Nathaniel David Ether | 
  
  Residential Staff | 
  
  (reported by survivor via e-mail on September 12th, 2020) | 
 
 
  | 
  Josh Temple | 
  
  Residential Staff | 
  
  (reported by survivor via e-mail on September 12th, 2020) | 
 
 
  | 
  Lexie Woody | 
  
  School Nurse | 
  
      | 
 
 
  | 
  Gail Dickerson | 
  
  Principal & Math Teacher | 
  
    | 
 
 
  | 
  James Moore | 
  
  Math & Science Teacher | 
  
    | 
 
 
  | 
  Elise Thrift | 
  
  Clinical Director | 
  
    | 
 
 
  | 
  Haley Walker | 
  
  Girls Program Mgr. | 
  
    | 
 
 
  | 
  Ginelle Gordon | 
  
  Woods Program Director | 
  
    | 
 
 
  | 
  Nancy Boyd | 
  
  English/Fine Arts Teacher | 
  
      | 
 
 
  | 
  Mr. Boyd | 
  
  Math Teacher | 
  
  Nancy's husband. | 
 
 
  | 
  Noelle Barkley | 
  
  Staff | 
  
    | 
 
 
  | 
  Sky Barkley | 
  
  Wilderness Staff | 
  
    | 
 
 
  | 
  Sara Harvey | 
  
  NextStep Staff | 
  
    | 
 
 
  
  
	
	
		
			
				
					
						Got problem kids? Man, when they hit 
						those teenage years they all get rebellious and 
						willful, and start thinking independently, and often 
						start doing things their parents would rather they 
						didn't. This is one of the tough responsibilities of 
						being a parent — you have to be willing to let your 
						children grow into independent human beings. 
						But let's say you never got that memo, and you think 
						your job is to raise children who are just like you: 
						insecure, a little bit angry, shackled tightly into a 
						fearful belief system that says all human beings are 
						evil. Independent thinking is the last thing you want in 
						your obedient little repressed child-slave! Well, 
						there's help for you:
						
						Shepherd's Hill Farm, an accredited Christian boot 
						camp that will stomp his wild soul right back down into 
						the mud of conformity and obedience. 
						It's way out in the middle of nowhere, so there will 
						be no place for the wayward teen to escape to…and no one 
						to hear them scream. 
						Shepherd's Hill Farm is a counseling center, 
						so they will also take care of the mental health of your 
						child. Trace Embry, the director,
						
						knows absolutely nothing about mental health and even 
						gives dangerous advice against all the evidence, but 
						you don't have to worry — he's a very vocal Christian. 
						God will forgive him. 
						We have
						
						testimonials from inmates residents of the camp 
						about the other benefits of attending. Does your child 
						have special medical needs, like seizures? They will 
						take his medicine away, but their staff is well-trained 
						in being able to simultaneously wrestle a child to the 
						ground and pray for him. Is your child a bit on the 
						hefty side? He will get 'special meals' — a can of 
						beans, a bit of vegetable, and a piece of bread — until 
						they reach that ascetic ideal. Your child will be 
						'brainwashed in the blood of the lamb,' so it's all OK — 
						even the beatings serve to transfigure hooligans into 
						robots for Jesus.  Source:
						
						http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/02/shepherds_hill_farm_is_a_hell-.php   
				 
			 
		 
	 
	 
	 | 
 
 
  
  HEAL has verified the submission below.  I[FEEDBACK] 
  DECLARATION UNDER PENALTY OF PERJURY PURSUANT TO 28 USCA 1746                
  
  I, _____ Anonymous*_____________, declare and state as follows: 1.   
  Shepherds Hill Farm.. 2.   2200 Price Road, Martin, GA 30557 3.   01/02 to 
  01/05 4.   When I lived at home with my family I grew up hanging out with 
  older kids; kids who my father, and other parents of the neighborhood viewed 
  as trouble makers. We mainly hung out and smoked pot, drank occasionally and 
  hung around the neighborhood.                  When I was younger I was sent 
  to a boarding school in Stone Mountain, GA  by the name of Gables Academy.  It 
  was actually a very good school for the most part.  However, I was a problem 
  child of sorts.  I never did anything serious but I would talk back to 
  teachers, complain, smoke pot when I was home on break, but never anything 
  serious.  One of the “counselors” named Sean who stayed with the boys during 
  the day and night never liked me much and often yelled in my face and insulted 
  me. One day I was standing on the porch with a couple other students minding 
  my own business, as I see Sean walking up to the porch with the PE teacher.  I 
  hear Sean say to the PE teacher “Hey, watch this” and laugh a little.  He then 
  walked up to me on the porch and unexpectedly punched me in the side of the 
  head, knocking me to the ground and causing my vision to fade to black for a 
  couple of seconds.  I got up and ran into my room and locked myself in. The 
  next day Sean took me behind a trailer, broke down into tears and begged me to 
  not go to the authorities and get him in trouble, because he would lose his 
  wife, his job and go to jail, and have his life ruined.  Within a short time 
  after that (I believe a week or so) I was told I was being expelled and sent 
  to Shepherds Hill Farm.  Shepherds Hill Farm was a wilderness christian 
  therapy program owned by the owner of Gables Academy as far as I understand,  
  for the students that Gables could no longer handle.  Very soon after I 
  arrived at SHF I was told that SHF and Gables Academy split ties and were no 
  longer together.  I believe this may have been done to try and distance 
  themselves from the incident of Sean hitting me, but I do not know for 
  certain.  My father (now deceased) was a Greek Orthodox priest and Trace 
  Embry(owner of SHF) is somewhat of a preacher and presents himself as a Godly 
  man, so I believe Trace was able to use this to connect and manipulate my 
  father with.  I believe Trace convinced my father that this would be a safe 
  healthy environment, that would bring me closer to god, away from the older 
  supposed drug addicts who were my friends and I would get an education.  I 
  believe my father thought it was similar to monasteries in Greece.  However my 
  father never saw what went on past the facade at the top of the hill.  He 
  never saw the wood shacks we built deep in the woods and lived in with no 
  electricity or running water or any type of entertainment or source of true 
  self expression, he never saw the horrible horrible education they forced on 
  us, and that I was against but still given. When I arrived I was brought to 
  the porch of a house in the middle of the country with acers of land.  It 
  smelt like flowers and I will admit was very appealing to the eyes.  Trace 
  Embry sat me down as staff and he went through all my belongings picking out 
  what I could and could not have. Trace began to ask me about myself and my 
  history and informed me about the school and how it was run.  He told me my 
  clothes were demonic and other silly nonsense that I tried to ignore.  I was 
  feeling extremely angry, depressed, hopeless, abandoned (though I later 
  learned my mother never wanted me in the program and this greatly worried 
  Trace Embry) and scared.  Trace told me to go into the “school house” which 
  was a trailer a few feet away with a counselor “teaching” without 
  accreditation.  I was introduced to the class and sat down.  As Trace left the 
  room I said under my breath “what a jackass.” The “teacher” heard me and went 
  running, and yelling for Trace after him.  Trace came running back into the 
  school building with paddle.  He bent me over in front of the class and gave 
  me a swat.  I cussed and said “What the fuck?”  He bent me over and gave me 
  another swat. I started to walk back to my seat and he grabbed me and yanked 
  me towards him and bent me over and gave me another swat, and told me “you hug 
  me after you receive a swat!” I said “No, why would I hug a person who just 
  hit me?” He hit me again and began to give me special meals.  “Tell me your 
  sorry”  he would say and I replied “Why?” He would say “ok thats a week of 
  special meals”, anytime I said why after that I got another week.  In the 
  meantime two girls began crying and went outside with two counselors.  I 
  received somewhere between a month and a half of special meals and two and a 
  half months of special meals. Special meals are when you are feed a cold can 
  of beans and a can of some type of greens with water. The food they normally 
  feed the students is food that is picked up from food banks and other places 
  similar where they do not have to pay for it, or pay very very little.  They 
  would get cartons of 2-3 day expired milk from the milk packaging facility to 
  give to us.  The food quality was horrible and it in no way met the 
  requirements of nutrition we would have needed for the amount of strenuous 
  manual labor we did near 24/7. We were told that special meals were a healthy 
  vegan diet and was very good for us.  That is absolute bs, vegans eat a large 
  variety of foods in order to meet their daily intake and often take 
  supplements and or vitamins as well; they do not simply eat a can of beans and 
  a can of beats each day.  That is food deprivation and one of the many forms 
  of abuse they offer for $58,900 annually.  I was punished for eating 
  toothpaste after being on special meals for so long because I craved flavor so 
  bad and was so hungry.  Other students were caught eating dog food while on 
  special meals.  One boy by the name of Bobby (I will get to more on him later) 
  was nearly always on special meals, and looked like a skeleton.  He would 
  often get caught stealing food or snacks out of the kitchen or somewhere and 
  would be punished and given more special meals.  One day the child was put in 
  a room alone with nothing else.  The counselor places candy bars around him in 
  a circle and told Bobby “we know how many candy bars are here, if any are 
  missing when we come back in two hours you will be punished.” All of the other 
  students laughed.  When we came back 2 hours later, several candy bars were 
  missing.  Bobby cried and screamed and denied it but he was beaten and given 
  more special meals.  When he went home for Christmas break Trace told his 
  parents to continue giving him special meals for Christmas.  They did, however 
  Bobby was caught eating a horse biscuit and was sent back to the farm early. 
  We were not allowed to look at or make any type of communication with anyone 
  of the opposite sex.  We were also not allowed to talk to other students 
  unless staff was with us.  We were only allowed to talk to the staff and the 
  camp owners.  All ingoing and outgoing mail and phone calls were monitored.  
  We had no electricity, no running water, no communication with the outside 
  world or anything “secular”, we lived in giant wooden huts that we built 
  ourselves with hand saws and axes and no building knowledge.  The “counselors” 
  had no experience nor qualification to do their jobs they also received no 
  training.  They were college students, high school students and a couple 
  higher ups who had college degrees but no qualification for what they did.  We 
  performed manual labor for hours upon hours in all climates from blistering 
  heat, to snow and or rain. Homosexuals and those of different religions 
  (mainly just me) were singled out and picked on and made to look like evil 
  people but to be pitted and not trusted. If you visit shepherdshillfarm.org 
  you can see a picture of one of the huts we built and lived in. believe that 
  Trace Embry is a twisted sick man who used his good way with words and the 
  bible, to abuse children and rob parents and families of $58,900 a year. I 
  believe he is a threat to children, to parents, and family's and by extension 
  voting and all of society and the future.  Trace and his wife are sick people 
  who are leading a cult and harming hundreds and hundreds of innoncent people.  
  No one deserves to be treated the way I was treated at SHF; treated like some 
  scumbag would treat a dog.  I have horrible anxiety and nervousness.  I have a 
  hard time being around authority figures because they frighten me inside very 
  much.  I have talked to other former students of SHF, from around when I 
  went.  They agree to be in a class action law suit against SHF.  Some of them 
  have had to undergo VERY MUCH therapy and real, professional help to heal the 
  wounds left on them by SHF and Trace.  I really hope you can help me or at 
  least help get the word out about SHF so that other ex students may come 
  forward.  This place absolutely needs to be investigated and shut down.  At 
  first all the students would be opposed to the farm and what they did.  
  However over time they all began to go along with it.  Soon enough they all 
  enjoyed it for the most part and proclaimed the farm was helping, loving and 
  saving them.  They all wanted to be baptized.  The bible was continuously used 
  to validate every single thing they did.  Trace uses his great way with words, 
  and his knowledge of the bible to justify what he does while at the same time 
  tricking parents and kids.  He constantly preaches about how great he is and 
  how love is not what most people think.  Love according to Trace is punishing 
  kids and abusing them.  To Trace using sleep deprivation, food deprivation, 
  humiliation, brain washing, child slave labor, encouraging racism and 
  homophobia, physically beating children is all doing what the Lord wants and 
  calls for and is the true way to love someone. If you go to
  www.shepherdshillfarm.org and 
  listen to their podcast for Nov 19, you will hear some of Traces very strange 
  views.  One day at the farm after Trace finished preaches I raised my hand and 
  I said “You are brainwashing us”,  Trace smiled at me and replied “Yes we 
  are!  We are brainwashing you in the blood of the lamb!”  Everyone laughed and 
  shook their heads at me in agreeing with Trace.  On the podcast for Nov 19 he 
  says that very thing.  That he is “brainwashing kids in the blood of Jesus” In 
  the Nov 19 podcast he also describes an event where a child tried to escape at 
  a mall from her mother while visiting her and they had to restrain her and 
  bring her back to SHF.  She was told they did it out of love and for Jesus and 
  she agreed. I saw this on the Heal legal page- “Certain official agencies have 
  stated that the “escort services” provided by these programs constitutes 
  kidnapping and those providing this type of service may be prosecuted on 
  felony charges for kidnapping.  Contact the 
  FBI to report crimes of kidnapping.  “              I went home at one 
  point and I thought I would not have to go back to the farm. However, my 
  father gave me a drug test and I failed it for THC.  I refused to go back to 
  the farm.  In the morning I woke up to two very large men walking in my room.  
  I noticed my father driving off and leaving the house. I said “Who are you!” 
  and they threw a pair of pants at me and told me to put them on.  They said 
  “We are bounty hunters to take you back to Shepherds Hill Farm.”  They told me 
  I could come calmly or they could cuff my hands and feet.  I figured I better 
  not fight the police so I went with them calmly.                  I made a 
  post on the Richard Dawkins web forum about medical misinformation that Trace 
  has on his blog. He encourages parents to take children off medication and 
  provides misinformation about certain psychological conditions and has zero 
  tolerance to give advice on medication or to take his students off their 
  medication.  He had talked students out of taking all types of medicine 
  including anti-seizure medicine.  I witnessed two students have what appeared 
  to be seizures.  Shaking on the ground foaming at the mouth, Trace and his 
  staff held the children down and prayed for demons to leave them. 
                   The thread I made on the Richard Dawkins forum was picked up 
  by someone named Peter Harrison who made a blog on his website titled 
  “Shepherds Hill Farm- The Great Child Abuse Secret” on afraidofthelight.co.uk 
  Trace replied a few times telling us how great he was and how much smarter he 
  was.  It soon turned into me listing allegations of child abuse, this enraged 
  Trace however he ignored the allegations over and over again and simply told 
  me I was suffering THC delusions (that does not exist) or was evil or 
  possessed by demons.  He told us we were all evil atheist doing satans work 
  trying to shut down his farm and that we needed Jesus in us.  Here I will post 
  the list of some of the abusive things that happened while there. I say 
  abusive because my parents paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for what 
  Trace told them would be a safe, non threatening, therapeutic wilderness 
  program that would help and heal me.  SHF instead has left me with 
  psychological wounds that I have suffered from for many years, they did not 
  help me one tiny tiny bit, anything positive that I gained while there was due 
  to me being strong and overcoming the oppresive environment. I have talked to 
  many other students (ones who were told “its your fault for being raped you 
  whore” basically in front of the whole school and other things) and it has 
  taken them years and years of REAL therapy to overcome the wounds they gained 
  while there.  My father was tricked into taking out his life insurance policy 
  to pay for my tuition.  My father is now dead and my brother, I and my mother 
  received nothing because he gave it all to Trace.  My mother is on disability 
  can not work and has only disability for income (very little). I repeatedly 
  told my father, Trace and other staff that I wished to leave and wanted to 
  die.  I told them I would rather be in jail that in SHF but I was kept there.  
  Trace has parents sign over parental guardianship to him so he can tell us 
  “everything we do to you is legal. I own you and your parents agree to this.” 
  He would also say “Besides who would believe you, a troubled drug addict teen 
  or me, an owner of a successful program and an ex cop and preacher?” Trace 
  would tell our parents that whenever kids get there they will tell their 
  parents they want to leave and everything will be fine if they let them come 
  home.  Trace told them “do not believe this, they are trying to control and 
  manipulate you.” If someone told me “if your kid tells you I abused them don't 
  believe it.” I would probably either punch them in the face or call the 
  police. I never wanted to be there.  I repeatedly said I wanted to leave.  My 
  mother called Social Services while I was there but no one would go to SHF and 
  investigate.  If they did they would only be shown the top of the camp and not 
  where children live and the things they do and undergo every day for usually 2 
  years. My parents were never shown any of the horrible things, only the good 
  fake part.  At the top of the school is Traces house and some other trailers, 
  however a mile down into the forest is the boys camp and half a mile or more 
  is the girls. The Greek Orthodox priest who was friends with my dad that came 
  to see me was never showed the horrible part or what it was like. The entire 
  time I was there I dreamed of some type of organization or group of people 
  that I could contact and that would believe and help me.  The only thing I 
  could think of would be an anarchist organization however I knew nothing about 
  them or how to contact one, especially with no electricity or contact with the 
  outside world.  I had no idea groups like HEAL, ISAC and Caftey existed. We 
  were continuously told we were minors and belonged to Trace and had 0 rights 
  or civil liberties.  I was even forced to go to church.  I told them I was 
  against it and did not wish to enter in their Church as it was against my 
  beliefs and religious beliefs.  They told me to bad and made me go anyway.  
  This is what I was told any time I brought up the bill of rights or legal 
  matters.  I was a slave and prisoner against my will for no crimes, they knew 
  it and knew that I knew it but couldn't do anything.  Thank science they exist 
  and are doing what they do!  They are great people! Here I will copy paste the 
  list of abusive things I made on Richard Dawkins forum. 1.    "Special Meals"- 
  I was placed on something termed by the farm as "special meals" for a month 
  and a half. I was feed a can of beens (a can of some type of vegetable for 
  dinner) and bread a piece of fruit and water everyday for a month and a half. 
  SHF claims this is a healthy vegan diet. It just does not taste good because 
  it is punishment. Vegans eat a much much wider variety of foods in order to 
  get the vitamins and protein their body requires. They usually take some type 
  of vitamin or supplement as well. 2. Child in river- There was a student at 
  SHF by the name of Bobby who would wet his bed. Without getting outside 
  medical advice from an unbiased professional doctor, or psychiatrist. Instead 
  they assumed the child was just wetting his bed out of disobedience and in 
  order to cause havoc. Their cure? Make the child strip to his underwear in 
  front of all his peers and bathe in the river. It was extremely extremely cold 
  outside. He would then be made to carry his mattress a mile up hill to wash 
  it, with or without help from staff or peers. Also, they made the kid wear a 
  diaper. I do not know if they forced him to or not but I remember seeing him 
  walking around in nothing but a diaper. Students would make fun of him calling 
  him "Gandhi" because he looked like a skeleton(from months of food deprivation 
  and taunting with candy bars for hours), wore a diaper, and carried a walking 
  stick. 3. Horse allergy- I am allergic to horses. One day a counselor made 
  everyone ride horses. I told the counselor that "I would like to, but I am 
  allergic to horses", the counselor said "No! You just do not want to 
  participate! You will ride the horse or you will receive a swat(paddle)". 
  Being threatened I got on the horse. I broke out in hives, students and the 
  camp nurse said I looked green and I was having difficulty breathing. The 
  counselor apologized but that does not change the fact of what was done and 
  the danger he placed me in. 4. Paddling- Students were spanked with a paddle. 
  Some had bruises that lasted a week or more. We would be spanked for anything 
  from asking "why?" after being told to do something or saying "no." If we did 
  not hug Trace after he paddled us we would receive another swat. Why would 
  someone want to hug someone that just hit you? 5. Brainwashing- They would 
  take our books or not allow us to have them if they were deemed in 
  appropriate. This includes mainly religious texts other then the bible or 
  anything christian and nearly any type of secular book. They completely 
  controlled our sensory input. They admitted themselves that they were 
  brainwashing us, “brainwashing you in the lamb of the blood!” yuck and weird! 
  6. Contacting our parents- When arriving to the farm we were allowed no 
  contact with out parents for the first few months whatsoever. After this we 
  were allowed to write letter and receive them from only our parents. However 
  they would be censored before coming in or out. They would read them and tell 
  us to take things out or change things if they were deemed inappropriate, 7. 
  Children building unsafe structures- 13 year old kids with no construction 
  knowledge were made to build unsafe structures to live in. We would cut the 
  trees down ourselves with hand saws and axes all without electricity or 
  running water. 8. Tuition- Our parents paid a tuition that was higher then the 
  tuition to most universities in the U.S. Yet we were feed food they got from 
  food banks for free or next to nothing. I remember the counselor taking us to 
  the milk plant nearby, where we would be given crates of their day or usually 
  two day old milk for free because it was expired and going to be thrown away. 
  We were then given this milk for food/drink. We had no running water, no 
  electricity, lived in wooden huts we built with our own hands without 
  electricity and with rusty hand saws. Not to mention the special meals, which 
  were even weaker. 9. "School"- Their "school" is now accredited. In their 
  "science" classes we were indoctrinated with the christian story. We were 
  forced to watch Kent Hovind videos, as if he and all his "theorys" have not 
  already been debunked. We were taught the world was 2000 years old and created 
  by God. That is as absurd to me as teaching in a science class that gravity 
  does not exist, but is actually god holding everyone down with his finger . I 
  also at one point had to explain to my science teacher what plate tectonics 
  were. He had never heard of such a thing, and thought I made it up...until 
  another student said she learned the same thing in a real school. 10. Absurd 
  accusations- The half way house at the farm was covered in flies during the 
  summer. One day Trace wanted to talk with me one on one outside of the half 
  way house. We sat and talked about Christianity. I of course was extremely 
  dirty , sweaty, and smelly. After all I had been living in the woods and doing 
  hard manual labor all day, with a shower twice a week. Trace on the other hand 
  lived in a house and looked and smelled as if he had just come out the shower. 
  He asked me if according to biblical terms would I rather be called a fool or 
  a wise man? I replied a fool because the bible is rubbish to me. He replied " 
  Ya know (anon), it's very interesting to me that all the flies are landing on 
  you and none on me. Do you know that the devil in the bible is called 
  Beelzebub-the lord of flies!" Later on when Trace had every student in the 
  program and every counselor in a room together he was preaching to us. He went 
  on and suddenly started to describe our private conversation to everyone. He 
  said "(anon) willingly would be called a fool instead of a wise-man." He then 
  told everyone about the fly thing. He said that he believes I could be 
  possessed by demons or Beelzebub. This was humiliating to say the least, and 
  hardly humble at all on his part. Later a counselor came to me and told me 
  that he thought the fly thing was absurd and silly. He said the flys were 
  landing on you (anon) because you live in the woods, haven't bathed in days 
  and are extremely dirty..unlike Trace. Another child was sent to SHF after 
  being raped at her highschool.  Trace asked her if she knew what a whore was.  
  She replied “someone who sleeps around with everyone?” Trace responded “Yes ,, 
  dont you think you fit the bill?” and I believe then punished her. 11.Queers, 
  homos and fags!- Trace would very often make jokes about gays, and homosexuals 
  and "going to brown town” (saintly words, I know! He sure is the next St. 
  Nektarios!) that I assume would be extremely offense to homosexuals. He taught 
  it was sinful, wrong, evil and unnatural. 12. Medical misinformation- It seems 
  to me and everyone else Trace has been debunked on his Anhedonia claims, and 
  insists on providing dangerous medical misinformation on his website. 
  13.Prayer instead of medical attention- A child once was being disobedient. 
  The child then suddenly collapsed and had what appeared to, my eyes, be a 
  seizure (I do not know for certain, I am no doctor). The staff simply held him 
  down got in a circle and prayed for the demons to leave him. Later the staff 
  told us the student had green (or some color) foam coming from his mouth as he 
  convulsed. The student soon stopped and went back to normal. Prayer cured him, 
  we were told. This sounds similar to the story that has been in the news 
  lately. The one where the child had diabetes and the family got around and 
  prayed for the child instead of calling an ambulance, except in this case the 
  child died and the parents were sentenced to prison. 14.Parental alienation 
  syndrome- Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS), consisting of the manipulation 
  of children by the custodial parent, who incessantly tries to turn them 
  against the other parent by arousing in them feelings of hatred and contempt 
  for the target parent, as explained in the book Marital Conflicts, Divorce, 
  and Children's Development (Conflictos matrimoniales, divorcio y desarrollo de 
  los hijos, edited by Piramide), by professors Jose Canton Duarte, Ma Rosario 
  Cortes Arboleda, and Ma Dolores Justicia Diaz, from the Department of 
  Evolutionary and Educational Psychology of the University of Granada. This was 
  repeatedly done to students. Thank God the students usually took great offense 
  to this. We would be told our parents had failed us or had enabled us to make 
  us even worse. We were told most of our parents needed to be in the program 
  just as much if not more then we did. Trace also acted as if my mother was 
  insane because she placed such a big influence on humility within the 
  Christian religion, was against SHF and wanted me to come home and not bei n 
  the program. Reference:
  
  http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/94733.php 15. Medical attention- 
  Teens were encouraged to stop taking their medication.  Nearly everyone was on 
  medications though.  Some were talked into discontinuing their meds. These 
  kids off of their medication sleep/slept around axes and saws and 
  sludgehammers every night. I also witnessed people be taken off of anti 
  seizure medicine and held down and prayed for while having seizures and 
  foaming at the mouth.  My parents requested that I be taken to a dermatologist 
  for my acne outbreaks. Months later (much to late) I was then talked out of 
  taking acutane, by the camp “nurse”. My acne got much much worse, without the 
  acutane. When I left the farm years later I had acne and scars all over my 
  face. My mother took me to a dermatologist who told me that I should had taken 
  acutane years before and I wouldn't have any scars. He then prescribed me 
  acutane and I have not had any acne outbreak in years sense.   I once woke up 
  during the winter and I could not move my neck whatsoever.  I told the staff 
  and they took me to the camp “nurse” a quack who lived in a trailer on campus 
  because her daughter went to school there and she wanted to be close to her. 
  The nurse simply told me to put a neck brace on.  I put it on and I could not 
  move my neck up, down or to the sides for nearly an entire month.  I do not 
  know why this happened but I suspect it could have been something very serious 
  and that I should have been taken to a real doctor.  ]            
  
   I give HEAL, ISAC and Caftey permission to use this statement.  I declare 
  under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct.  Executed on 
  _____November 23______________, 2009.                             
                                                  _______________[Anonymous*] 
   _________________ 
                                                                          
                                                                                 
  [PRIVATE]                                                             
                                                                         
                                                                          
  [PRIVATE]                                                             
              SPECIAL NOTE:  STATUTE DOES                         
                                                  NOT REQUIRE NOTARY]      | 
 
 
  | 
  At Unregulated Christian Boarding Schools, Students Face Conversion 
  Therapy, Abuse, And Indoctrination
  Unsplash What happens 
  when the government fails to regulate Christian reform schools? One academy in 
  Georgia is just the beginning. This is the second in a two-part series 
  examining the therapeutic Christian boarding school Shepherd’s Hill Academy 
  and its founder Trace Embry. You can read the first part
  here. 
  Shepherd’s Hill Academy is a Georgia-based Christian boarding school with a 
  history of alleged abuse, conversion therapy for LGBTQ teens, and religious 
  indoctrination. If it were just one school, it could be viewed as an alarming 
  anomaly. But this is not the story of just one school. When it comes to the 
  state of education in this country, politicians and community leaders 
  regularly debate the merits of charter and public school reform, standardized 
  testing, federalized curriculums, and universal pre-K at the local, state, and 
  federal levels. What is often missing from these conversations are reform 
  schools, wilderness boot camps, and “therapeutic” boarding schools where there 
  has been a worrying lack of oversight and regulation for decades. The majority 
  of these institutions are privately run, and many are connected with a church 
  or have a foundational religious component. Brandy Zadrozny
  
  reported last June for The Daily Beast on the allegations of abuse at
  
  Blue Creek Academy, a now-shuttered Christian reform school for at-risk 
  teenage boys, in West Virginia. She wrote: “As in many other states, religious 
  private schools in West Virginia aren’t held to the same standards as their 
  nonreligious counterparts. Though
  
  the ways in which they are exempt varies from state to state, for many 
  schools that operate with a religious mission — 80% of private schools 
  nationwide — accreditation or licensing, the hiring of certified teachers or 
  the approval of curriculum, or even simply notifying the state as to its 
  existence is completely voluntary.” Last June, actor Jeremy Jordan brought 
  national
  
  attention to this issue when he started a GoFundMe campaign to assist in 
  getting his teenage cousin released from the therapeutic boarding school 
  associated with Heartlight Christian Ministries. Jordan
  
  claimed that his 17-year-old cousin was sent to the “East Texas Christian 
  boarding facility for troubled teens to ‘pray away the gay.’” She was released 
  a few days after his campaign made headlines. Mark Gregston, founder and 
  executive director of Heartlight Ministries, released a
  
  statement denying that the girl was there against her will and that the 
  facility practices any form of conversion therapy. (The girl has never gone 
  public with her story.) There are other institutions across the country that 
  echo SHA’s practices, including religious indoctrination (Wings of Faith 
  Academy in Missouri helps girls with “spiritual 
  confusion”; New Lifehouse Academy in Oklahoma scores student behavior on 
  metrics including “spiritual 
  development”) and abuse (a Tampa Bay 
  Times investigation from 2012 detailed cases of abuse at several Christian 
  homes and boarding schools in Florida;
  
  22 boys were removed from a Christian boarding school in Alabama last year 
  due to allegations of abuse). While institutions like these have at least 
  faced scrutiny in the past, it’s hard to imagine them being met with 
  resistance from political leaders in 2017.
  
  Why Does The GOP Still Support Dangerous Gay ‘Conversion Therapy’? 
  theestablishment.co Under the auspices of the Trump administration and 
  powerful far-right politicians and pundits, religious indoctrination has been 
  propped up as a key element of educational development. Evangelical leaders 
  have been celebrating what they see as the
  
  end of government intrusion on matters of faith and family, and recently 
  confirmed Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has a history of steering tax 
  dollars away from public schools and toward
  
  private, often religious, alternatives. Mother Jones reported that
  
  DeVos’ $100 million in donations over the last decade “show an 
  overwhelming emphasis on funding Christian schools [and] evangelical 
  missions.” Meanwhile, the administration has made it clear that the anti-LGBT 
  measures common at these religious camps and treatment centers will have its 
  support. Before assuming her cabinet post, DeVos donated millions to
  
  anti-LGBTQ organizations that advocate for conversion therapy. And as 
  governor of Indiana, Mike Pence not only provided businesses in the state the
  
  legal right to discriminate against LGBTQ individuals in an effort to 
  protect so-called religious freedom, but proposed
  
  taking federal dollars away from HIV/AIDS prevention by redirecting that 
  funding “toward those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking 
  to change their sexual behavior.” Of course, there are many Christian 
  therapeutic programs and boarding camps that don’t engage in abusive 
  practices. But governmental oversight is necessary to ensure that institutions 
  aren’t allowed to harm students. And it’s clear from looking at SHA and other 
  schools that this oversight, as it exists, fails to protect children. The 
  Oversight Gap Shepherd’s Hill Academy operated unlicensed and unsupervised by 
  the state of Georgia for more than 10 years. It was not until September of 
  2010 that Georgia’s Department of Human Services (DHS) and its Office of 
  Residential Child Care (ORCC), now the
  Residential 
  Child Care Licensing (RCCL) unit, was forced to investigate the school. 
  And that only happened after it received a complaint from a social worker, 
  alleging, “[I]t appears to us they are ‘driving without a license.’” After an 
  investigation was concluded, four months after the initial complaint was 
  filed, Carol S. Winstead, then-program director of Georgia’s ORCC, sent an 
  official letter stating that within 45 days, SHA must either cease operation 
  or submit an application for an
  Outdoor Child 
  Caring Program (OCCP) license. This license covers child-caring 
  institutions that provide “room, board and watchful oversight along with a 
  variety of outdoor activities taking place in a wilderness or camp environment 
  that are designed to improve the emotional and behavioral adjustment of 
  children.” All of the academy’s activities, save for the academic portion of 
  the program, are governed under this license. The initial license was received 
  and went into effect on January 3, 2012. That is 15 months after the initial 
  complaint was filed with the state of Georgia’s Department of Human Services 
  (DHS) and approximately 11 years after Trace and Beth Embry first started 
  treating troubled teenagers on their farm. Shepherd’s Hill Academy operated 
  unlicensed and unsupervised by the state of Georgia for more than ten years. 
  According to documents provided by the DHS, SHA repeatedly failed their 
  on-site inspections and off-site evaluations during the licensing process, 
  including having too many residents for the allotted land area. Though it has 
  since been licensed for a reduced capacity of 36 residents, instead of the 50 
  it once had, SHA has still failed its annual inspection each year since 
  becoming licensed by the state in 2012. Despite this, SHA has managed to stay 
  in business, likely due to a bureaucratic idiosyncrasy. If violations are 
  found, the ORCC 
  requires a “Plan of Correction” to be submitted within 10 business days. 
  As long as the ORCC approves the plan — at their discretion, they may permit 
  the institution to submit a revised plan — there are no penalties. SHA has 
  presumably been able to stay in business because of this process. Trace Embry 
  himself has been the source of licensure violations as well. According to the 
  state of Georgia’s rules and regulations for Outdoor Child Caring Programs, 
  the administrator or executive director of a program: “…shall have a master’s 
  degree from an accredited college or university and a minimum of three years 
  of increasingly responsible experience in the human service, mental health or 
  health care field, or a bachelor’s degree plus five years experience in the 
  field of child care, human services, mental health, at least two of which 
  includes supervisory and/or administrative responsibility.” Yet Embry, who is 
  listed as the executive director of Shepherd’s Hill Academy Inc. on all 
  official documents, has no college degree. Rebecca Bombet Basile, former 
  employee at Shepherd’s Hill,
  
  testified to a court of appeal that “Trace Embry and his wife, Beth Embry, 
  run the program, but neither has a college degree.” Records from
  Toccoa Falls College (TFC) provided by the 
  National Student Clearinghouse confirm that Mr. Embry was enrolled at TFC from 
  1991 through 1998, but he did not obtain a degree from the school. This isn’t 
  necessarily unusual;
  according 
  to DHS, the third most requested
  waiver in 2013 
  for OCCP programs in the state was for the “Education/Experience for 
  Director/Human Service Professional.” Confirmed by documents provided by the 
  DHS, Trace Embry and Shepherd’s Hill Academy have, in fact, received a waiver 
  for this requirement. The waiver was granted in April 2011 during the 
  licensing process because “[Trace Embry] has over 10 years of experience…[and] 
  will employ staff who possesses the required educational credentials.” The 
  waiver was renewed in June of both 2014 and 2015. It is not merely coincidence 
  that the “over 10 years of experience” referenced in the waiver approval memo 
  is the same decade during which SHA operated illegally.
  
  The Not-So-Subtle Censorship Affecting Our Schoolchildren theestablishment.co 
  During the summer of 2011, Beth Embry repeatedly requested that SHA not be 
  required to comply with two rules, mandating that all incoming students 
  receive both a physical exam and psychological or psychiatric evaluation prior 
  to admission. Beth provided numerous reasons as to why SHA should be excused 
  from wholly complying with these rules, including their faith-based status, 
  the “high standard for moral character” of the parents, and the alleged risk 
  involved to both the “well-being of the prospective student” and the 
  “integrity of [the student’s] family dynamics.” Notably, Beth repeatedly asked 
  the state to take into consideration SHA’s 10-year history, and in one 
  instance claimed “a precedent has been set as we have successfully 
  operated…for over a decade.” While these numerous requests were denied, SHA 
  has violated these rules on more than one occasion since receiving their 
  license. A license loses all its credibility if its requirements are routinely 
  not met; it is merely another piece of paper that gives organizations the 
  legal protection to abuse children. A license loses all its credibility if its 
  requirements are routinely not met. It is merely another piece of paper that 
  gives organizations the legal protection to abuse children. Meanwhile, despite 
  these troublesome practices, Trace and Beth Embry have worked hard to ensure 
  that Shepherd’s Hill Academy looks aboveboard on first look. As advertised on 
  their website, SHA is accredited by the Georgia Accrediting Commission (GAC) 
  and licensed by Georgia’s Department of Human Services (DHS). But as confirmed 
  by the executive director of GAC, an independent state-approved agency, the 
  accreditation only applies to the academic portion of SHA. That is, the 
  lectures and classes that happen on the main campus—not the equine therapy or 
  the beekeeping or the construction projects. SHA also advertises their 
  membership in the American Association of Christian Schools (AACS) and their 
  state chapter, the American Association of Christian Counselors (AACC), and 
  the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSP). These 
  are membership organizations to which member schools pay fees to be included 
  in their network. For example, NATSAP is a trade association, not a federal or 
  state-approved agency. As
  stated 
  on their site, it “does not provide oversight of our member programs, 
  believing that responsibility lies with the licensing and accrediting 
  agencies.” The issues at Shepherd’s Hill are alarmingly neither unique nor the 
  worst that have been reported. Residential treatment programs and therapeutic 
  boarding schools across the country have had enough horrific incidents 
  connected with deceptive marketing and a distressing deficit in state 
  oversight to prompt a congressional hearing. The issues at Shepherd’s Hill are 
  alarmingly neither unique nor the worst. At the request of Representative 
  George Miller, a Democrat from California, in April 2008, a hearing was held 
  before the House Committee on Education and Labor on “Child 
  Abuse and Deceptive Marketing by Residential Programs for Teens.” 
  Addressing the hearing’s chairman Miller in a letter, Jill Ohanesian-Ryan 
  wrote that her daughter was admitted to what they understood to be a “therapeutic 
  boarding school” called Hidden Lake Academy (HLA) in Dahlonega, Georgia. 
  But HLA was not licensed, even though it was marketed as such to other states 
  and accepted out-of-state Individual Education Program (IEP) students and 
  children under the No Child Left Behind Act. According to HLA’s attorney’s own 
  written words to Carol Winstead, then-program director of residential 
  childcare at Georgia’s DHS, “therapeutic is a marketing term.” Peer group 
  counselors, she noted, were also not licensed by the state of Georgia. For 
  these therapeutic boarding schools, catering to troubled teens, ‘therapeutic’ 
  is simply a marketing term. Incidentally, each state handles students who 
  require an IEP differently, making it difficult to transfer a student with an 
  IEP to an out-of-state program. Residential programs like HLA found a way 
  through this and advertised heavily out of state. Shepherd’s Hill also
  
  takes advantage of this, stating on their site, “We are able to 
  accommodate a variety of Individualized Educational Plans (IEP) adjustments.” 
  And as their sitemap 
  exposes, they are trying to take advantage of search-engine results by having 
  regional advertising for hundreds of cities across the country in nearly all 
  50 states. Ohanesian-Ryan also wrote that she and several other parents 
  contacted Georgia authorities — among them, Winstead, of the ORCC — “regarding 
  the misrepresentations and abuses at HLA,” and that ORCC refused to take 
  action until a class-action suit brought public attention. When an 
  investigation into Hidden Lake Academy finally occurred, Ohanesian-Ryan 
  testified that investigators discovered “suicide attempts, rapes, cuttings, 
  broken bones, zip tying, cold cocking and the like [that] were never reported 
  to CPS” by HLA, the local sheriff’s department, the local hospital, or any 
  other responsible institutions. She affirms, “Despite the CPS report of 2006, 
  ORS granted HLA two consecutive six month temporary licenses.” She was assured 
  by the ORS that if HLA failed to comply with the regulations during their 
  temporary licensure, they would be shut down. But, she said, “Nothing had 
  changed; [they] did not shut them down.” In 2012, another federal 
  investigation took place at a different DHS facility in Georgia, which
  
  alleged that agents were “destroying, delaying, changing and falsifying 
  child abuse reports.” Former DHS Commissioner Clyde Reese III
  
  claimed in a statement in response to this raid, “the safety of children 
  was ‘a fundamental guiding principle.’” Troublingly, the state of Georgia 
  failed in its oversight and regulation of HLA during the early years of SHA’s 
  unmonitored operation — and it appears a disregard for the physical, 
  emotional, and mental health of the children placed in therapeutic boarding 
  schools in the state of Georgia has remained consistent. The official titles, 
  employees, and therapeutic programs may change, but the disregard for the 
  physical, emotional, and mental health of the children placed in therapeutic 
  boarding schools remains constant. Moreover, it’s not just Georgia that has 
  contended with regulatory issues. A lack of sufficient oversight has been 
  documented in
  
  Florida and
  
  Iowa, and one online guide to Christian boarding schools
  
  openly notes that: “…some states do not provide much oversight for 
  programs designated as Christian Programs, or Christian Boarding Schools. This 
  may be due to the desire to keep church and state separate. At any rate many 
  Christian programs, Christian boot camps, and Christian boarding schools do 
  not have a lot of regulations mandated by the state they are located in.” How 
  Many More? In a promotional
  
  video produced by SHA, a parent of a student talks about her 
  “investigation” into abuse allegations at the farm. “I found out from Trace 
  Embry that there was a website where someone posted these inflammatory, 
  derogatory statements,” she begins. “I went home and looked them up and I read 
  them. And I could find no evidence of truth in any of them.” She goes on to 
  say that she “went to the state of Georgia to find out if there were any 
  complaints against the school,” and nothing was credibly substantiated. This 
  video, uploaded in 2014, only two years after SHA was licensed, is referencing 
  abuse allegations during the decade SHA was unmonitored by the state of 
  Georgia. The aforementioned mismanagement, neglect, and abuse cover-ups that 
  occurred for years at the offices meant to monitor facilities like Shepherd’s 
  Hill — on behalf of children — puts into serious doubt whether the state did 
  or did not receive complaints concerning Trace and Beth Embry’s “discipleship 
  clinic.” The Embrys have concluded on more than one occasion that some of 
  their students are suffering from demonic possession, which is why they are 
  “brainwashing [them] with the blood of the lamb.” Trace Embry, who has no 
  medical training or college degree, believes that students who have been 
  diagnosed by professionals with very real and treatable mental illnesses are 
  actually suffering from too much technology use, the overconsumption of media, 
  and a lack of religious conviction. The Embrys long for the day when a teacher 
  could paddle a student for alleged misbehavior without any legal consequences. 
  They believe that teenagers who profess to have same-gender sexual attraction 
  or are questioning their gender assigned to them at birth are being influenced 
  by “Old Dark Eyes” and were sexually abused at a young age. They confer with 
  ultra-religious counselors who are not licensed in their state, don’t hold 
  nationally recognized certification, and believe that a smartphone is akin to 
  carrying “Sodom 
  and Gomorrah in your pocket.” And all the while, the state of Georgia has 
  given Shepherd’s Hill Academy a stamp of approval where children’s safety is a 
  “fundamental guiding principle.” How many more children have to suffer before 
  SHA — which,
  
  it’s been noted, “brings in a lot of revenue for the county” — is shut 
  down? How long before others like it are, too? There were enough allegations 
  of abuse, with accompanying state-level cover-ups, concerning residential 
  programs for teens in 2008 for a congressional hearing to take place. This is 
  only one school, in one state. How many more are there? Fact-checking by 
  Maxine Builder.  Source:
  
  https://theestablishment.co/at-unregulated-christian-boarding-schools-students-face-conversion-therapy-abuse-and-f584e1c72fbc#.wxq09zre1  | 
 
    
  | 
   THE TRUTH:
  All segregated congregate care providers, including those on 
  our watch-list, are welcome to contact us to correct any information or 
  provide additional data that may assist with delivering the whole truth to the 
  public.  The HEAL Mission of COPE (HEAL) found in many cases where this 
  offer has been abused or resulted in revealing additional basis for our 
  concerns. For some examples see 
  feedback.  Now, we are willing to look at the facts and may have questions 
  or require documentation backing up any claims.  We do verify licensing, 
  academic backgrounds, and other qualifications when investigating and 
  researching programs on our watch-lis/enrolled in the Conversion Program to 
  assist consumers seeking additional information on such programs or victims 
  requiring assistance with getting corroborating evidence of their claims.  We 
  do that in order to make sure the information we provide is accurate and 
  verified and cite our sources.  In the event any information we've posted is 
  in error, we're happy to make a correction.  
  HEAL does not support segregated congregate care for many 
  reasons which include that many such facilities are abusive, exploitative, 
  fraudulent, and lack effective oversight often as a result of fraudulent 
  misrepresentation coupled with the ignorance of those seeking to enroll loved 
  ones in such facilities, programs, schools, or centers without a valid court 
  order and involuntarily.  In the United States such involuntary 
  placements done without a court order are apparently illegal as they either 
  violate the Americans with Disabilities Act community integration requirement 
  or due process rights of those involuntarily placed.  Now, in regards to 
  parents, in the United States parents have the right to waive their own 
  rights, but, not the rights of their minor children.  See
  
  https://www.cope.church/legalarguments.htm for more information.  Now, 
  most facilities on our watch list include waivers, indemnity clauses, and 
  sworn statements legal guardians must sign assuring the program that the parents/legal 
  guardians have 
  the right to make the placement involuntarily and without due process in a 
  segregated congregate care environment, however, California and federal 
  prosecutors as well as settled law appears to suggest that is not the case.  
  In fact, in the David Taylor case found at
  
  https://www.cope.church/provocases.htm , Taylor sued Provo Canyon School 
  and his mother as co-defendants.  His mother was found liable for 75% of 
  the damages awarded to Taylor as a result of multiple complaints including 
  false imprisonment, while the program was found only 25% liable because the 
  mother owed a duty of due diligence to investigate anyone to which she would 
  entrust care of her child and she failed to do so.  
  Now, HEAL 
  opposes segregated congregate care and we find most placements are happening 
  illegally in the USA which if the youth understood their rights would result 
  in unfortunate outcomes for the parents, particularly when they don't exercise 
  good judgment and support the fraud and abuse rather than their own children 
  when they need remedy and justice.  And, HEAL supports all victims of 
  fraud and abuse in seeking remedies at law for any crimes or torts committed 
  against them.  And, that's true whether or not the program or victims are 
  in the USA.  
  HEAL has a 5 point argument against segregated 
  congregate care we'd like you to consider:
  a.  Segregated care is 
  unconstitutional and a civil rights violation.  It is only permissible if a 
  person is unable to survive independent of an institutional environment.  For 
  more on this, watch the HEAL Report at  
  https://youtu.be/C4NzhZc4P0A.  Or, see:  
  http://www.ada.gov/olmstead/  which 
  includes in part:    "United States v. Florida – 1:12-cv-60460 – (S.D. Fla.) 
  – On April 7, 2016, the United States filed an Opposition to the State of 
  Florida’s Motion for Partial Summary Judgment.  In the Motion, the State had 
  asked the Court to rule, on a variety of grounds, that the United States could 
  not recover damages for unnecessarily institutionalized children to whom the 
  State had been deliberately indifferent." 
  b.  Institutionalization is 
  always dehumanizing and coercive.  Institutionalization always harms the 
  institutionalized and deprives them of protected civil rights.  Dr. David 
  Straker, Psychiatry Professor at Columbia University's School of Medicine (Ivy 
  League) explains this in detail at
  
  http://changingminds.org/disciplines/sociology/articles/institutionalization.htm.  
  "Many institutions, from prisons to monasteries to asylums, deliberately want 
  to control and manage their inmates such that they conform and do not cause 
  problems. Even in less harsh environments, many of the institutionalization 
  methods may be found, albeit in more moderated form (although the 
  psychological effect can be equally devastating)."  (See website linked in 
  this paragraph for more info.) 
  c.  Institutionalization is not in the 
  best interest of children.  Institutions are not ever better for a child than 
  living with a loving family.  Source:  
  
  http://www.unicef.org/cambodia/12681_23295.html        
  d.  Reform 
  schools, residential treatment programs, and other segregated congregate care 
  settings have been shown to be ineffective and harmful.  Best source on this 
  currently is:    
  
  https://www.acgov.org/probation/documents/EndoftheReformSchoolbyVinny.doc
  
  e. Boarding Schools, even the "good ones", result in a form of social 
  death, isolation, and cause both anxiety and depression.  Therefore, it is 
  clearly not in the best interest of the youth subjected to those 
  environments.  Sources:
  
  http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jun/08/boarding-school-syndrome-joy-schaverien-review 
  and
  
  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/secondaryeducation/11662001/The-truth-about-boarding-school-syndrome.html
  
  Beyond the above arguments against segregated congregate care, we have 
  reports from the NIH, Surgeon General, Yale University Studies, and much more 
  showing the methodologies of behavior modification are damaging, harmful, and 
  ineffective.  You can request these documents via
  e-mail.  In addition, for such programs offering academic services or 
  claiming to offer diplomas, certifications, or the like, it is important to 
  check to see if it is a diploma mill with no accredited academic services.  
  Please see article: "Avoiding 
  Scams: What You Need To Know"  for important information on how to avoid 
  education/training scams. 
  If you'd like to see what HEAL suggests 
  rather than segregated congregate care (i.e. committing a crime or tort 
  against your child if done against their will without a court order), please 
  see articles: "Fix Your 
  Family, Help Your Teen" and "Emancipation 
  Guide". 
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				 REPORTING GUIDE FOR VICTIMS, SURVIVORS, AND WHISTLEBLOWERS: 
				  In Georgia, the criminal statutes of limitation are 2 
				years on misdemeanors, 4 years on most felonies, and no statute of 
				limitations on more serious felonies including rape, murder and 
				kidnapping.  
				For civil suits in Georgia, the statute of limitations is 2 
				years.  Here are your options:    1.  
				Report crimes such as fraud, assault, battery, false 
				imprisonment, labor trafficking, and child abuse to law 
				enforcement in Georgia.  Call the Stephens County sheriff 
				at (706)886-2525 to inquire about filing an 
				official complaint which may provide the probable cause needed 
				to get a warrant for investigation and/or prosecution. 
  
				2.  File a consumer complaint with your home state's 
				attorney general against Shepherd's Hill Farm and include your 
				request for compensation for any harm done to you.  If your home 
				state is Georgia or you'd like to file with the Georiga State 
				Attorney General as a non-resident, here is that link: 
				
				https://consumer.georgia.gov/resolve-your-dispute/how-do-i-file-complaint     3.  If you do not wish to file a consumer complaint, you can contact a 
  private personal injury attorney and look into suing in tort/civil court.  
  However, if you can't afford the retainer, you should expect to settle out of 
  court with a non-disclosure agreement which may bar you from speaking publicly 
  about the incident because you've agreed (even if with a grumbling assent) to 
  the terms of the settlement.     4.  You may send a new e-mail to rev@cope.church with subject "Post My 
				Feedback" and we will post your feedback (e-mail printed to .pdf 
				disclosing your name and e-mail address and any information in 
				your e-mail with that subject) to
				
				https://www.cope.church/feedback.htm  and add a direct 
				link to those .pdf files to this page .  
   5. You 
				may also wish to provide a guest sermon.  Guest sermons are 
				posted at 
				https://www.cope.church/sermons.htm , under Progress 
				Reports/Guest Sermons at 
  
  https://www.cope.church/conversion.htm where appropriate, and on 
				program info pages when applicable.  So, one provided by 
				you on your program would also be placed on this page .  
				Guest sermons should be written into the body of an e-mail and 
				sent to rev@cope.church . Your first and last name will be 
				disclosed (contact info will not be unless you expressly request 
  disclosure).  For sermons available on our site see
				
				https://www.cope.church/sermons.htm  (and sermon 
				archives linked on that page).  If you have questions about 
				this option, please contact rev@cope.church. Please see
				
				https://www.cope.church/givetoday.pdf  to get an idea 
				what your sermon may be worth.
  
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  2/10/21: COPE Conversion Program Progress Report:
  Shepherd's Hill Farm | 
 
 
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