Anonymous’ Devereux Glenholme Testimony

I was at the school as a day student for around six months; so I guess I was lucky in that respect. The school had only two teacher’s who actually taught me anything. The math teacher just sat at his desk as we filled in workbook’s , and if you were having any trouble understanding the concept’s he would just have another student help you instead of teaching. I regressed in my learning while I was there. As far as the rules went there were no set rules. I still remember how on my first day there I asked a staff member for a rule book, and she said that there wasn’t one. So they could just dock your point sheet for anything.

I am on the autism spectrum (high functioning), and I have non verbal learning disability; so I was already seeing a psychiatrist for medication. They forced me to see their psychiatrist in addition to my own. He had kids that he was medicating in and out in under ten minutes. He also insisted that my name was Jessicaanne, because there had obviously been a misprint on my paperwork. My name is Jessica, and my middle name is Anne. He tried to tell me that I did not know my own name.

As far as the facilities were concerned we were never able to take books out of the very small library, or ride the horses that were there. Although I was not a boarding student I am aware of the fact that the staff read all of the students outgoing and incoming mail. I was also not a student at the health table, but even I thought it was wrong to force the children and teens to sit at a table in the middle of the dining hall where it was obvious that these students were different. Furthermore, the woman who was in charge of the health table weighed at least three hundred pounds, and she never ate the food at the health table. Instead she had seconds and thirds of the regular food. Once a week the older students were required to cook better food in a resturant on campus that the staff frequented. This resturant was also not air conditioned , and unbearably hot to work in when it was warm outside.

I was one of the lucky ones though because I was a day student; so my parents were aware of what was going on. At the end of the school year my Dad went into a meeting where they said that they wanted to keep me in the school for another year. At this meeting they tried to intimidate my Dad by putting his chair on a lower level than theirs . My Dad then proceeded to confront them , and they did not like it. My Dad’s main issue was that I could not be faulted for breaking rules that were not stated anywhere. I only found out about what went on during this last meeting when I was in my mid twenties, and I have to say that I am glad that my Mom and Dad got me out of that place.