Anonymous’ Franklin Academy in Connecticut Testimony

I wasn’t sure whether I was a victim of the troubled teen industry or not. My experience was not as terrible as others but I then realized that comparing traumas is detrimental to anyone’s mental health. It takes away the ability to allow yourself to face what you went through, because you consider it to be nothing. This leads to blaming yourself for the situation, and prevents healing. So I decided to take a risk. I am about to tell my story of my experience at Franklin Academy in Connecticut, a school for kids with autism and Nonverbal Learning Disability. My parents told me that sending me to this boarding school was “the last thing we can do for you.” They knew that if they said this to me it would give me the push to decide to go, because underlining that statement was the threat of losing my parents’ help and support in everything in life, and the threat of them blaming me for not going and everything that could happen because I didn’t go. As they so manipulatively planned, I decided to go.

I toured the school with my mom and I remember the lady saying “no one is forcing you to come here.” That in fact is a very manipulative statement and I should have caught on to it the moment she said it instead of three years later. She told me no one was forcing me, yet she knew that my parents wanted me to go and knew that a lot of people with learning disabilities couldn’t think for themselves.

The nightmare started when I stood up for my friend whose boyfriend cheated on her. I texted him with swears, calling him names, and exclaiming what he did was wrong. He told staff and they told me that they were giving me a “light punishment” because I was a new student. They said that a lot worse things could happen. That punishment was to turn my computer in early. Another time in one of the texts I was venting to someone who I thought was my friend and was telling them that I could “kill” the person that was my crush who I overheard gossiping about me. I even confronted the girl he was gossiping with. Yet I got in trouble for gossiping about the situation instead of them getting in trouble for gossiping about me. Another time I was part of a group chat and we were talking about someone who was sexually harassing me. I got in trouble for that too. Just for talking about him. I cannot remember the exact order of occurrences because the traumatic experiences are most likely naturally blocked out from my acute memories. I was not used to being surrounded by the mass sensitivity of a population. Everything I said someone was offended by and then said something to me that wasn’t right so I stood up for myself and then they would tattle on me and I would get in trouble. It wasn’t just texts the staff attacked me for. It was for venting to people. I got in trouble for catty teenage gossip. That’s it. I remember talking about a teacher and she happened to be recording the class without our permission and what I said about her was caught on tape. So they locked me in an office with four adults including the one I was gossiping about, and forced me to watch the video.

They kept making the punishments worse and worse. The method that the staff were using was unjust. They kept focusing on the negative past instead of the positive future. They jumped from turning my computer in early to getting in school suspended. There were no locks on the dorm doors, but I was not allowed to leave my room except to go to the bathroom. They took my phone and computer away. I was allowed to go to meals but I had to sit with the staff. It was this way for three days. Two of those days fell on weekends. The one that fell on a school day I was forced to sit at a desk in a secluded hall to do my schoolwork. I was in school suspended three times. The third one was supposed to be an out of school suspension but my parents could not come get me. I had never gotten in trouble in public school. I never had issues with peers at my public high school.

They were trying to tear me down and break me. I came in with little social issues so they MADE me have issues. They never forgave me for what I first did “wrong.” They manipulated me into thinking that there was something wrong with me and taught me to feel bad about myself. They manipulated my parents to believe that every punishment I received was brought on by myself. Their unforgiving punishment method was used even when the events were years apart. I learned how to navigate situations so that the staff wouldn’t deem it “bad” so right before graduation I was done with being afraid of them. I got a text from what I thought to be a sexual predator. When I found out it was someone from the school I called him out on it and swore at him. When the staff found out, they attempted to suspend me as school was over zoom at this point in June of 2020. One of the staff before graduation told us to not write negative reviews on the school. She said to send it to her first. This is straight up trying to hide the truth from the public. The headmaster also shut down an alumni from telling us something to be careful about at the school. He prevented her from telling us anything negative.

This is also the only place where I have ever been sexually harassed. The administration failed to make the boy stay away from me, they failed to prevent future sexual harassment. They failed to expel him after my experience and many others experiences being a victim of his harassment. One time a family was touring and asked us how the boys treated the girls and if she should be worried. I so badly wanted to warn her, but staff were nearby and they would attack me and would somehow blame and punish me for telling prospective families about my negative experience.

They also forced us to hand over computers or phones when they deemed something we looked up was “inappropriate” and searched our history. This was without our consent. They just told us to let them see it and if we refused it would be “suspicious” or they would punish us even more.

Another time before graduation I didn’t feel comfortable attending all of the unnecessary meetings because they lowered my self esteem and made my depression worse. They threatened to not graduate me just for not attending some meetings. This is so manipulative and sketchy because it is under the law that you cannot withhold a diploma for unnecessary reasons. They even made my parents believe I wasn’t going to graduate if I didn’t attend meetings. These meetings were outside of schoolwork. They also had solitary confinement where I witnessed a boy locked in a classroom alone, not allowed to leave unless going to the bathroom, without technology as punishment for missing a meal.