Samantha’s New Leaf Academy (now Embark Behavioral Health) Testimony

We had a Dr. Hauschka skin care party, where they gave us samples of a rose body oil and lavender bath soap. I LOVED that rose body oil to death. There were 10 girls in a room, all sleeping on bunk beds and sharing a common bathroom. One day, I was drawing, and one of the staff named Jessica, asks me to go to the TOS (Time Out Stool), where it was in the end of this long, very dimly lit hallway in a corner of the wall where there was chipped paint and blood smears from other girls banging their heads in distress. They left me on the TOS for two hours, until Jessica came back and asked if I knew why I was on there. When I said no and asked why, she just turned around and left. Jessica left me on the TOS for a total of 6 hours, not allowing me to have lunch, and when I broke down and begged why, she told me that she knew I took everyone’s Dr. Hauschka samples and put them in my cubby. I tried to say I didn’t do it, but Jessica, or any of the staff, didn’t believe me. After that, they called me a “thief” to my mom, gave me 1/2 less food than all the other girls (apparently I wasn’t the only one this was happening too, I found out later), “grounded” me, which means I had to do 2 hours of hard, laborious work, like moving large rocks.

Depending on the staff working, and how sadistic they were feeling, they would make my “grounding” three hours or more. We were also forced to do hard exercise in below freezing temperatures and temps over 85 degrees (which I found out is illegal). With being given less food, the forced exercise, and the physical labor, I lost 20lbs in 2 months, dropping down from a size 10 jeans to a size 6. When my mom came to visit me, she noticed my weight loss and saw my ribs showing. Instead of doing anything about it, my mom instead took my sister to Disneyland and kept it a secret from me until I was 18.

Later on, one of the mothers came up and said to her that her daughter, Lindsey, admitted she was one of the girls that set me up, and my mom investigated and found out there were 2-3 girls in total who set me up. The school never punished the girls, never apologized to me, or made reparations. I have food trauma to this day because of the incident that happened, and severe C-PTSD and recurring nightmares.

NOTE: New Leaf Academy is now “Embark Behavioral Health