Taylor’s CALO Program Testimony

2022-2023

I was at CALO for 4 months in total until I got pulled for the abuse I endured. I just got back from treatment in general about a month ago. I’m autistic and suffer from extreme anxiety and depression. I was originally sent to CALO for because of a suicide attempt and self harm. But it was worse than I imagined. This program was advertised to be really good. But when I got there the first thing I saw on my bed was “slut lies here” and I knew I was in trouble. I spent four months there where I was abused and neglected of proper medical treatment and malnourished. There were dogs there and they would get abused too.

I was “assisted” (restrained) four times. I’m extremely reactive to touch because of my trauma so when people grabbed or manhandled me I felt in danger and I would fight back. We were in a big “team home” with 10-12 girls by age groups. There were two staff for each team home and four team homes. The girls and boys were separated but only if you were biologically a boy or a girl. The transgender people had to be with their birth sex which was messed up. The first time I was restrained was on my 2nd day there! They restrained me because I threw a note book. The 2nd time was when I was sick with the flu and they wanted me to go outside with the others but I was on the couch. So they yanked me off and I pushed one of the staff off me. The third time was when I was banging my head against the wall out of frustration. The fourth was the worst. I wouldn’t go to the “safety team home” and they tried to drag me there. So I fought back and ended up with a bloody nose, busted open knuckles from them dragging my hands on the asphalt, a black eye from the staff punching me in the face, and bruising on the side of my face from them pushing my face into the asphalt. I was not only tormented physically but physiologically too. The staff would call us names, gaslight us, manipulate us, and down right brain wash us.

We were forced to eat in 10 minutes and the food was no better than prison slop. If we didn’t finish our food they would force us the throw it away. We had no fresh fruits or veggies and when we did they were fermented/moldy. We didn’t have access to fresh water in school or in my downstairs team home. We were forced to drink out of the sink. The maintenance was disgusting. Sometimes there wasn’t enough hot water for everyone to shower, it would come out brown sometimes too. We couldn’t shower past 6:30pm at night. Sometimes the showers would break and nobody could shower. There were rats on campus and maggots and worms would crawl out of the drains. We had a spider and snake problem too.

Sometimes when the team was on “no movement” we couldn’t go anywhere for weeks on end. We couldn’t even go outside. When you were in the safety team home (gemstones) you couldn’t go anywhere. We didn’t even have bed frames. Just mattresses on the ground. We couldn’t see even see outside. We weren’t allowed to wear tank tops; skirts; dresses, or leggings because they were “sexual.”

The kids were bad too; but I don’t blame them. Kids beat me up sometimes. They would call me names, tell me to kill myself, I was alone and I had nobody. There were also 4 reports of sexual assault by staff to kids. The dogs were abused and raped. They were kept in kennels all day if you didn’t earn taking them to school. They were all golden retrievers too; they got them from a puppy farm and they would come in looking like shit. These dogs were hit and taken every once of anger out on them. This place was hell. I was abused and I’m not the only one that has been. I’m forever traumatized. and I hope that there is something you can do to help me out. I’m working on a legal case with them. They are liars, all of them are. They are part of a program called embark. The whole embark thing is bad. Please note that I am not the only kid in this program that has gotten abused.

Thank you for listening.