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Spring Creek Lodge Academy is a specialty boarding school in western Montana, near the town of Thompson Falls in Sanders County. It currently has between 500 and 600 students. It is operated by the WWASP, which also operates Tranquility Bay. The facility is the largest employer in Sanders County, and its wages range from some of the top earners in the county to the low end of the wage scale due to the different positions required by such a large campus.
Controversy over policies of restraint etc
This school, like similar facilities, has been the subject of much controversy due to the negative things that allegedly occur at these schools. When met with this criticism Spring Creek Lodge claims that those who make the claims are not people of "model behavior" or integrity (which could be described as an ad hominem fallacy). Students at Spring Creek Lodge Academy may be restrained when they exhibit behavior that would put themselves or others in danger, or put in intervention (a place in which staff and student ratios are 1 to 1 for supervisory reasons). There are also accusations, that some methods of the schools are similar to some tactics of coercive mind control
Policy and rules
Spring Creek Lodge Academy has a Zero Tolerance policy for acts of violence or severely defiant actions and such behavior results in students' expulsion. At this point parents may elect to bring their child home or send them to another facility which could include other specialty schools, residential treatment centers, or other treatment options in foreign countries (such as Tranquility Bay).
The structure of the school is stringent, and some of the rules for students include:
- not looking out of windows
- not looking at or making eye contact with members of the opposite sex
- not possessing anything that can be used for escape.
Students are not allowed to keep addresses and phone numbers due to parents' privacy concerns. Students are not allowed to talk when "on silence" (a time where students require permission to speak, ie. in line, during a video or movie, or during class).
Levels system - rewards and consequences
There is a rewards and consequence system, a "token economy," for the teens, with points being awarded (which are required in order to gain a level) each day based on their school work, their attitude and overall progress, and taken away by means of "consequences" based on the student breaking the rules by doing things such as telling their parents about how miserable they are. At each level the student gains more privileges: level ones and level two will have all their basic needs met, level threes get a monthly phone call, level fours become junior staff, and so on.
Junior staff are students that have progressed through the levels and also the leadership program and become part of the leadership structure that help run the campus much as a student body helps run a high school. They consist of levels four, five, and six. A level of six is required to graduate from the program. Each level is progressively more difficult to attain, and frequently requires "seminars." A seminar may last for several days and can be an emotional marathon, where students are strongly encouraged to "get to the root of why their parents sent them to the school." While they can be therapeutic and uplifting, they are not easy because of the emotional environment and many students find them hard to handle. They occur once a month, and "choosing out" (being removed from the workshop for lack of participation, or not doing required homework) can spur the student on to take seminars seriously. If seminars are not passed, levels may not be gained.
Organization into 'families'
Students stay in groups called families while in the lower levels of the program (levels one, two, three, and three all stars), with the lowest levels (usually everything except for three all stars) sleeping in a large dormitory consisting of single room with ten bunks (20 beds) with adjoining bathrooms, shower and laundry facilities. Two rooms are joined together through adjoining doors at night time so night-staff can monitor the students. During the day, each family is segregated, and not allowed to communicate with other groups. Some lower levels within a family are not allowed to communicate with each other, unless the two people's levels add up to four (eg. a level one and a level two may not communicate). This encourages new students to seek out students that have been at the school for a while and may already have had their spirit broken instead of seeking out new students that may come in with a negative or defiant attitude, it discourages "negative people" from forming cliques. It is important to note that each new student begins at level two and they may move up from there or lose their points based on their behavior.
The family is kept together twenty-four hours a day, and at times this results in relationship strain, but at other times they rely on each other as a family member would and builds many lasting friendships. The family moves from and to each destination in a line. The line is a structured place in which the staff must maintain control. Just as a teacher in a school requires certain things of their students to maintain order, the staff requires structure which includes not talking while in line, and standing "heel to toe" whenever the line has stopped.
Type of study and results
Class time is six hours a day, six days a week, and consists of an independent study system based on competency not on time in the classroom. A student checks out a book, does a lesson's problems, submits it, and then takes a test. If he/she scores above an 80%, that student then moves on to the next chapter, and so on until the course is finished, at which point the student earns high school credit for the course. Spring Creek Lodge Academy claims to be "accredited" through the Northwest Association of Accredited Schools, not to be confused with the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges. It is of note that "The Northwest Association of Schools and of Colleges and Universities, located in Boise, Idaho and run by David Steadman, IS NOT recognized by the United States Department of Education". The ratio of credentialed students to staff is maintained in order to maintain their accreditation. Spring Creek Academy claims it has graduates who have gone on to attend many high schools and colleges throughout the United States, including Princeton, UCLA and Stanford.
Notes
- , WWASP Alleged Crimes Report, Prepared by the International Survivors Action Committee ISAC Corporation, *
See also
External links
"Spring Creek Lodge Academy"