“Jason’s” Story 

Jason is in his late 20s and a Cedar Ridge survivor. He wanted to share his impressions of his time in the program with parents and prospective parents of Cedar Ridge and “Makana, formerly Cedar Ridge,” the residential program for teens in Roosevelt, Utah. He writes: 

“I was a normal teenager. I was depressed and wanted to avoid school, even though my GPA was 3.5. One summer, I told my parents that I didn’t plan to go back to high school. This was unacceptable to them and they reached out to find help. Online, they found an  ‘Educational Consultant.’ This Educational Consultant (EC) lacked any sort of qualification in child psychology or adolescent development. I later learned, these ‘professionals’ are predatory. They received a kick-back for each teen enrolled in residential programs. As a result, they had a significant financial incentive to manipulate and convince my parents that my desire to avoid school would be best resolved by having me sent away. In short, this EC didn’t suggest therapy, wraparound services, or a host of better, evidence-based options to help a struggling teenager. 

Soon after my parents found the EC,I was kidnapped in the middle of the night by three large men. This was one of the most traumatizing experiences of my life. It left me unable to trust my parents for a decade. 

While I was in Roosevelt, I said all the right things. I kept my head down and worked my way up the levels. I told my parents I was fine, but deep down I was far from it. I couldn’t tell my parents the truth. When I finally turned 18, I worked my way to a level where I was allowed to visit home (via ‘homepass’) for my birthday. I didn’t tell anyone what I had been planning for the last year: that I would never return to Cedar Ridge. If I had told them, they wouldn’t have let me go back home. But I had a plan. I walked away from the program and started the next chapter of my life at [a prestigious public university].

Academics were always easy for me. I used my birthday money to finish the second semester of 12th grade on time and start university that August. Sadly, what should have been an exciting time for incoming freshmen (with fun, friends, and new interests) was foreign to my experience. I may have looked fine on the outside, but inside, I was hurting. I was so messed up, so traumatized by my experiences of the troubled teen industry, I had to drop my studies for a time. 

Even though I never touched drugs before being sent away from home, once I returned, I descended into a full-blown opioid addiction. Opioids numbed the pain I felt, and caused a great deal of problems. 

As mentioned, I didn’t trust my parents for the next decade. Our relationship was broken, because they couldn’t admit their decision had harmed me. It hurt them to do so. Only with time, have I come to understand that my parents were manipulated by a predatory Educational Consultant. In short, their love for me was manipulated by others for profit. This caused me significant trauma and pain. 

It took more than a decade for me to heal and get my life on-track. I am grateful for my life now. I am sober. I have a fiance. I will finish my B.S. in software development in 2021. 

I am writing to share my experience. Regardless of the situation of you or your family, I want you to know that the Educational Consultants and Program Representatives do not have your best interests at heart. In conversations with prospective parents, many claim that #BreakingCodeSilence is a group of ‘angry, bitter adults’ who have nothing better to do than bash these programs. This is untrue. 

Speaking for myself: I am not angry at any one person; I am sad about my past. Being sent away only made it that much more difficult to build a dignified future for myself. I often wonder how much better I may have done in life if I had never been sent away, all those years ago.”