Mr. Buccellato just does not know how to bow out gracefully or obviously contain the delusional writing skills of the staff. Now he cares about the children. To use the children like this on the final curtain call, is disgusting and seriously, apparently someone has major issues. Ridge Creek School did not have food service since last Friday. Buccellato and Edens wanted to contain this until the next Friday. Yet, there was an apparent abundant supply of "Little Toy Soldiers;" "Toy Animals" indeed. One would imagine the Director of DFCS will mention tripping over "Little Toy Soldiers" last Tuesday. This should be an interesting report. Of all the unusual events Wednesday, the Georgia Advocacy Office must have welcomed the sight of " Little Toy Soldiers" and "Toy Animals."... Perhaps, it was an "oversight." Stay tuned.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Little Toy SoldiersRidge Creek School is closed and I will never look at little toy soldiers without thinking about the school, the students, familes, and colleagues I worked with while I was there.Monday after lunch I broke the news to the students that Ridge Creek School would be closing it's doors by the end of the week. There were tears and protests that it was not true. Students and staff spent time at Lakefront consoling one another, then the students were dismissed to their dorms to pack and prepare for departures, whenever that would come.Later that day I saw some of the boys walking around and putting something on my car. I asked what they were doing and they said they were putting out toy soldiers. When I asked why, they said to protect the school. The little toy soldiers are everywhere...in the Admin Building, the dorms, Academics, the Lodge, the Gym, on retaining walls. When they ran out of toy soldiers they placed toy animals to watch over us.It was clear the little toy soldiers were a metaphor for their feelings that day and the days that followed as the toy soldiers are still here, after everyone is gone, protecting Ridge Creek School. These young men were feeling that they and their school had been attacked and needed protection.Over the next few days I heard students say that Ridge Creek was a family, they liked it here, it just started to get good for them and that they did not want to leave. One student told me he knew he was Oppositional Defiant Disorderd because he did not want to come when he was sent here, and now that he was being forced to leave, he did not want to go. Another student asked her father to let her spend the night one more time before leaving school.Parents were, for the most part, incredibly understanding with the news and the scramble for getting their children home or to the next program. I hear over and over how grateful they were that their child had the time here that they had, some claiming we had saved their child's life.The campus is now empty except for the staff that live here. No more do I hear the shouts and laughter of the students as they return to their dorms in the evening. The peace of the mountains surrounds the campus, unfortunately it will no longer bring peace and healing to the hearts and minds of troubled teenages.
Posted by Ridge Creek Therapeutic Boarding School at 5:50 PM
Staff Comment Posted today on Fornits by RCSworkhorse:
by RCSworkhorse » Today, 11:07
"Wow this makes me mad! Anyone who has worked at RCS recently knows very well that Len hid in his office and almost never interacted with Students....I would dare say he hasn't actually heard children's laughter on that campus in some time.
This man's unwillingness to admit that his lack of leadership and ethics had anything to do with the failure of the school paired with the ease with which he passes the buck off to "disturbed individuals" infuriates me. For god sake Len...while you are drying your crocodile tears hard working people who actually worked with these kids and tried to keep them safe.....despite your lack of support....are now having to look for jobs and pick up the peices of their lives, families are incurring the costs of unplanned flights home and wondering if they will ever see a penny of the money they thought they were investing in the well-being of their children!? I am disgusted!"
Updated: "Anne Edens: " My observations on the closing of the school." 07-23-2011 Jilliestake
I don't believe this post for one second! I went to that school as did a ton of my friends. It's been the same for years. There's a reason that the kids rioted the second the staff left, and there's a reason the staff left!
ReplyDeleteThe place is guilty of major civil rights violations, it's mental torture wannabe therapy is designed to control parents to not listen to their kids protests as they keep sending in money. The "program" as they refer to it, couches it's rules and punishments in such strange language it's difficult to explain to outsiders what happens there. Words like "bans, getting put on a table, reals, restrictions, zaps, boundaries, isolation, cals, being grounded, going on a challenge" are codes for bizarre punishments which require a series of other words to explain.
The place is cursed for all the pain it's inflicted over the years. ALL OF US ARE SMILING AS YOU BURN TO THE GROUND!
And every dime you made off your manipulative and unethical practices WILL be taken back. To use their language: the claim that the school is in anyway being attacked, is a total projection. What is happening is a natural consequence of the choices Bucci made.
The "toy soldiers" metaphor is disgusting. Whoever wrote this has a vivid and twisted imagination, and a perverted sense of reality. The day that school closed was probably the happiest day those students ever spent there. Just another ploy by Buccellato to garner some sympathy and divert blame. What a sick son of a bitch.
ReplyDeleteYou are out of your mine...there were over hundreds of soldiers, kids were crying and staff and students were upset at the closing. You obviously went to the school and had no relationships with anyone. Nice try but if you would been there you would understand.
ReplyDeleteWhat struck me, and seemed inappropriate, is that the children were apparently told that the "school was under attack". If that's true, inappropriate to play their emotions like that.
ReplyDeleteOn Second Thought, her tears, her soldiers, for her job protection.
Yes, Anon, natural consequences for Buchi. He and his staff of minions had ODD. They lied to state agencies about their legal classification. They exhibited the exact behaviors they professed to 'treat'.
ReplyDelete