Hurrikayne: What is the name of the facility you were in?
Alex: Boulder Creek Academy, in Idaho.

When were you there & how long did you stay?
I was there from June 22, 2007 to June 21, 2008.

Their website states that “Boulder Creek Academy is a safe refuge for at-risk troubled teens.” Do you feel that you were “at-risk” or “troubled”?

I feel that I was troubled, but not ‘at-risk’, whatever that means (assuming you mean cutting, drugs, sex, etc). I was mildly depressed, and had mood swings because of my medication. Basically, my parents didn't want to wait out me being on new medication.

They also describe typical students as, “Capable but discouraged by academic struggle; Isolated, low self-esteem; Unable to see consequences of actions; Experimented with drugs and alcohol.” Do you feel these generalizations accurately describe how you were at the time you entered the program?

Most kids there, however, are not isolated. I heard so many stories about crazy shit that happened at their homes and whatnot with their friends. From what I saw, some of those kids had pretty good self-esteem. Most of the students there have done drugs, but not all of them.

The rest are idiotic, immature simpletons. They fail classes (which are not hard to pass), can't see that A+B=C, and are total druggies. Most of the kids who saw the website made jokes about how the kids had 'an IQ of over 90', because some of the kids were so stupid. One of the kids said that all the buildings in Tokyo were made of bamboo, and another believed that Japanese tiger eggs existed.

Whose idea was it for you to go to this facility?
It was my parents' idea.

Why did your parents feel that a therapeutic boarding school would be better than a ‘normal’ boarding school?

I honestly don't know why my parents thought it was better, but I'm guessing it had to do with a lot of one-sided misinformation. They learned about this school from an Education Consultant, Molly Baron, and then my therapist at Second Nature, Jay Huffine, and took a tour at BCA with Shaunale Wilson. My mom really is easy to get bought into all of this crap, and I'm honestly surprised that my dad was sucked into it. Apparently, my dad looked at normal ones too, but he said at the time it seemed like the right thing to do, but now he seems to regret his decision.

Were you included in the decision?
No, I was not included whatsoever. I wanted to go to a normal boarding school, but they sent me to a wilderness.

How did you get there?
I was transported to wilderness, and then to the school

What do you mean by 'transported' and what kind of wilderness were you taken to?

I was woken up at 5 AM at home by two men, who talked to me about a program called Second Nature in Bend, Oregon. I was excited, and thought it was a (normal) boarding school. I was allowed to take a shower and grab my Nintendo DS to use on the trip there. Then I was handed off to two people from Second Nature at the Airport in Richmond, OR. They took me to a doctor to get a physical, then to the headquarters of the place where I had to strip naked and show that I didn't have any 'contraband' on me, (luckily no cavity search), and then got shipped off to the middle of nowhere.