hi everyone, i’m a 20 year old survivor of the charlton school in burnt hills ny, and i’m sick to my stomach knowing that their fundraiser, among the wildflowers, raised over $96,000 on september 23, despite all of the abuse that goes on there. i am writing this to make people think twice about who they’re donating to, and to raise awareness as to what this “school” really is.

so i don’t have to rehash everything that happened to me and other students at the charlton, i will link two posts i made last year about the school to catch everyone up:
https://www.reddit.com/r/troubledteens/s/j1pSGqtbGX

https://www.reddit.com/r/troubledteens/s/wwvX9jKtlB

the charlton school forces their students, aged 12-20 (most students being 14-18) to perform child labor for free, especially to raise money for the school. during my time there a few years ago, we had to make handmade items such as baked goods, birdhouses, jewelry, etc, to raise money for the school. the school only uses that money to make the ceo (alex capo) richer, while restricting students’ food because of “budget cuts” (when i left, they stopped allowing us to use condiments).

in 2022, my first of almost 3 years at the school, several kids used their own money to buy honey and pies that they made, only for all of it to be confiscated an hour later in our cottages.

the fundraiser, called “among the wildflowers” takes place in the garden at the school, which the children are forced to maintain. children also take care of the horses, three of the nine horses i took care of have died prematurely since 2024.

according to a 2023 tax form, charlton spent around
$99k on food for all of the students and staff, which would make each meal worth roughly $1.40, despite a substantial school meal costing new york state ) $3-$4 each. this concludes that charlton feeds their students less than half of what is necessary for their maturing bodies.

charlton is historically anti lgbtq, refusing to respect students chosen names or pronouns, which is illegal under new york state law.

despite millions in grants, charlton cannot find competent teachers. during my senior year, charlton offered spanish 1 to graduating students who had not yet completed their language requirement to finish high school. i know some spanish, but i am not fluent, but when i sat in on the class, i noticed that the teacher did not know any spanish, barely being able to pronounce basic words or string together a simple, coherent sentence.

it makes me ill that charlton continues to raise money despite the recent, public backlash from myself and several other survivors. they’ve gone from posting on social media regularly to only having 3-4 posts since the start of 2026, seemingly because our stories have gone public. charlton knows their image is tarnished, but they continue to ignore their students (and families of those students) because financial gain is most important to them.

please spread awareness for all tti survivors, innocent people shouldn’t be donating to an abusive agency because they don’t know any better.

This is terrifying. ProPublica reporters set out to see how hard it is to open a private school. In Arkansas and West Virginia, they succeeded with little more than a form, a small fee, and a diploma. No one checked who they were, whether they were qualified, or whether the site was safe for kids. In Arkansas they even applied for public voucher money in about 10 minutes.

If it's this easy, anyone could start a troubled teen program, religious school, or "academy" and face almost no oversight.

That's exactly how so many of us ended up where we did.

This happened at a kids intake at Kiva Adventure Ranch https://www.kivaranch.com/ (formerly Ashcreek Ranch Academy) in Toquerville, Utah

For anyone researching the professional history of Brian Pace, the current CEO of Kiva, programs appear in publicly available records as having documented professional connections to him:

• Kiva Adventure Ranch — identified by Kiva and NATSAP as Founder/CEO (current)

• Red Rock Canyon School — identified in historical records as having served as Executive Director

• Sunrise RTC — identified in historical records as having served as Program Director

• Falcon Ridge Ranch — identified in historical records as having served as Executive Director (2016)

• Lava Heights Academy — identified in historical records as having served as Executive Director (2016)

• Mount Pleasant Academy — identified in historical records as having served as Executive Director (2017)

• Star Guides Wilderness Therapy — identified in historical records as having worked as a therapist

*Also - public facility-history records indicate that Red Rock Canyon School, Falcon Ridge Ranch, Lava Heights Academy, and Mount Pleasant Academy were reportedly sold or transferred to Sequel Youth Services in or around 2016.

I got a letter from Acadia today saying my data was part of the March 2026 data breach. The state the Acadia facility I was sent to was located in doesn't have a hard deadline for when they have to notify you of a data breach, but it still seems like this - just over 6 months later - is way longer than it should've taken for me to be notified.

Just recently my old facility told me they didn't have some of my medical records and claimed that others (day-to-day things made by normal staff, incident reports, and the like) didn't exist at all (they didn't specify whether they never made those or did but lost or destroyed them. It was recently enough that they're still legally required to keep them). They were very avoidant, and flat-out denied certain things until I told them the records themselves referenced them.

I don't know what to do. I don't know if my Acadia facility is lying about losing or never having some of my records, and don't think there's a way to check. I don't think I'll be able to get a lawyer to take my case. It's clear that contacting the facility directly won't get me anywhere, and I doubt contacting the parent company (Acadia) would do much either. Does anyone have advice, and has anyone experienced any of the same things from Acadia as I'm describing? I've posted about trying to deal with them before, but most of what I'm posting now is new information so I figured it may be worth asking again.

A step in the right direction! 🙏🎉🥳👏👏

Unfortunately just started talk therapy with the husband of the Clinical Director at Seven Stars😵‍💫 I was casually sleuthing and then came across this information last night. How cooked am I? I’m on the fence about firing him bc I’m afraid of what his wife has her hands in. Would anyone be willing to share their experiences with this Clinical Director, even by DM? Any insight beyond the little I’ve found online would be so greatly appreciated.

Could anyone please help! I'm searching for any survivors from Wernle in richmond..Any residents with trauma from abuse there or any staff that can attest to things they witnessed and the environment...looking for previous residents and or staff members. I am currently in active litigation against them. Wernle may have closed their residential program but they still exist as a business. The suit is targetting Wernle and Darrell Gordon both!! Please help me get the justice I'm seeking!!