Help Tara Get Justice For Elan School Survivors
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Hi everyone, I’m Tara, an anti-TTI (troubled teen industry) activist who is part of the Breaking Code Silence movement. For four years (from ages 12-16), I suffered sexual, physical, and psychological abuse at the mercy of the élan school in Poland, Maine. Time is up for the adults who abused children for 40 years with ZERO accountability. Join me in my journey for justice and on my mission to protect kids from systems like elan.
These funds will go towards legal fees, as I charge those responsible for my own abuse, and equipment fees for my podcast as I raise awareness and prevent the abuse of so many others.
I want to be able to create new avenues for those who need healing, justice and closure. I want to do this through my podcast called "It All Comes Out In The Wash" that will tell the real truth about the Elan School from the survivors' perspective on the inside. We have rounded cult-abuse experts, child trauma & child abuse psychologists, journalists, and other leaders against this exploitive industry. By bringing awareness to the public about what truly happened at the èlan school, I am hoping to not only educate the audience, but bring closure to those that we never able to receive it.
There are those that are charismatic and influential in the political and academic climates, but have have never been questioned because of their status. These people have been able to get away with their actions for so long because laws have protected them. Through legislation and social movements recently, they have provided the opportunity to change these laws and provide justice to those that have been abused within the child care system. Through breaking the silence, we are putting a full-stop to these legalized systems of child abuse. Their time is up. The laws are changing, and the silence has been broken.
There are those that are charismatic and influential in the political and academic climates, but have have never been questioned because of their status. These people have been able to get away with their actions for so long because laws have protected them. Through legislation and social movements recently, they have provided the opportunity to change these laws and provide justice to those that have been abused within the child care system. Through breaking the silence, we are putting a full-stop to these legalized systems of child abuse. Their time is up. The laws are changing, and the silence has been broken.
The slogan “The Last Stop” was coined to terrify parents into enrolling kids into the the program via zip ties and legalized kidnapping. I am one of those children. I was twelve years old. I was legally kidnapped in the middle of the night, ripped apart from my twin sister, and held captive in the state of Maine for four years. These four years were filled with absolute horror and torture.
Extreme fear tactics and mental manipulation strategies were used against parents and legal guardians to make them believe that this program helped kids. Most of us, myself included, were learning-disabled and were classified as such within our public school systems. Unsuspecting tax payers of public school systems fell victim to blindly funding these programs. This was a costly $50k/year that went into the pockets of zero-to-little qualified staffers. Not to the kids who were living in squalor, among rodents, mold, lice and scabies at Elan. 6-8 kids were packed into small dorm rooms. Elan was making millions of dollars per year. The abuse was inescapable. We were held against our will, isolated in the middle of the woods in Maine, which was chosen with careful intention as this is the state with the least guidelines from child abuse. Local officials either knew of, worked for, or protected this program. Parents that toured the school were told by students that "Elan saved my life, your kid will be saved" for fear of being reprimanded. My parents trusted the Westfield Board of Education to send me to Elan. This education consisted of 3 hours in a trailer at night with few to no quizzes or tests using out of date textbooks. I was not allowed to make unmonitored calls to family. After being there for six months I was allowed one phone call per week to my parents on speaker phone and recorded for staff to review to ensure compliance.
The Elan School followed programs that were similar to those used in cults. Elan convinced parents that by signing their child's rights away, into their hands, this would save them from a path of destruction they were heading down. Destructive behavior included AHDH, learning disabilities and runaways. This system created a legal way to traffic a children against their will. All phone calls were screened and parents were constantly reminded that everything was okay, when it wasn't. Some methods used included brain-washing and forms of public humiliation, such as: boxing rings, paddling/spankings, and encouraged degrading each other. Should they not, they were the next victim made to enter the boxing ring. Elan isolated students from speaking to one another, so while there were kids all around us, we were alone, individually imprisoned in our own minds.
The Elan School followed programs that were similar to those used in cults. Elan convinced parents that by signing their child's rights away, into their hands, this would save them from a path of destruction they were heading down. Destructive behavior included AHDH, learning disabilities and runaways. This system created a legal way to traffic a children against their will. All phone calls were screened and parents were constantly reminded that everything was okay, when it wasn't. Some methods used included brain-washing and forms of public humiliation, such as: boxing rings, paddling/spankings, and encouraged degrading each other. Should they not, they were the next victim made to enter the boxing ring. Elan isolated students from speaking to one another, so while there were kids all around us, we were alone, individually imprisoned in our own minds.
The horrific sexual, physical, and mental abuse that I went through at the Elan school was enough to keep me shamed into not telling anyone up until now. It took me 30 years to not feel shame anymore. From exposing these systems we can understand how these people of status capitalize on vulnerable families and further perpetuate cycles of abuse through the system. Through speaking out, victims can feel validated and heard and know that they are not alone. We were made to believe that we deserved everything that happened to us, even though we didn't.
My main abuser from the Elan School was my sports coach. He still works at a private school with children today as their coach and dorm parent. He took my innocence from me and knowing what he did to me makes me sick that he still is around children. The system is broken, but it starts with holding one person and one institution accountable to fix it.
We live now in a climate where survivors can finally feel safe to tell their stories. Victims have never felt the level of support and community that they do today to safely tell their stories about their childhood abusers. My goal in all of this is to hold my abusers at Elan accountable.
#justiceforelansurvivors
Organizer
Tara KB
Organizer
Poughkeepsie, NY