WHAT IS BREAKING CODE SILENCE?

#breakingcodesilence is a social movement organized by activists and survivors of institutional child abuse to raise awareness of the problems in the Troubled Teen Industry, and the need for reform.  By using our many voices to tell our stories, we aim to create change and protect vulnerable youth from abuse.

The “Troubled Teen” Industry:
An expansive network of residential programs and facilities which claim to treat, reform, or rehabilitate “troubled youth”.

 

A Troubled Industry

Thousands of children are held within the Troubled Teen Industry each year.

Behavior Modification programs advertise themselves as premier rehabs, residential treatment centers, therapeutic boarding schools and wilderness programs when really, they are for-profit, privately-run detention centers. Desperate parents are deceived and the children they claim to help, are subjected to abuse. Due to lack of government oversight, many programs are improperly regulated or operating fully unregulated.

Children can be held for years without consent, due process and without true medical need. The “treatment” these children receive is too often far from therapeutic. This fraudulent industry has thrived for decades despite constant allegations of Physical abuse, neglect, psychological harm, sexual abuse, pseudoscientific practices, and negligence resulting in death. Many of these programs have been shut down, only to rebrand, reopen, or have others take their place.

Widespread institutional child abuse has been accounted by many and well documented throughout the decades. This experience can leave survivors with lifelong trauma, including Complex PTSD. Hundreds of children have died in these programs, or taken their own life in an attempt to escape the trauma. Without government intervention, thousands of children will continue to suffer in silence.

 

What is “Code Silence”?

Many TTI programs severely restrict communication and employ punishments called “Code Silence” (this specific term was used first in the program Casa By The Sea). This oppressive silence is used to control children through social isolation until they reach a breaking point. Code Silence can last for days, weeks, months, even up to years, if the student does not progress in the levels. This form of treatment causes feelings of frustration, abandonment and separation anxiety (the side effects have proven to result in complex trauma symptoms years after release). By literally taking these children’s voices away, the program takes away their right to express themselves, report abuse, and make relationships with their peers. Socialization and the developing brain of a teenager are extremely important. In a toxic totalitarian environment, the last thing a child needs is to be silenced, and that silence ends today…

The #BreakingCodeSilence campaign was originally created in 2014 as a collaboration of advocacy networks like WWASP Survivors, Safe Teen Schools and SIA to encourage survivors of institutional abuse to stand up and testify about the abuse in their programs. We speak out today not for ourselves, but for all the victims suffering with no voice and no hope of rescue.

By telling Our Stories, we will speak so that they can be heard.