This is the absolute Spark Notes version:
In January 2012, I was transferred from a wilderness program to Auldern Academy in Siler City, North Carolina. I was 17. I was the first (possibly the only, as of 2017) successful escapee.
I had been sent away for things that were not uncommon for kids. I had school refusal, a bad relationship, and would not tell my parents when I would be coming home. They had been advised to work with an education consultant, who I had never spoken to.
On November 28th, I left for a wilderness program in Georgia. I did not experience any abuse at that program, so I was not prepared for Auldern.
Flash forward to January. My first impression of Auldern was, “Why am I here?”
These girls had been through some extreme trauma. Like, saw their mother get raped, or had developed a meth addiction by 16. I was stunned that I qualified to be at the same treatment center.
Like every other program, there were isolation and punishment systems. Theirs was called “Focus Reflection.”
In April, I was involved and in a stick-and-poke tattoo incident. Three other girls and I were placed on Level 3 (there were only 3 levels). This meant that we would be doing 12ish hours of manual labor a day, couldn’t speak to anyone and had to carry our mattresses out to the dorm lobby, where we had to sleep with the lights on.
During my week on Level 3, we had to carry boulders to line a path. My shoulder began to throb. I asked to see the nurse and was told no. I was not allowed to speak and was told to be quiet when I approached the staff to ask for Advil. This persisted throughout my entire stay. After I ran away, I found out that I had a focal SLAP tear, which I will have forever.
By August, I had convinced my parents to switch me to a regular boarding school that offered therapy. I tried explaining the abuse and labor, how my struggles were not that extreme, and that somewhere else could serve me better. We even had a Skype session scheduled to transfer me to the other school. Before that, my parents were scheduled to have a meeting with the treatment team at Auldern. Members of the treatment team were not employees I had ever worked with or spoken to.
The night of their meeting, I had one of my two 25 minute phone calls for the week. I asked how it went, and they told me that they told my parents that it was best for me to stay. I started to panic and cry, and then a staff member came over and ended my call. I ran out of the room and bawled.
Starting then, I knew I had to make a plan to escape.
For the next two months, I kissed ass to earn a weekend at home. I planned it out perfectly so that it would be my 18th birthday weekend, and I could stay with no problems. Unfortunately, it was not that simple.
I went home the weekend of October 19-21, my birthday being the 22nd. On the 21st, I refused to go back, knowing they could not get transport there in time to legally handcuff me. I started receiving texts from staff members, telling me that I was going to regret it.
The next day, my therapist walked into my house (she flew from NC to NJ). She started saying she needed to return with the prize. There was a moment of me asking if I should be put on Focus, and when she said “yes,” I told her to get out of my house.
I was home for five days before I gave in to going back (side note: I lost my cellphone in the middle of all of this). My dad dropped me off at the airport in NY, and I went through security and sat at the gate. An airline worker walked up to me and asked “Are you Kate?”
I said yes. He said my dad called to make sure that I would be getting on the plane. He then said, “but you’re of age, so you don’t need to.”
I got up, thanked him, and went to grab a taxi to a bus station. I then took a bus to NJ and walked to a friend’s house. She called my parents, and I was instructed to use her phone to call the therapist. When I called, she told me that I was not allowed to contact my parents, and I was not allowed to go home until I agreed to go back to Auldern. Hurricane Sandy was hitting in three days, but I still said “game on.”
Flash forward three days, and my parents try to get in contact with me to tell me to come home before the hurricane hit. I said no and that I did not trust them. They promised it was safe.
The next day, they sat me down and said Auldern called to say they had to “fill my bed and were giving up on me.”
It was at that moment that my parents realized that Auldern had no regard for my safety or wellbeing. They had manipulated my family to kick me out during a devastating natural disaster for nothing.