School is not accredited

So, while most others may be enjoying a nice and relaxing summer, ours is really hectic and we have been spending less time on the blog than we would like to. For all those who are sending us emails and comments, please continue to do so. Once the summer ends, we will have more time to dedicate to this blog and will continue exposing Victory Forge for the fraud it is.

In the meantime, all parents who believe that they children are getting an education at this place, realize that according to the Florida Department of Education, this school is not accredited. What this really means is that if your child happens to finish the 12th grade here, he would have completed high school from VF. Then if he were to go to college, he would have to provide transcripts and diplomas proving that he finished high school. A lot of colleges will not accept diplomas or transcripts from schools which are not accredited. The colleges do this because they are a lot of scams out there (no, really??) where people will state that they have completed high school in a place like VF, which is not really a high school. So in other words, since VF does not educate children according to an approved curriculum, the college will assume that you child did not complete high school.

If you children are not planning on going to college, this is still important as most jobs ask where they graduated from (including the armed forces). If the high school shows up as not accredited, the employer has the right to ask for more information or assume that the person applying for the job did not finish high school.

Something to think about especially if you think your $28K (tuition fees paid to Victory Forge) is tuition which includes a high school education.

Still Here

Received some pretty mean email from someone from VF. Basically telling us that they outlasted us and that we would never win. They thought we had disappeared and would not return. Basically, they tried to brow-beat us.

News alert, we are still here (had to attend some family matters) and we will not go away until Victory Forge changes the way it conducts business or is shut down. They are run by a bunch of carnival bakers (and that is an insult to carnival bakers).

Once we settle in, we will post some additional emails from our readers.

Also, we heard back from the Dr. Phil show. At the current time, they are not looking to do a story on teens and discipline. They will run a follow-up to their stories on the Aspen Ranch and at that point, they may contact us to possibly get some information from us. So all is not lost.

Stay tuned for another exciting summer.

Guest Author: A Former student

I don't want to dive into the ugly details of what happened at that place. I thank you for telling the world about the evil that is Victory Forge. Molly and the Colonel are two of the most deceitful people on the face of this earth. My 7 months there were hell on earth. I was physically abused and emotionally destroyed. I can tell you that this place caused more harm to me than I caused to society or anybody else. For this privilege, my parents had to pay these crooks $28,000. I can tell you of one incident where my face was hit many times, against a wall until I was bleeding. I was then told to shut up or I would feel more pain. I can tell you other such abuse against me and others over there. Again, I will be happy to discuss this matter with you or your parents. This place is a sham and is guilty of everything they have been accused of.

Blog owner comments: This post was edited for typos and grammar. The content was not changed.

Guest Author: Parent of a Former Student

I remember getting the call from Florida DCF stating that my child was in grave danger and that his life maybe at risk. I was told that the DCF was investigating child abuse charges at Victory Forge and they suggested that we remove our child from there. We called up Molly to ask her what to do, and she advised us to follow DCF directives and remove our child from there. That was all she said to me and it made me wonder if she was hiding something from me. I could not get any other information from her. So I drove to Port St. Lucie the same day and picked up my child. The greeting at the Victory Forge office from Molly was less than cordial and the Colonel was no where to be seen. I waited for my son who was brought to me and I left the place. While waiting there, I did not get any words of comfort from Molly. I would imagine, the Colonel had not instructed her what to say at that point so she was a “deer in the headlights”. I brought my child to the safety of our home and followed the news where the Colonel went on a rampage against anybody who questioned what he did. At this point I realized that they shackled children, hit them, made them eat their own vomit, mentally abused them, scared them, made them do menial work. This was not what was communicated to me and this was not what I paid these people a lot of money to do. They should be ashamed of themselves and I want to warn every parent who even considers them, to stay far away from this prison for children. My son was very shaken up for month after his experience there and has nothing positive to say about it. He has finally opened up and started telling me more about the hell hole know as Victory Forge. I will share more of his experience with you and the other parents.

The letter above is our new series of reports and letters written to us by parents, students, former students, and anybody else who wants to provide stories or facts to us. All names will be protected and will never be released.

About 1 year....

In a few weeks, it will be the 1 year anniversary of Victory Forge being shut down for child abuse. Of course, they subsequently opened and have started their shenanigans all over again. What is impressive is that a lot of parents and even more well wishers have continued to support our intent and our blog. For that, we are truly grateful.

It has come to our attention that Weierman had stated that this blog will be like many other complaints and annoyances that he has experienced over the past 20 years. He was convinced, that he would be able to last longer than the blog and all this will soon be forgotten. Well, we have news for you Alan - we will never forget the abuse our children went through at Victory Forge. We will never forget the lies and untruths that you propagated and sold like some snake oil salesman. We will never forget the scars and the bitter taste you left in our mouths. And we will make sure that future generations who even think about sending their kids to Victory Forge, will know what kind of place that truly is.

We are also going to start a guest post column. This will enable all parties and sides to honestly and fairly express their thoughts about the situation. Please be sure that the statements are indeed factual and not made up. We will then publish the guest blog with or without the guests name (that will be up to the writer to decide). We hope that you take part in this exercise to continue populating this blog.

Blast from the Past

Remember this editorial from the Palm Beach Post?

The points discussed here are still valid and still need to be addressed by Victory Forge. It is because of some of these loopholes, Weierman and his minions can get way with abuse. Yes, it is abuse when kids are beaten, food is withheld, and cover-ups happen. Yes, someone of the kids may be bad, but they should not be treated like animals, even though parents may have signed away the kid's rights.

Still waiting from the State legislator to act to regulate these prisons for teens.

Recap:

1. In April, a 16-year-old boy ran away from Victory Forge Academy, a private, boot camp-style military school in Port St. Lucie. The teen had been shackled for several days, and even had been confined overnight.

And what will the system wind up doing about that? Nothing.

2. A DCF spokesman said the agency has serious concerns about student safety at Victory Forge, but because the school is private, the agency has no authority to regulate it.

3. Parents, who pay more than $28,000 a year for a child to attend the school, sign agreements that they accept the various forms of discipline the school uses, including the shackling of runaways.

4. So, who protects students from the abuse at unregulated schools? Apparently, no one.

Dr. Phil and teen issues

Love him or hate him but Dr. Phil McGraw is a psychologist. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology, a master's degree in experimental psychology and a Ph.D in clinical psychology. He is also a TV personality who says it like he sees it.

One of our parents happen to sit on a flight next to a producer of the Dr. Phil show. While talking, the parent happened to mention the unregulated boot camps for teens that are prevalent in the US and brought up the one in St. Lucie which claims to be blessed by the military. The producer stated that they had done shows on troubled teens (links of the shows were provided to the parent and we will refer to them in other posts) and that what he heard from the parent, sounded very disturbing to him. He was intrigued by the idea to talk to children who have gone through these programs to see how they did once they left and if these unregulated boot camps had any lasting psychological damage on them. Empirically speaking, he stated that he would believe the answer was yes these boot camps cause more damage than they do good.

If this becomes an idea for a show, parents who sent their children to Victory Forge, please let us know if you and your children would like to talk to the Dr. Phil show. The way it works is that once a show idea is approved, the show will interview parents and students. A selected few would then appear on the show. The parent is in contact with the producer and will offer up names once the show is a go.

As an aside, some of you may have known that a parent had contacted the O'Reilly Factor last year, to inform them about the abuse taking place at Victory Forge. The hope was to get the Factor to investigate. Unfortunately, with the election being such a big story, our story was drowned out. The parent had asked if he should try again. We think, YES. If you think otherwise, let us hear your comments.