In 2009, when I decided to mobilize alumni of The Family Foundation School to expose the abusive and manipulative practices at the school, I had no idea where it would take us, nor did I have any idea the huge impact simple domain name purchase can have. We are now known throughout the Troubled Teen Industry, the Youth Rights Industry, and with many mental health professionals.

The Family Foundation School's 30 year history and track record has proven their interests are more in being right, getting rich, and in spreading a sick and twisted version of the twelve step programs of Alcoholics Anonymous.

A major problem with the Family Foundation School is that the staff who work there really do believe that they are helping and have helped youth by using the tactics and abuse they use. The owners, administrators, and staff really believed in the 1990's that wrapping kids in blankets and duct tape was a reasonable method to restrain students, they really believed that in 2005 not allowing a 14 year old to have any food for days until he signed his college funds over to the school was in the best interest of him, and they still believe that using escorts who come and legally kidnap kids in the middle of the night, handcuff and shackle them, which causes serious emotional scars, just so that the youth can be brought to the school against their will is saving the youth from death or jail. The administration and long time staff still believe these things are okay. They believe the same methods, that you would be arrested for and on the five o'clock news for if you used them on your own child, are okay. This is the biggest challenge for the Family Foundation School TRUTH Campaign, its allowing the public to understand that if it weren't for groups like ours, these facilities would continue to abuse youth undetected and really think they are helping.

Whether or not I personally believe that some youth do need residential treatment doesn't matter, and it shouldn't for you either. There has been a consistent theme with The Family Foundation School since at least 1990. Once this campaign launched, we received quite a bit push-back from alumni who wanted us to give the school a chance to change, instead of simply attacking their every move. We tried that and the school failed to prove they are willing to change; they failed to make simple sacrifices like allowing students access to a phone to call Child Protective Services to report abuse. The Family Foundation School's problem is that they want to give the appearance of change, but continue to operate with the same core philosophy. Surface change is not change, alumni wanted to see changes at the core, which meant they would have had to fire staff with the old views, and acknowledge publicly their practices were abusive. The Family Foundation School has refused time and time again to publicly acknowledge their bad decisions and that they did participate in abusive practices, they have refused to publicly apologize to abused alumni, and they continue to refuse to take responsibility for their actions; the school even went as far as to publicly call alumni who were claiming abuse “liars”.

Our Campaign knows the reason, but it goes against everything that The Family Foundation School teaches like absolute honesty and not indulging in pride. We know the School's administration and lawyers told them never to admit wrongdoing, but to ten percent it, we know that the School changed because our Campaign and the School's own alumni seriously tarnished their reputation; they had no choice. From 2008 to 2011, the schools enrollment dropped by more than 50%. But the fact remains, our campaign is not a watchdog group and we never will be. It is not the TRUTH Campaign's job or any former student's job to make sure the school is protecting youth in their care, it is the School's responsibility to have their own regulations, enforce them, and because they work with youth, get regulated by the government.



When we say get regulated by the government, we don't mean by the Education Department or private organizations which have their own issues with poor credibility, like NATSAP. We mean get regulated by the Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS), which is a public agency that regulates substance abuse treatment facilities, but they probably wouldn't license the Family Foundation School anyway, they are one of the agencies that have been trying to shut the school down. We know the Family Foundation School now likes to publicly say they are “just a school”, but we are curious why so many alumni left the school and think they were receiving substance abuse treatment while they were there.

Once our Campaign realized the school wasn't going to publicly acknowledge their wrongdoing and instead would try to cover up this campaign by launching an anti-TRUTH Campaign, we decided in late 2009 we needed to take serious action against the School. We met in 2010 with some of the top New York government officials in the Mental Health field and presented them with our findings – a twenty year systematic failure of the New York State government to intervene with child abuse. We soon learned that the Family Foundation School is operating under a loop hole in New York State law that allows them to register as a school, but operate under the radar as something else – a drug and alcohol treatment center.

The top officials we met with organized a multi-agency New York State investigation, but they warned us there was little they could do because the NY Education Department was the only agency with legal authority over the school. This caused us to have even more concerns. Just one month before we met with the officials from NY State in March 2010, the Family Foundation School organized a marketing event in February to counter our campaign's efforts, and even invited the event's guest of honor – NY State Education Department Supervisor of NonPublic Schools, Thomas Hogan. Hogan was the guy who gave the School their charter to be a school back in early 1990, he said at the marketing event that he would never take it away from the school...well just twelve days after the multi-agency investigation, he retired. We don't know what the core of the relationship between the Family Foundation School and Hogan was, but we do now know, from documents we obtained from the NY State Education Department, that he and the Education Department were well aware of several serious allegations of abuse throughout the last 20 years and did absolutely nothing.

Now I am asked by supporters of our Campaign, where do we go from here. Well, we have yet to hear from the NY State Education Department Commissioner, John B. King, Jr. Just today I was informed by his secretary that our campaign should be receiving, within a few days, an official response from the Education Department after we challenged them on their complete lack of action when child abuse was occurring at the Family Foundation School, which is regulated by them, and numerous abuse investigations that have taken place. Only time will tell how the Education Department will attempt to justify their lack of action.

Our mission is not over, The Family Foundation School is only one of many boarding school's for youth where the youth are being abused, manipulated, brainwashed, and held against their wills. We will continue to push the government to intervene, push to force the Family Foundation School to get regulated and licensed by agencies that are more in line with what the Family Foundation School does – they attempt to treat youth with serious mental health and substance abuse issues...no matter what they say, they are not “just a school”. We need your continued support, awareness, and spreading of the message.



People who aren't aware, aren't outraged. When people aren't outraged, nothing happens.



Keep on keeping on. Protecting those who can't protect themselves.



With Gratitude,

Kenny Fingerman

Founder

The Family Foundation School TRUTH Campaign

www.TheFamilySchoolTruth.com

Info@TheFamilySchoolTruth.com

www.Facebook.com/FamilySchoolTRUTH

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Exposing a 30+ year history of The Family Foundation School abusing youth, all in the name of 'treatment'

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