The Cult in a Boarding School

(Blowing the wind) (Sound the bells) - Thursday. (Dramatic music) (Chimes playing) Wayne Kernochan was caught at home during an unbearably long winter. He was what his parents believed he was a problematic child. Experimenting nightmares, arguing with the seven brothers and getting into problems at

school

. The punishment method of his parents was not the best. Having entered the registry to affirm that his father hits him with hockey sticks. It was undeniable that his humble dwelling in the Connecticut suburbs was less a place of refuge for him and more a torment cell. (Dramatic music) (playing the phone) the phone sounds in the kitchen and her mother responds.

It is from a

school

in the north called Elan. The man on the phone says that Wayne should come immediately and that they will have a private jet waiting for him at Danbury airport. His mother tells him not to worry and that it is more a type of outdoor camp that will improve them. According to the steering wheel they read, it was demonstrated with a success rate of 95% and their alumnus were going as best people than when they first arrived there. Directors, psychiatrists, activities, friends, Elan had everything they told him. And so, Wayne packed his things that night.

Anxious, clear, nervous, yes. (dramatic music) but absolutely waiting for things to come. (Plane rumbled) The plane plays in Portland, Maine. Two men greet him. (Dramatic music) After embarking at school, 30 minutes to the north in Poland, their companions ask why it was sent there. - Drugs? - No. - court order? - No. - So why are you going? - They joke. And then things shut up. It was at this time that Wayne began to wonder if he went to the place where he thought it was. Something did not seem good, but I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

The two take out a forest highway in a clearing. "It looks like a camp," he thinks. However, when it leaves the vehicle, it is not received with a silent serenity of nature, but with shouts. (shouted and distant screams) (Gentile music) The 1970s was an interesting moment. Throughout the United States, an increase in profit modification facilities was in action. Now called the teenage turbulent or the hard love industry. It seemed to be a money machine destined to alter and quell problematic behavior in adolescents. The exact data are diffi

cult

to evaluate due to the widely variable nature of the names, motives and specialties of each of these schools, but they were widespread and only became more during the eighties.

It is widely believed that the reception of parents to the youth of the time was the facilities catalyst like this. Since this was the decade after the emergence of the hippie sub

cult

ure authority it was and had been challenged for years, which resulted in a kind of panic among major generations. As a result, in the early 1970s, a psychiatrist named Gerald Davidson together with investor David Goldberg, and a man named Joseph Ricci would join to create a school called Elan, a private program of modification of mixed behavior oriented of eighth grade to beyond high school. Ricci built the installation as one that would correct the bad behavior of adolescents without punishment, while painting himself as a genuine mentor that could help that happen.

Sitting in 33 acres of land outside road number five in Poland, Maine, the main campus of Elan was very isolated and a long shot of any external civilization. With numerous facilities instead, the school was well equipped to handle a student body in the hundreds and in the period of only one year they would finally comply with that metric. Numerous former students, like Wayne, have registered to organize that their initial external impression of the school was like a summer camp in Maine Woods. However, upon arrival, reality would paint a different image. Supposedly, the last minutes of the trip there were unforgettable with Elan was wrapped by a long dirt road in the middle of the desert and composed of trailers and detailed buildings, giving him a terrifying feeling of fear.

In addition, some have declared that once they left the vehicle waiting for an animated camp, however, they face a much strangest view. Some students were seen with degrading signs, some chained in wives, some shouted and strangely all would pretend that it is normal. At this point, it has been observed that some students try to flee. They were not quite sure of what Elan school was, but it was clear to them that it was not good. However, these escape efforts were always useless, since they are kept Elan station around the campus to pursue and submit atypical values ​​that would try this.

Taking into account how school was marketed, promoting as an altruistic institution really worried about helping problematic adolescents to improve, it was clear from the outside that those statements were a scope. But how far would that take that? (Soft music) What most students did not know was that behind them an agreement was made in their name. (Soft music) With nothing more than a simple firm and payment, parents could sign their children's life to ELAN, which was announced as a positive reaffirming growth center. According to an excerpt from a archive from the early 2000s of its website, we can observe the vernacular language that used to attract each father.

Dear parents, we are very aware of how alone and confused you must feel while you feel to read this. If you are like the parents of most of our students, you face a teenager whose behavior is out of control, and you don't know why. A young man who has given everything and is throwing everything is difficult to understand. But you can see that this process is progressive. The saddest part is to know that your offspring is ruining its future. His own pain is difficult, but his pain for his son is unbearable. When coming to Elan, you have come to a really different school.

We cannot offer you miracles, but we can offer hope. We know that your trip to this point has been painful. We hope that Elan can change his course. In addition to this school, it was known that the staff delivered flyers to the parents while persuading them that their child could be worried. It has been observed that Joseph Ricci was a seller. He was charismatic and stood out in convincing parents of all the good that Elan could do for his children. The good thing we will find was a lie soon. I would like to let him know that Wayne's admission history was on the lighter side.

For most other students, things were handled a little more violently. Instead that the alumni of a plane school have registered to affirm that they were transported by Van. As reported, once their parents agreed to send it to Elan and pay the $ 50,000 registration rate, they designate an hour and a date with the so -called ELAN adolescents. However, they would not pick you during the day. On the other hand, in the middle of the night, when you are deeply asleep, they crossed your door and kidnapped you. In previous years, Elan staff has declared that, since the child has no voice in attending his capture hinges in the surprise element.

According to a blog called Suzuki thoughts, the abduction process involves two men who enter the teenager's room, physically submit them, they are tied with plastic wives, throwing them into a truck and then leading them to Poland, Maine, where they delivered them to the Elan school. Such experiences often traumatized teenagers who were kidnapped. For everything they knew at the beginning, the criminals carried them to be retained, tortured or worse killed. For the girls it was even more scary. Some girls then recalled that they believed they were going to be. - Violated, sexually assaulted. - and killed by his kidnappers.

Certainly, one cannot blame children for thinking in this way. These practices had all the characteristics of a violent kidnapping. This practice became noticeable in the United States. Finally winning his nickname, Elan Snatch. If this were an indication, it was clear that morality was not the strong demand of the school, but that finally raises the question, would it stop there or its torment as soon as it began? (Soft music) day one. Students would normally arrive at Elan during the early hours of the day. Due to the nature of its transport to the campus, it was often known that their escorts resisted.

It has been observed that their capture was designed in this way, using their escape attempt against them as a tool to transmit that it does not matter what they do not leave there. And with this came the first steps of dehumanization. Infuse the feeling that their basic rights have been stolen from them, in turn making them feel less students and more as a prisoner. This feeling went further when they get physically inside the school. Often, the first stop would be the bedroom showers, which served as a tool to steal their sense of individuality. As reported, students are thrown into them without absolutely any privacy and are required to eliminate all their valuable clothes.

After fulfilling, they are given what Elan does not call image clothes, which as his name indicates, simply includes a soft shirt and colorless pants. Effectively forcing a state of conformity. After this, each new student will be taken to a common area where they are assigned what Elan calls an older brother. In essence, this was a starting student designated to be a guide. On paper they were told to help their students adapt to their new life on the campus. Someone as a partner while educating them about how big and effective is the program. However, in reality, this relationship was far from being friendly.

It has been reported that Big Brothers often tried to deceive their new counterparts, attracting them to flee or break the rules. If the student had to agree or try to hear this, their behavior would be informed to school staff, which would result in punishment. As we have seen in studies such as Stanford's prison experiment, I'm sure you can see why it would be a bad idea. Often, Big Brother's figures, as well as staff would be very pleased to exercise their superiority over newer students. He fulfilled them in a way that was almost like cult. (Birds Chirping) - You just want to feel (shout).

You are doing it. You and everyone else have to do it. Do it well. - You know it's lack of quality. You know it is shit. You know this will not be tolerated. - No one thinks about grabbing a man. Nothing is your responsibility. You never clean the bathroom this morning. - Maybe you should remember the next time you do this out of the wall. You can also clean the showers. You and each of them wear a shower. You are just being irresponsible. - If you want to act like a baby, they shout you, if you want to act as a more mature teenager, they talk to you. (shouting) (Gentile music) - Speaking of cults, the social hierarchy in Elan is structured in a way that resembles one.

At school, students are immediately placed in two categories. Strengths, who were obedient students who had a few steps through the totem. And not forces, the newest that typically resisted treatments. Strengths were allowed to talk to other strengths and not forces. The non -strong, on the other hand, were only allowed to communicate with strengths. If a non -force communicated with a non -resistance is caught, the hard punishment would soon greet them. (Gentile Music) ELAN SCHOOL, as we have established, thrives with the feeling of hopelessness. Throughout the students of the students there, they were forbidden to contact anyone in the outside world unless the privilege has been obtained through good behavior and compliance.

Each telephone line of the campus would run through a single switchboard located in this small trailer. And I was very protected by that. If a student obtained the privilege of contacting his family, it has been reported that they are very monitored, he was only allowed to praise school for all the good that is done to help them during their time there. If they ever catch them by telling the truth or revealing the atrocities that occur behind the scene, they were quickly disconnected, rebuked and stolen from any future potential to use the telephone lines never again. (Soft music) In the upper part of the phone manipulation, it was required that each resident of Elan wrote what the school calls a letter of guilt, which as expected as an explanation of how large is the ELAN school for them, all the great activities that they do there and how well they are progressing through the program.

These letters would be very analyzed before being sent by mail to their parents. Indeed, the objective of this tactic was double. Allow the facade of an Elan to remain in place and attract their parents to spend more money on their treatment, keeping them there even more than they had planned. Actually, the students were defenseless, were abused and in most cases verbally tortured by the pleasure of ELAN school staff. It was clear to students thatThey were not moving away from this in the short term. And after realizing this, their minds often turned from the rebellion and towards compliance with the hope of promoting the program.

This led most of them to wash some brain, ultimately trapped in a system that will do everything possible to escape, impossible. (Soft music) As expected, the rules at ELAN school were immense. Exercise almost totalitarian control over everything that happens. Joe Ricci's rule set, which called guilt was gigantic and unnecessarily meticulous. As a student at Elan, it is expected to refrain from doing the following. Having any image, reading as a force without strength, not completing learning experiences, writing without permission, being aside, looking for security areas, interacting without strength, talking too strong, talking too gently, looking at the opposite genre, being attracted by someone, any physical contact, looking windows, unauthorized drawing, not listening to higher Arangos, pretending to sleep at night, think about running away, being in the bath While working, listening to music, talking too much, showering for more than three minutes, not speaking enough, making facial reactions, negative body language, pretending not to blame, sleep, sow, sow and the list continues and continues.

Clearly, these roles were not designed to be followed, which caused a hard penalty to become a common place. To help enforce these people known as issuers, the school designated to stand in surveillance with clipboard. It was mainly known that they caught those who broke three rules, were attracted to members of the opposite genre, looking at the opposite genre and making prolonged visual contact with any other person. Since the expeditors also required that they fill their clipboard with names and infractions at the risk of their own punishment, often and without apologies they made assumptions and accusations that were lies. (Soft music) As you expected, the punishment varied a lot in Elan and not in good sense.

An example meant to require a group of students to live in a garbage container for more than two weeks. The expendator that observed them had the task of guaranteeing compliance and avoiding any attempt to escape. However, if your subordinates act, the service expendator would be forced to live in the garbage container with them while it was monitored by another one that is up to the task. Another important tactic in Elan was humiliation. They thought that by breaking their social barrier, forcing students to see extreme shame, they could take them to a total compliance point. Those who tried to escape were often labeled as a divided risk and their punishment for doing so was the confiscation of their shoelaces and the requirement of wearing bright yellow t -shirts and short pink shorts.

The school thought that without laces, his shoes were effectively useless in turn, avoiding any ability to move faster than a walk. A more extreme example of a divided risk punishment is shown with this student. However, instead of a shirt and shorts, he was forced to wear a bright pink rabbit suit with fists around his legs. It is not clear if this is a repeated criminal, but raises the question of to what extent Elan would really go with this tactic. The students who smiled out of place where they punished when using donkey caps and reduced to the work that the school calls.

These involved repetitive and boring tasks as ramming floors, scrubbing the inside of the garbage cans and even cleaning the toilets with just a toothbrush for hours and hours. If I had to use the bathroom during the shot, it has been observed that the approval of six or more higher before it could. And even then a escort had to look at you while you were there. This in addition to a myriad of other degrading punishments such as the humiliating sign and the use of diapers, it is clear that Elan maintained an iron control in their daily operations.

Their daily operations that occupied most of the daily schedule and those that were deceptively named by the ELAN school as their treatment. (soft music) but I will say that all these punishments are relatively meek compared to what we are about to speak. Let's say that if you angered a staff member, they could start something called General Meeting about you. And believe me, you wouldn't want one. (Dramatic music) It seemed not to have not standard for them. They would simply have random several times a day. If the staff were upset or felt to attack a specific student for some reason, they could call a general meeting at any time.

Once these words were pronounced, everyone in the building should meet in front of the students in any room in which they were. Take out your feelings from the shouts of the administrator. And after this, each student in the room would start screaming and rebuke the students, shooting insults and obscenities for almost an hour. No matter how much the student took place so that everyone stopped, no matter how much they break, regardless of how much the general meetings would not end until the administrator said it. (shouting) and when he finally did, the victim lay there, often crying and exhausted by the incessant abuse they had just supported.

It is clear that general meetings are not designed to rebuke. They are designed to completely break each and every one of the students who are the subject of one. And with this we can effectively assemble the points that Elan was doing nothing more than executing an operation that ordered total compliance. Any own thought or portion of independence that the students thought they had gone. They simply reduced to weapons. Weapons that at any time can be used with the same ease against them. (Dramatic music) (bell bell) 7:00 pm. (Dramatic music) Unlike his approach to the academy in the time of external marketing inside ELAN, he was second -hand to the student's treatment.

In general, the deadline for learning was from seven to 11:00 p.m., but sometimes it could last longer. As expected, there were no extracurricular, or physical education, no projects, or legitimate exams, nothing. Instead, students had to qualify in the work that they were assigned without absolutely any direction. The structure of the class generally involved a staff member who supervised a room full of children. Every night of learning involved completing the work of textbooks at the first year level, which, as expected, for a group of teenagers would be immensely without incident. Since class time was after a long day full of verbal abuse, monotonous tasks and a hierarchy system that does nothing more than quell the lower classes, students were expected to sleep and lose their trace of their work.

Interestingly, school time was also considered a privilege in Elan. Joe Ricci has registered to affirm that the class schedule itself was designed in this way. Supposedly, he believes that the students were easier to control while the dream deprived and even used this as a means to work against them. At 11:00 pm, if a student passes through a night of work without school problems, then comes to an end. They are rapidly released from the class and escort their bedrooms that were often in the form of impersonal and impersonal military literas. It was known that the dream was difficult since the designated students named Night were assigned to support the flashlights.

In regular intervals, they would shine them in sleeping students to ensure that they had not escaped and to ensure the fact that they are actually asleep. A requirement that, as we can remember, was also on the list of ELAN rules. And if one really manages to calm his nerves, sleeping in his only time of tranquility, that would allow them to effectively place the lid in a day in the nightmare that is Elan. (Cricks Chirping) - House, wakes up. - And then you can do it again. (Dramatic music) A notorious aspect of Elan among all the rest that happened that there was something called The Ring.

Considered the highest level of punishment Elan Elan could make the call to start the ring at any time. The structure was established similar to that of a general meeting and generally began when school staff believed that punishment was not hard enough for a specific student. In the ring, a student is designated as a thug and is equipped with a facial guard and gloves. There are stumps of others that are ordered to scream and shout obscenities. While this is being elected, specific students will be chosen to compete against the bully in numerous fighting fights until the school personnel decided that they were sufficiently injured.

No one was safe from the ring either. Some carried pre -existing injuries, others were much smaller than their opponent, and others were even pregnant. Worse, things seemed to be treated as a game with superiors who commented on the games as if they were on television. Actually, although this was the furthest from television. This was artisanal abuse. Elan was also meticulous on the fighting orchestra for the ring. It has been observed that certain students would be regularly punished by the actions of another, effective engineering between them. This was often noticed between Big Brothers and their subordinates, since they would be punished for the actions of their new counterparts.

And once they were angry enough, a ring fight often hurting the students so much that they had suffered permanent brain damage, PTSD and even death. (Soft music): It costs $ 17,400 to send the young average to ELAN for one year. Even at that price, there are judges, social workers and parents who consider it a bargain. The ELAN defenders claim that it has the most effective program to save young people who are too difficult to handle for other facilities. Many states want to use Elan to have a waiting list. But, on the other hand, a state agency in Massachusetts will no longer send their children here because they oppose the way children are treated.

One reason is the use of physical punishment. Joe, you don't make bones about it. There is a corporal punishment here in Elan. Tell us about it. What are the stages that enter, who is administered for? - Well, it's, it is administered by children. First, and body, it is a hard term. Okay, what it is, is that we have the ring. Well, everyone misunderstands. It is not a boxing ring, it is a ring of human people. The thug is introduced as what it is. In this corner is the bully that is trying to convert this installation into a detention center.

Okay, and in this corner is the champion of the house that will show him why it cannot be done. And so is exactly as he does. And we never allow the stalker to win. - The girls also put themselves in the ring. - Well, girls intimidate and boys. I mean, you know, no, you know, we are, we are a center of equal rights. We also use buttocks, which is symbolic. And again, it is the last resort. Okay, and it is, and it is a resident that plagues another resident and is finished with a ping pong shovel.

Okay and, usually, a person will not be whipped more than once or twice, but it is something symbolic, which is if you are going to act like a baby, you must be treated as a baby. - On December 27, 1992, a 15 -year -old student named Philip Williams was placed in the ring. He was not the biggest child there, but he was known for doing what he could to fight. He had grown up in a family of division, regularly witnessing his father physically abusing his mother. With this there was an anger inside him, a sadness that Elan noticed and wanted to explode.

And that night a ring session started with Phil like the bully. There was a fight after fighting after the fight. In the end, it has been reported that it was hit so much that it fell on the floor and took 20 full minutes before an ambulance was called to help him. 20 minutes or so they called the ambulance. They took Phil and never saw him again. His sister affirms. I thought it was a wonderful place. I thought they were helping my brother. I thought I would go home. He came home well. In a box. Elan's official response was that he had regularly faked headaches.

The cause of death, a cerebral aneurysm and no positions appeared against them. (Gentile music) For us it has been clear from the beginning that Elan is not a good place. From humiliation to Berato, physical abuse of Elan's tactics were archaic and inhuman. For a school that is marketed in the Academy, by helping students recover life, it is clear that this has never been the reason. What seems interesting to me now is that Elan was not even the first to use this type of therapy, this attack therapy. In fact, it has its roots in a cult that found its balance until the mid -1950s.

That cult is one with the name of Synanon. - Hello, with a research order to investigate child abuse reports. - In recent years, Synanon began to be called religion. - He is 52 years old. It is deaf in an ear, it isAn egomaniac, but one of the wisest person I have met in my life. He knows how to make people move. He creates turbulence. - The gentlemen, until further notice, no member of the California corrections department is allowed on the property of Synanon, unless he has permission from Charles Dederich, President Synanon. (Screams) (Dramatic music) - In early 1958, a man named Charles Dederich Senior would find the group in Santa Monica, California.

It was intended to be a drug rehabilitation program aimed at criminals. However, in the years that followed, it seemed to deviate from that mission completely. The distinctive form of therapy used by Synanon was something called game. That in today's terms, it is more commonly known as attack therapy. The game approach was to break down the social construction of an individual's mind by allowing them to open themselves first about themselves before starting an aggressive Beratia session, as we previously discussed with general meetings. The main objective was to recreate the personality and sense of oneself of someone completely demolishing everything they know about themselves before reconstructing them as a newly subjectively better new person.

It rose to the edge of legality while it was completely immoral and, as expected, in 1991, the cult would dissolve due to criminal convictions that caught many of its members. The founder also died only six years later, leaving behind a dark legacy that until today it is known as one of the most dangerous and violent cults that the United States has seen. This is, of course, the summarized story. To be honest with you, I can make a video of a whole hour about Synanon's operations and practices, but that is a story for another day. However, if there is a meal to carry tonight, it is that without knowing it, it served as an inspiration and a plan for other institutions to follow it.

One of those who was Elan and when using similar practices, seemed to wear the Quesynanon torch was forced to leave. They knew they had to keep the appearances, thriving an immaculate public image headed by the charism of Joe Ricci. Before the Internet age, it is true that this was easier to do. Television documentaries and NBC for the child's good were apparently the only internal aspect that was allowed to win. However, they could not even convey the true scope of what happened there. The Hush Hush Foundation in which Elan was initially built seemed to be unwavering. However, due to an increase in public care that would soon find its way there, it became increasingly evident that cracks under that same work base simply begin to form. (Dramatic music) (Birds Chirping) (Dramatic Music) In the late 1970s and until the early 1980s reports of ELAN's true nature began to spread from mouth to the mouth of the ancient students.

According to the reports, the authorities in Maine visited the school more than 12 times to investigate, however, they returned with absolutely nothing to show. Frustively, the operation that Joe Ricci was executing was total and completely legal. There were no current laws for facilities like this. Therefore, it was allowed to remain an operation without problems. When we played the media, it was the main strangers in Elan. However, they could not even communicate the scope of their operations. Although they showed selected parts of this, unfortunately Joe Ricci received enough air time to convince the public and the news team that it was nothing more than their treatment.

By dehumanizing students, emphasizing their criminals on national television, he could use this notoriety for his ultimate advantage, public opinion to believe that what he was doing was completely good. However, in addition to the growing number of alumni, there was an increase in escapes, which only promoted ELAN's unwanted infamy. Over the years, three students, an unidentified 16 -year -old individual, a 15 -year -old Brad Glickman and a 17 -year -old Dawn Birnbaum escaped successfully. However, it would fulfill a very different destination. For the age of 16 it has been reported that he ran more than 15 miles through the desert in the middle of the night.

He was finally caught by an officer Max Ashburn and after listening to the child's history and observing his physical condition, he helped him return home. For Brad Glickman, they shot him. In 1990, after escape from ELAN's search matches, he went to a house in a small town. The authorities believed he had a connection with the girl who lived there. However, the owner opened fire, finally killed him. And for Dawn Birnbaum, she had also escaped from Elan's claws, and finally found a truck driver James Cruz, who was willing to take her home. However, a few hours later, Birnbaum would find that Cruz's true intentions were not so virtuous.

In the end it turned out that he sexually assaulted it to the side of the road before strangular and leave his body between routes 26 and 550 in Pennsylvania. He was discovered by another motorist with a yellow rope tied around his neck and without clothing from the waist down and his body there were pneumatic clues that resemble that of a semi -trailer. Since Birnbaum had crossed the state lines, an FBI investigation for her began. And after verifying with numerous similar cases that have happened in the area, the truck belonging to James Cruz was considered the culprit. Upon reaching it and searching in their vehicle, the authorities could find, but a single blond hair that belonged to Birnbaum, which effectively led to its arrest.

For school disgust, these cases successfully called wide attention. Joe Ricci was worth numerous judges and journalists with the hope of drowning the negative press. However, strangers began to see that these students were running for a reason. (dramatic music) But why? (Chirping Crickets) (Dramatic Music) On the night of October 30, 1975, a 15 -year -old girl named Martha Moxley was with her friends participating in what they call mischief. This generally implies urine houses, ding dong ditches, typical teenagers. Later that night, Moxley found a taste for a Thomas Skakel, and finally kissed before the couple decided to venture. For the other friends of his group, seeing Moxley falling on the near the backyard of the Skakel with Thomas was the last time they would see her alive.

The next morning, the Moxley family wakes up as usual. They go for his morning routine, however, observe that Martha is missing. When looking for it at home, they notice a body that is next to the tree in the backyard. They address it and discover a bleak scene. Martha is lying without life with low pants. His body seems to have been visibly beaten and a few meters from the body, the broken remains of a six -iron golf club. This club finally goes back to the Skakel family. Autopsy reports stated that it was beaten and stabbed to the death of that iron.

And since Thomas Skakel was the last person with whom he was seen that night, he was the main suspect in his murder. However, due to the lack of sufficient evidence, he among the other suspects was finally acquitted. And as a result, Moxley's case cooled frustratingly. (Dramatic music) Three years later. (Dramatic music) Thomas 18 -year -old brother, named Michael Skakel, is arrested for drunk driving. His punishment, admission to Elan. While there it was known that Skakel was problematic and open. According to Elan's students at that time, he regularly boasted of a girl named Martha and how he attacked her and killed her sexually.

A student named Gregory Coleman remembers that this story vividly how Michael had registered to affirm that I am going to escape from the murder. I'm a Kennedy. Kennedy's reference was referring to his relationship with Robert F. Kennedy. Something that would be fundamental in the launch of its eventual trial to the National Attention Center. At the time of confession, although no one could do anything about it. Given the dominant nature of the rules established in the school, any student who tried to tell someone about this was quickly reprimanded. He would take about 22 years full before Skakel's actions came to the public.

In January 2000 he was arrested and accused of the murder of Martha Moxley and, due to his relationship with the Kennedy, it was a case that commanded the waves. Since Skakel's main vehicle to show off his crimes was Elan, this by power had also pushed school to national foci. Dozens of students took the position exposing the insensitivity that happened there. The humiliation, the general meetings, the beatings, the ring, the deaths, everything was taken to the public eye. Realizing that Joe Ricci did everything possible to maintain the discussion about his operation to a minimum. Eventually he took the position minimizing any mention of Elan, promoting his high success rates and doing everything possible to divert attention only to Skakel and Skakel.

But this was only marginally effective, since this was in the 2000s, an interconnected information catalyzed by something called the Internet. Michael Skakel was finally declared guilty of the murder and was sentenced to 20 years of life imprisonment. After serving only 11 years after bars, he was awarded a new trial in 2013 in which he let it go after publishing a bail of $ 1.2 million. Today he walks a free man. But at that time the cat was out of the bag. The inhumanities committed at the ELAN school were documented in one of the cases more high profile in decades. And because of this, people began to speak, theorize and investigate, effectively marking the beginning of the end of the iron grip of Joe Ricci about the hundreds of students who were helpless under it. (Dramatic music) but with its weakened understanding in the media that surrounded its operation, a different obstacle arrived that Joe Ricci would soon have to overcome.

In June 2000, he was diagnosed with lung cancer caused by his well -known cigarette addiction. And only six months later, on January 29, 2001, Joe Ricci would die in Portland, Maine, at 54. As a result, his second wife Sharon Terry would take care of the operations in Elan. However, it was clear that due to the greatest advertising among the testimonies of former students, the idea that Terry had a lot of public relations work on his dish was putting it lightly. (Dramatic music) Over the years, numerous changes will be implemented in response to the external criticisms of the ELAN school. For example, the ring was finally forbidden to be used as punishment.

And although this was substantially something good, the other cruelties would remain. However, what Sharon Terry did not know was that, due to the rapid increase in technology, namely internet, even his reign on Elan would soon fulfill his disappearance. When the water was established after the Skakel case, Mentions of Elan or made in several forums over the next few years. They made people spoke. However, it was not enough for definitive action. For 2010, however, something would change. A website that we all know very well would help to lead one of the most effective exposed stories in the history of the Internet.

That website was Reddit. On November 26, 2010, a man named Jeff W who went through Czasmyhero would make a publication entitled even Skimming This eleven will sprout. You probably think it is composed, but you would be completely wrong. Within him he explains that he was an Elan student in 1998 before describing in detail the reality of what happened there. They are mostly points that we have already covered and explored in great detail tonight. But at that time these statements were incredible. The school was still operational. Therefore, some initially had difficulty wrapping their heads due to the fact that there really was a place like this.

But then the comments came, the other stories of other students with their own experiences. The publication of Gzasmyhero carried weight, was real. And these atrocities should be known. Eventually, this thread would accumulate more than 2,000 like and 1,400 comments. While this may not have caused the closure of Elan directly, he reopened aggressively old wounds. 2010 was not 2000. The Internet users base was exponentially larger than it had been. And as a result, the effectiveness of this new was found attention caused a large amount of reaction that the Elan School had never experienced before. (Dramatic music) four months later. On March 23, 2011, ELAN School announced that it would soon go out.

Sharon Terry blamed the call of what they considered that they were defamatory comments about them online. The school has been the objective of hard and false attacks distributed on the Internet with the declared purpose of forcing the school to close. Unfortunately, the school has not been able to survive the damage. And on April 1, 2011, the Elan School would close its doors for the last time. Officially attributed it to the decrease in the number of students in the hope of diverting the attention of the real cause. But outside, everyone knewThe real reason. For students, this was incredibly good news.

However, the damage they suffered was something that would remain eternal. It has been reported that there have been numerous suicides as a result of ELAN assistance. The PTSD with former students is rampant. And it is clear that the school had done nothing but damage people. A filmmaker and former student named Todd Nelson Creator of a fantastic documentary of Elan called The Last Stop has registered to affirm that, as a student, he was helped by his unconventional tactics, but he knew that most of others were not so fortunate. Today, hundreds of stories remain online about the cruelty committed at ELAN school, on the facade they raised for 41 years.

Reading through these are Ocilyypering, and you can find them in almost all means and documentation that exists on Elan Online. To all of you who have shared your stories, who have opened about the torment he passed, your voice is the reason why Elan ceases to exist today. This video would not exist without you. And I would like to say that I feel your pain. But not. (Soft music) While there are and have been other facilities such as this throughout history, that is another story for another moment. The legacy that Elan left behind is dark. Knowing the true story of what happened on road number five is disturbing.

And it doesn't matter if it always remains physically, the psychological destruction that left behind unfortunately will remain forever. (Soft music)