Former students describe Spring Ridge Academy as 'treated like we were criminals'
Back in June, a jury awarded the mother of a former student of Spring Ridge Academy $2,500,000, determining that the institution defrauded consumers by misrepresenting the program’s practices.
Former residents spoke to FOX 10 about the experiences they called abusive and the wider scope of the industry for troubled teens.
In the quiet little town of Mayer, Arizona in Yavapai County where fewer than 2,000 people live, beyond locked gates, sit empty buildings and filed away are memories that still haunt Andi Tuchten.
"I’m right outside of the gates here," she says in a FaceTime call with her dad.
"Gate of what?" says her father, Max.
"Of Spring Ridge."
More than 20 years ago, Andi’s parents sent her there when she was a teen.
Now, Andi’s dad believes he was taken advantage of during desperate times, trying to make sure his kid stayed alive and out of jail.
"It was difficult," Max said of making the decision to send her there. "What was the right thing to do, knowing what you know today?"
When she was 15, Andi struggled with drugs and alcohol. She admits she rebelled against her parents, but never thought she would end up at Spring Ridge Academy.
"I wasn’t angry at them. I was more of like ‘what did I do? Why are you sending me away?’" she said.
"They searched me when I got here. I had to go into a room with staff and had to get down to my socks and make sure I wasn’t bringing anything in. I just kind of went along with it because I didn’t know what else to do. I was scared."
Spring Ridge Academy sued for fraud, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress
SRA was a boarding school for girls from 13-17, licensed by the state as a behavioral health residential facility.
This is the LinkedIn profile for Jean Courtney, the founder of SRA.
Andi said being at the academy made her feel numb and depressed on a daily basis.
Former residents like Andi are coming forward now after a federal civil trial involving Spring Ridge Academy that wrapped up back in June.
Kimberly Sweidy, a mother of a former student, sued Spring Ridge and won after accusing the school of fraud, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
A jury awarded Sweidy $2.5 million.
"We were treated like we were criminals"
"You're getting bullied by adults that are in charge of you," said former student Frankie Clock. "We were treated like we were criminals."
Shannon Saul is another former student and resident of SRA.
"When I first got sent away, I probably cried for like a week straight, and I wasn't allowed to talk to anyone at first, so it was just you know me and my thoughts, and a lot of uncertainty," Saul said.
"You couldn’t go to the bathroom until they said. You couldn’t have water until they said. You don’t know what time it is. You don’t know if it’s day or night because they tape up the windows," Andi said.
According to the lawsuit, tuition cost up to $9,000 per month and Spring Ridge Academy marketed its program as "sophisticated care" for teens on its website and pamphlets.
Court documents say the staff also forced these underage girls to work for free.
"The idea is to break you down so that you can start to heal," said Saul. "But obviously there's a lot that can go awry there as well."
SRA used seminars that both parents and students had to participate in, outlining four phases - Discovery, Focus, Accountability and Keys to Success - in which teens had to demonstrate competency in order to graduate from Spring Ridge.
Court documents say a form of highly confrontational psychotherapy called "Attack Therapy" was normal at the academy. In Attack Therapy, the patient is verbally abused and humiliated by the therapist or other group members.
Sweidy’s lawyers cite fear of being kicked out of these workshops as a reason kids tolerated the humiliation.
"If you don't want to think of it as a cult, you know, I would just say it was very coercive and controlled, every aspect of our lives," Saul said.
The lawsuit says Sweidy’s daughter - referred to in the case as "Jane Doe" – reflected on a workshop involving beating a chair vigorously with a rolled-up towel wrapped in duct tape to unleash anger towards their parents.
"They make it so that you are talking to this empty chair as if it's your abuser, and then at the end they have you repeatedly yell at the chair," said Saul.
Alleged survivors of Spring Ridge say they also had to dress up in costumes and dance for peers and staff.
"I had to dress up in a Dorothy dress with tights and a leotard underneath. And then I had to act like Dorothy for the entirety of the song," said Clock.
"For me, they made me put on a leotard and dance around like I was a ballerina because I had a lot of body issues," Tuchten said.
"And if you weren't authentic enough or seductive enough, Jeannie would ask you to leave, and then you have to wait for the next training months later, and your stay is extended," said Saul.
Then there’s something called "service" – a specific workshop involving massages.
"They would want us to go in and do it for our parents who go through parent action. So, we would rub our parents’ feet and shoulders to give them service," said Clock.
What happened at the Spring Ridge Academy trial?
FOX 10 obtained transcripts from the Spring Ridge Academy trial. Testifying on the stand was founder Jean Courtney, who confirmed this exercise.
"They were thrilled. They massage their backs, massage their hands, and it was called anonymous service at that time; and the girls loved doing that for their parents, and sometimes there were other girls involved," she said during the trial.
Courtney also confirmed that staff members massaged the girls too, according to transcripts.
"You're still blindfolded at this point. They start massaging your shoulders. You have no idea who's doing it to you. You have no idea what's going on. And at the end, it's revealed that it was like everyone that was staffing the action," Clock said.
Courtney also told the court that sometimes she participated in massages.
She testified at trial that she had no background in psychology and is not a licensed therapist.
Courtney had scheduled an interview for this story, but she canceled those plans.
The interview, which was supposed to be for about 15 minutes on Zoom, had been set up through her spokesperson, who canceled the meeting and sent us a statement instead.
Lawyers for Spring Ridge Academy and Kate Deily have not responded to our requests for comment.
The plaintiff has filed an appeal, to add seven more people to the list of defendants, including Jean Courtney.
Larger problems in the industry for troubled teens
The troubled-teen industry represents facilities for "troubled youth" – making up a multi-billion dollar business in the United States.
Meg Applegate is the co-founder and CEO of "Unsilenced" – a non-profit organization helping victims of institutional child abuse.
"The troubled teen industry is a network of powerful and punitive congregate care facilities that are spread out throughout pretty much all of the states and we’re looking at 120,000-200,000 youths being funneled into them annually," Applegate says.
Facilities consist of boot camps, wilderness therapy, boarding schools, residential treatment centers and conversion therapy.
Celebrity hotel heiress Paris Hilton reportedly experienced mental and physical abuse as a teen at a boarding school in Utah, and reiterated in a Public Service Announcement just how much money the business was making.
"And just to know that it's still happening in these places, and it's turned into a $23 billion a year industry. This paid by our taxpayers is just so heartbreaking," Paris Hilton said.
"Kids are leaving, calling themselves survivors and no other healthcare system in the world would that ever happen without having stricter regulations and oversight," says Applegate.
Paper trail of trauma at Spring Ridge Academy
For those who lived at Spring Ridge, there’s a paper trail of trauma left behind.
FOX 10 went through several Yavapai County Sheriff’s reports and surveys done by the state’s department of health which document incidents of suicide attempts or ideations.
According to DHS findings in 2021, a biopsychosocial assessment revealed one girl said, "It's just thoughts. Sometimes I have a plan or intent but none right now in this moment. I sometimes act on this plan."
Journal entries shared with FOX 10 describe being alone, depressed, and homesick.
"I wrote one letter to my mom that at the end the final line was, just, ‘please help me, mommy’ and that really hits home for me, because I just remember the helplessness I felt," Shannon explains.
Now that time has passed, Andi’s father, Max, feels exploited in a time of desperation, his primary aim being to keep his child safe and out of jail.
"We were - again - under the impression that we were in the right place, being encouraged by the right people and it turns out that wasn’t the case," he said.
But Andi and her father know they are not alone.
"We weren’t the only ones that have gone through something like this. There’s other survivors and people out there," Andi says.