Spring Ridge Academy

Spring Ridge Academy is an boarding school for teenage girls and licensed residential treatment center by the State of Arizona. Spring Ridge Academy, founded in 1997 by Jeannie Courtney, is located in Spring Valley, Arizona, US. The school is now owned and operated by Jeannie Courtney's son and daughter-in-law, Brandon and Suzanne Courtney .

Spring Ridge Academy's program “addresses” five areas: emotional, relational, spiritual, intellectual, and physical. Spring Ridge works closely with the student's family. Parents are required to participate in family therapy with their daughter, attend occasional workshops, have monthly visits (after an initial period of restricted access so they can gain control of the girls and scare them from revealing abuse), and have communication through letters and phone calls. These letters and phone calls are typically monitored so that the kids cannot complain about treatment and abuse from the staff.

The campus was originally a house with an attached barn. As of 2017, Spring Ridge is able to house a population of 76 girls ages 13–17, although 18 and 19 year olds may stay to complete the program. Students are housed four to a room in a facility with living, catering and medical areas, teaching rooms and labs, and sports fields and courts.[1]

Parents or guardians who have their child admitted to Spring Ridge pay tuition and fees. Medical insurance may cover part of the costs. The average stay is 15 to 18 months, and in order to graduate from SRA's program, students must complete a four phase system. The length of each phase is not time based, but based on the girl, her individual process, and the sometimes arbitrary judgments of staff. As a girl progresses in the phase system, she accrues certain privileges as well as shifts her focus in the program. Phase One, known as Orientation, focuses are getting the girl compliant and submissive to the program's ideology. Phase Two, consistency, has a large focus on showing consistency in following SRA rules. Phase Three, integration, has a large family focus as the girls may now start attending visits at home. Phase Four, transition, adds in friends and social media. Upon graduation from the SRA program, parents are advised to continue their child's education in another structured setting, usually another boarding school, private school, or college, depending on the child's education level at that time.

Survivors of Spring Ridge Academy Speak Out

Since Paris Hilton's documentary, "This Is Paris," came out, new light is being shed on the Troubled Teen Industry. Through the #BreakingCodeSilence movement for T.T.I. survivors, Spring Ridge Academy alumni have been speaking out about the traumas and abuses they endured at the program.

Spring Ridge Academy Citations and Complaints

The Arizona Department of Health Services has given Spring Ridge Academy fourteen documented citations that include: two Administration violations, two Medication Service violations, two Emergency and Safety Standards violations, one Opioid Prescribing and Treatment violation, two Quality Management violations, one Admissions; Assessment violation, two Environmental Standards violations, and two Behavioral Health Services violations.

Spring Ridge Academy is currently on a watch-list for their alleged abuses. A Spring Ridge Academy Program Progress Report published By Rev. Minister Angela Smith of COPE (https://www.cope.church) Dated: 10/1/20 states: "The HEAL Mission of COPE has received 48 separate complaints from individuals and families alleging traumatic experiences resulting in compounded PTSD, forced/coerced and punitive labor to point of injury (labor exploitation/trafficking), psychological abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse (reportedly had pedophile on staff that was subsequently dismissed or resigned), level system/coercive thought reform, misleading/deceptive marketing (fraud), prison-like environment, excessive medication, communication blackouts (censored/monitored communication with outside world), isolation/shunning as punishment (sometimes lasting months), suicide/attempted suicides, withholding food (punishment in isolation included one meal a day), humiliation tactics (i.e. requiring excess water be consumed and denying access to the bathroom), medical negligence (failure to provide medical care or take to physician when warranted), exposure to deceased amphibians in non-academic setting, and undue influence at Spring Ridge Academy. Some of these complaints are referenced online and others remain confidential and on file with the church."

References
  1. http://www.strugglingteens.com/artman/publish/article_5276.shtml

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

  1. https://hsapps.azdhs.gov/ls/sod/Facility.aspx?FacId=BH1721
  2. http://wwaspsurvivors.com/about-wwasp/seminars/
  3. https://www.cope.church/sraprogress.pdf
  4. http://www.heal-online.org/springridge.htm
  5. http://www.heal-online.org/springridgefined.pdf
  6. https://springridgeacademy.com/our-team/
  7. http://www.astartforteens.org/use-caution-when-considering-struggling-teen-schools
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