Talk:Anneewakee Treatment Center for Emotionally Disturbed Youth

The URL at the bottom of the page, which references "former patients lawsuit," no longer exists.

Anneewakee Treatment Center in the 1970's

My daughter spent 1 1/2 years at the Rockdale Campus of Anneewakee before the scandal with Dr. Poetter came to light. It is not accurate to say that students were denied education. My daughter had to earn the right to complete her high school education. The youth (male and female) at the treatment center had to earn the right to have access to education by demonstrating a cooperative attitude. The reason for this is that the problems the individual had that brought them to the treatment center had to be resolved before they were able to attend to learning. When my daughter earned that right, she was able to complete her high school education and received the diploma from the DeKalb County high school that she had attended. She was also the salutatorian of her graduating class. Parents were required to attend meetings once every 6 weeks, but this was to communicate and keep us up to date on what was going on with our kid(s). From the girls' campus, I got the perspective that communication and learning self-discipline were an integral part of the treatment process. My daughter, 38 years later, told me that I did the right thing sending her there. I am grateful that she was able to get sorted out with anger and self discipline issues, and that she has gone on to get a 4-college degree and a graduate degree. I had poor role models for parenting from my parents, and the communications I received from the on-campus social worker helped me become a better parent. It's a shame there isn't a place now to use outdoor education as a tool for helping troubled youth.Annewakeeparent (talk) 02:25, 2 January 2018 (UTC)