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Sunday, August 16, 2015

Book: Reform at Victory

We were happy to learn that the school that once was named Victory Christian Academy and housed the now deceased author Michele Ulriksen is closing. For many too late. For decades this school and the people behind it had made life miserable for the girls who happened to be captured inside it.

The book "Reform at Victory" is the story about how the author lived through the difficult years when she was forced to live locked up on the campus of the school.

The school was placed in California until an accident killed one of the girls and the authorities forbade the management from ever running a school in California again. They moved to Florida where religious school could do whatever they liked until the free and independent press decided to investigate the boarding school business in Florida and found evilness which forced the authorities into action. Being put under pressure the management decided to close their school before they could be forced to do it.

Sadly Michele Ulriksen is no longer among us. The past she the school gave her was a heavy luggage to carry through life despite her actions to write it down and put it on paper.

She would have been happy to learn that the school is closing. We can only hope that she is happy where she is now.


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Sunday, July 19, 2015

Book: The Discarded Ones: A Novel Based on a True Story

This novel by James Tipper explore the CEDU schools as they are seen through the eyes of the student Charlie Hoff. Boarding schools where you are not free to leave. Endless marathon therapy sessions looking more like psychodrama rather than healing therapy.

A reader named Thomas J. Cray writes the following review:


Nailed it!

James Tipper wrote the book that every student who graduated The C.E.D.U. School would like to write. I was happily surprised that no hidden agenda skewed his honest descriptions of that time and place that we have all tried to share with our family, friends, spouses, children. His memories are spot-on. He dug deep and was able to paint a complete picture that honestly depicted student and staff, for better or for worse. He also showed his exceptional writing skills - "The Discarded Ones" is a page turner!

Source:
The Discarded Ones: A Novel Based on a True Story (Amazon book store)

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Book: Dead, Insane or in Jail: A CEDU Memoir

This book by Zack Bonnie tells the story about how to be forced to attend a CEDU bording school.

All the CEDU schools closed around 2005 after a number of lawsuits were issued by parents and former students.

Also several students disappeared never to be found again. Some of the children were most likely murdered by a serial killer James Lee Crummel who had unrestricted accesss to one of the campuses. To this day there are families out there looking for their relatives.

CEDU was founded in 1967 by an owner of a furniture business, who after a brief stint at Synanon created the first school in California where the main tool for transforming the children into the products their parents ordered were attack therapy.

The founder died in 2002. The school were sold but closed only some few years later due to the lawsuits.

The book provides a good insight into how it was to be a student in these special schools. After the original schools closed the concept were transferred into other schools where some are open even today.

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