As a group of former students, we are asking that Uinta Academy, a therapeutic boarding school in Wellsville, Utah, be closed due to emotional, psychological, and physical trauma inflicted on students by some members of the staff.
 
When I attended, as well as others who regularly communicate with one another, Uinta Academy engaged in deceitful practices in order to gain the enrollment of its students. Students themselves were coerced by staff under the threat of punishment, to lie to anyone outside of the program, including their own parents, in order to keep up the charade that Uinta Academy provided the level of care and treatment promised. After leaving Uinta Academy some students reported exacerbated symptoms of the mental illnesses and issues the program was meant to treat, as well as new diagnoses, including PTSD as a direct result of their stay.
 
During their stay some students were rarely allowed outside of the house, and when they were, they were under the constant threat of punishment should they not comply with all the rules, which included no communication with anybody in public. Communications sent and received were heavily monitored and controlled, phone calls were threatened to be hung up and letters had to be rewritten if they didn’t maintain the program’s narrative.
 
Uinta Academy utilized a shame and punishment-based system and created a community of distrust among us by pitting students against each other and rewarding them for reporting other students’ behavior. We were only ever allowed to interact with each other on a surface level and were punished for speaking to each other about why we were there or anything related to our treatment. Students were not allowed to speak to each other without a staff member in earshot.
 
Some staff of this program created an emotionally unsafe environment for students, but especially those who are part of the LGBTQ community. Staff members told them that they were not ok as they were and they attempted to force students back into the closet.

Some students were physically restrained beyond what is necessary and at times where non-physical interventions could have been implemented. 

During our stay our food intake was highly monitored and controlled, rarely allowing for seconds or any extra food outside of mealtimes. We were infrequently allowed to choose our own portions and were punished for not finishing every bite of food on our plate.
 
While enrolled, we rarely received the amount of therapy Uinta claimed it would provide and students were primarily under the care of “family teachers”, some of whom were unqualified and undertrained. The rules were applied inconsistently, and students were often punished as a group for individual mistakes. At times students were forced to vote on whether a consequence/punishment should remain, if they voted in favor of the student, the group would be punished the next time someone received a consequence in the same category, which the staff knew was likely.
 
The education provided was substandard. Students worked independently and were provided with one tutor for up 16 students, with students rarely receiving adequate support.
 
We are asking for this facility, Uinta Academy, to be permanently closed and strip them of their ability to further traumatize other students.