Committed To My CHilds Success              Reply to this Comment

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I wanted to acknowledge you for your commitment to my child, JJ, and my entire family. You cannot imagine the respect I have for each of you. You are there whenever I email or call, you know why I am calling before the phone rings. This can only happen if you are as concerned for JJ as I am. You make so much available to us parents, and to me, that my life and my family are changing while you are helping JJ with his own changes. Finally I asked you just a few days ago to make my child a program child. And true to form, as with all my requests, you did that via Discovery.

Biggest things he learned were structure, discipline and accountability              Reply to this Comment

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Bill and I thought we should follow up with another letter about Carl. At this point, he is doing great! We did have some trouble the first couple of days, but as we calmly stood our ground with our rules as spelled out in the exit plan, he just fell into line. He is a very different child from when he left Red River. One of the biggest changes we notice is that he takes responsibility for his wrongs instead of blaming others. I called him out last week concerning his room, and a few rules he had broken. He apologized and told me it wouldn’t happen again and it hasn’t. He has been driving since he got home and he is responsible and drives safely and he tells us where he is at all times. He wants to have a relationship with us at this point, so we have had some good times going out to breakfast and hanging out together. He took the Navy Seals test at the local recruiting office and has to do a couple more pushups and he will be admitted into the Seals program. The recruiters commented on how much he has changed since they worked with him a few months ago. If he makes it through the Seals program, he gets approx $38,000 for college and another $40,000 for passing seals training. For now, he is working out every day, but starts a full-time warehouse position next week after he turns 18. He is paying us for his car and taking care of his own extra financial needs. He is going to attend his graduation at Westerville North and will go into basic training August 7th. Carl now admits that Red River was good for him. He says the biggest things he learned were structure, discipline and accountability. He wants to keep the discipline in his life and part of the reason he wants to go in to the Navy is that he is not sure he can maintain a necessary level of self discipline on his own. For him to come up with these ideas on his own is a pretty big maturity jump!

Redriver              Reply to this Comment

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I did a lot of research before sending my daughter to Red River Academy, through visits both actual and virtual. I came across one internet reference describing boarding schools as "prisons". The prison was actually our home before my daughter went to Red River Academy, and our family, the prisoners. I literally tried everything, short of quitting my job and home-schooling my daughter, before making the very difficult decision to place her in the hands of strangers. I chose Red River because it was close enough for me to visit, which I have done frequently, I was impressed with the physical building and the staff, and I felt confident that my daughter could continue her education in a safe environment. It wasn't long before my daughter began to make steady progress. Even though we aren't in the same location every day, we are having far more "conversation" than we have had for a long time. I believe we are listening to each other and building the foundation for a healthy relationship.

Red River Academy was essential to healthy,loving,happy family              Reply to this Comment

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I knew my teen-aged daughter wasn’t “broken.” She didn’t need to be “torn down and rebuilt” in boot camp as some friends and family suggested. But she had fallen into a pattern of destructive attitudes and choices. I did my best to help her. I tried everything I could but nothing worked. And the deeper my daughter got into her unhealthy life, the more our family’s life disintegrated until we had no life at all. I knew I had to try something else. I wasn’t about to give up on my daughter. Enrolling my daughter in this program was both the most difficult and best decision I’ve ever made. Aside from financial considerations, placing my daughter in the hands of strangers miles away from me didn’t feel natural. But I soon came to know the staff at Red River Academy as family and their hands became an extension of mine. At Red River Academy my daughter worked daily on stripping away the destructive image she’d created for herself so that the smart, kind and funny person she is could shine through again. She also worked on accepting consequences for her actions and learning to make better decision to shape the outcome. And as her sense of self-worth and confidence grew, she became such a profound leader that she even surprised herself. But none of this came easily. She really had to work on herself. And in this program, parents are encouraged to work their own program of self-exploration and growth to coincide with their child’s. This wasn’t easy either, but I feel more capable as a parent than I ever have. For my daughter and family, Red River Academy was essential to enabling us to reconnect and get on with our lives as a healthy, loving, happy family. And I encourage other struggling families to consider this school and it’s program as well.