Melissa Sheppard

Review of Freestate Challenge Academy

Be very cautious placing your child in this progra...

Be very cautious placing your child in this program. Do not trust that your child will be in good hands. You will not be given full disclosure on what really happens once your child is trusted into the care of the staff. My son survived 5 months of Hell before he could not take anymore of the abuse. He was beat up within the first two weeks of his arrival. Kids were going AWOL consistently. There is constant bullying, harassment and mistreatment of the Cadets who do not fit in with some of the groups who find themselves in good favor with the Cadre and Administration. Cadets are made to clean feces out of toilettes that are clogged and lets not leave out feces in the shower that must be cleaned up. My son reported that he witnessed on several occasions one of the Cadre shoving cadets. Said Cadre was supposedly disciplined but continued to put hands on some of the cadets. Pray that your child does not get sick while in their custody. Multiple students became sick on several different occasions including my son, they were given cough drops for treatment. After several days of being ill my son past out and was transported to the hospital. He was diagnosed with a sinus infection and a Migraine do to the stress he was under. My son kept returning to this Hell because he was wishing to obtain his GED quickly after messing up in school academically. Please know that the staff will not be honest with you, they are experts at hiding the truth. There is way to much that happened during my sons time spent in this Hell to post here, I will state that he left with only 5 weeks till graduation because he told my husband and I some more horror that was going on inside. We suspect that Cadre took the information back to some of the cadets, my sons locker was broken into with all of his items being destroyed. One of the cadets told my son that they were looking for his home address because once they graduated they were coming to shoot up his house and all of the occupants inside. There are criminals enrolled in this program. There are kids who have a criminal history enrolled in this program. The staff will not tell you any of this when your going through the process of admission. Please feel free to contact me if you are seriously considering this program. I can share emails, text messages and more to help you make an informed decision based upon the needs for your child.