Marked NSFW for a number of reasons - potentially triggering to anyone who’s been through this or something similar. Supplemental links contain some very dark, horrifying accounts.
Why you should know: Hundreds of thousands (possibly far more) of now adults carry that trauma with them. Many of these schools are still in operation, still abusing children.
You likely can’t fully appreciate what these kids went through and what many of them still carry around with them, but reading and watching accounts from past “students” can get you closer:
Webcomic about one man’s experience with Elan, another Troubled Teen program outside the WWASPS umbrella. I won’t spoil the many, many twists, but his story is something I couldn’t pull myself away from the entire time I read it. https://elan.school/
Watch “The Program” on Netflix. Shows multiple people that were sent to different schools in the WWASPS umbrella retelling their stories while exploring the now abandoned facility they were once prisoners in.
YSAK - Very, very, very few of the people complicit in this industry ever had any real consequences for perpetuating a system of child abuse that lead to the destruction of so many lives going back to at least the late 60’s. Most of these monsters simply moved on to other things after their institutions were finally shut down.
Some were even publicly lauded by their communities and powerful leaders for their “contributions” to society.
Most evil acts go unpunished as long as the villain is wearing a suit and smiling.