CEDU Educational Services, Inc., commonly known as CEDU (pronounced “see-doo”) was an education provider founded in 1967 in Palm Springs, California by Mel Wasserman. The company became associated with the early development of the troubled teen industry and operated a network of therapeutic boarding schools, wilderness programs, and behavior modification facilities in California and Idaho. Over the years, CEDU and its programs attracted numerous allegations of abuse. In 1998, the company was acquired by Brown Schools Inc. of Texas, which later filed for bankruptcy in 2005 amid legal challenges and regulatory actions.

Origins

CEDU originates from Synanon, a new religious movement within the Human Potential Movement. Founded in Santa Monica, California in 1958 by Charles E. Dederich. Mel Wasserman, founder of CEDU, was a former Synanon member. According to Maia Szalavitz, author of Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled-Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids, "Synanon sold itself as a cure for hardcore heroin addicts who could help each other by 'breaking' new initiates with isolation, humiliation, hard labor, and sleep deprivation." The troubled teen industry has continued to be associated with Synanon and CEDU spin-offs. Former students have made the assertion that CEDU is an acronym for Charles E. Dederich University, while CEDU marketing materials claim that it stands for "See Yourself As You Are and Do Something About It".

History

CEDU was founded by Merle "Mel" Wassermann and his wife Brigette Wasserman, in their Palm Springs home. Wasserman was a furniture salesman and had been involved with sponsoring people undertaking the Synanon program. CEDU was initially based in Reche Canyon on a working ranch. In 1968, there were 28 people living on the ranch under the guidance of Wassermann, ranging from 13 to 24 years old. However, despite the fact that they were working on the ranch, they were not receiving any payment for their labor. CEDU had been given non-profit status and actively solicited donations.

In September 1968, CEDU faced a setback when county planners denied their ranch a permit for public use. This decision meant that the program would have to find a new location to continue its operations.

In 1969, CEDU bought a town house in San Bernardino and was also operating a gasoline station in Loma Linda. Contemporaneous newspaper reports cited allegations of "sex orgies" and "brainwashing," based on statements from parents, claims that were at the time rebutted at length by CEDU. CEDU was later accused by a critic of telling problematic students that they may end up at California Youth Authority, Juvenile Hall or Patton state hospital if they left prior to completing the program. CEDU moved into the property in Running Springs that had previously owned by Walter Houston and turned it into the Running Springs campus.

In a 1973 news article titled "Center a beacon light leading addicts out of world of drugs", it was reported that students were being assigned jobs such as construction, kitchen duties, landscaping, and plumbing. Including digging out tree stumps.

In 1982, a small group of staff and residents known as the "original seven" left the Running Springs, California campus for Bonners Ferry, Idaho, to open Rocky Mountain Academy (RMA). RMA's curriculum and philosophy were identical to the original school, CEDU Running Springs.

CEDU also ran another program called Hilltop that was established in 1984. Its ages ranged from 17+1⁄2 to 27+1⁄2.

on December 12, 1985 - Rescue teams search were dispatched for five girls who went missing in a snowstorm during a survival course run by CEDU in the Joshua Tree National Park. The girls were found by a US Marine Corps helicopter safe after a 3-day search, unaware that anyone had been searching for them.

In the early 1990s, CEDU expanded its operations to include additional programs serving a wider range of ages and treatment models. In 1992, the organization opened Ascent, a 41-day wilderness program located near Ruby Ridge, Idaho, which was commonly used as an initial placement prior to enrollment at other CEDU schools. Participants in the program ranged in age from approximately 13 to 20 years old.

That same year, CEDU established CEDU Middle School on its Running Springs, California campus, extending its educational model to younger students.; When the middle school first opened, it served children between roughly 9½ and 13½ years of age, later focusing on students aged 12 to 14.

CEDU continued to expand its network with the opening of Boulder Creek Academy, a therapeutic boarding school founded in 1993, followed by Northwest Academy in 1994. Northwest Academy, located in northern Idaho near the Selkirk Mountains, served adolescents between the ages of 13 and 17.

July 15, 1994 - A male client from Texas hanged himself with a belt from a pipe of an overhead sprinkler system in one of the dormitories of Lower Camelot at Rocky Mountain Academy in Bonners Ferry, Idaho.

July 28, 1994 - It is revealed that a former CEDU employee and white separatist planned to kidnap students attending Rocky Mountain Academy for ransom, including the children of celebrities: the daughter of Barbara Walters and Clint Eastwood. The employee, who was a friend of Randy Weaver, was fired after federal agents discovered the plot.

June 27, 1996 - John C. D'Abreo files a lawsuit against CEDU in Monterey County Superior Court, claiming he was physically and emotionally abused at Ascent wilderness program and Northwest Academy.

In 1997, a violent disturbance at Northwest Academy involving students resulted in injuries and property damage, prompting investigations by state health officials and local authorities, though no criminal charges were filed at the time. The incident later became central to a series of allegations and legal actions in 1998, when parents filed lawsuits claiming abuse and negligence linked to injuries sustained during the disturbance and subsequent restraints. These complaints contributed to a broader state investigation that led to criminal charges against some employees and findings that certain allegations, including failures to report injuries, were substantiated. At the same time, a wider civil lawsuit brought by former students accused CEDU and its affiliated programs of fraud, racketeering, and abusive practices, marking a significant escalation in public and regulatory scrutiny of the organisation.

On July 31, 1998, CEDU was acquired by Brown Schools Inc for $72 million., a Texas-based provider of behavioral health and special education programs. The acquisition was part of a larger expansion of the Brown Schools' portfolio of residential treatment centers and therapeutic boarding schools across the United States. In the same year, the Friends of CEDU Foundation was established by Joel Horowitz, then-CEO of Tommy Hilfiger, and several associates to provide financial assistance to the schools.

In March 2005, Brown Schools Inc., CEDU’s parent company, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The filing resulted in the immediate closure of CEDU’s remaining programs, including four schools in North Idaho, and the loss of approximately 300 jobs in the region. Nationwide, about 300 students were sent home.

In April 2005, a class-action lawsuit was filed in federal court alleging that approximately 700 former employees were not provided the 60 days’ notice required under federal labor law prior to termination. The suit sought back pay, benefits, and damages. During the closure process, a group of parents funded two emotional growth workshops for 12 remaining students.

Idaho Educational Services

Universal Health Services Inc., a public company focused on hospitals and behavioral health centers, subsequently reopened three of the former CEDU facilities: Boulder Creek Academy (located on the former Rocky Mountain Academy property), Northwest Academy, and Ascent Wilderness Program, whose name they later changed to Caribou Ridge Intervention. These operate under the new name of Idaho Educational Services. Each program is overseen by individual directors.

Disappearances

Between the early 1990s and the mid-2000s, three students disappeared from CEDU-affiliated programs under circumstances that later drew sustained media scrutiny and criticism of the institution’s supervision practices.

In January 1993, John Christopher Inman, a student at CEDU High School in Running Springs, California, went missing after leaving campus. In June 1994, Blake Wade Pursley, another student at the same facility, disappeared after reportedly going to check on animals at a barn on the property. Both disappearances occurred during a period when students were subject to restrictions on movement and communication, and neither case resulted in definitive findings regarding the students’ whereabouts.

More than a decade later, in February 2004, Daniel Ted Yuen, a student at CEDU High School, disappeared from the Running Springs campus. His case remained open years later and prompted renewed attention to earlier disappearances associated with the program. Investigative reporting in subsequent years examined similarities among the cases, including questions about campus oversight, student accountability procedures, and delays in reporting.The three disappearances became a focal point of later investigations and media coverage, contributing to broader criticism of CEDU and similar residential treatment programs regarding student safety, monitoring, and institutional transparency.

In October 2022, Los Angeles Magazine published an article by David Safran examining the disappearances of John Inman, Blake Pursley, and Daniel Yuen, raising questions about the handling of the cases and institutional oversight. In March 2023, Safran published a follow-up article focusing specifically on Daniel Yuen’s case.

Program and practices

The average time a child spent at a CEDU program before graduating was 2+1⁄2 years. Teenagers were often held beyond their 18th birthday with Conservatorship or extended custody, until they completed the full program. The programs were year-round. CEDU had its own language, derived from Synanon. Three times a week, for 3–4 hours, teenagers would attend "raps," pseudo psychology group attack therapy sessions led by untrained staff based on Synanon's "the game." Children and staff were incentivized to "indict" residents for minor rule infractions, previous traumas, and "disclosures" or items individuals were ashamed of, in the name of emotional growth. This is commonly referred to as attack therapy, where screaming, swearing, and humiliation is appropriate and expected. At night there would be group touching, called "smooshing", which consisted of hand holding, spooning, snuggling, caressing, sitting on laps, and petting hair. Smooshing was expected of both teenagers and staff. It was common for staff to engage in this form of touch with teenagers.

In addition to raps, in order to advance in the CEDU program, a resident would have to earn the privilege to participate in a workshop known as a "propheet" every three months. The propheets were based on Synanon's "trip", and would last from 24 hours to several days at a time. The propheets were led by unlicensed staff along with teenagers at an advanced stage of the program, known as "upper school". They employed sleep-deprivation, humiliation, exposure to large variations in temperature, guided imagery, loud and repetitive music, regression therapy, physical reenactments of trauma, and forced emoting. They included things like digging your own grave and lying in it, slapping each other, singling out a child to physically fight to get into a circle of their peers, being restrained on mattresses, or casting you live or die votes on a lifeboat. The propheets were based on the book The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran as well as the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Each used "tools" from the historic literature, that were later used as stepping stones in the program that teenagers were expected to act upon in everyday life. There were seven propheets (Truth, Children's, Brother's Keeper, Dreams, I Want To Live, Values, and Imagine), and two workshops (I and Me, and Summit).

During intake, which occurred upon a teenager's arrival to a CEDU program, children were strip searched by staff and upper school residents, placed in generic clothing after their belongings were taken away, and made to sign a contract consenting to CEDU's agreements. The three most emphasized agreements were no sex, no drugs, and no violence, yet there were agreements for every part of life, including timed showers, the way hair was worn, and the way people must speak. There were restrictions on clothing items, brand names, rock star imagery, wearing black, major league sports team logos and luxury brands were banned. Violators would be sent to the Ascent Wilderness Program located in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, which was CEDU's version of a six-week boot camp, or placed on a "restriction", which included emotional growth writing assignments, humiliating yourself in front of others, manual labor, isolation, "bans" or forbidding a teenager to speak to, look at, or be acknowledged by peers, and sometimes "bans" from singing, smiling, reading, learning, drawing, and being touched. Punishments also consisted of individual programs, like binding someone's eyes and ears so that they were forced to live like Helen Keller (who was born blind and deaf), or feminine programs where girls were forced to dress up and act feminine, or boy bans, where girls where not permitted to interact with boys at all.

To receive a diploma from CEDU High School the students were required to complete 232 units. Diplomas were accredited by the Western Association of School and Colleges. Diplomas were not a requirement for graduating the 2.5 year CEDU program. Diplomas contained falsified credits, such as speech credits for weekly raps. CEDU did not provide legitimate high school courses. Often classes had no text books, and children were only allowed to participate as a privilege, which was often revoked. Many children returned home to resume high school.

CEDU’s programs were funded through a combination of private tuition, payments from school districts, and insurance reimbursements, and the organization established an endowment to support scholarships. Staff were occasionally transferred between campuses, typically in connection with promotions or administrative needs, while some students were reassigned between programs as part of placement decisions.

In the news

November 1996 - Former Rocky Mountain Academy staff and owner of Boundarylines Crisis Intervention Richard "Rowdy" Armstrong is accused of drugging, raping and sodomizing former Rocky Mountain Academy staff and Boundarylines Crisis Intervention co-worker Twila Stephenson.

January 14, 2004 - An article about Boulder Creek Academy titled "The Last Resort" is published by the Chicago Tribune. Several CEDU clients and parents are interviewed.

May 26, 2020 - Adam Eget, an actor and comedian known for his work with Norm Macdonald, talks about his experiences with CEDU on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Eget describes CEDU as an abusive cult, and talks about multiple examples of child endangerment he saw as a client attending a CEDU School.

September 14, 2020 - This Is Paris, a documentary that covers the time Paris Hilton spent at CEDU School, Ascent Wilderness Program, Cascade School, and Provo Canyon School, premieres on YouTube.

April 23, 2022 - Rich & Shameless started an episode one of their first season with an exposé on Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis. Dead, Insane, or in Jail author Zack Bonnie is interviewed about the time they spent together at Rocky Mountain Academy in the late 1980s.

Notable alumni

See also

Related topics Continuation high school Oppositional defiant disorder Residential education Residential treatment center Teenage rebellion Therapeutic boarding school Troubled teen industry Youth rightsTechniques Behavior modification Brainwashing Operant conditioning Therapeutic communityTherapies Attack therapy Behavior therapy Group psychotherapy The Primal Scream Wilderness therapy

Further reading

  • Paris Hilton. Paris: The Memoir. New York: Dey Street Books, 2023.

External links

  • , a 2008 documentary by Liam Scheff, featuring a closing segment with cult expert Paul Morantz
  • , the definitive 2012 book about life at CEDU. The story is set in 1983 and told through the eyes of a new student
  • , a memoir written in 2018 by Lathrop Lybrook about her experience at Rocky Mountain Academy, Ascent, and North Idaho Behavioral Health from September 30, 1998, to December 13, 1999
  • , an anonymous account of what it was like to be a student at CEDU in Idaho and California. Medium Anonymous discusses the current documentaries on CEDU, Rocky Mountain Academy, and articles on trauma and how they relate to them as a prior student of CEDU
  • , a memoir by Zack Bonnie, is an account of what it was like to attend the wilderness bootcamp along with Rocky Mountain Academy. This book has been referred to as "the whistleblower" in the troubled teen community.