Cascade Academy (2020-present) Midway, UT
Therapeutic Boarding School
History and Background Information
Cascade Academy is a residential program that is suspected of being a behavior modification program that opened in January 2020, although it did not begin enrolling students until March 2020. It is marketed as a Therapeutic Boarding School for teenage girls (13-18) who struggle primarily with generalized anxiety or other anxiety-related disorders. The program has a maximum enrollment of 26 girls, and the average length of stay is around 9 months.
The program is located at 430 W 200 N, Midway, UT 84049.
Founders and Notable Staff
Brad Gerrard is a Founding Partner and the current Executive Director of Cascade Academy. He is married to Marilyn Gerrard. He began his career in the troubled teen industry as the National Director of Marketing of the confirmedly abusive Aspen Education Group from 1999 until 2000. He then went on to work as the Director of Business Development at the notorious and confirmedly abusive Provo Canyon School from 2000 until 2003, when he left to work as the Divisional Director of Business Development at Universal Health Services, Provo Canyon School’s parent company. He then Co-Founded the Academy at Canyon Creek, which was purchased by Provo Canyon School in 2005. He worked at Canyon Creek as the COO from 2005 until 2007. Brad then worked as the COO and later the CEO of UHS from 2007 until 2013. In 2014, he began working as an Outreach Consultant at the reportedly abusive Heritage RTC until 2015. He then worked as the Director of Operations & Business Development at Innercept, LLC from 2015 until 2018. He co-founded Cascade Academy in January 2020.
Marilyn Gerrard is a Founding Partner of Cascade Academy. She is married to Brad Gerrard. She does not outwardly appear to be involved in the running of the program.
John & Carol Probst are Founding Partners of Cascade Academy. Carol currently works as the Operations Manager of Cascade. The house that Cascade Academy is located in is actually the former home of the Probsts.
Caleb Cottle is a Founding Partner of Cascade Academy and the program’s current Director of Business Development. He began his career in the TTI as the Program Director/Recreation Director of the confirmedly abusive CALO from 2007 until 2011. He then went on to work as the Program Director of Daniels Academy from 2011 until 2012. He then returned to CALO as the Program Outreach Coordinator in 2012, before become CALO’s Executive Director in 2014. He left CALO in 2014 to begin working at the Oakley School from 2016 until 2017. His employment between 2017 and 2020 are unknown.
Raylene Cottle is a Founding Partner of Cascade Academy. She is married to Caleb Cottle.
Rebekah “Bekah” Schuler is the current Director of Clinical Services and a Therapist at Cascade Academy. She began her career as a Therapist and later the Director of Clinical Services at the reportedly abusive Copper Hills Youth Center from 2010 until 2014. She then went on to work as the CEO/Managing Director of Universal Health Services from 2014 until 2015. She later worked as the Director of Clinical Service at Highland Ridge Hospital from 2019 until 2020.
Porter Roe is the current Program Director of Cascade Academy. Prior to this, he worked as a Program Coordinator at the confirmedly abusive Discovery Ranch from 2017 until April 2021, when he joined Cascade. His employment prior to Discovery Ranch is unknown.
Amy Griffin works as a Mental Health Counsellor at Cascade Academy. She has not previously worked at any TTI facilities.
Briana Petters works as a Mental Health Counsellor at Cascade Academy. After attending BYU and UVU, she began her career as an Assistant Supervisor Mentor at the reportedly abusive Maple Lake Academy. She later worked as a Mentor at the confirmedly abusive Solstice East RTC in North Carolina from 2016 until 2017. She then worked at a variety of residential and recovery programs for adults, before joining Cascade in January of 2021.
Program Structure
Because Cascade Academy is a very new program, very little information is currently known about the specifics of its program. It has been reported that the program does not use a level system. If you attended this program and would like to contribute information to help complete this page, please contact u/shroomskillet.
Abuse Allegations
Allegations of abuse and neglect that have been reported by survivors of Cascade Academy include food restrictions, frequent manipulation, undertraining/overworking of staff, and not providing the teens with the treatment they need.
If you attended this program and would like to contribute information to help complete this section, please contact u/shroomskillet.
Survivor/Parent Testimonials
October 2021: (SURVIVOR) “Cascade academy was no where near the worst RTC i’ve heard of or witnessed. I made so many relationships and it humbled me. However the negative wasn’t worth it, seeing my fellow peers being brainwashed was scary, and seeing staff i was close with be overworked and abused was really upsetting. Bradford and Marylin used to live in the house we lived in and would bring friends and family over, which is against hippa and made me feel uncomfortable. I met a girl there, her therapist bekah shuler, seemed to almost justify her negative actions and attention seeking behavior to a point where i don’t even know it that girl will recover from being really not stable and almost narcissistic. I would rarely have therapy sessions, I don’t blame my therapist though, she was really overworked. although i kinda outgrew and outsmarted the program to get out, seeing my peers suffer though this brainwashing and thinking a lot of the behavior they treated us with was ok, was not. The mentors were tired and overworked. I really hope everyone on the higher staff can either like not be abusive to the staff or just shut down the program completely” – Anonymous, submitted directly to Wiki
If you attended this program and would like to contribute a testimony of your experience, please contact u/shroomskillet.
