Kenna Says: Institutional Arrogance is a Mental Illness

Open Letter to The Guidance Center Leadership

I came to you asking for something small. A conversation — coffee with it if you were feeling generous. A commitment to train your people in trauma-informed care and suicide assessment; a pathway for peers to have voices with you. A chance to repair harm before it spread — I had been harmed, and it was enough now. My invite was based in restorative justice. (You might need to Google that term.)

It would have cost you the price of training and a few hours of leadership time. Instead, you circled the wagons. Fast. Your lawyers must be thrilled; tax payers less so — though every hour they bill is one you didn’t have to spend if you’d chosen humanity over defense. You hid behind them. You treated my humanity, my hurt, like a legal risk to be contained. And for what?

How much has this “defend at all costs” strategy already cost The Guidance Center in Flagstaff, Arizona? $100,000? $150,000? More? And you’re still paying — and I am still not done.

I’ve been asking for restorative justice. Do you know what that costs? Almost nothing. A chair, a table, and a willingness to face the truth — to communicate, to be honest, to be fair and empathetic. You know… trauma-informed care. Costs nothing — except humility. Try it sometime.

You chose fear over dialogue. You chose harm over repair. And every single time you did, I filed more complaints. (Reminder: I’m not done. Are we having fun yet?)

Now here you are — bleeding resources, losing trust, and sinking deeper into the hole you dug yourselves. All of this could have been avoided. Communication. Respect. Kindness. Empathy. These were the antidotes.

So finally — when are you done? How about you get your emotional reactivity under control.

You. Absolute. Nitwits.