|
My Experience at Carolina
Springs Academy
January 7, 2007 The young
lady who sent her story to CAICA has asked to remain anonymous. She
attended WWASPS' Carolina Springs Academy program in South Carolina.
When I was 14, I was acting out --
sneaking out, having sex with my boyfriend, and giving my newly
divorced parents some problems. My mom claims she sent me to CSA
because she didn't know what I was doing when I snuck out, although
a drug test could have shown that I was clean.
I was told we were going to Atlanta
to visit friends, but needless to say I was surprised when we pulled
up to a solitary farmhouse on a hill. There was no sign, and no
nearby homes, and my mother told me this was a specialty boarding
school. After a few minutes of refusing to get out of the car, my
mom left me there to go talk to the staff.
Looking back, I wish I could have
turned the key and gone to California. However, I convinced myself
that it might not be so bad, being under the impression that this
was a real boarding school. I went into the front office, and the
staff seemed normal and were nice to me, considering my mom was
there.
I began asking questions -- "I need
to re-dye my hair/get my blow dryer/get clothes", and upon being
told I couldn't have these things, I was in disbelief. But that was
nothing compared to what I faced next. Although I saw it reenacted
countless times in my 14 months, the time between arrival and
incarceration is a blur.
I remember seeing my mom in the
doorway as they made me change into ill-fitting, old orange sweat
clothes, scared and angry but unsure of what to say or do. My things
were labeled, and most of my stuff was confiscated. I had to keep my
hair up at all times, and wore socks with flip flops.
I'm not sure which was worse -- the
shock of losing my freedom within a few hours, or the humiliation I
felt deep down at where I was. I couldn't believe my mother had
actually entered this building and still let me stay.
It was a double wide, and kept
anywhere from 75 to 100 girls at a time. It smelled constantly, but
especially during the rain, because our clothes would get wet and it
was all up to the staff as to whether we could change them or not.
The staff also complained of the smell, but blamed the girls -- they
told us to wash better, do our laundry more, whatever the scent du
jour was, despite the fact that it could take up to a week to get a
load of laundry done and many of us were limited to 3-5 minute
showers.
In levels 1 and 2, you showered
last, so the water was always freezing. Because we were on such a
tight schedule, only one shower was allowed per day, regardless of
conditions. We walked from building to building, so even if our
clothes and shoes got muddy or dirty or wet, we had to keep them on
unless we had specific permission from the staff. I remember at
least three or four times when I would take my socks off before bed,
and the athletes foot had eaten through the skin between my toes.
The food was horrible. I am a
vegetarian, but rather than providing protein substitutes, we got
double servings of the starch or vegetables most of the time. Unless
there was a documented food allergy, we had to eat at least half of
each dish, I remember gagging several times and getting a correction
for "being a drama queen". Most girls gained weight because of the
heavy starch and grease, but when it was brought up by some parents,
the "diet" food offered was even worse. It was basically the same
thing, only with cheaper ingredients. Level 1 could not drink
anything but water, and could not use any condiments on food.
PE was a joke -- it was either Ms.
Mary (possibly one of the most miserable human beings on the planet)
forcing us to run until we vomited at 7 in the morning, or just
walking and talking. Talking was difficult though, because unless
you were a level 3 or up, you couldn't talk to a level 1 or 2
without supervision by an upper level. This provided two problems --
many lower levels were left by themselves during PE, and upper
levels were overwhelmed with people needing supervision.
"Worksheets" were the buildings
behind the kitchen for punishment. Depending on the correction, you
had to write 3,000-24,000 word essays, and the staff would sit there
and count each word. I wound up missing 6 months of school because
of this, and although I got caught up, many girls got behind in
school because of worksheets. The teachers at the school were
competent, but it could take up to a week to get assistance,
especially from the math teacher -- there was one teacher for each
subject, and they had signup sheets pages long.
I could write every stupid rule
out, but I think the most ridiculous was not being able to look at
the opposite sex. Upper levels and staff would actually watch our
eyes to see if they moved towards wherever the boys were located,
and even if it was a split second, you got a correction. The
standards were much more lax on the boys' side though -- the boys
were basically allowed to look, and even tried to talk to us a few
times. We were forced to keep our heads bowed whenever they were
around, it was degrading.
I was accused of giving sexual
looks to boys during my first Discovery seminar, this was pointed
out in front of the group and I was 'chosen out'. To this day, I
don't know what I did to lead people to believe I was trying to get
boys' attention, except the fact that I was scapegoated almost my
entire time there for being overweight and "goth".
None of the staff in my time there
had completed college -- some had gone into the military, but the
psychologist was incompetent, and there was an extra fee to see her.
There was nothing therapeutic about the staff. Some were nice,
others were downright abusive or mean. There is no staff list on the
website currently.
Speaking of the website, all but
one of the photos used are not located on the actual CSA property.
The photo of the big white house used in promo is actually the
Belmont Inn in Abbeville -- at least 10 minutes from CSA. Even the
brick house in other galleries is not what it leads the parents to
believe. It is the office, the students live in double wides and
trailers.
A few hundred feet from the girls'
trailer is a mansion owned by one of the investors; the seminars are
conducted in his basement. This guy is really creepy -- he's at
least 50 years old, and took one of the upper level girls out
driving in his car by herself.
The upper levels lived in a section
of his house for a time until it was discovered they were drinking,
smoking, doing drugs, and having sex after hours. If someone were
doing these things in my house, I would know, so why did it take one
of the upper levels coming clean for it to stop? That's just really
fishy to me, as well as Narvin Lichfield's (the supposed owner) less
than stellar records. I'm not an expert, but the man has been in a
lot of trouble regarding scams and abuse of the program.
The worst, by a long shot, was the
medical care available at CSA. Or the lack thereof. I as well as
several other girls got walking pnemonia, but nothing was done to
treat it; we were not even allowed bed rest. It took me four months
to fully recover.
I didn't menstruate for over a
year, after several months I brought it up to my family rep, and she
told me that it was normal for a lot of girls, despite my complaints
of phantom cramps and lethargy. Had I been treated or even examined,
maybe I wouldn't be on hormonal medications for PCOS, and maybe I
would be able to have children in the future without the help of
medication.
But that was not the worst --
probably half of the girls were on medication of some sort, and
sometimes the medications weren't filled on time, or had been
stopped without the patient's knowledge. I was on 60mg of Paxil, and
had to go a week without it, despite severe withdrawal.
There was also no detox program for
girls with true drug addictions; a girl arrived when I was at level
3, and I remember her crying and vomiting the first few nights from
heroin withdrawal. Another girl had to get her appendix removed, and
she got an infection from the staples being loose (something along
that line). One night, the staples came out, and the night staff
just put them back in and used office staples despite her screaming.
Nothing further was done.
Sometimes it took up to 6 weeks to
get a doctor's appointment, but the parents have to set it up, so
it's useless to go through the family rep. Sometimes the staff would
refuse to give out things like Dimetapp (because of possible alcohol
content) or Tylenol.
To make this very long story short,
medical care was not properly administered or taken seriously.
I've been out of the program for
five and a half years now, and I still have nightmares. I've met
other students at my university that were in the Program, and all of
them have the same horrible memories and fears I do.
I urge every parent who is
considering putting their child into a WWASP program to look into
the complaints and testimonies not offered on the website or other
propaganda. Get the whole story. Don't throw away thousands of
dollars on something that will make you and your children a slave to
TASKS jargon, look into every other option.
The things CSA claims to offer are
what every parent wants -- self esteem, respect, and integrity, but
this is a play on emotions. CSA teaches conformity, fear, and all
for one. They pit students against each other to break them down
emotionally, and rebuild them. We call this "programming". WWASP is
a cult, and cannot be allowed to continue.
|
