The Dead Inside
Page 20
So now, the big question: how does this happen? The answer is simple: power, greed, and desperation.
Let’s start with power. Straight was under investigation, losing lawsuits, yet was able to keep its license to operate. How? A Tampa Tribune article headline provides a tidy answer: “Straight chief twisted arms, report shows—politically connected Mel Sembler had help from state senators to get a license renewed.”17 A longtime Republican fund-raiser, Sembler would end up breaking records during George W. Bush’s 2000 presidential candidacy: he raised $21.3 million at a single dinner.18 Today, in addition to fund-raising, he and his wife run the Drug Free America Foundation.
And now, let’s move to greed. As Sembler’s history illustrates, power + greed = $. Proof: the first of sixteen checks my mother wrote to Straight, Inc. in the 1980s.
This formula still works in today’s “troubled teen industry.” The “Kids for Cash” scandal is a perfect example. In 2015, a Pennsylvania judge was accused of accepting $1 million in bribes from the owner of a for-profit juvenile jail in exchange for sentencing kids with minor offenses—shoplifting a DVD, making fun of a principal on social media—to extended sentences in the donor’s facility. The judge was sentenced to twenty-eight years in prison.19
Now, finally, desperation. When teens act rebellious, parents get scared. When parents don’t see options for help, they get desperate. When powerful organizations put out persuasive marketing materials and media directed at desperate parents, those parents buy in.
A writer for American Conservative described Straight’s best magic trick: “the creation of an image of the lying and manipulating teen which [could] then be applied indiscriminately to all complaints.”20 In other words, Straight convinced parents that their teen—that every teen—was, in fact, a lying druggie scumbag. And once parents wrote that first check—once they were committed—they had to recruit other parents.
A congressional report compared Straight’s strategies to Communist brainwashing. When reviewing the comments that committed Straight parents made to the media, there is clear proof of that brainwashing. “I don’t know how humane I would’ve been with my daughters if I didn’t have Straight,” one dad had said. “I was ready to get violent with them myself.”21
Regarding the investigation that closed down the Sarasota Straight, one parent (who was also president of the Sarasota Straight’s local administrative board) said, “We’ve got people coming here from states all over, and they’re desperate. Unless you’re in a similar situation, you can’t understand [the program’s value]…but when you’ve got government interfering with things they’re not knowledgeable about, it’s a travesty.”22
Government is still interfering today, trying to enact laws that protect institutionalized children. In 2008, a bill called H.R. 6358: Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act of 2008 was introduced. It died in Congress.
In 2009, bill H.R. 911: Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act of 2009 was introduced. It died in Congress.
In 2015, bipartisan bill H.R. 3060: Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act of 2015 was introduced, this time by a Democratic congressman and a Republican congresswoman working together. The bill is supported by sixty outside groups, campaigns, and program-survivor networks. Its title reads: “To require certain standards and enforcement provisions to prevent child abuse and neglect in residential programs.”
As of this book’s publication, the bill is currently awaiting consideration by a congressional committee. According to govtrack.us, a website that tracks the activities of the U.S. Congress, the bill has a 2 percent chance of success.
Because power + greed = $.
1. “Grand Jury Asks Probe of Synanon Allegations,” Register-Guard, March 13, 1978.
2. Matt Novak, “The Man Who Fought the Synanon Cult and Won,” Paleofuture, September 27, 2014.
3. Maia Szalavitz, Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled-Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids (New York: Riverhead Books, 2006), 23.
4. David Villano, “Money Man,” Florida Trend, May 1, 1997.
5. Joe Childs, “Straight, Inc. New Drug Program Set for Sept. 1,” The Evening Independent, July 27, 1976.
6. Mark Journey, “Straight Client Wins $721,000 Suit,” St. Petersburg Times, November 10, 1990.
7. Jay Greene, “Straight, Inc. to Shut Down Sarasota Branch,” Bradenton Herald, July 20, 1983.
8. Mark Zaloudek, “Straight Suspends Local Drug Program,” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, July 20, 1983.
9. Milo Geyelin, “State Tells Straight to Change Its Ways,” St. Petersburg Times, June 21, 1983.
10. Tim O’Brien, “Closure for a Quack Victim,” New Jersey Law Journal, January 24, 2000.
11. Ed Bradley, “Straight, Inc.,” 60 Minutes, January 29, 1984.
12. Maia Szalavitz, “The Ambassador’s Penis Pump and the Damage Done,” The Huffington Post, May 25, 2011.
13. Michael Langan, “In Mechanics and Mentality the Physician Health Program ‘Blueprint’ Is Essentially Straight, Inc. for Doctors,” Disrupted Physician, May 15, 2015.
14. Jeffrey C. Billman, “SAFE (or else),” Orlando Weekly, January 16, 2003.
15. Tim O’Brien, “Keeping ‘Cult’ Out of the Case,” New Jersey Law Journal, July 7, 2003.
16. Education and the Workforce, “House Education Committee Approves Legislation to Stop Child Abuse in Teen Residential Programs,” February 11, 2009.
17. Annmarie Sarsfield, “Straight Chief Twisted Arms, Report Shows—Politically Connected Mel Sembler Had Help from State Senators to Get a License Renewed,” Tampa Tribune, July 8, 1993.
18. John Gorenfeld, “Ambassador de Sade,” Alternet, November 7, 2005.
19. M. David, “Judge Sentenced to 28 Years for Selling ‘Kids for Cash’ to Prisons,” Counter Current News, August 27, 2015.
20. Eve Tushnet, “We Had to Torture the Children in Order to Save Them,” American Conservative, October 4, 2012.
21. Mark Zaloudek, “Straight, Inc. Under Fire from Parents,” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, May 1, 1983.
22. Mark Zaloudek, “Drug Treatment Center Suspends Area Operation,” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, July 20, 1983.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I feel like the luckiest girl alive, both because I’m still here—a point which was in question when I was a teen—and because I’m here, publishing this book. I have so many to thank for helping me get here. And here.
The writers: Ellen Hopkins, who opened the door. Russell Banks, who turned on the lights. LouAnne Johnson, who welcomed me into the club, and Dave Eggers, who gave out party favors. Prince, who brought the soul, and Pink Floyd, who brought the oxygen. And Beverly Clearly, James Baldwin, James Frey, Francine Pascal, Jenni Fagan, Maya Angelou, S. E. Hinton, Walter Dean Myers, Judy Blume, Tana French, Walter Mosley, and Zora Neale Hurston, who gave me a place to stay.
The readers: all the students who read and critiqued and demanded more pages from my early drafts. Rachael Wilbur, Lori Drohan, Dr. Nancy Noonan, Rosella LaFevre, Amanda Dunn, and Judy Storey, who read and (mostly) cheered. The many, many people who wrote to thank me, who wrote reviews, and the two people who wrote to say the book sucked, who made me work harder to ensure that it didn’t.
The comrades: the whole Straight survivors’ community—who get it automatically—and Kris Flannery, Marcus Chatfield, Ginger McNulty, Kelly Matthews, Maia Szalavitz, Rich Mullinax, and Philip Elberg Esq., the fucking heroes.
The places: Bridgeport, Connecticut; Portland, Oregon; and UMass Boston—for loving and healing and raising me.
The rock stars: Mercy Pilkington, Dr. Rachel Rubin, and Dr. Laura Skinner, who know what they did. And do.
The extended family: Aunt Jane and Uncle George, who saw the writer in me from day one, and all of my high school kids, from Dorchester to Rogers to Vance to MI-WAYE to Turning Point to Hough
to Pressly, who better not fucking change.
The book brujas: my agent, Myrsini Stephanides, the first to hear the music in the words and to see what I hope I am; who erased every bad day ever with a single email. And to my editorial team at Sourcebooks, especially to Annette Pollert-Morgan, whose superpowers include finding every invisible spot where I tried and tried and went *shrug* good enough...and sweetly, gently asking the questions that brought it up to great.
The random adults: Donna and Bob Santos, Irish Mike, and the men and women of Trumbull AA, for providing a safe place. And Penny Odell and the Janus House staff, for the care, for the respect, and for showing me my destiny.
And my family, my heart, my quad: Eric, Eli, and Oscar, for giving me everything I never thought I could have: peace, safety, and true, simple love.
And maybe most of all, the many of us who couldn’t survive the cult. I get it. I’m sorry. And I hope you’ve found peace and love, too.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A modern-day Cinderella, Cyndy Etler was homeless at fourteen and summa cum laude at thirty. As a teacher and teen life coach, she convinces kids that books work better than drugs. She lives with her brilliant husband and adorable rescue dogs in North Carolina. Find her at cyndyetler.com.
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