Interview for ex-WWASPS Students
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A 25 question interview of ex-students who attended WWASPS schools. Answers to each question can be found on the page links below.
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Question 5. While in the program were you ever abused in a physical, sexual or verbal manner? Please give specific examples if you can.
"Yes. I was restrained too many times to count, and during the restraints had my head smashed repeatedly into the floor, had my arms twisted to a dangerous point behind my back, and staff sitting on my bent knees in order to cause excruciating pain. I got kicked, slapped, and punched by staff members during a riot. I was wacked in the head by a wooden board with nails sticking out of it. I was forced to kiss another girl on the lips because I was accused of being bisexual. I was forced to do meaningless labor such as "sweeping the wall", picking rocks and moving them, washing the concrete outside on my hands and knees, cleaning floors only to have staff purposely soil them again so I would have to re- clean them. I was called all sorts of names and told that the reason we were doing the many meaningless tasks was to prepare me for my future career as a housemaid (amidst laughter), and other belittling comments-too many to repeat or remember." - B.B., Ivy Ridge & Tranquility Bay
"I personally feel that the initial strip search was sexual abuse, noting that it was done in the nurse’s bedroom and was completely humiliating and degrading. Emotional abuse was a daily occurrence - we were put down constantly, forced to give up ourselves, etc. I had untreated food poisoning constantly. I had blood in my stool every day and was never given medical attention, rather was told it was “normal.” I think the entire structure itself is abuse, personally. I was never sent to OP though I did have to write essay and essay in study hall. The living conditions were over crowded and the sewage system rarely functioned in our room, causing overflows and horrible stenches." - C.M., Tranquility Bay
"I was never abused physically or sexually. I saw other kids being abused physically. If you don't do what they say they send you to R&R, and when I walked passed the room you could hear wrestling and screaming. The girl would yell, and the Mexicans would just yell back in Spanish, and it was difficult to understand what they were saying. I wasn't exactly sure what was happening but this would happen all day to the same girl as "punishment". Once, when I was allowed to speak, I asked an upper level what R&R is. All she said is "You don't want to go there, they hog tie you and sit on you for hours." At that point I realized I didn't want to experience it, so I did what I could to stay out. I was definitely emotionally abused. I was forced to hear "feedback" from the other girls in my "family", during what they called "daily group therapy" but I like to call "verbal rape." Feedback was always negative, nobody ever complimented or you would be labeled as "avoiding the issue", and if you didn't give feedback you were considered a "ghost in the family." I was considered a "ghost" because I refused to do it, so I would always have my privileges taken away; you lose your points, and you can't move up in the level system. Anyway, so the girls would go around the room and tell you what they think your problem is. Mind you, these are young teenage girls, it would get pretty brutal sometimes the things they would say. No matter how emotionally upsetting the feedback would be, you would always have to respond with a "thank you". And then at seminars, the facilitator made everyone go up to the microphone and tell everyone their deepest darkest secret in front of an audience of 100 teenage boys and girls, and then the kids would take turns telling you what they thought of you. They had never met or talked to me, why would you force somebody to give their opinion of you? But you had to, or you would get kicked out of the seminar and you would have to stay another month in that place. I remember the facilitator blaming this girl who said she was raped. I remember after she told her story he said, "You have to be accountable for your actions. You put yourself in that situation. According to your results, you got exactly what you intended." It was so sick and disgusting. This poor girl was standing there crying, and nobody could speak up for her, everyone was too scared at that point." - C.A., Casa by the Sea
"I was restrained and while I was laying on my stomach I was kicked in the face repeatedly by someone. I still remember the shoe, Nike Airmax. I had my chin ground into the grout between the tile and still have a scar on my chin from it. I think the seminars were almost as bad as R&R. I was standing in this line and this girl had become so good at lying to herself that she looked at me and started screaming inches from my face about how I raped her It was just insane. I never met this girl in my life. When dealing with that sort of thing you should be listening to sounds of the waves and talking with a certified psychologist or some sort of Dr. She was shaking and it was horrible for me because she blamed me for whatever someone else did to her. At the time I thought it was kinda funny but it is just sick. I forgot to mention the worksheet finesses. If you weren't used to being in worksheet after one half hour workout you'd be sore for 2 days easily. We called them death finesses. Arturo or Marcos were the worst they would say do something like 150 pushups "or whatever workout they felt like watching us drop doing" and if one of your chests touch the floor were starting over. after about 50 people would start dropping and then they would get to sit and watch the rest start over. I would have rather killed myself doing pushups for the whole half hour because your peers that were still doing pushups would want to kill you I never saw any physical retaliation, but It would get ugly." - Anon, Casa by the Sea
"No direct physical, sexual or verbal abuse." - P.B., Casa by the Sea
"I would not say I was ever sexually abused personally, but I don’t think I could say verbal abuse wasn’t present if I am going to be honest. I think forcing us to share in groups of our peers and then using what we say against us in other situations in front of other peers can be very traumatic. I remember one time it was close to the time my dad had committed suicide many years earlier so I decided to share my frustration, and a few weeks later one of the staff was upset with me for something and told me I should just kill myself like my dad did. That staff member was nowhere near my group so I’m not sure how she knew about it, but it was very hurtful to me, and those words still haunt me today. I would also say physical abuse was present, when I first got there I had a hard time keeping the food down and would need to throw up and they would not allow me to go to the bathroom, so I ended up throwing up on myself, which was very humiliating, then to make it worse, I decided to not eat the rest of my food so I got taken to an intervention room where I was forced to lay on the floor with my chin digging into the hard floor and my hands behind my back for hours. They allowed me to sit up to try and force-feed me the same food I refused to eat earlier in the day so then I had to go back to the same position. That went on for 3 days, so yes I would defiantly say physical abuse was an issue." - A.E., Casa by the Sea
"I was very careful while I was there, so I wouldn’t say that I was sexually abused at all. I would say that I was verbally abused by my group mates giving “feedback” to me or being put on therapeutic processes where I had to watch my group reenact me being raped at a party, as if to make me accountable for going to a party and that it was my fault that it happened to me. Physically, my family rep would tell my group mates and I that we were fat all of the time, and made us go on silence and do boot camp style exercises just like the ones they were doing in Tecate Mexico at the high impact program where they sent girls who weren’t working their programs." - L.W., Cross Creek Manor
"Let's see.. my abusive parents put me in a place where I was refused all medical health care, threatened with violence, made to be put in torturous positions for days, not allowed to communicate with friends and family, held against my will, forced to do school for extreme hours with no accreditation. Some of these resemble the definition of KIDNAPPING!" - D.G., Casa by the Sea & Ivy Ridge
"I honestly don’t remember a lot that was when I was sixteen I am almost 30 now. I was never physically abused but verbally I know I was but I don’t remember examples. I am sorry... but I do remember this girls Lilly was having bad cramping and went to the pore excuse of a nurse we had and complained. The nurse did nothing for about six months when they finally took her to the doctor they said she was so bad she almost ruined her chance of ever having children. But the only medical medicine we ever got was drink water." - C.L., Casa by the Sea
"I was verbally abused, harassed in a seminar called focus where they made me wear a sign around my neck that said Freak, and all the staff members in that seminar taunted, teased, screamed at me to break me down as much as they could for me telling them very personal situations that happened to me as a young child. These memories from that have haunted me ever sense that day. I even had upper level girls that staffed that seminar come to me and told me how sorry they were and felt so bad for what they did to me. I will not speak about what happened as it is to personal for me and hard to write. Luke loved to taunt me, I remember my second week there, i walked out of the comedor where we ate our food, and I saw a motor home. My eyes lit up so big and Luke just happened to be right there and commented "OH! Jill your parents are here!" And then laughed and walked away. If a girl broke a MAJOR rule, a category 5, we were all put on Code silence for two weeks which means you can NOT talk at all for a whole two weeks. The night the first girl ran away, I was told to sit down in front of a wall with my nose to it, my hands behind my back, and had to sit there for hours and EVERY girl had to do this. Then for about 2 months after, every night a 3 AM we had a mama come in, yelled at us to get up and run outside for a headcount. We all had to stand in line, count off in Spanish, since we were only allowed to speak Spanish or try the best we could too since most of us didn't know how. I remember one night 5 girls passed out all over the basketball courts in various areas in their family lines....was a really scary experience." - J.C., Casa by the Sea
"Really, is this a real question. I was physically and verbally abused. When I first got to the program, I spent some time in R&R, and worksheets at that time was all about sitting on the floor crossed-legged, straight back, and hands on your knees. But being an Asian-American I was physically abused by parents, so this wasn’t new to me. Verbal abuse happened all the time in group, seminars, and even by the staff: “Chino” this, “Chino” that, Chino-co-chino." - J.K., Casa by the Sea
"I can honestly say the whole time I was there, besides my first 3 hours, I was never harmed in any fashion. I guess it goes back to making the place bearable for myself. In the first 3 hours yes, I was overwhelmingly restrained and forced into submission. Any time after that no. I made sure to stay off the radar and do as I was told to make my time go by smoothly without incident." - G.A., Casa by the Sea
"I am blessed to say that I never got sexually abused or anything like that. However I do think that depriving people of being able to live under more sanitary living conditions was a huge factor. I also think that some of the staff would take advantage of authority and go over board." - N.R., Casa by the Sea
"No. I was never abused. At least in what I thought was abuse." - A.T., Casa by the Sea
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Question 5. While in the program were you ever abused in a physical, sexual or verbal manner? Please give specific examples if you can.
"Yes. I was restrained too many times to count, and during the restraints had my head smashed repeatedly into the floor, had my arms twisted to a dangerous point behind my back, and staff sitting on my bent knees in order to cause excruciating pain. I got kicked, slapped, and punched by staff members during a riot. I was wacked in the head by a wooden board with nails sticking out of it. I was forced to kiss another girl on the lips because I was accused of being bisexual. I was forced to do meaningless labor such as "sweeping the wall", picking rocks and moving them, washing the concrete outside on my hands and knees, cleaning floors only to have staff purposely soil them again so I would have to re- clean them. I was called all sorts of names and told that the reason we were doing the many meaningless tasks was to prepare me for my future career as a housemaid (amidst laughter), and other belittling comments-too many to repeat or remember." - B.B., Ivy Ridge & Tranquility Bay
"I personally feel that the initial strip search was sexual abuse, noting that it was done in the nurse’s bedroom and was completely humiliating and degrading. Emotional abuse was a daily occurrence - we were put down constantly, forced to give up ourselves, etc. I had untreated food poisoning constantly. I had blood in my stool every day and was never given medical attention, rather was told it was “normal.” I think the entire structure itself is abuse, personally. I was never sent to OP though I did have to write essay and essay in study hall. The living conditions were over crowded and the sewage system rarely functioned in our room, causing overflows and horrible stenches." - C.M., Tranquility Bay
"I was never abused physically or sexually. I saw other kids being abused physically. If you don't do what they say they send you to R&R, and when I walked passed the room you could hear wrestling and screaming. The girl would yell, and the Mexicans would just yell back in Spanish, and it was difficult to understand what they were saying. I wasn't exactly sure what was happening but this would happen all day to the same girl as "punishment". Once, when I was allowed to speak, I asked an upper level what R&R is. All she said is "You don't want to go there, they hog tie you and sit on you for hours." At that point I realized I didn't want to experience it, so I did what I could to stay out. I was definitely emotionally abused. I was forced to hear "feedback" from the other girls in my "family", during what they called "daily group therapy" but I like to call "verbal rape." Feedback was always negative, nobody ever complimented or you would be labeled as "avoiding the issue", and if you didn't give feedback you were considered a "ghost in the family." I was considered a "ghost" because I refused to do it, so I would always have my privileges taken away; you lose your points, and you can't move up in the level system. Anyway, so the girls would go around the room and tell you what they think your problem is. Mind you, these are young teenage girls, it would get pretty brutal sometimes the things they would say. No matter how emotionally upsetting the feedback would be, you would always have to respond with a "thank you". And then at seminars, the facilitator made everyone go up to the microphone and tell everyone their deepest darkest secret in front of an audience of 100 teenage boys and girls, and then the kids would take turns telling you what they thought of you. They had never met or talked to me, why would you force somebody to give their opinion of you? But you had to, or you would get kicked out of the seminar and you would have to stay another month in that place. I remember the facilitator blaming this girl who said she was raped. I remember after she told her story he said, "You have to be accountable for your actions. You put yourself in that situation. According to your results, you got exactly what you intended." It was so sick and disgusting. This poor girl was standing there crying, and nobody could speak up for her, everyone was too scared at that point." - C.A., Casa by the Sea
"I was restrained and while I was laying on my stomach I was kicked in the face repeatedly by someone. I still remember the shoe, Nike Airmax. I had my chin ground into the grout between the tile and still have a scar on my chin from it. I think the seminars were almost as bad as R&R. I was standing in this line and this girl had become so good at lying to herself that she looked at me and started screaming inches from my face about how I raped her It was just insane. I never met this girl in my life. When dealing with that sort of thing you should be listening to sounds of the waves and talking with a certified psychologist or some sort of Dr. She was shaking and it was horrible for me because she blamed me for whatever someone else did to her. At the time I thought it was kinda funny but it is just sick. I forgot to mention the worksheet finesses. If you weren't used to being in worksheet after one half hour workout you'd be sore for 2 days easily. We called them death finesses. Arturo or Marcos were the worst they would say do something like 150 pushups "or whatever workout they felt like watching us drop doing" and if one of your chests touch the floor were starting over. after about 50 people would start dropping and then they would get to sit and watch the rest start over. I would have rather killed myself doing pushups for the whole half hour because your peers that were still doing pushups would want to kill you I never saw any physical retaliation, but It would get ugly." - Anon, Casa by the Sea
"No direct physical, sexual or verbal abuse." - P.B., Casa by the Sea
"I would not say I was ever sexually abused personally, but I don’t think I could say verbal abuse wasn’t present if I am going to be honest. I think forcing us to share in groups of our peers and then using what we say against us in other situations in front of other peers can be very traumatic. I remember one time it was close to the time my dad had committed suicide many years earlier so I decided to share my frustration, and a few weeks later one of the staff was upset with me for something and told me I should just kill myself like my dad did. That staff member was nowhere near my group so I’m not sure how she knew about it, but it was very hurtful to me, and those words still haunt me today. I would also say physical abuse was present, when I first got there I had a hard time keeping the food down and would need to throw up and they would not allow me to go to the bathroom, so I ended up throwing up on myself, which was very humiliating, then to make it worse, I decided to not eat the rest of my food so I got taken to an intervention room where I was forced to lay on the floor with my chin digging into the hard floor and my hands behind my back for hours. They allowed me to sit up to try and force-feed me the same food I refused to eat earlier in the day so then I had to go back to the same position. That went on for 3 days, so yes I would defiantly say physical abuse was an issue." - A.E., Casa by the Sea
"I was very careful while I was there, so I wouldn’t say that I was sexually abused at all. I would say that I was verbally abused by my group mates giving “feedback” to me or being put on therapeutic processes where I had to watch my group reenact me being raped at a party, as if to make me accountable for going to a party and that it was my fault that it happened to me. Physically, my family rep would tell my group mates and I that we were fat all of the time, and made us go on silence and do boot camp style exercises just like the ones they were doing in Tecate Mexico at the high impact program where they sent girls who weren’t working their programs." - L.W., Cross Creek Manor
"Let's see.. my abusive parents put me in a place where I was refused all medical health care, threatened with violence, made to be put in torturous positions for days, not allowed to communicate with friends and family, held against my will, forced to do school for extreme hours with no accreditation. Some of these resemble the definition of KIDNAPPING!" - D.G., Casa by the Sea & Ivy Ridge
"I honestly don’t remember a lot that was when I was sixteen I am almost 30 now. I was never physically abused but verbally I know I was but I don’t remember examples. I am sorry... but I do remember this girls Lilly was having bad cramping and went to the pore excuse of a nurse we had and complained. The nurse did nothing for about six months when they finally took her to the doctor they said she was so bad she almost ruined her chance of ever having children. But the only medical medicine we ever got was drink water." - C.L., Casa by the Sea
"I was verbally abused, harassed in a seminar called focus where they made me wear a sign around my neck that said Freak, and all the staff members in that seminar taunted, teased, screamed at me to break me down as much as they could for me telling them very personal situations that happened to me as a young child. These memories from that have haunted me ever sense that day. I even had upper level girls that staffed that seminar come to me and told me how sorry they were and felt so bad for what they did to me. I will not speak about what happened as it is to personal for me and hard to write. Luke loved to taunt me, I remember my second week there, i walked out of the comedor where we ate our food, and I saw a motor home. My eyes lit up so big and Luke just happened to be right there and commented "OH! Jill your parents are here!" And then laughed and walked away. If a girl broke a MAJOR rule, a category 5, we were all put on Code silence for two weeks which means you can NOT talk at all for a whole two weeks. The night the first girl ran away, I was told to sit down in front of a wall with my nose to it, my hands behind my back, and had to sit there for hours and EVERY girl had to do this. Then for about 2 months after, every night a 3 AM we had a mama come in, yelled at us to get up and run outside for a headcount. We all had to stand in line, count off in Spanish, since we were only allowed to speak Spanish or try the best we could too since most of us didn't know how. I remember one night 5 girls passed out all over the basketball courts in various areas in their family lines....was a really scary experience." - J.C., Casa by the Sea
"Really, is this a real question. I was physically and verbally abused. When I first got to the program, I spent some time in R&R, and worksheets at that time was all about sitting on the floor crossed-legged, straight back, and hands on your knees. But being an Asian-American I was physically abused by parents, so this wasn’t new to me. Verbal abuse happened all the time in group, seminars, and even by the staff: “Chino” this, “Chino” that, Chino-co-chino." - J.K., Casa by the Sea
"I can honestly say the whole time I was there, besides my first 3 hours, I was never harmed in any fashion. I guess it goes back to making the place bearable for myself. In the first 3 hours yes, I was overwhelmingly restrained and forced into submission. Any time after that no. I made sure to stay off the radar and do as I was told to make my time go by smoothly without incident." - G.A., Casa by the Sea
"I am blessed to say that I never got sexually abused or anything like that. However I do think that depriving people of being able to live under more sanitary living conditions was a huge factor. I also think that some of the staff would take advantage of authority and go over board." - N.R., Casa by the Sea
"No. I was never abused. At least in what I thought was abuse." - A.T., Casa by the Sea
