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 6. Do you recall seeing others being abused in any way? Please give specific examples if you can.
"I remember hearing kids screaming from OP every day and not seeing why they were screaming (only imagining), but I did see a girl literally slapped across the face for standing up out of her bed with out permission (considered "run-plans"), and on another occasion seeing other kids stuffing a younger girl under a mattress and then locking the bed into the wall (we had beds that "fell" out of the wall), while staff looked on and laughed. I saw the same young girl being restrained for not wanting to move from the spot she was sitting in, and dragged across the room by staff members. During a riot we had male and female staff hitting, punching, and kicking anyone they could get their hands on." - B.B., Ivy Ridge & Tranquility Bay
"There was a kid that occasionally got in trouble at night, and I could hear him being roughed up and dragged down the hallway." - A.T., Casa by the Sea
"There was a girl who was constantly in OP while I was there. She would be brought out for morning head count and I seriously thought that she had autism or something similar as it seemed nearly impossible for her to follow basic commands. She was restrained in front of me several times. Every singly night I heard screaming from both the girls side and boys side of OP. During my first week, a boy apparently tried to run away and was caught. I heard him screaming for at least week following, mostly at night." - C.M., Tranquility Bay
"You couldn't get what they call "off-ground privileges" until you reach level three which usually takes a minimum of 3 to 4 months. There weren't any licensed professionals on the facility, I think they had a nurse, but she ended up not being licensed when it got shut down. So in order to see a doctor or dentist you have to work the system for 3 months. I remember I had a toothache so bad, and I mentioned it to my case manager, but she said I had to have "off-ground privileges". I couldn't believe that my parents would send me to a place where I wouldn't get appropriate health care. I knew at that point something wasn't right. I ended up having to get an emergency root canal when I was back home because the cavity had gone untreated for 4 months and just got worse and worse. They wouldn't even give me aspirin for the pain, they thought I was being "manipulative." They used that word a lot in there. Anyway, I would see girls vomiting and they would have fevers, and they wouldn't have "off-ground" privileges. So their solution was always the same for every ailment: they would keep the girl in bed all day, not moving, and wrap her in a bunch of blankets until she "sweated it out." They called this "sick bed." When upper levels had "sick bed" they were allowed to read. Us lower levels had to just lay there all day staring at the top bunk while some Mexican lady sat and watched in a chair. I remember seeing it and thinking it was so bad that I wouldn't tell anyone if I was feeling sick for fear I'd have to lay all day not moving, and sweating under three thick blankets." - C.A., Casa by the Sea
"YES. This image haunts me to this day. I was inside on of our trailers were 60 girls slept, and they had a mattress blocking a door way into the other side of the trailer. I heard crying, horrible crying, I peeked through the side of the mattress and saw my cousin Luke (Administrator), alone with a girl sitting on top of her, screaming at her "You like that!" He kept cussing, and to this day my family, LUKE'S family, my aunt does no know I saw this happen. To see this little 14 year old girl, with a 200 pound man sitting on her still haunts me to this day. I will never be able to look in my cousins eyes ever again. I pray every day that he will stop and admit to this horrible crime, and that this is not right, inhumane and disgusting. I watched my friends get sent to High Impact, after the Mexican authorities thankfully closed it down. I watched all the girls walk through the huge gates of Casa covered in dirt, and in the SAME clothes they left in 6 months ago.....I do NOT understand how Dace Goulding can say they had no affiliation with High Impact, when they did. They fed us salad one time that was infected with the water there, and the whole facility was sick, vomiting, miserable. All of the us were taken out and put outside on the basketball courts to sleep. We were just fed red jello for 3 days or so until we felt better." - J.C., Casa by the Sea
"In R&R. The stress positions they were forced to hold were inhumane. Also I have seen girls being restrained and gasping for air." - Anon, Casa by the Sea
"I saw verbal abuse almost daily, but physical abuse was usually hidden in the Intervention room. There were a couple times I had to walk passed that room and they had it open a crack and you could see a girl laying there in a hog tied position looking extremely distressed." - A.E., Casa by the Sea
"Definitely- I watched small 90-pound girls get “taken down” by two or more full-grown men at a time. They would be put in isolation and be given nothing but apples, bread, or peanut butter for days. I also saw many of my group members sent to the high impact program in Mexico, where they were forced to eat their own vomit, pee on each other in the night, had to sit in cages, and one girl was raped on her 16th birthday by the man who ran the high impact. They were pushed to their psychological and physical limit." - L.W., Cross Creek Manor
"I watched a kid punch another and they got slammed pretty hard truthfully I never saw anyone abused as badly as I was." - Anon, Casa by the Sea
"Yes - everyday, everyone." - D.G., Casa by the Sea & Ivy Ridge
"See it - no, heard it, yes. I remember hearing this girls Elana screaming well into the night because they were forcing her into R&R. You could here the abuse going on on the boy’s side. But as I said in question five I feel improper medical care is considered abuse and we were all verbally abused every day. And with feedback we were kind of forced to verbally abuse each other. You were required to give feedback, and it wasn’t good feedback if it wasn’t bad. You always had to say something like I feel like you pull you hair back to grab the attention of the boys while we are on our level three outing. LOL that was so stupid." - C.L., Casa by the Sea
"No." - N.R., Casa by the Sea
"Everyone was abused both physically and verbally." - J.K., Casa by the Sea
"I was going to continue on in #5 about witnessing people getting abused.. Yes I did witness that. If you had a smart mouth or didn't comply with what a father told you, or didn't eat all your food, then yes, I did see abuse. Few examples, can't remember names though. One time on lower levels a kid got smart with a father. The father called in support from their shift leader, it was the guy before Arturo on the boys side. He slammed him so hard into the wall while we were all standing in line to watch. I was near the front and he had is elbow land on the back of the kids head it almost bounced if his elbow wasn't there to stop it from doing so. Another time I saw Marcos, the ass that ran worksheet on the guys side, kick a kid repeatedly for not doing his duck walks properly. Then there was the time I was on upper levels working R&R and witnessed Arturo slamming his full body weight on a kid for not following directions. Another example would be on upper levels again, Arturo force feeding a kid pea soup after him and I sitting there for an hour. The kid wouldn't eat the soup and Arturo told me to make sure he did. He wouldn't, Arturo returned and slammed his face into the bowl and smacked the back of his head telling him to eat it. The kid began eating it, then threw up and Arturo made him eat his own vomit because it was the food he was supposed to eat. That's all I can remember besides up having to do those excruciating exercises in worksheet." - G.A., 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 6. Do you recall seeing others being abused in any way? Please give specific examples if you can.
"I remember hearing kids screaming from OP every day and not seeing why they were screaming (only imagining), but I did see a girl literally slapped across the face for standing up out of her bed with out permission (considered "run-plans"), and on another occasion seeing other kids stuffing a younger girl under a mattress and then locking the bed into the wall (we had beds that "fell" out of the wall), while staff looked on and laughed. I saw the same young girl being restrained for not wanting to move from the spot she was sitting in, and dragged across the room by staff members. During a riot we had male and female staff hitting, punching, and kicking anyone they could get their hands on." - B.B., Ivy Ridge & Tranquility Bay
"There was a kid that occasionally got in trouble at night, and I could hear him being roughed up and dragged down the hallway." - A.T., Casa by the Sea
"There was a girl who was constantly in OP while I was there. She would be brought out for morning head count and I seriously thought that she had autism or something similar as it seemed nearly impossible for her to follow basic commands. She was restrained in front of me several times. Every singly night I heard screaming from both the girls side and boys side of OP. During my first week, a boy apparently tried to run away and was caught. I heard him screaming for at least week following, mostly at night." - C.M., Tranquility Bay
"You couldn't get what they call "off-ground privileges" until you reach level three which usually takes a minimum of 3 to 4 months. There weren't any licensed professionals on the facility, I think they had a nurse, but she ended up not being licensed when it got shut down. So in order to see a doctor or dentist you have to work the system for 3 months. I remember I had a toothache so bad, and I mentioned it to my case manager, but she said I had to have "off-ground privileges". I couldn't believe that my parents would send me to a place where I wouldn't get appropriate health care. I knew at that point something wasn't right. I ended up having to get an emergency root canal when I was back home because the cavity had gone untreated for 4 months and just got worse and worse. They wouldn't even give me aspirin for the pain, they thought I was being "manipulative." They used that word a lot in there. Anyway, I would see girls vomiting and they would have fevers, and they wouldn't have "off-ground" privileges. So their solution was always the same for every ailment: they would keep the girl in bed all day, not moving, and wrap her in a bunch of blankets until she "sweated it out." They called this "sick bed." When upper levels had "sick bed" they were allowed to read. Us lower levels had to just lay there all day staring at the top bunk while some Mexican lady sat and watched in a chair. I remember seeing it and thinking it was so bad that I wouldn't tell anyone if I was feeling sick for fear I'd have to lay all day not moving, and sweating under three thick blankets." - C.A., Casa by the Sea
"YES. This image haunts me to this day. I was inside on of our trailers were 60 girls slept, and they had a mattress blocking a door way into the other side of the trailer. I heard crying, horrible crying, I peeked through the side of the mattress and saw my cousin Luke (Administrator), alone with a girl sitting on top of her, screaming at her "You like that!" He kept cussing, and to this day my family, LUKE'S family, my aunt does no know I saw this happen. To see this little 14 year old girl, with a 200 pound man sitting on her still haunts me to this day. I will never be able to look in my cousins eyes ever again. I pray every day that he will stop and admit to this horrible crime, and that this is not right, inhumane and disgusting. I watched my friends get sent to High Impact, after the Mexican authorities thankfully closed it down. I watched all the girls walk through the huge gates of Casa covered in dirt, and in the SAME clothes they left in 6 months ago.....I do NOT understand how Dace Goulding can say they had no affiliation with High Impact, when they did. They fed us salad one time that was infected with the water there, and the whole facility was sick, vomiting, miserable. All of the us were taken out and put outside on the basketball courts to sleep. We were just fed red jello for 3 days or so until we felt better." - J.C., Casa by the Sea
"In R&R. The stress positions they were forced to hold were inhumane. Also I have seen girls being restrained and gasping for air." - Anon, Casa by the Sea
"I saw verbal abuse almost daily, but physical abuse was usually hidden in the Intervention room. There were a couple times I had to walk passed that room and they had it open a crack and you could see a girl laying there in a hog tied position looking extremely distressed." - A.E., Casa by the Sea
"Definitely- I watched small 90-pound girls get “taken down” by two or more full-grown men at a time. They would be put in isolation and be given nothing but apples, bread, or peanut butter for days. I also saw many of my group members sent to the high impact program in Mexico, where they were forced to eat their own vomit, pee on each other in the night, had to sit in cages, and one girl was raped on her 16th birthday by the man who ran the high impact. They were pushed to their psychological and physical limit." - L.W., Cross Creek Manor
"I watched a kid punch another and they got slammed pretty hard truthfully I never saw anyone abused as badly as I was." - Anon, Casa by the Sea
"Yes - everyday, everyone." - D.G., Casa by the Sea & Ivy Ridge
"See it - no, heard it, yes. I remember hearing this girls Elana screaming well into the night because they were forcing her into R&R. You could here the abuse going on on the boy’s side. But as I said in question five I feel improper medical care is considered abuse and we were all verbally abused every day. And with feedback we were kind of forced to verbally abuse each other. You were required to give feedback, and it wasn’t good feedback if it wasn’t bad. You always had to say something like I feel like you pull you hair back to grab the attention of the boys while we are on our level three outing. LOL that was so stupid." - C.L., Casa by the Sea
"No." - N.R., Casa by the Sea
"Everyone was abused both physically and verbally." - J.K., Casa by the Sea
"I was going to continue on in #5 about witnessing people getting abused.. Yes I did witness that. If you had a smart mouth or didn't comply with what a father told you, or didn't eat all your food, then yes, I did see abuse. Few examples, can't remember names though. One time on lower levels a kid got smart with a father. The father called in support from their shift leader, it was the guy before Arturo on the boys side. He slammed him so hard into the wall while we were all standing in line to watch. I was near the front and he had is elbow land on the back of the kids head it almost bounced if his elbow wasn't there to stop it from doing so. Another time I saw Marcos, the ass that ran worksheet on the guys side, kick a kid repeatedly for not doing his duck walks properly. Then there was the time I was on upper levels working R&R and witnessed Arturo slamming his full body weight on a kid for not following directions. Another example would be on upper levels again, Arturo force feeding a kid pea soup after him and I sitting there for an hour. The kid wouldn't eat the soup and Arturo told me to make sure he did. He wouldn't, Arturo returned and slammed his face into the bowl and smacked the back of his head telling him to eat it. The kid began eating it, then threw up and Arturo made him eat his own vomit because it was the food he was supposed to eat. That's all I can remember besides up having to do those excruciating exercises in worksheet." - G.A., Casa by the Sea
