Interview for ex-WWASPS Students
_
A 25 question interview of ex-students who attended WWASPS schools. Answers to each question can be found on the page links below.
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 9. Describe your experience of the punishment treatments, ‘Worksheets’ and ‘R&R’ – were you ever punished with one of these methods? How were you treated? Did you feel the punishment was fair or extreme or abusive?
"Both Worksheets and R&R were abusive. Worksheets was mentally abusive, whereas R&R was physically abusive. The entire program was abusive, but these punishment practices were a punishment within a punishment, abuse on top of abuse. Like I said I was never sent to R&R, they threatened me all the time though. I remember I didn't want to sign a Visa that made it legal for me to be in Mexico. I remember staring at it refusing to sign it. The Mexican said something, and some other upper level translated. She said "If I didn't sign it then it was R&R." I weighed my options, thinking if I didn't sign it maybe my parents would be forced to pick me up. But I had already gained level 2 and didn't want to drop back down. So I just signed it." - C.A., Casa by the Sea
"Worksheets was basically sitting in a room in a specific position (feet together always), listening to the same tapes over and over again, and then answering multiple choice questions about the tapes we had listened to. In worksheets we also had to mop the gym, the cafeteria, and the hallways as punishment. In OP we had to stay in a stress position (either hands and legs in the air while back flat on the ground, or kneeling) for hours. If we didn't stay in the stress position, we were restrained. In op we were under- fed (as well as in worksheets). We were given exactly 3 cups of water, and a few crusts of bread to eat all day. We had to wait to use the bathroom till staff decided we could go, and then they had to watch us use the bathroom. If we acted up in OP, we were sent to Isolation aka solitary confinement." - B.B., Ivy Ridge & Tranquility Bay
"I had study hall many times and felt it was incredibly pointless. I remember after my first essay, watching the staff look it over and immediately trash it, I felt so useless. My hands would be so sore, we didn’t have desks - just a stack of text books on our laps - and my back would ache from leaning over them. We had to shower in study hall, where some of the largest worms and bugs crawled through the drains. I never went to OP but did see kids in there, laying on their faces all day every day, and felt completely paralyzed by fear at the notion of having to go there." - C.M., Tranquility Bay
"Yes, I had to get in the R and R position for hours when someone ran away. I was sent to worksheets for two weeks, and was only allowed to stare at the wall when I was dropped from level 5 to level 1. I would see girls in there for weeks at a time, you had to sit straight, feet flat on the ground, and you had to keep your arms on the table. You listen to audio tapes like the old man and the sea and other classics, and then was given a test on them to make sure you were paying attention. I was Staff in R and R, and had to watch girls lay there for days at a time with their chin on the ground, laying on their stomach and hands behind their back. I hated working in there, the girls only got 3 bathroom breaks a day and horrible food. This is Abuse, all of it, and makes me sick to my stomach thinking about it. I had to carry a little girl, I was her buddy, (someone that is new to the program and assigned a buddy to teach them the rules) to a car to send her off to Jamaica because she tried to kill herself when I went home on my one and only home pass for a week. I try not to blame myself for her having to go, if I would have known I would have stayed at Casa to watch over her. She said I was the only girl she trusted and kept reaching to me screaming "Please don't let them take me, I promise I will be good...."" - J.C., Casa by the Sea
"I did have to do worksheets a lot for things like forgetting to take the hair out of my brush or having my bed not made perfect, it was frustrating listening to tape after tape and having to take those quizzes. But I would take that any day over R&R. I found intervention to be really abusive and excessive. Making you lay down on the hard floor for hours at a time, to the point where your body would go completely numb. I already felt secluded enough with not being able to talk to anyone without a 3rd person involved in the conversation. But to lock me in a room face down with no peers, just a bunch of staff that can barley speak English was really frustrating and depressing." - A.E., Casa by the Sea
"I would like to say first off I believe getting 10 cat1s in a week compounded into a cat2 was wrong. People were so picky, if you had a wrinkle in your bed, anything, it could get you a cat 1 even doing nothing they could come up with something, and would a lot of times. Now worksheet at first was copying the dictionary, I felt that was fair for a cat 2 but those were very easily obtained also. They changed worksheet to sitting in the bottom of a cubicle with your knees and forehead touching the wall in front of you. That was just stupid and a waste of time. After the 5th time in there you had it down because they never changed the audio tapes. Those tapes ran almost 24/7 they were resilient. Inside joke for those reading that weren't there. R&R for me was hard core. I went three times and every time I went I got no blanket or mattress and had to stay in a totally contorted position lying on my stomach, I had to have my hands touching my elbows behind my back and my feet in the air. I got three 15min breaks throughout the day for stretching and going to the bathroom. Like I said the punishment was for three days and went on from the time everyone got up to bedtime. and bed time for those in R&R was sleeping on the floor without a blanket with all the lights on. That's the way it was in 1999. That kind of degradation is not deserved, I don't care what you have done." - Anon, Casa by the Sea
"I was in worksheets in a day and a half because for some reason everyone read my journal and got a cat 5 for talking about the program I guess. Cat 5 for runaway plans cause me & another guy wrote on the same notebook. Plenty more." - D.G., Casa by the Sea & Ivy Ridge
"I was put a few times in worksheets, never R&R. Worksheets really hurt my back the way they made us sit. Listening to these tapes over and over. Do I feel that these type of punishments were unfair or extreme of course I do how a teenage child is expected to sit up right stare at nothing but the wall ahead not left or right not able to take noted and expected to answer questions about a tape that we listen to for a hour is very unrealistic." - C.L., Casa by the Sea
"I was placed In worksheet for at least once a month. Sitting on the bench with only 3 inches of my buttocks on the bench wasn’t too bad. All in all, worksheet didn’t really bother me. I just felt like it had taken a day away from my schooling. Every day that I missed my schooling, was another day I had to spend at Casa. The physical fitness aspect of it was pretty easy. I had spent a couple of years in football/wrestling at my high school and was used to the physical workouts. I had actually welcomed the work outs as I was gaining too much weight there." - A.T., Casa by the Sea
"I lived in worksheets for a while of the program and I did not think it was abusive. repetitive yes, but never abusive. I did have the chance to work in work sheets as an upper level. It was not too bad. As long as the girls behaved." - N.R., Casa by the Sea
"I don’t really remember my time in R&R or worksheet specifically, but I remember it wasn’t fun. I remember, if you moved, you would get additional time in there. At night, you would have to move your mattress from the room out to the hallway, and sleep under a brightly lighted hallway. I remember it was hard to sleep with the night staff walking around checking out the rooms every hour or so. I remember worksheet sand-pit-workouts." - J.K., Casa by the Sea
"R&R was ridiculous. I had been in there one time and one time only fortunately. Laying there on your stomach with your hands behind your back and legs bent up was a very cruel and unusual punishment in my opinion. Worksheet, I had gone in there quite a few times. Sitting on a bench and listening to those books on tapes wasn't that bad. The bad thing was the staff, in which for the guys was Marcos. He'd sit in there and talk shit to you all the time. Put you down and keep you in there if you got on your bad side. I witnessed him give a kid worksheet basically for the next week! Then we'd have to do the exercises too. I'm not all against working out so it wasn't that bad for me again. Just R&R was horrible." - G.A., Casa by the Sea
"I was sent to worksheets approx. 10 times during my 22 month stay. I was never placed in R&R. Worksheets was quite extreme. I remember that one of the category 2 violations was “blatant rule violation” which was just an umbrella term that could be used for anything. I always felt so terrible for new girls who would talk without permission and repeatedly have to go to worksheets. It took some girls months to acclimate to the program rules. I also remember having to sit for such long periods of time that I would have extreme back pain. When I asked for a Tylenol I was refused because I was in worksheets. Bathroom breaks were very limited and I’ve witnessed girl wet their pants more than once." - Anon, 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 9. Describe your experience of the punishment treatments, ‘Worksheets’ and ‘R&R’ – were you ever punished with one of these methods? How were you treated? Did you feel the punishment was fair or extreme or abusive?
"Both Worksheets and R&R were abusive. Worksheets was mentally abusive, whereas R&R was physically abusive. The entire program was abusive, but these punishment practices were a punishment within a punishment, abuse on top of abuse. Like I said I was never sent to R&R, they threatened me all the time though. I remember I didn't want to sign a Visa that made it legal for me to be in Mexico. I remember staring at it refusing to sign it. The Mexican said something, and some other upper level translated. She said "If I didn't sign it then it was R&R." I weighed my options, thinking if I didn't sign it maybe my parents would be forced to pick me up. But I had already gained level 2 and didn't want to drop back down. So I just signed it." - C.A., Casa by the Sea
"Worksheets was basically sitting in a room in a specific position (feet together always), listening to the same tapes over and over again, and then answering multiple choice questions about the tapes we had listened to. In worksheets we also had to mop the gym, the cafeteria, and the hallways as punishment. In OP we had to stay in a stress position (either hands and legs in the air while back flat on the ground, or kneeling) for hours. If we didn't stay in the stress position, we were restrained. In op we were under- fed (as well as in worksheets). We were given exactly 3 cups of water, and a few crusts of bread to eat all day. We had to wait to use the bathroom till staff decided we could go, and then they had to watch us use the bathroom. If we acted up in OP, we were sent to Isolation aka solitary confinement." - B.B., Ivy Ridge & Tranquility Bay
"I had study hall many times and felt it was incredibly pointless. I remember after my first essay, watching the staff look it over and immediately trash it, I felt so useless. My hands would be so sore, we didn’t have desks - just a stack of text books on our laps - and my back would ache from leaning over them. We had to shower in study hall, where some of the largest worms and bugs crawled through the drains. I never went to OP but did see kids in there, laying on their faces all day every day, and felt completely paralyzed by fear at the notion of having to go there." - C.M., Tranquility Bay
"Yes, I had to get in the R and R position for hours when someone ran away. I was sent to worksheets for two weeks, and was only allowed to stare at the wall when I was dropped from level 5 to level 1. I would see girls in there for weeks at a time, you had to sit straight, feet flat on the ground, and you had to keep your arms on the table. You listen to audio tapes like the old man and the sea and other classics, and then was given a test on them to make sure you were paying attention. I was Staff in R and R, and had to watch girls lay there for days at a time with their chin on the ground, laying on their stomach and hands behind their back. I hated working in there, the girls only got 3 bathroom breaks a day and horrible food. This is Abuse, all of it, and makes me sick to my stomach thinking about it. I had to carry a little girl, I was her buddy, (someone that is new to the program and assigned a buddy to teach them the rules) to a car to send her off to Jamaica because she tried to kill herself when I went home on my one and only home pass for a week. I try not to blame myself for her having to go, if I would have known I would have stayed at Casa to watch over her. She said I was the only girl she trusted and kept reaching to me screaming "Please don't let them take me, I promise I will be good...."" - J.C., Casa by the Sea
"I did have to do worksheets a lot for things like forgetting to take the hair out of my brush or having my bed not made perfect, it was frustrating listening to tape after tape and having to take those quizzes. But I would take that any day over R&R. I found intervention to be really abusive and excessive. Making you lay down on the hard floor for hours at a time, to the point where your body would go completely numb. I already felt secluded enough with not being able to talk to anyone without a 3rd person involved in the conversation. But to lock me in a room face down with no peers, just a bunch of staff that can barley speak English was really frustrating and depressing." - A.E., Casa by the Sea
"I would like to say first off I believe getting 10 cat1s in a week compounded into a cat2 was wrong. People were so picky, if you had a wrinkle in your bed, anything, it could get you a cat 1 even doing nothing they could come up with something, and would a lot of times. Now worksheet at first was copying the dictionary, I felt that was fair for a cat 2 but those were very easily obtained also. They changed worksheet to sitting in the bottom of a cubicle with your knees and forehead touching the wall in front of you. That was just stupid and a waste of time. After the 5th time in there you had it down because they never changed the audio tapes. Those tapes ran almost 24/7 they were resilient. Inside joke for those reading that weren't there. R&R for me was hard core. I went three times and every time I went I got no blanket or mattress and had to stay in a totally contorted position lying on my stomach, I had to have my hands touching my elbows behind my back and my feet in the air. I got three 15min breaks throughout the day for stretching and going to the bathroom. Like I said the punishment was for three days and went on from the time everyone got up to bedtime. and bed time for those in R&R was sleeping on the floor without a blanket with all the lights on. That's the way it was in 1999. That kind of degradation is not deserved, I don't care what you have done." - Anon, Casa by the Sea
"I was in worksheets in a day and a half because for some reason everyone read my journal and got a cat 5 for talking about the program I guess. Cat 5 for runaway plans cause me & another guy wrote on the same notebook. Plenty more." - D.G., Casa by the Sea & Ivy Ridge
"I was put a few times in worksheets, never R&R. Worksheets really hurt my back the way they made us sit. Listening to these tapes over and over. Do I feel that these type of punishments were unfair or extreme of course I do how a teenage child is expected to sit up right stare at nothing but the wall ahead not left or right not able to take noted and expected to answer questions about a tape that we listen to for a hour is very unrealistic." - C.L., Casa by the Sea
"I was placed In worksheet for at least once a month. Sitting on the bench with only 3 inches of my buttocks on the bench wasn’t too bad. All in all, worksheet didn’t really bother me. I just felt like it had taken a day away from my schooling. Every day that I missed my schooling, was another day I had to spend at Casa. The physical fitness aspect of it was pretty easy. I had spent a couple of years in football/wrestling at my high school and was used to the physical workouts. I had actually welcomed the work outs as I was gaining too much weight there." - A.T., Casa by the Sea
"I lived in worksheets for a while of the program and I did not think it was abusive. repetitive yes, but never abusive. I did have the chance to work in work sheets as an upper level. It was not too bad. As long as the girls behaved." - N.R., Casa by the Sea
"I don’t really remember my time in R&R or worksheet specifically, but I remember it wasn’t fun. I remember, if you moved, you would get additional time in there. At night, you would have to move your mattress from the room out to the hallway, and sleep under a brightly lighted hallway. I remember it was hard to sleep with the night staff walking around checking out the rooms every hour or so. I remember worksheet sand-pit-workouts." - J.K., Casa by the Sea
"R&R was ridiculous. I had been in there one time and one time only fortunately. Laying there on your stomach with your hands behind your back and legs bent up was a very cruel and unusual punishment in my opinion. Worksheet, I had gone in there quite a few times. Sitting on a bench and listening to those books on tapes wasn't that bad. The bad thing was the staff, in which for the guys was Marcos. He'd sit in there and talk shit to you all the time. Put you down and keep you in there if you got on your bad side. I witnessed him give a kid worksheet basically for the next week! Then we'd have to do the exercises too. I'm not all against working out so it wasn't that bad for me again. Just R&R was horrible." - G.A., Casa by the Sea
"I was sent to worksheets approx. 10 times during my 22 month stay. I was never placed in R&R. Worksheets was quite extreme. I remember that one of the category 2 violations was “blatant rule violation” which was just an umbrella term that could be used for anything. I always felt so terrible for new girls who would talk without permission and repeatedly have to go to worksheets. It took some girls months to acclimate to the program rules. I also remember having to sit for such long periods of time that I would have extreme back pain. When I asked for a Tylenol I was refused because I was in worksheets. Bathroom breaks were very limited and I’ve witnessed girl wet their pants more than once." - Anon, Casa by the Sea