WEBVTT - “Rockmart” 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.440 Campell Annawaki is a production of I Heart Radio. The 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:07.560 views and opinions express in this podcast are solely those 0:00:07.600 --> 0:00:10.720 of the author and participants and do not necessarily represent 0:00:10.800 --> 0:00:13.760 those of I Heart Media or its employees. Due to 0:00:13.800 --> 0:00:18.640 discussion of traumatic, sexual, and violent content, listener discretion is advised. 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:23.960 The Girls campus was set back, I don't know, maybe 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:30.200 a mile and a half along a very winding gravel road. 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:35.239 When you pulled into North campus, the first building that 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:40.240 you saw was the lodge. Off to the right and 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:45.159 straight ahead was a bell tower, and then a stone 0:00:45.240 --> 0:00:51.440 path with steps leading up to the administration building and 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:58.040 the clinic across the way, and what was called the 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:04.240 dorm behind the nick, which originally was only for v 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:09.400 I p S coming to stay on campus for whatever reason. 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:13.640 And that was it. That was literally all we had. 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:17.360 I believe that there were some trailers kind of tucked 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:24.679 away where more of the administration maybe clerical offices were, 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:30.680 but it was very primitive. Everything was painted in what 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:36.360 they called an awake beige, and it's very eerie to 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:44.360 find out later that these colors and the design of 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:49.360 the buildings, with the arches in the doorways and the 0:01:49.560 --> 0:01:55.840 tile on the wrap round port was reflective of Mexico. 0:01:57.240 --> 0:02:04.440 I was admitted to an Awake April eleven, nineteen eighty three, 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:12.360 and I terminated May thirty one, nineteen and I was 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:18.000 one thirty eight c. This is Sandy. She's as survivor 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:23.560 of Annawaki. By the late nineteen seventies, Annawaki had expanded 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:27.200 its reach into Florida and was now annually taking trips 0:02:27.280 --> 0:02:30.960 into other countries, but there were still one demographic the 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:37.639 Annawaki Foundation was yet to reach, troubled female youth. Louis Petter, 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:42.200 once again using his skill as a community outreach, now 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:45.320 with a reputed treatment center with a history of working 0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:49.600 with the state, opened up the Annawaki North Campus in Rockmar, 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:53.680 Georgia in nineteen seventy nine. In a letter to the 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:59.320 John Below Campbell Foundation, a Christian grant organization, Louis Petter 0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:04.000 lays his plans for the new facility, quote the girls 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:08.840 program will be located on three acres of land outside 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:12.680 of Yorkville in Polk County. Anna Waki has been very 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:15.960 fortunate in having one of its very good friends provide 0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:19.200 a financial loan to secure the land at a purchase 0:03:19.280 --> 0:03:23.720 price of one d and thirty thousand dollars. By the 0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:27.480 time Sandy was admitted, the program had already had over 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:31.840 one hundred patients. Sandy remembers the event that led to 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:36.480 her admittance. I was dating a boy that was a 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:40.040 little bit older than myself, and I told him at 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:43.040 that point that I wanted to run away from home, 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:48.560 so we made plans to do that, and I actually 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:53.680 was a runaway for about three weeks and turned myself 0:03:53.800 --> 0:04:00.440 in finally, and I actually told the police it. I 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:03.840 wanted to be put in foster care because I was 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:10.320 so unhappy with my home life. And my parents showed 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:15.680 up to take me home, and they lied to me 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:19.839 and told me that those arrangements couldn't be made until 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:26.280 the following week. And so I got home, and about 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:29.760 an hour after I got home, they sat me down 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:32.560 and told me that they were going to take me 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:39.320 somewhere for evaluation, and they literally bodily threw me in 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:43.640 the car and they drove me straight there. I went 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:47.839 through a battery of testing, at which point at the 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:50.400 end of this they told me they were going to 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:57.000 admit me, and I became hysterical and ran to my 0:04:57.080 --> 0:05:00.640 mother in the lobby and fell to my knees and 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:04.400 begged her, crying, please don't leave me here, please, you know, 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:08.520 I promise I'll be good. And she had some tears 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:11.960 running down her cheeks, but without a word, she just 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:17.039 turned away and walked away and left me. So that 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:21.840 was how I was told. There was no warning at all. 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:28.960 It was devastating. The physical labor was forced upon the 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:31.560 girls at the rock Mark campus, just as it was 0:05:31.600 --> 0:05:36.159 the boys in Douglasville and Carabelle. A new campus had 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:40.360 to be built the rest of our day. After breakfast, 0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:47.680 we would work from probably eight thirty or nine until 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:55.039 eleven thirty, I believe, and we did various projects, and 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:59.360 all of them were very physical. Sometimes we would work 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:05.920 on lance aping projects, working with heavy wheelbarrows, rakes, shovels, 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:11.800 digging holes post hole diggers. The hardest project that I 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:17.800 remember doing my first summer, we were building a campsite 0:06:18.520 --> 0:06:22.320 at the top of a very high ridge. We were 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:28.919 hauling two by four's and a frames and shingles and 0:06:29.960 --> 0:06:38.160 bags of mortar and cement. So at age fifteen, they 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:41.640 would have us bend over and they would put a 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:46.880 bag of mortar on our back, which weighed forty six 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:51.799 pounds or a bag of cement on our back which 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:57.520 weighed four pounds, and we were to hold and carry 0:06:57.560 --> 0:07:02.159 that bag of mortar or cement bent over up a 0:07:02.240 --> 0:07:07.200 mountain in order to make the footings for the cabins. 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:13.120 The girls in my particular group were fourteen and fifteen 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:19.760 years old, maybe sixteen years old, and I can't imagine 0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:23.360 how hard it must have been for the girls that 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:28.200 were twelve and thirteen. And this was the middle of 0:07:28.240 --> 0:07:32.680 the summer, in a terrible heat wave, and even though 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:36.000 we were in the mountains, it was very, very hot 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:40.840 temperatures well into the nineties. Sometimes up to a hundred 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:47.880 girls were getting heat exhaustion and heat stroke, and they 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:53.760 would discourage us from sitting down and taking a break 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:57.680 and drinking water. They would give us very very short 0:07:57.720 --> 0:08:03.440 breaks we were allowed to sit down and stop working. 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:10.480 This type of grueling forced labor would lead to a 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:13.560 number of health issues for Sandy as well as others. 0:08:15.640 --> 0:08:20.600 All of the physical labor that I did, and they 0:08:20.720 --> 0:08:26.440 kept me in Takkada for fifteen months, so I was 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:31.160 in a work group longer than most girls were, and 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:37.000 shortly after getting out of an Awaki, I developed back problems. 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:42.040 Very very young in my twenties, and I was actually 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:48.120 diagnosed with degenerative di disease when I was thirty one 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:52.160 years old, which they told me was very young to 0:08:52.360 --> 0:09:00.680 have that condition. Already, my spine has literally disintegrated to 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:05.000 the point where I am now fifty two years old 0:09:05.240 --> 0:09:12.120 and I am almost bedridden. I have severe spinal stenosis, 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:18.400 which is a narrowing of the spinal canal that protects 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:23.319 and houses the nerves. I have spinal stenosis, severe spinal 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:30.120 stenosis in my neck and my lumbar area, and it 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:36.880 is excruciatingly painful and the only option that I have 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:46.920 is major surgery. I contracted a very rare neurological condition 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:54.480 called complex regional pain syndrome acronym CRPS when I was 0:09:54.559 --> 0:10:01.160 in my early forties. It is an extremely rare condition 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:08.319 that is a disorder of the sympathetic and parasympathetic set 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:13.520 parts of the nervous system, and it results in my 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:20.800 brain constantly sending pain signals to various parts of my 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:26.200 body believing that there is an injury there so there 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:32.880 is subsequent redness and swelling and pain where there is 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:38.720 no injury. And there are many of us from North 0:10:38.800 --> 0:10:46.280 campus that have contracted a lot of rare diseases. Many 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:51.000 of us are already deceased, and we're only in our 0:10:51.040 --> 0:10:59.199 early to mid to late fifties m M. Over the 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:01.880 past several weeks we have received the number of very 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:04.839 serious allegations concerning both the facility out there in a 0:11:04.920 --> 0:11:09.240 number of individuals involved with him. It was just a 0:11:09.320 --> 0:11:11.760 form of their therapy. They were told to do it, 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:13.800 and at the time he was fourteen and a half 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:17.600 fifteen years old, they didn't know any better. I asked him, 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:20.200 why are you letting this happen? Why are you covering 0:11:20.280 --> 0:11:22.760 up for Louis Packer. He had no answer to that question. 0:11:23.520 --> 0:11:29.440 Involved having in this situation paid a little could be 0:11:30.480 --> 0:11:36.840 such a district way, and to do absolutely the contrary 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:40.960 of what they should have done. I'm disturbed little the 0:11:41.000 --> 0:11:43.359 fact of something. It gets still one on it. Anyway. 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:48.560 I'm Josh Stein and this is Camp hell in a Waki. 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:55.800 I think they opened the campus in January of seventy nine, 0:11:56.320 --> 0:12:01.360 and I came in August. My name is Kelly Lewis, 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:04.840 and at the time I had a laundry number, and 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:08.200 that laundry number was thirty three F I was the 0:12:08.280 --> 0:12:12.880 thirty third girl. My last name then was Fisher. Kelly 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:16.959 says at that point the girls would receive two laundry numbers, 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:20.360 one to show your number from the rock Mart campus, 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:23.280 and the second an overall number from the boys and 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:29.200 girls combined. The first number was the number of girls, 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:33.160 so I was the thirty third female. Then it was 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:37.720 always your last name initial, and then the number of 0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:41.560 persons who had come through the door at Anawaki. So 0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:45.400 when I came, I was the nine hundred and fifty 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:49.559 five person to come. I attended from A D to 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:53.720 eighty three, and I was fifteen to eighteen years old. 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:58.360 I left the day after my eighteenth birthday. Kelly says 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:02.840 that Annawak's female campus was also receiving patients from wards 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:06.160 of the state or through the juvenile court system, as 0:13:06.160 --> 0:13:10.080 in her case. I was sent to Annawaki because I 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:16.280 had a long history of behavior issues. I had been 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:20.360 placed in foster care and group homes and even did 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:25.000 time in a y d C. And they had told 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:28.199 me that I would be sentenced to due time at 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:31.000 the Makin y d C, which was the girl's y 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:37.439 d C. It's the Making Youth Detention Center, and someone 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:40.360 in the court took a liking to me and found 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:44.840 annawaky for me and said uh in court one day 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:48.240 that they would like to consider that if my parents 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:51.720 insurance would cover it. I was a ward of the 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:55.280 state at that point, which meant the state had custody 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:59.040 of me, but they required my parents to continue my insurance. 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:02.760 Both my parents were truck drivers for the same company 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:05.640 and they drove eight two wheelers. They had good insurance. 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:09.800 We had Blue Cross Blue Shield and it covered most 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:13.239 of my stay there until my parents lost their employment. 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:18.600 A week's fees for enrollment had increased exponentially since being 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:23.160 accredited as a medical hospital. Kelly's family would soon see 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:25.320 the result of not being able to keep up with 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:30.560 these payments. As I was looking through my records, I 0:14:30.600 --> 0:14:33.760 noticed that there were letters about how much in arrears 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:38.840 my parents were and paying their part, and it was 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:42.480 decided that I would work and did work details at 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:46.560 Aniwiki just like everyone else. But on Sunday, everyone else 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:50.200 was off quote unquote and they would not have to work, 0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:51.960 but I had to go and work in the kitchen 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:57.120 to pay the arrears on my parents account. So I 0:14:57.480 --> 0:15:01.760 worked my way through reform school. I guess we laid 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:08.040 brick and block until our hands bled. We carried brick 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:12.520 and block on our backs and shingles on our shoulders, 0:15:12.680 --> 0:15:18.360 and we would mix cement on the road and then 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:22.440 we would fill wheelbarrows full of it and push them 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:26.360 a mile up the side of a mountain. And you know, 0:15:26.480 --> 0:15:29.720 we were girls. I was five ft tall and weighed 0:15:29.880 --> 0:15:35.040 hundred and twenty eight pounds, and I was probably pushing 0:15:35.120 --> 0:15:40.000 my weight or more in that wheel barrel. The mortar 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:45.240 bags weighed ninety odd pounds, and we would put them 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:49.640 on our shoulders or on our backs, and bundles of shingles. 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:53.760 I was famous for four bundles of shingles up the 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:56.640 side of a mountain. I was very strong. I'm low 0:15:56.760 --> 0:15:59.800 to the ground. I have torque. I was a mule 0:15:59.840 --> 0:16:03.320 for them. I'm a physical person, so I was always 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:06.680 focused on working, and I felt like we just needed 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:08.680 to get done whatever we needed to get done, no 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:12.160 matter what the costs to our bodies. I saw lots 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:16.080 of bloody and blistered hands where we would have to 0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:19.600 dig footings for our cabins, and we did those with 0:16:19.640 --> 0:16:25.080 shovels and picks and maddox, and uh, it was hard work. 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:28.680 Especially in the side of a mountain. Rock marked is 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:31.240 called rock mart for a reason. The dirt is full 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:33.840 of rocks and we would have to dig them out, 0:16:34.200 --> 0:16:37.880 and we also dug out houses, which had to be 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:42.120 eighteen feet deep. We would climb into these holes and 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:45.840 with an army shovel and pick and maddox and phillip 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:49.280 buckets and send them up while we dug these holes. 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:52.760 I loved that part. I loved being inside the earth digging. 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:55.920 I loved, you know, the smell of it, in the 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:59.720 closeness to you know, nature. I really did enjoy that. 0:17:00.760 --> 0:17:04.840 But a lot of the work was very hard and 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:10.240 and very hard on on bodies, on hands, and the 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:15.560 focus during those first years was on building the campsite, 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:19.640 which I look back now, we we built an empire 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:24.200 for a pedophile. That's a very difficult thing to to 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:27.680 think about, but that's what we did. He made millions 0:17:27.680 --> 0:17:31.480 of dollars off what we needed to house more people 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:36.919 so that he could pull in more money. Kelly too, 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:40.359 would suffer great health issues due to the backbreaking labor 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:43.800 from her time in Anawiki. This seems to be a 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:47.200 constant from every survivor who attended the Rock mart campus 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:51.960 I spoke with. As I look through my records time 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:55.159 after time after time, I see Kelly was in the 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:59.400 clinic being treated for back pain. And I have struggled 0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:02.760 with back pain in my entire life. I've not had 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:06.399 surgery for it. Um. They wanted to do surgery on 0:18:06.440 --> 0:18:09.040 my back since I was twenty seven, and I've refused 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:13.600 because I didn't want to run the risk involved. But 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:17.919 I've I've seen a chiropractor and many doctors and taking 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:26.600 medications all for back pain my my entire life. Here's Terry. 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:29.960 She attended in a Waki during the same time as Kelly. 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:33.480 She remembers the physical labor and how it has affected her. 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:37.840 Still as I sit here now, my back still hurts. 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:41.880 I think I've had a backgate since I was fourteen 0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:47.520 years old because we literally would fill wheelbarrels with huge 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:51.080 cender blocks and bricks and we would have to haul 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:55.919 on these hills out in the woods to the sites 0:18:56.000 --> 0:19:00.119 where we were building buildings and so um it is 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:04.879 very very hard. The other thing that was really painful physically, 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:10.520 I remember we had to carry creosotes, these huge I 0:19:10.560 --> 0:19:13.840 guess like what telephone poles are made out of, and 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:16.520 it would be like two of us up on our 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:21.520 shoulders going up these hills. It was like a black 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:25.240 tar something that would yeah rub off on our necks 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:30.000 and our shoulders. We would get burns and blisters. All 0:19:30.040 --> 0:19:33.760 they would do is take us to a clinic, but 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:36.240 basically they would just wipe you off and put a 0:19:36.280 --> 0:19:38.800 band aid on you, and you go right back out 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:42.320 to work. Even when you were sick, like in the wintertime. 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:46.960 You know, imagine having a bad cold and having to 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:51.520 work outside in the pouring, freezing rain. It didn't matter. 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:57.359 We had to work in all conditions, especially living in tepee's. 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:01.600 When it would rain in the wintertime, the rain would 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:06.560 run down the teepee poles and our beds are cuts 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:10.320 were up against the poles and so it would literally 0:20:10.400 --> 0:20:13.520 just so the bottom of our sleeping bags. And there 0:20:13.520 --> 0:20:15.560 were times we would wake up with like a block 0:20:15.640 --> 0:20:19.080 of ice at the bottom of our sleeping bag from 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:22.760 the rain and when it froze. Talk about not being 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:27.800 able to warm your feet, it was. It was brutal. 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:31.960 My back and my neck will never be the same ever. 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:36.959 Here's Sheryld, another survivor of In a Weeki's North Campus 0:20:37.000 --> 0:20:41.520 in Rock Mart some of us were really tiny girls. 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:45.520 I know when I went there, I probably weighed hundred pounds, 0:20:45.560 --> 0:20:49.840 hundred pounds. I just like that. We were physically abused 0:20:49.840 --> 0:20:51.320 on the sense that we were having to do some 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:54.240 things that you know, eighteen year old, strapping young boys do, 0:20:54.640 --> 0:20:57.639 and we were some of us were eleven, twelve years old, 0:20:57.920 --> 0:21:01.359 you know, even sixteen, we were fully grown and developed. 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:04.680 We would have to carry you know, five gallon full 0:21:05.280 --> 0:21:07.520 water jugs up the side of the mountain to get 0:21:07.520 --> 0:21:11.800 to the campsites. I remember carrying almost a hundred pound 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:14.280 bags of cement on our backs. I remember we'd have 0:21:14.320 --> 0:21:17.960 to bend, you know, bend forward, and people would put 0:21:17.960 --> 0:21:20.119 the cements on our back, on our the bags of 0:21:20.160 --> 0:21:22.840 the dry cement on our backs. We would have to 0:21:22.920 --> 0:21:27.679 clear trees, and I mean big trees. We would have 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:31.960 to haul the big logs to clear ways for campsites, 0:21:32.040 --> 0:21:37.200 retention ponds, stuff like that. I got there after the 0:21:37.240 --> 0:21:42.080 building of most of the campsites were completed for the women. 0:21:42.200 --> 0:21:47.239 I stayed in a frame tent for the first my 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:50.359 first group, and then the second group. I was in 0:21:50.400 --> 0:21:53.880 a cabin which was a lot nicer, but we still 0:21:53.960 --> 0:21:58.040 used lanterns it was freezing. It was freezing in those 0:21:58.080 --> 0:22:05.240 storage mountains. We were basically helping to develop land for them. 0:22:05.320 --> 0:22:07.920 We were free labor. I think a lot of us 0:22:07.960 --> 0:22:10.000 when we were there, we wanted to just get there 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:13.479 and get out, and we pretty much did whatever they 0:22:13.520 --> 0:22:35.960 told us. In comparison to in a week these other 0:22:36.000 --> 0:22:40.040 two campuses in Douglasville and Carabell. The women's campus does 0:22:40.119 --> 0:22:43.920 have a lot of similarities, forced labor for hours on end, 0:22:44.080 --> 0:22:47.960 resulting in injuries, using this labor to build out the campus, 0:22:48.359 --> 0:22:51.920 denying education to the miners who did said work. But 0:22:52.040 --> 0:22:55.359 with these similarities, the mentality of the campus seemed to 0:22:55.359 --> 0:22:59.199 be a little different. Often, the boys campuses would be 0:22:59.240 --> 0:23:03.320 described as a Lord of the Flies type situation where 0:23:03.359 --> 0:23:06.600 only the strong survive and the boys would often punish 0:23:06.840 --> 0:23:09.880 and regulate each other. While this may have not been 0:23:09.920 --> 0:23:13.600 the case of the girls campus, the dynamic between counselors 0:23:13.600 --> 0:23:18.240 and patients was largely the same. We were very affectionate 0:23:18.280 --> 0:23:21.920 with one another. We were encouraged to hug, we were 0:23:22.040 --> 0:23:26.879 encouraged to stroke each other's hair. I remember sitting and 0:23:27.000 --> 0:23:30.760 laying my head in someone's lap and having them stroke 0:23:30.880 --> 0:23:35.600 my hair and feeling very full of love and affection 0:23:35.640 --> 0:23:39.560 for this person. It wasn't sexual. We were encouraged to 0:23:39.640 --> 0:23:43.159 be affectionate with each other. And I don't know if 0:23:43.200 --> 0:23:47.480 that was something that the staff enjoyed to see or 0:23:47.520 --> 0:23:52.520 if it was something that they encouraged to build a 0:23:52.560 --> 0:23:57.320 family type structure. It's confusing because I think they mask 0:23:57.400 --> 0:23:59.679 it with the fact that they were trying to build 0:24:00.200 --> 0:24:03.919 family type structures within our groups, but it ended up 0:24:04.000 --> 0:24:08.280 being we were teenagers and there were hormones everywhere, and 0:24:08.320 --> 0:24:13.359 it ended up a lot of times being interactive. The 0:24:13.440 --> 0:24:18.880 mentality it's hard to explain because nobody wanted to be there. 0:24:19.880 --> 0:24:24.520 It wasn't really a good atmosphere. It was depressing having 0:24:24.560 --> 0:24:27.400 to work like that. It felt like jail or something, 0:24:28.359 --> 0:24:33.439 and everybody just wanted to get as many brownie points 0:24:33.440 --> 0:24:36.880 as they could and do whatever they could to get out. 0:24:38.440 --> 0:24:42.320 That was the main goal was just follow the rules, 0:24:43.080 --> 0:24:46.320 do everything they say, and do everything you can to 0:24:46.480 --> 0:24:50.679 stay on the group leaders good side and the counselors 0:24:50.720 --> 0:24:54.960 and um, you know, and hopefully get out. There was 0:24:55.000 --> 0:24:57.679 one time when we were having like a group meeting. 0:24:57.920 --> 0:25:00.600 We would have you know, group meetings in the evenings 0:25:00.720 --> 0:25:04.639 to talk about our day and feelings and how people 0:25:04.680 --> 0:25:08.199 got along and different situations that might have come up. 0:25:09.040 --> 0:25:12.800 And I can remember a lot of the group meetings 0:25:12.800 --> 0:25:18.760 started turning into the counselors confronting girls about not being opened, 0:25:19.280 --> 0:25:22.879 like physically, like they have a wall up and you 0:25:22.920 --> 0:25:26.679 need to let that wall down. And they did different exercises, 0:25:26.680 --> 0:25:29.399 like they made one girl lay on the ground and 0:25:29.440 --> 0:25:33.439 everybody had to like rubber and massager until she would 0:25:33.680 --> 0:25:39.520 feel comfortable. And that felt very uncomfortable. And one girl 0:25:39.560 --> 0:25:42.720 in particular, I mean was crying. I I felt like 0:25:43.880 --> 0:25:46.240 being forced to have to rub her and touch her. 0:25:47.000 --> 0:25:50.040 I felt like I was assaulting her. But you do 0:25:50.119 --> 0:25:52.879 what you're told. You know, you don't want to go 0:25:53.000 --> 0:25:55.960 against the group leader. I don't want to lose any 0:25:56.000 --> 0:26:03.320 brownie points. So Terry remembers one particular trip to Cumberland 0:26:03.359 --> 0:26:07.840 Island near Savannah, Georgia. It is here where she was 0:26:07.880 --> 0:26:11.720 informed that an impromptu ceremony was held between a counselor 0:26:12.000 --> 0:26:16.439 and patient. The group I was in we went on 0:26:16.440 --> 0:26:20.000 a trip to Cumberland Island. It's hard to remember how 0:26:20.040 --> 0:26:22.040 long we were there. I want to say at least 0:26:22.040 --> 0:26:24.080 ten days. It felt like two weeks. It was a 0:26:24.080 --> 0:26:30.040 long time, and we literally camped out on this island 0:26:30.960 --> 0:26:34.840 and that was I was in the group where my 0:26:34.960 --> 0:26:38.400 two group leaders had a relationship with each other, and 0:26:38.480 --> 0:26:41.119 so they were much more affectionate on this trip. We 0:26:41.119 --> 0:26:44.520 would see him kiss, we could hear him, you know, 0:26:44.640 --> 0:26:51.040 I guess, having sex in their tent. And then we 0:26:51.200 --> 0:26:55.119 started a couple of girls, one of my best friends 0:26:55.119 --> 0:26:58.679 out there. We noticed another girl was getting really close 0:26:58.760 --> 0:27:02.960 with one of the group leaders, and she shared with 0:27:03.040 --> 0:27:06.080 us that she had a marriage ceremony out on the 0:27:06.080 --> 0:27:10.439 beach and that they were a couple. And I was 0:27:10.520 --> 0:27:14.640 just so surprised. I didn't really understand, but I knew 0:27:14.640 --> 0:27:17.960 it probably wasn't right. I don't know, and I kind 0:27:17.960 --> 0:27:22.080 of felt sorry for my friend who um was in 0:27:22.119 --> 0:27:26.359 the relationship, because I think she was really naive. I 0:27:26.400 --> 0:27:29.119 don't know it changed her, but it didn't seem like 0:27:29.160 --> 0:27:33.560 in a good way. Here's Sandy again. She says that 0:27:33.640 --> 0:27:37.600 at the rock Mark campus, counselors and patients alike tended 0:27:37.640 --> 0:27:40.159 to be physical with each other in normal day to 0:27:40.240 --> 0:27:44.800 day activities. She says this could be very confusing for 0:27:44.840 --> 0:27:51.800 a young child at the time. Allegedly, the group itself 0:27:52.760 --> 0:27:58.440 was to represent the family that we don't have anymore. 0:27:59.480 --> 0:28:06.600 And there was a lot of physical touch that was 0:28:07.880 --> 0:28:14.200 encouraged by the staff. There, girls who were constantly hugging, 0:28:15.320 --> 0:28:21.240 holding hands, sitting in between each other's legs during group psychotherapy, 0:28:22.520 --> 0:28:30.080 things that looking back on, it was so inappropriate. It 0:28:30.160 --> 0:28:36.479 was almost like they were pushing a certain you know, 0:28:36.760 --> 0:28:42.080 same sex culture, and yet forbidding it to happen at 0:28:42.080 --> 0:28:48.760 the same time. I am just appalled when I looked 0:28:48.760 --> 0:28:55.000 back and realized how incredibly inappropriate that was, and that 0:28:55.000 --> 0:29:01.640 that was encouraged. If a girl tried to sit by herself, 0:29:01.680 --> 0:29:04.560 she would have been called out for doing that by 0:29:04.640 --> 0:29:08.280 the group or by the group leaders as trying to 0:29:08.320 --> 0:29:14.120 be isolating, you see. So that was very uncomfortable to 0:29:14.240 --> 0:29:19.640 think about. And I was fourteen. I was kind of 0:29:19.760 --> 0:29:25.160 naive for my age, and so I really didn't learn 0:29:25.200 --> 0:29:28.720 what lesbian was till I got to an awake and 0:29:28.840 --> 0:29:34.720 saw how some of the girls had intimate relationships and counselors. 0:29:35.200 --> 0:29:39.080 A couple of my group leaders were intimate with each other, 0:29:40.080 --> 0:29:44.320 and I understood then that they were like a couple, 0:29:45.120 --> 0:29:47.920 and so that's kind of how I learned about what 0:29:48.040 --> 0:29:52.440 lesbians were. They were to hold hands, they would kiss, 0:29:52.560 --> 0:29:57.560 they would sleep in the same tp or cabin, depending 0:29:57.600 --> 0:29:59.600 on what group I was in, because I went through 0:29:59.640 --> 0:30:03.320 different groups that it was. It was a pretty common 0:30:03.360 --> 0:30:08.200 thing out there. I mean, it happened frequently. It didn't 0:30:08.240 --> 0:30:12.320 take long once a group was formed and you had 0:30:12.360 --> 0:30:15.560 your counselors. I mean, it was just a matter of 0:30:15.640 --> 0:30:21.480 time before people started building different relationships. I started noticing, 0:30:22.280 --> 0:30:26.120 like a counselor would favor a certain girl and they 0:30:26.160 --> 0:30:29.040 would spend a lot of time together, and and then 0:30:29.080 --> 0:30:31.440