I was five the year that Escuela Caribe, then known as Caribe Vista, was cited in U.S Senate Hearing on the Abuse and Neglect of Children in Institutions (1979). Children’s advocate Kenneth Wooden, wanted to know why the State Department had done nothing to shut down Gordon Blossom’s “boarding school,” which he’d visited in 1974,…
Unreformed
Last Friday I Outed Myself as a Reform School Girl…
Last Friday I outed myself as a reform school girl in an interview with Raw Story. They were interested in Escuela Caribe, because in January Kidnapped for Christ, a documentary about Escuela Caribe, will premiere at Sundance. Until now, most of my friends didn’t know I went to reform school. It’s awkward to share, and shameful, because if you say…
The Truth about New Horizons Youth Ministries
All I wanted was to go to boarding school and play guitar in a rock band, but instead my parents sent me to a Christian reform school in the D.R. So part of my life has been dictated by forces outside of my control- because I went to Escuela Caribe, I have to write about…
New Horizons Youth Ministries Founded by Predator
New Horizons Youth Ministries (parent organization of my reform school, Escuela Caribe) was founded in 1971 by Pastor Gordon Blossom, a former juvenile delinquent who’d served a stint at Michigan’s Floyd Starr Commonwealth Home.* By the time I arrived at Escuela Caribe in January 1990, Pastor Blossom was not active in the “ministry” except during Spiritual Emphasis Week in the Canada branch, Missanabie Woods Academy.* Then he would deliver…
Lost in the Letters, Elf Power, & a User’s Guide to Unreformed
I read for Atlanta’s Lost in the Letters this weekend. Listened to some fab writers (Jamie Iredell is hilarious!). Really enjoyed meeting LIL curator Scott Daughtridge. Am looking forward to future collaborations- he’s doing much to build the regional lit scene, like this festival in November (to be linked soon) which features some of my heroes-…
More from that Guernica Interview with Julia Scheeres
I remember it was 1978 and I saw this magazine cover on our dining room table. And there were bodies lying on the ground and I remember asking my mom what is that? She didn’t answer my question, just flipped the cover over, said something about a bad thing happening. And I remember I kept…
Interview With Julia Scheeres in Guernica Magazine
Recently I interviewed Julia Scheeres. She wrote Jesus Land, a memoir about our reform school, Escuela Caribe, and A Thousand Lives: the Untold Story of Jonestown. One of my favorite aspects of the Jonestown book is how Scheeres captured the day to day tyranny of life under Jim Jones’ rule. I was intrigued to…
Lifeline Youth and Family Services Raising Questions Stateside
Lifeline Youth and Family Services, the organization that took over Escuela Caribe in the Dominican Republic (renaming it Caribbean Mountain Academy) has had the efficacy of its tactics questioned at one of its Indiana facilities, Pierceton Woods Academy. Most recently two juveniles left the facility on March 31 and made threats to return with guns….
New Red Flag for Caribbean Mountain Academy- Former Students Employed as Staff
The Coalition Against Institutionalized Child Abuse (CAICA) has a 40 point list of warning signs of potentially abusive facilities. Caribbean Mountain Academy (formerly Escuela Caribe & Caribe Vista- this facility has a history of changing its name) fulfills many of these (i.e. communication monitored, outside of the U.S., students denied access to telephone, level system…
Red Telephone Redux
I found out about Boston from J. For the past month we’ve been studying with Sabrina Orah Mark. “Deirdre, just to let you know I am thinking of you in light of this Boston incident,” J emailed me. I remember I had this moment where I sat in my driveway wondering why I was associated…