Mel Riddile, former National Executive Director for Straight

[Anonymous]

http://drugfreeamericafoundation.blogsp ... utive.html

Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Mel Riddile, former National Executive Director for Straight, Inc., named 2005 Outstanding Principal in Virginia
The award was announced in the Falls Church News Press. Riddile's background is given in the article but there is no mention of Straight. It is stated, however, that Principal Mel Riddile is a recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the Mental Health Association of Northern Virginia. This is ironic because in 1984 a federal jury in northern Virginia awarded Fred Collins $220,000 because he had been held prisoner in the Straight camp in northern Virginia that was directed by Mel Riddile. Reports have it that young Collins had looked like a starved victim of the Holocaust when he finally escaped from Straight. Riddile went on to become the national executive director for Straight. Fred Collins returned to his studies and became a Ph.D. in mathematics. And the Virginia Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse yanked Straight's license after 9 stormy years of allegations of criminal child abuse. Dr. Riddile will receive his award in June in Williamsburg, Va. We have already received emails from those who would like to protest the award's ceremony. See Fornits for a discussion. story Fred Collins' abuse fornits discussion

posted by Wes | 11:18 AM

[ex-prisoner]

Please take note, visitors who listened to Mark Levine's radio show this past week. This guy Mel Riddile is the principal of JEB Stuart High School in Fairfax County, VA. I no longer live in the area, but I sure as hell would not want my children in the care of a man who Executively Directed the daily mental, physical and emotional torture of Straight, Inc. (Springfield, Virginia branch). Mel Riddile also went to other cities to train other people to operate new Straight facilities.

Mel Riddile will lie and say that the majority of the children in Straight were overage. When I was there in 1987 (Riddile left in or just after the summer of '87), this was absolutely not true whatsoever.

Children were restrained DAILY when Riddile was there. Why? For being so bad as to resist other people poking on them all day long to sit up straight (meaning your back could not even lean against the back of the chair), or for trying to get their arms away from people who were "motivating" them if the child did not wish to "motivate" them (flap them wildly in the air to get called on). Restraint was proactive torture of children who would not participate. Executive Staff has lied many times, in the newspapers even, saying that restraining was reserved for children who were a danger to themselves and others. This is not true. Children were restrained by other children all the time, for all the years Mel Riddile was there.

Those children did not understand what was happening to them at the time, but now we are in our thirties and forties. We were injured by the abuse. Being restrained was terrifying. We were sat on and twisted around and had our airways were obstructed so we could not hardly breathe when we were restrained. That is a form of torture.

What we went through in Straight was some original and horrifying abuse. Thanks to Mark Levine, John Gorenfeld and Arnold Trebach for speaking so forthrightly about the abuse of Straight, Inc. Thanks for everyone's concern about the Straight copy-cat/spin-off programs that are still hurting children as you read this.

I have heard that Mel Riddile is charming in person. As the Executive Director of Straight in Springfield, VA, how could he not have known what was going on with the children? I was there, and restraining happened all the time. Children were screamed at for absurd and ridiculous things, deprived of sleep and proper food, put on "consequences" like 90-second showers, and deprived of medical care with very serious health problems.

I believe child abuse is a serious crime. Why has Mel Riddile never had to answer for these things? As a friend of mine pointed out, the walls in the building at 5515 Backlick Road in Springfield were not all that soundproof. Surely Mel heard the screams, the confrontational raps and so on. As the Executive Director, he was inherently responsible for knowing what was going on on his watch. If he truly did not know, that is gross negligence. As Executive Director, was it not part of his job to set standards, to ensure that children were never hurt or abused in any way?

Children were systematically abused on Mel Riddile's watch for five years at Straight, Inc. He spread the abusive Straight methods to other cities. He is not trustworthy with children. This is an alarm call to all the parents of Fairfax County children. You have a practiced child abuser in your midst.

[Anonymous]

Do the students and parents of JEB Stuart High School know this?

[Anonymous]

On 2005-11-28 06:13:00, Anonymous wrote:

"Do the students and parents of JEB Stuart High School know this?"

I graduated from JEB Stuart in 2005, and stumbled across this site and others after typing "Mel Riddile" into google. If any other students or parents knew about Dr. Riddile's past, they did not make it known to anyone else.

I had quite a bit of respect for Mel Riddile when I was a student at Stuart. The school was known throughout the area for it's high numbers of students involved in gangs, high violence, and low test scores. Dr. Riddile came in, and completely turned things around. It is now a great school that I am proud to say that I attended.

I'm not condoning what he did at Straight, or trying to say that he'd done good now, so we should forget about his past, from everything that I've seen, it looks like he was responsible for some truely awful things that happened there.

[Antigen]

Hey there, glad you came along. Please consider hanging around for just a bit. I do have a few questions.

First, some clarification. I've never met Mel Riddile. I was in Sarasota before, or just up to, the time he came into the Program. From all I've heard, he was not anything like the most brutal ass ever to come along there. In fact, most agree that he mitigated some of the worst (or maybe just some of the more evident kinds) of the abuse in that place.

But I don't know if he really ever understood how the base program "works" or why it kept spinning out of control to the sadistic side while he was there. So I'm interested to knnow, from students, parents and employees, by what means he's turned around Jeb Stuart High.

Where did all the bad kids go? I know of two very bright, often right young men who were not at all happy with the way he went about things.

Here's one story from Falls Church News-Press:

"Student Protests as Only 75 Classmates Get to Hear Bush Speak at J.E.B. Stuart
By Nicholas Benton

"A J.E.B. Stuart High School student was "informally suspended" yesterday for circulating a flier protesting the exclusion of over 1,400 of his classmates from a speech delivered by President George Bush in the school's gym.

"The gym was packed yesterday morning with mostly adult political supporters of the president, who had received tickets to attend the speech, and local politicians. Many were adorned with 'GOP' or 'Bush' lapel buttons and cuff links. Only 75 students from the school were invited, carefully pre-selected based on recommendations by the school's teachers. The president, ironically, spoke on the subject of his 'No Child Left Behind' educational initiative. "
http://www.fcnp.com/445/protest.htm

Here's another from Chantilly:
Not Affiliated With Chantilly High School      
Saturday, 01 January 2005  

"There's something I have to get off my chest.

"This particular something goes all the way back to the spring of 1997 when I was a second-semester freshman at Chantilly High School here in Fairfax County. It involves internet technology, the first amendment, personal grudges, overreaching education officials, and police harassment. It is a sordid story that ultimately ended well, but it is a story that I never had the opportunity to tell on my electronic soapbox (due to a parent-imposed gag order)..."
http://scott.eeltank.com/content/view/1321/61/

These are obviously intelligent, high performing young men who's parents can't be moved against them and who know how to stand up for themselves. What happened to all the less articulate, less competent gang bangers and trouble makers. Do you know? Is there a particular program that JSH students get sent to if they don't tow the line?

What happened in Straight is just not the sort of thing anyone involved can just forget about. If Dr. Riddile understands what he was involved in, I think he's got an obligation to use his considerable influence to actively denounce and to help eliminate programs that use similar tactics. But I don't think he does understand it. I think it's far more likely that he actively, if more quietly these days, supports and protects programs like Straight, Inc.

When dogma enters the brain, all intellectual activity ceases.
http://www.kbuxton.com/discordia/' target='_new'>Robert Anton Wilson