Personal Story of Thea from Straight Inc.
I will never forget the ride there. My mom, dad and aunt were all in the car with me. They had picked me up from school. It was strange to me that my aunt was there, but later I would find out my mother had brought her along for “moral support”. As I choked back tears, I asked repeatedly where we were going. My mother kept giving a vague answer about “family counseling". I was 15 years old, and my thoughts at that moment were that my mom was making good on a longtime threat, to place me in YDC (Youth Detention Center).
Never in a million years would I have guessed I was about to be enrolled not only in a drug treatment center, but one that was renowned for being one of the toughest in the country at the time. You see, I had no prior history with drugs. None at all. My parents were ultra strict. Going to the movies with my girlfriends was almost unheard of. When did l ever have the chance to be exposed to drugs? I had never even tried a cigarette. I was fairly sure pot was something you smoked, but was not positive. Anything past that to was unheard of! I was in honors classes at school. My friends at that time were concerned about which college to get into, not what drugs to do! Was I a "model child"? No, far from it. I was very outspoken! I often talked back to my mother when I felt she was being unreasonable. I had a very smart mouth at times, (still do). So, no, I was not perfect by any means. I did however go to school, get good grades (ok, except for algebra, I still suck) and came home each day. One moment that sticks out in my mind even now, a decade later, is when I first arrived at the doors of Straight Inc. The young, vibrant, trusting, 15 year old girl who put her hands on that door and pushed it open would not be there 2 and 1/2 months later. The girl who put her hand on the exit door and pushed it open was transformed into something far different She was an angry, bitter, and very scared person...one who's father had to hold her up in the parking lot because she almost collapsed right there on the asphalt. This girl was me. I was pale. I had numerous bruises up and down my spine where other clients had jabbed their knuckles into my back to force me to sit up “military straight” sometimes 12 hours a day. If you were never there, if you had no idea such a place could exist in our country even today...how can I possibly relate the torture? Ever had an ungodly nightmare, so unreal that to relay it afterwards seems nearly impossible? It is much the same concept. I can say this: I was denied bathroom priveleges until my "oldcomer” decided she "felt.. like bringing me to the bathroom“. I was denied sleep many, many times, for failure to “comply” with the sadistic rules of my captors. It was not uncommon at all to be kept up until the wee hours of the morning being screamed at for failing to conform. I was provoked daily, degraded, not even allowed to shower in privacy. This is my story, although if you dig a little deeper, you will surely find it is not really mine alone. There are many of us out there, and you will find all with similar tales. Only it isn't a tale, it is the frightful, unimaginable TRUTH. I did persevere, though. It took a long time, but I decided that Straight Inc. was WRONG and I was a worthwhile person! Many years later, I finally learned to trust again, although I must say, it was not easy. I finally went back to school. Straight Inc. pretty much cost me a chance of a high school diploma, but I did get my GED, and my entrance exam scores were high enough to get into a local university. I am thankful for the opportunity to learn, because it was something that Straight Inc. took away from me, not even allowing to read the bible. So, you see, all the old hurt and anger eventually did surpass. I was lucky, my stay was much shorter than many of my peers who stayed up to 2 & 1/2 YEARS! But in the end, there is still one hurt...THE ABUSE CONTINUES EVEN TODAY. Straight Inc. may be gone, but in name only. There is still someone else even as you read this, enduring the same horrors we all did- our captors simply changed their names, not their strategy. Perhaps this is the worst hurt of them all.-Thea Dogias Whitted-Hudgins