One thing that seemed to shape the whole experience, then and now, Is the secrecy. Everything was a big huge secret. It was like we were in a secret camp to turn us into something specific. Nothing was ever fully disclosed to anyone. Not our parents, not doctors, not any local agency. It was like straight had free reign to do whatever they wanted to any of us, because We were drug addicts and were dangerous to society or would be someday for sure without the help of specifically Straight. And everyone one outside of straight seemed to belive them, without any question. No one questioned anyones credintials or education of the staff. And the clients were allowed No un-supervised contact with anyone outside of straight. I asked for an attorney, the police, social services, a judge... I asked for every public agency I could think of and was told I had NO rights. We need to give todays children some kind of rights, especially inside places where otherwise they would have no control over their personal safety.
As a non-compliant client, I was purely at the mercy of the people imprisioning me. Both in the building and at the host homes. What is so bizaare is, because of straights ability to twist reality, I was not only being physically held prisioner by staff.. I was being physically (daily) being held (on the floor, gasping for air) captive by the other clients(Most of whom were my age. Upwards of 250 other clients all brainwashed to physically restrain anyone who tried to get away or verbalize displeasure. I still can not phathom How Straight managed to accomplish this with so many children, I will never understand. And the staff, who had the desire(without question) to control people in this way, is beyond comprehension.
I have volunteered at a residential drug rehab near my community, as a teenage counselor of sorts. Mainly I just hung out and was someone their own age who would talk and do stuff with the kids there. NEVER, when an altercation happened w/ a client did any other client get involved, and especially never in a physical way. The modality that created this "group think" inside the walls of straight is the same as that which was used to convince all those people to actually drink the kool-aide. There is no other explanation. Complete and total bizaareness.
Fear and secrecy controlled those who complied, I saw it first hand.