New Beginnings Girls Academy

[hurrikayne]

New Beginnings Girls Academy: Survivor Story Part I

Postby hurrikayne on December 07, 2008, 01:58:04
What is the name of the facility you were in?

Originally, it was called The Rebekah Home for Girls, based out of Corpus Christi, TX. However, due to some changes in state laws in 2001, the home was closed and the same administrators, Bill "Brother Mac" and Jennifer "Mrs. Mac" McNamara, sent half of the ninety girls home and moved the other half of us to Missouri temporarily. They eventually found us a permanent location in Pace, FL, and we moved there.

The name underwent some changes for legal reasons. For a while, it was called New Beginnings Rebekah Academy. Later, they decided to avoid any negative association with the original Roloff Homes so they officially named it New Beginnings Girls Academy, which still exists at that location. The McNamara’s have since gone on to operate New Beginnings Ministries in Missouri, which admits both girls and boys.

What kind of a program did they operate?

It was an extremely strict, Christian program, which is probably a lot of the allure for parents. But the reality of it isn't so simple. It's not just loosely Christian, like many parents assume. It's not much of an "academy." It's not like regular boarding schools.

People send their kids there out of desperation, and their kids end up having to deal with circumstances in an environment that they themselves could never cope with. They operate under the guise of being a tough love, Christian place where kids can come to terms with their problems in a caring, safe, secluded educational environment, but if I was only allowed to use one word to describe it, I'd call it "degrading."

We were constantly ridiculed. During my first week there, we were all gathered together for a little sermon or chapel service, and during that Brother Mac jumped up on a pew in front of me and called us a "bunch of faggots." Soon after being sent, girls realize that such situations are not uncommon - there's a lot of screaming and yelling and what was referred to as "open rebuke," which literally meant that we were individually verbally bashed and humiliated in front of everyone there. Brother Mac discussed and criticized a lot of our past errors openly.

They tried to keep us in a pretty constant state of shame. They used a lot of brainwashing tactics. We were constantly monitored, discouraged from befriending each other, poorly educated while there, and physically and mentally abused. With all of these atrocities, they hide behind the whole "tough love" facade, but there isn't any real love at all - only degradation to force good outward behavior. It's extremely traumatizing, to say the least. The cycle continues to this day, because no one really seems to believe "troubled teens" when they do get the courage to say they're being mistreated. People tend to assume they're just lying brats.

When were you there & how long did you stay?

I was there initially from January 2001 to January 2002. I went home for a few short months and then the administrators of the home and my guardians mutually decided that I should be sent back so that I could finish high school and help them out some since they were shorthanded. I know that I wouldn't have gone back had it been up to me, but at the time my family wanted me to go and I was still trying to "do right" by them as I was still pretty convinced that I was a terrible person.
I was only 16; they were sending me, so I thought I might as well go with at least a little dignity still in tact. In May 2002, they put me on a plane back to Florida. My status was technically "junior staff," which over time exposed me to a lot of things the average onlooker doesn't know about. Once I turned 18, I tried leaving a couple of different times, but I didn't have a lot of help or money. I was paid, but only enough to get some bare necessities; nothing even close to minimum wage.

I finally succeeded in leaving when I was 19, that was in 2005. They weren't happy, but the longer I was there, the more I knew that I couldn't be subjected to or associated with the things that were happening there. Everything was just so deceitful. I just wanted to run away and forget about it forever.

Whose idea was it for you to go to this facility?

It was my sister and her pastor's idea. Legal guardianship was awarded to my sister when I was 14. She had become a really strict, really conservative Christian, and it was understandably difficult for her to deal with the fact that I wasn't interested in Christian ideals. It really frustrated her and caused a lot of turmoil at home, because I was interested in school friends, secular music, and I wore black clothes. Prior to sending me to the home, she tried to send me back to my mom who lived in Seattle area, WA, and that was a doomed effort. To make a long story short, there were a lot of problems in her home, and I just didn't want to be there either. A few months later, my mom returned me to my sister who then made the decision to send me to the home.

Were you included in the decision?

Not at all; I had no choice <in the matter>. I felt that any kind of crazy, punitive efforts regarding me were just stupid, and this seemed like the ultimate punishment. It felt like being dumped off and exiled in a place they couldn't know that much about. I battled with a lot of past-related depression leading up to that. I guess, to an extent, I was pretty typical: I was a smart kid, intensely creative, but really anti-social and misread. It seemed like my sister wanted me to be someone else instead of encouraging the growth of my positive traits. So I fought her the whole way.

How did you get there?

My sister and her husband drove me. When I figured out where we were headed, I lost it; screaming, kicking, cursing, for several hours. The whole time, they kept saying that I had two choices: shackles and duct tape, or muscle relaxers. I learned later on that such methods were pretty common in getting girls to the home. When I finally tired out, one of them handed me pills, and I took them so that I could temporarily forget what was happening. I didn't wake up until Texas.

What happened when you arrived? How did they process you into their program/facility?

Most girls fight and have to be physically removed from their parents' vehicles, but I was tired and tried to be optimistic even though I had already done a little research on the place myself and read that there were scores of abuse allegations. I tried to believe my sister and her pastor, who said that the administrators were good Christians and those allegations couldn't be true about them.

As is typical procedure, we first met Brother Mac, whom I later learned was a completely different guy around parents and other outsiders. Next, the girls sang a song for us. It's a frequently-used ploy to show the girls as really docile and happy. Then, I met my "Buddy," a girl who follows her assigned new girl around and monitors her every move for her first thirty or so days. Last, they asked me to take a shower so they could finish separating what personal belongings I could keep from what had to be discarded or sent home. When all was said and done, I was left with a trunk of clothes I had never seen before, some toiletries, and a Bible.

Can you describe a typical day?

We woke up very early, made our beds and brushed our teeth, congregated to read the Bible and pray, returned to our areas to do more in-depth chores, and went to the school building to do what passed for school - no real teachers; just an unaccredited home school curriculum. Then, we worked off our acquired demerits, worked on Bible Memorization, had song practice, took showers, had a chapel or church service, had Bible reading and prayer time again, and, finally, went to bed. It was basically the same thing every day. Saturday was a work day.

The schedule differed if you were being disciplined in some way, were on Summer Tour, or were chosen to work outside that day. Some girls, even if they're suffering academically, do labor jobs on the property all day, surely in violation of child labor laws and school attendance requirements.

Can you describe some typical rules?

There were many reasonable rules but many more outlandish rules. The one that seems most harsh to people is that girls aren't allowed to talk at all unless asking Staff or Helpers a brief question, except for about an hour a week on Friday night. They're certainly not taught anything about rational communication. No talking, no humming, no popping knuckles, and your hair can't touch your face. You get six minute showers and five sheets of toilet paper. It's all about control of all aspects.

Offenses mean demerits, and demerits mean pain. Each demerit has to be worked off somehow - through very strenuous, forced exercise, etc... When I first got there, we got "licks" (corporal punishment) after the first 10 demerits acquired that day. Many simple offenses were worth 5 demerits; so you worked off the first 10 physically, and after that you got one lick per demerit, up to five licks. They were usually done by Mrs. Mac, and usually while Brother Mac watched.

When Mrs. Mac got physically tired of giving licks we'd have to write sentences overnight, one hundred per demerit, and some girls went some nights without sleep just to repeat it all over again the next day. Some of the rules may be different now because some of them have been exposed. Some of them may be less harsh and some of them may be more. If nobody knows for sure, and no one is really accountable for their actions, and you can't really check for yourself, then they could be doing practically anything they want with your child.

[hurrikayne]

New Beginnings Girls Academy: Survivor Story Part II

Were you aware of Mrs. Cameron’s history of trouble with the law in relation to Rebekah, another home she helped run before starting New Beginnings?

From an article by Chris Womack, published in The Observer, “The homes have been the subject of allegations of brutality for decades, and in May 1999 a TACCA-approved Roloff home had its turn. Faye Cameron, supervisor of the Rebekah Home for Girls and the wife of Roloff Homes president and TACCA board member Rev. Wiley Cameron Sr., was convicted of a misdemeanor for unlawfully restraining a child. In fact, Cameron was banned from ever working or being present at any juvenile home in Texas-for duct-taping a girl's wrists together and locking her in a room.”
http://Link: [url=http://www.isaccorp.org/newbeginnings/n]http://www.isaccorp.org/newbeginnings/n ... ngs.a.html[/url][/i]

From The Austin Chronicle, by Emily Pyle (2000): “Texas Protective and Regulatory Services removed Faye Cameron, dorm mother of the home and wife of Wiley Cameron, for abuse and neglect. Wiley Cameron retained both his position at the Roloff homes -- and his membership on the TACCA board, which he did not resign until Simons' mother filed suit against the homes the following year.”
http://Link: [url=http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase]http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase ... id%3A79818[/url][/i]

I had heard about it, yes. I was there around a year or a year and a half after the incident happened. By that time, Faye Cameron didn't participate in much of our daily activities inside the actual dorm, but she interacted with us almost any time we were around her outside of the dorm, which was often.

More importantly, was your family aware of this?

I'm not sure; I don't think that many parents are aware of it.

There were other incidents as well.

From the Pensacola Independent News, by Duwayne Escobedo (2004): “New Beginnings has been investigated twice (by FACCCA) and insisting that Faye Cameron quit the boarding school for troubled girls after being questioned for hitting a girl with a curtain rod.” http://Link: [url=http://www.inweekly.net/article.asp?artID=713]http://www.inweekly.net/article.asp?artID=713[/url][/i]

Did you witness the incident, or hear about it?

After we left Texas, Mrs. Cameron was rarely around, even though Wiley Cameron was referred to as the president of the ministry. The Camerons lived in another state then, but they dropped in every few months or so. Mrs. Cameron always seemed to maintain a little bit of distance when on the property. While I was there, she never got involved with any of the discipline, which I assume was directly because of her legal trouble in Texas in 1999. One New Beginnings staff member who has worked with the home since it was still part of "Rebekah" in Texas, occasionally recounted times when Mrs. Cameron slapped girls in the face when she still worked inside the actual dorm.
(I witnessed the same behavior by Mrs. Cameron during my time on the Roloff compound.)

Details of the curtain rod incident got really mixed up somehow, which is probably why nothing ever came of the investigations, but I actually know all about it. Mrs. Mac was the primary physical disciplinarian, and "licks" were usually given with a thin, hard, white paddle. Many girls complained of bruises. The time that I got mine, Brother Mac brought in at least eight of my peers and threatened to have them hold me down. None of the girls looked like they wanted to help. Most of us realized that it was just something they did to prevent us from trusting each other.

There were periods of time when they wouldn't administer licks. It seemed like the McNamara’s would back off for a while after a period of time when they were giving licks, and having girls held down by other girls or junior staff if they refused them, just constantly. It was like they'd decide to ease up after realizing they'd gone for a period of time being totally out of control about it.

Once on junior staff, I learned that during staff meetings Brother Mac actually talked about these "phases." He'd say that the home was going to stop using licks as a punishment altogether so that they couldn't get in trouble with the law anymore. The curtain rod incidents happened during times when the McNamara’s said they were going to limit, or completely stop giving licks out; but they continued anyway just because they were particularly angry, or desperately in need of getting things more firmly under their control. Other times, they used one of these rods, which were more specifically the hard plastic rods used to open and close mini-blinds, if they didn't have the usual paddle on hand.

Numerous girls witnessed this happening plenty of times. I remember two incidences in particular. One time, Mrs. Mac gave licks to a girl named Jamie with one of these rods in a building behind one of the churches we sang in on Summer Tour. Several girls were made to hold her face down on the floor while she struggled, and she was repeatedly struck on the buttocks with one of these rods.

The other time, it was a girl named Kara. Brother Mac and another older staff member took Kara into a staff bathroom area. He was shouting terrible things at her while the rest of us listened from outside the door. We watched as he came out for a second, grabbed one of the mini-blind rods from one of the windows and hurried back into the bathroom. None of us could see what happened, but we could hear the girl screaming and begging for them to stop.

When people came to investigate the subject, Brother Mac tried to dictate which girls talked to the investigators. I think all of them were afraid they would get into trouble if they told the investigators anything about what they had really seen or heard. I was never questioned, but I wish I had been, because at that time I would have had the courage to tell truth.

Additional information this young lady shared with me:

• Redshirt/Discipline: Extremely physically strenuous, humiliating punishment that could last for months on end, most of which time the girl spent standing with her nose against a wall. The idea of standing with your nose against a wall doesn't sound very strenuous, but it can be pretty agonizing when you have to do it while remaining in the same position for hours upon hours without a significant break. I was on Redshirt for a month, and we had to wear red gingham shirts to ward off other girls and show that we were being ultimately punished. If other girls communicated with us, they'd be put on Redshirt, too. Girls on Redshirt had to exercise until the last regular girl was done working off her demerits. Afterward, we'd get a six-minute shower and then we had to go back to stand with our noses against the wall until the next activity, which we'd usually remain standing for. For an hour and a half or so, after the other girls went to bed, girls on Redshirt would have to do a series of different exercises which were designed to hurt a lot more than normal exercises. After that, we'd be permitted to sleep. On Redshirt, girls' diets were restricted to half-portions at one time. Later on, this particular form of discipline was modified. They changed the name to "Discipline" at one point, then girls stood with their noses against their bun kbeds instead of walls, got periodic 10-minute sit-down breaks, and some of the rules weren't quite as harsh.

• Behind closed doors Brother Mac used racial slurs. I believe that many girls were discriminated against because of race.
What slurs do you specifically recall him using? Did other staff use similar slurs?
Brother Mac used the "N-word" when referring to black girls when in his living area, around his family, and around a couple of the staff and junior staff members. At one time, some girls of black and Spanish descent were put on "Separation," (forbidden to talk to certain other girls of their race who were on the punishment of Redshirt/Discipline or licks), he said, so they wouldn't make trouble. It wasn't because these girls necessarily showed interest in befriending each other, it was just because of their ethnicity.

• I believe that we were sexually harassed by Brother Mac, too.
How so?
I've said before that he used to come into the dorm and "openly rebuke" us. In other words, he'd come in and single out specific girls and humiliate them to tears. On a couple of occasions, he would come into the dorm and single out specific girls or make more general announcements saying that he could tell that some were masturbating because he could "smell it" on them. I remember him saying that specifically several times. It was awkward and uncomfortable for all of us, needless to say. He'd also fairly frequently discuss our past promiscuous acts in crudely detailed and degrading ways and openly ridicule some girls for claiming to be homosexual before the home.

• Most girls gained serious amounts of weight (despite all the exercise,) which we were sorely ridiculed for, and a good percentage of girls completely stopped menstruating for the duration of their stay.
The menstruation complaint is common for many girls/women affiliated with the homes. Do you recall ever being given any sort of medication? Did you have a normal cycle as a junior staffer?
I don't remember for sure what I was given, but I was told that they were just vitamins. I tried to refuse to take them, but they insisted. I didn't need to be on any pills prior to the home. When I first got there, there were scores of us, who weren't even on any sort of medications previously, who were required to take these "vitamins." Maybe they were vitamins, though, I don't know for sure if the pills that we were given was what caused so many of us to stop menstruating, but it seemed too common to be purely coincidental. We all thought it was weird, we were assured that it was just something that naturally happened when girls are exposed to large groups of other girls. [Something to do with the theory of Menstrual Synchrony.] Some girls had normal cycles, but a good portion of us just entirely stopped. Some of them stopped for several months and some for the entire time they were there. Mine normalized completely as soon as I left the home the first time.