Here, I wrote and posted this on the myspace cascade group, I was there at the refusal, and this is the most acurate account of what happened that I can provide:
mean there's really not much to say.
Day One: basically all the girls went to the girls dorm, then all the boys went to the boys dorm. We decided we were just going to stay there, and we spent a little while staring at the clock, anxiously anticipating every next minute that would pass by. Finally about five minutes after forums had start Mary(I think that was the one that came) came up to the girls dorms we were all lounging in one wing half dressed.
She pretty much begged us to come to forums. A few of us (myself included) spoke up and told her just exactly what we thought about the oppression of the school. And that we pretty much wanted them to start treating us like humans rather than paychecks. She left looking like she had just heard her dog died, or something.
After that we decided.. Hey! Why not go OVER to the boys dorm? That way we're united as a cause. I mean we went out on the front porch of our dorm and the boys were across the way waving at us. So we just mosied on over. First of all, the boys dorms were way nicer than ours I though. Like what the hell? They piss on the bathroom walls and their dorm was still cooler. So we all went over and basically about 25-28 people were in the two wings of.. Emmerson, I think was the dorm i could be wrong.
We were just lounged out on beds, couches, the floor whatever. I believe a few people were snuggling up, more power to them. A couple of boys decided they were just going to walk down to the general store in Whitmore and get some cigarettes. (By now we were all happily weilding the concealed cash we'd been hoarding) And they left. After awhile Eric Melzer came up to the boys dorm in tears. Again and again we were begged to quit what we were doing, or consequences would be harsh, blah blah blah.
I think we did a pretty good job of staying stoic. After that pretty much all hell broke loose. I mean, I didn't think it was that chaotic but that's when people started sleeping together, and when we went up to the dining hall and demanded food. Basically they started kicking people out(11 were kicked out in all, I believe) and threatening the rest of us. One by one, people started to drop out of the "so called rebellion" in an attempt to save ourselves I guess.
Of course, that only lasted untill the sun went down. All the girls got dressed up in our "illegal" clothes (strappy tanks oo la la) and put on make up that a couple of people had also been hoarding, all the while using our handy dandy, highly illegal straighteners, hahah. And then we all caravanned over to the boys dorm again. Some more people slept together, some more got kicked out. I'm pretty sure the night watch people were joking around with us. Like they didn't care much that we were going to be the ones indirectly responsible for the loss of their jobs.
I went back pretty early. I had different types of interests than most of the people there, so I hadn't really connected with a male beyond the level of friendship since I first got there, and I saw no reason to be around while girls preened their feathers and got ready to engage in sexuall intercourse. Anywho I went back and stumbled into bed, really. Then, a couple of hours later a friend of mine JUMPED into my bed and told me that she'd been there the whole time. Then kim came shortly after and interrogated us but nothing came of it.
Then, the next day we started a new block of school, and I think most people decided to just go. Me and my close group of friends were pretty down because some people we really loved got kicked out. Things pretty much proceeded like that for exactly one week, we had no forums, nothing. Until monday came, the day during which we thought we'd all be moving up, etc , etc. I was returning from a medical run, and when I got back I noticed that EVERYONE was gathered in the house.
The teachers, staff, students, everyone. Barb Cass was perched rather precariously upon the carpeted stoop looking grave. That's when she chose to tell us that Cascade would be closing down. I mean everyone including the people who worked there found out the school was closing at the same time. It was pretty horrible. I just remember people in tears all around.. It's funny really because you never expect to be sad that it's happening I guess. Sad that you're going to be losing people you love sooner than you thought.
We had seven days to be gone. A few girls left that day. And others left over the process. It was pretty sad I had a birthday while it was occuring and found that I had only a few friends left to share it with. We pretty much had free reign then, just watching movies all day, boys were aloud into the girls dorm, we had stereos etc, etc. I think people just gave up.
It was horrible to watch everyone leave, but I'm glad it happened. I don't think the school was really helping people out that much at all, but hey that's my personal opinion. I made some fantastic friends and connections there that I will never forget. But I know that afterwards, I ended up in a better place then I would have, had I stayed.
anyways if you have any other questions feel free to email me at:
[email protected]