.

.

Some picketers enjoying the day outside the US residence of Ambassador Melvin Floyd Sembler and his charming wife Ambassadorable  Betty Sembler.  Picketers include from left Toni, Richard, Kim, Marti (behind Kim), Sammie and Jodi.

.

.

I arrived in Tampa at 4:45 that afternoon and was immediately whisked off by Sammie Monroe to Treasure Island and the US residence of our Ambassador to Italy, Mel Sembler. Or should I say to the public street in front of his home. Mel and his wife Betty are the founders of Straight, Inc. and we were there to protest our President's decision to make him an ambassador in spite of the reputation of criminal child abuse which the Straights have brought upon themselves. There were probably 15 picketers and about 20 people there total, including a photographer from America's newspaper. Betty had recently hurt her foot in an automobile accident and at some point during the picket a delivery van delivered flowers making us think that she was perhaps at home. There was a private security guard in the front yard. Marked police cars were parked all over the place with three plain clothes officers stationed across the street. At one point one of the picketers stepped off the public street onto the Sembler's arched driveway (an apparent accident) and was told by the security guard that if it happened again  she would call the police. She must have thought it had happened again because soon after a police car showed up. We were all hoping they would come in mass like they did in Orlando with sirens blasting and blue lights glaring bringing public attention to the spectacle,   but it was just the lone cruiser without fanfare. 

.

Conference sponsor Mike Sherman.

.

Alexia Parks, author of An American Gulag speaking on boarding schools..

.

.

In the evening I was dining at Mattison's with the conference planning committee when all sorts of former Straight students and former students from its descendent and precedent programs started showing up. I finally found out how they knew we were meeting.  The Times  had mentioned the reception in their column.   Everyone was in high spirits with the mood being somewhere between being around survivors of Auschwitz and around former students gathered for their 20th high school re-union. The conference began at 9 AM on Saturday morning. Conference sponsor Mike Sherman made opening remarks (his charming wife Rhonda was always in charge in the wings). Mike introduced our chair Arnold Trebach. If you've never heard Professor Trebach speak  before  you should come sometime. He's a spry old gentleman with commanding presence and a great sense of humor. He's a great man of purpose.  Sammie Monroe told us about her experience at Straight-Sarasota. She had a very terrifying experience.  I spoke for an hour about where the Straights came from and where its descendents are today. I stood Richard Bradbury up (the man who single-handedly shut them down) and we all gave him a rousing round of applause.  I thing everyone was moved.  Alexia Parks came on after me and told us the story of how she tried to get her niece out of a faith-based boarding school  and how that eye-opening experience compelled her to write her book An American Gulag which tells the story of religious-based and secular-based academies for kids with special problems. She told the gripping story of a teenage girl who was abducted in plain site on a busy New York City Street yelling and screaming with all her might, and grabbing fence rails to try to keep her abductors from forcing her into a car. No one came to her aid reminding me of the Kitty Genovese murder 25 years before in that same city. Kitty had been a young woman pleading for her life as her assailant stabbed her over and over again, but no one would come to her aid. A police officer had stood idly by as the young was  being abducted,   afterwards saying that it was an intervention and not a real  a kidnapping because her parents had ordered it for her own good to get her into rehabilitation. Besides being an author, Alexia Parks delivers a potent speech. 

Conference attendees seemed to have lots of fun both on and off the field.  Here's Richard, Carie and Kim.

There was a survivor's panel. Greg B. told us what it was like to be in the Seed. Actually there were three Seed survivors present. I learned of the suicide of a least three former Seed students during discussions during the breaks. Greg told us about the spanking machine where to further humiliate a teenager  the parent may sometime be called in to spank his child with a belt with a circle of Seed kids watching on. Mark Davis had been in Straight in Saint Petersburg and was with the original pod which broke off to form Straight-Atlanta. He told us about an escape he once made only to be placed on a plane back to Florida. When he got off the plane Straight representatives were awaiting him, and like the lady on the street in New York,  he put up a good fight right in the Miami airport, but no one cared there either. Matt Hoffman, a former student in Elan, a Synanon-based therapeutic community in Maine,  was unable to make it but  sent a taped segment. Elii Chapman with two "i's" came all the way from Arizona to tell us about a destructive program she had discovered in California and how she had been a one man (or rather woman) show to force state regulatory agencies to do their jobs in licensing and monitoring this place. It took a persistent effort which finally paid off when authorities from several state agencies raided the school and took all of the kids out. 

.

.

Channel 10 news arrived and interviewed Doc, Alexia, Arnold, Sammie  and me. A woman whose name I will not yet reveal  donated $25,000 to our program to be given in 5 yearly installments.

One comment I would make.  I went over to Bay Walk with a crowd one evening and drank one or two beers (or maybe seven).  Bay Walk is the big shopping mall that Mel Sembler built for the city.  It is a beautiful place.  There are shops for buying in the day time and all sorts of great eateries for dining in the evening.  In the late evening in the later third of its day ,  the place swings with night music and booze.  Now I'm all for that sort of stuff after a busy day of work,  yet, as I was there,  I though what a hypocrite this man Mel Sembler is.  Without booze,  the income from the nightlife part of Bay Walk's day would cease to exist.  How could he lock up kids for allegedly smoking a joint  and then condone such widespread use of alcohol?  

The conference was a resounding success by all accounts.  We have now left to better formalize what the new organization will do. But one thing, there will be more pickets. The perpetrators of Straight's crimes can no longer go un-noticed. The word will be spread. WE ARE BACK.

Wes Fager
June 11, 2002