Pubdate: Fri, 07 Jun 2002
Source: St. Petersburg Times (FL)
Copyright: 2002 St. Petersburg Times
Contact:  http://www.sptimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/419
Author: Jeanne Malmgren

IN THE MIDDLE OF A NIGHTMARE

Self-Described Survivors Of The Straight Drug-Treatment Program Gather
In St. Petersburg To Try To Put Behind Them The Abuse They Say They
Experienced, And To Consider Legal Action

ST. PETERSBURG -- It's not easy to watch Samantha Monroe tell her
story.

First, she looks directly at you, her blue eyes brimming with tears, a
pair of vertical frown lines etched between her eyebrows. There's
anger in her voice. A lot of four-letter words.

When she gets to the most painful memories, Monroe looks down at the
table, pulls her long platinum hair out of a ponytail and runs her
fingers through it, repeatedly. "I need a cigarette," she mumbles.

She's sitting in a busy cafeteria, but she doesn't seem to care if
people see her crying or overhear the awful experiences she's
describing. She wants to talk about what happened to her 20 years ago.
She needs to.

"I was a 13-year-old kid," she says, "in the middle of a
nightmare."

Monroe is 34 now, and she's still having it.

* * * They will gather this weekend in a downtown St. Petersburg
hotel, a group of people concerned about the dangers they see in
adolescent treatment programs -- drug addiction centers, wilderness
"boot camps" and residential workshops for children with eating
disorders, behavioral problems or mental disabilities.

Some of these programs actually hurt the kids they claim to be
helping, their critics say. The programs' methods are said to be akin
to brainwashing. They can involve sleep or food deprivation, lack of
privacy and verbal confrontations designed to break down a person's
resistance. Kids are restrained with excessive force, subjected to
humiliating experiences and isolated from their parents, homes and
friends, according to critics. Arnold Trebach, professor emeritus of
law and justice at American University in Washington, D.C., and a
longtime critic of some treatment programs, organized the St.
Petersburg conference, the second annual. He even coined a phrase for
its subject: "treatment abuse."

Although most of these programs are well-intentioned, Trebach contends
that too many have caused long-lasting physical and mental damage to
children -- especially the programs spawned by the antidrug fervor of
the 1970s and '80s. Children who attended those programs are now
adults. Some of them are ready to share their stories. So the
conference will also serve as a self-described reunion of survivors.
Most of the attendees will be veterans of Straight Inc., the Pinellas
County-based drug program that gained national notoriety in the 1980s.
It was cofounded by St. Petersburg businessmen Joseph Zappala and Mel
Sembler and attracted the approval of former President George Bush,
Nancy Reagan and Princess Diana. Thousands of youngsters reportedly
kicked drug addictions at Straight facilities around the country.

But the organization's methods also attracted criticism,
investigations and lawsuits. Several former clients sued Straight,
claiming they were abused or held against their will.

Straight officials persistently denied that any abuse happened. They
also changed some of their more controversial methods, such as having
clients sit on other clients to restrain them. They maintained that
Straight was effective, saying that two-thirds of the children who
completed long-term therapy remained drug-free for at least two years.

Still, there were six-figure settlements. Enrollment in Straight
dropped. One by one, its treatment facilities closed. By mid 1993
Straight was out of business.

The bad memories will never end for Samantha Monroe, though. This
weekend she'll talk about them at the St. Petersburg conference.


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