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They're Coming for your Children

Rae

Patron with Honors
This is an especially hard hitting article by Rebel 008 on the blog spothttp://leavingscientology.wordpress.com/ Great for lurkers and Scientologists

In the Middle Ages, families would often give a child to the church, to become a priest or a nun. It was considered a mark of piety.

Many Scientologists have given sons and daughters to their Church – their children have joined the Sea Org. They are proud of their Sea Org children and, yes, it doesn’t hurt the parents’ Eligibility.

But there’s a darker side of Sea Org recruitment, recently the subject of a thread on Ex-Scientologist Message Board. Here are some of the stories that were posted.

1. “I had two very good friends who were mothers of 13 year old girls. Both of them were presented with a scenario where Sea Org Recruiters had contacted their minor children directly to get them interested in quitting school and joining the Sea Org. By the time their parents heard about it, the kids had already signed. The parents were desperate. They were told – in one case by David Miscaige himself – that the kids would stay in Los Angeles and they could be visited any time. In both cases the kids were shipped off to Flag in Florida and one even went to Europe to work in the RTC. These mothers were desperate, and had been threatened with declare if they interfered.”

2. “I was at Flag when one of the OT VIIs was getting major Ethics handling because she didn’t want her 16 year old son to join the SO, it was horrible for her. Her son wanted to join the SO but didn’t understand what it would mean, she (the OT VII) got assigned Treason for being CI when she tried to explain it to him. She was crying and explaining to me about all the dreams she’d had for her son, all gone in the moment he signed an SO contract.”

3. “I went through a similar situation with my 13 years old daughter. I was still on lines then and on course. One day, an SO member saw my daughter without me knowing, of course, and convinced her to join the SO! She would of been 600 miles away from me and since I have been in the SO I know how it is. Who would take care of her, who would make sure she is safe? It is not what they tell her it will be. I know. Been there. I got SO upset. I got into a fight with my daughter and I told her. You are not 18! I am your parent and I say NO. Than someone called me at home to tell me I was out ethics, had CI. All that bullshit. I told her she could say whatever she wanted, I was her mom, she was under aged and I refused to let her go.”

4. “The daughter of a very close friend was being recruited for SO when she was 15. Several of her friends had already joined so they were being used to recruit her. However, her mom refused to sign the parental consent form because she thought the daughter was only joining to be with her friends (which she was) and didn’t really understand what the commitment meant (which she didn’t), wasn’t ready to make such a life-altering decision (which is why parental permission is required to begin with), and wanted the daughter to finish school. Mom said finish school, give this decision some thought, and if you still want to join when you are 18 you’ll have my blessings. Seems like a perfectly reasonable stance for a parent to take when looking out for their children, given of course a belief in Scientology. Unfortunately, the CO of CC Int where she was being recruited didn’t see it that way so threatened the mom with declare for being CI to the purpose of the SO.”

There are many, many more such stories. So that is how they work. They prey on underage children. They call them in to a room, without their parents, and with two or three or four Sea Org recruiters. They hammer them, sometimes for hours, with stories about the horrors of the “wog world” – drugs and violence – and the glories of the Sea Org. They are told how wonderful Sea Org life will be. They are told that “all their friends are joining.” They get them to sign a Sea Org contract without their parents knowledge, and then, when the parents object, they tell them that they are “CI” and “out-ethics” and if they continue to object, they will be declared. So the parents buckle, most of them. Except for one guy I know who slammed Dave Petit up against a wall at CC and told him to stay away from his children.

But most buckle. Most go along with it and allow their children to go off to the Sea Org. If they had any idea what was in store for their children, they would do anything to prevent it. Unfortunately, it’s only after they leave that you read the horror stories.

Here’s some facts, from former Sea Org insiders.

The Sea Org says they will appoint a “guardian” for your child, and that person will take care of them. And so you sign over your guardianship rights. What you don’t know: that “guardian” will rarely see your child.

The Sea Org claims your child will continue their education. Not really. They may fulfill a legal requirement for a high school education, but it will be the minimum they can get away with. And any study will be in addition to a long, long work day.

You child will have no life outside the Sea Org. They will work every waking hour, with 2 1/2 hours for study. They will have no social life. They will have no hobbies or outside interests.

Your letters to them will be opened. If there is anything critical in them, they will be hauled in to Ethics. They may get a PTS handling. Any letters to you are read by Sea org Security people before they are sealed. Anything critical of Sea Org life in the slightest will be rewritten. This is why their letters sound the way they do – a bland, “everything is fine” with no details.

You’ll find it hard to reach them by phone. You will be put on hold. You will be told they cannot be located. If you should manage to reach them, your conversation with them will be monitored, without you knowing it, by Security personnel. You may be put on a speaker phone.

Your child will work long, long hours and get little sleep. They will have constant pressure, threats, and, in some cases, physical abuse. They will be paid about 40 cents an hour. With their meager pay they will have to buy their own toiletries and any clothing that is not Sea org uniforms.

Relationships are forbidden, and marriage is discouraged. If your child is discovered to be spending too much time with a member of the opposite sex (i.e. mealtimes), they risk being sent to the RPF. If your daughter by some miracle manages to get married and gets pregnant, she will be forced to have an abortion.

Visits will be rare and short, if at all. They will miss family events, weddings and funerals.

Is this really the life you want for your child? If not, tell the Sea Org recruiters to back off.

And if they’re already in? Well, another time I’ll tell you how to get them out.
 

everfree

Patron Meritorious
They are told that “all their friends are joining.” They get them to sign a Sea Org contract without their parents knowledge, and then, when the parents object, they tell them that they are “CI” and “out-ethics” and if they continue to object, they will be declared. So the parents buckle, most of them. Except for one guy I know who slammed Dave Petit up against a wall at CC and told him to stay away from his children.

Yay! I'm glad the b*st*rd got some of what's coming to him for his coercive recruitment tactics of children.

Peer pressure from friends is favorite technique of SO recruiters; once they get one kid from an area or group they send that kid back to recruit all their Scn friends too. In one area I was in all but a couple of the 12-14 year olds were recruited that way.
 

rich

Silver Meritorious Patron
And Sea Orgers aren't usually allowed to have cellphones. Gee, I wonder why?
 

Wisened One

Crusader
WOW, I love this, it is sooo effing true!

I've told the story here on ESMB of the SO recruit cycle of my then-12 yr old daughter (who wasn't even a scn, just took some basic children's study courses).

But yeah, they kept pressuring us and her to join at 14, then when they couldn't get that, they tried to get her to join at 16. But she steadfastly refused and said she wanted to wait till 18. Course she never did go (nor did we ever intend her to).

But they kept us all in that stupid recruit cycle till after midnight! :angry:
 

lkwdblds

Crusader
I did'nt know this was common, It happened to me too.

Eight years ago, in 2001, my daughter was 14 and we wanted her to do the Student Hat Course at our local Org. Every time we came to pick her up, she was being regged by recruiters. We complained and some teen age recruiters told us it was a suppressive act to object to recruitment. The E.D. of the Org said there was nothing he could do so we took her off course and re-enrolled her at CCLA on a weekend schedule. I drove her there and did office work for my business in the lunch room while she was on Course. I would eat lunch with her at noon and she would come down after course and we would drive home.

The first 3 weeks went smoothly but on week 4 she did not come down for lunch. I thought she probably made a new friend and chose to eat with her freind but when course ended, around 5:00 PM she did not come down. After waiting 10 minutes or so, I went up to the Course Room but no one knew where she was. I broke out in a cold sweat and started demanding to know her whereabouts. Someone heard me raising my voice and told me Dave Petit had come at noon break and told all the teenagers on course to come with him to a recruiting event in an auditorium. This event took up the lunch hour and then instead of returning to course, the children were paired off one on one with teenage recruiters and taken out of the Org for one on one recruiting cycles in some apartment complex several blocks from the Org.

I started trembling and was very restimulated and started demanding that my daughter be brought back to me immediately. It took another 1/2 hour before she showed up with her recruiter at 7:00 PM. I scolded the recruiter for keeping her 2 hours after course ended and not letting me know where she was and I demanded to talk to Dave Petit. Petit refused to speak to me. I was ready for a showdown with him of his junior execs. I paid for a course for my daughter and instead of honoring their agreement to deliver the course, they bypassed me as my daughter's guardian and regged her all afternoon without the slightest thought of notifying me. They did not see that they had done anything wrong. If Petit would have threarened me with a declare, I would have screamed in his face that he was a criminal masquerading as nice guy. I had faced these types of idiots 28 years earlier on the Apollo when I demanded to be routed out of the Sea Org and by 2001, I was already well into the process of seeing that C of S was rotten and figuring out that I should quit supporting them.

I drove my daughter home and her Mother and I wrote to CCLA that we were not going to bring her back on course until the out Ethics recruitment at the Org was cleaned up and we received an apology. We both wrote several reports to the Org and got no action, just platitudes that recruiting was vital. As a result, my 31 year career in organized Scientology came to an end. My wife and I decided that we were not going to do any more services in any Org and would not take our children there any more. I routed out on a Medical leave never to return.

I had no idea that this type of stuff was going on routinely on a large scale until reading this thread. Just the thought of Dave Petit and his henchmen sitting in some exec council devising a plan to kidnap the kids Scientology parents bring to course is enough to make me sick. It is a Nazi like concept to take children to another building for recruitment without notifying and getting permission from the parents and then threaten the parents with a suppressive declare if they object. My feeling, prior to the incident was that she would be 18 in four years and if she wanted to join the S.O. then, she would be of age and be done with high school and we would respect her decision. Of course, thoughts such as this are considered "Wog think" by Sea Org execs and staff and are not tolerated.
lkwdblds
 
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Kookaburra

Gold Meritorious Patron
Eight years ago, in 2001, my daughter was 14 and we wanted her to do the Student Hat Course at our local Org. Every time we came to pick her up, she was being regged by recruiters. We complained and some teen age recruiters told us it was a suppressive act to object to recruitment. The E.D. of the Org said there was nothing he could do so we took her off course and re-enrolled her at CCLA for a weekend schedule. I drove her there and did office work for my business in the lunch room while she was on Course. I would eat lunch with her at noon and she would come down after course and we would drive home.

The first 3 weeks went smoothly but on week 4 she did not come down for lunch. I thought she probably made a new friend and chose to eat with her freind but when course ended, around 5:00 PM she did not come down. After waiting 10 minutes or so, I went up to the Course Room but no one knew where she was. I broke out in a cold sweat and started demanding to know her whereabouts. Someone heard me raising my voice and told me Dave Petit had come at noon break and told all the teenagers on course to come with him to a recruiting event in an auditorium. This event took up the lunch hour and then instead of returning to course, the children were paired off one on one with teenage recruiters and taken out of the Org for one on one recruiting cycles in some apartment complex several blocks from the Org.

I started trembling and was very restimulated and started demanding that my daughter be brought back to me immediately. It took another 1/2 hour before she showed up with her recruiter at 7:00 PM. I scolded the recruiter for keeping her one and 1 1/2 hours after course ended and not letting me know where she was and I demanded to talk to Dave Petit. Petit refused to speak to me. I was ready for a showdown with those people. I paid for a course for my daughter and instead of honoring their agreement to deliver the course, they bypassed me as my daughter's guardian and regged her all afternoon without the slightest though of notifying me. They did not see that they had done anything wrong. If Petit would have told me that I could be declared, I would have screamed in his face that he was a criminal masquerading as someone doing the right things. I had faced these types of idiots 28 years earlier on the Apollo when I demanded to be routed out of the Sea Org and by 2001, I was already well into the process of seeing that C of S was rotten and figuring out that I should quit supporting them.

I drove my daughter home and her Mother and I wrote to CCLA that we were not going to bring her back on course until the out Ethics recruitment at the Org was cleaned up and I received an apology. We both wrote several reports to the Org and got not action and so basically that was the end of 31 years of Scientology for me. My wife and I decided that we were not going to do any more services in any Org and would not take our children there any more. I routed out on a Medical leave never to return.

I had not idea that this type of stuff was going on routinely on a large scale until reading this thread.
lkwdblds

The interesting thing about getting on the internet and talking to other ex Scinos is that you find out that all the rotton nasty things that happened to you that you thought were one offs or just some clueless idiot that didn't know or care what Scn was about were actually widespread abuse that was happening to all sorts of people.

Good on ya for getting your daughter out. Dave Petit can be pretty hardnosed when you are standing between him and something he wants.
 

Sir Facer

Patron with Honors
The worst Sea Org recruitment cycle I ever witnessed was by an SO member who was a cook at the AO for some time (I think her name was rosemary ) I just remember she used to do recruit cycles in other Orgs at times and go on mission to get out of the cooking and have some variety on her post or something like that.

Any way she came to Canberra (ACT Org) on a mission while I was on staff and we had a young girl on lines who also did a bit of volunteer work. This girl be-friended me, as we come from the same Island.

I gathered after her first week of being in the Church she was completely illiterate and also had some kind of condition that slowed her down. It took 1/2 an hour to clear one word and many words she just could not read so it was mainly picture books.

I met her sister and her sister explained to me she has a retarted condition and was much worse as a child and is considered "special needs" and will never be able to comprehend more than a 10 year old at best, however can be involved with adults just not on a sexual level and probably will never marry due to her condition. Her family however were happy she had friends in the Church and could feel part of a group even if it was just helping to do filing and helping the staff.

Until.........

Rosemary the So member had no products to speak of and then decided to recruit our volunteer (Who I will not name out of courtesy to her). Rosemary was informed of her condition yet said it could be handled in the SO with training and Auditing. Rosemary convinced her mother and made the SO sound like a nunery in the catholic church not the truth about the place being a slave camp.I remeber when I protested this I was C.I. to the S.O. and the Tech.

Well when she got up there it became apparent she was a special needs and she had a break down and returned to her family who were disgusted at the condition of their daughter when she returned! (according to her sister who was very very upset and wanted to involve the police, however I managed to calm her down Damn it!) Per her sister she was not fed well and was worked like a slave and was in tears every day and was very scared and could not sleep. She was basically dumped on the streets and then she some how got help from family.

The Sea Org recruitment in Anzo is a huge Joke!!!
 
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wiseman_of_the_watchtower

Patron with Honors
Ha

And Sea Orgers aren't usually allowed to have cellphones. Gee, I wonder why?

Near the end of my time in the SO, I was being investigated heavily for possibly having a 'secret' cell phone. Actually I had a "inactive" cell phone that I was using to store Sea Org phone numbers, which they knew about.

So intense was the effort to get at my supposedly hidden "active" cell phone, that throughout all the security checks and baggage inspection (I was routing out) they had let me out of the base with the "inactive" cell which still had the numbers of every phone and office in the entire base!

Talk about out security! Even the Sea Org members aren't supposed to know the cellphone number of the CO CMO, yet I got it!

-WMWT
 

Wisened One

Crusader
Wow, you all. This is a really important Thread!

Keep posting your stories!

Maybe we should have some from Ex-Scn Kids come in here and share their
recruitment cycle stories as well!
 

ThisIsIt

Patron with Honors
Not to mention what the parents are told to make the SO look like some sort of unbelievable utopia:duh: as opposed to the big bad "WOG WORLD" that will certainly make their child a criminal.:omg:

Gag....:puke:
 

Wisened One

Crusader
Yep, my child was told how 'cool' it all would be, and how she'd have 24-hr access to a really new, nice Gym, wear really hip uniforms (yellow shirts and khaki's or some such thing). They were trying to recruit her to supposedly work at Flag.
 

Doom

Lurking.
Very predictable

One thing is for sure, most recruiters with say almost anything to get another "body" , but if they told the truth do you think anyone would join if they knew what was happening in the church at all levels. In a strange sort of way the only people that would be suitable are ones that are young and easier to control.:grouch: Once again integrity asks a question and the CofS cant answer it because they are too busy trying somehow anyhow to get that stat on the board beacause the stat is more important than the people. Silly stuff
 

Winston Smith

Flunked Scientology
Isn't all this a CRIME? as in Kidnapping?? Human trafficking? Where are law enforcement organizations? How about Amber Alerts for SO kids?
 

CherryTree

Patron
Yep, my child was told how 'cool' it all would be, and how she'd have 24-hr access to a really new, nice Gym, wear really hip uniforms (yellow shirts and khaki's or some such thing). They were trying to recruit her to supposedly work at Flag.

I think they tried to recruit her/him for HCO... they had that kind of uniforms in 2001 (I was there at Flag dammit at that time... at the age of 11) There are such qualification requierment for HCO that almost only children are eligible.


Edit: Sorry in 2001 I was only in LA at the Cadet Org. it was 2002 that me and my mom got transferred to Flag.
 

Wisened One

Crusader
I think they tried to recruit her/him for HCO... they had that kind of uniforms in 2001 (I was there at Flag dammit at that time... at the age of 11) There are such qualification requierment for HCO that almost only children are eligible.


Edit: Sorry in 2001 I was only in LA at the Cadet Org. it was 2002 that me and my mom got transferred to Flag.

Yep that's about right! It must've been 2002, as she was 12 yrs old then...and we left a couple years later in 2004 and her and us had a great bonfire and needed some paper to get the fire started with....:D

They never told her it would be for HCO, nor us. But the recruiters I believe were wearing yellow collared polo-type shirts. And it makes sense that they were trying to man that dept up with kids since they hadn't started life yet to be 'corrupted' by it and then not have quals for HCO, etc.

Just Glad we LEFT before she was old enough to join it! (cuz they would've kept calling us and her to keep her interested till she turned 18, you know it!). :grouch:They WERE calling us EVERY WEEK from the time they signed her...then we started telling them we don't know any ____________, there's no _____________ here and 'You have the wrong number' They stopped calling. :laugh:
 

Cherished

Silver Meritorious Patron
How the heck does the state dept of children & families allow this to happen?
Because by the time they find out about it, if they do, the child is no longer a child?

What is needed right now is for people to name the names of children in the Sea Org now. And to name them to law enforcement.
 

lkwdblds

Crusader
Very good points made

The interesting thing about getting on the internet and talking to other ex Scinos is that you find out that all the rotton nasty things that happened to you that you thought were one offs or just some clueless idiot that didn't know or care what Scn was about were actually widespread abuse that was happening to all sorts of people.

Good on ya for getting your daughter out. Dave Petit can be pretty hardnosed when you are standing between him and something he wants.

Kookaburra - Thanks for duplicating my post and your fine comments. I like the term "one offs". All through my Scn career, I thought that these horrible things that were happening to me were one offs, particular to me only and that I was very PTS pulling in this stuff. I perservered trying to make things go right despite my PTSness. Only when I started reading the internet 4 years ago did I find, to my astonishment that horrible things were happening continuously to all sorts of people and in a sense, I was "normal" and not PTS.
lkwdblds
 
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