Melissa’s Testimony – Teen Challenge Columbus Girls Academy

On September 26, 2017, I was admitted to Columbus Girls Academy, an all-girls Teen Challenge program located right on the Georgia border in Seale, Alabama. I stayed there until I completed on February 11, 2019. I was freshly 17 when I was admitted and nearly 19 when I left.

The program was supposed to be an opportunity to get some much-need therapy away from all the stressors of home life while I finished up my senior year. I also needed it to help compensate for legal trouble. I knew the program was technically 15 months, but I anticipated being discharged once I was done with school. I ended up finishing high school in August, 2018, and was forced to take 5 college classes through Liberty University during the remainder of my stay. I say forced because it was not my decision. The staff simply convinced my dad, a teacher who is ecstatic about college, to spend the extra few thousand dollars. I had to be in some form of school in order to formally complete the program.

The very first sermon I was present for took place on a Friday during the long weekly chapel service that took up the entire school morning and slowed down our real-world progress. The sermon was delivered by the director of CGA himself, Bob. He taught that if someone experienced sexual assault, that gates are opened to demonic activity. He explained that one is basically possessed by demons until they beg Jesus to free them. As a sexual assault survivor, this was appalling and terrifying.

The majority of the time in the program was spent on “Silence”. A staff member would literally say “You’re on silence” and the expectation was that every single person except for staff would stop talking or making noise in general. We were on silence while we slept, during school and church, until they prayed before a meal, while we traversed between buildings, etc. However, we would get put on “Silence” randomly without much explanation. It was to control us. We were not allowed to touch anyone except for giving each other up-high 3 second or less high fives. It is really weird to not [permissibly] touch or be touched by anyone for over a year.

We were to abide by strict conversation guidelines. We were not allowed to discuss our “past” or “home” lives. We were not allowed to talk about or even use the names of anyone who left without graduating or completing. They threatened us that anyone who even said the word “run” would receive an “adverse report” and could get 2 months added to the program. We were not allowed to talk about celebrities or figures who were not Christian. We were not allowed to sing secular music, even if we wrote it ourselves. I am a songwriter and constantly was disciplined for that.

Our contact with the outside world was extremely limited. We only left the campus for church, or group outings which were rare and few in between. We were allotted a 20 minute supervised phone call every 2 weeks with our parents/guardians. A staff would dial the number and sit outside the room writing down everything we talked about. If we said ANYTHING bad about the program, a staff would interrupt and hang up the call and we would have to wait another 2 weeks. Other than that, we could send out up to 3 letters a week. These letters could only be addressed to or mention family members/guardians on file. One punishment called “LOP” (Loss of Privileges) took away our phone calls and prevented letters from being sent out for a month. Our parents/guardians could visit us for a few hours on a “Pass” weekend every 2 months, starting 3 months in, for a total of 5 passes before our year mark.

After we’d been there a year, we were granted a “Home Pass”, during which we returned home for 6 days under strict requirements. Any of our passes could be taken away or restricted and this was a common threat. One week early in my program, a film crew was brought in to make a promotional video for our Teen Challenge district. While filming, we didn’t have to follow all of the rules. Usually, we traveled everywhere in lines on “Silence” and any talking or “horseplay” would lead to disciplines. Also, there was usually no dorm-to-dorm communication. However, while filming, we were told to constantly be talking to each other. They told us to repeat “peas and carrots” if we had nothing to talk about because apparently that looks good on camera. Girls from each dorm who had been in the program for awhile and were trusted were filmed walking all over the campus and hanging out with each other, even in areas that we otherwise never walked or used in such a manner.

They also staged a worship service in the chapel and reorganized our assigned seating to where there was a clear racial diversity on the front line. They literally picked one of my best friends at the time who was a well-known atheist to be in the front because she appeared Hispanic or Asian. She was adopted and did not know her racial build up but was very offended by this and they didn’t care. This was just one of many efforts put forth by CGA and TC to falsely portray a certain image.

Several months in, I ran away into the woods for a few hours with a girl. We heard a rumor that if you were away from the center for 48 hours, you would be discharged. (I still don’t know if that is true.) We were willing to camp out in the woods with no food other than a few granola bars I had stashed into my pockets over the course of a few breakfasts, just to get away from that place. The girl I was with ended up having a big panic attack so we allowed ourselves to be found. They brought us back to the program in separate vehicles. The police were called and an officer just kept asking me why I was being defiant. I had become a master at disassociation by then and didn’t answer to the interrogation of the cop or staff. In addition to a workbook of written disciplines, I was moved dorms and put on Relationship Restriction with the entire center except for those who were in the new dorm. If I was caught so much as smiling at restricted people, I could receive a discipline. I was very depressed about still being stuck in the program, and started refusing. I refused to eat meals, attend school or church, or join in on any activities.

At one point, I got so fed up with being followed around by a staff during an oncoming anxiety attack. I tried getting away by stepping into a shower stall and pulling the curtain. The staff began to unhook the curtain from the rings and speak in “tongues”, which freaks me out, so I pushed passed her and locked myself in a bathroom stall. I became very pissed at staff for regarding my mental health as demonic activity. I sat on the back of the toilet for 4 hours. At least 7 different staff were called in to try and coax me or annoy me until I came out. For a majority of the time, a really eccentric staff member sat outside the stall and obnoxiously sang gospel music at the top of her lungs. Eventually, a staff member who was known for being mean and strict crawled under the stall, unlocked the door, and forced me to come out. She yelled and told me to “get with the program.” I only agreed to come out of the stall because she promised I’d be able to talk to my parents on the phone. That phone call never happened.

The staff rated each of us on an imaginary scale with “accountable” on one side and “sketchy” on the other. Following my runaway and refusal, I was regarded as extremely “sketchy” for months. Staff constantly hovered over me and butted into my conversations. I wasn’t allowed to participate in very many things, even if they were part of the daily schedule. All of my friendships were excessively monitored. I felt so much guilt and shame. I was never going to be enough for them because I wasn’t willing to pretend to be something I am not.

The staff at CGA were blatantly judgmental and homophobic. We were taught that homosexuality went against God’s will and was unnatural. They were also suspicious and distrusting of most relationships between us. Any two people that developed a strong bond were split up, unless it was excessively spiritual. I was repeatedly moved away or restricted from most anyone I got along with. The staff were extremely prejudiced against anyone who was not a Christian or who didn’t participate in prayer and worship. I am not a Christian but this program felt like hell. I was not allowed to graduate from the program or have a sister even though I eventually became very trusted and filled out all of the tedious “PSNC” units (Personal Studies for New Christians). I simply left and was mailed my high school diploma and a completion certificate. I received the diploma 6 months after finishing high school.

Regardless of beliefs, I was forced to participate in not only church but HUGE conferences that gave me extreme anxiety. These conferences saw a huge attendance. Hundreds of people crammed into an auditorium—screaming, crying, panicking, falling down, convulsing. Loud repetitive music and lights everywhere. Youth pastors yelling into mics to keep things hype. It was incredibly overstimulating and overwhelming, yet there was no escape. All I wanted was to run out of the room but if I did that, I would be regarded as a runaway and severely punished again. I was forced to stand during all worship services, for hours, even though I was not participating. Sometimes, staff would walk up to me and try to put their hands on me to pray. This terrified me. They made it seem like they were being possessed and I didn’t want that to happen to me. It was just so scary.

Medical concerns were never taken seriously. There was no nursing staff. Regular dorm staff handled meds usually. We were given salt water or ice regardless of symptoms. It’s almost as if they gave us that stuff to shut us up. We were only allowed to request medical attention twice a day, during breakfast or dinner. As the staff had no regard for mental illness whatsoever and genuinely believed praying would help, nobody was taking any psych medication. I was taking regular psych medicine prior to the program and had to taper off. The only medication I received the entire time I was there was one Advil twice a day for up to 3 days during my period. Sometimes, if multiple girls requested medicine for period cramps, a staff member would take us into a bathroom and make us prove we were bleeding. We had to go into a stall, remove whatever hygiene product was in place, and come out of the stall to show it to the staff. I had to hold up a partially used tampon just to get an Advil once.

One of the craziest aspects of the program actually comes about after you leave. There is no real preparation for returning to the real world. There is simply the expectation that one will continue to behave a certain way and will obey their parents/guardians. As a result, many people that do very well in the program and perhaps even graduate often end up back in destructive situations. It’s not uncommon for us to come out “worse.”  This is because we are TRAUMATIZED.

We don’t know how to be successful in the real world because we have been brainwashed and trained to behave in a way that allowed us to survive in a cult. Teen Challenge doesn’t give a whoop about us at that point. There have been girls that were readmitted by their parents, however, and who is Teen Challenge to say no to a double pay check? And to think they called themselves a nonprofit… My life was forever altered by my experience at Columbus Girls Academy.

It has been over 3 years since I left and I still have dreams pretty much every night that I am still stuck; still trying desperately to survive.

I am a “troubled teen” industry SURVIVOR and my voice will never be silenced again!

—MeL