Louisiana Voice

My newest book, THE DINOSAUR CLUB, and recent stories about the horrors of the now-defunct New Bethany Home for Girls has resulted in a renewed interest in the warehousing and trafficking of children in America.

A recent Facebook posting by one survivor is particularly disturbing and raises completely new questions about the heretofore unaddressed mistreatment of pregnant teenagers—and even the question of alleged secret abortions—and unexplained disappearances—of aborted fetuses at the Bienville Parish facility.

A woman (we know her identity but not revealing it for obvious reasons) who survived the rigors of discipline, punishment and mind-numbing routine at the home is quoted here, complete with misspellings and grammatical mistakes so to maintain its authenticity.

“I walked out the gates and never looked back. I was beaten, brain washed (sic) by fear. They took me in the middle of the night. We went to a clinic or small hospital.”

No location was provided for the medical facility, most probably because the woman—a teenage girl at the time—did not know because of prohibitions of contact with the outside world.

“I had a tooth abcess (sic) and my face was swollen. So I was loaded upby Mac (sic) Ford and staff two ladies and a man. The doctor talked to them and not to me. He opened the gum and worked for about an hour. I was a little sedated. I don’t remember being removed from Mrs. Ford’s car. When he finished…she said and the other problem? He took money from her then I did not wake up for a few days. When I got out of bed I kept bleeding and I realized I was no longer carrying my child. I freaked the hell out. All the other girls were at school and I ran down the hallway bleeding on [the] floor screaming you killed my baby and jumped on the back of 1^st one I saw. They beat me with cane, belts and boards. Knocked me out. I awoke in my bed with the evil bitch leaning over me screaming you never say a word. But, I want my baby. Bam. Wrong answer. For the next few dsy’s (sic) the girls would come and go to class, devotions and church. I was on Silence (punishment during which she was not allowed to speak to anyone else). But, I was not quiet and I was so flipped out that it was real. A concentration camp that I could not get out of. I bled so much I guess I was weak. A girl would bring me soup twice a day and I whispered to her and she said I know, but never say a word or you’ll be missed like the other’s (sic).

“You have no clue what they did to us. They erased our identities to conform into girls who brought donations from singing and saying they saved us. Plus, the sex shit. During Camp meetings the ministers were given a choice of a virgin or [a] 6-year-old boy. They mainly picked him, 3 men at times. Then he’d throw up over and over. They clean up and put him back up on the table for the next preacher to violate. Churches sent kid’s (sic) there for money and trafficked kid’s (sic). Our parents paid monthly for the abuse. I made them beat me for 8 months and they never broke me and I never cried. I decided I got 4 more months…I will good-girl my way out when my year was over. They talked to my mom a week before I was leaving and had her pretty much ready to leave me there because I was doing so well. They handed me the phone. I was silent as she said there (sic) praises to help me. When she stopped talking I said BE HERE SATURDAY! They hung up and beat me with phone books for saying that. I spent 364 days and 13 hours in the horrors I never imagined could be true. I acted my way out. Acted like a good little robot.

“There’s nothing I can do. I will hold my baby in heaven,” she said.

She then added that she had four surgeries so that she could conceive after leaving New Bethany and marrying.

“I am not he only one. Officials in Louisiana are or were on his payroll and got sexual favors to hide it all.”

One of the other survivors with whom she was communicating told her she could go to her local law enforcement to give a statement. “You don’t have to go to Louisiana to report,” she was told.

(To order a copy of The Dinosaur Club, go to https://louisianavoice.com/ and scroll down to the YELLOW rectangular button that reads KEEP US INDEPENDENT. Click on that and follow directions to place your order. Copies of the book are $35.)