Coburn recalls her abuse at Jay facility

Cara Campbell Coburn, a native of Century, is a mother of one with husband Bryan and lives in Milton, Fla. She is also a graduate of Lighthouse Christian Academy, a now-closed academy that was located near Jay, where she spent four years enduring what she discovered is considered abuse as a 'troubled teen.'

Coburn is an advocate for teens who are enrolled in academies or homes aimed at helping troubled teens using practices based in religion who face situations of possible abuse and wind up doing more harm than good, leaving them suffering from mental and emotional problems or post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Coburn's family enrolled her in Lighthouse Christian Academy (LCA), a faith-based school for troubled teens in March, 2008, when Coburn was 15, after her grandmother found it on the Internet.

She said it was considered a boarding school to help troubled teens.

"Both of my parents were drug addicts," said Coburn, saying her father was in prison for a felony. "I was rebellious, like most teens, but I didn't do drugs. I considered myself just an angry kid. I felt unloved and lost. Who wouldn't be angry?"

Coburn was enrolled in the school in March 2008 when she was 15 and attended four years until January 2012, she was age 19, and graduated.

Her grandmother and sister took her to the academy and checked her in. Coburn said as soon as she said goodbye to her family, she was told to undress and the a staff member searched her for piercings and tattoos before she took a shower, then she was given a bar of soap and lice shampoo.

"While I was showering, they took my necklaces, clothes, everything and said I would get it back later," she said. Coburn said she did not know how long she would be there.

Rules were strictly enforced, according to Coburn. There were stern punishments for what she said was referred to as 'direct disobedience.'

"I could only talk to one person, a helper, and could not make friends or look at anyone other than another helper," she said. "You had to be always neat, and respond with 'yessir', 'yes ma'am' and you have a grace period to learn the rules."

Coburn said she was put in detention after one week, because she was not adhering to the rules.

"Detention was no talking unless it was about the potty or pen or paper," said Coburn. "You had to look at the floor when you walked, making no eye contact with others."

Coburn indicated the day-to-day expected behavior included constantly writing Bible verses and bathroom breaks only once every two hours, following two 12 oz. glasses of water students were required to drink at each of three meals during the day.

"We had instances where girls would wet themselves or get urinary tract infections," said Coburn. "Direct disobedience, disobeying the rules, or a run away attempt would get you detention. Detention lasted until you finished writing 5,000 lines of Bible versus. It could last up to three months at a time." She said the helpers would nit-pick and badger students who disobeyed or got detention.

Coburn learned that she could act right and pretend to get on the staffs' good side.

"Friday nights were fun, the only time we were rewarded," said Coburn. "If you misbehaved, you missed Friday night fun and games and were sent to a classroom to write for at least four hours and eat just a cheese sandwich. The whole Friday night while the fun was happening, you were in a classroom alone."

She noted that just a look would get a student 500 lines of verses to write by hand and if a student broke the rules three times that week, they missed Friday night, the one chance of freedom when they got to have fun.

Cara's story is a small part of a larger movement that is happening as of recent, when celebrity Paris Hilton spoke out on social media last year about going to a school in Utah, joining protests.

Stories just started coming out from others who had attended one of these academies and Coburn began to remember her days at LCA and compared her experience to that of others.

"What we really went through was abuse," said Coburn. "Some girls were transported there, kidnapped out of their bed. There were actually transportation services that would transport them to LCA or other places."

One such girl Coburn met was a girl named Hannah from California. She was brought to LCA in the back of a child locked car with a cage around the back seat and flown on two planes with no word about where she was headed, and she eventually would up in Jay. Hannah's story was a lot like Coburn's. The two stay in touch and are part of a support network of many who went through these experiences.

"We went to school 4 hours a day," said Coburn. "Our lessons were called ACE, or Accelerated Christian Education, where you work at your own pace. From 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. with study hall after lunch if you did not finish because there was no homework. We went to church three times a day, at morning chapel, then P.E. after school, then lunch, then study hall and free time. Bible study in the afternoon, we read the Bible. Then showers and sentence writing all in the dorm, before evening chapel. Bedtime then lights out at 9 p.m."

She said Saturday and Sunday were different, with Saturday being all day cleaning, with free time afterwards. There was Saturday evening chapel and a time for 'RAPS', or tattle telling, where students would tell on what others had done breaking the rules during the week. She said the reward for ratting was to be on the staff's good side.

Coburn said volunteers would periodically come to visit from Jay and Century.

"We would hope people would see how different we were, or why we weren't allowed to talk to people," said Coburn. "We hoped they would see how odd and unrealistic it was."

Once when Coburn was upset and acted out in frustration, she was transferred to another dorm. She said staff members tackled her and sat on her until she was numb, then massaged to help her circulation.

"We weren't allowed many phone calls." she said. "Only one 30-minute phone call or visit per month and only family could visit. If you were a new girl you could only get a phone call privilege after three months of good behavior."

Coburn said if a student came from a divorced family they could talk to their mother for 15 minutes, and their father for 15 minutes.

"All phone calls were monitored and recorded, and someone had to be in the room with you when you talked on the phone," said Coburn. "All letters you got in the mail were read through before they were given. They were opened."

The dress code consisted of skirts or culottes, no pushup bras, no black undergarments, but black girls could wear black undergarments. Only natural hair colors were allowed, and as far as make-up, no eyeliner was allowed and it had to look natural. She said a visit out of the academy would include a body search and students would get searched coming back in. No cell phones were allowed at all.

"I witnessed a girl getting dragged by the hair across the soccer field by a coach because she couldn't keep up running," said Coburn. "I witnessed that myself. Girls had to get up at 2 a.m. and scrub kitchen tile with a toothbrush. I was there for that one too. You had to eat everything on your plate. If not, it was considered direct disobedience and you'd get 500 lines or verse to write as punishment."

Coburn said they would keep the food for up to three days and you were fed nothing else until you ate that food.

These schools or homes aren't cheap, costing anywhere from $1,500 to $3,000 a month or more.

Coburn said the LCA was eventually shut down due to non-payment of property taxes, totaling about $40,000.

Although Coburn received her high school diploma from there, she discovered later the academy was not accredited and she had to take pre-requisite classes to get into college.

Marvelous Grace Girls Academy in Pace, Fla. has garnered attention in the media lately through a podcast entitled, 'No Grace at Marvelous Grace Girls Academy' by former student Abby Jameson

as she describes feeling utterly hopeless during her 5 and a half year stay at the home. Other girls also speak of their time there on the podcast.

"I want people to realize these places exist," said Coburn. "And if you're having problems, make sure you do research on these facilities, back ground checks, do everything you can before you send your child to one of these places."

Coburn said she wants people to know her story to help break the code of silence of these teen places, and make people realize these places are real and what kids claim goes on really does go on.

"We were so brain-washed, we thought we were getting help," said Coburn. "But there was no real counseling, no follow-up from counselors to check on us and see if we were okay. It wasn't like actual help."

Coburn said she started to listen when girls started talking about their experiences. She said the youngest she heard of was a girl 10 years old.

"What 10-year old is such a terrible kid she has to be sent away from her parents?" said Coburn. "I began to ask ourselves were we actually abused?"

She said she suffers from anxiety, depression, and nightmares today, with memories of being pulled out of bed, thrown to the floor and sat on.

"I struggle with nightmares today," said Coburn. "Every person has suffered with some sort of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, or depression. You leave with more problems than you came in with. I knew one girl who committed suicide almost nine years ago."

Coburn feels she, along with many others who attended these schools, were emotionally, mentally and spiritually abused.