Women Say A School For Troubled Teens Punished Girls For Being Gay

The idea of opening a private, Christian-based school appealed to Ludwig in large part because unlike group homes or rehab centers, it was not subject to state laws that required it to grant access to inspectors and to follow a specific curriculum. "And that's why I picked that," Ludwig said on his radio show in 2015, "so I could be faith-based and be uninterrupted in my pursuit of sharing the gospel with these kids." He wanted the freedom to be able to hire Christians, Ludwig said. "We don't want to have to bring in a Muslim teacher, we don't want to bring in someone who is not of our doctrine or conviction."

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It was around 5 a.m. when two strangers — a woman and a large man — entered Emilie Bachrach’s bedroom and told her to get dressed and come with them. On her way out of the house, Bachrach found a letter from her mom on the dining room table. "It is going to kill me to let you go away to a special program," it read.

The strangers drove Bachrach, then 15, from her home in a Los Angeles suburb to a private boarding school in the California mountains, where she lived from August 2005 to March 2007. When she arrived, Bachrach said school staff strip-searched her, gave her a uniform, and told her she wasn't allowed to talk to anyone for the first week. None of the 40 other students could speak to or look at her, either. The girls at this place were like Bachrach — supposedly troubled teens who needed an intervention that their parents couldn't provide. The school promised to fix their problems using biblical principles in a tightly controlled environment.

Bachrach, alone and in a state of shock, managed to make a friend in Rosemary Donahue, then a 17-year-old student at the school. "She was the only friend I had there," Bachrach said. But the girls’ closeness quickly drew the attention of staff, who disapproved. Bachrach and Donahue said they were ordered not to speak to each other, a rule called "no talk." If they so much as looked at each other, they'd lose points from the system the school uses to determine each student’s eligibility for various privileges and eventual graduation. Donahue said staff told her the “no talk” rule was necessary because her bond with Bachrach was "preventing our progress in the program," but she believes it was because of the school’s anti-gay prejudice and its efforts to crush same-sex relationships. "I didn't come out as queer for 10 years because of it," Donahue said.

Women Say A School For Troubled Teens Punished Girls For Being Gay