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I, Zoe Woodcraft declare as follows:
1. I am
16 years of age.
2. The
statements herein are of my own personal knowledge and if
called
upon as a witness, I can testify competently
thereto.
3. In 1986, when I
was two years old, my parents and 15-year-old brother
joined the
Sea Organization at the Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida.
My
seven-year-old sister and myself were put into the care of the
Cadet
Organization at this time. My family and I lived at a
building on U.S.
Highway 19 called the "QI" which was an acronym
for Quality Inn. This
building was once a Quality Inn
hotel. The cadet organization was
located
there.
4. The
room we were assigned to live in was very small,
approximately
12'X 20'. It was one room and one bath; very
shabby, infested with
cockroaches and smelling of mold. All
five of us were in this room so it was
very cramped and nearly
unlivable.
5. My
parents were shocked when we were first shown these
living
quarters. When they had been recruited to come into
the Sea Organization to
work for Flag they had been promised a
new, two bedroom apartment in the
Hacienda Garden complex; that
we children would go to private school and that
they would get
one day off every two weeks. We soon found out none of
this
was true.
6. After
about a year we returned to England to take care of our visas.
I
remember being in England and playing with a cousin and not wanting
to
return to Florida and our horrible living conditions.
7. I also remember my
father being suddenly sent away and I had no idea
when he might
return. This frightened me, as I feared I would never see
him
again. I was told he had been sent to the ship but no one
could tell me when
he would return. He did return after 6
months.
8. We lived in
Florida for about two years and then my mother was
transferred to
Los Angeles.
9. In Los
Angeles I was placed in the "CEO" which stood for the
"cadet
estates organization." This was a building located
next to Celebrity Center
International. This is where I
lived, by myself, for the next two years. My
parents and
brother were placed in adult living quarters and my older
sister
into the Cadet Org down the street. This building
housed only younger
children. We did not live with our
parents, but were assigned to the care
of
"nannies."
10.
Eventually my father had to take a leave of absence from the Sea
Org
to further take care of visa problems. He rented an
apartment at this point
and our family moved in. He then
began working for a company owned by a
Scientologist. He
was supposed to work in this company for one year in order
for
our family members to obtain green cards. Technically, I lived
in this
apartment with my parents, however because both of my
parents worked such long
hours I would be taken to the CEO in the
early morning and then picked up by
my parents late in the
evening. This was my basic schedule until I was six
years
old.
11. When I was six I was
moved to what is called the "Int Ranch." This is
a compound
in Happy Valley, CA. We were told that this was a secret
location
and I was instructed not to tell my father where it was
as he and my mother
were now divorced and my father was no longer
in the Sea Org.
12. I was
placed in a dorm that was acceptable; i.e. nice carpet,
neat
etc. However, neither of my parents lived on premises
and there was a
sixteen-year-old boy named Sterling Thompson who
was in charge of about twenty
of us younger children, known as
"pre-cadets." All together there was a staff
of about six
or eight adults who ran the compound and about one
hundred
children living
there.
13. My schedule at the
ranch was: wake up at 7:00 a.m., take one half
hour to get
dressed for the day then go to breakfast. Meals were
highly
regulated. We were assigned seats and each table had
a "table captain" who
made sure the assigned steward brought our
food from the kitchen to the table.
It was placed on the table
and we served ourselves. Afterward we cleaned our
own
tables. We had half an hour to
eat.
14. After breakfast we
worked, dumping trash, mopping floors, sweeping
etc. We
were assigned cleaning stations throughout the compound. All our
work
was supervised by Sterling. We worked for about 20
minutes.
15. We then went to
school for four hours with one fifteen minute break.
Often, the
school schedule was changed. Sometimes we did four hours in
the
morning and two at night, after working in the afternoon, and
sometimes we did
six hours straight.
16. Most of what I studied was
Scientology materials. I remember doing
the Basic Study
Manual when I was six or seven years old and it was
very
difficult for me. This is a course geared for
adults. When I did not score
well on the final test, the
instructor first told me to redo sections of the
course and then
told me to redo the entire course. I then had to start
all
over on this course. The only other subjects studied
were reading and math.
17. After
school, we had half an hour for lunch, and then we lined up
and
did group drills. We did "left/right/left marching,
chanting of Scientology
doctrines, and relay races to increase
our "particle flow" so we could work
faster. Then we
received our work assignments for the afternoon.
18. The work consisted of such
things as collecting rocks from a stream,
putting them in a
wheelbarrow and taking them to where a stone wall was
being
built; raking the football field after it had been mowed;
and weeding. Most
of the time we pulled weeds as the
appearance of the compound was very
important. We were
often told how lucky we were to be allowed to live here.
We
worked all afternoon from lunch to
dinner.
19. Before dinner, we
showered. After dinner, we went to study for two
more
hours.
20. One thing that
occurred some months after I had been there was that
one
afternoon we were all gathered up and directed to go to a house that
was
for what we called the "big boys." This was the house
that Justin Miscavige
lived in with several other boys. It
was a very nice place, much better than
the dorms. They had
art paintings on the wall, whereas in our dorms we were
only
allowed pictures of L. Ron Hubbard or the Apollo ship. They
also had
different colors on the walls and the bedding, whereas
the dorms were in
nautical colors: navy and gold. There was
no house for the big girls. Older
girls just lived in the
dorms with us younger
children.
21. The day we were
taken to the big boys house we were told to stay
inside. I
was told by the adult watching us that what was happening was
we
had too many kids at the ranch and a health inspector had come
to check on us.
So, we were hiding until he was
gone.
22. In describing my
bedroom, I again state all bedrooms were done in
dark
colors. Bedspreads were navy with a gold Sea Org
symbol imprinted on them.
The curtains were navy; the carpet was
blue. We had brown dressers upon which
we were not allowed
to place personal items or family photos. We were
not
allowed to hang any personal photos or pictures; only the LRH
or Apollo
pictures.
23.
One of the courses I had to do soon after arriving was the "make
the
bed" course. I had to learn how to fold the sheet
corners so the bed was
perfectly tucked and no wrinkles on
anything. The final drill was making a
perfect bed in less
than five minutes.
24. At the
ranch we dressed in uniforms. These consisted of khaki
shorts
with a red t-shirt or polo shirt with the Sea Org emblem
embroidered on it.
We also had sweat pants and dress pants and a
vest. We could not wear our own
clothes ever while on the
ranch with the exception of
pajamas.
25. As far as free or
play time, there was none. Every aspect of our time
was
scheduled and controlled. Sometimes in the summer we were
given
twenty-five minutes to swim but that is
all.
26. At the ranch there is
also a form of punishment called "pigs
berthing." This is
levied against those who had a dirty dorm or dorm area.
The
punishment varies in different cadet orgs, but in this one offenders
had
to spend the night in what was called "The big house."
The big house was an
abandoned building with rotting floorboards
and broken windows filled with
insects, rats and bats. I
clearly recall two girls about nine years old who
were forced to
spend the night there and in the middle on the night they
ran
screaming and crying from the building. One of the
girls afterward told me
that they had been terrified by the bats
and couldn't stand it
anymore.
27. This ranch was hours
away from normal civilization. In the year plus
that I
lived there we never went into town for a field trip; never went to
a
movie, shopping or anything. We were totally
isolated. The only time I ever
left was when I was allowed
once to take a leave of absence to visit my father
at
Christmas.
28. At the age of
seven I was also made an MAA. This is a person who
watches
out to make sure no one is slacking in his or her work and to
write
reports when other children are misbehaving. For
example one incident I had
to write up on myself was when I had
snuck into a snack shack and taken a bite
of someone's candy
bar. Another boy was made to stand up in front of the
group
and list off things he had stolen, such as a pen from a
teacher. He
listed about thirty such incidents of having
taken or borrowed things without
asking. This was extremely
humiliating for him - he was about ten years old -
and the next
day he was kicked off the
ranch.
29. Every Friday night my
mother came at about 2:00 in the morning to pick
me up in a
car. We would return to her housing about half hour away and
I
would visit her until 12:00 noon the next day. This was
the extent of my time
with her. On alternate weeks, when I
was to visit my father, my mother
arranged for a friend of hers
to pick me up and take me to my father's house
as my father was
forbidden to come to the ranch. I would stay there with
my
dad over night until 10:30 a.m. then I would have to return to
the ranch. I
often asked to stay longer, but I was always
refused permission. This often
upset my father and
me. I felt like I had spent a lot of my life saying
goodbye
to my father.
30. The last few
weeks I was at the ranch, I learned my mother had been
sent to
New York on a mission. After she was gone about three weeks, I
was
sent to be with her.
31. I
was now in Manhattan. Here, I lived in a room with my
mother.
There was a bunk bed and I slept on top and she on the
bottom. This room was
relatively clean and nice as my
mother was an "Int Missionaire" which meant
she was highly ranked
and the other staff members were frightened of
her
authority.
32. My schedule
here was to hang out all day with six or seven other kids
also in
the building. I did no schooling during the entire time I was
in New
York, which turned out to be eleven months. My
mother once asked me if I
wanted to go to public school, but I
thought public school was horrible and
"the enemy" as this is
what I had been taught all my life. I told her I
didn't
want to go and she said ok. While in New York, I turned
eight.
33. At one point my
mom put me in the Scientology course room to study
training
routines, but I didn't like it and upset the supervisor
and
eventually stopped. I did get to go out each day to
either a comic store or
to get a slice of pizza. Other than
that I had no outside contact with
non-scientologists.
Also, there was a guy named Eugene who's job it was to
watch the
kids and he did take us to Central Park and to the empire
state
building.
34. Each
Thursday night, my mother had to do the financial planning
for
the scientology organization and she would not come to our
room in the
evening. I would go to bed, but early in the
morning hours I would get scared
and wander around the building
looking for her. I usually found her typing
away in an
office and I would stay with her until she came to
bed.
35. Right before my ninth
birthday, we returned to Los Angeles. I could
not return to
the ranch, as they had no more room for me. So now I went
to
the Apollo Training
Academy.
36. The Apollo Training
Academy is a training organization for scientology
cadets i.e.
children age seven and up. While a member of this organization
I
lived in the Anthony Building [AB] located on Fountain
Street. The AB was a
four-story heap: the pool was
covered over with plywood and we were
instructed not to walk on
it, as it was flimsy and unsafe. Children played on
it
anyway as we were often unsupervised. The carpets were old and
smelly and
there were a lot of cockroaches. We slept in
metal bunk beads with chipping
paint. There was no proper
bedding; not one of us had a complete sheet set,
blanket and
pillow. I slept without a pillow for many
months.
37. All of the furniture
was very old and decrepit. For light, we had
bare bulbs
hanging from the ceiling. The kitchens had also been ripped
out to
make more room for people so there were exposed pipes
everywhere. These were
the worst conditions I lived in
during my tenure as a child of
scientology.
38. This building
was in an unsafe area of Los Angeles and I often heard
gunshots
at night. It was a very frightening place for me to live. The
adult
woman who was supposed to be our nanny - there were about
eleven girls in my
dorm - was missing most of the time. She
didn't even sleep there and I
remember never knowing where she
was. At this time, my mother was again on a
mission, this
time in Mexico, so I did not see her at all. My dad,
however,
did begin picking me up again every two or three nights
so I could stay with
him.
39.
The fact that I had contact with my father, who was not living
within
the confines of scientology, made me happy. This was
a place I could go and
have nice surroundings and eat whatever I
wanted and he would give me spending
money, as otherwise I had no
money at all. I also had better clothing than
the other
children, who were wearing very poor clothing as their parents
could
not afford nice clothes and there were no uniforms
here.
40. Meals at the AB were
served three times a day. I don't remember what
sort of
food it was just that it was
bad.
41. The bathrooms in the AB
were also not fully functional and we often
had no warm water,
the tiles in the shower were moldy and we had no soap
or
towels.
42. In addition,
the elevators in this four-story building never worked so
we
always had to use the steps.
43.
My schooling during this year took place at the ATA building that
was
a five-minute bus ride away in a scientology complex. I
again studied
scientology principles and policies, math, reading
and spelling. There were
about two hundred kids in this
school and we were just packed together. Kids
even studied
in the cafeteria where they would have to clean up their
studies
so we could eat. We also had no real schedule at
this school. Every Monday
was beach day and I did no
studies on that day. We would often go to a park
and spend
the whole day there, also. They would also take us to a
fifty-cent
swimming pool, however a lot of the kids did not have
the money to swim so we
just sat around all day. If we
asked the teacher for money, she said no and
told us it was too
bad for us we had no money.
44. Another activity we were
assigned at the AB was what we called
"chicken picking" the
carpet. Since we had no vacuum cleaner, we children
were
instructed to get down on our hands and knees and pick dirt out of
the
carpet. This dirt included paint chips and we were
expected to leave our
section in perfect condition. This
was very hard to do, especially in the
small space between the
carpet and the wall. There would be all sorts of
small
trash in there including paint and staples that hurt my
fingers.
45. I lived in the
Anthony Building for about two years in 1992 to early
1993 when I
received a call from my mother, who I had rarely seen during
this
time. She asked me how would I like to come visit her
in Florida for about
three months. I didn't even really
know where she was. I said yes, I would
like to go. I
didn't think I was moving permanently to Florida, because
I
didn't want to leave my dad. I just wanted to see my mom
as I hadn't seen her
in a long
time.
46. So, I was flown out to
Clearwater, Florida where my mom met me at the
airport. She
took me to her room at the Hacienda Gardens where I spent
the
night on her bedroom floor, which she shared with another
staff member.
47. The next night,
after I had been taken to a nice meal at a steak
house, my mom
took me to the Quality Inn (QI). She led me to a dorm room
and
exclaimed, "This is your room! It's nice!" and then she
prepared to leave.
At this point I begged her not to go and leave
me. I cried and did not want
to stay alone. It was
one of the worst nights of my life. I was afraid at
this
point that I was going to be staying here
permanently.
48. Later as I lay
in bed, very upset and missing my father and sister in
Los
Angeles, I became sick and threw up my steak dinner. The next
day I
started on the schedule of the cadet organization.
49. Now, I had to work every
day. I worked in my mom's office (Hubbard
Communications
Office) every afternoon filing and sorting letters. It was
a
similar schedule to the Int ranch schedule except instead of
working outside
in the afternoon I worked in an
office.
50. It was at this point
also that I signed a Sea Org contract. Actually,
I had
signed such a contract at some point earlier; this was the second
one I
had signed. This contract says I will work for the
scientology organization
for this entire life and the next one
billion years. I also was told to read
a policy that stated
that if anyone is in scientology and does not want to be
there
they can just tell the captain and they will be allowed to
leave. Of
course, I didn't want to stay but I didn't want
to upset my mother. Also, I
was nine years old.
51. Schooling during this period
was a bit broader than my previous
experience. We studied
some geography and some cultural information. We also
had
more diverse reading. Always, about forty percent of my
schooling was
scientology study. When I first got there, I
only did four hours of school
per day, in the morning, then
worked in the afternoon, then just hung out at
the QI and played
at night. No one supervised our play in our rooms.
After
some time I started studying in the evenings also.
This was called night
school and it was purely scientology
study.
52. Though I did see my
mother in her office every day I did not spend any
time with
her. She was very busy and if I wandered into her room she
would
tell me to get back to work. The only time we spent
together was Saturday
mornings when I visited her at the
Hacienda. This was also the only time she
had to clean her
room, so it was not real quality time. Occasionally, I
went
to her apartment the Friday night before and stayed the
night. This was
special to
me.
53. Contact with my father
during this time was very difficult. I did not
know how to
initiate contact and my mother was not happy with me when I
sought
her help. I found out later that he would call and
call and finally fax angry
messages demanding to speak to
me. I did eventually receive these messages
and permission
to call him, but the deputy cadet commander always sat in
the
room with me when we spoke. From the time of my arrival
at Flag, it was three
months before my first contact with my dad,
and about four months between
calls thereafter.
54. After some time at the base,
I was given permission to visit him twice
a year. I
originally visited him once in the summer and once at
Christmas,
however my mother and the cadet org frowned upon this
as I was staying away
longer than the time allowed for "leave of
absence." We were only allowed
three weeks leave per year
and I would often extend my visits with dad because
I didn't want
to go back. I told my dad I didn't want to go back, but he
was
still a scientologist at that time and told me I had
to.
55. I always got very
depressed when it was time to return. I would cry
through
the whole flight and often upset the stewards on the plane. However,
I
composed myself as the flight neared Florida because I didn't
want my mother
to see that I was upset. She always became
angry if I showed I did not like
living at Flag. I also
knew my mom did not like my father. She said he was
"Ex-Sea
Org and therefore a DB [degraded being]." There is church
policy that
states this as a fact that sea org members believe
wholeheartedly.
56. I
stayed in the cadet org for many years. At one point I moved
dorms
because I had been originally placed in a nice dorm, as my
mom was
"International management." However, when she got
posted to Flag and became
regular personnel, I was no longer
privileged.
57. The room I
was moved to was much worse. The pink carpet had
brown
stains on it and it had the most cockroaches I had ever had
to live with.
Only one other girl lived in this room. I
didn't know her because I hadn't
lived there long and I was shy
and this girl was considered to have bad
ethics. I stayed
in this dorm for some months, and then I moved again.
From
1994 to 2000 I lived at the QI in various dorms, some nicer
than the others.
I moved nine times that I can remember.
Only during the final six months of
2000 did I live with my
mother. By that time I was 15 years
old.
58. All of this moving was
very unsettling. Often, once you had become
comfortable you
would all of a sudden be told you had to move. Usually,
this
was to accommodate someone of a higher rank moving into the
area. When you
were told to move you had to quickly gather
your belongings and go to wherever
they assigned you whether you
liked it or not.
59. One of my
work assignments was to demolish the walls of a room.
This
was a strange room that had plywood attached in two layers
on all the walls.
We were ripping the plywood off the
walls. When I asked the cadet coordinator
what this room
was he told me it was for "ethics particles" who had become
upset
or hysterical. He would place them (children) in this room and
lock
them in. Some of them had become so upset that they
were kicking holes in the
original walls as they were only
drywall, so he had layered the walls with
plywood so no one could
kick through.
60. Life at the QI
was overall depressing and dreary. The only place to
play
was the parking lot. We were always on a boring and strict
schedule. I
was never allowed to leave the QI premises and
we rarely went on outings. I
worked every afternoon and the
entire day on Sundays. In fact, on Sundays we
had "renos"
(renovations) day where we worked to fix up the premises of
the
QI. If we did not have special permission on Saturday
afternoons, after our
parental visits, we also had to do
renos. We were allowed to watch movies
every Saturday night
in the cadet room and this was our one point of fun,
although we
never got to select the movies; they were chosen by the
governess
Italia and at one point she was in love with a move
called "White Knight" and
we had to watch that movie over and
over again for weeks. This was not a
children's movie and
it was unbelievably boring.
61.
After one change of cadet coordinators, our reading and
music
selections were censored. Our rooms were searched for
offensive materials and
if something not approved was found it
was confiscated. For example an Alanis
Morrisett tape was
taken away because she was "downtone" and "too much
in
anger." Archie Magazines were considered "too sexually
oriented" and these
were forbidden. Seventeen Magazine was
also not allowed, nor were any fashion
magazines because of the
"middle class orientation" and sexual
content.
62. Over the years I
rose up in post. (By the way, I was considered
a
"missionaire" from the cadet org during the time I worked in my
mom's office.)
I once was the animal room I/C (in charge) of the
pets. We had snakes and a
tarantula and rats and a
bunny. I liked this job. I then went to work as
an
"MAA" (Master At Arms), which deals with ethics. I had
many other jobs in the
HCO division and eventually became Exec
Esto. On this post I carried out
programs written by myself
and the cadet coordinator to improve the cadet org.
When I was
the LC (LRH Communicator) one of my jobs was to make sure all
the
pictures of Ron Hubbard looked nice, so I was always cleaning
cockroach feces
out of the frames and the cardboard
backing. I would also lead people in the
chanting of
scientology doctrines.
63. As the
HAS and Director of Inspections and Reports I had to read
the
"overt write ups" of the other cadets. This would
include the reports written
up about masturbation and other
sexual activity between the cadets. I also
participated in
courts of ethics and committees of evidence for children.
These
are disciplinary actions per church
policies.
64. During some of
these years I was considered a pre-cadet and at around
age 11 I
became a cadet. There is some pressure applied to convince
children
to become cadets.
65. First, it is made clear that
at around the age of ten or eleven you
should become a cadet and
if you do not you are constantly asked why you are
not a
cadet.
66. Secondly,
cadets receive privileges that other children do not.
Cadets are
paid weekly. When I first became a cadet I was paid
sixteen
dollars a week, but this was reduced to eight dollars
some time later. There
were special certificates that one
could earn for extra money. These were
originally worth
$25.00 but were also reduced to be worth only $12.00. I
did
earn these certificates through good behavior and high
production on my job.
67.
Thirdly, cadets were given better accommodations. Non-cadets
(called
simply "children") and cadets had to live
separately. If you were a plain
"child" at the age of ten
and not a "cadet" in cadet quarters you were treated
differently
and looked down upon.
68. Fourth,
cadets were allowed more freedom of movement. They
could
leave the QI premises by themselves (in pairs- never alone)
and if their stats
were up they were allowed to go bowling.
If they were "Cadet of the week"
they received ice cream.
69. The drawback to becoming a
cadet was that you were now, per the church
policy, on the route
to becoming a sea org officer. Per the policy,
the
definition of a cadet is "one who is training to be an
officer."
70. The first
time I was asked to become a cadet I said I was not sure I
wanted
to be in the Sea Org. I was missing my dad and thinking of
returning
to California. The cadet coordinator was shocked
and told me I had to work
this out. I told him I might want
to go to college. He told me I had to do a
condition of
doubt. He also notified my
mother.
71. I then did the
condition of doubt that is designed to keep people in
the
Scientology organization. During this condition you have to
compare the
statistics of two groups you are trying to decide
between. I was shown church
propaganda about how wonderful
the Scientology organization was, like Freedom
magazine. I was
then shown statistics concerning crime and children
using
Ritalin, as well as news stories about arsons and
death. This was to prove to
me that the scientology world
had better statistics and was more ethical than
the "Wog"
(non-scientology) world. I was told about how bad psychiatrist
were
and all the horrible things they do to people in order to
compare how
scientology is a much better method of mental
health. Also, I was so ashamed
of being assigned this
condition that I simply wanted to get out of it. The
condition of
doubt is a lower condition and one also loses privileges and
is
looked down upon when in
doubt.
72. I also had a
conversation with my mom about my doubt. She was
angry
about my not wanting to be in the Sea Org. She asked
me if my father had been
influencing me against
scientology. She even called my sister in Los Angeles
and
told her to relay the message to my father to not say anything to
me
against scientology. She asked me where I got the idea
that I might want to
go to college. She thought this was
completely insane.
73. At this
point, I decided to stay in the Cadet org. I was eleven
years
old.
74. When I was
twelve or thirteen I was recruited into the Cadet TTC
(Technical
Training Corps.) We were in training to become supervisors
and
word-clearers for the cadet org. I now studied the
works of L. Ron Hubbard
eleven hours a day, six days a
week. On Sundays, I did ten hours of
regular
schooling. I was studying adult courses like the
Student Hat course and the
Hubbard Qualified Scientologist
course. These are the same courses offered to
adults in the
orgs and missions around the world. I did this for almost
a
year.
75. During this
time I had no free days other than Sea Org day and
Christmas day
and one two week trip which was very fun. We drove on a bus
and
went camping and visited Washington D.C. and
Pennsylvania. This was an
extraordinarily special trip and
only a few cadets were allowed to go. In ten
years there
had only been four such trips all of which were arranged by
Rusty
Hilton and his wife.
76.
I was studying the Student Hat course for seven months. It was
very
difficult and I hated it. Soon, I was being asked to
leave the cadet org and
go into the Sea Org proper. This
looked attractive to me, as I hated the TTC
and the Student Hat
course. I decided to join the Sea Org (SO) and was
routed
onto what is called the "EPF" or Estates Project Force,
which is the first
step in training for the SO. I was
fourteen years old.
77. Now, I
begin the EPF. Again I am moved to a new dorm, which was
quite
crowded and located at the Hacienda Gardens. I
studied at the staff training
building near the Super Power
building.
78. The general
schedule was to wake at 7:30 or 8:00 to be at muster
{meeting} by
9:00. We then had twenty-five minutes or less to eat
breakfast.
Then we had to race to quickly clean up after
meal. From there I went to work
doing cleaning or
heavy-duty physical work. This included mopping
floors,
polishing and dusting banisters, vacuuming, carrying
camera equipment for Gold
studios, putting up plywood in the
Hacienda Gardens where they were
renovating, laying carpeting and
shoveling gravel, intended for the Sandcastle
roof, into the bed
of a dump truck.
79.
Specifically, for many days I worked all day in the heat of a
Florida
summer shoveling gravel into the bed of a truck.
The truck was very tall and
I had to reach and strain to toss the
gravel from the heavy shovel. I became
dizzy and faint
while doing this work. Sometimes we were given water but
not
often and we were not allowed to take many breaks, as there
was so much work
to be done.
80. Another time we were
re-carpeting the Clearwater bank building. There
were a lot
of teenagers working on this project. There was one hired
carpet
layer and a bunch of EPFers. We were tearing out
carpet, putting down glue,
ripping out sideboards and using a
"knee pusher" to flatten out the carpet. I
worked at this
for a week, sleeping during the day and working during the
night,
all through the night. The staff was eating in this building
during
the day.
81. While I
was doing the above a older Russian man (about 60) named
Sasha
had a carpet knife and accidentally slashed his arm.
He was bleeding terribly
and no one was doing anything to stop
the bleeding. I grabbed hold of his arm
and put pressure on
it to stop the bleeding. We walked to a van
outside,
trailing blood, and drove to the hospital. There
was so much blood all over
that the nurse had to ask which one of
us was bleeding.
82. At the
hospital, the doctor was trying to communicate to Sasha but
he
didn't speak English. I finally told him we were with
scientology and he
agreed to treat him. He received
stitches and I returned to
work.
83. Another project we did
was remove upholstery tacks from the nautical
chairs in the CB
and replace them with new ones. Again, we were working
all
night long and sleeping and studying during daylight
hours. We did this for
three nights in a
row.
84. Mr. Dave Englehart, who
was the EPF In charge, was known to have a
very bad temper.
One man named Vladimir from Russia had smelly feet and
Mr.
Englehart told him to handle it. One morning at muster
he screamed, "What's
that fucking smell! I thought you to
get that handled!" He then pushed
another EPF person (dorm
captain) so the whole line of people was knocked
about. He
then went to Vladimir, who spoke and understood no English,
and
yanked up his foot and knocked Vladimir to the ground.
He tore the shoe from
his foot and threw it, yelling at Vladimir
that he should have soaked his feet
in bleach water.
Vladimir was very upset and shaken by this as were we
all.
85. There was another young
man named Josh Greenwood who was younger than
me. There was
a bad storm and we all went to the Sandcastle to
place
sandbags. Mr. Englehart told us this was very
important to protect the
Sandcastle and if any of us fell in the
ocean to swim to the side and for no
one else to jump in to
help. Josh snickered at the intensity of Mr.
Englehart's
speech and Mr. Englehart responded by shoving the boy and
dangling
him over the edge of a high stoop - about five feet high
- and pretending he
would drop him to the pavement below.
The boy was very shaken and
cowed.
86. On the EPF we had to
be with our group at all times. Once I walked to
the store
by myself and the EPF captain ran after me and asked me where I
was
going as I knew I wasn't allowed to go by myself. Also,
all phone calls to
anyone outside of scientology were
regulated. In fact I was told that
frequent contact with
outside family members was forbidden; once a week was
too
frequent. Often, he would allow no phone calls at all, always
complaining
about the outer contact.
87. I was on the EPF for nine
months. This is an extremely long time to
be on the
EPF. Most people do it in weeks. I had to go back for
word
clearing on what I had studied on the TTC. All of this
study correction and
discipline for going slow and being told I
wasn't smart really shook my
confidence and made me think I was a
dull person. Eventually, I just went
back to the cadet
org. This was in mid-1999.
88. Here I worked again,
reposted to a new job. Of course, I was back in
a new dorm,
but now I could also visit my mom on Saturday mornings. On
the
EPF, I couldn't see her at all because those on the EPF are
not allowed the
Saturday morning time
off.
89. It is hard for me to
remember what happened next. At some point they
were
working to get me to return to the EPF. I kept saying no, no,
no. I
finally told them I was not at all sure I wanted to
dedicate my entire life to
the Sea Org. The moment I became
honest and told them this, I was again
placed in a condition of
doubt.
90. In addition, I
was placed on a program to "handle" my feelings about
not wanting
to be a Sea Org member. While doing this program, my father
and
sister (who was by now out of the sea org herself and living
a normal life
with my father in Los Angeles) invited me on a
vacation to Hawaii. I really
wanted to go with them and I
sought permission. At first, permission was
denied, but I
argued and argued until I was allowed to go.
91. During this trip, my dad
would mildly criticize the sea org and
scientology. I
always immediately defended both organizations, just as I
had
always been taught. When we returned to LA from Hawaii,
my dad really came
down hard on me about the sea org.
Eventually, he broke through. I admitted
I really didn't
want to be in the Sea Org and I did want to try going to
school
like a regular kid. He told me I could stay with him right
then, but I
felt so guilty and loyal to the church I insisted I
go back and route
out
properly.
92. I then
returned to Clearwater and upon my return my roommate
Nicole
Graham warned me that they were again going to try to get
me to re-start the
EPF, as there was some post that needed filled
immediately. She was also
trying to route out and that is
the only reason a sea org member would tell me
something like
this. I was then able to mentally prepare myself for what
was
to come.
93. Three days
after I returned, my mom came to visit the QI. This was
her
fist visit to the QI in years. I immediately knew what she was
up to.
Acting very motherly and using her affection, she and the
cadet coordinator,
Jim Sydjeko, asked me to take a walk. As
soon as we were outside the office,
they stopped and my mom
started in.
94. She told me I had
been working on my program and she wanted to know
what I had
decided. She said there was some post I was needed for and
I
should return to the EPF. Well, I answered her honestly,
telling her I wanted
to go to college and become an interior
decorator. When she heard this, my
mother was absolutely
floored. She became visibly irritated and
her
"motherliness" no longer came through so well.
95. Of course, for the next hour
and a half she tried to talk me into
staying and rejoining the
EPF. She asked me how I was going to help the
planet by
going top college and a lot of other stuff I just didn't know at
the
age of 15. However, I had seen my mother do her work on
many other people.
Often, she had held me up as a shining example
of a cadet, even though I was a
thoroughly miserable child.
I knew what was going to come out of her mouth
before she said
it. Thus, I was able to maintain my position. I wanted
to
leave.
96. Now, I was given
what is called a "routing out" program. These were
steps I
had to take to leave the Sea Org. Most of the steps had to be
worked
with other people and I soon found that, as a matter of
course, there was no
one able to help me. After weeks of no
help and no progress, I grew angry.
Additionally, steps were
continually being added to my program. Eventually,
my
mother said I should word clear the entire Student Hat, which is a
huge
course, and this was added to the
program.
97. I became very upset
when they added the Student Hat. I had been word
clearing
for years and all it made me do was think there was something
wrong
with me. When I became upset they blamed me, saying I
was only angry because
I still had mis-understood words. At
this point, also, I was supposed to
still be attending regular
school, but now 90% of my studies were Scientology
doctrines and
policies.
98. During this time I
was trying to stay in touch with Astra (my sister)
and my
dad. I called them every week or two. This was seriously
frowned upon
and the staff and my mother often scolded me for
it. I was made to feel
guilty and told I was doing
something wrong (i.e. it was an overt to stay in
contact with
these "outside influences.")
99.
After a couple of months, I was so filled with anger that I
began
arguing frequently with Jim Sydjeko, the cadet coordinator,
begging for a word
clearer and the other help I needed to do my
program. He just yelled at me
and said I was out-ethics and
selfish, that they had more important things to
do than work with
me. When you are routing out you are no longer
important
and no one will help you or treat you
well.
100. Sometimes, he would yell at
me and advance towards me, backing me
against the wall and
yelling at me so hard that spit flew from his mouth into
my
face. I would start sobbing when he did this, and he did it
several times.
101. My mother also did
not like Jim and was blaming him because he had not
"handled" me
as a cadet to stay in the Sea Org. In the afternoons, I
would
see my mom when I went in to Flag to work (I still had to
work every day.)
She would tell me she could get me word clearing
at the FH, but this happened
only three or four times. At
this rate, I knew it was going to take years for
me to route out
and I started getting feelings of dread and
hopelessness.
102. After three months
of trying to route out, I sort of gave up and just
started
working for my mom full time, not going to school at all. I
returned
to the QI to sleep at night. One day some cadets
arrived at mom's office
while I was working, carrying many of my
belongings in a cardboard box and my
laundry basket. I
asked what was going on and they said they didn't know, Jim
had
just told them to bring me my stuff. Now, I really flipped out
because
the one place I had always lived was the QI and now I had
been removed from
there. I had no idea where I was supposed
to go.
103. When I met my mom on break
I told her what had happened. She said,
oh, I thought you
wanted to come live with me. This had never been
discussed
before and it was really upsetting to me. I did
not want to live with her
because I knew she was very controlling
and trying to get me to stay in the
Sea Org and this would only
aid her. Nonetheless, I moved in with her, as I
had no
place else to go.
104. In my mom's
small bedroom at the Hacienda Gardens, which she shared
with an
80-year-old lady, I slept on the floor squeezed between a table and
my
mom's bed with no mattress, just a pillow and a
blanket.
105. Now, I worked all day
from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. At this time, I
started
sneaking to the Clearwater library in the mornings just to read, as
I
had been forbidden to read so much for so long. I started
reading magazines,
newspapers, and books -- whatever I
could. My mom was angry with this and
told me not to do
this but I continued.
106. My mom now
got me back into school again at the cadet org but only on
Sunday
for 10 hours a day. However, all I studied was Scientology and
I quit
after three weeks. My schedule then became work all
day seven days a week, no
schooling except for my visits to the
library, sleeping on my mom's floor,
eating my meals in the
Clearwater Building. I was no longer even working on
my
routing out program. I was very depressed; it was one of the
worst periods
of my life, because people no longer like me
because I wanted to leave, I was
not in uniform anymore, my
friends talked to me only to convince me to stay,
and all the
people who had known me through the years shunned
me.
107. As Christmas time approached,
I started pushing again to finish my
leaving staff program so I
could be with my dad at Christmas. My mom would
not agree
or help me so I went to the Chaplain. The Chaplain talked to
mom,
who convinced him not to help me as I am just
out-ethics. So, I spent
Christmas with my
mother.
108. This Christmas, my mother
and my grandmother (also in the Sea Org)
bought me lesser gifts
and gave them seemingly begrudgingly and my mom only
took the
morning off to be with me.
109.
Soon after Christmas, I began calling my father and sister
more
frequently; several times a week. I called from public
phones, often from the
Library, either collect or using my dad's
calling card number so my mother
wouldn't know. I really
started complaining about not going to school and not
being
allowed to leave. I was becoming more and more
angry.
110. In late January during one
of these calls, my sister said to me, "How
about you just
leave? We'll come get you or buy you a ticket." At this
point
I was sick of feeling ashamed of myself for wanting to
leave and certain they
would never let me finish my leaving
program. Also, I had recently been
subject to
re-recruitment efforts to re-start the EPF and this frightened
me.
Some time before, the Commanding Officer of the Commodores
Messenger
Organization (CMO, a specialized organization comprised
mostly of young girls)
had become very angry with me when I had
refused to rejoin. She had ordered
me to go start the EPF
at once. I ran crying to my mom for help but she said
she
could not help and started asking, "Why don't you go on the EPF
again?" I
had then just gone home and refused to go to work
at all for the next week.
111. So this
time when Astra said just leave, I felt sudden relief.
This
is what I wanted to do. So we started planning.
We decided I would leave at
the end of February 2000. I was
afraid to call a cab; I had rarely even rode
in a car, so my dad
agreed to fly out and rent a car and pick me up near
Flag.
112. I started to sneakily pack
my stuff in a cardboard box and two
backpacks. The night
before I was leaving I kissed my grandmother good night,
feeling
very sad because I wondered if I would ever see her again.
Then I
went to bed. The next morning was my escape
day.
113. I woke up late!
Nervously, I grabbed my stuff and for one of the
first times in
my life caught a ride with a staff member who drove a vehicle
(he
had a vehicle because he worked for renovations and needed it.
Most staff
are not allowed cars.) My cardboard box was
stashed in a hidden closet in the
Coachman building. I had
been bringing my stuff in my backpacks every day and
secretly
filling the box. I was so nervous every time I spoke to
anyone,
thinking they would know I was going to blow.
114. When I got to work, I made up an
excuse to see my mother, who was on
study. Normally, it is
not permitted to interrupt staff study. I gave her a
kiss
and said I would see her later. She was a bit annoyed by my
visit. I
felt so bad because I was leaving her, but on the
other hand I didn't want her
to know and stop me. She was
like my mother and the enemy.
115. Now,
I took my two tightly packed backpacks and headed for
the
Clearwater Library. A sea org member saw me walking and
approached me. I
freaked out inside, but he just made small
talk and I smiled and answered,
then walked on. When I got
to the library, I saw my dad sitting there in a
car. Now, I
knew I was really leaving. I was so excited and emotional
I
wanted to cry but knew we really had to rush to catch our
flight out.
116. I talked with him
briefly then told him I had to get my cardboard box.
My dad
waited in the parking lot and I ran back to the coachman building
to
get the box from the closet. I grabbed the box, but it
started falling apart
and I couldn't let others see my clothes
falling out. I left the box in an
alley nearby, ran back to
my dad and jumped in the car. We then drove over to
the
coachman to get the box in the alley, ducking as we passed the
known
surveillance cameras all over the streets of
Clearwater.
117. We got to the alley
and I dashed out to grab the box. Dad came to
assist.
My knees were shaking and I was constantly looking around to see
if
any Sea Org members were noticing. We managed to get the
box and all the
contents into the car, jump in and head for the
airport.
118. I was in emotional
turmoil at this time. When we got on the airplane,
I began
to really question what I was doing and started to cry. I was
afraid
I was ruining my life. However, I went through with
it.
119. When we got to LA, I called
Flag and left a message for my mom,
telling her I had arrived in
LA safely. Then, I went home with my dad. By
the time
we got to his apartment, there were messages from mom telling me
to
call her. I didn't call her even though I was an
emotional mess, shaking and
crying. Soon, she called back
and the first thing she said to me was "Well,
that wasn't very
smart, was it?" Her attitude and mean spiritedness
convinced
me that I had done the right thing in
leaving.
120. Additional incidents,
which were not recounted in the above narrative,
include the
heavy labor children did at the QI. For example I used
a
jackhammer to break up concrete block and frequently used a
circular saw to
cut wood for bunk beds. All the children
made their own, wood bunk beds.
121.
When I used a jackhammer I was happy to do so as normally we were
made
to break up concrete with a large pick
axe.
122. The QI has two floors and
there are iron railings running all around.
We children were made
to sand the rust from them and paint them and try to
make them
stable with screws and nails. They were often so loose you
could
not lean on them and they would be tied to the roof with
rope to secure them.
123. Children also
painted the doors to the rooms and walls, fix holes in
drywall,
layed tile, cut scrap carpet and fit the pieces together to make
a
whole and lay on the floor. They would also use acid to
wash bathroom floors
that were caked with mineral deposits.
124. These are all samples of the
labor done by children in keeping the
building in satisfactory
condition.
125. Regarding medical
treatment while I was in the Sea Org, I once
fractured my foot
when I was about 13. My bone was fractured from my
pinky
bone to my ankle and I was in terrible pain. I
couldn't walk at all and
stayed in bed late, but still had to get
up and work. The cadet coordinator
checked me and told me I
just had a sprain. After about a week it was not
better so
I went to the MLO. I waited all day and no one helped
me. They
finally helped me toward the end of the day.
One of the MLOs took me to a
nearby scientology
chiropractor.
126. I was told this
chiropractor would take cheap x-rays. She took them,
saw
the fracture and pointed it out to me and advised me to see a
doctor. I
was never taken to a doctor. To this day,
my foot still hurts and aches when
I
run.
127. While I was on the EPF, I was
working a lot with acid. I had no
protective gloves and my
skin became very dry and chapped and started peeling
off.
Something also happened to my feet as they became sore and red,
then
crusty even on top. They would crack and bleed and the
bottoms were so sore I
could hardly touch them. I had to
continue working until I begged to go to
the MLO. By this
time, I could barely walk or move my fingers.
128. The MLO, who is not even a
medically trained person, said it looked
like some sort of fungus
and would go away. I was given no treatment and
sent
immediately back to work. I bought my own lotion at
the store and was
constantly using it to take away the
pain.
129. I suffered this condition up
to the time I went with my father to
Hawaii. When he saw my
hands and feet he immediately got me some medicine and
applied it
frequently. By the time I returned to the Sea Org it had
cleared
up.
130. I want to
state that the church promises you that all your medical
cares
will be attended to. This is not true. Medical cares are
ignored
unless they are extreme. You are considered to be
doing something wrong if
you are sick or injured.
131. Any care that costs money has to
go through a long process of approval
that can take months.
I know my grandmother paid for some of her friends
surgery or
medical treatment because they could not get the funds
approved
through the church system and were in dire need of
treatment.
132. I also once cut my arm
badly, where I could see white flesh, and this
received no
treatment other than wrapping. I have a very bad scar on my
arm
from this injury.
133. Another
thing that happened was we children were hauled around in
old,
broken down school buses. These would often break down
and on three occasions
I and other children were directed to get
out of the bus when it broke down
and push it to the side of the
road while the driver steered.
134. At
times, the cadets received no pay at all because the base was
not
making enough money. One of the things we had to spend
our money on was doing
our laundry and buying our own hygiene
items. This included laundry
detergent, shampoo, tampons,
soap and toothpaste. We also were responsible
for certain
items of clothing like underwear, socks, bras and our own
hair
brushes etc. This was all to come from our $8.00 to
$12.00 per week pay.
135. We had to
wash our clothes in the coin-operated machines provided at
the
QI. This would take up to half the pay I received as a cadet.
136. The other part of my pay I often
spent on food because I couldn't
stand what we were served at the
QI. Our meals were leftovers brought from
the Clearwater
Bank building. One of our dinner meals was bread with
cheese
melted on top of it. This was served once a
week. When I left in 2000 there
were no desserts served
ever as the base was not making enough money for
these
treats.
137. We also did
marching drills at the QI and on the EPF. We
marched
together and learned formations like the number
eight. We also had to run and
do double and triple time and
what we called the "dead run" where we had to
run all-out as a
group keeping in marching formation, up stairs and all
over.
138. Another drill we had to do
on the EPF was to run up all ten flights of
stairs. In
fact, no EPFers were allowed to use the elevators in the
Fort
Harrison hotel. When we did maid work or any work in
the FH (like painting on
the tenth floor) we had to run up and
down the stairs all day long.
139. On
the EPF we would get so hungry that we would take food from
the
trays left over by the "public" staying in the hotel
room. When we were
working, if we passed these trays
in the hall or near the kitchen we would
always steal any left
over food. This was a regular occurrence while I was
there
in 1998 and 1999.
I declare under penalty of perjury
under the laws of the United States of
America and the state of
Florida that the foregoing is true and correct.
Executed
in Clearwater, Florida this 24th day of January 2001.
Zoe
Woodcraft
Watch LMT Media's three-part video interview with Zoe Woodcraft.
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