Mon Nov 03, 2008 6:55 pm
DELPHI OREGON the news you're not supposed to know
Hi All,
I would like to hear from others out there on the things we’re not supposed to talk about regarding Delphi in Sheridan, Oregon. Maybe that actually applies to this whole web site.
Here’s the scoop. I attended Delphi for about 6 years from the late 1970’s into the early 1980’s. I was one of the few, and usually the only, non-scientologist student there. Of course, all the staff were members.
I had a ton of trouble being bullied and beat up in elementary school. My parents had had enough and looked around for alternatives for me. Delphi was it. At 11 years of age, what difference did I know?
I did know that I cried for 2 weeks straight. I missed my parents and my home terribly. But boarding school has a way of making you independent pretty quickly, like it or not, in a kind of resentful, jaded kind of way.
So I quit when I almost-but-not-quite made it through Level 3. Shows my age, I know. Levels are gone. Forms are the thing. For you youngsters, there were a total of 4 levels to graduate. I took the Level 3 test, got a massive pink sheet and a severe tongue lashing from the Dean (for those who were there, you know of whom I speak, along with her damn little dog that everyone hated). So, this is crap, and I split. This conveniently coincided with the massive recession that we saw in the early 1980’s and my parents were running out of money.
There’s A LOT I can talk about. But this is the thrust of my first post here.
I was floored when I was invited to an alumni gig at the school. I hadn’t heard from anyone since I left. I thought I had been declared! (I was kind of an out-spoken trouble maker and being a non-scientologist made me kind of stick out). So I went back for kicks and was amazed at the same stupid attitude amongst alumni, current staff and students that I had experienced when I was younger…almost a don’t ask, don’t tell policy. I thought, years ago, when I would witness an event, out of the norm (like a staff member breaking a rule or whatever) and no one wanted to talk about it, I thought it was because I was just a kid.
The alumni thing helped me contact old friends, staff and student. I was in close contact for a while, after my visit with an old friend and we had been chatting informally as we had in the past. When I brought up an “off-color” topic (see below), I quickly got the cold shoulder and got the clear message that I wasn’t supposed to talk about anything except the PARTY LINE…. about how great the school is doing… like I was busting holes through someone’s success story or something. I was pretty shocked. I had assumed we could speak as adults …. Whatever that means… to talk about old stories and laugh about it…. But I guess that’s not the case.
So since the alumni thing and having reconnected with old friends that I hold dear, I’ve been worried to address subjects that most obviously wish were forgotten. A lot of my friends have since become big-wigs in the CoS and its affiliates, Narcanon, etc. And this is where Ms. Busta Move comes in. I guess I’m worried that if I did speak my mind, the friendships would end, that these people would chose the Church over our friendship, or at least cut-off the relationship for fear of retribution of the association with me. Maybe I should trust in our friendship and speak my mind, using my real name. But I guess I’m not ready for that yet….
My point is though, in reading other posts from Delphi Oregon people, I find that no one, so far is going in to any of the strange times, the “dirt” if you will of what I saw during my years there. So I’m going to go in to a few topics and let YOU respond, if you want:
SMOKING. Almost everyone used to smoke, I mean nation wide. This included most staff members at the school. At some point, some smart staff member, probably following fire marshal or insurance agents advice, set aside a “smoking room” for students. The idea was that it was better to have a place for them to smoke, instead of them sneaking out in the woods or wrapping a plastic bag around the smoke alarm and accidentally starting a fire in the dorm room (there was a fire once, just from a hidden-but-still-lit cigarette, in 1979, I think). So, you had to have parents permission and be at least 14 or 15, I can’t remember. Of course, there were a lot of card games, chat and bummin’ smokes in the smoking room. Great times. However, I pretty sure that the smoking room was bugged for a while. Students started to be called in to the Dean’s or EO’s office on questioning that obviously pertained to intimate conversations in the smoking room. Yes, someone could have written us up and turned the conversation in, but it seemed unlikely.
The reason I bring this up first is that I brought it up in conversation with my friend that I was reunited with. She mentioned the incredible idea that there even was a smoking room in the past. Currently there is a zero tolerance policy at Delphi about tobacco. I wrying retorted, “Yeah, it’s a good thing that there aren’t any students who smoke at Delphi now, huh? (smirk, smirk)”. That comment nearly ended our friendship. She quickly changed the subject, ended the conversation and I didn’t hear from her for months. I got a really clear message that I wasn’t supposed to talk about that….. much less this:
DRUGS. Little did the parents know, in sending off their youngster to boarding school, that in the Pacific NW forests, surrounding Delphi, there is a massive population of naturally growing psycho active mushrooms. Some smart-guy student discovered these while I was a pretty new student and made a rich tea out of them.
I’m sure those mushrooms are still out there. They’re EVERYWHERE and there’s no really spraying for them. But…. It’s a good thing that there aren’t any students who take drugs at Delphi now, huh?
There were also rumors of an adjoining piece of property, off of one side of the campus, where the land owner had a small patch of weed that he was growing amongst the fir trees. I never saw it, but I always wondered where the older kids got the goods.
HOMOSEXUALITY….. Golly! There was this student, somewhere around 1980, who had been there 2 or 3 years. He got ready to leave rather suddenly and word was circulating quickly over an impending ethics hearing. The story was that he had “snuck” into another fellow’s dorm room, found him asleep and began “fondling” him, then things went on from there. After a while, the other fellow “suddenly woke up”, freaked out and went to go inform the nearest staff member. The “perpetrator” packed up and left school quickly. The “victim” stayed on at school for a year or two more. There was never an ethics hearing, at least one that was posted on the Dean’s ethics board. Make of the story what you will, but given the current understanding of the percentage of gay and lesbian folks in our population (or at least of adolescent experimentation), it’s a little hard to believe that this was the lone isolated incident in my years there. People can get it on consensually all day long as far as I am concerned (and maybe we should). But what I find disturbing is the over-zealous denial of the whole issue.
GHOSTS. Delphi is spooked. Undeniably spooked. There were so many “sightings” or “events” or “experiences” by people (some times by multiple witnesses) while I was there, it became fairly common knowledge of the strange goings on all over campus. The 3rd floor course-room, the band room in the sub-basement, the fields near the dairy, the school house above the stables (wow!). I could go on for a while on this subject. But it was hard to talk about during the time as you were usually patronized and brushed off, at the very least if you wanted to talk about it. I guess, though, that this is a greater societal issue, too.
Anyway, that’s enough for now. I went on too long, I’m sure. Hope you all have stuff to add.
MBM
[/b]
I would like to hear from others out there on the things we’re not supposed to talk about regarding Delphi in Sheridan, Oregon. Maybe that actually applies to this whole web site.
Here’s the scoop. I attended Delphi for about 6 years from the late 1970’s into the early 1980’s. I was one of the few, and usually the only, non-scientologist student there. Of course, all the staff were members.
I had a ton of trouble being bullied and beat up in elementary school. My parents had had enough and looked around for alternatives for me. Delphi was it. At 11 years of age, what difference did I know?
I did know that I cried for 2 weeks straight. I missed my parents and my home terribly. But boarding school has a way of making you independent pretty quickly, like it or not, in a kind of resentful, jaded kind of way.
So I quit when I almost-but-not-quite made it through Level 3. Shows my age, I know. Levels are gone. Forms are the thing. For you youngsters, there were a total of 4 levels to graduate. I took the Level 3 test, got a massive pink sheet and a severe tongue lashing from the Dean (for those who were there, you know of whom I speak, along with her damn little dog that everyone hated). So, this is crap, and I split. This conveniently coincided with the massive recession that we saw in the early 1980’s and my parents were running out of money.
There’s A LOT I can talk about. But this is the thrust of my first post here.
I was floored when I was invited to an alumni gig at the school. I hadn’t heard from anyone since I left. I thought I had been declared! (I was kind of an out-spoken trouble maker and being a non-scientologist made me kind of stick out). So I went back for kicks and was amazed at the same stupid attitude amongst alumni, current staff and students that I had experienced when I was younger…almost a don’t ask, don’t tell policy. I thought, years ago, when I would witness an event, out of the norm (like a staff member breaking a rule or whatever) and no one wanted to talk about it, I thought it was because I was just a kid.
The alumni thing helped me contact old friends, staff and student. I was in close contact for a while, after my visit with an old friend and we had been chatting informally as we had in the past. When I brought up an “off-color” topic (see below), I quickly got the cold shoulder and got the clear message that I wasn’t supposed to talk about anything except the PARTY LINE…. about how great the school is doing… like I was busting holes through someone’s success story or something. I was pretty shocked. I had assumed we could speak as adults …. Whatever that means… to talk about old stories and laugh about it…. But I guess that’s not the case.
So since the alumni thing and having reconnected with old friends that I hold dear, I’ve been worried to address subjects that most obviously wish were forgotten. A lot of my friends have since become big-wigs in the CoS and its affiliates, Narcanon, etc. And this is where Ms. Busta Move comes in. I guess I’m worried that if I did speak my mind, the friendships would end, that these people would chose the Church over our friendship, or at least cut-off the relationship for fear of retribution of the association with me. Maybe I should trust in our friendship and speak my mind, using my real name. But I guess I’m not ready for that yet….
My point is though, in reading other posts from Delphi Oregon people, I find that no one, so far is going in to any of the strange times, the “dirt” if you will of what I saw during my years there. So I’m going to go in to a few topics and let YOU respond, if you want:
SMOKING. Almost everyone used to smoke, I mean nation wide. This included most staff members at the school. At some point, some smart staff member, probably following fire marshal or insurance agents advice, set aside a “smoking room” for students. The idea was that it was better to have a place for them to smoke, instead of them sneaking out in the woods or wrapping a plastic bag around the smoke alarm and accidentally starting a fire in the dorm room (there was a fire once, just from a hidden-but-still-lit cigarette, in 1979, I think). So, you had to have parents permission and be at least 14 or 15, I can’t remember. Of course, there were a lot of card games, chat and bummin’ smokes in the smoking room. Great times. However, I pretty sure that the smoking room was bugged for a while. Students started to be called in to the Dean’s or EO’s office on questioning that obviously pertained to intimate conversations in the smoking room. Yes, someone could have written us up and turned the conversation in, but it seemed unlikely.
The reason I bring this up first is that I brought it up in conversation with my friend that I was reunited with. She mentioned the incredible idea that there even was a smoking room in the past. Currently there is a zero tolerance policy at Delphi about tobacco. I wrying retorted, “Yeah, it’s a good thing that there aren’t any students who smoke at Delphi now, huh? (smirk, smirk)”. That comment nearly ended our friendship. She quickly changed the subject, ended the conversation and I didn’t hear from her for months. I got a really clear message that I wasn’t supposed to talk about that….. much less this:
DRUGS. Little did the parents know, in sending off their youngster to boarding school, that in the Pacific NW forests, surrounding Delphi, there is a massive population of naturally growing psycho active mushrooms. Some smart-guy student discovered these while I was a pretty new student and made a rich tea out of them.
I’m sure those mushrooms are still out there. They’re EVERYWHERE and there’s no really spraying for them. But…. It’s a good thing that there aren’t any students who take drugs at Delphi now, huh?
There were also rumors of an adjoining piece of property, off of one side of the campus, where the land owner had a small patch of weed that he was growing amongst the fir trees. I never saw it, but I always wondered where the older kids got the goods.
HOMOSEXUALITY….. Golly! There was this student, somewhere around 1980, who had been there 2 or 3 years. He got ready to leave rather suddenly and word was circulating quickly over an impending ethics hearing. The story was that he had “snuck” into another fellow’s dorm room, found him asleep and began “fondling” him, then things went on from there. After a while, the other fellow “suddenly woke up”, freaked out and went to go inform the nearest staff member. The “perpetrator” packed up and left school quickly. The “victim” stayed on at school for a year or two more. There was never an ethics hearing, at least one that was posted on the Dean’s ethics board. Make of the story what you will, but given the current understanding of the percentage of gay and lesbian folks in our population (or at least of adolescent experimentation), it’s a little hard to believe that this was the lone isolated incident in my years there. People can get it on consensually all day long as far as I am concerned (and maybe we should). But what I find disturbing is the over-zealous denial of the whole issue.
GHOSTS. Delphi is spooked. Undeniably spooked. There were so many “sightings” or “events” or “experiences” by people (some times by multiple witnesses) while I was there, it became fairly common knowledge of the strange goings on all over campus. The 3rd floor course-room, the band room in the sub-basement, the fields near the dairy, the school house above the stables (wow!). I could go on for a while on this subject. But it was hard to talk about during the time as you were usually patronized and brushed off, at the very least if you wanted to talk about it. I guess, though, that this is a greater societal issue, too.
Anyway, that’s enough for now. I went on too long, I’m sure. Hope you all have stuff to add.
MBM
[/b]
'Cause when I'm gonna make a move, I'm gonna bust it!