My Story Part 4: 4th-6th grade

For most of my school classes in 4th, 5th, and 6th grade I was taught by either my older sister, Michele, or by a lady named Jane. Michele taught Bible class, history, science, grammar, and geography. I remember learning all of the US states and capitals and all of the planet names in her classes. I also can remember how much we would look forward to the electricity going out, which happened several times each school year due to chinooks. When this would happen, out would come the karosene lanterns, and we would play Where is Carmen Sandiego and Chinese Checkers.

Jane taught me reading and math in 5th grade, and just math in 6th grade. She encouraged us to explore other cultures, and had us read a short book about a little Mexican girl named Maria who is new to America. The book described Maria’s struggles to learn English, make friends, and fit in. AS for math class, Jane made the decimal system come alive by naming the decimals “Darryl and Dottie Decimal”. She taught me two years of prealgebra in 5th and 6th grade, and I am thankful for the foundation that she helped me build for more advanced math in later years.

During my 6th grade year of school, my sister, Michele, had open heart surgery, and could not finish out the school year teaching us. A church elder named Ingrid took over all of her classes, and became our new teacher. She was fairly new to Sapa, and had moved there from Bowen’s Mill. She always taught classes at a level far more advanced than our years. I remember that one time she had us take a national placement test for reading and spelling, and I ranked as a freshman in collage.

The one class that Ingrid taught me in 6th grade that I will unfortunately never forget was the Bible class in which she taught me and my classmate about the blood covenant that God had with Abraham. She kept talking about Abraham and God walking in figure eights around and between bloody dead animals, and I remember wondering what in the world that had to do with the price of tea in China.

I quickly began to see the evil, sadistic side of Ingrid and hated her for it, and I will tell you why: One day, I was helping the cooks by putting out casserole dishes out on each table in the Tabernacle, and I happened to look out the window. I saw Ingrid pulling down Samuel’s pants and beating him with a stick. This was happening in the presence of several adults who just walked on by and never tried to stop the abuse. I remember thinking at that moment that I would never respect or like Ingrid again. She came into the Tabernacle with Samuel a few minutes later and I walked right up to her and took Samuel’s hand and began to lead him away from her. When she asked me what I was doing, I told her that she was “mean” and I did not like her. I was so upset about what I had seen that I would not even eat lunch that day. My parents asked me what was wrong and I told them what I saw. To this day, they never took action about this or in any way tried to make the abuse stop. I later found out that Ingrid kept a teacher’s notebook full of notes about Samuel’s behavior and noted in it every time she “spanked” him. This notebook was given to my parents weekly to look through, be informed of, and then they would return it to her for the next week.

I think that this specific abuse that I witnessed happening to Samuel opened my eyes at a very young age to realize that my parents were not the only perpetrators in this cult. (At some point during my 7th grade year of school, Ingrid voluntarily removed herself from being Samuel’s teacher, and from that point on this was the sole job of my parents, and other family members.)