Local author shares horrors of reform school upbringing

Ulriksen was held against her will in a Baptist reform school for a year as a teenager

By: Chloe Brunello

Posted: 11/6/08

For a podcast of this story, click here.

When Michele Ulriksen was 16 years old, just days before her first day back to school as a high school junior, her parents told her that they were going to take her to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. What Ulriksen believed to be a last minute family trip, in reality, was a trip to a muted lifestyle where she would have no voice.

Ulriksen is a current Linn-Benton Community College student who is studying creative writing and women studies. She is also the author of "Reform at Victory:" a survivor's story, which can be purchased locally at Grass Roots Music and Books.

Born in 1970 in Newport Beach, Calif. and raised in Orange County, Ulriksen went to high school, had a social life and listened to music just like any other 16-year-old, but she also had parents who were so heavily religious that it was suffocating.

After sneaking out for the last time, Ulriksen's parents took her to a Baptist reform school located in Ramona, Calif. because they felt that they had no other choice.

When Ulriksen arrived at the reform school in the middle of the desert, she could see that it was outlined with a 12-foot electrical fence that was graced with barbed wire at the top.

After being carried into the building, Ulriksen was thrown into a room about the size of a walk-in closet - better known as the "get right" room - and left to sit in complete darkness.

Soon after dropping their daughter off, the Ulriksens left to return to their normal lives and routines. As a result of their decision, they moved and changed their phone number to ward off their daughter's inquisitive and worried friends who had no idea what happened to her.

Emerging from solitary confinement six hours later, Ulriksen was bluntly informed that she would be spending the next year at the school.

Ulriksen came to find that there were girls from many different walks of life. Some had eating disorders and were force-fed as humiliation, some were pregnant and some had psychological disorders, such as schizophrenia, and were deprived of their lithium. All diseases were seen as works of the devil and did not call for medication as a remedy, but instead utilized prayer and blame.

There were countless rules that were strictly enforced at the all-girls school. Pants and shorts or skirts with a hemline above the knee were unheard of. All sources of the media were filtered out, so far as making sure that the girls did not utter one syllable about movies, actors, TV shows or the like. Friendship was frowned upon, and animosity was praised.

Ulriksen was forced to trade in her pants for a skirt, her make-up for a bare face, her individuality for dehumanization and her personal items for communal ones, such as razors.

Like a hallucination with a twist similar to George Orwell's 1984, Ulriksen was deemed voiceless and unclean.

There was never a possibility for escape with an electric and barbed wire fence, which was compounded by a sensory alarm system and intercom that would be set off whenever a girl put her foot on the ground to leave her bed at night. Even if it was possible to get out of bed to leave the dorms, there was always a guard watching the doors.

The hope of speaking to her parents was ripped out of her grasp when Ulriksen found out that all mail coming and leaving the school was monitored. Faculty would scratch out anything that they didn't want the parents or children to see.

If a child attempted to inform their parents of the atrocities, faculty members would manipulate the letter by saying the child wasn't ready to come home, and the parents would believe it.

Ulriksen and her counterparts were continuously verbally abused by staff members. The worst of the verbal abuse, Ulriksen said, stemmed from the misogynistic preacher who ran the school.

Being forced to attend chapel meetings on a regular basis, the group of girls would have to endure the preacher's constant accusations and assumptions that they were "whores" and it was their own fault if they had been raped.

Exactly one year later, Ulriksen's parents came to pick her up. Her mother told her that if she misbehaved again, she would end up back at the reform school.

One month later, after having an argument about whether or not Michele could listen to U2's new album Joshua Tree, Michele fled before she was taken back to the dreaded reform school.

Ulriksen spent the remainder of the months before her 18th birthday with friends. When attempts to live with friends didn't pan out, Ulriksen tried to move home, but because she refused to attend church, her mother preferred that she become homeless rather than live at home.

After living out of her car in southern California, Ulriksen found a job and attended school at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco.

Ulriksen recalls suffering from a culture shock. When she saw a woman wearing make-up and pants, it was a risqué feeling. Living for so long without being allowed to make your own choices made it difficult to make even the simplest of decisions.

"I couldn't even order from a fast food restaurant menu," Ulriksen said.

After moving to Oregon eight years ago, Ulriksen left her job at Oregon Public Broadcasting to pursue a degree at LBCC and write her book "Reform at Victory."

Because Ulriksen grew up in a very conservative family which didn't talk openly about issues that teens are confronted with, she has a very different outlook on child rearing than her mother did.

"Mothers have a responsibility to talk with their children about sex, drugs, etc.," Ulriksen said.

Ulriksen wrote "Reform at Victory" to raise awareness about what a nightmare unlicensed reform schools can really be. She believes that if parents so choose to send their children to this kind of school, it is prudent that they research the school well and take a look at background checks of the people that they are handing their children over to; otherwise, they risk not knowing if they are sending their child to a school where mental abuse and an unethical upbringing are the norm.

Chloe Brunello, staff writer

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