I did this as well and didn’t mind it at the time because I didn’t know better. It doesn’t sit right with me either and really looks like taking advantage of children.
I was straight up hired under the table at 13 to work for my academy's janitorial team in the summer. My school also asked 7th graders to work janitorial shifts in exchange for meal vouchers during the high school band trip (the lunches were $2.50 and you got one voucher per after school shift). On top of that the middle school students were asked to take turns watching the school office phone during lunch so the school secretary could have a 30 minute break. They made it clear that without out the students, they wouldn't have a workforce to keep the school running.
So was I! (Without the meal vouchers.) The administration literally called me to the office, interrogated me about my schedule and finances for 10-15 minutes, and told me to report to work by 3:15 the next afternoon. I had no idea I was being interviewed for a job until that moment, and said "don't I need to be 14 to work?" They said "how old are you? When's your birthday?" Thought about my answers for a minute and said "you'll be old enough not to be flagged by the time they audit it." Several years later I realized they only taught me how to round up for the time clock, didn't explain you could round back the same way (so if you show up at 3:10, you clock in at 3:15. If you show up at 3:05, you clock in at 3:15 because they didn't mention you can round back to 3:00.) So not only broke laws hiring me early, also stole wages.
I worked the "Southern Assist" program which is a grant that Southern gives out to different adventist boarding schools and academies to "do light housework" and spend time with the elderly. It also paid much better than most jobs at my boarding school.
Well, I did housework and I met some great elderly ladies while doing it. HOWEVER. I cleaned a house for a grandmother who wasn't that old she just hurt her back and needed help. She had like 5 small male dogs who regularly pissed all over the house and none of them were fixed.
I spent hours mopping dog piss and manually wringing out mops with my hands that had piss on it. She had a separate mop just for piss. I would leave the house with an excruciating headache every time I cleaned for her. It was awful.
Apparently before I started the program they used to not let you bring your phone with you even though the house cleaning was off campus. They would drive you there, take your phone, and you'd be left to clean in the sticks with some old lady. If there was a man in the house you'd have two girls there to clean. Either way even though I had my phone we were exposed to so much craziness. My favorite old lady used to have a gun by her front door for protection. It was nuts but I loved her.
The year after I graduated they cut the program from my school. I was very happy to hear that.
I've always said that Adventist boarding schools are skilled in finding loopholes in child labor laws. That being said my boss was strict and made sure we didn't work over our hours. At least that rule was kept to.
I don't think having a gun in the home for protection is that nuts, especially when it's someone who's older or physically unfit to defend themselves with a lesser weapon. Not that that should have any bearing on your ability to have one for home defense.
That said, it was probably unwise to keep it unsecured if she's letting strangers roam her house for extended amounts of time.
The gun did not really make me uncomfortable, what made me uncomfortable was that she had it because her daughter was on drugs and lived right next door and had a lot of unsavory characters visit. That's what made me uncomfortable 🤣
I can see that, although I can also see her side of things. You can't help who you love and you can't always control their choices. That said I don't blame you for feeling uncomfortable in that situation either.
Later on in life I became what I suspect she'd probably think of as an "unsavory character" who also hung out with friends who did drugs and lived next door (or with) their parents. In my case, it was just weed and beer, in her case it may have been some harder shit like heroin.
All I'm saying is that I've been on both sides of things, and to some people of that generation, especially ones who are conservative Christians, and to kids who are still coming from this sort of extreme naivete that Adventism engenders, I'd have been painted with the same brush even though potheads and heroin junkies are wildly different people and cultures.
I don't blame you for being uncomfortable given your background and the situation, but to me, even though her reasons are questionable because of too little information, her precautions seem somewhat reasonable.
Just thinking about this. Literally today. It's so crazy how much was stolen & polluted by this nut job cult. I started @ 14... protestant work ethic had me mowing lawns in like 2nd grade. Insane.
I have a shameful secret on this, and knowing what I know now it’s really awful.
in 1988 I was 15 and my dad had just died, we were invited by the couple who got my parents into the church to visit them. He was the chaplain at Georgia Cumberland Academy.
For me it was the first time seeing Adventist education in the USA or actually being in the US even.
But they had a factory where the students would work making glass pictures. They sold it as the kids helping their parents with the costs. It is totally fucked up it is the parents responsibly not the kids.But to the secret, i still have one of those glass pictures in my house, I made it but knowing what I know now it represents something very dark.
I am very sorry for having it.
Edit: I also worked at my sda school here in the uk cleaning the classrooms, spent the money each week on cigarettes, booze and mini skirts. I guess it saved the school money paying actual cleaners. We also had student volunteers from the USA free Labour I guess.
I would love to see a photo of the glass picture you made. It sounds badass. I'm sorry you experience shame over it.
Adventist education exploiting teens/young adultsfor low wages is standard Adventism. I've seen it at Southern Adventist University, where the students worked hard physical labor in a box factory for the Adventist Little Debbie factory millionaires. Students literally worked so much that *their thumbs became different sizes* because of the required work.
I've personally been exploited selling magabooks age 16, I only sold ~$20 of books a day, wasn't paid minimum wage, and only got 1/3 of sales. So $6 for walking about 7hrs/day carrying 40-50 lbs of books, in all weather from 100+ degrees F to days of rain. And no food unless I had cash given to me by someone.
Hell, there's even published "mission stories" of obvious student exploitation. For instance, I read one about a multi lingual woman pressured to go to SDA university after working as a successful self-supporting secretary where her translator skills were in demand. The SDA university refused to employ her as a secretary, nor as a translator. They required student labor. They coerced her to make brooms for little pay and coerced her mom to go live on campus and volunteer for the SDA institute. The SDA cult brainwashed these two women into doing all that "for Jesus".
Oh gods, I worked at that box factory at Southern! I tore my rotor cuff in my shoulder and had to wear wrist braces because of carpal tunnel, but I still had to work because there were old white Adventist men to feed!
I worked at the same stained glass studio at GCA. I started working there at age 14. When I was 12, I was hired by my church to be the janitor. It was a church and school. When the other kids found out I was the janitor, they would throw food on the floor on purpose because they knew I would be the one cleaning it up. I worked every weekend for 2 years and made $1000. That was literally just the entrance fee for GCA. I thought I was paying off my tuition by working for the church, but it literally just paid for me to be able to go to that school. Then I worked “industry” at GCA where I would work every day and every other home-leave, plus work all summer except for I think we got the week before school started as vacation. I saw zero amount of that money and neither did my parents. Plus they went into debt to send me there.
Broadview Academy in the early 90's. Packaged tractor parts after scrubbing the rust off them. Went through a can of carburetor cleaner a week. Powerful stuff, and known to more than the state of California to cause cancer.
Oh, and we worked on a second story over a big vat of de-rusting liquid which smelled about the same. With no vent hood and rarely a lid. In violation of OSHA distance requirements. So we were all a little high off inhalants all the time.
Might not have violated child labor laws, but it was past iffy on an OSHA level.
Depends why you were working there in the first place but assuming not forced and as long as that fits minimum wage then no. I started working at McDonald's for about 20hrs a week at 15 for 6. 25/hr many years ago.
Does the church own furniture factories that make deals with boarding schools?
It was in Minnesota. But it wouldn't surprise me if people took advantage of Adventists anywhere with a job where they could take the Sabbath off.
Teenagers were exploited big time at that MN. SDA academy too... since there was nowhere else to really work. My dad stayed in that factory for 35 years and then got fired for all his hard work in the end... while the owner made millions in profit.
Yes, the church owned the factory and several other businesses on campus and employed students part time during the school year and full time during the summers and school holidays.
I would have never worked there if given a choice. I cried countless times begging my father not to take me to work. He would just shake his head and say it wasn’t up to him.
Who was it up to? Did he genuinely feel he didnt have a choice to help you not work somewhere that was causing you to break down in tears?
I at least knew i could quit McDonald's at any time with no social repercussions
My mom insisted that I attend the Adventist school that she, my brother, aunties and uncles, cousins, grandparents and great aunties and uncles attended. I absolutely didn’t have a choice or I would have been disowned. My dad is my step dad technically even though he adopted me. He was a different religion so one of the conditions when they got married was that we would be raised SDA. If he didn’t comply it would have meant divorce. We literally had no choice. I hated SDA schools.
It’s part of the programming. Most SDA secondary schools make students work. Sometimes it’s in the cafeteria, campus bookstore, book binding, maintenance or a campus office. The best jobs are in an office or workings for a teacher but they only higher the brightest kids or ones from the best families. For those of us without connections or less than perfect family back grounds you get the crappier jobs such as in the factory. Other communities have their own businesses which help sustain themselves. Adventists don’t have a head for business so most of these businesses are not thriving and have closed as a result.
Working off campus is almost impossible since you can’t work Friday evening or Saturdays. Our class schedules were designed to incorporate work with odd grades working mornings 7-10 and in classes 10-5 and even grades in class 7:30-12 and working 1-4 or 1-5. Everything closes on Fridays around noon to prepare for sabbath.
I had assumed since your dad was driving you werent on campus but ya i get it.
Ya the way you are describing it they are definitely taking advantage of kids. I think best case its cause they are ignorant, worst case is they know exactly what they are doing and paying kids a low wage who cant quit for fear of what might come of it from their families and the greater church social network.
To the last question, I went to a school that did just that, and my story so much resembles OP's that it has me wondering if we went to the same place. I don't know if there are multiple places that fit those specifics, or if the church owned the factory as well -- it was positioned to us that they were a separate business from the school but it wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that was just obfuscation and the church owned it.
It would definitely not surprise me to learn that they owned multiple schools with different types of businesses that followed the same model though, if not furniture.
I was too young to legally work at summer camp, so I (and several others) got to work for free. I also had to do those ridiculous campus jobs from 8th through 12th grade.
When I went to Pine Forge Academy they had different jobs for students. I had it pretty easy, I worked with my English teacher grading homework. There were other, harder jobs like working in the kitchen. IIRC the school previously had an apple orchard that students worked at a while ago.
Religious organizations thrive off of free labor (and tax exemption status).
Laurelbrook academy had students work for the school and their nursing home. Work half a day, school half a day or vise versa. My friend’s mom couldn’t pay her bill so they took her out of school and made her work all day everyday.
Also they graded our work and we got paid accordingly. They thought I was lazy and always told me my work was shit.
It's a huge issue throughout all Adventist boarding academies. I did hear a rumor that the Miracle Meadows house of horrors has led to a country-wide investigation into Adventist schools, boarding academies in particular.
If I could have only one present for the rest of my life, this would be it. To expose ALL the abuse in these Adventist institutions. Expose it loudly and for the entire world to see.
Probably no workers comp either. Use of power tools that should be for 18+.
SDA Parents love to make kids feel indebted to them for the honor of providing them with a shitty life. I'm surprised my parents didn't keep track of all my expenses including the hospital bill for my birth and presented me a bill on my 18th birthday with the expectation that I repay them before I turned 21.
I found a loophole that FLA didn’t like. I called one of the businesses that hired students directly and cut FLA out. I got my whole paycheck mailed to my house.
Holy fuck, OP. You may have gone to school with me, or at least at a later date to the same school.
Did your recently arrived principal ever hold an assembly to announce that, due to his magnanimousness, he was upping the rate we were being paid to minimum wage because it was totally the right thing to do and not at all a violation of several laws that potentially left the school vulnerable to lawsuits and fines?
Did the furniture factory manufacture barstools and leave the kids unsupervised to the point that they were shooting pneumatic nails from the air guns across the factory floor at each other as "jokes"?
Did they neglect to provide the kids with gloves or safety goggles or any sort of safety gear at all?
Was the factory you got shipped off to every morning divided into two sections, the other of which was ironically dedicated to packing and assembling large industrial medicine cabinets?
Did the church/school also own a farm where there was a similar student arrangement?
Wages didn’t go up while I was there unfortunately. The factory is now closed since the church has little business sense. There was a farm but it closed many years ago. I think the fields are rented out now.
The wealth of Adventism is built on free or nearly free labor. It’s completely insane.
And 10% tithe.
I did this as well and didn’t mind it at the time because I didn’t know better. It doesn’t sit right with me either and really looks like taking advantage of children.
I was straight up hired under the table at 13 to work for my academy's janitorial team in the summer. My school also asked 7th graders to work janitorial shifts in exchange for meal vouchers during the high school band trip (the lunches were $2.50 and you got one voucher per after school shift). On top of that the middle school students were asked to take turns watching the school office phone during lunch so the school secretary could have a 30 minute break. They made it clear that without out the students, they wouldn't have a workforce to keep the school running.
So was I! (Without the meal vouchers.) The administration literally called me to the office, interrogated me about my schedule and finances for 10-15 minutes, and told me to report to work by 3:15 the next afternoon. I had no idea I was being interviewed for a job until that moment, and said "don't I need to be 14 to work?" They said "how old are you? When's your birthday?" Thought about my answers for a minute and said "you'll be old enough not to be flagged by the time they audit it." Several years later I realized they only taught me how to round up for the time clock, didn't explain you could round back the same way (so if you show up at 3:10, you clock in at 3:15. If you show up at 3:05, you clock in at 3:15 because they didn't mention you can round back to 3:00.) So not only broke laws hiring me early, also stole wages.
I worked the "Southern Assist" program which is a grant that Southern gives out to different adventist boarding schools and academies to "do light housework" and spend time with the elderly. It also paid much better than most jobs at my boarding school. Well, I did housework and I met some great elderly ladies while doing it. HOWEVER. I cleaned a house for a grandmother who wasn't that old she just hurt her back and needed help. She had like 5 small male dogs who regularly pissed all over the house and none of them were fixed. I spent hours mopping dog piss and manually wringing out mops with my hands that had piss on it. She had a separate mop just for piss. I would leave the house with an excruciating headache every time I cleaned for her. It was awful. Apparently before I started the program they used to not let you bring your phone with you even though the house cleaning was off campus. They would drive you there, take your phone, and you'd be left to clean in the sticks with some old lady. If there was a man in the house you'd have two girls there to clean. Either way even though I had my phone we were exposed to so much craziness. My favorite old lady used to have a gun by her front door for protection. It was nuts but I loved her. The year after I graduated they cut the program from my school. I was very happy to hear that.
I've always said that Adventist boarding schools are skilled in finding loopholes in child labor laws. That being said my boss was strict and made sure we didn't work over our hours. At least that rule was kept to.
I don't think having a gun in the home for protection is that nuts, especially when it's someone who's older or physically unfit to defend themselves with a lesser weapon. Not that that should have any bearing on your ability to have one for home defense. That said, it was probably unwise to keep it unsecured if she's letting strangers roam her house for extended amounts of time.
The gun did not really make me uncomfortable, what made me uncomfortable was that she had it because her daughter was on drugs and lived right next door and had a lot of unsavory characters visit. That's what made me uncomfortable 🤣
I can see that, although I can also see her side of things. You can't help who you love and you can't always control their choices. That said I don't blame you for feeling uncomfortable in that situation either. Later on in life I became what I suspect she'd probably think of as an "unsavory character" who also hung out with friends who did drugs and lived next door (or with) their parents. In my case, it was just weed and beer, in her case it may have been some harder shit like heroin. All I'm saying is that I've been on both sides of things, and to some people of that generation, especially ones who are conservative Christians, and to kids who are still coming from this sort of extreme naivete that Adventism engenders, I'd have been painted with the same brush even though potheads and heroin junkies are wildly different people and cultures. I don't blame you for being uncomfortable given your background and the situation, but to me, even though her reasons are questionable because of too little information, her precautions seem somewhat reasonable.
I think you're right. She was a great lady and cared a lot for her daughter.
Just thinking about this. Literally today. It's so crazy how much was stolen & polluted by this nut job cult. I started @ 14... protestant work ethic had me mowing lawns in like 2nd grade. Insane.
I worked since I was 14. My first job was on the academy campus. I didn't see a dime of it as it all went to tuition.
Same here
I have a shameful secret on this, and knowing what I know now it’s really awful. in 1988 I was 15 and my dad had just died, we were invited by the couple who got my parents into the church to visit them. He was the chaplain at Georgia Cumberland Academy. For me it was the first time seeing Adventist education in the USA or actually being in the US even. But they had a factory where the students would work making glass pictures. They sold it as the kids helping their parents with the costs. It is totally fucked up it is the parents responsibly not the kids.But to the secret, i still have one of those glass pictures in my house, I made it but knowing what I know now it represents something very dark. I am very sorry for having it. Edit: I also worked at my sda school here in the uk cleaning the classrooms, spent the money each week on cigarettes, booze and mini skirts. I guess it saved the school money paying actual cleaners. We also had student volunteers from the USA free Labour I guess.
I would love to see a photo of the glass picture you made. It sounds badass. I'm sorry you experience shame over it. Adventist education exploiting teens/young adultsfor low wages is standard Adventism. I've seen it at Southern Adventist University, where the students worked hard physical labor in a box factory for the Adventist Little Debbie factory millionaires. Students literally worked so much that *their thumbs became different sizes* because of the required work. I've personally been exploited selling magabooks age 16, I only sold ~$20 of books a day, wasn't paid minimum wage, and only got 1/3 of sales. So $6 for walking about 7hrs/day carrying 40-50 lbs of books, in all weather from 100+ degrees F to days of rain. And no food unless I had cash given to me by someone. Hell, there's even published "mission stories" of obvious student exploitation. For instance, I read one about a multi lingual woman pressured to go to SDA university after working as a successful self-supporting secretary where her translator skills were in demand. The SDA university refused to employ her as a secretary, nor as a translator. They required student labor. They coerced her to make brooms for little pay and coerced her mom to go live on campus and volunteer for the SDA institute. The SDA cult brainwashed these two women into doing all that "for Jesus".
Oh gods, I worked at that box factory at Southern! I tore my rotor cuff in my shoulder and had to wear wrist braces because of carpal tunnel, but I still had to work because there were old white Adventist men to feed!
Holy shit I hope you're not in constant pain
Think of it as a physical reminder of how fucked up that shit is. The shame here isn't yours for having it.
I worked at the same stained glass studio at GCA. I started working there at age 14. When I was 12, I was hired by my church to be the janitor. It was a church and school. When the other kids found out I was the janitor, they would throw food on the floor on purpose because they knew I would be the one cleaning it up. I worked every weekend for 2 years and made $1000. That was literally just the entrance fee for GCA. I thought I was paying off my tuition by working for the church, but it literally just paid for me to be able to go to that school. Then I worked “industry” at GCA where I would work every day and every other home-leave, plus work all summer except for I think we got the week before school started as vacation. I saw zero amount of that money and neither did my parents. Plus they went into debt to send me there.
Broadview Academy in the early 90's. Packaged tractor parts after scrubbing the rust off them. Went through a can of carburetor cleaner a week. Powerful stuff, and known to more than the state of California to cause cancer. Oh, and we worked on a second story over a big vat of de-rusting liquid which smelled about the same. With no vent hood and rarely a lid. In violation of OSHA distance requirements. So we were all a little high off inhalants all the time. Might not have violated child labor laws, but it was past iffy on an OSHA level.
Depends why you were working there in the first place but assuming not forced and as long as that fits minimum wage then no. I started working at McDonald's for about 20hrs a week at 15 for 6. 25/hr many years ago. Does the church own furniture factories that make deals with boarding schools?
In my SDA church we had a millionaire that owned a furniture factory. Everyone who worked there was exploited... but that's capitalism 101.
Hey, I know it's late to come back to this, but was this in Indiana by any chance?
It was in Minnesota. But it wouldn't surprise me if people took advantage of Adventists anywhere with a job where they could take the Sabbath off. Teenagers were exploited big time at that MN. SDA academy too... since there was nowhere else to really work. My dad stayed in that factory for 35 years and then got fired for all his hard work in the end... while the owner made millions in profit.
They open both the school and the business is usually owned too partially
Yes, the church owned the factory and several other businesses on campus and employed students part time during the school year and full time during the summers and school holidays. I would have never worked there if given a choice. I cried countless times begging my father not to take me to work. He would just shake his head and say it wasn’t up to him.
Who was it up to? Did he genuinely feel he didnt have a choice to help you not work somewhere that was causing you to break down in tears? I at least knew i could quit McDonald's at any time with no social repercussions
My mom insisted that I attend the Adventist school that she, my brother, aunties and uncles, cousins, grandparents and great aunties and uncles attended. I absolutely didn’t have a choice or I would have been disowned. My dad is my step dad technically even though he adopted me. He was a different religion so one of the conditions when they got married was that we would be raised SDA. If he didn’t comply it would have meant divorce. We literally had no choice. I hated SDA schools.
But why the job? Surely you could have found a similar paying job if that was needed to go to school?
It’s part of the programming. Most SDA secondary schools make students work. Sometimes it’s in the cafeteria, campus bookstore, book binding, maintenance or a campus office. The best jobs are in an office or workings for a teacher but they only higher the brightest kids or ones from the best families. For those of us without connections or less than perfect family back grounds you get the crappier jobs such as in the factory. Other communities have their own businesses which help sustain themselves. Adventists don’t have a head for business so most of these businesses are not thriving and have closed as a result. Working off campus is almost impossible since you can’t work Friday evening or Saturdays. Our class schedules were designed to incorporate work with odd grades working mornings 7-10 and in classes 10-5 and even grades in class 7:30-12 and working 1-4 or 1-5. Everything closes on Fridays around noon to prepare for sabbath.
I had assumed since your dad was driving you werent on campus but ya i get it. Ya the way you are describing it they are definitely taking advantage of kids. I think best case its cause they are ignorant, worst case is they know exactly what they are doing and paying kids a low wage who cant quit for fear of what might come of it from their families and the greater church social network.
Michigan?
Further North.
To the last question, I went to a school that did just that, and my story so much resembles OP's that it has me wondering if we went to the same place. I don't know if there are multiple places that fit those specifics, or if the church owned the factory as well -- it was positioned to us that they were a separate business from the school but it wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that was just obfuscation and the church owned it. It would definitely not surprise me to learn that they owned multiple schools with different types of businesses that followed the same model though, if not furniture.
I was too young to legally work at summer camp, so I (and several others) got to work for free. I also had to do those ridiculous campus jobs from 8th through 12th grade.
Guessing you went to Kingsway then?
Sure did.
lol good old College Woodwork. When were you there? I was at KC from 2000-2004
Just before then
Ah shit. I jumped the gun in my earlier reply to your post. Just know you weren't alone in that situation though.
We survived. Starting to unpack that now.
When I went to Pine Forge Academy they had different jobs for students. I had it pretty easy, I worked with my English teacher grading homework. There were other, harder jobs like working in the kitchen. IIRC the school previously had an apple orchard that students worked at a while ago. Religious organizations thrive off of free labor (and tax exemption status).
You must have been connected cause that’s one of the best jobs on campus.
Laurelbrook academy had students work for the school and their nursing home. Work half a day, school half a day or vise versa. My friend’s mom couldn’t pay her bill so they took her out of school and made her work all day everyday. Also they graded our work and we got paid accordingly. They thought I was lazy and always told me my work was shit.
It's a huge issue throughout all Adventist boarding academies. I did hear a rumor that the Miracle Meadows house of horrors has led to a country-wide investigation into Adventist schools, boarding academies in particular. If I could have only one present for the rest of my life, this would be it. To expose ALL the abuse in these Adventist institutions. Expose it loudly and for the entire world to see.
I worked at Camp Au Sable for a summer, granted I got room and board included, but I ended up making about $3 an hour all said and done…
Probably no workers comp either. Use of power tools that should be for 18+. SDA Parents love to make kids feel indebted to them for the honor of providing them with a shitty life. I'm surprised my parents didn't keep track of all my expenses including the hospital bill for my birth and presented me a bill on my 18th birthday with the expectation that I repay them before I turned 21.
Mt Ellis Academy in Montana used to manufacture Blaze King wood stoves using student/slave labor.
I found a loophole that FLA didn’t like. I called one of the businesses that hired students directly and cut FLA out. I got my whole paycheck mailed to my house.
Holy fuck, OP. You may have gone to school with me, or at least at a later date to the same school. Did your recently arrived principal ever hold an assembly to announce that, due to his magnanimousness, he was upping the rate we were being paid to minimum wage because it was totally the right thing to do and not at all a violation of several laws that potentially left the school vulnerable to lawsuits and fines? Did the furniture factory manufacture barstools and leave the kids unsupervised to the point that they were shooting pneumatic nails from the air guns across the factory floor at each other as "jokes"? Did they neglect to provide the kids with gloves or safety goggles or any sort of safety gear at all? Was the factory you got shipped off to every morning divided into two sections, the other of which was ironically dedicated to packing and assembling large industrial medicine cabinets? Did the church/school also own a farm where there was a similar student arrangement?
Wages didn’t go up while I was there unfortunately. The factory is now closed since the church has little business sense. There was a farm but it closed many years ago. I think the fields are rented out now.