Alma Heights Christian Academy Was A Well-Funded Trauma Factory
This article was originally published on Medium.com January 8, 2023.
The three years I endured at Alma Heights Christian Academy (now Pacific Bay Christian School) were some of the most horrifying years of my life. It is my hope that no other child will endure what I did, and I pray that people like Judy Cairo, Deborah Gaytan, Blake Anderberg, and David Welling are no longer in positions where they are able to inject their toxicity into innocent children.
To better grasp the traumatic experience of attending a Christian school, let me explain a few things. Discipline is HUGE. It is more important than learning. There is an understanding that you don’t have to be intelligent to get into heaven; it is much better to be obedient, and to not sin. Political rhetoric is also huge; during the 2006 presidential election we were taught to vote for Bush, and you didn’t dare admit you were against the death penalty or abortion. Students were not allowed to be LGBTQ+.
Alma Height’s traumatic policies were enforced by the teachers.
Judy Cairo was one of the worst. She taught the fifth grade; an age where children are particularly vulnerable. From the beginning of my fifth grade year it was evident that Judy saw me as different from my classmates. I couldn’t place my finger on it at the time, but Judy’s warm smile masked an evil hatred that I was the unfortunate recipient of. One time I was tackled during a football game; Judy said nothing could be done about it because it happened after school. Another time me and three other kids were swearing after school. Four of us. I was the only one who was written up.
I’ll admit it was very confusing at first. Judy would begin every morning with a prayer and a sweet smile. But I kept getting into trouble, and I noticed my classmates never would for the exact same actions. My parents would always ask, well what did you do wrong? whenever I came to them with a complaint, so I learned to fend for myself.
Before I go any further, let me make it very clear that I am not saying that I was completely innocent. That would be as big a lie as saying I was the classroom bully. I’ll admit I had a big mouth and very strong opinions. I was also one of the most intelligent kids in the class. Christianity teaches you not to question authority so intelligence is seen as a threat. All I knew was that I was not treated the same as my classmates.
There are times I wonder if my treatment was due to homophobia; I did not realize that I was queer until many years later, but AHCA had a firm policy against homosexuality. A lesbian couple was expelled during my time there.
The suffering I endured at Alma Heights also taught me from an early age that not all teachers could be trusted. Thankfully, I had a great educational experience in high school and I tell people all the time that I owe my entire professional existence to the dedication of my teachers at George Washington High School.
One time I was called out of class by the principal, David Welling. Apparently an email address with my first and last name was sending inappropriate messages to several of my classmates. I had zero idea what the principal was talking about as he sat there and accused me. He was convinced that I did it, and was looking for any excuse to expel me. He told this to my visiting grandmother one afternoon, causing her to cry. He had reason to be upset I suppose; the snack store I ran out of my locker for two weeks created serious competition for the school vending machines. Later I discovered that two of my classmates were behind the email account, but when I reported this, of course nothing happened. I was threatened with expulsion, mind you.
We were taught that Jesus loved us all, and that God doesn’t play favorites, but the lunatics running AHCA did NOT practice what they preached.
In his defense, at least David Welling was able to maintain his composure. David Gross on the other hand (I believe his title was Head?) would go ballistic during my meetings with him. I remember one meeting where he called me a punk and began to scream and yell and swing his arms around; his face turned so red I thought he was going to burst a blood vessel! A couple times I thought he was going to hit me. Bewildered, I remember walking back to class thinking to myself, that’s the fool who runs the whole circus!
There were the teachers, and then there were the people who lived on the campus, like Blake Anderberg, who had no business in a classroom. I’m not sure if he ever stepped foot on a college campus, but it was evident he wasn’t there to teach. Blake was there to exert the authority he would never have received at a reputable institution. I still remember his smirk and the foul stench of garlic that was always on his breath (why could he never find the time to brush his teeth!).
Sometimes I wonder if these families knew they were paying thousands of dollars for a house wife or husband to project their insecurities onto their children. The Alma Heights student body was basically the children of professionals spending a ton of money to hang out with hicks all day (to this day I have no idea how my parents could afford to send me and my brothers there for 3 years).
An educator’s job is not to judge their students. It is not an educator’s job to take sides. Nor is it an educator’s job to speak ill of their students to other parents and faculty. In a small place like Alma Heights rumors spread like wildfire (I have it on pretty good authority that many of these were started by Judy Cairo) and it wasn’t long before the entire school knew me as the juvenile justice system’s latest failure, further adding to my embarrassment and trauma.
While Judy Cairo thought it was her place to traumatize me one way, Deborah Gaytan took things to a whole other level. She taught grammar and history; she had four children enrolled at Alma Heights, including one in my grade, and one in each of my two brothers’ classes. I found out that Deborah was collecting a list of accusations against me that she was intending to turn into the principal’s office; when I told my dad about it, he asked Deborah about it one day after school. Deborah in turn came to me to complain that my father had yelled at her and accused her due to my lies.
Alma Heights wasn’t only manufacturing trauma; they were also pretty good at creating lies.
Unfortunately, no one got it as worse as Deborah’s kids. I know she threw one of them out when she got pregnant; another one I saw on the street in San Francisco and he told me he ran away.
After two and a half years of this garbage, I finally put my foot down: I told my parents that I refused to go back, and they pulled me out. I was not suspended or expelled; I refused to return to that place. I feared that the inferior curriculum would not prepare me for the rigors of a college-prep high school; as a matter of fact, I know that I would not have gotten into UCLA or obtained a degree in Chemistry if I had continued at Alma Heights Christian Academy.
***
Alma Heights Christian Academy was founded in 1955 as one of numerous segregation academies formed in response to the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 decision: Brown vs Board of Education. White folks wanted to ensure their children only attended school with other white folks; segregation academies were how they accomplished this.
Alma Bridwell White (who Alma Heights was named after) was the first woman bishop of the Pillar of Fire church. She was an outspoken feminist and racist; preaching that equality for White Protestant women (and inequality for minorities) was biblically mandated. She was also very supportive of the Ku Klux Klan, participating in cross burnings and speaking at their rallies. White published three books: The Ku Klux Klan in Prophecy, Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty, and Heroes of the Fiery Cross.
When you find out the very foundation of Alma Heights is hatred and racism, it all makes sense! Why didn’t they just name it The Ku Klux Klan Academy and be done with it?
Today I’ve come to realize that my experiences at Alma Heights were not my fault. I was not a bad kid. But I was failed by many adults, including my own parents. This has taken years of therapy to work through but ultimately I have come out much stronger and more compassionate because of it.
It is my hope no one ever has to endure the pain I suffered at Alma Heights.
Eric Curry is an organizer, writer, San Francisco historian, and former Congressional candidate. Check out his guided tours here or read his first book, A Real San Francisco Story. With Pets. here