In this post, we will go over the third witness’ testimony. This witness was a female student of Midwest Academy and had personal experience with Ben Trane, the sexual surveys, OSS and the ‘body image class.” The link to the full testimony will be posted below our highlights.
According to the witness, the environment in Midwest Academy was very lonely and isolating. The rules were that they could not touch each other or speak without permission. Since humans are social beings, imagine not being able to speak to your peers throughout the day. Your teenage years are where you develop your social skills unless you were at Midwest Academy. In that case, you wouldn’t be allowed to talk to anyone without permission.
Q. What about– Well, what rules did you dislike the most?
A. The rules revolving around communication, because there are many rules such as–not only no talking, but no non-verbal communication, such as eye contact, or no physical touch, nothing. You were very isolated. There was no communication allowed until certain levels.
Q. Was that hard?
A. That was– It was very lonely. And especially not receiving any counseling, I went very long periods without communicating. It was very isolating.
The witness was 14 years old during her time at Midwest Academy. During that time, she was an upper level and was responsible for watching girls that were in OSS. At different points, this 14 year old girl witnessed a girl try to hang herself with her shirt. She also witnessed an 11 year old girl cut herself and draw a mural on the wall. The witness had to clean up the blood. Given that this was a therapeutic boarding school, one wonders what Ben Trane and staff were thinking having other students be responsible for students who might be suicidal or harming themselves. This should have been handled by a trained professional instead, not a child.
Q. You were actually a rover in OSS; is that right?
A. I was.
Q. What did it mean to be a rover?
A. It meant you would take the girls to the bathroom with the other rover. You would link arms with them, take them, watch them in the bathroom. You would sit in the rooms outside the closed OSS door. And if like, for example, like one girl was sitting underneath the camera and self-harming, so my job was to stand on the chair and look through the window and watch her. And we’d switch off every few hours with the other rover, but just to keep an eye on her and make sure she wasn’t wrapping her shirt around her neck because she was stripping off pieces of her shirt. And you would just participate with the girls in that way, keep an eye on them.
Q. You weren’t there to keep them company?
A. No. You would–sometimes they would allow a fifteen-minute talk if the person was sitting in structure and working to get out of OSS. But it was very–based on the staff and the situation.
Q. And there was always a staff member there watching the monitors; is that correct?
A. Yes.
Q. So you said this one time the girl is ripping her shirt and trying to put it around her neck. Did things like happen a lot?
A. Very often. There was a lot of different situations in OSS.
Q. What are some other things that you saw occur where the kids were hurting themselves?
A. I witnessed– Can I say names?
Q. If you just want to say the first name.
A. Hxxxxx, an 11 year old who was there. She was–had some behavioral issues and very deep problems, and she was in OSS consistently, like pretty much the
entire time. And there was a certain situation where she was self-harming, and she had made herself bleed. And in her blood, she drew a picture on the wall of her house and her family in her own blood.
Q. Did you have to clean that up?
A. I did have to clean up blood at one point.
This 14 year old girl had to help restrain her peers when the staff asked. Since she helped watch the children in OSS, she would often have to take them to the bathroom. If they ever tried to get away when she or other students were taking them to the bathroom, she would receive a consequence for the other student’s actions.
Q. And as a rover, you were also expected to help restrain, if needed; is that right?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you ever have to do that?
A. I did.
Q. What does that mean when you help restrain?
A. You, for example– Can I give an example?
Q. Sure.
A. I was taking a girl–and I was the only rover–I was taking a girl to the bathroom, and she decided she was going to run. And she elbowed me and started, like, running down the hallway. And if I let her go, I would get a consequence, so I chased her and we sort of–we had a very physical altercation, like, fighting. She bit me. It was just a fight, basically, trying to– And I called for more upper levels, and then staff intervened after– yes, staff came and intervened.
Q. So if one of the people that you’re watching gets away, you get a consequence as the rover?
A. As an upper level, your job is to– yeah, you would get a consequence if you didn’t intervene.
Q. How old were you when you were a rover?
A. I was 14. I turned 15 there.
The witness testified that Ben Trane was the man who could override the rules at Midwest Academy. Even though he set the rules and structure, he was the one who could break it or have kids come over to babysit his children. The ironic part is that the Traniacs try to paint the kids at Midwest Academy as “the worst of the worst” but it seems that Ben Trane had no problem letting some of these problem children watch his own kids.
Q. Was it when Mr. Ben came in the room you knew something different might happen or there might be something fun?
A. Yes. It was a consequence to approach him because everyone wanted to be around Mr. Ben and talk to him. You wanted to have a relationship with him to experience, like, the benefits of that, like maybe you get points or you’d get taken out to lunch.
Q. Could Mr. Ben override the rules?
A. Yes.
Q. What do you mean by that?
A. He could–say if a student was struggling and he reached out to her, he could make it so–he could put points into the system, make her a Level 2, or he could–or when you were with him, there was no such thing as–you could talk to whoever you were with, like the rules were suddenly–all the structure was alleviated.
Q. Did you ever get to go off campus with Mr. Ben?
A. I did.
Q. What types of things would you do?
A. He took me to play volleyball at the local high school. He took me out to lunch on my birthday, and I babysat his children once. And this was all as an upper level.
Q. Where did you babysit his children at?
A. At his house.
Q. And Mr. Ben took most kids out to lunch–lunch or dinner for their birthday; is that right?
A. Yes.
When Ben Trane took someone out, it was the only time you could really pretend to be normal according to this witness but even then her feelings about him were conflicted since he was both the one inflicting the structure and bypassing it.
Q. So when you would get to go out for your birthday or go be with Mr. Ben somewhere, you got to relax a little bit?
A. You got to be human.
Q. So it sounds like overall, you had positive experiences with the Defendant?
A. I did.
Q. Did you have any negative experiences?
A. Um–
Q. Or was there anything that you felt conflicted about when you were around Mr. Ben?
A. I did feel conflicted around Mr. Ben because I knew that he was the one inflicting the structure and the rules. And it was just an act the way he would– the way he would give the privileges and stuff.
Q. Mr. Ben was the person in charge, and all the kids knew that; right?
A. Uh-huh (in the affirmative).
Q. Is that a yes?
A. Yes.
Q. But then again, Mr. Ben was the person that gave you the fun stuff; right?
A. Uh-huh (in the affirmative).
Q. Yes?
A. Yes.
The witness also was required to fill out the sexual survey. She said it was given to every girl
Q. Did you ever take a sexual survey?
A. I did.
Q. Where did you fill that out at?
A. In the classroom.
Q. And who did you get that from?
A. Whatever staff member–I think the
shift leader brought them in, and then a staff member passed them out.
Q. And it was an anonymous form? Or
do you remember?
A. I don’t remember.
Q. I just want to touch briefly on the sex survey. That was given to the entire class; correct?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you have to participate?
A. Yes, I would say that. You had– you did what you were told.
Q. And you don’t remember if it was anonymous or not?
A. I don’t.
Q. And you said that it was given to every girl in the class?
A. I think so.
The witness was required to participate in the body image class. She wasn’t sure if there was a camera in that room or not but she felt like staying dressed was not optional. The witness stated that she got a very bad vibe from Ben Trane.
Q. Did you ever do the body image class?
A. I did.
Q. Tell us about that?
A. Mr. Ben pulled out a few girls at a time. And then he had mirrors set up in our uniform room and said–told us we could get completely undressed if we want or down to our underwear and just to look into the mirror from different angles and get a really good view of yourself from all the different angles and then describe it, and then assess your body type.
Q. Was that a big deal to get to look in a mirror?
A. Yes. There were no mirrors on the girls’ dorm, and there are no mirrors in the bathroom. Well, there are no mirrors anywhere.
Q. Did you participate?
A. I did.
Q. After being in the room and you came out, was there a discussion about what body type you are?
A. Yes.
Q. And who was that with?
A. Mr. Ben.
Q. What was the discussion about?
A. Where your curves are, just your body type.
Q. Were the other girls there too? Are you all talking about this together with Mr. Ben?
A. Yes
Q. And the body image exercise, was that a voluntary thing?
A. No. I wouldn’t say that.
Q. If you went in the uniform room and just stood there, was there any way anybody would know what you were doing?
A. No. I mean, there were cameras in every room, except for like the bathrooms. So I’m not aware if there was one in there or not.
Q. Did you undress?
A. Yes.
Q. But you were told that was an option; correct?
A. I don’t think so.
Q. I believe your prior testimony with Ms. Timmins was that Mr. Trane told you that you could undress if you want?
A. The way the school was structured, though, you didn’t–you didn’t, like, say no to things, and you didn’t, like, refuse to do stuff. I mean, it’s like implied that you do what you’re told and go where you’re taken. So maybe it wasn’t specifically stated, like, this is an option or not, but it’s just how the school was set up.
Q. When you went into the room, was the door closed?
A. Uh-huh (in the affirmative).
Q. Is that a yes?
A. Yes. Sorry.
Q. It’s okay. Everybody does it.
A. Yeah.
Q. And you went in alone?
A. Yes.
Q. And I’m assuming you were in there just a few minutes and then came back out?
A. Yes.
Q. And then you had these diagrams that were given to you?
A. Yes.
Q. And my understanding is some additional information about maybe diet and exercise specific to a body type?
A. Yeah, I think so.
Q. At Midwest Academy were there concerns or issues with at least some of the girls about body image, low selfesteem, even eating disorders?
A. Yes. I don’t think they were addressed, though, in the right way.
Q. Did you ever feel uncomfortable with Mr. Trane?
A. Yes. Mostly when first getting there. It was completely uncomfortable. And then after a few months, you settle in and it just becomes your life, and the whole dynamic changes. But first getting there, I felt very uncomfortable with what the staff was doing, and I didn’t understand how the structure was enforced and the psychology behind what they thought they were doing, so I was very uncomfortable.
Q. I guess my question was more geared toward Mr. Trane personally, not the program.
A. Yes, when I first got there especially. It becomes really normal. But when I first got there– Q. What did– Go ahead.
A. In my first interaction with him, I felt very uncomfortable.
Q. What did he do that made you feel uncomfortable?
A. Nothing. He just introduced himself to me and said I would be fine, not to cry, and I’ll settle in, and it will feel fine. And I just thought it was very uncomfortable.
Q. So your discomfort was more with the entire situation, not with anything he specifically did or said?
A. His vibe. I don’t know. So yeah, it was him specifically. I got a very bad feeling.
Q. But he didn’t say anything or do anything specifically?
A. No.
Ben Trane would talk about sex with the girls. In one incident, the girls were discussing pleasure and positions with Ben and he stated that younger boys didn’t know how to please them. This was not the first or last time the witness recalls Ben having conversations like this with girls.
Q. Were you ever around the Defendant when he talked to you or other girls about sex?
A. Yes.
Q. Can you tell us about that?
A. I talked to Mr. Ben about sex. The particular time I remember is as an upper level coming–driving back from St. Louis with another girl, Axxxx, and we were in the car, and we were talking about relationships and previous relationships we’ve had. And then we were talking about– started to talk about sexual relationships and how boys our age don’t know how to, you know–don’t know how to do that. And we talked about different, like, there has to be different positions and stuff like that.
Q. You smiled and you looked like you got embarrassed when you said, they don’t know how to do that. Are you talking about sex?
A. They don’t how to, like, please people when they’re young.
Q. So you said Mr. Ben, you, and Axxxx were up in the front of the van?
A. Uh-huh (in the affirmative).
Q. Is that a yes?
A. Yes.
Q. And the conversation was talking about relationships and boys and things like that; correct?
A. Yes.
Q. And was it Mr. Ben that specifically made these statements about boys your age can’t please you and things like that?
A. It was.
Q. Is that the first time he had had that kind of conversation with you?
A. No. That’s one that I can recall, like, well. But I was–we were very open with him with those things.
Q. What do you mean by that?
A. Like, now I can understand that’s not typical. But, like, our relationship with him–like, you really looked up to him; you really wanted to be around him; and, then when you were with him you could actually talk and you were just very open with him.
Q. You said there was discussion about sexual positions?
A. Yes.
Q. Was he asking you questions, or was he saying things that he liked, or what was that about?
A. It was about– Can you repeat the question?
Q. Yes. I was just asking more details of the conversation. And if you don’t know, just say you don’t know. That’s fine. But you said there was discussion about sexual positions, and boys not being able to please you. Was there anything else?
A. As far as details go, that’s about as much as I can recall.
Q. How often would sexual conversations come up with Mr. Ben?
A. I wouldn’t say, like, very often. It wasn’t every encounter. It was also rare to talk to him though.
When the witness went home, she had a hard time acclimating to socializing with her peers again. She didn’t go back to the old behaviors she had prior to Midwest Academy but that was due to her new problems that she did not have prior to Midwest Academy.
Q. And when you got home, did you start engaging in some of the same behavior that got you into Midwest Academy at the beginning?
A. No, I didn’t, because I couldn’t socialize with people. I was very traumatized. It was very hard for me to talk and connect with people. And that was not my issues before I went. They were very different.
Q. Well, did you start following rules at home? The other issues you were having at home, did those come back again after you went home?
A. Yes.
