The Bad Cadet: Growing Up in the Church of Scientology's Sea Organization

At age six, Katherine Spallino is separated from her parents and sent to train for her future in the Church of Scientology's clergy—the Sea Organization. Naively happy at first, she thinks it's a fun adventure to live in a Scientology-owned dorm room in Los Angeles with thirteen other girls, rarely seeing her parents and never going to a normal school. She's committed to her Scientology studies and her life's purpose of clearing the planet. Later, Katherine is sent to live at a secluded ranch with other young prospective Sea Org members, called cadets, where she studies Scientology and does manual labor—weeding fields, digging trenches, and working in the galley. The indoctrination escalates, and her family slips even farther into the background. But as she enters her teenage years, a host of new, more immediate concerns emerge—namely boys, popularity, fits of rebellion, and fantasies of what else life has to offer. As the Sea Org beckons, the fundamental question intensifies—should she commit herself to the church, or reject everything she's ever known for a chance at a different life? The Bad Cadet captures the universal coming-of-age challenges and adventures that befall teenage girls set within the bizarre backdrop of life as a Scientology cadet. In this engaging memoir, Katherine offers a nuanced and raw account using her diaries to draw upon her real experiences. She immerses the reader through descriptive writing and poignant scenes as we travel back to the 1990s, where over two hundred kids were separated from their parents and raised for the purpose of the Sea Org. At age six, Katherine Spallino is separated from her parents and sent to train for her future in the Church of Scientologys clergythe Sea Organization. Naively happy at first, she thinks its a fun adventure to live in a Scientology-owned dorm room in Los Angeles with thirteen other girls, rarely seeing her parents and never going to a normal school. Shes committed to her Scientology studies and her lifes purpose of clearing the planet.Later, Katherine is sent to live at a secluded ranch with other young prospective Sea Org members, called cadets, where she studies Scientology and does manual laborweeding fields, digging trenches, and working in the galley. The indoctrination escalates and her family slips even farther into the background. But as she enters her teenage years, a host of new, more immediate concerns emergenamely boys, popularity, fits of rebellion, and fantasies of what else life has to offer.As the Sea Org beckons, the fundamental question intensifiesshould she commit herself to the church, or reject everything shes ever known for a chance at a different life? "The Bad Cadet is the shocking and highly engaging account of a childs life in Scientology. Katherines parents signed a billion year contract, putting aside all of their rights, to serve in Scientologys Sea Organization. They also signed away Katherines rights at birth, tricked into believing that they were saving humanity. Katherine and her siblings grew up without parents, shipped away to a ranch run on military lines, without proper care or education, where they were taught to adulate Scientologys fabulist creator Ron Hubbard, and forced into child labor. This poignant account is made even more remarkable by Katherines lack of bitterness and her eye for detail in a sequence of compelling events. She shows that even her indomitable spirit was almost cowed into belief in the bizarre ideas of Scientologys narcissistic founder. Every reader will find this well-written book fascinating, but it will be especially useful to survivors of childhoods in authoritarian cults. I cannot recommend it highly enough." Jon Atack, author of the best-selling history of Scientology, Lets Sell These People a Piece of Blue Sky; The Cult of Greed; and Opening Our Avoiding Abusive Relationships and Authoritarian Groups.