Is scientology in your schools?

Humanist, Sept-Oct, 2004 by Robin Jacobs

For obvious reasons, the lauding of religious leaders isn't supposed to be practiced in U.S. public schools, at least not as a class activity. Yet one widely used school program concludes by having students applaud Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. The program is called Narconon, and it has notable Scientology links.

The state of California is now in the midst of a three-month investigation of the Narconon Drug Prevention and Education program with an eye to possibly barring it from the state's public schools. School districts in Los Angeles and San Francisco are conducting reviews of their own, calling on schools to avoid using it in the interim. Meanwhile, one school district in Los Angeles County and two in Orange County have already expressed intentions to ban Narconon. These actions come in the wake of an article by Nanette Asimov, published in the San Francisco Chronicle on June 9, 2004, examining associations between Narconon and Scientology and quoting specialists in the addictions field to the effect that some of Narconon's teachings are pseudoscientific.

Such official challenges to Narconon have occurred on a smaller scale in the past. For example, the Pinellas County School Board in Florida blocked the program in 1999. But nationwide, Narconon instructors have been giving lectures and courses in public schools, grades three through twelve, for twenty years and in prisons since Narconon's creation in 1966. Furthermore, according to the website of Narconon International (www.narconon.org), in 1998 the Narconon Utah NewLife Juvenile Center in Provo began working with the Utah juvenile court system to provide a court-ordered rehabilitation program for juvenile offenders ages thirteen through seventeen. This included the training of probation officers in Narconon principles.

Narconon public school programs have been reported in at least twenty school districts in California. As for other states, the Humanist inquired of Narconon International President Clark Carr, who responded that lectures have been given "to over 2 million children and adults over several decades (440,000 last year worldwide, 44,000 in California)." He added that "Narconon drug prevention lectures are currently being delivered across the United States" in "all New England states, Washington D.C., Georgia, Florida, Oklahoma and surrounding states, Michigan and Illinois, Texas, New Mexico, Idaho, California, Nevada, Hawaii, and possibly others I am not remembering at the moment." Research points to at least twenty-four states, also including Maryland, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Carr went on to indicate over twenty foreign countries, including Canada and Mexico, "from which statistics of Narconon drug prevention presentations are reported weekly to us." On its website, Narconon boasts a network of over one hundred drug prevention and rehabilitation centers worldwide, thirteen in the United States, reaching hundreds of thousands of people annually.

Looking closer at what statistics like this can mean locally, on March 3, 1998, the Boston Herald reported that, according to federal income tax documents, Narconon, Inc., of Everett, Massachusetts, had been paid at least $942,853 in taxpayer funds "over an eight-year period for delivering anti-drug lectures at public and parochial schools through-out the region." And the Albuquerque Journal reported on August 28, 2002, that Narconon Rio Grande, Inc., had received a $7,500 grant from the Public Service Company of New Mexico Foundation. The money was directed toward expanding Narconon programs in Bernalillo and Sandoval county schools.

NARCONON AND SCIENTOLOGY

The Scientology connection raises the possibility of church-state separation violations. Founded in 1954 by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, the Church of Scientology advances the belief that humans are naturally good, non-material spiritual beings. It is the church's doctrine that a lack of knowledge and awareness about the self, or lack of clarity, leads to unhappiness. Scientologists are greatly concerned about drug abuse because, in their view, drugs keep humans from achieving mental clarity and realizing themselves as spiritual beings. The name Scientology is defined by Scientologists as "knowing how to know" and Scientology practice includes processes aimed at clearing harmful three-dimensional sensory images, or engrams, from the mind.

As for Scientology's connection with Narconon, the Narconon website states that the program was first established in the Arizona State Prison by Scientology volunteers using a drug rehabilitation methodology developed by Hubbard. This was at the request of inmate William Benitez who had written directly to Hubbard for help. Today, says the website, and since the time of the organization's founding, most Narconon facilities are developed with the volunteer work and financial support of Scientologists. Specifically, individual Scientology churches actively encourage member support for Narconon and its activities, often running fundraising campaigns. And Narconon International as well as individual Narconon centers have received funding from the Church of Scientology and the International Association of Scientologists.