Roy seemed adrift. He was 14 and headed for trouble. But when he entered a Scientology school, the transformation was swift. Within two years, he was working alongside the Church of Scientology's most senior executives. The church reels off dozens of success stories like Roy's. But it doesn't mention a Clearwater boy named Carlo. Carlo, 15, didn't go to school. He worked from 8:30 in the morning until 10 at night for $30 a week. He told police that he couldn't ...

[Picture / Caption: Happy Scientologists: Marie C. Gale poses with her husband, David, son Philip and daughter Elizabeth.] Marie C. Gale is raising her children the same way her parents raised her: using the principles of Scientology. "Considering my parents and grandmother, my children are fourth- generation Scientologists," Mrs. Gale, 36, said in a letter. Mrs. Gale, of Clearwater, is one of many local Scientologists who say their religion offers benefits to their families, their children in particular. Members say Scientology ...

Scientologists believe they are saving the world from insanity, war and crime. "Saving the world is an understatement," said former member Kenneth Wasserman. "Saving the universe" is more like it, he said. This intense sense of purpose explains why some Scientologists are willing to work 12-hour days for $30 a week. Others pay up to $800 for an hour of counseling, and one couple brought a $35,000 counseling package. Critics say this sense of mission has another consequence: Next to saving ...

Two local teenagers who raised money for Narconon — a drug rehabilitation program linked to the Church of Scientology — say they were told they'd make more money fund-raising than going to school this fall. Adam Blackburn and Dale Fairfax, who are no longer fund-raising for Narconon, said their supervisor told them they likely wouldn't want to go back to school if they continued to work as salesmen. "He said 'You won't be going back to school after you see the ...

The principal of a Sherman Oaks elementary school has canceled an assembly by an environmental group because of fears that parents would object to the organization's connection with the Church of Scientology. The Sherman Oaks School's 927 students were scheduled to watch skits and hear songs Monday performed by Cry Out, an environmental group affiliated with Scientology. The event, which was to include an appearance by child actor Vonni Ribisi, was to kick off a yearlong study of environmental issues such ...

Emerging from years of internal strife and public scandal, the Scientology movement has embarked on a sweeping and sophisticated campaign to gain new influence in America. The goal is to refurbish the tarnished image of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and elevate him to the ranks of history's great humanitarians and thinkers. By so doing, the church hopes to broaden the acceptability of Hubbard's Scientology teachings and attract millions of new members. The campaign relies on official church programs and a ...

The Scientology movement's Foundation for Advancements in Science and Education has befriended one of America's most celebrated teachers, Jaime Escalante of Garfield High School. Escalante is the East Los Angeles teacher profiled in the hit 1988 film "Stand and Deliver," which chronicled his success in teaching advanced calculus to barrio students. During the last few years, the foundation has provided Escalante with tens of thousands of dollars for computers, audiovisual aids, tutors and scholarships. In addition, the foundation has solicited contributions ...

We must: A) stop the killing in El Salvador, B) stop censorship of the arts, C) reform the Internal Revenue Service, and D) provide housing for AIDS victims. It was all of the above yesterday at the Federal Office Building, where the first day of spring was greeted by more than 100 people rallying for various causes. It made for a curious melange of symbolism and rhetoric. There were the crude wooden crosses to symbolize the victims of Salvadoran death squads, ...

Because the number of idealistic, self-sacrificing college students is particularly high, U.S. college campuses are the prime recruiting grounds for potentially dangerous cults, according to the director of the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute. Louis Joylan West, who is also psychiatrist-in-chief at the UCLA Medical Center, talked about "totalist" cults and their methods of coercive persuasion last week as part of the Learn-at-Lunch series. "Totalist" cults are those that use deceptive and harmful coercive techniques to draw in new members. Approximately 25,000 cults ...

CLEARWATER — The outbreak of measles reported by county health officials this week has been traced to the True School, a private school in Clearwater that uses the teachings of L. Run Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology. A Health Department official said Tuesday that 40 of the 100 students at the school had not been immunized. But Sherry Payson, a spokeswoman for the school, said she thinks the figure is lower. She said neither the school nor Scientology discourages ...

CLEARWATER — A local school student council could win $5,000 in a contest — if the school follows the offical guidelines outlined in Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's book "The Way to Happiness." At least one Pinellas school principal received a flier advertising the contest sponsored nationally by the Concerned Businessmen's Association of America, an organization that has been tied to the Church of Scientology. School principals are asked to fill out a request form to enter their school in the ...

The Cult Awareness Network, a Chicago-based organization dedicated to "alerting the world to the danger of destructive cults," has an interesting item in its latest newsletter about a Montessori school in Illinois using books by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. The item, based on an article in the Chicago Sun-Times, said the school's founder, a Scientologist, fired six of her teachers because they refused to use the books. "I'm the leader, and I call the shots," Janet Bowes is quoted ...

Scientologists and opponents of cults waged a war of leaflets last night as more than 100 angry parents confronted two representatives of a Park Ridge Montessori school that fired five teachers in a furor over teaching materials. Claiming their children had been traumatized by the abrupt firings, some parents threatened a breach-of-contract lawsuit. Parents said two-thirds of the more than 200 students at the school were withdrawn because the teachers were fired when they refused to use books designed by the ...

Susan and Robert Volenec were out of work and their two children were out of school yesterday after an uproar at a Park Ridge Montessori facility over books designed by Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. The parents were among six teachers fired Wednesday by Janet Bowes, founder and director of Children's Learning World, 2703 W. Sibley, after they refused to use books designed by Hubbard. The school had nine teachers and one of the fired teachers returned yesterday, a ...

Six teachers at a Park Ridge Montessori school were fired yesterday after refusing to use books designed by Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, school officials said. Janet Bowes, founder and director of the Children's Learning World, 2703 W. Sibley, said the teachers were dismissed "strictly" because they violated their contracts. She said the school, which has 215 students, was not introducing any religious studies to the curriculum. "This is strictly a secular matter," Bowes said. "I'm the leader of ...

Why a Portland jury awarded $39 million in damages against one of the world's most profitable cults. ONE SUNNY AFTERNOON last week, an elderly man, who looked as though he had probably spent the past few nights sleeping under the stars, stood in the southeast corner of Lownsdale Square in downtown Portland gazing in bewilderment at the scene before him. Several hundred people, many wearing T-shirts proclaiming something about a crusade for religious freedom, gathered around a large stage in the ...

Three years after publishing a best-selling book in 1950 about his theories for improving mental health, L. Ron Hubbard, 42, was living in Spain and worrying about money. An idea struck him. Why not present Scientology as a religion, he suggested in a letter written to Helen O'Brien, then the head of an organization for marketing his mental health concepts known as the Hubbard Association of Scientologists. This was the formative stage of the Church of Scientology. Over the next 30 ...

A young woman who once won and then lost more than $2 million in damages against the Church of Scientology in Portland started a second legal attack Monday on grounds that Scientologists defrauded her during nine months in 1975 and 1976. Julie Christofferson Titchbourne, who began her involvement with the church when she was 17, is asking a Multnomah County Circuit Court jury to return $3,253 she paid for courses and books and to award punitive damages as high as $42 ...

As the athletes of the world come together in peace to compete in the Olympics, a group of peacemakers in Watts, a city once town by riots, received an international peace award Wednesday. It was presented by a Century City-based group. On behalf of Bridge Publications, singer Amanda Ambrose, who has a special interest in Watts, presented a handsomely framed copy of the lyrics of the song "Declaration of Peace," composed by L. Ron Hubbard, to the Parents of Watts (POW). ...

Two youngsters were expelled from a private school in Bellevue last week because of a continuing dispute about the real wishes of a 72-year-old man who hasn't been seen in years. The youngsters, brothers Garrett and Allen Dean, aged 6 and 9, must wonder what happened. Despite their good grades and conduct, the boys were kicked out of The Learning Place School, a private institution that follows the educational philosophy of L. Ron Hubbard but invites students of all faiths. Hubbard, ...

With $175 and a small box of books under his arm, Martin Samuels brought Scientology to the Sacramento area in the 1960s. He soon built a $10 million empire. The church rated his missions in Davis and Sacramento the best in the world. Then, in 1982, it all collapsed. Samuels left the church with nothing more than a suitcase half full of clothes. Samuels charges in a lawsuit that the Church illegally took it all away from him. The suit, being ...

The Church of Scientology, despite shrinking membership, still wields power in Sacramento — openly through its church and missions, and not-so-openly through other organizations. Some buildings — a church on 15th Street near Memorial Auditorium and branch missions in Carmichael and Davis — are obviously part of Scientology. Other holdings, including a shopping center called Fulton Square that the church bought through another business entity, are less conspicuous. The Flag Service Organization Inc., a Florida branch of Scientology, bought the $1.5 ...

It is not uncommon for present or former Scientology members to try to kill themselves, according to three national experts on the controversial religion founded by L. Ron Hubbard. The head of the Scientology Church in Michigan, however, denies that Scientology practices have led to suicides. And the president of the international Church of Scientology, the Rev. Heber C. Jentzsch, headquartered in Los Angeles, dismisses the experts quoted in this story as "liars," who he says are out to discredit a ...

A 1,300 acre site used for a school associated with the Church of Scientology has won initial backing from a federal committee for a prison site to house 400 minimum security inmates. The Executive Committee of the Federal Bureau of Prisons meeting in Tallahasse, Fla., was reported Friday to have chosen the site for further consideration for a prison. The prison would have a staff of about 140 and a $4.6-million annual budget. Alice Propes, real estate agent for the Delphian ...