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| Former WELS Luther Prep President - Mark Schroeder |
A Wisconsin Nightmare
To this day I am still coming to grips with what I experienced from the ages of 14-17 as a student living on the campus of Watertown Luther Preparatory School. For this reason I am posting this on a throwaway account. My goal in sharing my experiences is that others may find they are not alone, and that they too can share their stories and continue healing. I do also hope that those who ran the school are held accountable, those currently in charge force changes if they haven't already occurred, and that future parents and students are made aware of what went on in the dormitories, locker rooms and whole campus of Luther Prep in Wisconsin.
In the 2000's I attended Watertown Luther Prep as a student for most of my high school years though I hit a breaking point and left the school to finish elsewhere. 100+ members of my incoming freshman class had done the same before me. I am not sure how many after me broke down and went back home before graduating as well.
For those who are unaware, Luther Preparatory School is a four year Lutheran high school where students live on campus and away from their parents and guardians. The stated goal of the school is to prepare the next generation for a life in the ministry of Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) schools and churches.
My years there were terrible and filled with pain. As an adult I now see many glaring situations that would have been appropriate to call law enforcement, speak to a trusted adult, and likely file lawsuits against the school, the Wisconsin Evangelical Synod, and the individuals charged with the care and well being of the students that boarded and attended there.
However, it was our parents and trusted adults that sent us to live there in the first place. Most were so indoctrinated with the teachings of the WELS that they would not be able to hear our pleas for help anyway. The WELS is a strict Christian group that has its roots in Wisconsin but is now spread widely across the midwest, and even has an international presence. To publicly push against it means a serious threat to ones career, social connections, and if one believes — their eternal life.
As an incoming freshman, school sanctioned hazings were the norm. An event at the start of each year, called the slime line, was held. You were partnered with a senior, and this senior could throw whatever they wanted on you. Eggs, oil, flour, paint, feathers etc. The Dean of Students at the time, oversaw the event and cheered them on. Of course, we were told the event was “optional” but the assigned seniors would make it known that it wasn't.
For me this meant being woken up in my bed around midnight the night before. Four senior boys stood over my bed and pulled me up. They stripped my down to my underwear and inserted a pole through each leg. They then twisted the pole until my testicles were crushed. As I cried and begged for them to stop, they lifted me up and held the pole in the air until my underwear ripped clean through and I fell to the floor. This was called a “pole bender” and was used widely that night throughout the male dormitories by seniors to ensure that their freshman would show up the next day for the slime line. I reported this to the male staff in charge of my floor, but he was a 25 year old fresh out of seminary. He simply laughed at the ordeal we were put through. I was told it was normal and we would get our chance in four years to do the same.
Throughout that year I learned the freshman class was simply going to be abused like this until the end of the year. An overweight friend of mine had sausages and Bologna thrown at him many times walking across campus, constant tauntings, and much more. He too made a few timid attempts to reach out to the staff person in our dorm, but eventually had a mental break and left the school to return home out of state. In fact many people had mental breaks and left the school over the four years I attended.
Football should be a time to learn teamwork, sportsmanship, and persistence. The lessons I learned on the football team at Prep were that if you didn't show up to urinate on the visiting bleachers after chapel the evening before a game night, the team would punch and urinate on you in the locker room. At least a few of the coaches were aware of this practice and thought it funny. I refused to participate in this and was then urinated on by teammates while I attempted to shower. After that I left the team. You should probably bring a seat pad when vising games at Luther Preparatory School.
This was not a rare occurrence though. In the dorms the showers were open and had no stalls. Many times older students found it funny to urinate on us or in our shampoo when we weren't looking. They would slap our testicles and “jokingly” commit other sexual assaults. I sincerely wonder how many hundreds of people were victimized while at this school. It breaks my heart to even think about the magnitude of what went on.
As a whole, LPS was quite unsavory. Very few minority students attended and I'm sure they fared far worse than I. Ethnic names were mocked by students and staff alike. I would hear the N word daily and black students were certainly disciplined and expelled far more often for the same offenses that the white students would commit.
With students living on the campus and many being from the midwest, there were some that were hunters. I recall instances of long guns, compound bows, and hunting knives being kept in dorm rooms by students that were related to the staff. I cannot fathom how this was allowed, but I remember our Tutor at the time (the 20 something in charge of the dorms) holding and admiring the guns of a classmate that he planned to take out hunting on the weekend. Rather than take the extra trip home before hunting, he simply brought it along to his dorm the prior weekend. He was related to a few very high ranking WELS members as well as the school president, so he was told just to keep them in his closet and not talk about them much. Seeing as this kid had punched out a window in an attempt to attack and beat me and my friends the year before, I was terrified!
In the classroom or on the field the decorum of the staff wasn't much better. I'm sure some were good people, but many would purposely enjoy jumbling up names of students that were asian, african american, latin or otherwise not German sounding. I remember an asian classmate that was clearly disturbed every time his name was purposely turned into something else by staff.. he would just stare at the ground as they laughed. Additionally with the WELS being staunchly anti-LGBTQ, many kids were mocked using gay slurs. “Well that sounds gay.” was a phrase used by more than one instructor and professor during class. The sports teams heard that and worse regularly from the coaches if their efforts were deemed unmanly.
Homophobia and hate are ingrained in the culture of the WELS and it permeated the school during my time there. To any of my classmates that had to struggle with their identity while in the WELS, I honor you as you are, and am so sorry for what you must have gone through. I truly hope a life of healing has found you. You are wonderful and beautiful just as you are. Love is love!
I could go on and on about the culture of Luther Prep School, the WELS, their many other schools and churches but I will end with this. I sincerely believe large scale abuse occurred at Luther Prep School and was consistently perpetuated or simply ignored by staff. It is likely still going on. I am now far removed from this sect though and don't know if reforms have happened. I am sure many hundreds of students of this school and other WELS schools have stories the same and likely far worse. My hope is that the discussion can open up and we all find healing and justice.
My ultimate wishes are:
The WELS is investigated and publicly held accountable for its past.
Large scale reforms for the future of LPS and the WELS. (Nail em' to the doors Martin Luther Style?)
Public apologies are issued to all students past and present for the abuse they incurred while at LPS.
Refunds of all tuition money for those past and present that were abused.
If you have an experience with LPS, other WELS school, or WELS in general please speak up now! Sects like this must not be allowed to abuse and destroy another generation.
*edited to remove names of individuals
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| At Northwestern College, Watertown, hazing meant pretending to have sex with the Springer statue, from the back. |
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Hello everyone.
Recently something very serious came to my attention and it needs to be publicly addressed. I attended Luther Prep, one of our synod prep boarding schools and had some rather unacceptable encounters while attending. When I noted any of these to staff in charge, I was told ‘Don’t worry, it used to be worse’ instead of addressing the problem. I had no proof and no corroborating evidence, and my name isn’t a WELS name so I didn’t think any further action would be useful.
Until the other day a friend of mine shared a Reddit exposé on an anonymous author’s experiences at LPS in the early 2000s. My heart broke. THIS is what our synod out our young people through?? This is the history of how we got to ‘well at least it’s better around here than it used to be’? Because it is NOT better. It’s still not acceptable even in 2021. I truthfully don’t know where to go with this but something needs to happen. I know countless individuals with similar stories, myself included, and many of said individuals are minorities or people who ended up turning away from the WELS because of their experience at prep. I know some of the content below is not doctrinal but I ask you to disregard that and focus on the fact that this person was a brother in Christ who was humiliated for no reason. And that needs to be rectified. Thank you.
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The President of Luther Prep at that time was President Schroeder, the now WELS president. I know a lot of people who feel that if guy couldn't watch over me at a school, why do I want to be a part of church body that he is now responsible for?
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A former boss of mine attended Northwestern Prep during the 1970s and said the hazing was absolutely horrible then, and the professors turned a blind eye. Unfortunately it turned him off from the WELS because he wouldn't have anything to do with called workers who were complicit in that behavior.
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| John Lawrenz, on the far left, laughed about the MLS boy who was dangled out the winder. They let go and the boy had one or more bone breaks. They called Paul Kuske's time as dean there - The Reign of Terror. John Brenner was no better at MLS or at Mequon. Two seminarians who complained about hazing at Mequon were hated out of the school. |
The rules are selectively enforced, no doubt about that. Family connections are a real thing.
Can confirm the "hazing". I think during my time there was a transition to get rid of a lot of the older hazing rituals. Lots of freshmen parents started complaining. So that was the last year the freshmen were forced to run naked on the soccer field.
I know a WELS pastor who refused to send his kids to LPS due to the hazing he received back in the 80s.
I could talk for a while on this subject (including selective punishment). I was at MLS and LPS (even MLC for just a year). I have to say, MLS was a lot less cultish.
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| The WELS Thought Police warn once, only. They get even forever. |
I went to LPS for one year. I still think about the things I saw and was forced to watch/participate in even after talking to the tutors AND the Dean . The tutors would take part.
I too, have had the thought of, "should I call the police?" This is still a thought that haunts me today. It's not just the hazing (which went beyond the staff sanctioned hazing week) or the showers. The teachers weren't above using slurs for disabilities and other things as the Reddit poster states. There was also so much deprivation of normal rights on a day to day basis such as punishments and simple living dorm comforts.
There's so much I could write, but I was just having this talk the other day with my husband (also an LPS grad). We're stuck with public school where we live for our children. For reasons listed, Prep is not an option unless things have truly changed. We're looking into GPLS. Hopefully this isn't something that's bled into the "culture" of other WELS prep schools.
So yes, it's as bad as the poster makes it sound, and I'd say even worse. The staff knew, allowed it, and some participated.
