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'"Re-education facilities" are type of school operated by the Global Community to send those who are resistant to the ideals of the one-world order to be forcibly indoctrinated so that they will be more compliant. Even though "reeducation" has a pejorative connotation in the United States, the Global Community nevertheless used the term for some of its facilities there. The Global Community are committed in the pedagogical character of the reeducation facilities that they are not administered by a bureau of prisons but overseen by the department of education whose jurisdiction includes setting standards for academic schooling.
Reeducation facilities appeared early in the kids series, as they were mentioned in Death Strike before the onset of World War III. At a school assembly during the first day of the next school year, Principal Laverne Jenness announced a "zero tolerance" policy towards those who proselytize religious beliefs antithetical to the values of the Global Community. She threatened the students with expulsion and destruction of their academic records for pushing their beliefs on others. She added that people may be sent to a "Global Community reeducation facility" for "divisive activity", referring to the various incidents with The Underground last school year where the Young Tribulation Force distributed the newspaper to the student body of Nicolae Carpathia High School against the policy of the administration. Before the assembly, Principal Jenness called Judd Thompson Jr. to her office and ominously said that Coach Handlesman was "continuing his reeducation with the Global Community". Handlesman was sent to a reeducation facility for taking the blame and protecting the Young Tribulation Force for the publication and distribution of The Underground newspaper. Principal Jenness insinuated that Judd was really behind the publication since she said the problem with The Underground should disappear now that Coach Handlesman is away.
At the time of his high school graduation, Coach Handlesman appeared to Judd and said that he graduated from the reeducation facility for "good behavior". Coach Handlesman was re-enrolled to a reeducation facility along with Mrs. Waltonen for showing public support for Judd's incendiary salutatorian speech that said that Jesus Christ is the means to salvation and included a call to repentance. According to Bruce Barnes, the Global Community peacekeepers determined that Handlesman was responsible for the device that prevented the sound system from being overridden when Judd was delivering his speech.
After Judd Thompson Jr. was captured for being caught breaking into the Stahley's house in order to recover incriminating documents against Nicolae Carpathia and the Global Community, Judd said to his interrogators that he would not tell them anything. An interrogator replied that Judd "better think hard" about that, recited a list of Judd's violations, and concluded that he is a "prime candidate for reeducation". After a week of silence, Judd would be shipped out from the holding cell to a reeducation camp, but Judd did not know how academically demanding the regime there would be. While Judd was being transported to the reeducation camp, a badly beaten Taylor Graham appeared as one of the prospective students who was to be transported there. While en route to the reeducation camp, the Wrath Of The Lamb earthquake struck, and Taylor and Judd were able to escape.
In Into the Storm, the reeducation camps are said to have five levels from level 1 to level 5. For Judd Thompson's past history, such as delivering a subversive speech proclaiming the gospel at his (revoked) high school graduation, he was being sent to a level 5 camp. Higher level reeducation camps offer courses such as linear algebra and real analysis. When Judd asked Taylor Graham how many level 5 camps there are, Taylor said that there were two such camps in Illinois -- one close to the border near Wisconsin in Rockford and the other down south near a small town named Streator. In Earthquake!, after Judd escape the convey en route to a level 5 reeducation camp and approached the farm of Hank and Judy, Judd was concerned that they would recognize the uniform of the reeducation camp. For hiding escapees of the reeducation camp, the Global Community executed Hank and Judy on the spot on their farm. In Breakout!, it is revealed that Cheryl Tiffane was placed in a reeducation facility for stealing bagels from a grocery store. That reeducation center seemed fairly mild, since there was a communal area where the students are allowed to congregate and the students there did not wear prison uniforms as Cheryl was wearing a hooded sweater. Also, in Darkening Skies, Janie McCanyon was able to escape a reeducation facility, which she said had less security than Northside Detention Center, along with other students. When she ran into Mark Eisman and Melinda Bentley after she escaped, she was wearing a dress that looked like a school uniform.
In the series, there is a distinction between a reeducation center and a prison, with the reeducation centers being seen as more benign. For example, when Vicki Byrne was accused of murdering Laverne Jenness, Mitchell Stein, her adoptive father, advocated for her (though he is not a lawyer) by arguing that she was "a little off in the head" in the hopes that she can be placed in a reeducation camp instead of something much worse. Mr. Stein said that the best Vicki can hope for is to go to a reeducation camp. Taylor Graham, however, just regarded the term to be a euphemism for "prison". In Escape from New Babylon, a group of believers in Johnson City, Tennessee were captured by the Global Community. When Vicki asked about their fate, Carl Meninger said that they may be placed in some kind of "reeducation facility" or that the Global Community may try to make an example of them and place them in prison. In Horsemen of Terror, the GC were planning to release the prisoners in a few days, but some people, including Omer, attempted to storm the prison, and most of that party died.
Janie McCanyon said that in the reeducation facility everyone had their own "faith guide". Her faith guide taught her the precepts of the Enigma Babylon One World Faith. These included the teachings that God was within everyone since God was an idea; that every individual had the power to do anything that he wanted to do; that we get what we deserve right here as heaven is only in your head; and that most of the stories in the Bible—such as Adam and Eve, and the Flood with Noah— were all myth. Before she became a Christian, Janie really did take these teachings to heart, and she wanted to contact Vicki because Janie thought she changed for the better when she became more "religious", but Vicki, being a Christian, frowned when Janie starting talking about the teachings of Enigma Babylon. While Janie was at the schoolhouse during spring, she was asked to collect firewood along with the group in order to prepare for the unseasonal global cooling that would be the result of the fourth Trumpet Judgment and would be expected to occur during the Northern Hemisphere's summer. Janie complained that she thought she was free from "grunt labor" after escaping the GC camp. This seems to indicate that reeducation camps involved some labor for the students, similar to the concept of "reeducation through labor".
In the re-education camp where Janie stayed at, the camp stuff celebrated the occasion of students finishing their term of reeducation by playing Alice Cooper's School's Out or Pomp and Circumstance throughout the camp.
People in prisons and reeducation centers were to receive the mark of loyalty before other Global Community staff and the general public. The deputy principal of a reeducation center in Iowa expressed displeasure about this policy since the staff was zealous to show their devotion to Nicolae Carpathia. The deputy principal was upbraided by Commander Regis Blakely, remarking that the public expression of that complaint can result in people questioning the ultimate authority of the Potentate.
The Young Tribulation Force rescued a number of believers from a reeducation facility in Iowa. At the reeducation facility, there were three guys and ten girls who were believers, and Cheryl Tiffane also converted and was rescued when the Young Tribulation Force were infiltrating the school. Natalie Bishop, a Morale Monitor who is a believer and member of the Young Tribulation Force, played an integral part in infiltrating the reeducation facility, since she used Commander Darryl Henderson's computer to send the order allegedly by Commander Regis Blakely, the alias of Colin Dial, that suspected Judah-ites should be transferred. Natalie Bishop was caught by her superior, Commander Henderson, arrested, and eventually decapitated for not taking the mark of loyalty. Vicki Byrne was to serve as the "decoy" in the rescue effort. Vicki's role is to pose as a student whose purpose was to identify the believers for the Global Community and to be able to gain the trust of the believing students since she has the seal of God and she can discern who the believers are since she can see the seal of God on their forehead. Commander Regis Blakely told the deputy principal at the reeducation center that Vicki is a "Judah-ite rat" who was helping a Judah-ite group for storing food and medical supplies. Vicki agreed to identify the rebels in exchange for leniency in her sentence (although they should have known that if Vicki was a staunch Judah-ite, she ultimately would choose to be executed instead of taking the mark of loyalty). Colin did appear to threaten Vicki telling her to find the believers "or it's the blade for you".
When Vicki walked into the reeducation facility, she felt a "sense of evil" about the place because she understood that the teachers and staff were people who had pledged their lives to the Global Community and Nicolae Carpathia and would not hesitate to kill believers. The women's division of the Iowa reeducation facility was a long room, illuminated with natural light from several skylights. Vicki noticed that there were several surveillance cameras overhead focusing on different parts of the building. Vicki estimated that there were several hundred women in that room who were mostly teenagers or in their early twenties. The women in the room milled about in cliques. Some lay on the floor, while others walked briskly across the length of the room. One woman asked Vicki for some smokes.
The people at the reeducation facility would soon have to face the decision of receiving the mark of loyalty or being decapitated with the loyalty enforcement facilitator. Before she was rescued, one of the believers said to Vicki that they wheeled a guillotine through that morning. The sight of the guillotine led the believers to conclude that they were goners. Some believers in the reeducation center told others that once one takes Carpathia's mark, one's fate would be sealed for all eternity. Most others thought the people who were saying that are "religious crazies". While the Young Tribulation Force were briefed on their rescue mission, Jim Dekker said that the reeducation center already had a guillotine, but they were now waiting for the biochip injectors to implement the mark of loyalty.
In Bounty Hunters, the 34th book, when Marshall Jameson was recounting his testimony, he said that the Global Community were going to send him to a reeducation camp for broadcasting Christian content on his radio station after the Rapture. Marshall said that he made it to Avery, Wisconsin just when Global Community were going to take him to a reeducation camp. That was the last time "reeducation" was mentioned in the series.
In The Road to War, the 39th book, Mark Eisman was taken to a prison in Wisconsin where was interrogated and ultimately executed for refusing to take the mark of loyalty. The prison was never referred to as a "reeducation facility" or a "reeducation camp".
The matter of "reeducation" is only mentioned in Left Behind: The Kids, never in the adult Left Behind series.
Mentions
- 8. Death Strike
- 10. On the Run
- 11. Into the Storm