I'm the only Williams that's ever said,
yes, the verbal abuse, the physical abuse,
the psychological abuse, it occurred.
It is very much like a jail.
Every square inch of that place
is under camera and audio surveillance.
I was like, 16, and they were checking in
a Laotian girl that couldn't speak English.
This girl was screaming.
I remember my dad got mad,
and she was given a hard spanking right there in the dorm.
She hadn't even been checked in yet.
I never forgot the fear in that girl's eyes.
That was normal for me.
It's what I thought was right.
I look back now and realize that was abuse.
My number one memory as a child is being spanked.
My dad firmly believed that spanking hard
and spanking heavily was the only answer to parenting.
My mom would quote scripture.
"Children obey your parents
"and the Lord."
I remember laying in my bed crying
and whispering under my breath, "I hate her, she's a bitch."
My mom died about nine years ago,
I love by mom, but I don't miss her.
I'm coming out because it's time for the truth to be told
as a Williams child, if I was asked right now by a parent
that was thinking about sending
their daughter to Hephzibah House, I would beg,
I would plead, do not send your daughter to Hephzibah House.
It's not utopia, it's not safe,
and it will cause great emotional, psychological,
and spiritual harm that will take them years to recover.
Ben, thank you for being here.
You're welcome, sir.
You know some of these women, some better than others,
but you know all of these folks, right?
Yes sir, I do.
What do you have to say to them,
seeing them now outside of the school environment?
I used to look at these ladies as the enemy,
because they had come out against my father,
and I'm so thankful that my eyes have been opened,
and I've frankly, been deprogrammed.
To look at these ladies as human beings, as hearts,
and they're not the enemy.
I've been able to look at these ladies
and just tell 'em how sorry I am.
Gabby, I remember as a teenager,
as a teenage boy, 14 years old, I had a God complex.
I walked around like jingling keys.
I'm so sorry.
And I've grown to love you ladies.
We love you.
And I am so proud of you,
that you stood up and said, "This is wrong."
And I'm very proud of you.
(audience applauding)
We're thankful for you, even though I was skeptical.
I don't blame you!
After what my family's done,
after what my dad's done, I don't blame you.
I just don't.
And I know that as hard as it is
for us to talk about stuff,
people call us liars and whatever,
you have a lot to lose because it's your family.
I will lose a lot. You preached it.
What's the main thing that's caused you to speak up now
instead of five years ago or five years down the road?
Why now?
I've asked myself that a lot, Dr. Phil.
I watched some shows about
and started reading up on what the ladies were saying,
and when I did, memories, Dr. Phil,
that I have blocked out of my heart for 20 years,
suddenly flooded me this year,
literally overwhelmingly flooded me,
and I had stuff that I had forgotten come back so heavy
that I actually became suicidal this summer.
It overwhelmed my brain.
Were you part of the system?
I was one of the ones abused, but I never abused.
No, I would say verbally I did.
Verbally I did,
because I didn't look at these girls as equals.
I looked at them as underlings, as the rebels, the girls.
We always called them the girls.
I don't know, we kind of connected when we were there.
We did, I remember you.
Yeah, you and I all the time
were talking about flying planes.
I'm actually 19 hours from getting my pilot's license
because of the conversations we had there.
Really? Yeah.
There's obviously some good,
but I don't remember a lot of that, and I hate that.
And you said that most of your memories from growing up
are being spanked and yelled at.
Unfortunately yes, that is literally my number one memory.