The school's focus now is "on getting the boys who remain in the program safely transitioned to their parents or to foster care, other group homes or residential programs," its former director, Bryan Clemensen, said in a statement. Five more alleged victims have filed civil lawsuits against Agape Boarding School of Stockton, Missouri, and the Baptist church that supervises the Christian boarding school, bringing the total number of cases alleging negligence and abuse to 19. but has gone public in the past year with his . Another describes a staffer holding a pocket knife to his throat. (The recommendations are not public, so the implicated staff members are unknown.) 90% of young adults aging-out of the foster care system will become homeless, incarcerated, in prostitution, sex trafficked, or dead within three years. Pour Salt Down Your Drain At Night, Here's Why, Tyler Kingkade and Liz Brown and Keith Morrison and Rachel White and Andrew Williams and Javier Rodriguez. In 2021, Paris Hilton, who has also been lobbying in Washington D.C., testified at a Utah Senate committee hearing about her own experience in a troubled-teen facility there, alleging that she was verbally, mentally, and physically abused, involuntarily drugged, and locked in isolation. Students called it the Padded Palace. Updated: Dec 13, 2022 / 12:48 PM CST. Bucklin wrote the video shows a staff . Appalled, he used his phone to surreptitiously record Boyd Householder, who appeared to be ordering Circle of Hope students to physically assault one of their classmates. Court records show that David Earl Smock is wanted for assaulting children under 15 at the Agape Boarding School, a Christian private school in Greene County. Nathan Papes/Springfield News-Leader/Imagn. We want to make it about the children's rights rather than taking away religious rights. (Knock her out! he can be heard saying.) Allen Knoll, who attended Agap from 1999 to 2001, looks at Alabamas law as a template of what we can do across the country. The only thing that has held back change in Missouri, he said, is a lack of public knowledge about what goes on inside these schools. Francis lied, he said, because Robert Graves a Cedar County sheriffs deputy who is on the board of Agaps church and has worked at the school was present for the interview. An investigation into the school began after The Star reported on the abuse allegations last year. Askins reached out to Child Protective Services and then shared the video with the Householders estranged daughter, Amanda. ET): After publication of this article, Cedar County Sheriff James Jimbob McCrary disputed an account by former Agap student Lucas Francis. Despite the concerns former students have raised recently, no state agency has the ability under Missouri law to regularly inspect how children at Agap are treated. Clemensen, who left the school from 2008 to 2018, says he has two masters degrees, in education and counseling and psychology, and would challenge the boys thinking processes, and he still does that to this day., Breshears and others paint a different picture. Posted Apr 03, 2022 11:00 AM. (Photo by Tim Bommel/House Communications) In the aftermath of the criminal case, the state enacted the Alabama Youth Residential Facility Abuse Prevention Act in 2017. The school still faces a wave of lawsuits accusing administrators of abuse. UPDATE (Feb. 12, 2021, 2:33 p.m. The campus is also home to Agape Baptist Church. For example, Arkansas allows boarding schools and child welfare agencies operated solely by a religious organization to be exempt from licensing. He says he and others suffered frequent physical abuse, at the hands of at least a dozen staff members, and others didnt stop it. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Clemensen said that the abuse allegations are lies, and suggests they are inspired by the political ambitions of State Attorney General Eric Schmitt who was elected to the U.S. Senate in November and a small group of disgruntled former students hoping for a big payday. What they are claiming would never be OK, he says. These rules and policies are for their son's success and protection. Hilton tweeted to Missouri's attorney general and governor on June 21. The next home at The Ranch is for youth aging-out of foster care and the need is urgent. Those details were outlined in motions filed in 19 civil lawsuits requesting that the Cedar County judge overseeing those cases allow . The way Bryan tells it, in the 1970s, Kathy was a single mom whod found Jesus but still had a mischievous streak. One former student said he was raped at Agape and called "seizure boy" because of his epilepsy. So they were all, in my book, guilty of association, said Schrag. In other words, Grandmother can spank the children as can Agap.. Seven boys tested positive for tuberculosis. (Agap denies these allegations. The Missouri AG launched a joint investigation with Cedar County authorities. The state attorney generals office claims that Agap staff threw students into walls, pushed them to the ground, ordered them to perform 1,000 pushups, intentionally starved them, and forced them to sleep in handcuffs and wear them for as long as eight days. In addition to the fired staffer, DSS has substantiated findings of child abuse or neglect against Bryan Clemensen and two other Agap employees, according to The Kansas City Star. (Clemensen denies this happened, but says he considers Bindley one of Agaps top success stories.). Clemensen said the decision to close "is voluntary and solely due to the lack of financial resources to continue caring for the boys.". Clemensen has said the move was necessary because negative publicity has caused enrollment to plummet, and it was not financially feasible to stay open. New court filings reveal some of the most brutal allegations of abuse at Agape Boarding School so far, including former students' account that two staffers sexually assaulted him. He remembers verbal abuse, such as being told, the world didnt want you and says withholding food was a punishment., Staff members would slam you on the ground, slam you into walls, pick you up by the collar and just slam you around. Though Ms. Allred's office has spent months soliciting a cash settlement, we were unaware that a suit would be filed. In May, his daughter Amanda and women who attended Circle of Hope began posting videos on TikTok describing violent restraints, starvation and emotional abuse at the ranch. The AG was on board. Colton Shrag, age 16 on a home visit from Agap in 2008. A scandal-plagued fundamentalist boarding school in Missouri is facing renewed criticism after video surfaced allegedly showing "clear abuse" by a leader at the school. Child welfare experts say that makes it more difficult for a state to look into maltreatment, because police will only investigate what counts as a crime, rather than what places a child in danger. A Tri-City Herald story from 1996 said that Franklin County officials ordered the facility to close for code violations over removing and . Until 2017, Alabamas Religious Freedom Amendment shielded boarding schools such as the Restoration Youth Academy and its sister facility, the Saving Youth Foundation, from government oversight. Some former students have made the allegations against Agape Boarding School and Legacy Boys Academy in Stockton, Masters Ranch in far southern Missouri, and Circle of Hope Girls Ranch near . These courses are core requirements for Florida . Bindley, who Clemensen calls one of Agaps top success stories, says the experience left him with lasting trauma, and left a stain on my childhood growing up., Colton Schrag says he decided to speak after PTSD drove him into counseling. The school has been operating in Missouri where until 2021, privately owned schools were not required to report to the state. After abuse allegations at Circle of Hope Girls Ranch, a religious boarding school near Agap, began spreading on TikTok last spring, the Cedar County Sheriffs Department opened an investigation, which the state attorney general joined and is ongoing. Surprise! Where they stop looking to drugs, or their friends, and say to God, I need your help to feel better. If you dont save their souls, it aint going to stick.. Still, administrators at many of these schools insist they are a force for good. Since Circle of Hope opened in 2006, at least 15 people said they reported abuse at the ranch to at least six local, state and federal agencies in Missouri, an NBC News investigation found, based . McCrary said in an email on Friday that Graves was not present for social workers interviews with students. Full Gala Taping. There, according to Bindley, he was put to work painting, roofing, and helping to dismantle a web of lead pipes covered in asbestos, which he was told to carry to the top of a hill and throw into a pit used to burn garbage. It also taught creationism and that women should be subservient to their husbands, while weaving biblical references into the materials. And he said, No, theyre not. He cuffed me up and dropped me back off at Agap. The Clemenson family, who currently runs Agape, has been shut down in two states due to abuse allegations but no charges were ever made. Anne Stych June 27, 2022. MANY OF THE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST Agap staffers are easily found on podcasts and interviews on YouTube. Which means that even if Missouri does end up shutting down Agap, the school could open in another state just as the Clemensens did when they were driven out of Washington. Each worker is facing abuse charges. It is a matter of time before youth aging out of the foster care system fall prey to the statistics. hen Andrew Breshears arrived at the Agap Boarding School in 2018, he was a sandy-haired 12-year-old who weighed less than 100 pounds. Throughout the 1980s, Kathy and Jim fostered children whose parents were in jail. It received initial passage in the house and needs one more vote before going on to the Senate. Jim and Kathy appeared at the hospital a few weeks later. One night, he got into an argument with his mom and stepdad that turned physical, and they accused him of being possessed. Whatever the case, Clemensen has many allies where it perhaps counts the most: in the community. Circle of Hope Girls' Ranch, a nearby Christian boarding school for girls, was shut down in 2020. The law many former students of schools like Agap see as a model comes from an unlikely state to scrap religious exemptions: Alabama. Relevance: This course is designed for master's level counselors, addiction professionals, and nurses who have direct client contact. But he would soon come to suffer horrifying abuse, he says experiences in line with what at least 18 former Agap students have recently alleged in lawsuits. Andrew Breshears in his Agap uniform. Agape bills itself as a 30-year-old Christian outfit that "has helped thousands of troubled teens" in part "by showing God's love daily to these boys." But those who identify as abuse survivors . Send us a tip using our anonymous form. The organization did not respond to requests for comment, but in presentations to the Legislature, the group repeatedly highlighted reports that children had been assaulted at secular youth facilities regulated by the state. But the bills essentially became a referendum on one unregulated facility, the Pinehaven Christian Children's Ranch in St. Ignatius, Montana, whose founder showed up to hearings with supporters to argue against the change. ", "Today, the many victims who have come forth can rest assured that no more children will be hurt at Agape Boarding School," Bucklin said in a text. Stockton is located 130 miles south of Kansas City, a lazy drive down sunbaked roads lined with oak forests and rolling fields. The program markets itself as a Christian school that turns around rebellious boys. Schrags parents said they were unaware of any abuse occurring at the facility; the school had promised close supervision and to redirect his anger in positive ways. Agape Boarding School was moving away from the "nonbelievers" in Washington and California and heading east. Via Fox13, the local news station out of Salt Lake City, we get a detailed response to the lawsuit from ranch management: "We at Turn-About Ranch strongly deny the allegations put forward in Ms. Allred's press conference. Address . I had a staff member tell me were wasting our time giving you a diploma because youre not even worth the paper its going to cost to print it on, said Schrag. Former students say Clemensen, a paunchy middle-aged man with a buzz cut, a soft chin, and a stern manner, had a technique that he called Jurassic Elbow which entailed slamming his elbow into the back of a students skull, face, ribs, or down between the shoulder blades. People had reported Circle of Hope at least 19 times since it opened to three sheriffs departments, state child welfare and education officials, the highway patrol, and the state attorney generals office, according to interviews and records obtained by NBC News. He liked Metallica and Garbage Pail Kids cards, and had a tendency to cause trouble. The school follows a fundamentalist Baptist belief system, according to a 2002 St. Louis Post-Dispatch article, and displayed a photo of the radio evangelist Lester Roloff, who died in a plane crash in 1982. Former students of Agape from Alabama, Texas, and Michigan have filed two civil lawsuits against the Boarding School for multiple charges that include physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. Recently, individuals associated with Agap have been accused of a growing list of crimes. Circle of Hope closed in 2020, and its owners, Boyd and Stephanie Householder, face 101 felony charges, including statutory rape, abuse and neglect of a child. Once in the car, Bindley says, they took him to their home. He grabbed the bat, charged toward the front of the cafeteria, and shattered a plate-glass window. Upon completion, our self sustaining community will care for up to 132 foster children and young adults at a time. They led to a front-page story in the Cedar County Republican. Amanda, then 29, says her parents kicked her out when she was 17. The next evening, a man found Jacob begging for change at a neighboring county supermarket 10 miles from Blue Creek and called Clay County Child Protective Services. For example, when many foster children age out of the system, they have lived in an average of 12 foster homes. The state social services department determined in a preliminary finding in 2018 that Householder physically abused a minor, according to court documents but that was not publicized and the school continued to enroll students for more than two years before it voluntarily closed.