Graves did not respond to a request for comment. Agape Boarding School in Stockton has been the subject of state and local investigations and several lawsuits from former students. Officials also said even if child protective services found that someone at a religious youth facility abused a child, there were no rules to prevent the person from continuing to work there. In recent months, Clemensen has become the face of the controversy a fearless leader doing Gods work to those fighting to save his school, a sadistic villain to those who aim to close it. Advocates are watching the Agap case, and suggest it illustrates why federal legislation is needed. Staffers grabbed Breshears and, he claims, threw him onto the glass. Staff called it the intake room. 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 . The three were convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Agape had 132 students 13 months ago, its lawyer, John Schultz said. 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. Many of these programs, which are estimated to serve as many as 200,000 kids at any one time, are allowed to operate with virtual impunity, thanks to federal inaction and permissive state laws. I believe the community is aware. Five months later, authorities raided Circle of Hope, seizing evidence and removing 25 girls from the ranch. Located just outside Stockton, Agape is the second unlicensed Christian boarding school in the state to be investigated for allegations of abuse. Carlson said he never witnessed abuse and credited the school with temporarily keeping him off meth and teaching him how to lay tile. The stories of abuse told through reports by NBC News, the Kansas City Star and others prompted Missouri lawmakers to hold hearings and propose legislation last month to ramp up state oversight. ", "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. Alumni from Agap and Circle of Hope feel the momentum is swinging in their direction. And he said, No, theyre not. He cuffed me up and dropped me back off at Agap. I just kind of felt like I was on my own, said Schrag, 28, who now works in the oil industry in Texas. However, the Cedar County prosecutor says no students have been removed from the school. They called the school Agap, meaning Gods love for man. When I first got there, I just stayed on the low, trying to do my best, hoping to get out, he says. On March 9, 2021, AG Schmitt announced 102 charges against the Householders, including rape and physical abuse. Hymns blared in the classrooms. Attendance at Agape plummeted after abuse allegations surfaced. And in at least 14 other states, education and child welfare agencies exempt boarding schools from licensing requirements if they are privately owned or privately funded. (Jill Toyoshiba/The Kansas City Star/Tribune News Service via Getty Images), Pennsylvania police seized gloves, flashlight from home of Idaho murders suspect. Related: More than a dozen people reported abuse at a religious boarding school in rural Missouri before the owners' daughter launched a campaign that got action. Stockton is located 130 miles south of Kansas City, a lazy drive down sunbaked roads lined with oak forests and rolling fields. (361) 742-6330. Former Calallen ISD teacher Joseph Sandoval sentenced to 35 years in prison for sexual abuse . He cut it 1x and never would respond to my calls. They moved their wards in and set them to work clearing the site and fixing the property. Sandoval, Agaps dean of students, worked shifts at the county jail. Recently, individuals associated with Agap have been accused of a growing list of crimes. It was time to go. Lawmakers held hearings and introduced a bill that would give the state some oversight. But under state law at the time, the schools didnt have to tell the government they existed, and it took years of complaints before child welfare officials shut down their operations in 2015, and prosecutors charged the owners and a counselor at the facilities with aggravated child abuse. Its just a very scary place to be, Bradney said. He likes to get in peoples heads.. 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. Allegations of physical and sexual abuse at Agape and Circle of Hope Girls' Ranch prompted a state law in 2021 requiring stricter oversight of such facilities. Staff members at Agap don't have to go through background checks, and the facility is not required to document how or why children are restrained. He has been a trainer for 10 years specializing in substance abuse. A Tri-City Herald story from 1996 said that Franklin County officials ordered the facility to close for code violations over removing and . After the state removed students from the school in August, Circle of Hope voluntarily shut down. Missouri previously had virtually no oversight for religious boarding schools. It took a disturbing criminal case to make it happen. Youre going to be dead or in prison three months after you turn 18.. There were horses, a swimming pool, and a football team. That's no secret, as news stories in The Christian. ON SEPT. 7, 2022, ATTORNEY GENERAL SCHMITT and the State Department of Social Services (DSS) filed to close Agap. Jan. 18, 2023. They promoted me I was the youngest person to go red. Staff called it the intake or restraint room. Agape Boarding School, a Christian reform school in Cedar County, is under investigation by local authorities and the Missouri Attorney Generals office. That is blasphemous.. Agaps handbook states it has a strict hands-off policy regarding the students, and does not use corporal punishment. Munton allowed the school to remain open, with state supervision.Allegations of physical and sexual abuse at Agape and nearby Christian boarding school Circle of Hope Girls' Ranch prompted a . Tuesday, The Independent reported that DSS substantiated 10 preponderance of evidence claims of physical abuse at Agape. STOCKTON, Mo. Meanwhile, Agap has phased out the boarding school, instead running multiple group homes on its property, which detractors fear is a shell game aimed at shielding it from the new laws. Colton Shrag, age 16 on a home visit from Agap in 2008. I have concerns about every inch of that place, County Commissioner Sue Miller said. Thanks to the generosity of others, Agape Ranch will now be able to provide housing and mentorship for foster youth who age-out while they pursue higher education or career training. Others said they suffered permanent injuries from being disciplined or forced to work long hours of manual labor. The Montana Family Foundation, an anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage advocacy organization, lobbied against the proposals, as well, and Smith said their opposition scared lawmakers who didnt want a negative mark on the conservative groups legislative scorecard. Bucklin wrote the video shows a staff . The reasoning for the exemptions varies, but states generally take a hands-off approach to oversight of privately funded schools, and officials fear stoking the anger of conservative voters. . In 1992, the Clemensens announced to their troubled wards that they were moving to a promised land of sorts: an old Air Force base six miles outside of tiny Othello, Washington. After Schrag, then 14, refused to answer their questions, he said, one of the employees knocked him to the ground, and then others held him facedown, pressing a knee into his back and head. The 100 Best Albums of 2022. I'm not trying to reach for the moon on this stuff, said Richard Fiene, a research psychologist who spent decades directing public welfare and child services agencies in Pennsylvania, but Id like to see kids in safe environments where they cant be restrained and someone can't put a knee in their back and hold them to the floor where they can't breathe. Use tab to navigate through the menu items. Jan. 23, 2023. LAST MARCH, BRESHEARS SAYS, he was on kitchen duty when a staffer said some chocolate milk was missing from the fridge, and accused Breshears and several other students of stealing it. I watched him choke, slam kids into the floor, and just basically beat the shit out of them. By the time Askins contacted her, she had been in therapy for years, and was deeply enmeshed in an online community of former Agap and Circle of Hope survivors. She posted Askins video to TikTok, followed by a second post alleging her parents regularly beat her and had forced a student to eat until they threw up, then eat their own vomit. I was sheltered, Breshears says. As soon as Keri Ingle, a Democratic state representative from the Kansas City, Missouri, area and former child welfare investigator, read about the abuse allegations at Circle of Hope Girls Ranch last year, she called for hearings. ), Other students describe staffers encouraging classmates to fight one another, and cutting off communication with loved ones when they complained. The industry is a multi-billion dollar industry that claims to help or fix troubled teenagers . Plaintiff was allegedly physically, sexually, and emotionally abused while under the care and supervision of . Bindley remembers learning quickly that retribution for breaking the rules was swift and sometimes painful. The troubled teen industry is a term used to refer to a broad range of youth residential programs aimed at struggling teenagers. Federal lawmakers say they plan to introduce legislation to curtail abuses in the industry. None of these raised eyebrows until former Agap staffers Boyd and Stephanie Householder opened Circle of Hope Girls Ranch. He says he and others suffered frequent physical abuse, at the hands of at least a dozen staff members, and others didnt stop it. Nathan Papes/Springfield News-Leader/Imagn. We are the best rehab . Students called it the Padded Palace. After abuse allegations at Circle of Hope Girls' Ranch, a religious boarding school near Agap, began spreading on TikTok last spring, the Cedar County Sheriff's Department opened an investigation, which the state attorney general joined and is ongoing. At the time of reporting, he is not yet in police custody, and an arrest warrant has been issued in his name. 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. If you need expert assistance finding the right program for your boy, fill in this inquiry form or call 888-363-0888 (24/7) for a free, confidential information service (not affiliated with Agape). Their lawyer denies the allegations and says that their innocence will prevail in court. It was renewed on Dec. 7. By then, Circle of Hope had shut down after the state removed dozens of its students. (KY3) - Missouri's attorney general is investigating a second Cedar County boarding school. W The campus is also home to Agape Baptist Church. (KY3) - Missouris attorney general is investigating a second Cedar County boarding school. The group claims a wide range of abuse, from starvation to physical and emotional abuse. Tripadvisor names the world's top 25 beaches, three in the U.S. CDC warns drug-resistant stomach bug a "serious public health threat". The law many former students of schools like Agap see as a model comes from an unlikely state to scrap religious exemptions: Alabama. In September 2021, he charged five Agap staff members with a total of 13 counts of third-degree assault, the lowest degree of felony. Cedar County Prosecutor Ty Gaither asked the governors office for help in his investigation of the Agape Ranch and Boarding School west of Stockton. Montana officials testified at hearings they had been frustrated by complaints registered against several programs that fell outside of regulation, and that some they didnt say which tried to avoid licensing by fraudulently claiming to be part of a church. Contact Jorden Tramp, Donor Relations & Event Coordinator at. (As of publication, one defendants case was dismissed, three pleaded guilty to misdemeanors, and one is awaiting a hearing this month.) To report a correction or typo, please email [email protected], State of Missouri investigating Agape Ranch and Boarding School near Stockton, Deputy seriously hurt in crash with driver opening beer, Greene County prosecutor files charges against man accused of crashing truck into a house. The criminal division of the EPA investigated and charged Jim Clemensen for improperly disposing of hazardous material. All Rights reserved. It was Clemensen who introduced the practice of restraints in the early 2000s, says Ryan Frazier, attorney for Monsees and Mayer PC, which is representing 18 former students in suits against the school. The BBC was given access to their UK boot camp, where they learn how to teach Mormon beliefs and use social media to reach potential converts. At a hearing in the Missouri Legislature on Wednesday, a department official said it has been difficult to substantiate abuse allegations at religious boarding schools due to "a culture of restricted access.". Visit Website. But in some states that have tried to close this oversight gap in recent years, like Montana, lawmakers have met with resistance. Jennifer says she knows it will take a while to reconnect, and she worries about the psychic scars left by the school shes already noticed that her son hates horses now. Lack of oversight is not limited to Missouri. SPRINGFIELD DRIVERS: Construction at Campbell and Republic starts soon. At least two other states Montana and Arkansas carve out licensing exemptions for religious facilities. (The recommendations are not public, so the implicated staff members are unknown.) And they would never tell you how long your stay in Brown Town will be, Breshears says. NWS confirms EF-1 tornado near Goodman, Mo. The cases against five people who worked at Agape Boarding school are moving forward. I was scared I would get in trouble, and just make everything worse for me, said Francis, whose account was first reported by the Kansas City Star. By JIM SALTER. 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. Though he is 16, he is a freshman; Agaps curriculum is often not compatible with local requirements. An investigation by NBC News and Dateline found that multiple states have similar gaps in the oversight of religious boarding schools, leaving children vulnerable to abuse. The plaintiffs in the newest cases, filed June 15 in Vernon County . They say theyre still haunted by nightmares, hypervigilance, and other symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. A decent life.. RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT FOR SUBSTANCE ABUSE. In civil suits, Agap students describe being choked with rebar and electrical cords, pushed through drywall, having their noses broken, and hit in the testicles hard enough to cause traumatic groin injury. They say several boys attempted to hang themselves, in what they call a pandemic among students. Agap, through its attorney, denies the allegations, and says that no student there has ever killed himself. (NBC News presented a copy of Clidences nondisparagement agreement to Agap to confirm or dispute its authenticity, but the school did not respond.). Once in the car, Bindley says, they took him to their home. The Missouri Department of Social Services does not conduct regular inspections of private religious schools, but child protective services and police can investigate if there is a specific abuse allegation reported. 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. The video was posted Sunday by Robert Bucklin, who says he survived physical and sexual abuse at Agape Boarding School near Stockton. In May 2021, the law requiring religious schools to register with the state passed. (Householder has denied that any abuse occurred at the ranch.). The site was littered with old barrels, wood piles, abandoned cars, and insulation containing asbestos. Christian Reform School Accused of Abuse Shuts Down After Rolling Stone Expos. Students called it the Padded Palace., Punishments allegedly ranged from calisthenics to wall time, where kids stood with their foreheads and noses touching the wall, except when sleeping, doing schoolwork, or eating. Circle of Hope was opened in 2006 by Boyd Householder, a former Agap employee, as a school for rebellious teenage girls. The next home at The Ranch is for youth aging-out of foster care and the need is urgent. 3 KCPD officers shot; standoff continues into Wednesday morning. And he encouraged that kind of crap from staff members.. He says he was once ordered to perform 4,500 pushups for cussing and told if I didnt get it done, I couldnt eat my next meal. (Though Breshears says he couldnt do it, Agap denies ever denying a student a meal.) The Agap case is just the latest scandal to emerge from the billion-dollar troubled-teen industry, a loosely regulated network of therapeutic boarding schools, residential treatment centers, religious academies, and wilderness camps set up to help teenagers with drug addiction and behavioral problems. Agape Treatment Center offers Drug and Alcohol Rehab as well as Primary Mental Health Treatment. Moments later, Bindley says, Bryan yanked him backward, slamming his chair and his head into the concrete floor. Boyd and Stephanie Householders daughter says they worked at Agape for four years. An investigation into the school began after The Star reported on the abuse allegations last year. He would later help stage an uprising as an attempt to get thrown out of the school. Hed hoped to get kicked out, which didnt happen. And I did get saved.. 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. According to AG Schmitts office, the Cedar County Sheriffs Department employs at least three people who used to work at Agap. We are faith-based, free, and swift to respond. Yet, when a social worker visited the school a year ago to follow up on a report that boys had been forced to run outside in the freezing temperatures and sleet, Francis said he claimed hed never seen abuse at Agap. Several lawsuits filed on behalf of former students also have named Agape and Circle of Hope. Clidence said Agap fired him in March 2015 when the school asked employees to sign a nondisparagement agreement, and he refused. One day after the FBI announced the arrest of a former Agape Boarding School dean, a civil right's . Copyright 2023 Penske Business Media, LLC. James Clemensen was a California State Highway patrolman with a death wish so extreme the wives of his fellow troopers forbade their husbands from hanging out with 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. Then-Attorney General Eric Schmitt's office contended that 22 workers should have been charged, and with more serious crimes. "The healing process can start for so many.". Agap, which according to its parent handbook costs $39,000 a year, is also influenced by Lester Roloff, a radio evangelist and pastor who founded schools for teenage girls in the late 1960s that relied on physical abuse and immersion in biblical teachings to reform them. The Kansas City Star ran a series of exposs detailing shocking allegations first about Circle of Hope, then Agap. But a Senate staffer helping to write the legislation cautions that in order to get a bill passed, they will likely have to tie compliance to funding, and are unlikely to mandate it. 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. Circle of Hope Girls Ranch near Humansville . The state has been fighting to close Agap ever since. One night, he got into an argument with his mom and stepdad that turned physical, and they accused him of being possessed. Cedar County Sheriff James Jimbob McCrary denied that Graves was present for interviews with students. We are faced with the horrifying truth that a network of immoral individuals have engaged in what amounts to organized crime against children, Rob Vescovo, the Republican speaker of the Missouri House, wrote in a letter to U.S. Attorney Teresa Moore, urging her to employ the FBI to investigate. Gaither declined to comment, but told the Cedar County Republican that Agap has the right to administer corporal punishment. I for sure think it would be harder to bring charges, because then your standard of proof is going to be higher, said Daniel Pollack, a social work professor at Yeshiva University. NBC News reported on the allegations earlier this . The curriculum included traditional math and English. It is a matter of time before youth aging out of the foster care system fall prey to the statistics. One former student said he was raped at Agape and called "seizure boy" because of his epilepsy. Yet the delays have frustrated state lawmakers. He is pleased to hear the Missouri attorney generals office is now investigating Agape Boarding School. I tried to find a record of it, but there was none. (The Cedar County Sheriffs Department did not return calls seeking comment.). They also look at records from any incidents in which a child is injured or restrained. Montana carved out a religious exemption when it set up a new system for licensing youth facilities and reform schools in 2007. They claim Clemensen was on a power trip and seemed to enjoy brutalizing the kids in his charge. These courses are core requirements for Florida . For a time, Breshears stayed out of trouble. The AG was on board. In the aftermath of the criminal case, the state enacted the Alabama Youth Residential Facility Abuse Prevention Act in 2017. The Agape Boarding School was in Othello from 1992-96. After a months-long investigation, the AGs office recommended 65 charges against 22 staff members, accusing them of abusing 36 children. More than 60% of the children in our county are being placed outside of our county due to the lack of foster homes in our community. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. 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. For example, Arkansas allows boarding schools and child welfare agencies operated solely by a religious organization to be exempt from licensing. "For nearly three decades, students at Agape Boarding School have experienced emotional, mental, physical . Circle of Hope Girls' Ranch was a reformatory boarding school located in Humansville, Missouri.The school opened in July 2006 and was closed in 2020 amid reports and lawsuits filed by former students alleging child abuse, as well as due to an investigation conducted by the Missouri State Highway Patrol.. Before the school's closure, parents, former students, and staff filed multiple reports to . The posts went viral even receiving a thumbs-up from Paris Hilton. Every year, Agape Ranch hosts our Adoption Connection event to help children in foster care find their forever home. Colton Schrag remembers the night at the Agap Boarding School when, he says, a staff member punched him in the face. (Agap denies these allegations. First published on January 11, 2023 / 6:04 PM. J.M. In November, Schrag joined close to two dozen men and women protesting outside Agap, holding signs that read Torture Is Not Treatment and Lies Wont Protect You Anymore.. That's because Agap is a religious school, which makes it exempt from the state rules governing secular boarding schools and childrens homes. He says staff would restrain boys on the ground and use pressure points to the point of bruising. Many other states, such as New Jersey, Oklahoma and Texas, do not require religious boarding schools to be licensed by education or child welfare authorities because they are privately owned or privately funded. On Dec. 21, a judge issued a preliminary injunction that will keep him off the list until he receives a full trial (with testimony and subpoenaed witnesses) or until further Order of this Court. In the meantime, Clemensen is prevented from having physical contact with students, but can continue working at the school. Bryan Clemensen stops a tour of the group home to pet Sally, the ranchs beloved camel. The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time When more severe penalties were required, according to students, civil suits, and a search warrant filed later by state investigators, Agap staffers would hold the boys facedown on the floor while pressing their elbows, knees, and fingers into students pressure points, a pain compliance method known as a restraint. Or worse. Jim Clemensen, a former California Highway Patrol officer, initially decided to open a group home in Stockton, California, before setting up Agap on an old Air Force base in Othello, Washington. In other words, Grandmother can spank the children as can Agap.. The former director of Agape Boarding School pleaded with a Cole County judge on Monday to keep himself off the state's central registry of child abuse and . Several former staffers opened up similar schools nearby: There was the Legacy Academy Adventures, on a property owned by David Smock, Agaps longtime doctor who would later be accused of molesting students; there was the Masters Ranch Christian Academy, which later opened two more campuses. A 2007 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found thousands of abuse allegations between 1990 and 2007 in 2005 alone, 33 states reported 1,619 staff members involved in incidents of abuse. Schmitt was elected to the U.S. Senate last year and sworn in this month. The 57-year-old is currently facing charges of second-degree statutory sodomy . The video follows numerous allegations of abuse against Agape, a Christian reform school for boys, which until a new law in 2021, had virtually no state oversight due to its faith-based status. Im trying to aim for a decent life, you know what Im saying? For the first time, religious schools would be required to register with the state and undergo inspections; the attorney general would now have authority to close down facilities that posed a threat to students. 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. 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. Though Ms. Allred's office has spent months soliciting a cash settlement, we were unaware that a suit would be filed. All Rights Reserved. The five employees of the Agape Boarding School near Stockton were charged with a total of 13 third-degree felony assault counts, Cedar County Prosecuting Attorney Ty Gaither said. 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