One former Agape student who sued, Robert Bucklin, said the closure means justice "has finally prevailed. Other punishments, the former students and staff members said, included forcing boys to stare at a wall for hours, limiting meals to peanut butter sandwiches, and requiring students to haul rocks outside from one pile to another. We want to make it about the children's rights rather than taking away religious rights. Then-Attorney General Eric Schmitt's office contended that 22 workers should have been charged, and with more serious crimes. 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. Former Calallen ISD teacher Joseph Sandoval sentenced to 35 years in prison for sexual abuse . 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. Agape Ranch is a thriving faith-based non-profit offering a forward-thinking and compassionate community-based solution to the foster care crisis facing America today. 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.) Former students wonder if its because of this that authorities failed to act sooner. Bryan Clemensen was not among those charged. 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. That shouldn't be happening., If not, he added, kids are going to wind up losing their lives.. It took a disturbing criminal case to make it happen. I realized I cant be the only former student to have these problems, he says. Riley Olson and His crew-help the students start and progress colts raised on the ranch, and each year they have a public auction and the young men that are a part of the program show the horse and ride him through the sale. Church was on Wednesday and three times on Sunday. Alumni from Agap and Circle of Hope feel the momentum is swinging in their direction. Boyd and Stephanie Householders daughter says they worked at Agape for four years. 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. His outrage became open defiance. 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. Chapel was daily. And he said, No, theyre not., In 1996, the Clemensens purchased 40 acres just outside of town. Children said pastors and staff members at both facilities choked and punched them, kept them in solitary confinement, handcuffed them to beds and forced them to box each other. We want to hear it. The committee is considering bills introduced by Ingle and a Republican colleague last month to give the Missouri Department of Social Services oversight of religious boarding schools. Recently, individuals associated with Agap have been accused of a growing list of crimes. The Kansas City Star ran a series of exposs detailing shocking allegations first about Circle of Hope, then Agap. 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. The schools are unrelated and are not affiliated with any particular Christian denomination. James Clemensen founded the Agap Boarding School in the early 1990s. In March 2020, a former Agap student named Joseph Askins stopped in to visit, and witnessed abuse that shocked him. In Missouri, at least, this could be changing. The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time I can at least try to show others that you dont have to keep it inside. (361) 742-6330. Interested in learning more about the 2023 Legacy Gala? Colton Shrag, age 16 on a home visit from Agap in 2008. I pre paid him in February to cut yard 2x for months. Schrag says he tried to escape around 2007, when he was 15. The plaintiffs in the newest cases, filed June 15 in Vernon County . Families looking to adopt are invited to meet, play, and talk to these children, and we need help putting it on. 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. That's no secret, as news stories in The Christian. Locals says the Clemensens ingratiated themselves by offering tours, and hosting Boy Scout breakfasts and luncheons for the local Methodist group. But hes not complaining. Lawmakers proposed legislation to provide oversight for faith-based boarding schools in Missouri. Netflixs Outer Banks Buries Itself in Ridiculous Season 3 And he encouraged that kind of crap from staff members.. When 19-year-old Rebekah Cooper started her mission, she had to give up her first name . 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. McCrary said in an email on Friday that Graves was not present for social workers interviews with students. Contact Jorden Tramp, Donor Relations & Event Coordinator at. Five months later, authorities raided Circle of Hope, seizing evidence and removing 25 girls from the ranch. One of them is Robert Graves, a student turned staffer who joined as a sheriffs deputy and married Kathy and Jims daughter, and is listed as a member of the board of an Agap-affiliated church. A Christian boarding school in Missouri that's been under intense scrutiny over abuse allegations announced Wednesday that it will close later this month due to financial hardship. 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. 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. 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. Visit Website. 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. On the wooded roads near Agap, Amish men drive horse-drawn buggies; hundreds of members of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints live on a nearby compound called the Ranch., I got picked up by the Cedar County Sheriffs Department, and I tried to tell the guy, Theyre beating us,, says one former student. And he said, No, theyre not. He cuffed me up and dropped me back off at Agap. Youre dirtbags, youre hoodlums. For secular youth facilities regulated by Missouris social services department, as well as those that have contracts with the state, social welfare agents conduct inspections at least twice a year to review staff training, check compliance with fire and health codes, and make sure employees have background checks and that children get proper medical attention. He likes to get in peoples heads.. For more on this story, watch NBC's "Dateline" episode, "Broken Circle". That was the last straw; they had him committed. 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. The group claims a wide range of abuse, from starvation to physical and emotional abuse. The result, experts said, is that in much of the country, no one from the government checks to ensure that these facilities, often in remote regions, meet basic standards before children are enrolled. 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. The cases against five people who worked at Agape Boarding school are moving forward. It was renewed on Dec. 7. The charges come after the Missouri State Highway Patrol investigated allegations of abuse at the boarding school. Those details were outlined in motions filed in 19 civil lawsuits requesting that the Cedar County judge overseeing those cases allow . 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. Graves did not respond to a request for comment. 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. 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. 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 couple met when Jim pulled Kathy over for drag racing a beat-up Ford Pinto around the East Bay. (Jill Toyoshiba/The Kansas City Star/Tribune News Service via Getty Images), Pennsylvania police seized gloves, flashlight from home of Idaho murders suspect. 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. I shadowed a staff member for about three days, we didnt go over procedures, no restraint training, no discipline training really no clear set of rules that the students werent allowed to break., It was not unusual for physical restraints to last four hours or longer, and leave bruises on the children, according to Clidence and three former students. Mow Grass and Maintain Landscaping. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Missouri previously had virtually no oversight for religious boarding schools. Regretfully, child abuse and neglect have continued to rise and the work of Agape Ranch is needed now more than ever. 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. 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. 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. Carlson said he never witnessed abuse and credited the school with temporarily keeping him off meth and teaching him how to lay tile. 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