Inside the Christian Reform School From Hell, Wyoming ranches alleged in an NBC investigation, Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints. Thanks to the generous support of The Frazier Family Foundation, Gala sponsors, Gala attendees, and the community, $369,402 was raised in support of the next two homes at The Ranch during the 2021 Legacy Gala: A Matter of Time! Updated: Dec 13, 2022 / 12:48 PM CST. In Missouri, parents are allowed to discipline their children, he said. The Republican-sponsored measure requires religious boarding schools to register with the state, pass a health department inspection and ensure that staff meet minimum standards. Recently, individuals associated with Agap have been accused of a growing list of crimes. Colton Shrag, age 16 on a home visit from Agap in 2008. Im trying to aim for a decent life, you know what Im saying? Alumni of Christian boarding schools for troubled teens in Missouri, including Agape and Circle of Hope, say state laws prevented inspections, enabling abuse to continue for decades. Their lawyer denies the allegations and says that their innocence will prevail in court. 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. That was the last straw; they had him committed. Former Calallen ISD teacher Joseph Sandoval sentenced to 35 years in prison for sexual abuse . Posted Apr 03, 2022 11:00 AM. 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. COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. The picture flashed on the big screen, and Brenda Gordon immediately . "If you have children who are fearful that they're going to be sent back to these facilities, you see a lot of instances where children might recant their stories," said Caitlin Whaley, director of legislation for the department. Though Ms. Allred's office has spent months soliciting a cash settlement, we were unaware that a suit would be filed. SPRINGFIELD DRIVERS: Construction at Campbell and Republic starts soon. After being charged with more than 100 felonies last year linked to allegations of child sex abuse, physical abuse, endangerment and neglect, the owners of a now-defunct Missouri girls ranch . Alumni from Agap and Circle of Hope feel the momentum is swinging in their direction. 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. "For nearly three decades, students at Agape Boarding School have experienced emotional, mental, physical . Exposing Agape is about exactly what it's name says. The glass flew everywhere, he says. 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. . In 1995, county officials shut them down after health inspectors found the school which by then had 140 students and 25 staffers had rotting food, holes in the walls large enough to allow rodents to enter, and exposed wiring. 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. We need people who will financially contribute and volunteer at the event to help give these . Editors Note: This story, which appears in the January 2023 issue of Rolling Stone, has been updated to include additional details on court cases that had not been decided until after the print deadline. 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. Former students and their attorneys allege that for years Clemensen has been a toxic presence at the school, encouraging his staff to use violence to maintain order. 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. Agape also faces criminal charges . Agape Treatment Center offers Drug and Alcohol Rehab as well as Primary Mental Health Treatment. Seth Duncan was charged with five counts of third . NWS confirms EF-1 tornado near Goodman, Mo. 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. 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 . Bryan Clemensen stops a tour of the group home to pet Sally, the ranchs beloved camel. One student, identified only by his initials, describes being forced to run outside while a staffer tailed him in a four-wheeler with a stick attached to the front, threatening to ram anyone who wasnt moving fast enough. They held a blood drive, organized a Fourth of July fireworks spectacular, and began holding an annual rodeo. An investigation into the school began after The Star reported on the abuse allegations last year. Josh Bradney, 19, who attended Agap from 2014 to 2016, said staff members slammed him to the ground when he told his parents on a phone call that Agap employees hit another boy with a football helmet. Minnesota has even less control. February 28, 2023. Boyd and Stephanie Householders daughter says they worked at Agape for four years. Children as young as four-years-old may have had up to five foster . One day after the FBI announced the arrest of a former Agape Boarding School dean, a civil right's . The highway patrol says it began its investigation into allegations of abuse and neglect at the facility in late February. By the time he ended up in the Padded Palace, he recalls, I was bleeding all over my head and hands. So he scrawled the words Fuck Agap on the wall using his own blood. 1:00. He is pleased to hear the Missouri attorney generals office is now investigating Agape Boarding School. 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. 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. They denied it. vs. Agape Baptist Church Inc., et al: In the complaint filed on August 7, 2021, Alabama plaintiff shared his allegations of abuse while being under the custody of Agape Boarding School from approximately March 2012 to March 2013. Cedar . The school has been operating in Missouri where until 2021, privately owned schools were not required to report to the state. Staff members would jump on you, said Schrag. Anne Stych June 27, 2022. The schools are unrelated and are not affiliated with any particular Christian denomination. January 11, 2023 / 6:04 PM By then, Circle of Hope had shut down after the state removed dozens of its students. Agape Baptist Church owns and operates the private boarding school for boys in Stockton, MO. If I can save one kid, its worth it to me.. KANSAS CITY (AP) Maggie Drew's dad sent her to Circle . 1.0 Stephen H. Winter Haven, FL. Askins reached out to Child Protective Services and then shared the video with the Householders estranged daughter, Amanda. Colton Schrag remembers the night at the Agap Boarding School when, he says, a staff member punched him in the face. 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. The 57-year-old is currently facing charges of second-degree statutory sodomy . 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. Award honors influential children's minister. McCrary said in an email on Friday that Graves was not present for social workers interviews with students. TOUGH-LOVE SCHOOLS CAN BE traced back to the 1950s, when a secular group called Synanon pioneered an approach to curing heroin addiction with isolation, humiliation, and sleep deprivation. 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. In 1996, Agap moved to a 200-acre ranch in Cedar County, Missouri. 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. 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. "If you're using the Bible or God to justify any of these things, that is sacrilegious.". There is no cost to you, not even if you enroll in any school we might mention to you. Families looking to adopt are invited to meet, play, and talk to these children, and we need help putting it on. Copyright 2023 Penske Business Media, LLC. 3/11/2021. STOCKTON, Mo. Agape had 132 students 13 months ago, its lawyer, John Schultz said. (Clemensen denies this happened, but says he considers Bindley one of Agaps top success stories.). STOCKTON, Mo. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Visit Website. Facebook Page. One killed in officer-involved shooting in Branson, Mo. The report, which also examined 10 cases where teenagers had died, noted that there are currently no federal laws that define and regulate residential treatment programs.. 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. I hired Agape to cut the lawn. For so long, nobody cared.. Agape Connection. 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. Share. However, the Cedar County prosecutor says no students have been removed from the school. (Photo by Tim Bommel/House Communications) They insisted everyone call them Brother Jim and Maam, and their son Brother Bryan.. A decent life.. The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time I have concerns about every inch of that place, County Commissioner Sue Miller said. Missouri has been a particular hotbed for religious schools since 1982, when the state passed a law exempting faith-based residential child-care facilities from state oversight. 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. By 14, Breshears says, he was fully in staffers crosshairs. For more on this story, watch NBC's "Dateline" episode, "Broken Circle". He smacked me in the face with his elbow for saying the f-word. 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. Please enter valid email address to continue. Missouri previously had virtually no . That . 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. The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time Cedar County Prosecutor Ty Gaither asked the governors office for help in his investigation of the Agape Ranch and Boarding School west of Stockton. Use tab to navigate through the menu items. Federal lawmakers say they plan to introduce legislation to curtail abuses in the industry. Master's Ranch Christian Academy which has had a facility in southern Missouri for more than a decade opened a new location . Soon theyd be in a place where they were untouchable. Boyd opened the ranch in 2006 as a "school that he claimed could reform rebellious teenage girls," according to NBC News. The criminal division of the EPA investigated and charged Jim Clemensen for improperly disposing of hazardous material. 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. Once they were done, staff members took away Schrags clothes and bedding, he said, and made him wear only a bathrobe and his boxers for two months. This results in many children being separated from their siblings and the only community that they know. And I did get saved.. A student at Agap Boarding School near Stockton, Missouri, performs push ups when his student guide ruled his clean up work was not good enough in September 2002. 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. ET): After publication of this article, Cedar County Sheriff James Jimbob McCrary disputed an account by former Agap student Lucas Francis. The way Bryan tells it, in the 1970s, Kathy was a single mom whod found Jesus but still had a mischievous streak. 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. As owners of the Circle of Hope Ranch, the couple faces 100 criminal abuse charges between them. 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. 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. "Pinehaven has had challenges over the years, but so has everyone," Montana Family Foundation President Jeff Laszloffy said at a 2019 hearing. but has gone public in the past year with his . In the aftermath of the criminal case, the state enacted the Alabama Youth Residential Facility Abuse Prevention Act in 2017. Hymns blared in the classrooms. 5151 Flynn Parkway Suite 106 Corpus Christi, TX 78411. Staff called it the intake or restraint room. The foothills of the Ozarks sat in the distance. And he said, No, theyre not., In 1996, the Clemensens purchased 40 acres just outside of town. Jacob smelled foul and the . His religious mother wasnt having it. I was just like, Screw it, he says. State regulates church boarding schools after abuse allegations. 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. But instead of the therapeutic environment the schools leaders promised, Schrag and 11 others who were sent to Agap as children from the late 1990s up to last year, as well as four former staff members, told NBC News they saw Agap workers hold boys down and hit them. 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. He is living in California with his mother, Jennifer, and attending a public high school. Circle of Hope Girls Ranch near Humansville . When he was told he couldnt live with his mother after her stint in rehab, he threatened to kill himself, and another person from the household. 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 legislation would require the schools to register with the state, and create paths for the state to conduct safety inspections of the facilities and shut them down after abuse allegations. 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. Students called it the Padded Palace. NBC News reported on the allegations earlier this . By 5+ Local Business Owners! Five months later, authorities raided Circle of Hope, seizing evidence and removing 25 girls from the ranch. We are gathered here, former students,. It will stop providing service effective Jan. 20, according to a statement from the school for boys. In response to a detailed list of follow-up questions, Clemensen, through Agaps attorney, says he has never abused any boy in the history of Agap, and denied that restraints were ever used for punishment. 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. The next home at The Ranch is for youth aging-out of foster care and the need is urgent. 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. 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