agape ranch abuse
They noted that DSS had confirmed a case of child abuse and added the name of the Agap staffer responsible to the Child Abuse and Neglect Central Registry, prohibiting him from working at a residential facility. 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. In 2021, Agape's longtime doctor, David Smock, was charged with child sex crimes and five employees were charged with low-level abuse counts. The school is a nonprofit owned by the Agap Baptist Church, which was also started by the Clemensens. Thats where someone went too far. We felt they needed God in their lives. The state, he says, had no clue how to get to a kids heart.. Bryan, by then in his twenties, was working in a state-funded group home. Lucas Francis, 19, said he regularly witnessed staff members slam boys into walls and onto the ground when he attended Agap from 2017 to 2020. We are the best rehab . The founders of Circle of Hope face around 100 charges, some alleging sexual abuse. None of these inspections are required at religious boarding schools. His religious mother wasnt having it. Nonetheless, the outcome of the civil suits is far from certain. Cedar County, Missouri, where Agap is located, is in the heart of the Bible Belt and Clemensen, his stepfather, Jim, who died in October 2021, and his mother, Kathy, long ago convinced the locals they answer to a higher authority. Others said they suffered permanent injuries from being disciplined or forced to work long hours of manual labor. 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. Cedar . But under Missouri law, it was up to Cedar County prosecutor Ty Gaither to file charges. It was easy to get in trouble for stupid shit, Breshears recalls. The state of Missouri has opened a criminal investigation into allegations of abuse and neglect at Agap Boarding School, a Christian institution in the rural southwestern part of the state, a spokesman for the state's Highway Patrol confirmed Friday. 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. 24, 2021 at 10:23 AM PDT | Updated: Mar. 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. Circle of Hope was opened in 2006 by Boyd Householder, a former Agap employee, as a school for rebellious teenage girls. Jim and Kathy appeared at the hospital a few weeks later. Agape Ranch is dedicated to making a difference within their community and building capacity within the team. One former Agape student who sued, Robert Bucklin, said the closure means justice "has finally prevailed. Nathan Papes/Springfield News-Leader/Imagn. Cedar County Prosecutor Ty Gaither asked the governors office for help in his investigation of the Agape Ranch and Boarding School west of Stockton. DSS added . 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. / AP. Passing under the majestic cross affixed to its towering arched entryway, Breshears gazed over a beautiful campus. They literally took the practices of Agape and opened up Circle of Hope, so we know for a fact that there is one other school that is ran just like Circle of Hope, and that place is what Circle of Hope modeled their school after, said Amanda Householder, daughter of Circle of Hope operators. Published: Mar. Yet Agaps neighbors insist they never had any idea. STOCKTON, Mo. 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. 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 the ensuing chaos, a third pulled the fire alarm. He is pleased to hear the Missouri attorney generals office is now investigating Agape Boarding School. Several former Pinehaven students and staff members told CNN in 2012 that children were choked and assaulted at the ranch, accusations that Larsson denied and said were the work of Satan. 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.. 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 . Seven former students said staff members had assaulted them. It will stop providing service effective Jan. 20, according to a statement from the school for boys. The next morning, Breshears made a plan with the other students to start a riot. That evening, as Agaps 150 students and staffers were finishing up dinner, Breshears spotted a fellow conspirator flash a thumbs-up. He has been a trainer for 10 years specializing in substance abuse. 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. Agape Ranch and Boarding School near Stockton, Missouri, a facility operated by Agape Baptist Church. When 19-year-old Rebekah Cooper started her mission, she had to give up her first name . Woody Harrelson Spreads Anti-Vax Conspiracies During SNL Monologue Schmitt last year asked a Cedar County judge to close Agape, but the judge had not yet issued a decision. NBC News reported on the allegations earlier this . Agape Treatment Center offers Drug and Alcohol Rehab as well as Primary Mental Health Treatment. 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. Child welfare officials in Washington cited Agap for overcrowding and poor sanitation, according to a 1995 newspaper article. 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. More than 90% of young adults aging out of the foster system will become homeless, incarcerated, in prostitution, sex trafficked, or dead within three years. I was just like, Screw it, he says. Relevance: This course is designed for master's level counselors, addiction professionals, and nurses who have direct client contact. So they constructed wooden bunks on the second floor of their modest home, set up cubicles in the garage, and obtained work booklets produced by Accelerated Christian Education. By 14, Breshears says, he was fully in staffers crosshairs. He ran the school on fear, says Colton Schrag, a former gang associate who attended the school twice between 2004 and 2010, and is not suing because the statute of limitations has expired. Christian Reform School Accused of Abuse Shuts Down After Rolling Stone Expos. One killed in officer-involved shooting in Branson, Mo. They moved their wards in and set them to work clearing the site and fixing the property. In November, a man who is reportedly a former Agap employee was charged with 215 counts of possession of child pornography. It was renewed on Dec. 7. That's because Agap is a religious school, which makes it exempt from the state rules governing secular boarding schools and childrens homes. In 1991, Todd Bindley, then 13, moved in. The Kansas City Star reported that the Householders deny all allegations . We are faith-based, free, and swift to respond. The schools are unrelated and are not affiliated with any particular Christian denomination. If you're using the Bible or God to justify any of these things, that is sacrilegious. Colton Schrag remembers the night at the Agap Boarding School when, he says, a staff member punched him in the face. UPDATE (Feb. 12, 2021, 2:33 p.m. Agape's trouble began in 2020 when former students came forward with abuse allegations. Visit Website. 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. Montana carved out a religious exemption when it set up a new system for licensing youth facilities and reform schools in 2007. Earlier this year, Smock, the schools longtime physician, was charged with 12 felony sexual-molestation crimes against those in his care. On Jan. 11, 2023, Agap Boarding School announced it will close its doors, a decision former director Bryan Clemensen says is due to a lack of financial resources. It is a matter of time before youth aging out of the foster care system fall prey to the statistics. 25, 2021 at 2:05 PM PDT. Boyd and Stephanie Householders daughter says they worked at Agape for four years. The Clemenson family, who currently runs Agape, has been shut down in two states due to abuse allegations but no charges were ever made. The next home at The Ranch is for youth aging-out of foster care and the need is urgent. He says one told local police that he had escaped from a Nazi camp.. 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. 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 Department of Social Services declined to comment on its investigations into Agap and the interviews with students, and would not release records, but said that there have been no substantiated reports of abuse or neglect at the school. Every year, thousands of young Mormons go on missions to try to recruit others into the religion. (Jill Toyoshiba/The Kansas City Star/Tribune News Service via Getty Images), Pennsylvania police seized gloves, flashlight from home of Idaho murders suspect. I realized I cant be the only former student to have these problems, he says. Churches of Christ don't have enough preachers to fill all the open pulpits in our fellowship. He would later help stage an uprising as an attempt to get thrown out of the school. 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. Sandoval, Agaps dean of students, worked shifts at the county jail. That . The couple met when Jim pulled Kathy over for drag racing a beat-up Ford Pinto around the East Bay. 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. 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. ET): After publication of this article, Cedar County Sheriff James Jimbob McCrary disputed an account by former Agap student Lucas Francis. But then, Breshears made friends and began to reconsider his allegiances particularly, he says, after he witnessed classmates getting restrained. The AG was on board. ON SEPT. 7, 2022, ATTORNEY GENERAL SCHMITT and the State Department of Social Services (DSS) filed to close Agap. Once in the car, Bindley says, they took him to their home. We need people who will financially contribute and volunteer at the event to help give these . February 28, 2023. STOCKTON, Mo. (Agap denies any knowledge of these allegations. 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. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. I pre paid him in February to cut yard 2x for months. 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. 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. 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. The Missouri AG launched a joint investigation with Cedar County authorities. 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. . Lawmakers proposed legislation to provide oversight for faith-based boarding schools in Missouri. Ellie Hill Smith, a state lawmaker from Missoula, was concerned that this meant the state had no way of ensuring children were safe in these programs. 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 . None of these raised eyebrows until former Agap staffers Boyd and Stephanie Householder opened Circle of Hope Girls Ranch. Youre going to be dead or in prison three months after you turn 18.. 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. Facebook Page. 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. Many Stockton residents consider Agap a mark of honor. Its just a very scary place to be, Bradney said. To him, it seemed arbitrary and needlessly brutal. Contact Jorden Tramp, Donor Relations & Event Coordinator at. Clemensen has said the move was necessary because negative publicity has caused enrollment to plummet, and it was not financially feasible to stay open. 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