Another describes a staffer holding a pocket knife to his throat. The Kansas City Star ran a series of exposs detailing shocking allegations first about Circle of Hope, then Agap. 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. I am proof that money doesnt protect against abuse, Hilton told state legislators, speaking in support of a bill that would better protect children in troubled-youth treatment programs. 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. Agape also faces criminal charges . 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. The allegations of abuse were filed at the Cedar County Circuit . This created an environment ripe for abuse to happen. Lawmakers proposed legislation to provide oversight for faith-based boarding schools in Missouri. 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. The argument grew heated, he says, and the staffer told the kids they were going to Brown Town. In Missouri, at least, this could be changing. More than a decade later, legislators are finally making headway. The three were convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison. STOCKTON, Mo. Tuesday, The Independent reported that DSS substantiated 10 preponderance of evidence claims of physical abuse at Agape. 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 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. Netflixs Outer Banks Buries Itself in Ridiculous Season 3 And he said, No, theyre not. He cuffed me up and dropped me back off at Agap. The founders of Circle of Hope face around 100 charges, some alleging sexual abuse. Jacob smelled foul and the . But in some states that have tried to close this oversight gap in recent years, like Montana, lawmakers have met with resistance. Agape Boarding School, a Christian reform school in Cedar County, is under investigation by local authorities and the Missouri Attorney Generals office. 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. ON SEPT. 7, 2022, ATTORNEY GENERAL SCHMITT and the State Department of Social Services (DSS) filed to close Agap. Just last summer, former students at a pair of Wyoming ranches alleged in an NBC investigation that they had been forced to perform backbreaking manual labor and subjected to traumatic physical and emotional abuse. 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. 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. 24, 2021 at 10:23 AM PDT | Updated: Mar. It was renewed on Dec. 7. 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 . On March 9, 2021, AG Schmitt announced 102 charges against the Householders, including rape and physical abuse. (Clemensen denies this happened, but says he considers Bindley one of Agaps top success stories.). Church was on Wednesday and three times on Sunday. Circle of Hope Girls Ranch near Humansville . 25, 2021 at 2:05 PM PDT. 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! 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 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.. Breshears spotted a baseball bat poking out of an equipment bag. The 57-year-old is currently facing charges of second-degree statutory sodomy . 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. 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. . 5151 Flynn Parkway Suite 106 Corpus Christi, TX 78411. By 14, Breshears says, he was fully in staffers crosshairs. For more on this story, watch NBC's "Dateline" episode, "Broken Circle". One night, he got into an argument with his mom and stepdad that turned physical, and they accused him of being possessed. Moments later, Bindley says, Bryan yanked him backward, slamming his chair and his head into the concrete floor. 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). 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.) He smacked me in the face with his elbow for saying the f-word. Many Stockton residents consider Agap a mark of honor. (Knock her out! he can be heard saying.) Former Calallen ISD teacher Joseph Sandoval sentenced to 35 years in prison for sexual abuse . 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. We want to make it about the children's rights rather than taking away religious rights. It was easy to get in trouble for stupid shit, Breshears recalls. 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. 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. One killed in officer-involved shooting in Branson, Mo. One student said staffers had branded him with a cross. 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. 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. Jim and Kathy appeared at the hospital a few weeks later. The law many former students of schools like Agap see as a model comes from an unlikely state to scrap religious exemptions: Alabama. A judge ordered the school closed only to put the order on hold after Agap fired the staffer in question. 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. Then-Attorney General Eric Schmitt's office contended that 22 workers should have been charged, and with more serious crimes. When I first got there, I just stayed on the low, trying to do my best, hoping to get out, he says. To him, it seemed arbitrary and needlessly brutal. Jim and Kathy Clemensen a married couple whom people call Brother Clemensen and Maam started Agap in the early 1990s. In May 2021, the law requiring religious schools to register with the state passed. 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. Students called it the Padded Palace. Seven former students said staff members had assaulted them. Carlson said he never witnessed abuse and credited the school with temporarily keeping him off meth and teaching him how to lay tile. Schmitt last year asked a Cedar County judge to close Agape, but the judge had not yet issued a decision. 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One deposed student describes attempting to jump off a staircase at Agap in a gesture of suicidal desperation which prompted a staffer to grab him, throw him six feet across the floor, sit on his back, and bash his head into the floor multiple times, leaving him in a pile of snot and blood, while screaming, Is this what you want? (Agap confirms restraining the student, but says it was not a form of abuse but an attempt to prevent harm to the boy.) Another former student said under oath that he was yanked out of bed and slammed to the floor for waking up late, kicked and punched in the balls by former dean of students Julio Sandoval, and kicked in the ribs and face in front of the rest of the school by Bryan Clemensen. 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. Inside the Christian Reform School From Hell, Wyoming ranches alleged in an NBC investigation, Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints. Whatever the case, Clemensen has many allies where it perhaps counts the most: in the community. According to AG Schmitts office, the Cedar County Sheriffs Department employs at least three people who used to work at Agap. 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. 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. Visit Website. The staff often singled out members of Brown Town for abuse, depositions filed by former Agap students suggest. It will stop providing service effective Jan. 20, according to a statement from the school for boys. Alumni from Agap and Circle of Hope feel the momentum is swinging in their direction. Thank you for your generous support [] The AG was on board. In September 2021, he charged five Agap staff members with a total of 13 counts of third-degree assault, the lowest degree of felony. 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. They have law-enforcement ties, too. Seven boys tested positive for tuberculosis. 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. (As of publication, one defendants case was dismissed, three pleaded guilty to misdemeanors, and one is awaiting a hearing this month.) 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. It appeared to be a vast improvement over his previous digs. They would say, Youre nothing. Circle of Hope was opened in 2006 by Boyd Householder, a former Agap employee, as a school for rebellious teenage girls. 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. And he encouraged that kind of crap from staff members.. 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 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time Shrag is holding an Agape year book. 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. Federal lawmakers say they plan to introduce legislation to curtail abuses in the industry. IN THE MONTHS AFTER HIS ARRIVAL, Breshears feelings about Agap changed. Roloff was perhaps best known for starting boarding homes in the 1960s to reform youth he described as parent-hating, Satan-worshipping, dope-taking immoral boys and girls, utilizing corporal punishment and isolation for children who disobeyed. Trump Melts Down Over Murdoch Admitting Fox Lied About Election Fraud. He cut it 1x and never would respond to my calls. For example, Arkansas allows boarding schools and child welfare agencies operated solely by a religious organization to be exempt from licensing. (Agap denies this.) The state Public Health and Human Services Department and the local sheriff did not fulfill NBC News records requests for information about any more recent complaints. NBC News reported on the allegations earlier this . The fastest way for a student to attain a coveted burgundy or red shirt, Breshears soon learned, was to embrace the Lord and help Brother Bryan Bryan Clemensen, the schools co-founder and eventual director and principal enforce the rules. It was late on April 20, 2007, he said, and the staff at the all-boys boarding school in southwestern Missouri wanted him to confess that he and two other boys were going to try to run away. 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. Bryan Clemensen stops a tour of the group home to pet Sally, the ranchs beloved camel. The Clemensens sent 100 boys home, and moved the rest to base housing. Stockton is located 130 miles south of Kansas City, a lazy drive down sunbaked roads lined with oak forests and rolling fields. We are the best rehab . Meanwhile, the husband-and-wife founders of Circle of Hope, Boyd and Stephanie Householder, face a combined 99 charges that include child abuse and neglect, sex crimes and other counts. Clemensen said the decision to close "is voluntary and solely due to the lack of financial resources to continue caring for the boys.". After each event, the team assesses what went well, what could be done better, and how many children/foster families were positively impacted. In the ensuing chaos, a third pulled the fire alarm. A decent life.. Gaither declined to comment, but told the Cedar County Republican that Agap has the right to administer corporal punishment. South Carolina is a possibility; it still does not require religious schools to register with the state. At first glance, the facility for at-risk and unmotivated boys a Baptist institution in Stockton, Missouri wasnt so terrible. 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. That's no secret, as news stories in The Christian. Robert Larsson, 89, a preacher and the founder of Pinehaven, gave folksy presentations about how his school improved the lives of children, who spent their days at the ranch wrangling calves, shoveling manure and learning Bible verses. 2023 The Associated Press. To keep order, Agap instituted a military-like hierarchy, indicated by colored shirts that denoted ranks. The school has been operating in Missouri where until 2021, privately owned schools were not required to report to the state. Contact Jorden Tramp, Donor Relations & Event Coordinator at jorden@agaperanch.org or click the button below. 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. Editors picks Interested in learning more about the 2023 Legacy Gala? 90% of young adults aging-out of the foster care system will become homeless, incarcerated, in prostitution, sex trafficked, or dead within three years. The report found those leaders had chronically mistreated survivors of abuse and spent decades trying to deny responsibility for abuse at individual . 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. They led to a front-page story in the Cedar County Republican. Youre dirtbags, youre hoodlums. It also lays out a set of childrens rights, banning corporal punishment and verbal and emotional abuse, and giving youth the ability to call their parents whenever they want. So they were all, in my book, guilty of association, said Schrag. Families looking to adopt are invited to meet, play, and talk to these children, and we need help putting it on. Jan. 23, 2023. The school is a nonprofit owned by the Agap Baptist Church, which was also started by the Clemensens. Agape Baptist Church owns and operates the private boarding school for boys in Stockton, MO. I watched him choke, slam kids into the floor, and just basically beat the shit out of them. They also look at records from any incidents in which a child is injured or restrained. 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. 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. We need people who will financially contribute and volunteer at the event to help give these . One former student said he was raped at Agape and called "seizure boy" because of his epilepsy. It was a video secretly recorded at nearby Circle of Hope Ranch that finally moved state authorities to get involved. The curriculum included traditional math and English. 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. Some who attended and worked at the school said otherwise. Agape had 132 students 13 months ago, its lawyer, John Schultz said. When speaking with Rolling Stone, Clemensen denied the allegations against him and explained his approach to reform. January 11, 2023 / 6:04 PM Contact Agape International Missions Email: info@aim4asia.org Phone: 916.784.2800. For $3,250 in tuition per month, the school claims on its website that it can turn around defiant and rebellious boys through spiritual growth., Parents, who are only allowed to visit with two weeks notice, are warned in the school handbook they should never try and interfere with the policies or rules of Agap Boarding School. Address . 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. Colton Shrag, age 16 on a home visit from Agap in 2008. 4/5/2021. 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. 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. The charges come after the Missouri State Highway Patrol investigated allegations of abuse at the boarding school. He says he and others suffered frequent physical abuse, at the hands of at least a dozen staff members, and others didnt stop it. Schmitt was elected to the U.S. Senate last year and sworn in this month. 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. He has been a trainer for 10 years specializing in substance abuse. 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. Cedar County Prosecutor Ty Gaither asked the governors office for help in his investigation of the Agape Ranch and Boarding School west of Stockton. The Agape Boarding School was in Othello from 1992-96. I hired Agape to cut the lawn. Mow Grass and Maintain Landscaping. They held a blood drive, organized a Fourth of July fireworks spectacular, and began holding an annual rodeo. At the time of reporting, he is not yet in police custody, and an arrest warrant has been issued in his name. 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. 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. 2 min read. Christian Reform School Accused of Abuse Shuts Down After Rolling Stone Expos. He says staff would restrain boys on the ground and use pressure points to the point of bruising. . They were marched downstairs, where things escalated, until, Breshears alleges, he was lying facedown with a staffer sitting on his legs and two others digging their kneecaps into his pressure points. Email: info @ aim4asia.org Phone: 916.784.2800 the facility for at-risk and unmotivated boys a institution... They led to a statement from the school with temporarily keeping him off and!, AG Schmitt announced 102 charges against the Householders, including rape physical! To help give these statutory sodomy agape ranch abuse digs accused him of being.. Declined to comment, but says he couldnt do it, Agap instituted a military-like hierarchy agape ranch abuse by... Miles south of Kansas City Star ran a series of exposs detailing shocking allegations first about of... The order on hold after Agap fired the staffer told the Cedar Republican! Register with the other students to start a riot comes from an state... Banks Buries Itself in Ridiculous Season 3 and he said, no theyre. 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