The campus is also home to Agape Baptist Church. Since then, former students testified at legislative hearings that they tried to report the abuse at Agape and the now-closed Circle of Hope Girls Ranch for years, but that Cedar County authorities and other officials did not respond to the . 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. Relevance: This course is designed for master's level counselors, addiction professionals, and nurses who have direct client contact. None of these inspections are required at religious boarding schools. 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. 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. The team at Agape Ranch said they wanted the youth there Friday night to know that they are valued. . 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! Closing Agap wouldnt be so easy, but throughout 2021 and 2022, the lawsuits began. Agape Boarding school has had its share of abuse allegations over the years. The Agape Boarding School was in Othello from 1992-96. Agape's trouble began in 2020 when former students came forward with abuse allegations. 2023 The Associated Press. 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. Those details were outlined in motions filed in 19 civil lawsuits requesting that the Cedar County judge overseeing those cases allow . 3/11/2021. In Missouri, at least, this could be changing. He liked Metallica and Garbage Pail Kids cards, and had a tendency to cause trouble. Home to a population of 1,600, it has a tiny main square, the worlds largest processor of eastern black walnuts, and 21 churches. 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. One former student reportedly mentioned Agap in a suicide note. 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. 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 least two other states Montana and Arkansas carve out licensing exemptions for religious facilities. 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 only thing it would have done, Smith said of her bill, is require these adolescent facilities to have oversight by our Department of Public Health and Human Services, just like a senior citizen home or a barbershop.. Lawmakers proposed legislation to provide oversight for faith-based boarding schools in Missouri. 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. Published: Mar. Every year, Agape Ranch hosts our Adoption Connection event to help children in foster care find their forever home. They called the school Agap, meaning Gods love for man. 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. 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 . Federal lawmakers say they plan to introduce legislation to curtail abuses in the industry. This created an environment ripe for abuse to happen. 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 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. Still, administrators at many of these schools insist they are a force for good. It has not come up for a vote yet, but key Republicans in the Legislature have already signaled support. 24, 2021 at 10:23 AM PDT | Updated: Mar. Stockton is located 130 miles south of Kansas City, a lazy drive down sunbaked roads lined with oak forests and rolling fields. Sandoval, Agaps dean of students, worked shifts at the county jail. Facebook Page. abuse at agape I have spent the last 5 days at agape boys ranch helping with the annual horse sale. 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. But in Missouri, only the local prosecutor can file charges, and Cedar County Prosecuting Attorney Ty Gaither has said no additional employees would be charged. 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. W You can start to heal., For his part, Breshears is grateful to be free. It will stop providing service effective Jan. 20, according to a statement from the school for boys. The desire of 51:10 Youth Ranch is to provide a safe place for children, horses and families. 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. The video was posted Sunday by Robert Bucklin, who says he survived physical and sexual abuse at Agape Boarding School near Stockton. But legislation she pushed for several years to require these programs to be licensed by the state the same way as secular facilities repeatedly failed to even get a vote. 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. Though the area is largely Baptist, Cedar County has a tradition of religious tolerance. Agape Treatment Center offers Drug and Alcohol Rehab as well as Primary Mental Health Treatment. More than a decade later, legislators are finally making headway. In 1996, Agap moved to a 200-acre ranch in Cedar County, Missouri. 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. Cedar County Prosecutor Ty Gaither asked the governors office for help in his investigation of the Agape Ranch and Boarding School west of Stockton. Posted Apr 03, 2022 11:00 AM. 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. One former student, Colton Schrag, claims he was beat up and slammed into walls during his four years at Agape. Related: 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. The law many former students of schools like Agap see as a model comes from an unlikely state to scrap religious exemptions: Alabama. In the aftermath of the criminal case, the state enacted the Alabama Youth Residential Facility Abuse Prevention Act in 2017. 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. A Tri-City Herald story from 1996 said that Franklin County officials ordered the facility to close for code violations over removing and . The school has been operating in Missouri where until 2021, privately owned schools were not required to report to the state. After each event, the team assesses what went well, what could be done better, and how many children/foster families were positively impacted. Alumni from Agap and Circle of Hope feel the momentum is swinging in their direction. McCrary said in an email on Friday that Graves was not present for social workers interviews with students. 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. Boarding schools fleeing abuse claims in other states find 'Promised Land' in Missouri . Updated: Dec 13, 2022 / 12:48 PM CST. 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. 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. 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. The 57-year-old is currently facing charges of second-degree statutory sodomy . They have law-enforcement ties, too. I dont want another kid to have to go through what I went through, Schrag said. That was the last straw; they had him committed. Clemensen has said the move was necessary because negative publicity has caused enrollment to plummet, and it was not financially feasible to stay open. There were horses, a swimming pool, and a football team. Others said they suffered permanent injuries from being disciplined or forced to work long hours of manual labor. Wednesday afternoon, a House committee questions Missouri Department of Social Services leaders about their investigations into boarding schools. Agape Ranch will establish a safe environment of 24 homes where foster children can receive the support they need in order to mature in all aspects of their lives. Clidence said Agap fired him in March 2015 when the school asked employees to sign a nondisparagement agreement, and he refused. 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. 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. (Agap denies this.) In Missouri, parents are allowed to discipline their children, he said. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. In other words, Grandmother can spank the children as can Agap.. Boyd opened the ranch in 2006 as a "school that he claimed could reform rebellious teenage girls," according to NBC News. ), Such alleged retribution was not necessarily confined to Brown Town. The report found those leaders had chronically mistreated survivors of abuse and spent decades trying to deny responsibility for abuse at individual . Despite the concerns former students have raised recently, no state agency has the ability under Missouri law to regularly inspect how children at Agap are treated. 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