These punishments, former students say, were often administered in a small room down a dark staircase, in the basement of the church, with blue padded floors and holes punched in the wall. but has gone public in the past year with his . 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 Clemensen a married couple whom people call Brother Clemensen and Maam started Agap in the early 1990s. 24, 2021 at 10:23 AM PDT | Updated: Mar. Circle of Hope Girls' Ranch, a nearby Christian boarding school for girls, was shut down in 2020. Bryan Clemensen was not among those charged. Since Circle of Hope opened in 2006, at least 15 people said they reported abuse at the ranch to at least six local, state and federal agencies in Missouri, an NBC News investigation found, based . The founders, Boyd and Stephanie Householder, received 99 charges of sex crimes, child abuse . Missouri's Agap Boarding School will close its doors due to a lack of finances, school officials say but the . 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. 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. They would say, Youre nothing. None of these inspections are required at religious boarding schools. It was renewed on Dec. 7. Agape Boarding School in Stockton has been the subject of state and local investigations and several lawsuits from former students. We felt they needed God in their lives. The state, he says, had no clue how to get to a kids heart.. The Clemenson family, who currently runs Agape, has been shut down in two states due to abuse allegations but no charges were ever made. Thank you for your generous support [] 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. Former students said their communication with parents and local authorities was censored. Full Gala Taping. As owners of the Circle of Hope Ranch, the couple faces 100 criminal abuse charges between them. More than 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 school states on its website that its staff are trained in proper restraining tactics, which are only used if a child is a threat to others and last for just a few minutes. Cedar . . Published: Mar. To keep order, Agap instituted a military-like hierarchy, indicated by colored shirts that denoted ranks. Jan 5, 2023 9:58 am. The argument grew heated, he says, and the staffer told the kids they were going to Brown Town. He says one told local police that he had escaped from a Nazi camp.. The allegations of abuse were filed at the Cedar County Circuit . 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. It was then he discovered an effort far more worthwhile than smashing windows: At least 18 other former students were filing lawsuits accusing the school and its staff of emotional, sexual, and physical abuse. 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 curriculum included traditional math and English. Every year, Agape Ranch hosts our Adoption Connection event to help children in foster care find their forever home. 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. For a time, Breshears stayed out of trouble. 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. We are the best rehab . The highway patrol says it began its investigation into allegations of abuse and neglect at the facility in late February. The school is a nonprofit owned by the Agap Baptist Church, which was also started by the Clemensens. The action galvanized Agap alumni, as well, and they began telling their stories to local media and on podcasts. Clemensen picked the state specifically because of its lack of regulation, he told a reporter in 2002, and said the school would leave Missouri if required to get a license. Facebook Page. 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. In 23 states, including Missouri, religious boarding schools do not even have to tell their state education department that they exist. 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. Indeed, the version of the school students describe, community members say, is starkly different from the Agap the town has come to know. Seth Duncan was charged with five counts of third . One day after the FBI announced the arrest of a former Agape Boarding School dean, a civil right's . (KY3) - Missouri's attorney general is investigating a second Cedar County boarding school. Robert Bucklin, 28, who is identified in the motion and lawsuit as R.B. 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 evening began with a social hour and silent auction and continued with dinner and inspirational testimonies as we opened the next chapter of Agape Ranch. Agape had 132 students 13 months ago, its lawyer, John Schultz said. The site was littered with old barrels, wood piles, abandoned cars, and insulation containing asbestos. Christian Reform School Accused of Abuse Shuts Down After Rolling Stone Expos. On cue, at least two others started beating up an unsuspecting student to create a distraction. Bryan Clemensen stops a tour of the group home to pet Sally, the ranchs beloved camel. 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. Tuesday, The Independent reported that DSS substantiated 10 preponderance of evidence claims of physical abuse at Agape. 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 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time Students called it the Padded Palace., Punishments allegedly ranged from calisthenics to wall time, where kids stood with their foreheads and noses touching the wall, except when sleeping, doing schoolwork, or eating. 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. (NBC News presented a copy of Clidences nondisparagement agreement to Agap to confirm or dispute its authenticity, but the school did not respond.). 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. It received initial passage in the house and needs one more vote before going on to the Senate. Colton Shrag, age 16 on a home visit from Agap in 2008. 3/11/2021. Agape Ranch will establish a safe environment of. Lawmakers proposed legislation to provide oversight for faith-based boarding schools in Missouri. I can't find any scriptures in the Bible that would say that it's OK to physically or sexually abuse children, to starve them as means of punishment, to withhold medication, to deprive them of sleep, to force them into manual labor, Ingle said. 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. 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. So far Clemensen has kept his name out of the registry; he lost an appeal on Nov. 17, and filed for a judicial review in circuit court, which granted him a temporary restraining order keeping him off the list. I pre paid him in February to cut yard 2x for months. In Missouri, at least, this could be changing. In the aftermath of the criminal case, the state enacted the Alabama Youth Residential Facility Abuse Prevention Act in 2017. 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. Schmitt last year asked a Cedar County judge to close Agape, but the judge had not yet issued a decision. One former student said he was raped at Agape and called "seizure boy" because of his epilepsy. And its not just Missouri. 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. Master's Ranch Christian Academy which has had a facility in southern Missouri for more than a decade opened a new location . 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 . Trump White House Pressured Disney to Censor Jimmy Kimmel Youre going to be dead or in prison three months after you turn 18.. First published on January 11, 2023 / 6:04 PM. He is a manipulator, says Breshears. Schrag says the verbal abuse was constant. (They do so much good for this town and you cannot believe the difference they have made in these young men, says Jackie Cargell, who has lived in the town for 57 years.) 2022 maintained by Gibler Shaw Enterprises. The AG was on board. 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. Francis said that Robert Graves, a Cedar County sheriffs deputy who had worked at Agap, sat in on a meeting Francis had with a social worker who was looking into abuse allegations at the school. They claim Clemensen was on a power trip and seemed to enjoy brutalizing the kids in his charge. The term encompasses various facilities and programs, including youth residential treatment centers, wilderness programs, boot camps, and therapeutic boarding schools.. Cedar County Sheriff James Jimbob McCrary denied that Graves was present for interviews with students. (Agap denies any knowledge of these allegations. 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. 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. To report a correction or typo, please email digitalnews@ky3.com, State of Missouri investigating Agape Ranch and Boarding School near Stockton, Deputy seriously hurt in crash with driver opening beer, Greene County prosecutor files charges against man accused of crashing truck into a house. At least two other states Montana and Arkansas carve out licensing exemptions for religious facilities. 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. 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. 24 homes where foster children can receive the support they need in order to mature in all aspects of their lives. ET): After publication of this article, Cedar County Sheriff James Jimbob McCrary disputed an account by former Agap student Lucas Francis. 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. For example, Arkansas allows boarding schools and child welfare agencies operated solely by a religious organization to be exempt from licensing. For example, when many foster children age out of the system, they have lived in an average of 12 foster homes. Nonetheless, the outcome of the civil suits is far from certain. Soon theyd be in a place where they were untouchable. Others said they suffered permanent injuries from being disciplined or forced to work long hours of manual labor. The criminal division of the EPA investigated and charged Jim Clemensen for improperly disposing of hazardous material. 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. Yet the delays have frustrated state lawmakers. And he said, No, theyre not., In 1996, the Clemensens purchased 40 acres just outside of town. Its about getting these kids to a place in their life where they have to look to God for help, he says. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. 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