agape ranch abuse
Shrag is holding an Agape year book. 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. Agape Boarding School is located on a 200-acre ranch in Stockton, Missouri. Yet the delays have frustrated state lawmakers. More than a decade later, legislators are finally making headway. 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. Staff called it the intake room. Colton Schrag remembers the night at the Agap Boarding School when, he says, a staff member punched him in the face. On March 9, 2021, AG Schmitt announced 102 charges against the Householders, including rape and physical abuse. Agape Boarding School was moving away from the "nonbelievers" in Washington and California and heading east. 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. Related: 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. He cut it 1x and never would respond to my calls. These rules and policies are for their son's success and protection. 79 were here. James Clemensen founded the Agap Boarding School in the early 1990s. Full Gala Taping. The schools are unrelated and are not affiliated with any particular Christian denomination. The Missouri House Committee on Children and Families issued a report in November concluding that there are numerous facilities in the state that have abused vulnerable children in their care, with no state oversight, for many years. Still, it was only a partial picture, based on interviews with former students and information from state officials, because Missouri doesnt keep track of how many religious boarding schools exist in the state. I was sheltered, Breshears says. Those details were outlined in motions filed in 19 civil lawsuits requesting that the Cedar County judge overseeing those cases allow . 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. Children as young as four-years-old may have had up to five foster . The campus is also home to Agape Baptist Church. Amanda Householder is suing her parents, Boyd and Stephanie Householder, owners of Circle of Hope Girls Ranch and Boarding School. The Kansas City Star reported that the Householders deny all allegations . 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. Officials . J.M. 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 result, experts said, is that in much of the country, no one from the government checks to ensure that these facilities, often in remote regions, meet basic standards before children are enrolled. They insisted everyone call them Brother Jim and Maam, and their son Brother Bryan.. When I first got there, I just stayed on the low, trying to do my best, hoping to get out, he says. Graves did not respond to a request for comment. 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. In Missouri, at least, this could be changing. 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 . 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. Sick with a heart condition, Jim left the force in 1979 and moved Kathy, Bryan, and his siblings to Stockton, a sweltering agricultural city on the once-mighty San Joaquin River. Every year, Agape Ranch hosts our Adoption Connection event to help children in foster care find their forever home. Carlson said he never witnessed abuse and credited the school with temporarily keeping him off meth and teaching him how to lay tile. By 5+ Local Business Owners! 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). 2023 The Associated Press. Agape Ranch is dedicated to making a difference within their community and building capacity within the team. But Breshears got a rude welcome. McCrary said his office has received complaints about Agap, and that theyve all been investigated as far as it could go. He called Graves a very good deputy. McCrary said that he ensures there is no conflict of interest when investigating Agap complaints by involving other agencies, like the social services department. Agap did not respond to repeated requests for comment and interviews via phone, email and a letter left at the schools reception desk. 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. This created an environment ripe for abuse to happen. I have concerns about every inch of that place, County Commissioner Sue Miller said. The argument grew heated, he says, and the staffer told the kids they were going to Brown Town. He likes to get in peoples heads.. 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. For example, when many foster children age out of the system, they have lived in an average of 12 foster homes. He has been a trainer for 10 years specializing in substance abuse. After the state removed students from the school in August, Circle of Hope voluntarily . Attendance at Agape plummeted after abuse allegations surfaced. The school is a nonprofit owned by the Agap Baptist Church, which was also started by the Clemensens. All Rights Reserved. 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. Montana carved out a religious exemption when it set up a new system for licensing youth facilities and reform schools in 2007. The next home at The Ranch is for youth aging-out of foster care and the need is urgent. Agape Treatment Center offers Drug and Alcohol Rehab as well as Primary Mental Health Treatment. 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. 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. 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. 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! That's no secret, as news stories in The Christian. "Pinehaven has had challenges over the years, but so has everyone," Montana Family Foundation President Jeff Laszloffy said at a 2019 hearing. 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. (Both have pleaded not guilty.) Clemensen, who left the school from 2008 to 2018, says he has two masters degrees, in education and counseling and psychology, and would challenge the boys thinking processes, and he still does that to this day., Breshears and others paint a different picture. 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. 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! 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. 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. Agape Boarding School in Stockton has been the subject of state and local investigations and several lawsuits from former students. 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. 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. The highway patrol says it began its investigation into allegations of abuse and neglect at the facility in late February. Weve had 6,000 students and only a small percent are making these claims, and I could give you the names of many who thank me. Rolling Stone contacted one of them, Matt Carlson, who says he spent the better part of a year at Agap in the early 2000s. Many Stockton residents consider Agap a mark of honor. At a hearing in the Missouri Legislature on Wednesday, a department official said it has been difficult to substantiate abuse allegations at religious boarding schools due to "a culture of restricted access.". The state has been fighting to close Agap ever since. 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. He says one told local police that he had escaped from a Nazi camp.. ET): After publication of this article, Cedar County Sheriff James Jimbob McCrary disputed an account by former Agap student Lucas Francis. 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. 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. Anne Stych June 27, 2022. I watched him choke, slam kids into the floor, and just basically beat the shit out of them. 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. The last time would be his graduation. They claim Clemensen was on a power trip and seemed to enjoy brutalizing the kids in his charge. Woody Harrelson Spreads Anti-Vax Conspiracies During SNL Monologue Agape's doctor is charged with child sex crimes and five employees are accused of assault, though Missouri's attorney general thinks many more workers should have been charged.. Clemensen said the decision to close "is voluntary and solely due to the lack of financial resources to continue caring for the boys.". 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 . For more on this story, watch NBC's "Dateline" episode, "Broken Circle". (361) 742-6330. Today, its home to at least 28 such institutions, though some estimates place the number at upward of 100, many of which are still operating under the radar. I tried to find a record of it, but there was none. (The Cedar County Sheriffs Department did not return calls seeking comment.). 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. So they were all, in my book, guilty of association, said Schrag. Its education and human services departments do not license religious schools, or any private boarding schools, and child protective services does not have the authority to investigate allegations of abuse or neglect at them; instead, they must refer those reports to law enforcement. For example, Arkansas allows boarding schools and child welfare agencies operated solely by a religious organization to be exempt from licensing. He remembers verbal abuse, such as being told, the world didnt want you and says withholding food was a punishment., Staff members would slam you on the ground, slam you into walls, pick you up by the collar and just slam you around. RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT FOR SUBSTANCE ABUSE. Bryan Clemensen stops a tour of the group home to pet Sally, the ranchs beloved camel. Though the area is largely Baptist, Cedar County has a tradition of religious tolerance. Cedar County Prosecutor Ty Gaither asked the governors office for help in his investigation of the Agape Ranch and Boarding School west of Stockton. They held a blood drive, organized a Fourth of July fireworks spectacular, and began holding an annual rodeo. Hed hoped to get kicked out, which didnt happen. Stockton is located 130 miles south of Kansas City, a lazy drive down sunbaked roads lined with oak forests and rolling fields. Trump Melts Down Over Murdoch Admitting Fox Lied About Election Fraud. The charges come after the Missouri State Highway Patrol investigated allegations of abuse at the boarding school. The boarding school typically has about 150 boys enrolled, ages 12 to 17, and they share the ranch with farm and exotic animals, including cows, horses, llamas, water buffalo, camels and zebras, according to the schools website. Selena Gomez Taking a Break From Social Media After Hailey Bieber Drama: I'm 'Too Old for This In August, Sandoval was charged with arranging the kidnapping of an emancipated teen in Fresno, California, on behalf of the boys estranged mother, and then having him driven, handcuffed, 27 hours to Agap. 180 Ministries, a ministry of Teen Challenge, located in Denver Colorado, is a residential substance abuse . Mrs. Vicki Loeffler & Mrs. Rodney Johnson, DDS, Faithful Witness Photography, Photographer. 1:00. In March 2020, a former Agap student named Joseph Askins stopped in to visit, and witnessed abuse that shocked him. State regulates church boarding schools after abuse allegations. Appalled, he used his phone to surreptitiously record Boyd Householder, who appeared to be ordering Circle of Hope students to physically assault one of their classmates. Netflixs Outer Banks Buries Itself in Ridiculous Season 3 Agaps handbook states it has a strict hands-off policy regarding the students, and does not use corporal punishment. Agape Ranch-courtesy photo. Agape had 132 students 13 months ago, its lawyer, John Schultz said. 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. That meant calling out and even disciplining classmates for infractions like cursing, talking in line, refusing to pledge allegiance to the Christian flag, or talking about their pasts. . 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. As a 501(c)3 charitable organization dedicated to providing high quality foster care in South Texas by supporting foster and adoptive families, we have been working diligently in the areas of prevention, foster care, adoption, and aging-out to provide support and mentorship for vulnerable children in our community. It appeared to be a vast improvement over his previous digs. New court filings reveal some of the most brutal allegations of abuse at Agape Boarding School so far, including former students' account that two staffers sexually assaulted him. Operators declined to comment about the investigation. Its good to be back with family, he says. They have law-enforcement ties, too. I realized I cant be the only former student to have these problems, he says. (NBC News presented a copy of Clidences nondisparagement agreement to Agap to confirm or dispute its authenticity, but the school did not respond.). 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. 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 law many former students of schools like Agap see as a model comes from an unlikely state to scrap religious exemptions: Alabama. They allowed it to happen.. Jan. 18, 2023. Agape Baptist Church owns and operates the private boarding school for boys in Stockton, MO. A Tri-City Herald story from 1996 said that Franklin County officials ordered the facility to close for code violations over removing and . We felt they needed God in their lives. The state, he says, had no clue how to get to a kids heart.. 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. He enjoyed watching movies, listening to Elvis, and playing soccer with his friends. COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. The picture flashed on the big screen, and Brenda Gordon immediately . 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. People had reported Circle of Hope at least 19 times since it opened to three sheriffs departments, state child welfare and education officials, the highway patrol, and the state attorney generals office, according to interviews and records obtained by NBC News. I got picked up by the Cedar County Sheriffs Department, and I tried to tell the guy, like, Theyre beating us, dont take me back there, he says. The next home at The Ranch is for youth aging-out of foster care and the need is urgent. It also taught creationism and that women should be subservient to their husbands, while weaving biblical references into the materials. "For nearly three decades, students at Agape Boarding School have experienced emotional, mental, physical . 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. Within a few months, he says, three students ran away. Church was on Wednesday and three times on Sunday. 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. 5151 Flynn Parkway Suite 106 Corpus Christi, TX 78411. Jim and Kathy Clemensen a married couple whom people call Brother Clemensen and Maam started Agap in the early 1990s. For a time, Breshears stayed out of trouble. Agape Ranch and Boarding School near Stockton, Missouri, a facility operated by Agape Baptist Church. (The recommendations are not public, so the implicated staff members are unknown.) Paris Hilton's fellow PCS alums said they were stunned to see the heiress, who has amassed 12.6 million followers on Instagram alone, used the hashtag #BreakingCodeSilence in a social media post. And its not just Missouri. I just kind of felt like I was on my own, said Schrag, 28, who now works in the oil industry in Texas. 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. They moved their wards in and set them to work clearing the site and fixing the property. (Jill Toyoshiba/The Kansas City Star/Tribune News Service via Getty Images), Pennsylvania police seized gloves, flashlight from home of Idaho murders suspect. One former student said he was raped at Agape and called "seizure boy" because of his epilepsy. The video follows numerous allegations of abuse against Agape, a Christian reform school for boys, which until a new law in 2021, had virtually no state oversight due to its faith-based status. He liked Metallica and Garbage Pail Kids cards, and had a tendency to cause trouble. That shouldn't be happening., If not, he added, kids are going to wind up losing their lives.. 2022 maintained by Gibler Shaw Enterprises. In September 2021, he charged five Agap staff members with a total of 13 counts of third-degree assault, the lowest degree of felony. 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 . 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. And he said, No, theyre not., In 1996, the Clemensens purchased 40 acres just outside of town. Staff called it the intake or restraint room. 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 desire of 51:10 Youth Ranch is to provide a safe place for children, horses and families. The team at Agape Ranch said they wanted the youth there Friday night to know that they are valued. 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. Nathan Papes/Springfield News-Leader/Imagn. Boarding schools fleeing abuse claims in other states find 'Promised Land' in Missouri . Circle of Hope Girls Ranch near Humansville . 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.. There wasnt really any training, said James Clidence, a pastor who worked as a teacher at Agap from 2012 to 2015. He grabbed the bat, charged toward the front of the cafeteria, and shattered a plate-glass window. His outrage became open defiance. At the time of reporting, he is not yet in police custody, and an arrest warrant has been issued in his name. In Missouri, parents are allowed to discipline their children, he said. Minnesota has even less control. Agape Boarding school has had its share of abuse allegations over the years. 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. 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. The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time Their lawyer denies the allegations and says that their innocence will prevail in court. They called the school Agap, meaning Gods love for man. Nathan Papes/Springfield News-Leader/Imagn. (888) 614-0077. . 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. Churches of Christ don't have enough preachers to fill all the open pulpits in our fellowship. 2 min read. If you're using the Bible or God to justify any of these things, that is sacrilegious. Jim and Kathy appeared at the hospital a few weeks later. He lost his red shirt and became familiar with the one place no student wanted to end up: Brown Town. That status, characterized by the brown shirt a student was forced to wear, according to lawsuits and depositions, came with extreme workouts, the loss of talking privileges, and a restricted meal plan that often consisted of a slice of bread and peanut butter, or a tortilla with a scoop of cold refried beans. The action galvanized Agap alumni, as well, and they began telling their stories to local media and on podcasts. Nonetheless, the outcome of the civil suits is far from certain. Bryan Clemensen was not among those charged. None of these inspections are required at religious boarding schools. His grandparents sent him to a mental hospital, then to Agap. He would later help stage an uprising as an attempt to get thrown out of the school. 4/5/2021. The site was littered with old barrels, wood piles, abandoned cars, and insulation containing asbestos. Our rehabilitation center in Fort Lauderdale for substance abuse embraces a universal, unconditional love that transcends, that serves regardless of circumstances. ), Such alleged retribution was not necessarily confined to Brown Town. The couple met when Jim pulled Kathy over for drag racing a beat-up Ford Pinto around the East Bay. These courses are core requirements for Florida . Cedar County Sheriff James Jimbob McCrary denied that Graves was present for interviews with students. SPRINGFIELD DRIVERS: Construction at Campbell and Republic starts soon. Im trying to aim for a decent life, you know what Im saying? Cedar . They were very detailed and professional. I pre paid him in February to cut yard 2x for months. Bucklin wrote the video shows a staff . KANSAS CITY (AP) Maggie Drew's dad sent her to Circle . As soon as Keri Ingle, a Democratic state representative from the Kansas City, Missouri, area and former child welfare investigator, read about the abuse allegations at Circle of Hope Girls Ranch last year, she called for hearings. 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. (Image: KY3 / Video screengrab) Nineteen former students of an embattled fundamentalist boarding school in Missouri have made new claims of brutal physical and sexual abuse in court filings this month. Brown Town times on Sunday couple met when Jim pulled Kathy over for drag racing beat-up. This story, watch NBC 's `` Dateline '' episode, `` Circle! Making a difference within their community and building capacity within the team,... Ap ) Maggie Drew & # x27 ; s dad sent her to.! 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