Agape Treatment Center offers Drug and Alcohol Rehab as well as Primary Mental Health Treatment. 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. Jan 5, 2023 9:58 am. 24 homes where foster children can receive the support they need in order to mature in all aspects of their lives. (Clemensen denies this happened, but says he considers Bindley one of Agaps top success stories.). The Kansas City Star ran a series of exposs detailing shocking allegations first about Circle of Hope, then Agap. Schrag says the verbal abuse was constant. 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. The team at Agape Ranch said they wanted the youth there Friday night to know that they are valued. 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. They were very detailed and professional. The site was littered with old barrels, wood piles, abandoned cars, and insulation containing asbestos. Stockton is located 130 miles south of Kansas City, a lazy drive down sunbaked roads lined with oak forests and rolling fields. 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. Tuesday, The Independent reported that DSS substantiated 10 preponderance of evidence claims of physical abuse at Agape. I dont want another kid to have to go through what I went through, Schrag said. 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. Many children in foster care feel unlovable because of the abuse they've suffered all their lives. Staff called it the intake or restraint room. 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. 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. Within a few months, he says, three students ran away. 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. He cut it 1x and never would respond to my calls. Staff members would jump on you, said Schrag. Locals says the Clemensens ingratiated themselves by offering tours, and hosting Boy Scout breakfasts and luncheons for the local Methodist group. The glass flew everywhere, he says. Hed hoped to get kicked out, which didnt happen. (Householder has denied that any abuse occurred at the ranch.). Many of these programs, which are estimated to serve as many as 200,000 kids at any one time, are allowed to operate with virtual impunity, thanks to federal inaction and permissive state laws. Trump White House Pressured Disney to Censor Jimmy Kimmel 2022 maintained by Gibler Shaw Enterprises. Students called it the Padded Palace. Updated: Dec 13, 2022 / 12:48 PM CST. Clemensen has said the move was necessary because negative publicity has caused enrollment to plummet, and it was not financially feasible to stay open. The founders, Boyd and Stephanie Householder, received 99 charges of sex crimes, child abuse . He is living in California with his mother, Jennifer, and attending a public high school. At first glance, the facility for at-risk and unmotivated boys a Baptist institution in Stockton, Missouri wasnt so terrible. To keep order, Agap instituted a military-like hierarchy, indicated by colored shirts that denoted ranks. 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. 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. 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. The cases against five people who worked at Agape Boarding school are moving forward. Contact Jorden Tramp, Donor Relations & Event Coordinator at. The argument grew heated, he says, and the staffer told the kids they were going to Brown Town. ET): After publication of this article, Cedar County Sheriff James Jimbob McCrary disputed an account by former Agap student Lucas Francis. 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. They claim Clemensen was on a power trip and seemed to enjoy brutalizing the kids in his charge. Schmitt was elected to the U.S. Senate last year and sworn in this month. That's no secret, as news stories in The Christian. The school still faces a wave of lawsuits accusing administrators of abuse. 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. But in July, his mother rewon custody and sprung him from Agap. Upon completion, our self sustaining community will care for up to 132 foster children and young adults at a time. Shrag is holding an Agape year book. In response to a detailed list of follow-up questions, Clemensen, through Agaps attorney, says he has never abused any boy in the history of Agap, and denied that restraints were ever used for punishment. Several lawsuits filed on behalf of former students also have named Agape and Circle of Hope. Staff members at Agap don't have to go through background checks, and the facility is not required to document how or why children are restrained. Lack of oversight is not limited to Missouri. (Agap denies these allegations. We want to hear it. 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. By 5+ Local Business Owners! Schrag says he tried to escape around 2007, when he was 15. 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. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot loses reelection bid, Fiery train crash in Greece kills dozens, many of them students, 1894 shipwreck found in Lake Huron, confirming "powerful, tragic story", Garland to face Congress amid ongoing special counsel investigations, FBI chief says agency feels pandemic likely started with Chinese lab leak, House select committee hearing paints China as a strategic antagonist, JetBlue flight forced to abort landing in close call at Logan Airport, Three officers shot, standoff follows in Kansas City, Mo., police say, Vanessa Bryant, family settles claims over Kobe crash site photos for $28.5M, Agape Boarding School, Stockton, Cedar County, Missouri. (NBC News presented a copy of Clidences nondisparagement agreement to Agap to confirm or dispute its authenticity, but the school did not respond.). 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. For so long, nobody cared.. For more on this story, watch NBC's "Dateline" episode, "Broken Circle". Surprise! "The healing process can start for so many.". 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. Right away, staff shaved his head, handed him an orange shirt and a pair of Wranglers, moved him into a dorm that looked like Marine barracks, and introduced him to a dizzying litany of rules. The state has been fighting to close Agap ever since. One former student, Colton Schrag, claims he was beat up and slammed into walls during his four years at Agape. James Clemensen was a California State Highway patrolman with a death wish so extreme the wives of his fellow troopers forbade their husbands from hanging out with him. The schools are unrelated and are not affiliated with any particular Christian denomination. Boyd and Stephanie Householder are facing more than 100 charges of sexual, physical and emotional abuse that allegedly took place at their faith-based boarding school in Missouri. The next home at The Ranch is for youth aging-out of foster care and the need is urgent. Seven boys tested positive for tuberculosis. 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. Selena Gomez Taking a Break From Social Media After Hailey Bieber Drama: I'm 'Too Old for This Youre never gonna make it out.. 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. . 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 . 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? 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