James Clemensen founded the Agap Boarding School in the early 1990s. I was sheltered, Breshears says. Jan 5, 2023 9:58 am. Agape's trouble began in 2020 when former students came forward with abuse allegations. The posts went viral even receiving a thumbs-up from Paris Hilton. Call us today and find long-term recovery. Jim and Kathy appeared at the hospital a few weeks later. The Clemensens sent 100 boys home, and moved the rest to base housing. Church was on Wednesday and three times on Sunday. Anne Stych June 27, 2022. 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. but has gone public in the past year with his . 60% of the children in our county are being placed outside of our county due to the lack of foster homes in our community. There wasnt really any training, said James Clidence, a pastor who worked as a teacher at Agap from 2012 to 2015. The Thrive program will provide housing and mentorship for young adults during their college or trade school career. COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. The picture flashed on the big screen, and Brenda Gordon immediately . The state has been fighting to close Agap ever since. One morning, he overheard one of the Clemensen daughters asking for help with a math problem, to which Bindley shot back a smartass remark. The AG was on board. The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time 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. 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. In the ensuing chaos, a third pulled the fire alarm. Use tab to navigate through the menu items. The action galvanized Agap alumni, as well, and they began telling their stories to local media and on podcasts. Agape Boarding School, a Christian reform school in Cedar County, is under investigation by local authorities and the Missouri Attorney Generals office. It appeared to be a vast improvement over his previous digs. The more Ingle learned about Circle of Hope, the more she came to believe that the problem wasn't limited to one school, but pointed to a systemic failure of state oversight. Colton Schrag, who spent years at Agape Boarding School in southwest Missouri, where dozens of former students have described experiencing abuse, testifies during a committee hearing on Feb. 10, 2021. These rules and policies are for their son's success and protection. Agape Ranch breaks that cycle by providing compassionate care, connections within the community, and now by creating a neighborhood to give them a place to call home with families that provide unconditional love. abuse at agape I have spent the last 5 days at agape boys ranch helping with the annual horse sale. 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. Former students said their communication with parents and local authorities was censored. By then, Circle of Hope had shut down after the state removed dozens of its students. 2 min read. 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.. Hymns blared in the classrooms. That's because Agap is a religious school, which makes it exempt from the state rules governing secular boarding schools and childrens homes. 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. Bryan, by then in his twenties, was working in a state-funded group home. Award honors influential children's minister. The troubled teen industry is a term used to refer to a broad range of youth residential programs aimed at struggling teenagers. Nathan Papes/Springfield News-Leader/Imagn. Missouri previously had virtually no . 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. He liked Metallica and Garbage Pail Kids cards, and had a tendency to cause trouble. 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. Address . Circle of Hope was opened in 2006 by Boyd Householder, a former Agap employee, as a school for rebellious teenage girls. More than a decade later, legislators are finally making headway. 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. He would later set up a transport business to collect teens, hiring off-duty deputies to help him. McCrary said in an email on Friday that Graves was not present for social workers interviews with students. They would put you down, says Breshears. 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. 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. The term encompasses various facilities and programs, including youth residential treatment centers, wilderness programs, boot camps, and therapeutic boarding schools.. After each event, the team assesses what went well, what could be done better, and how many children/foster families were positively impacted. 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. In May 2021, the law requiring religious schools to register with the state passed. Cedar . Agape also faces criminal charges . 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. 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. 1.0 Stephen H. Winter Haven, FL. The reasoning for the exemptions varies, but states generally take a hands-off approach to oversight of privately funded schools, and officials fear stoking the anger of conservative voters. We want to hear it. It is one of the 2 times he saw his family between 2006 and 2010. STOCKTON, Mo. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. The last time would be his graduation. Throughout the 1980s, Kathy and Jim fostered children whose parents were in jail. Seven boys tested positive for tuberculosis. NBC News reported on the allegations earlier this . The program markets itself as a Christian school that turns around rebellious boys. Schrags parents said they were unaware of any abuse occurring at the facility; the school had promised close supervision and to redirect his anger in positive ways. 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. Gaither declined to comment, but told the Cedar County Republican that Agap has the right to administer corporal punishment. His religious mother wasnt having it. 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 . 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. It also taught creationism and that women should be subservient to their husbands, while weaving biblical references into the materials. 79 were here. Nathan Papes/Springfield News-Leader/Imagn. Boarding schools fleeing abuse claims in other states find 'Promised Land' in Missouri . His grandparents sent him to a mental hospital, then to Agap. They said that they were bringing me to my parents, he says. 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. Jacob smelled foul and the . Clidence said Agap fired him in March 2015 when the school asked employees to sign a nondisparagement agreement, and he refused. He is living in California with his mother, Jennifer, and attending a public high school. 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. Interested in learning more about the 2023 Legacy Gala? Circle of Hope Girls Ranch near Humansville . Former students of Agape from Alabama, Texas, and Michigan have filed two civil lawsuits against the Boarding School for multiple charges that include physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. (Agap denies this.) One former Agape student who sued, Robert Bucklin, said the closure means justice "has finally prevailed. All Rights Reserved. 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. Stockton is located 130 miles south of Kansas City, a lazy drive down sunbaked roads lined with oak forests and rolling fields. Montana carved out a religious exemption when it set up a new system for licensing youth facilities and reform schools in 2007. He is pleased to hear the Missouri attorney generals office is now investigating Agape Boarding School. 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. State regulates church boarding schools after abuse allegations. Boyd opened the ranch in 2006 as a "school that he claimed could reform rebellious teenage girls," according to NBC News. Contact Agape International Missions Email: info@aim4asia.org Phone: 916.784.2800. (888) 614-0077. . ET): After publication of this article, Cedar County Sheriff James Jimbob McCrary disputed an account by former Agap student Lucas Francis. At first glance, the facility for at-risk and unmotivated boys a Baptist institution in Stockton, Missouri wasnt so terrible. By 5+ Local Business Owners! We need people who will financially contribute and volunteer at the event to help give these . Since last year, 19 former students have filed lawsuits against the school, alleging physical and emotional abuse, and in . Circle of Hope Girls' Ranch, a nearby Christian boarding school for girls, was shut down in 2020. Schmitt last year asked a Cedar County judge to close Agape, but the judge had not yet issued a decision. At least two other states Montana and Arkansas carve out licensing exemptions for religious facilities. 3/11/2021. The law many former students of schools like Agap see as a model comes from an unlikely state to scrap religious exemptions: Alabama. The committee is considering bills introduced by Ingle and a Republican colleague last month to give the Missouri Department of Social Services oversight of religious boarding schools. Still, administrators at many of these schools insist they are a force for good. 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. Indeed, the version of the school students describe, community members say, is starkly different from the Agap the town has come to know. Bryan Clemensen was not among those charged. Another describes a staffer holding a pocket knife to his throat. January 11, 2023 / 6:04 PM . The site, designed as a Christian camp, had cabins, a shower facility, a mess hall, and a small chapel. 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. Schmitt was elected to the U.S. Senate last year and sworn in this month. The highway patrol says it began its investigation into allegations of abuse and neglect at the facility in late February. (Clemensen denies this happened, but says he considers Bindley one of Agaps top success stories.). 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. KANSAS CITY, Mo. They insisted everyone call them Brother Jim and Maam, and their son Brother Bryan.. 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. 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. Schrag says the verbal abuse was constant. Trump Melts Down Over Murdoch Admitting Fox Lied About Election Fraud. Full Gala Taping. And he said, No, theyre not., In 1996, the Clemensens purchased 40 acres just outside of town. Closing Agap wouldnt be so easy, but throughout 2021 and 2022, the lawsuits began. Former Calallen ISD teacher Joseph Sandoval sentenced to 35 years in prison for sexual abuse . 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. 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. Agape Connection. Agape Boarding School in Stockton has been the subject of state and local investigations and several lawsuits from former students. Missouri's Agap Boarding School will close its doors due to a lack of finances, school officials say but the . Where they stop looking to drugs, or their friends, and say to God, I need your help to feel better. If you dont save their souls, it aint going to stick.. 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. According to AG Schmitts office, the Cedar County Sheriffs Department employs at least three people who used to work at Agap. The couple met when Jim pulled Kathy over for drag racing a beat-up Ford Pinto around the East Bay. Thats where someone went too far. 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. Churches of Christ don't have enough preachers to fill all the open pulpits in our fellowship. However, the Cedar County prosecutor says no students have been removed from the school. Officials . IN THE MONTHS AFTER HIS ARRIVAL, Breshears feelings about Agap changed. It is a matter of time before youth aging out of the foster care system fall prey to the statistics. I pre paid him in February to cut yard 2x for months. In other words, Grandmother can spank the children as can Agap.. (Knock her out! he can be heard saying.) Hed hoped to get kicked out, which didnt happen. W I have concerns about every inch of that place, County Commissioner Sue Miller said. Contact Jorden Tramp, Donor Relations & Event Coordinator at. 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 . And that's what it's all about.. 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. This results in many children being separated from their siblings and the only community that they know. At the time of reporting, he is not yet in police custody, and an arrest warrant has been issued in his name. Lawmakers held hearings and introduced a bill that would give the state some oversight. Once in the car, Bindley says, they took him to their home. 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