Recently I came across this article stating that Missouri will now allow foster children to be placed in unliscenced religous and private boarding schools and that the same group behind the bill is pushing for these boarding schools to not have to subject their potential employees to background checks, or adhere to basic safety and regulatory rules that public schools and institutions that care for children in the state have to adhere to nor do they have to register with the state for oversight. This is a huge mistake and puts some of the most vulnerable children in Missouri at great risk!
For years survivors of hellishly abusive boarding schools and programs describing themselves as “schools” have raised our voices and fought to get very basic protections for children put in place. These include simple things like requirign these unliscenced facitlities to at least register with the state, letting them know they are operating and how many students they have, and requiring them to run background checks on their potential staff to help ensure that bad actors, pedophiles, abusers are less likely to gain access to the children in these programs/schools. All of that work seems to be coming undone and rolled back starting with the most vulnerable of any children the foster children; who typically don’t have parents or others in their corner advocating for them and ensuring they are treated fairly and live in safe environments.
To say that I’m dissapointed, depressed, or even disturbed isn’t enough. I’m enraged! I helped spearheaad dozens of young men YOUNG MEN coming forward about abuse they suffered at Agape Boarding School. We fought hard to require these unliscenced schools to at least register with the state, have their staff pass basic background checks, and keep felony level abusers away from children. This new legislation to allow these places to take in foster children and those that are a ward of the state without any checks or balances, without background checks, without these places registering with the state and submitting to occassional inspections or at least agree to meet certrain standards of safety and care is infuriating! These kids are living, breathing human beings not property and not cash cows! You can’t just herd them into one program or the next without any oversight or care for what happens next! Have you no soul?!
Removing oversight, removing safety regulations and liscencing requirements for foster youth facilities and allowing these religoius and private boarding schools and boys and girls homes the ability to accept these kids puts these children in grave danger. Not only is the potential for abuse there there is a solid history of facilities like this in Missouri abusing children, using them for slave labor, trafficking them, etc. Nobody with half a consciounce who is a descent human being should be ok with this wild wild west do whatever you want with the kids hands off approach by the state and the lawmakers pushing this should be ashamed of themselves!
If you aren’t familiar with the work I and other survivors of Agape Boarding School, Wings of Faith, Circle of Hope, Lighthouse Academy and others have been doing for years to expose the abuse, neglect, and exploitation of children in these unliscenced boarding schools and youth programs in Missouri here are some links to various news articles that can help you catch up and understand the grave dangers these unregulated programs pose to children especially children like foster care children who often don’t have anyone in their corder to advocate for them or look after them but the state itself. So if the state has decided to look the other way these kids are in grave danger!
Unlicensed Christian boarding schools in Missouri, particularly in Cedar County, have faced severe allegations of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, leading to numerous lawsuits and the closure of several facilities like Agape Boarding School and Circle of Hope Girls Ranch. Survivors and advocates are pushing for state investigation into these largely unregulated institutions, which have operated for decades using religious exemptions to avoid state oversight.
Key Aspects of Missouri Boarding School Abuse
- Agape Boarding School (Stockton, MO): Faced intense scrutiny after 21 complaints of abuse were filed. Reports described “torture rooms,” forced manual labor, food/water deprivation, sexual assault, and physical restraints.
https://apnews.com/article/agape-boarding-school-christian-abuse-1abd7f6e388323aeb4bd62a21c5c1903
https://www.kansascity.com/news/state/missouri/article265413791.html
https://www.ky3.com/2021/09/25/missouri-ag-slams-local-handling-agape-boarding-school-abuse-case/
Here you can see they even protected the leader of this abusive hellhole by taking him off the child abuse registry so he could keep working with and abusing children. https://missouriindependent.com/2022/12/21/judge-grants-injunction-keeping-longtime-agape-director-off-missouri-child-abuse-registry/
I am personally a survivor of Agape Boarding School. You can read about my experience and the experience I had fighting to close the school in my books or hear interviews about it right here on this site. My spine is broken in several places causing me daily spine, leg, arm and back pain. I have CPTSD and MDD and I’m on SSD. Agape essentially ruined my life and disabled me. I have dedicated years of my life to make sure as few kids suffer like I have as possible. Seeing this rollback of protections for foster children and the suggestion they will be fine in these unliscenced facilities is like a nightmare coming true.
- Other Schools Involved: Similar allegations led to the closure or legal action against Circle of Hope Girls Ranch, ABM Ministries Lighthouse Christian Academy, and Shelterwood Academy.
Circle of Hope:
https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article312050849.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56357828
https://www.ozarksfirst.com/news/trial-for-circle-of-hope-founder-pushed-back-to-2025/
Lighthouse:
https://spectrumlocalnews.com/mo/st-louis/news/2024/03/28/missouri-boarding-school-abm-ministries
https://www.kansascity.com/news/state/missouri/article288727305.html
https://www.kfvs12.com/2024/03/07/teacher-abm-ministries-facing-abuseneglect-charge/
https://hayspost.com/posts/97b2f3dd-5e0e-463e-9af3-b6d9671a29af
https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article286162626.html
https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article288835175.html
https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article285075937.html
https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article286683320.html
- Lack of Oversight: Missouri laws have historically allowed religious residential schools to operate without state licensing or safety inspections.
- Abuse and Concealment: Staffers often restrained students, limited communication with parents, and “brainwashed” them, making it difficult for parents to know the conditions.
- Legal Action & Accountability: While some staff members and a doctor faced charges (e.g.,), survivors have expressed frustration at the slow pace of justice and are demanding a broader, statewide investigation.
- Legislative Changes: Although a 2021 law was meant to strengthen oversight, many survivors claim more action is needed to prevent abuse in these environments.
Survivors have urged Attorney General Andrew Bailey to launch a comprehensive, statewide investigation into these unlicensed religious homes. Andrew Bailey refused and seemed to move to protect abusers. He has now been elevated to the co-director of the FBI under Trump.
So you can see any reasonable person with half a brain should object to vulnerable children, without much representation, being dumped into these unliscenced religious boarding schools and programs that have little to no oversight and especially won’t if their requirement to register with the state and do basica background checks is removed due to this legislation as it looks it is poised to do.
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