2022/09/09
Agape Boarding School, Stockton, Cedar County, Mo. Former students of Missouri Christian boarding schools say they were physically restrained by staff and other students as a form of punishment. - Jill Toyoshiba/The Kansas City Star/TNS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Missouri Attorney General and state child welfare leaders filed an amended complaint Friday afternoon, saying students must be removed from Agape Boarding School because of a long pattern of abuse.
The complaint, filed in Cedar County Circuit Court, contained additional details that the AG’s office said provided explicit evidence of systemic abuse of students at the unlicensed school near Stockton that has gone on for years.
Those new details also include allegations that Agape provided “incomplete information” to the state in recent days. And it said multiple people still working at the school are appealing their substantiated findings from the Missouri Department of Social Services that they physically abused students. State law allows the staffers to keep working while they appeal the findings.
The Kansas City Star has independently learned that Agape director Bryan Clemensen is one of those who was notified by DSS that he had a substantiated report of abuse against him. Multiple sources also said that Scott Dumar, the school’s longtime medical coordinator, also is among those appealing a substantiated DSS finding. Dumar is also one of five staff members who were charged last year with physical abuse of students.
“Agape has failed over many years to stem the tide of abuse and neglect perpetrated at their school and ensure the health and safety of their students,” Friday’s filing said. “The culmination of all of these facts leads the Attorney General and the Department of Social Services to believe that Agape Boarding School should be closed.
“No other relief ensures the safety of the children residing at Agape.”
A hearing is set for 9 a.m. Monday in Cedar County Circuit Court before Judge David Munton.
The Attorney General’s Office filed the initial petition Wednesday during a drama-packed week that included Schmitt and DSS asking for an injunction to immediately close Agape and remove students, citing concerns about their safety.
The petition stated that on Wednesday, DSS added a current Agape staff member to the state’s Central Registry for Abuse/Neglect after the agency found by a preponderance of evidence that the staffer committed child abuse at Agape.
Munton signed an order Wednesday night for the school’s closure, only to put it on hold Thursday morning. He sent Cedar County Sheriff James “Jimbob” McCrary to Agape to determine whether the employee — who is referred to in court records as Staff A — was still working there.
Missouri law prohibits someone from working at a residential care facility if the person has a substantiated finding of child abuse or neglect or is placed on the registry.
“On September 8, 2022, Agape’s director Bryan Clemensen reported that Agape Staff A was fired ‘yesterday’ (September 7, 2022), but still resides on the Agape property in close proximity to children at Agape,” the new filing said.
After hearing that the employee had been fired on Wednesday, DSS obtained a roster Thursday of current Agape employees, individuals with access to children and those who reside on the property, according to the filing.
“Agape Staff A was included on the September 8, 2022 roster that Agape provided to DSS,” the filing said.
“Agape’s harboring of Agape Staff A, an individual who is listed on the state’s Child Abuse/Neglect Central Registry, presents an immediate health and safety concern for the children residing at Agape,” the document said. “... Agape employs and harbors other individuals who present an immediate health and safety concern for the children residing at Agape.”
Friday’s amended complaint also describes how, according to DSS, Agape has provided the child welfare agency with incomplete information about those at the school with access to the children and about the adults who live on the 500-acre campus.
“These new developments are sadly consistent with the dark pattern of behavior at Agape previously exposed by the Attorney General’s Office and DSS,” it said.
The Star reported Tuesday that DSS had confirmed 10 findings of physical abuse involving Agape staff. Those findings are final dispositions and the workers involved have been placed on the state’s Central Registry and do not currently work at any boarding schools in Missouri, DSS officials said.
Those 10 represent the number of abuse findings, DSS said, not necessarily the number of people investigated. In other words, one person could have multiple findings.
On Friday, DSS officials confirmed to The Star that with the Agape employee who was added to the Central Registry on Wednesday, that makes 11 substantiated findings related to the Cedar County boys boarding school.
The Star has investigated Agape and other boarding schools in southern Missouri since late summer 2020. Many men who attended the school in their youth said they were subjected to physical restraints, extreme workouts, long days of manual labor, and food and water withheld as punishment. And, they said, students endured constant berating and mind games, and some were physically and sexually abused by staff and other youth.
Prompted by stories of abuse at several unlicensed Christian boarding schools in Missouri, legislators successfully pushed for change in the state law to implement some oversight of those schools. That law, which went into effect in July 2021, requires schools for the first time to register with the state, conduct background checks on employees and undergo health, safety and fire inspections.
The law also gives DSS, the attorney general or the local prosecuting attorney the authority to petition the court to close a facility if there is an immediate health or safety concern for the children.
Agape now has 63 students, about half of the population the school had in early 2021 when the Missouri Highway Patrol and DSS launched an investigation into abuse allegations. That investigation led to low-level felony charges against five Agape staff members, accusing them of 13 counts of abusing students.
“There has been a long history of allegations of abuse and neglect at Agape, and those allegations have been recently coming to public attention and DSS’s attention,” the amended petition said. “Many child abuse and neglect allegations take years to come to light; a critical mass of allegations coming to light at the same time is sufficient to constitute an ‘immediate health or safety concern.’”
© The Kansas City Star
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Missouri Attorney General and state child welfare leaders filed an amended complaint Friday afternoon, saying students must be removed from Agape Boarding School because of a long pattern of abuse.
The complaint, filed in Cedar County Circuit Court, contained additional details that the AG’s office said provided explicit evidence of systemic abuse of students at the unlicensed school near Stockton that has gone on for years.
Those new details also include allegations that Agape provided “incomplete information” to the state in recent days. And it said multiple people still working at the school are appealing their substantiated findings from the Missouri Department of Social Services that they physically abused students. State law allows the staffers to keep working while they appeal the findings.
The Kansas City Star has independently learned that Agape director Bryan Clemensen is one of those who was notified by DSS that he had a substantiated report of abuse against him. Multiple sources also said that Scott Dumar, the school’s longtime medical coordinator, also is among those appealing a substantiated DSS finding. Dumar is also one of five staff members who were charged last year with physical abuse of students.
“Agape has failed over many years to stem the tide of abuse and neglect perpetrated at their school and ensure the health and safety of their students,” Friday’s filing said. “The culmination of all of these facts leads the Attorney General and the Department of Social Services to believe that Agape Boarding School should be closed.
“No other relief ensures the safety of the children residing at Agape.”
A hearing is set for 9 a.m. Monday in Cedar County Circuit Court before Judge David Munton.
The Attorney General’s Office filed the initial petition Wednesday during a drama-packed week that included Schmitt and DSS asking for an injunction to immediately close Agape and remove students, citing concerns about their safety.
The petition stated that on Wednesday, DSS added a current Agape staff member to the state’s Central Registry for Abuse/Neglect after the agency found by a preponderance of evidence that the staffer committed child abuse at Agape.
Munton signed an order Wednesday night for the school’s closure, only to put it on hold Thursday morning. He sent Cedar County Sheriff James “Jimbob” McCrary to Agape to determine whether the employee — who is referred to in court records as Staff A — was still working there.
Missouri law prohibits someone from working at a residential care facility if the person has a substantiated finding of child abuse or neglect or is placed on the registry.
“On September 8, 2022, Agape’s director Bryan Clemensen reported that Agape Staff A was fired ‘yesterday’ (September 7, 2022), but still resides on the Agape property in close proximity to children at Agape,” the new filing said.
After hearing that the employee had been fired on Wednesday, DSS obtained a roster Thursday of current Agape employees, individuals with access to children and those who reside on the property, according to the filing.
“Agape Staff A was included on the September 8, 2022 roster that Agape provided to DSS,” the filing said.
“Agape’s harboring of Agape Staff A, an individual who is listed on the state’s Child Abuse/Neglect Central Registry, presents an immediate health and safety concern for the children residing at Agape,” the document said. “... Agape employs and harbors other individuals who present an immediate health and safety concern for the children residing at Agape.”
Friday’s amended complaint also describes how, according to DSS, Agape has provided the child welfare agency with incomplete information about those at the school with access to the children and about the adults who live on the 500-acre campus.
“These new developments are sadly consistent with the dark pattern of behavior at Agape previously exposed by the Attorney General’s Office and DSS,” it said.
The Star reported Tuesday that DSS had confirmed 10 findings of physical abuse involving Agape staff. Those findings are final dispositions and the workers involved have been placed on the state’s Central Registry and do not currently work at any boarding schools in Missouri, DSS officials said.
Those 10 represent the number of abuse findings, DSS said, not necessarily the number of people investigated. In other words, one person could have multiple findings.
On Friday, DSS officials confirmed to The Star that with the Agape employee who was added to the Central Registry on Wednesday, that makes 11 substantiated findings related to the Cedar County boys boarding school.
The Star has investigated Agape and other boarding schools in southern Missouri since late summer 2020. Many men who attended the school in their youth said they were subjected to physical restraints, extreme workouts, long days of manual labor, and food and water withheld as punishment. And, they said, students endured constant berating and mind games, and some were physically and sexually abused by staff and other youth.
Prompted by stories of abuse at several unlicensed Christian boarding schools in Missouri, legislators successfully pushed for change in the state law to implement some oversight of those schools. That law, which went into effect in July 2021, requires schools for the first time to register with the state, conduct background checks on employees and undergo health, safety and fire inspections.
The law also gives DSS, the attorney general or the local prosecuting attorney the authority to petition the court to close a facility if there is an immediate health or safety concern for the children.
Agape now has 63 students, about half of the population the school had in early 2021 when the Missouri Highway Patrol and DSS launched an investigation into abuse allegations. That investigation led to low-level felony charges against five Agape staff members, accusing them of 13 counts of abusing students.
“There has been a long history of allegations of abuse and neglect at Agape, and those allegations have been recently coming to public attention and DSS’s attention,” the amended petition said. “Many child abuse and neglect allegations take years to come to light; a critical mass of allegations coming to light at the same time is sufficient to constitute an ‘immediate health or safety concern.’”
© The Kansas City Star
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