Shocked by reported abuse at Missouri reform schools, lawmakers vow to take action
Missouri lawmakers said in a hearing Monday that something must be done about boarding schools that lack state oversight.
After four hours of testimony in the Capitol, the chairwoman of the House Children and Families committee said a report would be submitted in two weeks that will include recommendations on how to better protect children in unlicensed youth facilities across Missouri.
“I don’t think there was anybody sitting here who did not think something needed to be done,” said Rep. Sheila Solon, R-St. Joseph. “We don’t want to go too far. We’re not after the ones doing it right. We’re trying to find out where there are gaps in the system.”
Ideas discussed Monday included requiring background checks for employees of unlicensed youth facilities, requiring those schools to register with the state in some way and adopting legislation that would require parents be notified if there’s a substantiated report of abuse or neglect at their children’s boarding school.
Rep. Keri Ingle, a Lee’s Summit Democrat, called for Monday’s hearing after reading The Star’s coverage of abuse allegations at Circle of Hope Girls’ Ranch in September. Another report, detailing allegations at nearby Agape Boarding School for boys, was published Sunday.
“There’s a huge gaping hole in the law as I’m seeing it now,” Ingle said.
Child advocates who testified at the hearing said there has to be more accountability.
“We’ve got to improve the way we respond if abuse is substantiated in an unlicensed facility,” said Jessica Seitz, director of public policy for Missouri KidsFirst. “In short, we’ve got some work to do around investigations, response and prevention of abuse. And cases like this are heartbreaking and disturbing in what they bring to the surface.”
A decades-old Missouri statute allows boarding schools like Circle of Hope and Agape in southwest Missouri to claim a religious exemption, which means they are not required to be licensed and the state has no authority over their operations.
In The Star’s stories, former students at both Cedar County boarding schools detailed extreme discipline including hours upon hours of manual labor, food and water withheld as punishment, and the use of restraints where staff would forcefully hold students down on the ground while applying pressure to various parts of their bodies, such as their necks, arms and legs.
Solon said that she was “alarmed” after reading The Star’s report on Circle of Hope.
“I was calling all the agencies and saying, ‘What kind of oversight do you give?’” she said. “And we were all pretty amazed that there really is not oversight by anyone over these facilities.”
Caitlin Whaley, director of legislation and communications for the Department of Social Services, said some faith-based boarding schools claim religious exemption and are not required to present themselves to her agency in any way. Because of that, DSS has no idea how many unlicensed reform schools are in the state.
“We don’t have any knowledge of these facilities,” Whaley said.
Two people spoke on behalf of unlicensed facilities at Monday’s hearing, saying they thought the state currently has sufficient powers over these schools.
Lawmakers on the Children and Families committee received a stack of testimonials from students at Circle of Hope and Agape.
Ingle, a former social worker for the Department of Social Services’ Children’s Division, has spoken to several men who spent months to years at Agape during their youth. She received more testimonials from former Agape students describing physical and emotional abuse than she did from Circle of Hope or other schools.
Several of the men she spoke to are also veterans, Ingle said, and they said “the trauma they endured at Agape eclipses everything they experienced in serving their country.”
Over and over, former students at Agape told The Star that they were forced to stand with their faces against a wall for hours on end, holding a Bible in one hand while reading scripture. Multiple former students said teens could be “walled” for eight hours at a time, sometimes for consecutive days, even weeks.
Solon told The Star she had support for the hearing from GOP leadership.
“I did not do this hearing without the support of Elijah Haahr, (House) speaker; our floor leader, Rob Vescovo, and the governor’s office,” Solon said.
“When these news stories came out, it was important for everybody to be made aware that there are children being abused.”
This story was originally published November 9, 2020 at 5:29 PM with the headline "Shocked by reported abuse at Missouri reform schools, lawmakers vow to take action."
