The Kansas City Star wins top national award for Missouri boarding school coverage
Laura Bauer and Judy L. Thomas of The Kansas City Star have been awarded the top prize in the 2021 National Awards for Education Reporting for their coverage of Missouri boarding schools and the state’s lack of oversight.
Thomas and Bauer received the award Monday at the Education Writers Association annual conference in Orlando, Florida.
The Fred M. Hechinger Grand Prize for Distinguished Education Reporting recognized their months-long investigation, “Unlicensed and Under the Radar.” The stories revealed “a giant loophole in Missouri laws that allowed private residential schools to operate unchecked amid serious alleged abuse of the resident students,” the association said in announcing the award.
The series also won the public service award in the larger newsroom category and was one of 14 first-prize winners considered for the Hechinger award by a panel of judges.
“The Star’s coverage epitomizes the sort of education reporting that the EWA awards program exists to honor — stories that make a genuine difference in their communities,” said Caroline Hendrie, EWA’s executive director.
One judge said of The Star’s coverage that “reading this series left me filled with emotions: outrage that boarding schools that called themselves Christian could be free to abuse and destroy students, and relieved that the Kansas City Star put a spotlight on the conditions and forced the state and other authorities to take action. The ultimate in accountability and public service.”
Another contest judge called the entry, “Vital accountability reporting that will protect future students from this kind of mistreatment.”
Thomas and Bauer began investigating Missouri’s Christian boarding schools in September 2020 after girls were removed from the Circle of Hope Girls Ranch in Cedar County. The following year, the Circle of Hope owners were charged with 102 crimes — all but one are felonies — that include statutory rape, sodomy and physical abuse.
Bauer and Thomas exposed abuse allegations inside several faith-based boarding schools in Missouri, including Agape Boarding School, where five staff members have been charged with abusing students.
In addition, David Smock, the longtime doctor for Agape, has been charged with 15 counts of molesting and sexually abusing two boys, one starting at age 11 and the other at 13. All the counts are felonies. He has pleaded not guilty to each one.
Last year, the Missouri General Assembly passed and Gov. Mike Parson signed legislation that for the first time in at least four decades gives the state some oversight of unlicensed, faith-based facilities.
The grand prize is named for the late New York Times education editor Fred M. Hechinger. Recent winners include The Washington Post (2020); the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica Illinois (2019); Hannah Dreier, ProPublica, New York Magazine and The New York Times Magazine (2018); The Washington Post (2017); and the Houston Chronicle (2016).