‘A big day’ for victims of reform school abuse as Parson signs Missouri oversight bill
After decades with no oversight, Missouri’s unlicensed boarding schools will now have to register with the state, submit to health and safety inspections and conduct background checks on all employees.
Gov. Mike Parson signed House Bill 557 — the Child Residential Home Notification Act — into law at a ceremony Wednesday in Jefferson City, with a group of former boarding school students gathered around him in his office. Because lawmakers attached an emergency enactment clause to the measure, it goes into effect immediately.
“I look around the room and I see a lot of you here that are victims,” Parson told those in attendance. “...All of us — and even you now, maybe a victim once upon a time, but now, it’s all of our job to protect other people that can’t protect theirselves. And we’ve got to be able to take the steps necessary to do that.
“I think this bill sends a loud signal to a lot of people... (if) you’re going to be given the ability to look out for other people that can’t look out for theirselves, there’s an obligation that goes along with that.”
The new law will for the first time allow the state to regulate Missouri’s Christian boarding schools, an action that advocates and legislators say will help stop abuse at these facilities. The measure was endorsed by the editor of The Pathway, a news publication for the 500,000-member Missouri Baptist Convention, and the Missouri Catholic Conference.
Several former students, including those who testified at legislative hearings on the issue, flew to Missouri from across the country to attend the signing ceremony.
“Today is a big day, not just for Missouri but for all those victims and survivors across the country,” said Allen Knoll of the Seattle area, who attended Agape Boarding School in Cedar County from 1999 to 2001 and testified at both the House and Senate committee hearings. “They have put their heart into this bill and shared their personal stories.
“For too long, Missouri failed myself and others. This is the beginning of correcting that wrong. I believe we are on a path of change that will protect and prevent other children from going through what I went through. I truly feel this process has been healing to myself and others who went through horrendous abuse. There is still so much work to be done, but it’s a start.”
Since last summer, The Star has been investigating faith-based reform schools, which a 1982 law allows to claim an exemption from Missouri’s licensing requirement.
Because of the lax law, Missouri has become a safe harbor for unlicensed facilities, some which have been investigated or shut down in other states. They often settle in rural and secluded parts of the state where they can operate under the radar.
Some lawmakers and child advocates called the new law one of the most important pieces of legislation passed this session.
Emily van Schenkhof, executive director of the Children’s Trust Fund, the state’s foundation for child abuse prevention, said HB 557 is “one of the best things to come out of the General Assembly this year.” She praised Reps. Keri Ingle, D-Lee’s Summit, and Rudy Veit, R-Wardsville, who sponsored the legislation, and Sen. Bill White, R-Joplin, who carried the bill through the Senate.
“If you asked me a year ago and said, ‘Emily, do you think a bill like this could pass?’ I’d say, ‘Huh-uh. Never in Missouri,’” said van Schenkhof, who doubted that the Show-Me State would “touch anything that has to do with religious organizations.”
“I think what changed all of that is truly the reporting of The Kansas City Star and the stories of these survivors that got elevated in a really unusual way and there were so many of them. ... They came in and they told their stories and it affected so many people. Once you heard the stories of survivors it was clear something needed to be done.”
Missouri was one of just two states — South Carolina is the other — that require no additional regulations or licensing to operate these boarding schools, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
In a statement Wednesday, Missouri KidsFirst said child advocates have been concerned about these unlicensed facilities for many years.
“This law closes a loophole in our child protection system that had gone unaddressed for decades,” said Jessica Seitz, interim executive director of Missouri KidsFirst. “HB 557 provides minimum protections for children living in unlicensed residential facilities to help keep them safe and to ensure that predators are not shielded due to lack of oversight. The signing of this bill means that our state will no longer be a haven for people who harm children.”
After reading about Circle of Hope Girls Ranch and allegations of abuse leveled at the owners of the Cedar County boarding school last September, Ingle called for a legislative hearing. The first House hearing was in November.
Since then, dozens of former students of several Missouri schools either testified at legislative hearings or submitted emotional written testimony.
Circle of Hope owners Boyd and Stephanie Householder now face 100 criminal charges, including statutory rape, sodomy, physical abuse and neglect. All but one are felonies.
The Householders’ estranged daughter, Amanda Householder, traveled from California to witness Wednesday’s bill signing. She led the effort to shut down Circle of Hope, which her parents closed in September, and testified in support of the bill before the House Children and Families Committee in February.
“The best way to describe this feeling is surreal, to watch this bill be signed right in front of my eyes,” she told The Star. “I truly am grateful to everyone, from survivors to lawmakers seeing a need and pushing for change.
“I’m so happy I’m finally able to come back to Missouri and view change.”
In addition to Circle of Hope, authorities also are investigating abuse allegations at Agape Boarding School in Stockton. The joint investigation by Cedar County and the Attorney General’s Office has been underway since February.
James Griffey, a student at Agape from 1998 until he graduated in 2001, also came from California to attend the bill signing.
“This is a huge win for every survivor,” Griffey said. “Those that shared their story and those that still have their story to share.
“We’ve been heard. We’re being heard. Our abusers are going to be held accountable, and the next generation now doesn’t have to go through what we went through.”
Emily Adams, who testified at both the House and Senate hearings on the bill, sobbed as Parson spoke. She attended Bethesda Home for Girls in Mississippi in the mid-1980s, a boarding school that closed in 1987 after a judge ordered authorities to remove students. The owners later opened Mountain Park Baptist Boarding Academy in southeast Missouri, which closed in 2004 after years of abuse allegations, multiple lawsuits and a 1996 murder.
Adams said she and others “made big sacrifices to be here and have been fighting for decades to see changes like this enacted.”
“Being here is an incredible moment in our lives,” she said, “and we are incredibly proud to have been a part of the effort to see it happen.”
The new legislation — drafted as identical bills sponsored by Ingle and Veit — requires all faith-based boarding schools to notify the state of their existence.
The boarding schools’ registration must include a description of the agency or organization running the facility, the names of all students and the contact information for their parents or guardians. The schools also must provide the name of the executive director and all staff members, as well as a copy of the fire, safety and health inspections and proof that every child’s medical records are on file.
Failure to comply with notification and health and safety inspections, or if a facility is suspected of abuse or neglect, could result in the boarding school being shut down or the removal of children.
The Missouri Children’s Division estimates it will need to hire up to 19 additional employees at a cost of about $1.6 million in fiscal year 2022 to handle the potential increase in abuse and neglect investigations, legal services and background checks.
Previous attempts over the years to change the law went nowhere. In 2003, a proposal died in the House after intense pressure from opponents who said it would interfere with religious freedom. But sponsors of the current bill and child advocates insisted the issue was not about religion.
Under the legislation, no government agency would be allowed to regulate or control the content of a school’s religious curriculum or the ministry of a school sponsored by a church or religious organization.
Former Rep. Barbara Fraser, a St. Louis County Democrat who sponsored the 2003 bill calling for religious boarding schools to be licensed, said she was “delighted” that it had been signed into law.
“This legislation has been a long time coming,” Fraser said. “In 2003, when a similar bill was introduced, powerful, well-funded opposition kept it from advancing.
“At last, children in these facilities will be protected by basic health and safety regulations and hopefully will no longer be subjected to mistreatment and abuse.”
This story was originally published July 14, 2021 at 12:00 PM.
