Dean left Missouri school investigated for abuse. Now he’s at another unlicensed school
A former dean at Agape Boarding School who left after five staffers were charged with abusing students is now an officer at another unlicensed Christian school in Missouri, The Star has learned.
Julio Sandoval, who had been at Agape for about 10 years, is working at Lighthouse Christian Academy in Piedmont, a town of about 1,900 in the remote Ozark foothills of southeast Missouri, according to a document on the school’s website.
Operated by ABM Ministries, Lighthouse is one of more than a dozen unlicensed schools in Missouri, where such facilities have come under intense scrutiny after abuse allegations at Cedar County’s Circle of Hope Girls Ranch were revealed in 2020 and an investigation by The Star found that problems at unlicensed religious schools existed across the state.
And records obtained by The Star show that Lighthouse is one of at least two that have yet to fully comply with a new state law requiring unlicensed boarding schools to register with the Missouri Department of Social Services. Schools were required to notify the state of their existence by Oct. 14, submit to health and safety inspections and conduct background checks on all employees.
In response to a request from The Star, a DSS spokeswoman provided a list on Friday entitled “License Exempt Residential Care Facility Notification Listing.” The 20 schools on that list have complied with the new law and most had submitted to both fire and health inspections, DSS said.
Lighthouse and Legacy Academy Adventures, a boys’ boarding school in Cedar County, were not included. When contacted Wednesday, officials at both schools said they had registered.
Heather Dolce of DSS said neither school was registered. She said Legacy had submitted a notification form but was “currently working to complete the notification process.”
“Once a facility’s notification process is successfully completed, they will be added to the list,” Dolce said.
Brent Jackson, director of Legacy, said in an email that “we have registered. We’re just working on completing the requirements as allowed by Missouri Department of Social Services.”
Lighthouse, however, has not submitted a notification form, Dolce said. Based on previous information DSS has provided to The Star and presented to lawmakers, it appeared that the agency was not aware of Lighthouse’s existence.
Sandoval, who answered the phone Wednesday at Lighthouse, said the school was in fact registered under the name ABM Ministries. He ended the call before additional questions could be asked.
In an ongoing investigation, The Star found that Missouri has become a safe harbor for unlicensed facilities that often settle in rural and secluded parts of the state where they can operate under the radar. Reporters had identified 13 unlicensed schools in southern Missouri but were not aware of Lighthouse until recently.
“Our team continues to work hard to identify licensed-exempt facilities that are now required to complete the notification process and make contact to notify them of this change,” Dolce said. “And we welcome any information regarding facilities we may need to look into.”
Agape dean of students
Sandoval was dean of students at Agape last year when the Missouri Highway Patrol launched an investigation into abuse of students at the Cedar County reform school in Stockton. In September, the Cedar County prosecuting attorney charged five staff members with 13 counts of third-degree assault, a Class E felony.
The Missouri Attorney General’s Office, which assisted in the investigation, had recommended charging 22 staffers with 65 counts on behalf of 36 victims. The names of the 17 staffers who were not charged have not been released.
Sandoval also runs a transport company that parents hire to take their children from their homes — sometimes in handcuffs in the middle of the night, recent students told The Star — and deliver them to boarding schools. His company, called Safe Sound Secure Youth Ministries, has employed two off-duty Cedar County Sheriff’s deputies, students said, to help pick up so-called troubled teens from across the country. One of the deputies, Robert Graves, is the son-in-law of Agape’s founder and according to its most recent state corporation filing, a board member of Agape Baptist Church, which oversees the school.
In June 2020, Sandoval incorporated the transport company as a nonprofit with a Stockton address. And on Jan. 12, he registered it with a slightly different name — Safe Sound Secure Transport Agency — using the address of Lighthouse Christian Academy on the paperwork.
Lighthouse is a private Christian boarding school for boys 10 and older that is “dedicated to the training of children in a program of study, activity, and living that is Bible-centered,” its parents’ manual says. The 25,000-square-foot campus is “tucked away near the Ozarks on 250 acres with rolling hills, a spring-fed pond, and fenced pasture with animals,” its website says.
The school says it has about 40 students and, like many religious boarding schools, uses a teaching curriculum called Accelerated Christian Learning, where students learn at their own pace.
Discipline at the school “is firm, consistent, fair, and tempered with love,” according to the parent’s manual.
“Our staff maintains standards of behavior through kindness, love, and genuine regard for the student,” it says. “However, when disciplinary action becomes necessary, it is firmly carried out, tempered by good judgment and understanding. Students are reminded that God expects us to be disciplined in all areas of life.”
New boarding school oversight
In the parents’ manual, the school notes that “as a private Christian boarding school operated entirely by a religious organization, LCA is exempt from state licensing; therefore, is not inspected or supervised by the state of Missouri as provided in Missouri Statute 210.516.”
Last year’s new law changes that. Signed by Gov. Mike Parson in July, it requires unlicensed schools to register with the state, submit to health and safety inspections and conduct background checks on all employees.
Court records show that ABM Ministries, operators Larry and Carmen Musgrave and school principal Craig W. Smith Jr. were the subjects of a 2009 civil lawsuit. Filed in federal court, the suit alleged that Smith groomed a female student after she enrolled in 2005, then “committed multiple acts of sexual bodily contact” with her — including intercourse — from September 2007 until June 2008.
According to the lawsuit, the girl’s parents notified the Musgraves in late 2007 that they were concerned about the degree of Smith’s personal relationship with their daughter, but nothing was done to prevent further contact between them. The lawsuit was settled in 2010.
The school’s enrollment documents include a section on civil lawsuits.
“Before enrolling a student, parents are expected to sign a statement indicating that they have read, understand, and agree to hold to the Biblical teaching and practice of ABM Ministries, Inc./Lighthouse Christian Academy that Christians are prohibited from bringing civil lawsuits against other Christians or Christian ministries to resolve civil disputes,” the form says.
“ABM/LCA does believe, however, that a Christian may seek compensation for injuries from another Christian’s insurance company as long as the claim is pursued without malice or slander.”
This story was originally published February 3, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
