Agape Boarding School hearings delayed as troubled school’s future remains in doubt
Five weeks after a southwest Missouri judge put off his decision on whether Agape Boarding School should be shut down, another judge has delayed the case again.
In a ruling filed Wednesday, Associate Judge Thomas Pyle canceled a two-day hearing scheduled to start Thursday — where recent students were expected to testify about alleged abuse — and expanded the scope of the case. Pyle ordered the state of Missouri to identify the parents of current Agape students, make them parties in the case and give them “notice and opportunity to be heard at any future hearings.”
Pyle also ordered that Guardians ad Litem — who represent a child’s interest in court — be appointed for each of the students still at the Cedar County school.
The order comes after Attorney General Eric Schmitt and the Missouri Department of Social Services sought a court injunction last month to close the unlicensed Christian boarding school and remove students, saying their safety was in jeopardy.
“Yet again, the Attorney General’s Office was prepared and ready to call witnesses and present evidence in the previously scheduled hearings,” Chris Nuelle, press secretary for the Missouri AG’s Office, said Wednesday afternoon. “Sadly, those hearings have yet again been delayed. We’re currently reviewing the court’s decision earlier this morning, and deciding on the best way to continue this case forward.
“We are still fully committed to protecting the health and safety of the students at Agape Boarding School, and we’re not giving up on those students.”
Agape’s attorney, John Schultz, said students have been properly taken care of at the southwest Missouri school.
“We are pleased that we got all of the relief we asked for,” Schultz told The Star. “Agape remains open and committed to safely caring for and educating the students.”
He said the school, located just outside of Stockton, currently has 45 students living in five group homes on the property.
Pyle heard arguments Tuesday on Agape’s request for Guardians ad Litem. The school also filed a counterclaim this week against the attorney general and DSS alleging “abuse of process” in their handling of the case and asked for a jury trial on that issue.
The attorney general and DSS have been trying to shut down the embattled school since Sept. 7. That day, they filed a motion for “injunctive relief” after DSS officials had learned that a current staffer had just been placed on the Central Registry for child abuse and neglect. State law doesn’t allow anyone on the registry to work at a residential facility.
Within hours, Judge David Munton signed an order calling for the immediate closure of Agape. But the next morning, as the AG’s office and DSS were prepared to execute the order, Munton put it on hold, saying he wanted to confirm that the staffer was still at the school.
Munton sent Cedar County Sheriff James “Jimbob” McCrary to the school to find out, and Agape director Bryan Clemensen told McCrary that he had fired that staffer on Sept. 7 and the worker no longer lived on the school’s property.
The Star has investigated Agape and other boarding schools in southern Missouri since late summer 2020. Many men who attended the Agape 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, former students endured constant berating and mind games and some were physically and sexually abused by staff and other youth.
Since Sept. 8, employees with the Children’s Division have been at the unlicensed school around the clock to ensure the safety of students. When the school changed its structure to group homes last month, the state increased the number of workers there every day and asked workers from across DSS to help. Boys are split up between five or six homes on the property at this point.
“We’re in every house,” Caitlin Whaley, DSS’ director of policy and communications, told The Star Wednesday. “It’s definitely a challenge. But we’re all committed to keeping the boys safe. We still contend that the facility needs to be shut down.”
The judge’s ruling Wednesday did not address whether DSS employees will continue to be stationed at the school and inside the homes.
Hearings have been held on Sept. 12 and Sept. 21, with the AG’s office arranging for recent students to testify about the abuse they said occurred at the school. Munton refused to allow the testimony.
The AG’s office asked Munton to dismiss the case, then requested — and received — a new judge. The AG and DSS then filed a new petition to shut down the school, this one detailing allegations of abuse and neglect made by current students who secretly sought out child welfare workers who were on campus.
Pyle, the new judge, scheduled the hearing for Thursday and Friday.
But on Monday, Agape filed the counterclaim against the AG and DSS. It argued that an injunction to close the school would violate the due process clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments to the Constitution “because Plaintiffs failed to provide meaningful notice and an opportunity to be heard to the custodial parents of the children at Agape” as required by law.
The AG and DSS failed to prove that Agape students “face an immediate health or safety concern,” the counterclaim said.
It alleged that closing the school “presents legal claims that require a jury determination; accordingly, Agape has a constitutional right to a jury trial.”
Based on the judge’s ruling Wednesday, it is unclear if a jury or the judge will decide whether the school should close.
The counterclaim also said the attorney general “wrongfully and maliciously” refiled the new petition and asked for a new judge.
“The Attorney General is ‘gaming the system’ as a means of circumventing unfavorable court rulings,” it said. “The Attorney General has made an illegal and improper use of process, that is not warranted or authorized, when he voluntarily dismissed the original Petition and simultaneously filed this case with an accompanying change of judge demand.”
Because of the AG’s actions, the counterclaim said, “Agape has incurred damages by experiencing a loss in enrollment through the unwarranted intrusion of DSS state actors planted on its premises, being forced to appear for two different hearings before the Court, and suffer needless adverse publicity based on the reckless assertions contained in the Attorney General and Department of Social Services’ Pleadings.”
The school asked for damages in excess of $25,000.
This story was originally published October 12, 2022 at 2:59 PM.
