A Christian boarding school in Missouri that's been under intense scrutiny over abuse allegations will close later this month. It's citing financial hardship. Agape Boarding School in Stockton has been the subject of state and location investigations and several lawsuits filed on behalf of former students. A statement from the school for boys says it will stop providing service effective Jan. 20. Attendance at Agape has plummeted to just 12 students since the abuse allegations surfaced. A former student who has alleged abuse says the closure means that “the healing process can start."
Yet another lawsuit is accusing a Missouri Christian boarding school of forcing a former student to do unpaid labor, physically abusing him and hiding the abuse from authorities. A lawsuit filed Wednesday in Missouri's Western U.S. District Court alleges negligence by several staffers at the now-closed Agape Boarding School. More than a dozen other former students have settled lawsuits alleging they were abused at the southwest Missouri school. Agape is one of three Christian boarding schools in southern Missouri that have shut down since 2020 amid wide-ranging abuse allegations levied by current and former students. Several people affiliated with those schools are facing criminal charges.
Fifteen years after Maggie Drew was first sent to Circle of Hope Girls' Ranch in southwestern Missouri, she says she still bears psychological scars and physical pain from abuse. Brett Harper says he has debilitating injuries from his time at the nearby Agape Boarding School. They are among dozens of people who say they were abused at those schools. Those allegations helped prompt a new Missouri law aimed at reining in religious boarding schools that for decades went without any oversight by the state. The founders of Circle of Hope face around 100 charges, some alleging sexual abuse. Agape’s doctor is accused of child sex crimes and five employees are accused of assault.
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Brett Harper
