KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Missouri attorney general and the state’s child welfare office have filed yet another petition to immediately shut down Agape Boarding School — only this time, they want another judge.
The new petition filed Monday spells out detailed allegations of abuse and neglect made by current students who secretly sought out child welfare workers on the campus in recent days. It states several reasons why the school should close.
The attorney general’s office had earlier asked that a hearing scheduled in the case for Monday be delayed.
When the AG’s office told Judge David Munton about its intent to file a new petition Monday morning, he lifted his order that required child welfare workers to be stationed at the school around the clock. The new petition from the attorney general asks that the Missouri Department of Social Services employees be reinstated at the school to make sure students are safe.
“The attorney general’s office fought hard to continue the 24/7 monitoring by DSS workers, but the court denied the office’s arguments and dissolved the order allowing that access,” said Chris Nuelle, press secretary with the AG’s office. “We have been steadfast in our fight to protect the students at Agape, and we will not stop until justice is done in this case.”
Along with the new petition is a motion requesting a new judge.
Agape attorney John Schultz said the DSS workers left the school shortly before 10 a.m. Monday.
“The attorney general was not prepared to proceed to trial today on the injunction so on Friday evening they asked Judge Munton to stay/stop it,” Schultz said. “This new filing today is the attorney general’s attempt at a ‘do-over.’”
Current students at Agape told Missouri child welfare workers in recent days about extensive ongoing abuse they said boys are enduring, according to court records.
One boy was handcuffed for two weeks, students told the Children’s Division employees. Another ended up with his arm in a sling, students said, from an overzealous restraint. And yet another lost so much weight after being demoted to “Brown Town” — a designation given to the lowest level at Agape, where manual labor is required and meals are reduced — that he reportedly resorted to stealing food to keep from starving.
DSS officials and workers are waiting to see what happens with the new petition.
“Our hope would be that with the change of judge, the AG and our petition to close the facility would be granted,” said Caitlin Whaley, DSS’ director of policy and communications. “That would be our hope, that this new judge would understand the gravity of the situation, and we wouldn’t have to put workers back in there because the facility will be closing.
“Our position remains that the only way to keep these kids safe is to close the facility.”
The Missouri speaker of the House wrote a letter last week asking the U.S. attorney to intervene and help shut down the embattled school. Speaker Rob Vescovo, an Arnold Republican, blasted local authorities — including Cedar County Prosecuting Attorney Ty Gaither and Munton — for not closing the school or holding people accountable.
“The abuse suffered by these innocent children is on the hands of these officials who could do the right thing but have consistently chosen not to,” Vescovo wrote in his Sept. 21 letter to U.S. Attorney Teresa Moore, of the Western District of Missouri.
The attorney general’s office and the Department of Social Services have tried to shut the school down since Sept. 7. That day, they filed a motion for “injunctive relief” saying the safety of students inside the school was in jeopardy. DSS officials had learned that a current staffer had just been placed on the Central Registry for child abuse and neglect, and state law doesn’t allow anyone with a substantiated report to work at a residential facility.
Within hours, 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 near Stockton. 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.
Two hearings have been held since then and the AG’s office has had testimony prepared and recent students ready to take the stand and describe the abuse boys at the school endure. Munton refused to let those students testify and delayed action at both hearings.
Workers with the state’s Children’s Division had been at the school since Sept. 8 monitoring the students, which Munton ordered and had continued until Monday.
Former students, child advocates and lawmakers who have pushed hard in the past two years to close the school say local authorities in Cedar County have not obeyed laws meant to protect the boys at Agape.
“It shocks the conscience,” state Rep. Keri Ingle, a Lee’s Summit Democrat, told The Kansas City Star on Monday morning. “Any average, normal person who interprets the law and looks at the situation would find that keeping this facility open is a danger to children.”
Ingle, who was the first to call for legislative hearings about unlicensed boarding schools in Missouri, co-sponsored the law that implemented some oversight last year and gave the Missouri attorney general and DSS the authority to petition to have the school closed.
In his letter, Vescovo mentioned a recent federal investigation where a minor was transported across state lines to Agape against his will. He was transported by a “transport company that employs Cedar County Sheriff’s deputies.
“The ties that law enforcement officers have to the school have made it clear the best interests of these young people are not a priority,” Vescovo wrote, “while keeping this hub for children trafficking open for business clearly is.”
The Star has investigated the close ties between the Cedar County Sheriff’s Office and Agape, which include a former deputy who is the son-in-law of the school’s founder and also worked at the school for years.
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