Post by rachelcarson1953 on Aug 6, 2022 5:03:34 GMT
This is absolutely appalling...
www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/second-unlicensed-christian-boarding-school-in-missouri-closes-cites-health-reasons/ar-AA10lM6s?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=fed30633539e4b14bd9b1bdd97e8d13c
First the Catholic priests, then Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons, even the Boy Scouts, the child abuse never stops.
Second unlicensed Christian boarding school in Missouri closes, cites ‘health reasons’
Judy L. Thomas, Laura Bauer, The Kansas City Star - 13h ago
Another unlicensed Christian boarding school in southwest Missouri has closed its doors, the second in Cedar County to be shuttered, The Star has learned.
About 20 girls attend the Wings of Faith Academy in Stockton in southwest Missouri.
Wings of Faith Academy, a school for “troubled girls” that has operated northwest of Stockton for 18 years, notified the Missouri Department of Social Services of its closure in a letter dated June 2, according to Caitlin Whaley, DSS director of policy and communication.
“Due to health reasons, the administrators are no longer able to operate the school,” said the letter, signed by Debbie Martin, who ran the school with her husband, Percy “Bud” Martin. “All students have withdrawn and gone back to their parents as of May 31, 2022.”
Calls to the school’s phone number this week were not returned. Its website is down, saying it “is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance,” and the last post on its Facebook page was May 30. The phone number provided on the letter sent to DSS has been disconnected.
The school is the second of four unlicensed boarding schools in Cedar County to cease operations. In late 2020, Circle of Hope Girls Ranch near Humansville was closed after authorities removed the students amid an investigation into abuse allegations.
Wings of Faith is considered a sister school to Agape Boarding School, which has been under scrutiny for nearly two years after allegations of abuse.
The girls boarding school had operated in several locations across the country. It started out in the 1990s as Refuge Independent Baptist Girls Academy in Clinton, Tennessee.
Over the next five years, the Martins relocated to at least two other states and went through multiple name changes before moving to Stockton in 2004. There, they opened Refuge of Grace Academy and the Martins later changed the school’s name to Wings of Faith Academy.
In a 2004 interview with the Bolivar Herald-Free Press, Bud Martin said they’d decided to move to Stockton after friends at their Michigan church told them about Agape.
The two schools were closely connected. The girls attended church services at Agape, and Agape founder James Clemensen was listed in Refuge of Grace’s corporation documents as vice president of the board. Clemensen died in October.
The Wings of Faith closure comes as religious boarding schools in Missouri, which for nearly four decades were exempt from state oversight, have been under increased scrutiny. Prompted by stories of abuse at several of the state’s unlicensed boarding schools, the General Assembly passed a measure last year that for the first time gave the state oversight over these facilities.
Also last year, authorities launched an investigation into abuse allegations at Agape and in September five Agape staffers were charged with assaulting students. Earlier in the year, the attorney general filed nearly 100 felony counts against Circle of Hope owners Boyd and Stephanie Householder alleging statutory rape, sodomy, physical abuse and neglect.
Authorities interviewed students at Wings of Faith during their investigation of Agape, sources have told The Star, but found no evidence of abuse. DSS told The Star last year that Wings of Faith has had no substantiated reports of abuse or neglect.
Most recently, fewer than 20 girls were attending the school, which had an annual budget of $734,122 in 2019, according to the most recent tax return available. Tuition was $3,200 a month, with enrollment and “startup fees” of $3,400 due on arrival.
In 2020, Wings of Faith received $65,000 in lender-approved loans under the federal Paycheck Protection Program’s first round of COVID bailouts. The school said the loan would go toward payroll for 14 employees. Records show all but about $10,000 of the loan was forgiven.
Rules were listed in the school’s parent handbook. Among them: “All incoming and outgoing mail is read...any offensive or negative mail may not be delivered. The student is not allowed to lie in her letters.” Discipline comes in many forms, the handbook stated: “Essays, standing against the wall, jumping jacks, running, memorization, and work details. We do not spank.”
Some former students were thrilled to hear of the school’s closure.
“When I found out, it was just like a burden lifted off of me,” said Aimee Groves, who was among the first students to attend the school when it opened near Stockton as Refuge of Grace. “It was like a dream come true. All I could picture was that they can’t do this to any other girls now.”
Groves was sent there in May 2004 when her boarding school — Mountain Park Baptist Boarding Academy near Patterson, Missouri — was shuttered after years of abuse allegations, multiple lawsuits and a 1996 murder.
At Refuge of Grace, Groves said, discipline for breaking a rule included excessive workouts, restraining, standing against a wall for hours on end and bans on talking. Students disciplined each other, she said, there was no TV allowed, and any music that had a beat was prohibited because it was considered “worldly.”
The Star also has talked to former students who more recently attended Wings of Faith. They described disciplinary tactics similar to those detailed by students who attended years ago.
In addition to painful physical restraints, those former students described brutal workouts and said they received no professional counseling even though many arrived at the school with severe issues, including drug addiction.
They also had no privacy, they said — they were monitored when they showered and dressed — and all their letters were screened. If they complained about the school or wrote something deemed inappropriate, they said, their letters would be ripped up and they’d have to write new ones.
Groves left Refuge of Grace in January 2006 when she was 18 and said she was worried about the girls currently at the school because of its close ties to Agape. Now, she says, she has another concern — that the Martins may relocate the school again.
“They’ve already been in at least four states,” she said. “That’s their M-O (modus operandi). I just hope they don’t pop up somewhere else.”
Eliza Lamm, one of the first students to attend the Martin’s original boarding school in Tennessee, questioned the reason the couple gave the state for closing but said she was “overjoyed with the news.”
“Their image has always been more important than doing what is right and honest,” she said. “They have deceived many people from students, to parents, to church members, to Pastors, to bystanders to God-fearing Christians.”
©2022 The Kansas City Star. Visit kansascity.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/second-unlicensed-christian-boarding-school-in-missouri-closes-cites-health-reasons/ar-AA10lM6s?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=fed30633539e4b14bd9b1bdd97e8d13c
First the Catholic priests, then Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons, even the Boy Scouts, the child abuse never stops.
Second unlicensed Christian boarding school in Missouri closes, cites ‘health reasons’
Judy L. Thomas, Laura Bauer, The Kansas City Star - 13h ago
Another unlicensed Christian boarding school in southwest Missouri has closed its doors, the second in Cedar County to be shuttered, The Star has learned.
About 20 girls attend the Wings of Faith Academy in Stockton in southwest Missouri.
Wings of Faith Academy, a school for “troubled girls” that has operated northwest of Stockton for 18 years, notified the Missouri Department of Social Services of its closure in a letter dated June 2, according to Caitlin Whaley, DSS director of policy and communication.
“Due to health reasons, the administrators are no longer able to operate the school,” said the letter, signed by Debbie Martin, who ran the school with her husband, Percy “Bud” Martin. “All students have withdrawn and gone back to their parents as of May 31, 2022.”
Calls to the school’s phone number this week were not returned. Its website is down, saying it “is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance,” and the last post on its Facebook page was May 30. The phone number provided on the letter sent to DSS has been disconnected.
The school is the second of four unlicensed boarding schools in Cedar County to cease operations. In late 2020, Circle of Hope Girls Ranch near Humansville was closed after authorities removed the students amid an investigation into abuse allegations.
Wings of Faith is considered a sister school to Agape Boarding School, which has been under scrutiny for nearly two years after allegations of abuse.
The girls boarding school had operated in several locations across the country. It started out in the 1990s as Refuge Independent Baptist Girls Academy in Clinton, Tennessee.
Over the next five years, the Martins relocated to at least two other states and went through multiple name changes before moving to Stockton in 2004. There, they opened Refuge of Grace Academy and the Martins later changed the school’s name to Wings of Faith Academy.
In a 2004 interview with the Bolivar Herald-Free Press, Bud Martin said they’d decided to move to Stockton after friends at their Michigan church told them about Agape.
The two schools were closely connected. The girls attended church services at Agape, and Agape founder James Clemensen was listed in Refuge of Grace’s corporation documents as vice president of the board. Clemensen died in October.
The Wings of Faith closure comes as religious boarding schools in Missouri, which for nearly four decades were exempt from state oversight, have been under increased scrutiny. Prompted by stories of abuse at several of the state’s unlicensed boarding schools, the General Assembly passed a measure last year that for the first time gave the state oversight over these facilities.
Also last year, authorities launched an investigation into abuse allegations at Agape and in September five Agape staffers were charged with assaulting students. Earlier in the year, the attorney general filed nearly 100 felony counts against Circle of Hope owners Boyd and Stephanie Householder alleging statutory rape, sodomy, physical abuse and neglect.
Authorities interviewed students at Wings of Faith during their investigation of Agape, sources have told The Star, but found no evidence of abuse. DSS told The Star last year that Wings of Faith has had no substantiated reports of abuse or neglect.
Most recently, fewer than 20 girls were attending the school, which had an annual budget of $734,122 in 2019, according to the most recent tax return available. Tuition was $3,200 a month, with enrollment and “startup fees” of $3,400 due on arrival.
In 2020, Wings of Faith received $65,000 in lender-approved loans under the federal Paycheck Protection Program’s first round of COVID bailouts. The school said the loan would go toward payroll for 14 employees. Records show all but about $10,000 of the loan was forgiven.
Rules were listed in the school’s parent handbook. Among them: “All incoming and outgoing mail is read...any offensive or negative mail may not be delivered. The student is not allowed to lie in her letters.” Discipline comes in many forms, the handbook stated: “Essays, standing against the wall, jumping jacks, running, memorization, and work details. We do not spank.”
Some former students were thrilled to hear of the school’s closure.
“When I found out, it was just like a burden lifted off of me,” said Aimee Groves, who was among the first students to attend the school when it opened near Stockton as Refuge of Grace. “It was like a dream come true. All I could picture was that they can’t do this to any other girls now.”
Groves was sent there in May 2004 when her boarding school — Mountain Park Baptist Boarding Academy near Patterson, Missouri — was shuttered after years of abuse allegations, multiple lawsuits and a 1996 murder.
At Refuge of Grace, Groves said, discipline for breaking a rule included excessive workouts, restraining, standing against a wall for hours on end and bans on talking. Students disciplined each other, she said, there was no TV allowed, and any music that had a beat was prohibited because it was considered “worldly.”
The Star also has talked to former students who more recently attended Wings of Faith. They described disciplinary tactics similar to those detailed by students who attended years ago.
In addition to painful physical restraints, those former students described brutal workouts and said they received no professional counseling even though many arrived at the school with severe issues, including drug addiction.
They also had no privacy, they said — they were monitored when they showered and dressed — and all their letters were screened. If they complained about the school or wrote something deemed inappropriate, they said, their letters would be ripped up and they’d have to write new ones.
Groves left Refuge of Grace in January 2006 when she was 18 and said she was worried about the girls currently at the school because of its close ties to Agape. Now, she says, she has another concern — that the Martins may relocate the school again.
“They’ve already been in at least four states,” she said. “That’s their M-O (modus operandi). I just hope they don’t pop up somewhere else.”
Eliza Lamm, one of the first students to attend the Martin’s original boarding school in Tennessee, questioned the reason the couple gave the state for closing but said she was “overjoyed with the news.”
“Their image has always been more important than doing what is right and honest,” she said. “They have deceived many people from students, to parents, to church members, to Pastors, to bystanders to God-fearing Christians.”
©2022 The Kansas City Star. Visit kansascity.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.