Picture Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Every day Beast
In southwest Missouri, a Baptist compound for troubled teen boys guarantees redemption on its bucolic 200-acre campus. Behind the power’s arched gate, kids will discover a swimming pool, sports activities fields, and ranch for horses and unique animals. Agapé Boarding College “is really a spot the place miracles occur,” one piano-filled business boasts.
“At Agapé, we lovingly, patiently, and biblically train your youngster the significance of submission to authority and the fun of being an obedient law-abiding citizen,” a soft-spoken voiceover actor says whereas photographs of smiling youngsters flash throughout the display. “Mother and Dad, we wish to assist you in your effort to rescue your son from himself.”
However former college students interviewed by The Every day Beast say the varsity was removed from heavenly. As a substitute, they encountered a local weather extra like Lord of the Flies, the place employees got free rein to restrain and beat college students, and the place some children had been emotionally and sexually abused. They declare Agapé has functioned like a “cult” and “Christian torture compound” for many years, permitting adults to manhandle youngsters and withhold meals, water, and correct clothes—apparently with out most mother and father ever realizing.
In line with these alumni, the varsity banned kids from talking to one another with out adults current, censored their letters residence, destroyed images displaying something aside from completely satisfied faces, and admonished children that in the event that they ran away, locals with weapons would hunt them down. As a part of a “buddy” system, older college students had authority to mete out seemingly arbitrary punishments to new college students assigned to them.
Now they’ve joined a refrain of voices—together with mother and father, lawmakers, and even heiress and boarding-school abuse activist Paris Hilton—demanding the state of Missouri shut down Agapé for good. “How way more do it's good to see[?] … This wants to finish!” Hilton tweeted to Missouri’s lawyer normal and governor on June 21.
Since final yr, 19 former college students have filed lawsuits towards the varsity, alleging bodily and emotional abuse, and in some instances, sexual abuse by employees and classmates.
Such accusations led to the arrest of the varsity’s ex-doctor, David Smock, who faces youngster molestation expenses associated to 2 alleged victims. He has pleaded not responsible. At a March listening to, one 16-year-old testified that Smock started abusing him when he was 13 and grooming him when he was 9 or 10, in response to The Kansas Metropolis Star, which has extensively investigated claims towards Agapé.
David Smock
Boone County Sheriff's Workplace
In the meantime, 5 staffers—together with Agapé’s medical coordinator—are dealing with assault expenses in Cedar County following an investigation by the Missouri State Freeway Patrol and state lawyer normal. Three of these staff, the Star revealed, nonetheless work on the faculty, and two record Smock’s mansion as their tackle.
Advocates say these expenses don’t go far sufficient, and that extra Agapé employees ought to have been prosecuted. Cedar County Prosecuting Lawyer Ty Gaither had requested help from Lawyer Basic Eric Schmitt’s workplace, which advisable 22 staffers face a complete of 65 expenses. However final fall, Schmitt wrote Governor Mike Parson asking to be taken off the case, saying that Gaither “has indicated that he doesn't intend to hunt justice for all the 36 kids who had been allegedly victimized by 22 members of the Agapé Boarding College employees.” (Gaither didn't return messages by press time.)
In a press release to The Every day Beast, a lawyer for Agapé Boarding College denied the accusations towards the varsity, calling them “sensational.”
“For the previous 30 years Agapé has offered over 6,000 boys with a possibility to get their life again on observe and towards a vibrant future,” Kansas Metropolis lawyer John Schultz stated. “Together with 24/7 supervision Agapé supplies accredited teachers, vocational coaching, mentoring, sports activities and lots of actions the boys take pleasure in. We're dissatisfied to be taught of the sensational allegations that a few of our former boys are making now—for the primary time.
“We've got learn many particular allegations that we all know couldn't have occurred given the 24/7 supervision that extends to the sleeping quarter, bathe bays, classroom, eating corridor and all out of doors actions. We monitor the boys 24/7 for their very own security and the security of each different boy right here. We intend to file a response to those lawsuits, denying the allegations and look ahead to a trial the place proof could be offered to refute these allegations.”
Jill Toyoshiba/Kansas Metropolis Star/Tribune Information Service by way of Getty
The varsity, which reportedly expenses $48,000 a yr in tuition, doesn't seem to have commented publicly in regards to the accusations earlier than. In line with the Star, in fall of 2020, Agapé printed a letter on its web site that appeared to handle the claims and stated, “Generally we make errors, however our hearts are in the suitable place.”
“Most boys flourish right here and go on to an important future,” the put up learn, “whereas a small variety of different boys are simply not the suitable match and get bitter for being introduced right here.”
Robert Bucklin, one alumnus preventing to shut Agapé, says he spoke to the FBI in late April about what he’d witnessed on the facility, nevertheless it’s unclear whether or not the feds are constructing a case. “They should go in there and rescue the boys and fear in regards to the investigation later,” Bucklin stated. “These boys are at risk.”
In June, Bucklin shared a video from the late Nineties on Twitter that confirmed a employees member—recognized by college students as then-principal Brother Frank Burton—forcing a baby in a bathrobe to run round a sand volleyball court docket and kicking him from behind. (Burton didn't return messages left by The Every day Beast.)
“What the fuck is it going to take? Particularly after seeing that video, what else is it going to take?” Bucklin stated. “For our bodies to cease dropping there?”
Final yr, Missouri lawmakers handed laws that provides the state extra oversight over unlicensed spiritual boarding colleges, together with the power to petition a court docket to shut them if there are well being and security considerations.
Democratic Rep. Keri Ingle, who sponsored the invoice, believes the state is ready for a legal conviction or official discovering of kid abuse from the Missouri Division of Social Companies (DSS) earlier than it recordsdata for an injunction to shutter the varsity.
“I can’t empathize with the survivors sufficient,” Ingle advised The Every day Beast. “We’re so shut and but so removed from getting justice for them.”
“It appears like hyperbole,” Ingle added of the abuse claims. “It appears like a Stephen King novel, and it’s not. It’s one thing that’s been occurring to children on this state and throughout the nation for many years, and so they’re utilizing the identify of God to justify it.”
The Every day Beast spoke to former college students who say their experiences at Agapé left them with emotional scars and unprepared for all times outdoors its partitions. Some, together with Bucklin, have tried suicide. One former scholar, Joe Barnett of Kansas, killed himself and cited the varsity in a suicide observe, his spouse Michelle advised The Every day Beast. He was 33 when he died in 2020 and left behind three younger boys.
“The issues they did to my husband are simply unspeakable,” Michelle stated. “Someone with a identified psychological sickness ought to by no means on the age of 12 be despatched to a spot the place you can't discuss to any of your friends for a yr. That alone, moreover the beatings they obtained, being advised he simply wanted to hope more durable… They actually messed him up.”
The trouble to cease Agapé may depend upon one California mom, who seems to be one of many solely mother and father talking out. Nicole Fernandes advised The Every day Beast she was a single mother and determined for remedy for her son, Corey, when she despatched him to the varsity in February 2019.
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Corey, then 14 and recognized with problems together with autism and Tourette syndrome, was spiraling after the loss of life of his father. She’d utilized to different residential remedy packages, she says, till an Agapé recruiter caught wind of her efforts and commenced promoting her on the varsity. The dealer claimed the boarding faculty had remedy with horses and a wonderful, serene campus. “As a mother, I simply wish to clearly state that is the toughest determination it's a must to make in your life. I used to be freshly grieving a loss, and so they took full benefit,” Fernandes advised The Every day Beast.
Fernandes tried to name Corey each different week however employees wouldn’t enable her to talk to him. About 4.5 months later, she and different mother and father visited the campus, the place Fernandes alleges employees warned them: “Your kids are essentially the most manipulative group of youngsters we’ve ever seen. They’re gonna are available in right here as we speak and so they’re going to inform you nothing however lies. Don’t consider them, since you’ll be failing your youngster when you take them out of this system.”
Hours later, once they introduced out Corey, she didn’t acknowledge her son till he grabbed her shoulder and stated, “Mother!” She cried once they reunited. “I didn't acknowledge him in any respect,” Fernandes stated, including that he had baggage underneath his eyes and had misplaced weight, his garments had been filthy, and he was sporting measurement 12 or 13 rain boots that didn’t belong to him. Employees, she claims, gave his costly Stephen Curry basketball sneakers to a different scholar.
Picture Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Every day Beast/Getty/Handout
She wonders whether or not her son was handled in a different way due to his seen particular wants and claims that the varsity didn’t enable her son to get remedy, see a health care provider, or take correct medicines.
Fernandes stated the varsity repeatedly denied her and different mother and father a tour of the power. “The boys lastly advised us, ‘They received’t take you as a result of they’re disgusting. There’s no stalls within the toilet. There’s disgusting issues everywhere in the beds and the ground.’”
Three months later, after the varsity continued to disclaim her contact along with her son, Fernandes pulled Corey from the varsity. When she collected him, she says, “He was actually skinny, the sweats I had despatched him with had been simply hanging off of him. He appeared like he was straight from a focus camp.”
Corey continues to be haunted by his expertise at Agapé, talks in regards to the faculty day by day, and has nightmares about it, Fernandes stated. “Agapé has triggered nothing however harm for my son and my household,” she stated.
Fernandes, who filed a lawsuit towards Agapé this month, stated she’s doing a forensic interview with native police, who she believes will relay the knowledge to DSS in Missouri.
“He’s my child. I didn’t ship him away to be raised by another person. I despatched him away to get the assistance that he deserves,” she stated, tearing up. “It impacts us each single freaking day.”
“I simply can’t think about all the children which can be nonetheless caught there proper now. That’s why we’re talking out. Probably not for ourselves however for the children which can be nonetheless there.”
Robert Bucklin, who arrived at Agapé at age 13 in 2007, wonders whether or not political connections have stored the varsity operating. In January, he contacted a state company that regulates legal professionals to complain about Gaither’s dealing with of Agapé instances. (This yr,theSpringfield Information-Chiefconfirmed there’s an open ethics investigation towards the lawyer, however Gaither declined to remark.)
Bucklin has raised questions on Gaither’s feedback within the press that he as soon as noticed Dr. Smock—who was Agapé’s doctor however ran his personal medical workplace—to get a flu shot and thus referred Smock’s legal case to a different space prosecutor.
Cedar County Deputy Robert Graves, a former Agapé worker, is married to a daughter of Agapé’s late founder James Clemensen. In line with the Star, Graves’ daughter was a sheriff’s dispatcher in 2018 and 2019. Former dean of scholars Julio Sandoval has labored shifts on the county jail and his son is a corrections officer, the sheriff’s workplace has stated.
“Victims had been coming ahead earlier than 2020, however nobody listened to them,” Bucklin advised The Every day Beast. “You had a employees member and his spouse calling DSS, calling the state, asking them to take a look at Agapé. No one did.”
Clemensen, a former California Freeway Patrol officer, and his spouse Kathy based Agapé in Washington state in 1990. They relocated to Missouri six years later, after the feds charged him with eradicating asbestos-containing supplies from steam pipes and burying it on faculty property. Courtroom data present that underneath a plea settlement, Clemensen pleaded responsible to one in every of three violations of the Poisonous Substances Management Act, obtained a $1,500 superb, and was sentenced to a few years of probation. (One former scholar advised The Star that youngsters stripped the hazardous supplies.)
Picture Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Every day Beast/Getty/Screenshot
In 2002, Clemenson advised the St. Louis Submit-Dispatch that he introduced his faculty to Missouri “due to its lack of regulation” and would go away if required to get a license.
Two years later, an 18-year-old Agapé scholar was charged with three counts of sodomy after abusing one other scholar. He was convicted and sentenced to probation. “The place had been the authorities when that occurred?” Bucklin stated. “They failed us then and so they’re failing us now. They gave these monsters a secure haven.”
The powers that be started to take heed to Agapé alumni after the 2020 closure of close by Circle of Hope Women’ Ranch, which was based by former Agapé staff Boyd and Stephanie Householder. They now await trial on a litany of kid abuse and neglect expenses and face a lawsuit from their very own daughter, Amanda. “My dad simply actually thrived there as a result of he may do no matter he needed,” Amanda advised The Every day Beast. “I don’t suppose Circle of Hope would have turned out the way in which it did if it wasn’t for Agapé.”
From Bucklin’s perspective, “Jesus could be ashamed of” Agapé employees, “who painting themselves to be Christians.”
On some events, Bucklin stated, as much as 5 employees member would restrain him, twisting his legs and arms, kicking his ribs, and jabbing his strain factors. One staffer allegedly attacked him as he obtained a haircut, wrapping the twine of the clippers round his neck till different college students intervened. “I attempted killing myself a number of instances,” Bucklin stated. “I might slightly have been lifeless than get up and face extra abuse.”
Bucklin stated he can’t overlook the blood-curdling screams emanating from the “Padded Palace,” a carpet-covered room the place employees allegedly threw children round like ragdolls. Now in nursing faculty and dealing in a hospital, he says restraints are not often used—nothing like at Agapé, the place a child could possibly be confined for taking a look at a staffer the flawed method.
“I keep in mind this man within the dorm rolled a pretend joint and these employees members restrained him for hours,” Bucklin stated. “He got here again into the dorm, his shirt was torn aside, he had blood all over the place throughout him, his face was black and blue. And that occurred continually. I feel the longest restraint once I was there was 9 hours. They actually needed to do a shift change as a result of the employees was getting drained. That man couldn’t stroll for days.”
Picture Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Every day Beast/Getty/Handout
Bucklin stated that a fellow scholar sexually abused him, however when he reported it to the dean of scholars, nobody took motion. He claims his household wasn’t notified, and the scholar didn’t face penalties. “You discovered tips on how to survive day by day,” Bucklin stated. “We discovered tips on how to discuss with out shifting our lips since you weren’t allowed to speak. You might get restrained for speaking.”
James Clidence, a pastor who labored at Agapé from 2012 to 2015, advised The Every day Beast his spouse had referred to as police and youngster protecting companies a number of instances however nobody appeared to analyze what they thought of abuse on the faculty.
Clidence claims he was fired after refusing to signal a nondisclosure settlement, and after he was reprimanded for not punishing children. The emphasis on beatings bothered him, as did “brown city” which was reserved for unruly or unfavored college students. Below that sanction, children would eat brown meals for each meal, together with cereal for breakfast and refried burritos for lunch and dinner. “They might in all probability be consuming a complete of round 450 to 550 energy in a day. These are teen boys. After which they do bodily labor, train, train, train all day,” Clidence stated.
“I noticed some children lose a really unhealthy quantity of weight whereas we had been there. That’s one of many issues we did name the state about.”
Clidence stated he witnessed employees slam college students to the bottom, whereas he opted for de-escalation methods. “A few of these folks mustn't have been inside 10 toes of a child, for my part,” he stated. “They didn’t know tips on how to take care of kids, particularly children who had been performing out.”
Like some college students, Clidence calls the varsity a “cult,” one the place employees had been paid poverty wages whereas the Clemensens drove Vary Rovers and picked up a menagerie of unique animals, together with zebras who died within the Missouri climate. He stated employees lived on campus and that their wives had been required to volunteer at college amenities. As a thanks, the varsity would pay the husband about $132 for the spouse’s work. Clidence’s spouse, nevertheless, clashed with the Clemensens so he finally stopped receiving that cash.
Whereas the varsity marketed counseling, Clidence says, the one counselor was a pastor who suggested children to let Jesus management their lives. “They're weaning children off treatment,” he stated. “So the entire aim was to get these children off the meds and get Jesus in them after which they might act higher, in order that I don’t know in the event that they actually believed in psychological sickness.”
“All the pieces was utterly primarily based on non secular manipulation. In the event you didn’t like one thing, it’s since you weren’t proper with God.”
James Griffey was 15 when his household despatched him to Agapé. It was 1998, and the varsity housed about 140 children in military-style bunks, espoused a Christian curriculum with self-taught academic packets, and compelled the kids to work lengthy days hauling armfuls of rocks from level A to level B—a self-discipline talked about by a number of former college students.
Picture Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Every day Beast/Getty/Handout
On his first evening, Griffey says, he discovered how harmful Agapé could possibly be. He was getting ready for mattress within the dorms when he spoke to a different scholar, which was towards the principles. “I advised you, you'll be able to’t discuss to anyone! Get down and do push-ups,” Griffey’s 17-year-old “buddy” commanded. The buddy ordered Griffey to do 25 reps, then demanded 25 extra when he pleaded that he couldn’t. “Of their thoughts, it’s not that I can’t do it, it’s that I’m not doing them,” Griffey recalled.
The buddy escorted Griffey to a twentysomething employees member, who took over. After the phrase “gosh” twice slipped from Griffey’s mouth as his arms collapsed beneath him, the chaperone screamed in his face, “Don’t use my God’s identify in useless, do extra push-ups!” He says the person pounced on him and commenced punching him within the face as college students watched from their beds.
“Finally three employees members got here in and grabbed him off me,” Griffey continued, including that nobody apologized or took a report of the incident.
Griffey wouldn’t see his household, who lived in California, for 2 years. “I used to be simply in such a dazed and confused frame of mind,” Griffey advised The Every day Beast. “I stored considering that my household was going to return by way of the door any minute now, to return take me residence, and be like, ‘Oh shock, joke’s on you! I hope you discovered your lesson.’”
“I simply keep in mind writing residence, asking my grandma, ‘Hey, I like you, I miss you, I notice I made a mistake with how I handled everybody. I discovered my lesson. How lengthy am I right here for? Am I right here until I graduate?’” Griffey stated. “I used to be simply crying out, give me some sort of sense of what’s occurring.” Griffey says his household wouldn’t find out how tyrannical the varsity could possibly be till years after he left.
Picture Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Every day Beast/Getty/Handout
He utterly conformed to the Agapé system to outlive and briefly joined the employees after commencement. However he stop after higher-ups complained he didn’t punish children sufficient. “It actually sort of effed with my mind so much,” Griffey stated. “I actually tailored and allow them to brainwash me into every thing, believing all of the stuff they train. I had no different choice.”
New college students or those that misbehaved had been ordered to spend their days in “boot camp,” the place, in response to Griffey, “They ship you simply to interrupt your spirit.” That consisted of “hours of figuring out whether or not it was freezing and snowing outdoors or 100-plus levels outdoors” at a volleyball court docket space referred to as “the sandpit,” or performing unpaid guide labor on the property, he stated.
After these exercises, Griffey stated, employees made children lie on their backs with legs and arms within the air and repeatedly scream, “I’m a dying cockroach!” If college students weren’t loud sufficient, the employees member would stamp on them with their boots. .
“They’re dragging you round, throwing you round, pushing you, hitting you,” Griffey stated. “Children would faint from the warmth, and they might simply splash water on them and drag them round nonetheless be like, ‘Did I inform you you can faint?’”
Children had been additionally allegedly ordered to field one another or the staff. “Say one of many college students was speaking again to the principal, he’s like, ‘OK, you suppose you’re so massive and dangerous, come on, we’re going to the sandpit and placing on the gloves’... and principally the employees would beat the crap out of him,” Griffey claimed.
Employees instilled worry into the scholars, who outnumbered adults. However Griffey remembers some children had been accused of making an attempt to start out a riot. “The employees defused it earlier than it even occurred, however I keep in mind speaking to one of many employees members afterwards,” Griffey recalled.
Griffey requested Brother Robert Graves, “Hey, man, like didn’t that scare you? There’s over 100 college students.” The staffer, who earned the nickname “GI Graves” for sporting army pants and boots, allegedly replied, “Nope, under no circumstances.”
In line with Griffey, Graves then pulled up his shirt to disclose a handgun and declared, “As a result of if it comes between a scholar or my household, I cannot hesitate to take one in every of these guys out.”
Picture Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Every day Beast/Getty/Handout
Griffey says that when he left Agapé, he was nonetheless “brainwashed,” considering Devil was round each nook. He didn’t know tips on how to work together with folks or who to belief. He didn’t know what freedoms he was allowed to take pleasure in. He tried to kill himself by downing a whole bottle of gin and ended up within the emergency room.
Now 39, Griffey has a strong relationship together with his household and pals, an excellent job in California, and works as a DJ on the aspect. Final yr, he testified earlier than the Missouri Home of Representatives to assist the payments creating state oversight over spiritual youth properties, and to talk out for present residents who could be silenced.
“We had been children that wanted assist.”
Josh Bradney was despatched to Agapé in 2014 when he was 12, after his mother and father deemed him disrespectful and in want of steerage. The youngest youngster of 4, Bradney says his adoptive mom was having hassle dealing with him whereas his dad traveled for work.
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When he first arrived, Bradney says, employees strip-searched him and chucked his Bible into the trash. They advised him he may solely have the King James Model of the scripture.
Three days later, Bradney says, a employees member named Julio Sandoval started screaming and spitting in his face as he obtained a haircut. “I advised him, ‘Hey, don’t spit in my face,’ and that’s when he grabbed my shirt, picked me up, and threw me to the bottom,” Bradney stated. “I used to be dragged out of the consumption room after which went to the padded palace.”
For some time, Bradney says, he was the youngest scholar there. “It was scary since you’re the youngest man towards 15, 16, 17-year-olds. Once you don’t know what they’re speaking about, you’re a goal for them.”
He stated that inside three months, different college students started to sexually abuse him, cornering him within the showers as employees wandered off or checked out their telephones. He claims one scholar later grew to become a employees member and began molesting him, too. “And I couldn’t do something about it,” Bradney stated. “My complete time there, I used to be residing in worry for my life, as a result of I couldn’t belief anybody.”
Bradney, who's 20 and has a pending lawsuit towards the varsity, stated he nonetheless offers with the results of his abuse. He double-checks to ensure doorways are locked. He can’t give folks full hugs. “I don’t actually belief folks,” he stated. “I’ll give them a aspect hug. If I give them a full hug, I don’t know what they’re gonna do.”
Bradney stated that in a cellphone name together with his mother and father, he talked about that a staffer slugged a scholar with a soccer helmet, and after he hung up, a close-by college member slammed him to the bottom and restrained him. “That’s how restricted you might be to communication,” Bradney added. “Even along with your mother and father, you’re nonetheless residing in worry.”
He remembers one event when Sandoval kicked him down the steps and he wanted stitches on his brow.
“I used to be making an attempt to get away from these college students on the movie show flooring and the employees member Julio referred to as me a faggot after which he kicked me down the steps once I was making an attempt to get away,” Bradney stated. Agapé took Bradney to the hospital, the place he says he was instructed to lie about what occurred. “What I used to be advised to say was I simply obtained hit in soccer apply, and so they stated if I’d say the rest, I’d get damage.”
Bradney stated that Sandoval and different employees would accuse outcasts like him of being homosexual and encourage classmates to assault them, to “beat them up till they’re straight.”
Sandoval, who now works at Lighthouse Christian Academy in Piedmont, didn't return messages left by The Every day Beast.
Bradney’s mother and father eliminated him from Agapé in 2016 and he spoke to police about his expertise in 2021. He’s pissed off the varsity continues to be open and that extra employees haven’t been charged.
“The entire state of Missouri allow us to down. And on the finish of the day, you recognize, it’s us survivors which can be preventing to get the varsity shut down and get justice to guard these children,” Bradney stated. “As a result of that’s what issues proper now's defending these children.”
Colton Schrag says he was 11 or 12 years in 2004 when his adoptive mother and father first despatched him to Agapé. He lived on the facility over two stretches till 2010.
On the time he was enrolled, Schrag was combating the trauma inflicted by his abusive beginning mother and father, whom he remembers utilizing medication and ordering him and his siblings to eat cigarette butts. Generally his mother would put out lit cigarettes on his pores and skin.
“I used to be a fighter. I used to be very defiant, however I used to be taken out of a extremely dangerous state of affairs and put into foster care,” Schrag stated.
Nonetheless, he says he was utterly unprepared for what he witnessed at Agapé throughout his first stint. “I used to be so younger and everybody was a lot larger and older,” he stated. “They had been those who had been getting thrown towards the partitions, elbowed within the face, slammed towards the concrete. I did what I used to be advised and obeyed every thing.”
At age 14, Schrag was relieved when his mother and father took him residence, however they quickly revealed he was sure for a less expensive faculty in New Mexico, the place his household lived. By then, Schrag had a chip on his shoulder. “All I knew is I needed to be powerful. Agapé made folks violent. You needed to be powerful to outlive.”
Picture Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Every day Beast/Getty/Handout
Schrag made pals with gang members at his new faculty and was finally kicked out, so his mother and father despatched him again to Missouri. “And inside my first two weeks of being despatched again to Agapé, a employees member had grabbed me by the collar and slammed me towards the wall. I hit my head and principally, they restrained me for 4 hours. And that day, I made a decision … I’m not simply gonna allow them to do that to me. I’m gonna combat again in no matter method doable.”
"Primarily, to me, again then I used to be getting jumped by grown males,” Schrag stated. “Now it’s grown males abusing a child and the child’s making an attempt to outlive in that surroundings. That set the precedent for a way my Agapé teenage years went. Employees members had been continually yelling at us, cussing us out, calling us deadbeats.”
“If I simply talked again, I may have stated, ‘no matter,’ there was an excellent likelihood you had been going to catch an elbow to the mouth and be slammed towards the bottom. That occurred to me over 100 instances,” he stated.
Schrag claims that college students ought to have been despatched to the hospital for accidents together with damaged ribs on quite a few events. As a substitute they had been generally taken to Dr. Smock, a member of the Agapé church. “You couldn’t inform him what was occurring,” Schrag stated. “Children obtained damage on a regular basis, and we had been by no means allowed to inform folks.”
When he was 17, Schrag says, he noticed employees restrain one child who drank GermX hand sanitizer after studying his mom died. “He didn’t know tips on how to take care of it, and he obtained drunk and defiant. These employees members restrained him for eight hours, and so they made me sit there and watch it. They had been simply hurting him.” Schrag remembers the scholar had peed and vomited on himself, and employees had been taking turns hitting his strain factors as punishment. “We ended up taking him to the hospital after eight hours of employees members rotating on him,” Schrag stated.
Schrag refused to fall into line, enraged by what he’d witnessed. “There’s folks that get damaged and so they submit and there’s folks that combat the system. So once they began placing arms on me, after which I’d watch them slam different children towards the wall—I’ve seen children’ heads get put by way of drywall—I decided. I’m gonna be right here until I’m 18, and I’m going to stroll out of right here alive.”
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At one juncture, Schrag commented to a different scholar that there have been about 200 children and perhaps 40 employees members. “Why don’t we take a stand and put a cease to this and take over the varsity?” Schrag requested, and shortly after, somebody tattled on him.
In line with Schrag, Agapé punished him day by day for 4 months by forcing him to put on a big bathrobe and measurement 13 sneakers with no laces or tongues, stand towards a wall for hours, go with out mattress linens, and have meager meals: a small bowl of Cheerios with water for breakfast, one peanut butter sandwich for lunch, and a small salad with water for dinner.
The punishment additionally included figuring out all day, doing guide labor outdoors and hauling five-gallon buckets of rocks, with little water. Two different Hispanic children had been ordered to the identical destiny, and Schrag says all of them mentioned making an attempt to flee the power.
One evening, a bunch of employees members allegedly dragged Schrag out of his mattress and right into a hallway, the place he discovered a kind of Hispanic classmates with a bruised face and bloody nostril. His shirt was ripped open and he was weeping. Brian Clemensen, the top of the varsity, requested Schrag in regards to the plot to flee. When Schrag denied realizing something about it, Clemensen allegedly punched him within the face, and hit him three extra instances after Schrag swung again. (Reached by cellphone on Thursday, Clemensen stated he was not in a position to remark and referred us to Agapé’s lawyer.)
“They had been kicking us, calling us terrorists, items of shit. He stated, ‘This is the reason we don’t let your kind of individuals into this nation.’ Simply racist stuff,” Schrag recalled. “We had that X on our again for years.”
When he turned 18, he joined the army, having nowhere else to go. He remembered how Agapé belittled him, drilling into his head that he was gonna be lifeless or in jail as soon as he left the varsity. “After I left for the Military, to pursue this life that I had no data of, I made it a degree day by day simply to get up within the mornings and say, ‘I’m solely gonna die as we speak if it’s pure. If it’s presupposed to be. I’m not going to go to jail as we speak.’”
“I wakened each morning for nearly 10 years telling myself that,” Schrag stated, his voice wavering. “I can't show these folks proper, as a result of then they win. All that ache I went by way of and all that abuse, if I find yourself in jail or lifeless due to one thing silly, then all I did was show them proper. I can’t try this. I can't give them the satisfaction.”
Picture Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Every day Beast/Getty/Handout
Schrag stated he’s grappled with PTSD after Agapé. He had nightmares virtually each evening of being dragged out of his mattress. He was jumpy. His marriage fell aside. When he noticed a therapist, he advised her, “I’m going to inform you a narrative you’re in all probability not going to consider, nevertheless it’s one hundred pc true.” Talking increasingly more in regards to the faculty lifted a weight from his chest. He’d finally go away the satan at Agapé behind.
However whereas the abuse was occurring, nobody believed him. He remembers operating away from the varsity at age 15 and an area police officer selecting him up. The cop handcuffed him and tossed him into the again of a squad automotive, saying, “I’m taking you again to Agapé.” Schrag replied, “Why? They’re beating on us, dude,” to which the officer stated, “No, they’re not, shut your mouth” and delivered him again to the compound.
“It’s like being trapped in a cult,” Schrag stated. “You get free and also you’re like, properly, there’s a lot extra to life. However what am I allowed to do? Am I allowed to even go to Walmart, you recognize, like, can I am going to this park? Or can I even acknowledge that this lady is tremendous fairly. As a result of if I checked out a employees daughter, I used to be getting punched within the face and slammed on the bottom. So it makes you very dysfunctional.”
Now 30, Schrag works within the oil trade and has damaged out of his shell. He says he’s by no means met a stranger. “You recognize, life’s what you make it and I’ve accomplished my greatest to make it higher than what I had rising up,” he stated.
In recent times, Schrag started to provide interviews about Agapé and rally consciousness on social media in regards to the abuse he and others suffered. “I don’t need mother and father to solely have one aspect of the story,” he stated. “I would like mother and father to know once they kind in Agapé Boarding College, they've the choice to see all of our tales.”
“However I additionally need the previous college students that had been there, whether or not they simply left or they had been there within the ’90s to know someone’s listening. It’s OK to ask for assist and discuss it. As a result of there’s a complete lot of males on the market that went to the varsity which can be nonetheless hurting and so they don’t know tips on how to take care of it.”