Spgfld MO event: Horrific new boarding school abuse case filed & big trial looms
September 03, 2024
New horrific abuse suit filed vs. Christian boarding school
As a 13 year old, the victim suffered ‘torture’ in 2019 & 2020
She’s now just 18, making her the youngest to take legal action
Prominent local pastor reportedly ‘hid children’ from state authorities
He’s named as a defendant and SNAP says he should be fired or resign
A high profile criminal trial against school’s co-founder starts next month
She faces dozens of charges & civil suits; case will be heard in Stockton
In last minute plea, SNAP says ‘victims, witnesses & whistleblowers must speak up now’
WHAT
At a sidewalk news conference, holding signs and childhood photos, abuse survivors will
-- announce the filing of a “horrific” new abuse and cover up lawsuit against a controversial Christian boarding school for girls in southwest Missouri,
-- call for a prominent local pastor, named as a defendant in the suit, to resign or be fired, and
-- urge others to help prosecutors convict a female serial abuser by contacting law enforcement before her trial next month if they “saw, suspected or suffered her crimes.”
WHENWednesday, Sept. 4, at 1:15 p.m.
WHERE
On the sidewalk outside the federal courthouse at 222 S. John Q. Hammons Pkwy (between Broadway and Washington) in Springfield MO
WHO
Two-three victims and anti-abuse advocates, including a Drury University graduate and child sex abuse survivor who for 30 years headed SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org)
WHY
--1) The suit is being filed by girl who - as a 13 year old in 2019 and 2020 - was repeatedly subjected to “torture” and “physical, sexualized and mental abuse” at Circle of Hope Girls Ranch in Humansville (in Polk County, 40 minutes north of Springfield.) Now 18, she’s the youngest victim to sue the facility.
Among the offenses alleged in the suit: trafficking, involuntary servitude, brainwashing children, defrauding parents, child sexual abuse, and negligently hiring staff, negligently supervising staff and kids and intentionally inflicting emotional distress.
One of the defendants is Rev. Jeff Ables of Berean Baptist in Springfield (507 East Norton Rd, [email protected], 417.833.1529). He allegedly “hid children” from DCFS,” according to the suit, and refused to report abuses to authorities even though he’d been told of the crimes as far back as 2008.
Some of the abuses were sadistic and bizarre, the suit says, such as withholding food as punishment and force-feeding kids until they threw up and then forcing them to eat their vomit.
Staffers shoved the victim’s face into manure, put Wasabi sauce in her mouth and forced her to watch as other girls were “punched in the face, choked, beaten and whipped.”
The victim, identified only as Jane Doe, will NOT be at the news conference. She lives in Kansas City and is represented by KC attorney Rebecca Randles (816 931 9901).
2)) Next month, Missouri’s most notorious Christian boarding school abuser goes on trial facing 22 counts of child abuse and neglect. She is Stephanie Householder who, for years, along with her husband, ran two Christian boarding schools for ‘troubled kids’ in southern Missouri. (Before he died in June, her spouse Boyd was charged with 79 similar counts.)
https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article289535052.html
SNAP is begging other victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to contact the FBI or the Missouri attorney general’s office before the widely-anticipated trial begins next month in Stockton.
“Over decades, hundreds of kids suffered because of the Householders,” said David Clohessy of SNAP. “So please, don’t sit back and be silent. If you saw, suspected or suffered abuse at these schools, help prosecutors get her locked up by coming forward now to the attorney general’s office, local law enforcement or SNAP.”
Dozens of ex-students accuse the Householders of using “brutal restraints, excessive workouts in extreme temperatures, psychological and sexual abuse” and withholding food and water as punishment. According to the AP, 16 former residents said they were handcuffed, whipped with belts, had their mouths taped shut and were punched for minor offenses such as singing.
https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/midwest/2024/05/15/774285.htm
https://www.bishop-accountability.org/2024/06/after-ex-mo-boarding-school-owner-accused/
In recent years, criminal charges, civil lawsuits, and media reports have exposed shocking and severe abuse of kids in at least three similar facilities in Missouri (Agape School in Stockton, Kanakuk Kamp near Branson and ABM Ministries, a.k.a. Lighthouse Christian Academy, in Piedmont.)
https://www.davidclohessy.com/blog/2nd-letter-to-mo-ag-bailey-re-boarding-schools
CONTACT
David Clohessy 314 566 9790, [email protected] (davidclohessy.com)
