SNAP Media Event Thursday, June 27 at 1:00 p.m. in Sedalia
Victims want to meet with statewide school group
They ask Pettis Co. sheriff to consider investigating facility
Self-help group warns parents about boarding schools for 'troubled' kids
WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims will harshly criticize a local man who runs both a
--a boarding school for 'troubled' kids in Pettis County and
--a statewide industry group for owners and operators of similar facilities, at least five of which have generated headlines in recent years because of repeated prosecutions, lawsuits and news reports about the sexual, physical and emotional abuse of children at the schools.
A few months ago, the local man also spearheaded an effort to eviscerate "the few and new bare bones protections" Missouri legislators set up for these facilities, many of which are for-profit, privately-owned and 'under the radar' in rural counties across the state.
The victims will also ask
--the Pettis County sheriff to consider investigating the nearby facility, particularly if the sheriff is aware of any complaints,
--the school owners' group to meet with them, and
--prod anyone who has 'seen, suspected or suffered' crimes in any Christian or private boarding school in Missouri to 'come forward as soon as possible to trusted sources of help, like friends, family, therapists, police, prosecutors or support groups.'
WHEN
Thursday, June 27 at 1:00 p.m.
WHERE
On the sidewalk outside the Pettis County Sheriff’s office, 319 S. Lamine Ave. in Sedalia, MO
WHO
Two-three people including
--a Sedalia woman whose sibling was molested by a clergyman and
--a Missouri man who was sexually abused as a child by a cleric and who for 30 years headed a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org)
WHY
Chad Puckett is the director of Show-Me Christian Youth Home in La Monte, a private, for-profit, 'faith-based' boarding school for 'troubled' youth in Pettis County.
He is also the current president of the Missouri Association of Christian Child Care Agencies. In that role, this spring he and his group fought to basically gut a 2021 law meant to protect kids by putting minimal regulations on Christian boarding schools. Puckett’s organization also tried to set up a new panel – largely made up of industry representatives – that would have jurisdiction over abuse reports made against these largely unregulated facilities.
Citing children’s safety, SNAP vigorously opposed the measures. Both failed, but victims fear that Puckett’s group will try again next legislative session.
SNAP is asking Puckett to arrange a meeting of former boarding school residents with his association and to apologize for his role in that failed lobbying effort that would have left kids more vulnerable to abuse.
Puckett has been on the Christian Child Care Agencies’ board since 2003. For several years, he sat on it with Bryan Clemensen and other officials with the now-shuttered Agape Boarding School near Stockton which faces more than a dozen abuse lawsuits. Several Agape staffers also face criminal charges &/or civil lawsuits.
Pickett’s school is the Show-Me Christian Youth Home is at 24302 Mahin Rd, LaMonte, 18 miles from Sedalia.
SNAP will also try to meet with Pettis County Sheriff Brad Anders and urge him to be pro-active, 'err on the safe side' and investigate the Show Me Christian Youth Home. Anders can be reached at 660 827 0052.
SNAP acknowledges that it has not received reports of abuse at the LaMonte facility. However, the group feels strongly that schools like this often attract predators and are run by largely untrained individuals who may be secretive and slow to act in the face of accusations of wrongdoing, even serious physical, emotional and sexual abuse.
MORE BACKGROUND
Additional articles on the issue can be found here and here.
CONTACT
David Clohessy of St. Louis, 314 566 9790, [email protected], Annette Hodges of Sedalia 660 281 8632, [email protected]
