Mo. House bills aim to set legal standards in
unregulated residential care facilities for children
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The editor of the Barry County Advertiser reserves the right to edit or withhold from publication any letter for any reason whatsoever. Letters to the Editor reflect the opinion of the author, not necessarily that of the Barry County Advertiser or its staff. Email your letters to editor@4bca.com
The editor of the Barry County Advertiser reserves the right to edit or withhold from publication any letter for any reason whatsoever. Letters to the Editor reflect the opinion of the author, not necessarily that of the Barry County Advertiser or its staff. Email your letters to editor@4bca.com
March 24, 2021
Elaine Phaneuf
Missouri is one of two states that require zero oversight for youth homes affiliated with a religion. An unknown number of children have been failed by Missouri laws which have given free reign to some operators of group homes claiming to have fundamental Christian values, openly using corporal punishment and harsh discipline, and covertly abusing the residents. Several private youth homes facing allegations of abuse in other states have moved to Missouri where faith-based homes are exempt from state license, health and safety inspections, access for DHSS or any type of state oversight.
The Missouri House Committee on Children and Families recently passed HB 557 & 560 aimed to protect the mental health, safety and civil rights of children from operators who exploit this lack of oversight. Currently, in Missouri, residential care facility operators claiming to be affiliated with a religion do not even have to provide the state with documentation to prove they are affiliated with a religion.
Circle of Hope Girls’ Ranch outside of Humansville, a town of about 1,000 residents, is a private reformatory school which has recently fallen under the national spotlight. On March 9, 2021, Boyd Householder, 71, and his wife Stephanie, 55, the owners and operators of Circle of Hope Girls’ Ranch, were charged with 102 counts for sexually, emotionally, or physically abusing girls for years. They are being held without bond at the Vernon County Jail. Both have pleaded not guilty.
Now, as of March 22, 2021, according to a statement made by Kelli Jones - spokeswoman for Governor Parsons - Agape Boarding School has joined Circle of Hope Girls’ Ranch as a subject of examination by the Attorney General’s Office. James Griffey, and many other witnesses in the hearings for HB 557 & 560, testified of abuse endured at Agape. Griffey wrote in his testimony, “I could spend hours talking about the different abusive situations I witnessed at Agape. And how the staff at Agape would brag that they were allowed to do these things and get away with them because Missouri doesn’t get involved.” He went on to say, “Do I think that the government should dictate how a religious institution worships their God? No. But if any of these religious institutions are worried about the government getting involved to prevent child abuse in their programs, that tells me they have something to hide.”
Cynthia Schott, age 55, contributed written testimony in support of the proposed bills. As a pregnant 13 year old - victim of rape by family members - Schott was placed at Bethesda Home for Girls, a boarding school near Hattiesburg, Mississippi, operated by Bob Wills and his wife. Schott describes daily physical and emotional abuse, “I was told daily it was my fault I was a whore!”
In 1982, a class action lawsuit was filed against the Bethesda Home for Girls in Mississippi. It was finally settled in 1987 after Bob Wills and his wife agreed to stop paddling pregnant girls, give no more than eight "licks" to others in a five day period, and modify some of their rigid rules.
Emily Adams also gave testimony of her experience as a resident of Bethesda School for Girls, and shared one of the most harrowing stories. She said the owners of Bethesda forced one girl to have a miscarriage through drinking Epsom salts and then forcing her to scrub floors until she lost her baby. Bethesda was eventually shut down, but that didn’t stop Bob Wills from starting another boarding school.
“Guess where they came? They came here; they opened up Mountain Park,” Adams said.
Bob Wills operated Mountain Park Baptist Boarding Academy in Southeast Missouri using the same strict discipline and corporal punishment to reform troubled teens. It finally closed in 2004 after years of criticism.
Colton Schrag, who attended a boarding school still in operation in Missouri, gave testimony of his inability to get help. “I ran away one time and told the cops they’re beating us,” Schrag said. “Cop didn’t care, they cuffed me up and brought me right back to the school. So like, even if you tried to report it, nobody cared.” He went on to say that one Missouri school alone has more than 160 students “that may even be getting restrained as we speak.”
Chanel Mare provided written testimony of her four year stay at Circle of Hope in which she describes how students are restrained. “This is when Boyd would push you from the back of your neck to the ground and 3 - 4 other students would jump on you, pushing all your pressure points at the back of your arms and the back of knees you would be there for half hour to several hours screaming for mercy I can still hear the screaming to this day. While this was happening Boyd and Stephanie would be mimicking you and kissing each other like this was all a game.”
The two bills brought before the committee were sponsored by Rep. Keri Ingle, D-Lee’s Summit, and Rep. Rudy Veit R-Wardsville. They said the legislation would make it harder for the homes to operate unchecked. One of the most important aspects of the bills, according to advocates, is that it brings Missouri’s law up to speed with other states that have already taken steps to regulate youth homes, making it less attractive to people who would travel from other states to take advantage of weak regulation.
These new bills - if passed into law - would not require state licensure, but would require all licence exempt residential care facilities to notify the state of their location, provide background checks for all employees and ensure that Social Services can see a child that it suspects is being abused or neglected - through a court ordered subpoena - if the facility director does not voluntarily allow the child to be interviewed by a children’s division worker.
In a statement via email, Rebecca Woelfel, communications director for the Missouri Department of Social Services, addressed the department’s inability to investigate the youth homes that have recently come under scrutiny. “Should an agency be exempt from licensure in accordance with 210.516, Missouri law does not give authority to the Department of Social Services to inspect such facilities.”
While HB 557 and HB 560 won’t change the structure of Missouri’s child welfare system, advocates insist it will make the state far less likely to host “bad actors” who use the guise of faith-based rehabilitation to abuse children.
“Missouri will no longer be the safe haven for these types of vultures who want to come in and prey upon our kids,” Veit said.
Elaine Phaneuf
Missouri is one of two states that require zero oversight for youth homes affiliated with a religion. An unknown number of children have been failed by Missouri laws which have given free reign to some operators of group homes claiming to have fundamental Christian values, openly using corporal punishment and harsh discipline, and covertly abusing the residents. Several private youth homes facing allegations of abuse in other states have moved to Missouri where faith-based homes are exempt from state license, health and safety inspections, access for DHSS or any type of state oversight.
The Missouri House Committee on Children and Families recently passed HB 557 & 560 aimed to protect the mental health, safety and civil rights of children from operators who exploit this lack of oversight. Currently, in Missouri, residential care facility operators claiming to be affiliated with a religion do not even have to provide the state with documentation to prove they are affiliated with a religion.
Circle of Hope Girls’ Ranch outside of Humansville, a town of about 1,000 residents, is a private reformatory school which has recently fallen under the national spotlight. On March 9, 2021, Boyd Householder, 71, and his wife Stephanie, 55, the owners and operators of Circle of Hope Girls’ Ranch, were charged with 102 counts for sexually, emotionally, or physically abusing girls for years. They are being held without bond at the Vernon County Jail. Both have pleaded not guilty.
Now, as of March 22, 2021, according to a statement made by Kelli Jones - spokeswoman for Governor Parsons - Agape Boarding School has joined Circle of Hope Girls’ Ranch as a subject of examination by the Attorney General’s Office. James Griffey, and many other witnesses in the hearings for HB 557 & 560, testified of abuse endured at Agape. Griffey wrote in his testimony, “I could spend hours talking about the different abusive situations I witnessed at Agape. And how the staff at Agape would brag that they were allowed to do these things and get away with them because Missouri doesn’t get involved.” He went on to say, “Do I think that the government should dictate how a religious institution worships their God? No. But if any of these religious institutions are worried about the government getting involved to prevent child abuse in their programs, that tells me they have something to hide.”
Cynthia Schott, age 55, contributed written testimony in support of the proposed bills. As a pregnant 13 year old - victim of rape by family members - Schott was placed at Bethesda Home for Girls, a boarding school near Hattiesburg, Mississippi, operated by Bob Wills and his wife. Schott describes daily physical and emotional abuse, “I was told daily it was my fault I was a whore!”
In 1982, a class action lawsuit was filed against the Bethesda Home for Girls in Mississippi. It was finally settled in 1987 after Bob Wills and his wife agreed to stop paddling pregnant girls, give no more than eight "licks" to others in a five day period, and modify some of their rigid rules.
Emily Adams also gave testimony of her experience as a resident of Bethesda School for Girls, and shared one of the most harrowing stories. She said the owners of Bethesda forced one girl to have a miscarriage through drinking Epsom salts and then forcing her to scrub floors until she lost her baby. Bethesda was eventually shut down, but that didn’t stop Bob Wills from starting another boarding school.
“Guess where they came? They came here; they opened up Mountain Park,” Adams said.
Bob Wills operated Mountain Park Baptist Boarding Academy in Southeast Missouri using the same strict discipline and corporal punishment to reform troubled teens. It finally closed in 2004 after years of criticism.
Colton Schrag, who attended a boarding school still in operation in Missouri, gave testimony of his inability to get help. “I ran away one time and told the cops they’re beating us,” Schrag said. “Cop didn’t care, they cuffed me up and brought me right back to the school. So like, even if you tried to report it, nobody cared.” He went on to say that one Missouri school alone has more than 160 students “that may even be getting restrained as we speak.”
Chanel Mare provided written testimony of her four year stay at Circle of Hope in which she describes how students are restrained. “This is when Boyd would push you from the back of your neck to the ground and 3 - 4 other students would jump on you, pushing all your pressure points at the back of your arms and the back of knees you would be there for half hour to several hours screaming for mercy I can still hear the screaming to this day. While this was happening Boyd and Stephanie would be mimicking you and kissing each other like this was all a game.”
The two bills brought before the committee were sponsored by Rep. Keri Ingle, D-Lee’s Summit, and Rep. Rudy Veit R-Wardsville. They said the legislation would make it harder for the homes to operate unchecked. One of the most important aspects of the bills, according to advocates, is that it brings Missouri’s law up to speed with other states that have already taken steps to regulate youth homes, making it less attractive to people who would travel from other states to take advantage of weak regulation.
These new bills - if passed into law - would not require state licensure, but would require all licence exempt residential care facilities to notify the state of their location, provide background checks for all employees and ensure that Social Services can see a child that it suspects is being abused or neglected - through a court ordered subpoena - if the facility director does not voluntarily allow the child to be interviewed by a children’s division worker.
In a statement via email, Rebecca Woelfel, communications director for the Missouri Department of Social Services, addressed the department’s inability to investigate the youth homes that have recently come under scrutiny. “Should an agency be exempt from licensure in accordance with 210.516, Missouri law does not give authority to the Department of Social Services to inspect such facilities.”
While HB 557 and HB 560 won’t change the structure of Missouri’s child welfare system, advocates insist it will make the state far less likely to host “bad actors” who use the guise of faith-based rehabilitation to abuse children.
“Missouri will no longer be the safe haven for these types of vultures who want to come in and prey upon our kids,” Veit said.