Another Missouri Boarding School Closes Following Abuse Claims
School is one of four shuttered since 2020 after numerous pending allegations and lawsuits claim child abuse
Lighthouse was a private Christian boarding school dedicated to helping troubled boys.
But a few days before its closing, authorities charged ABM Ministries owners Larry and Carmen Musgraves with first-degree kidnapping for allegedly locking a student in a room.
Sources, including former students, have said numerous complaints submitted in the past 15 years resulted in nothing.
The complaints—and the charges—are not the first abuse and neglect concerns for the state: Lighthouse is one of four unregistered boarding schools in Missouri facing child abuse accusations that have ceased operations.
Numerous accusations of sexual, physical, and mental abuse against children enrolled in unregistered boarding schools are still pending in Missouri courts, exposing a pattern of unchecked abusive leadership culture.
Published April 4, 2024
Before becoming the director of Lighthouse, Julio Sandoval was the Dean of Students for the Agape Boarding School, a school 229 miles west in Stockton, Missouri, which also closed last year after abuse charges.On March 6, ABM Ministries Lighthouse Christian Academy in Piedmont, Missouri, told the Missouri Department of Social Services it was officially closed. The action comes on the heels of the school owners’ arrest and as a state agency investigates whether the boarding school effectively addressed calls to an abuse hotline about the facility in the past.
Lighthouse was a private Christian boarding school dedicated to helping troubled boys.
But a few days before its closing, authorities charged ABM Ministries owners Larry and Carmen Musgraves with first-degree kidnapping for allegedly locking a student in a room.
Sources, including former students, have said numerous complaints submitted in the past 15 years resulted in nothing.
The complaints—and the charges—are not the first abuse and neglect concerns for the state: Lighthouse is one of four unregistered boarding schools in Missouri facing child abuse accusations that have ceased operations.
Numerous accusations of sexual, physical, and mental abuse against children enrolled in unregistered boarding schools are still pending in Missouri courts, exposing a pattern of unchecked abusive leadership culture.
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