CHARLESTON (WV)
Charleston Gazette-Mail

October 23, 2017

By Lacie Pierson

Nine former students of a now-closed boarding school have filed lawsuits this month saying they suffered severe abuse as part of a “culture of silence and secrecy” among officials at two schools in West Virginia and Tennessee.

The lawsuits, filed in Kanawha Circuit Court from Oct. 13-17, are the latest legal actions taken in the case of Miracle Meadows School in Salem, Harrison County. Two other former students filed a similar lawsuit in January.

The former students said school staff sexually assaulted and mentally and physically abused them while denying them food and an education at the school, which state officials closed in 2014, following the arrest of two employees on child abuse and neglect charges.

Miracle Meadows is one of 14 defendants named in each of the lawsuits. Other defendants include Susan Gayle Clark, former director of Miracle…