In their days, months and years at a secluded boarding school in southeast Missouri, they say they lost their childhood. Instead of slumber parties with friends, family dinners, campouts — even prom — they spent their time outside doing labor and extensive exercises, were given ice bucket showers and forced to stand at a wall for hours when in trouble, and too often went to bed hungry when food was withheld.
All of this was at a faith-based unlicensed school where they say the smallest of students would get the worst treatment. These are not students of Circle of Hope Girls Ranch and Agape Boarding School, facilities in Missouri that were investigated in 2020 and 2021 and are now closed. They attended Lighthouse Christian Academy, yet another Missouri unlicensed boarding school that until recently operated for two decades unchecked by local and state authorities. Some were taken to the campus by…
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