Former staffers at Missouri Christian boarding school face civil lawsuit alleging abuse of students

Associated Press

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Yet another lawsuit is accusing a Missouri Christian boarding school of forcing a former student to do unpaid labor, physically abusing him and hiding the abuse from authorities. A lawsuit filed Wednesday in Missouri’s Western U.S. District Court alleges negligence by several staffers at the now-closed Agape Boarding School. More than a dozen other former students have settled lawsuits alleging they were abused at the southwest Missouri school. Agape is one of three Christian boarding schools in southern Missouri that have shut down since 2020 amid wide-ranging abuse allegations levied by current and former students. Several people affiliated with those schools are facing criminal charges.