After being charged with more than 100 felonies last year linked to allegations of child sex abuse, physical abuse, endangermentand neglect, the owners of a now-defunct Missouri girls ranch and boarding school based 7 miles west of Humansville now face two new civil lawsuits filed Monday and Tuesday.
Boyd and Stephanie Householder were sued Tuesday in Polk County courts by their estranged 31-year-old daughter, Amanda Householder, now living in California's High Desert region.
Along with her parents, Amanda Householder named numerous other defendants in her lawsuit petition, including:
- Circle of Hope Girls Ranch and Boarding School, the HumansvilleChristian institution founded by her parents;
- Stockton-based independent fundamental Baptist Agape Boarding School;
- its parent church Agape Baptist Church;
- Agape's late founder James Clemensen;
- former Circle of Hope board member Jeff Ables, who is currently pastor of Berean Baptist Church in Springfield.
"All of the defendants" named in Amanda Householder's lawsuit"have acted together and separately to abusechildren at their unlicensed 'schools'and 'ranches,'supporting one another and failing to report the known abuses and / or covering up these abuses," according to the petition submitted to the court by Kansas City attorney Rebecca Randles.
The suit also details other allegations by Householder against her parents: She accuses Boyd and Stephanie Householder of making her perform forced labor, beating her for their sexual gratification,and forcing her to impose punishments on other students at their Humansville-area girls ranch and school.
The incidents began when Amanda Householder was a minor, the lawsuit alleges, and ended around October 2017.
When Circle of Hope was still an active campus, in August of 2020, Amanda Householder told the News-Leader,"Girls are being physically, emotionally, religiously and sexually abused. And what I mean by 'religiously'is they cannot practice any religion but my parents', which is fundamentalist Baptist."
Amanda Householder and her attorney did not immediately respond to News-Leader text messages and calls seeking comment on Tuesday.
But Householder told the Kansas City Star, which first reported news of her lawsuit, "I was born into this. I didn’t have a choice." She added, "So, I am becoming the person who did not rescue me as a child, by holding those who abused my peers and myself accountable. I hope survivors know that I see them, and I will do whatever I can to make sure that the rest of the world sees us, too."
Her lawsuit states Householder was "subjected to physical and mental abuse and torture" by her parents at Circle of Hope, and that the young Householder "never knew any other way of life beyond these schools and her parents’ actions."
The lawsuit details horrific allegations, including food deprivation, excruciating exercises and physical punishments.
"Plaintiff and her brother were often sat on by their mother," the lawsuit states, "restraining them while their father beat them with a whip or golf stick. They would pull the clothing of plaintiff and her brother down and beat them on their bare buttocks."
Physical abuse seemed to be enjoyable for the elder Householders, the lawsuit alleges.
"At times," the lawsuit states, "the parents would kiss as they switched positions to continue beating the children. They appeared to get joy from the beatings. If the parents had been arguing, the beatings would calm them down and they would become loving toward each other."
The News-Leader tried contacting the defendants Tuesday afternoon to learn their side of the story.
A person answering a mobile phone once belonging to Stephanie Householder and Boyd Householder said the phone number no longer belonged to the Householders. Another phone number linked to the Householders was disconnected. The News-Leader tried emailing six addresses linked to the Householders in public records and received no response.
Stephanie Householder denied abuse reports two years ago and told theStar at that time that Amanda Householder was a "Satan-worshipper" and was "addicted to drugs."
Jay Kirksey, an attorney who representedthe Householders last year, did not immediately respond to a message left by the News-Leader Tuesday.
Ables, pastor of Berean Baptist Church and former Circle of Hope board member, did not respond to a voicemail message left at the church.
Agape Boarding School and its parent organization, Agape Baptist Church, did not respond to a voicemail message left for the director of the school.
Agape's founder, James Clemensen, died in October 2021, but is named in the lawsuit.
The suit states that Amanda Householder asks the court for a jury trial and seeks damages from the defendants, though an amount is not specified.
Circle of Hope, Agape Boarding School face earlier lawsuits
Another suit was filed Monday by a Louisiana-based plaintiff whose full name has not been made public, Missouri online court records show.
That suit, submitted to Cedar County circuit courts, namesCircle of Hope as a defendant,along with Boyd and Stephanie Householder.
Kansas City-based attorney Robert A. Thrasher provided a copy of his client's lawsuit at the News-Leader's request.
The suit is filed by an unnamed woman, M.J., who says she was 15 when she arrived at Circle of Hope. She was a student there from roughly 2017 to 2019, and alleges that she was physically abused by Boyd and Stephanie Householder.
M.J.'s lawsuit alleges that Circle of Hope's "'treatment'program consisted of an abusive and strictly regimented bootcamp environment where every detail of the residents’ lives were monitored, manipulated, and controlled. The abusive policies and procedures at Circle of Hope (...) were designed to physically and psychologically intimidate, terrorize, and ultimately mentally break the residents."
The suit also states"no employees of Circle of Hope, including Defendants Boyd and Stephanie Householder, had qualifications to provide counseling or treatment."
Girls weren't allowed to speak to each other in order to instill a culture of obedience and fear, M.J.'s lawsuit alleges. Staff monitored even the most private parts of daily life, including showering and using the restroom, the suit states, and physical assaults and "manhandling" were routine. Food and water deprivation were used as disciplinary measures, the suit says.
So-called "restraints" were used to address student behavior, the lawsuit says. "Restraints" involved "four or more people holding the limbs of the restrained individual and pressing on pressure points on the body. This practice often caused pain and numbness for days afterward and was designed and intended to maximize pain and suffering rather than to gain control over residents who were a danger to themselves or others."
Like the suit filed by Amanda Householder, the suit filed by M.J. asks for unspecified damages.
Thrasher, M.J.'s Kansas City-based attorney, told the News-Leader in an email Tuesday afternoon that another lawsuit similar to M.J.'s, but with a different plaintiff, will be filed "within the next week or so."
Background on Circle of Hope and new Missouri law regulating religious boarding schools
A year ago, Boyd and Stephanie Householder were charged by the Missouri Attorney General's office with 102 feloniesin connection with a sex abuseinvestigation undertaken by the office of Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who assisted a local prosecutor.
At the time, Schmitt called it one of the most "widespread" investigations into allegations of this kind in state history, stating that 16 "young girls and young women" at Circle of Hopewere identified as victims.
In August 2020, state authorities removed girls from Circle of Hope and the school appears to have collapsed around that time.
Later, Householder and other activists, including boys who attended Agape Boarding School, supported HB 557, a Missouri bill that would provide some state oversight for religious school facilities like Circle of Hope and Agape, which had previously been exempt from almost all government scrutiny under Missouri law.
After Missouri lawmakers passed the bill, Gov. Mike Parson signed it last July.
Since then, at least 20 schools previously exempt from oversight have registered with the Missouri Department of Social services, as required by HB 557, according to a list of such schools provided to the News-Leader by DSS on Feb. 4.
Agape Boarding School is among them, but Circle of Hope, now closed, did not register, according to the DSS list.
Reach News-Leader reporter Gregory Holman by emailing gholman@gannett.com. He is also on Twitter at @GregHolmanNL. Please consider subscribing to support vital local journalism.
