Nine new lawsuits have been filed against a Southwest Missouri boarding school. The lawsuits were brought forward by nine former students who detailed that abuse was rampant during their time there.

Named in the lawsuit is the faith-based Agape Boarding School for Boys located in Stockton, Mo. The Agape Baptist Church which oversaw operations at the school is also named in the lawsuits.

The students who brought forward the complaints attended the school from March 2015 to June 2019. In their complaints, they accuse staff members and other students of abuse, battery, and in some instances torture including tactics such as starvation. Since 2021, 14 other former students have also filed suit against the Agape Boarding School with similar accusations.

Ryan Frazier, an attorney representing one of the plaintiffs, shared with the Kansas City Star that for nearly three decades, students had suffered “emotional, mental, physical, and sexual abuse” during the time they spent at the boarding school. “Today, we filed petitions in Cedar County for nine of those victims, to pursue justice for the trauma they endured and to have their voices heard." Frazier shared.

The lawsuits accuse the school and the church of negligence, infliction of emotional distress, and battery by staff and other students. The lawsuits also accuse the school and church of violating the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act because they committed fraud or deception by misrepresenting and keeping information from the students and their families.

According to the complaints, parents were told that the school does not use any corporal punishment including physical restraints or chokeholds. However, The Star reports that one of the suits contends students "were subject to extreme punishment and torture, which consisted of severe physical and emotional abuse lasting longer than a few minutes without any regard to whether the child was an imminent threat to himself or others."

Parents were also told that their students would be served excellent meals and that food would not be withheld as a punishment. The former students allege however that they were routinely denied food and were at times only fed a piece of bread with a single scoop of peanut butter.

Students also accused the school of denying medical treatment including prescription medication. Instead, students were told that “God would fix them.” The plaintiffs are seeking jury trials and are asking for unspecified amounts in damages.

The claims against Agape Boarding School mimic similar claims made against nearby Circle of Hope Girls Ranch. In this all-girl boarding school, troubled teen girls who were “destroying their lives through poor choices and behavior” according to the school, were sent here as a way to have their behaviors corrected. The owners and operators of the school, Boots and Stephanie Householder, shared on the ranch’s website, “we use the Bible to teach them that they are to obey their parents and the authority over them.”

Accusations began to surface after the daughter of the school's owners, Amanda Householder, sued her parents over claims of abuse. Along with Householder, other students at the Circle of Hope Girls Ranch accused the owners of similar allegations including physical, mental, emotional, and sexual abuse. In that case, five lawsuits were settled for an undisclosed amount. Two additional lawsuits against Circle of Hope Ranch have since been brought forward in the past month.