Maggie Drew’s dad sent her to Circle of Hope Girls’ Ranch in Missouri in 2007, hoping strict Christian teachings would stop his 14-year-old daughter’s teenage rebellion.
Instead, Drew said, she found herself in a nightmare, sexually abused by one of the boarding school’s founders and left with permanent spinal injuries after a fall from a hay barn for which she received no medical attention.
Just 25 miles away at another Christian boarding school, Brett Harper says he endured abuse that included staff members stomping on his back. He said his injuries required two spinal surgeries and left him disabled.
They are among dozens of people who say they were abused at either Circle of Hope or Agape Boarding School — allegations that helped prompt a new Missouri law aimed at reining in religious boarding schools that for decades went without any oversight by the state.
“I still have nightmares about these people and the things they did to us,” Drew said.
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