MISSION, Kan. (AP) — A mom is suing a shuttered Christian boarding school in Missouri, blaming her son’s demise on a gang rape and different abuse he endured there.

Agape Boarding College has been subjected to a wave of litigation as a sequence of abuse allegations emerged, however the case filed this month and amended Monday in federal courtroom by Kathleen Britt is believed to be the primary wrongful demise swimsuit.

The swimsuit stated that psychological well being issues plagued Britt’s son, Jason Britt, after he left the personal college, the place several staffers subsequently were charged. The swimsuit stated he lifted weights obsessively and ingested copious steroids so he would change into so sturdy that he by no means could be victimized once more.

He grew so despondent that he wrote a suicide be aware. However coronary heart and kidney failure had been what claimed his life in February 2022.

“The saddest a part of his case is he lastly discovered a trigger to reside when the circumstances of his decisions ended up killing him,” stated lawyer Rebecca Randles. “It’s a kind of utterly devastatingly unhappy conditions.”

Amongst these named within the swimsuit are the varsity, a company that transported college students there, and Cedar County Sheriff James McCrary. Agape’s lawyer and the sheriff didn’t instantly return a cellphone message from The Related Press searching for remark.

Jason Britt’s mother and father turned to Agape as a result of they had been fearful about his slipping grades and partying. In 2010, the then-16-year-old was awoken in the course of the evening whereas staying along with his girlfriend. The boys who transported him to Agape zip tied his arms and advised him he had been given up for adoption, the swimsuit stated.

As an alternative of the counseling his mother and father had been promised, the varsity was “a focus camp or torture colony cloaked within the guise of faith,” the swimsuit stated. Upon arriving, his head was shaved. And when he tried to write down to his household about what was occurring, he was punished. The maltreatment culminated in him being gang raped, the swimsuit stated.

The swimsuit stated the sheriff’s division knew of stories of abuse at Agape and a sister boarding college. However regardless of these stories, deputies routinely returned runaways to their faculties with out successfully investigating or reporting issues to state welfare employees.

A few of the sheriff’s division workers additionally labored on the college, the swimsuit stated.

When Jason Britt’s mom visited, she was alarmed by her son’s demeanor and took him house, the swimsuit stated. The household realized he had been abused on the college, however they had been ignored by Cedar County authorities, the lawsuit stated. Anxious and withdrawn, he completed highschool on-line and grew obsessive about weight lifting.

“The steroids, testosterone, hypertension and nervousness coupled with the drug dependancy had been the mechanism of his demise; the reason for his demise was the abuse at Agape,” the swimsuit stated.

Greater than a dozen different former college students have settled lawsuits alleging they had been abused on the southwest Missouri college.

When it shut down in January, it was the fourth and final unlicensed Christian boarding college to shut in Cedar County since September 2020. The varsity’s former director, Bryan Clemensen, stated the varsity, whose enrollment had tumbled, closed as a result of it didn’t have the funding to proceed.

Former Agape college students got here ahead with abuse allegations in 2020. One former pupil stated he was raped at Agape and referred to as “seizure boy” due to his epilepsy. Others stated they suffered everlasting accidents from being disciplined or compelled to work lengthy hours of handbook labor.

In 2021, Agape’s longtime doctor, David Smock, was charged with youngster intercourse crimes and five employees were charged with low-level abuse counts. Then-Legal professional Normal Eric Schmitt’s workplace contended that 22 employees ought to have been charged, and with extra critical crimes.

However in Missouri, solely the native prosecutor can file fees, and Cedar County Prosecuting Legal professional Ty Gaither has stated no further staff could be charged.