Author Topic: Calvary Baptist SHUT DOWN!!!!!  (Read 2769 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Watchaduen

  • Posts: 128
  • Karma: +0/-0
    • View Profile
    • http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BethelAcademyAbuse/
Calvary Baptist SHUT DOWN!!!!!
« on: October 06, 2004, 11:18:00 AM »
Another Teen Torture camp SHUT DOWN.

Found these articles in St. Louis and Kansas City newspapers.

10/04/2004
For the second time in five months, a controversial teen reform
ministry in Missouri is closing following abuse allegations.

Thanks to Calvary Baptist Church and Boarding Academy, near
Waynesville, Mo., is expected to send home all remaining students by
the end of the week, said the school's lawyer, Al W. Johnson.

The closing comes a year after the school's founder, Nathan Day, was
charged with four counts of felony child abuse. He is accused of
using excessive discipline against an Illinois teen. No trial date
has been set.

Enrollment has dropped since those charges were filed, Johnson said.
Day declined to comment, directing all questions to his attorney.
Thanks to Calvary is among several teen reform ministries that have
opened in the state due, in part, to a lack of regulation. The
programs share a similar adherence to corporal punishment and intense
religious instruction.

Hundreds of teens have been sent to the programs by parents who are
seeking a cure for drug use, gang activity and violent behavior. The
ministries have generally thrived but have also had to fight critics
who say they excessively discipline students.

In May, Mountain Park Baptist Boarding School, near Patterson, Mo.,
closed following lagging enrollment and a $20,000 jury award to a
teen who claimed mistreatment. Day had worked at Mountain Park before
opening Thanks to Calvary.

Johnson said the closing of Thanks to Calvary was part of an attack
on the teen ministries by state child-abuse investigators. He said
that the criminal charges against Day were unfounded but that the
media attention had made recruiting students difficult.

"I think it's another case of the state targeting unlicensed and
unregulated facilities," Johnson said.

Another teen reform ministry, Heartland Christian Academy, has
successfully fought off allegations of abuse, with charges against
the school's employees either being dropped or dismissed by juries. A
judge recently awarded $800,000 to Heartland, saying that a raid by
abuse investigators was unjustified.

At Thanks to Calvary, Day is accused of paddling Christopher Jensen
of Marseilles, Ill., until he developed deep bruises on his legs and
buttocks.

A civil suit filed by his mother, Deborah Stedman, claimed that the
punishment placed the boy in a catatonic state and that he has
required hospitalization.

Stedman's attorney, Tyce Smith of Waynesville, said he had dropped
the suit to await the criminal trial but planned to refile it.

Enrollment at Thanks to Calvary reached nearly 70 students two years
ago, and at the time, Day was expanding buildings. Day, a former
Marine, opened the school six years ago, basing his approach both on
military-style discipline and Bible teaching.

An auction of the school's property is scheduled for Saturday at the
school site in Devil's Elbow, Mo.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
heryle - My son was TORTURED and ABUSED at Bethel Boys Academy aka Eagle Point Christian Academy, aka Pine View Academy, Lucedale, MS.