Lawsuit: Former Idaho police officer says son was 'gang-raped' at Agape Boarding School
A misty-eyed David Clohessy stood outside a U.S. federal courthouse in Springfield on Tuesday holding a photo of the late Jason Britt.
Britt, an Idaho man, died last year of multiple organ failure at age 29, more than a decade after attending Agape Boarding School.
Next to Clohessy, the former national director of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), was a woman holding a small sign that read "Help us protect kids!"
Both want the now-shuttered Stockton school with a litany of previous abuse lawsuits to be held responsible.
According to a federal wrongful death lawsuit filed Oct. 11 against the school, drug addiction, steroids, high blood pressure and anxiety were the mechanisms of Britt's death, but the abuse he endured at Agape was the primary cause of his passing.
The lawsuit filed by Britt's mother, former Idaho police officer Kathleen Britt, alleges that repeated sexual and physical abuse by staff members at Agape led to heavy drug use as an adult and the severe decline of her son's mental health.
"In the last 3 years, dozens of former Agape students have reported not just sexual abuse, but emotional abuse and psychological abuse; humiliations and physical violence," said Clohessy, who now volunteers his services to help bring attention cases like Britt's. "Common sense would tell you that these horrors did not start within the last three years, they've been going on, no doubt, for perhaps decades."
Six months before he died, according to the lawsuit, Jason Britt wrote a suicide letter that noted his post-traumatic stress disorder from his time at Agape and that "he hoped his life would be significant by making sure other children were protected from Agape and what he experienced."
Britt, who said he was once gang-raped with a broom handle by Agape staff, attended the school in 2009 after a series of behavioral issues at his Idaho public school.
"The best way I can describe it is like a group of savages going after their prey,” Britt told the Kansas City Star in a 2021 interview. “I think it was just evil. I think they were trying to humiliate me in a way that I wouldn’t recover from, that would break my spirit.”
Kathleen Britt said in court documents that the family sought a "safe, kind and Christian environment free from drugs and alcohol" before realizing the school was more similar to “a concentration camp or torture colony cloaked in the guise of religion."
The lengthy and detailed lawsuit also accused two Agape staffers of showing up in the middle of night at Jason's then-girlfriend's house in Idaho in 2009. They allegedly zip-tied his hands, took him to the airport and brought him to the Missouri school where his head was shaved.
Britt went on to become a successful competitive weightlifter and personal trainer in his 20s, according to the court documents, which said the pursuit was to help protect himself from any further abuse like he endured at Agape. Steroid use, which appears to have compounded his physical and mental health issues, became regular.
The lawsuit names several defendants, including former Agape officials and local law enforcement.
The News-Leader reached out to Agape's attorney Tuesday but a message was not immediately returned.
Clohessy said Tuesday that many of Kathleen Britt's complaints about the treatment of her son were disregarded.
"Not a single law enforcement agency in Cedar County or neighboring counties where a lot of these kids run to when they escape have had a serious law enforcement investigation for these horrors," Clohessy said.
Ongoing investigation, lawsuits involving Agape
The Stockton-based Christian reform school has been under investigation for abuse allegations for several years. The school closed Jan. 20, 2023, "solely due to the lack of financial resources to continue caring for the boys," said former director of Agape Boarding School Bryan Clemensen in a press release.
More than 19 state lawsuits have been filed against Agape Boarding School by former students, many including graphic accounts of the alleged abuse. According to reporting by the Kansas City Star, 16 of the civil lawsuits have been settled for undisclosed amounts as of March 7 and dismissed with prejudice, meaning they cannot be filed again.
There are 23 federal cases against Agape Boarding School, three of which were voluntarily dismissed on Aug. 29.
In June 2022, the school lost its accreditation from the National Council of Private School Accreditation and the Association of Christian Teachers and Schools.
In August 2022, Julio Sandoval, the former dean at Agape Boarding School, was accused of transporting a teen against his will from California to Stockton.
Dr. David Smock, who served as a physician for the boarding school, faces a dozen charges of felony sexual abuse in Cedar County related to alleged abuse of Agape students.
In September 2021, Cedar County Prosecutor Ty Gaither filed 13 low-level "Class E" felony assault charges against five people linked to Agape Boarding School. As of December 2022, the majority of the charges were dismissed or reduced to misdemeanors.
News-Leader reporter Susan Szuch contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Former police officer says son was raped at Agape Boarding School
