Former Agape Boarding School student files another lawsuit against school

CEDAR COUNTY, Mo. — Another lawsuit has been filed against the now-closed Agape Boarding School by a man who claims he was physically abused and bullied by staff at the school who encouraged other students to do the same.

The lawsuit identifies the man as M.B.2, who was 15 when he started attending at Agape. Also named in the lawsuit are Julio Sandoval, who served as Dean of Students, and former staff members Seth Duncan, Tyler Hartman, Elijah Reeves and Brian Clemenson.

The lawsuit alleges the aforementioned former staff “engaged in violence and sexual assault of children at the school and/or aided and abetted that violence against students, including M.B.2.”

According to online documents, the boarding school had a system where students were ranked. A student’s rank was displayed by the color of their shirt, with the lowest-ranking students wearing brown shirts. The lawsuit says this was referred to as “brown town”, and students ranked as brown shirts were “routinely abused” as punishment.

The lawsuit alleges M.B.2. was also assigned a fellow student as a “mentor”, who was allowed to assign punishments that could include jumping jacks, pushups and physical restraint.

M.B.2. said in the suit that he was sent to “brown town” on multiple occasions which added up to two months of his 22-month stay at the boarding school.

The lawsuit also claims that M.B.2. was required to routinely participate in extreme physical labor or workouts, sometimes without food or water, until he threw up.

The school and the individual former staff named also misrepresented the school to the students’ families, according to the suit, which also accuses Agape of negligence, negligent hiring and supervision and more.

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