Agape Boarding School, Accused of Abuse, Loses Accreditation From Two Organizations

Agape Boarding School, which has been under scrutiny for nearly two years over abuse allegations, lists several organizations on its website that it says accredit the southwest Missouri school. Spencer Toder, a U.S. Senate candidate who has pushed to close the school, said two organizations have revoked Agape’s accreditation and that another group that recognized one of those accreditations has now removed the school.

The Association of Christian Teachers & Schools notified Toder of its action Monday night. “Agape Boarding School is no longer accredited with ACTS,” said Steve Lindquist, director of accreditation and member services, in an email to Toder. Lindquist sent an identical response to The Star on Tuesday morning after a request for comment.

The National Council for Private School Accreditation, which had recognized the ACTS accreditation, has removed Agape from its website. Accreditation International said in a Facebook post earlier this month that it had withdrawn Agape’s accreditation “many years ago.”

The actions follow mounting pressure from Toder, a Democrat from St. Louis, and Robert Bucklin, who along with many other former Agape students has called for the school to be closed. “And we have now had three of the organizations disown them,” Toder told The Star on Tuesday. “We’re calling them out, and we’re not going to stop until we have accountability and we shut Agape down.” Toder, a Realtor and entrepreneur seeking the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Republican Sen. Roy Blunt, said the accreditation groups “are all intertwined.” He added, “It is very clear that they don’t actually underwrite these organizations. They just allow people to do whatever the hell they want in the name of religion.”

Background on the broader situation includes stories of abuse at several unlicensed boarding schools in Missouri, which prompted the General Assembly to pass a measure last year giving the state oversight of these facilities for the first time. Authorities also launched an investigation into abuse allegations at Agape, and in September five staffers were charged with assaulting students. Those charges are allegations that remain to be resolved in court. Agape also faces 19 civil lawsuits filed in the past 16 months by former students alleging physical and sexual abuse.

Rep. Keri Ingle, D-Lee’s Summit, was the first to call for a legislative hearing and co-sponsored the bill. She has communicated with many former Agape students since late 2020. “I’m happy to hear that Agape lost this accreditation,” Ingle said Tuesday morning. “Giving a ‘seal of approval’ to a facility under serious investigation for child abuse makes no sense.”

Bucklin, 28, of Michigan, attended Agape from 2007 to 2012 and filed a lawsuit against the school last August. He said he was pleased at the news but frustrated that it had taken so long. “As a victim of child sexual and physical abuse in Missouri, it is disheartening to see the victims fighting harder than politicians,” he said. “I have begged Gov. Mike Parson and (attorney general) Eric Schmitt’s office over a hundred times each to close (Agape) and prevent more victims.”

Toder said that after being contacted by Bucklin and researching the lawsuits and felony abuse charges against Agape staffers, he contacted three of the organizations listed on Agape’s website as accrediting the school. ACTS describes itself as “a non-profit organization that strives to set new standards of Christ-centered academic excellence while assisting Christian schools to realize the highest level of educational credibility,” according to its website. On June 19, Toder emailed ACTS, writing that “in my communication with people across the state, I have become aware of a multitude of occasions of sexual abuse that have been verifiable accounted for at Agape Boarding School.”

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