Former Student Alleges Abuse at Miracle Meadows School in Salem, West Virginia, Names Seventh-day Adventist Church in Lawsuit

A former student at a shuttered boarding school in West Virginia alleges that he and other students were abused while enrolled there. The school was run by members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, but it was not financed by, managed by, or formally affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

D.B., an adult, filed the complaint under an assumed name in Kanawha Circuit Court. The defendants include the Seventh-day Adventist Church, North American Division Inc.; Advent Home Learning Center Inc., doing business as Advent Home Youth Services Inc.; and others.

According to the West Virginia Record, D.B. accuses these entities of negligence, civil conspiracy, vicarious liability, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and negligent hiring or supervision.

D.B. claims that, as a minor, he and other children studying at Miracle Meadows School in Salem and at Advent Home Learning Center in Tennessee suffered corporal punishment, malnutrition and forced manual labor. He alleges that he and fellow students were also abused emotionally and sexually. He further claims that students were denied medical care and subjected to educational neglect, and that staff knew of these abuses but did not address them. These are allegations in the complaint and have not been proven in court.

The source notes that Miracle Meadows founder Susan Gayle Clark served jail time for crimes related to child neglect. Children denied medical care is the kind of harm that calls for protecting the vulnerable (Proverbs 31:8-9).

According to the West Virginia Record, D.B. seeks compensatory damages, interest, a trial by jury, punitive damages against the defendants, and all other just relief.

D.B. has retained W. Jesse Forbes of The Forbes Law Offices PLLC in Charleston, and R. Scott Long and Ashley Lynch of Hendrickson & Long PLLC. Adventist Today has also reported on the North American Division’s response to earlier litigation against Miracle Meadows School.

Source: Read the original report