This is horrifying, scary, and what is in the future for Florida and the country if the religiousnationalist get their way. Look this is long, it is terrifying, I am really struggling after reading this, I am crying, having trouble breathing, several times my pulse has skyrocket according to my apple watch. I had to pause several times but that seemed to make it worse, so I just finished reading it. But please read what you can. Each kids story is a real defenseless person who was tortured and sadistically abused in the name of religion and profit. Local authorities cooperated with it because it was religion and they were doing the work of god. Too many memories in my head right now. I went to throw up. Damn it we can not let the country become this. We just can not. I won’t be highlighting or color changing any of it, it is all too important and I just can not face reading it again, it is too much for me and too much in my head. I just took a short walk but it did not help. This happened and it must not happen anymore, all in the name of faith, god, and profit. Power for the sake of having power over others, abusing others simply because you can and it makes you feel good. Been there on the receiving end of that, lived that in my life. Damn it! Hugs
** Seriously I have calmed down some but be in a safe mindset if you read this. It will tear you up even if you are prepared, if you are not it will hurt you bad. Best Wishes and Hugs. **
Former residents of Agapé Boarding School opened up to The Daily Beast about claims of systematic abuse as they demand the state immediately shut down the Baptist facility.
Kate Briquelet
Senior Reporter
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast
Listen to article40 minutes
In southwest Missouri, a Baptist compound for troubled teen boys promises redemption on its bucolic 200-acre campus. Behind the facility’s arched gate, children will find a swimming pool, sports fields, and ranch for horses and exotic animals. Agapé Boarding School “is truly a place where miracles happen,” one piano-filled commercial boasts.
“At Agapé, we lovingly, patiently, and biblically teach your child the importance of submission to authority and the joys of being an obedient law-abiding citizen,” a soft-spoken voiceover actor says while images of smiling teenagers flash across the screen. “Mom and Dad, we want to support you in your effort to rescue your son from himself.”
But former students interviewed by The Daily Beast say the school was far from heavenly. Instead, they encountered a climate more like Lord of the Flies, where staff were given free rein to restrain and beat students, and where some kids were emotionally and sexually abused. They claim Agapé has functioned like a “cult” and “Christian torture compound” for decades, allowing adults to manhandle teenagers and withhold food, water, and proper clothing—apparently without most parents ever knowing.
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According to these alumni, the school banned children from speaking to each other without adults present, censored their letters home, destroyed photographs showing anything other than happy faces, and admonished kids that if they ran away, locals with guns would hunt them down. As part of a “buddy” system, older students had authority to mete out seemingly arbitrary punishments to new students assigned to them.
Now they’ve joined a chorus of voices—including parents, lawmakers, and even heiress and boarding-school abuse activist Paris Hilton—demanding the state of Missouri shut down Agapé for good. “How much more do you need to see[?] … This needs to end!” Hilton tweeted to Missouri’s attorney general and governor on June 21.
Since last year, 19 former students have filed lawsuits against the school, alleging physical and emotional abuse, and in some cases, sexual abuse by staff and classmates.
Such accusations led to the arrest of the school’s ex-doctor, David Smock, who faces child molestation charges related to two alleged victims. He has pleaded not guilty. At a March hearing, one 16-year-old testified that Smock began abusing him when he was 13 and grooming him when he was 9 or 10, according to The Kansas City Star, which has extensively investigated claims against Agapé.
David Smock
Boone County Sheriff’s Office
Meanwhile, five staffers—including Agapé’s medical coordinator—are facing assault charges in Cedar County following an investigation by the Missouri State Highway Patrol and state attorney general. Three of those employees, the Star revealed, still work at the school, and two list Smock’s mansion as their address.
Advocates say these charges don’t go far enough, and that more Agapé staff should have been prosecuted. Cedar County Prosecuting Attorney Ty Gaither had requested assistance from Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s office, which recommended 22 staffers face a total of 65 charges. But last fall, Schmitt wrote Governor Mike Parson asking to be taken off the case, saying that Gaither “has indicated that he does not intend to seek justice for all of the 36 children who were allegedly victimized by 22 members of the Agapé Boarding School staff.” (Gaither did not return messages by press time.)
“I would rather have been dead than wake up and face more abuse.”
In a statement to The Daily Beast, a lawyer for Agapé Boarding School denied the accusations against the school, calling them “sensational.”
“For the past 30 years Agapé has provided over 6,000 boys with an opportunity to get their life back on track and toward a bright future,” Kansas City attorney John Schultz said. “Along with 24/7 supervision Agapé provides accredited academics, vocational training, mentoring, sports and many activities the boys enjoy. We are disappointed to learn of the sensational allegations that some of our former boys are making now—for the first time.
“We have read many specific allegations that we know could not have happened given the 24/7 supervision that extends to the sleeping quarter, shower bays, classroom, dining hall and all outdoor activities. We monitor the boys 24/7 for their own safety and the safety of every other boy here. We intend to file a response to these lawsuits, denying the allegations and look forward to a trial where evidence can be presented to refute these allegations.”
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Jill Toyoshiba/Kansas City Star/Tribune News Service via Getty
The school, which reportedly charges $48,000 a year in tuition, does not appear to have commented publicly about the accusations before. According to the Star, in fall of 2020, Agapé published a letter on its website that appeared to address the claims and said, “Sometimes we make mistakes, but our hearts are in the right place.”
“Most boys flourish here and go on to a great future,” the post read, “while a small number of other boys are just not the right fit and get bitter for being brought here.”
Robert Bucklin, one alumnus fighting to close Agapé, says he spoke to the FBI in late April about what he’d witnessed at the facility, but it’s unclear whether the feds are building a case. “They need to go in there and rescue the boys and worry about the investigation later,” Bucklin said. “These boys are in danger.”
In June, Bucklin shared a video from the late 1990s on Twitter that showed a staff member—identified by students as then-principal Brother Frank Burton—forcing a child in a bathrobe to run around a sand volleyball court and kicking him from behind. (Burton did not return messages left by The Daily Beast.)
“What the fuck is it going to take? Especially after seeing that video, what else is it going to take?” Bucklin said. “For bodies to stop dropping there?”
Last year, Missouri lawmakers passed legislation that gives the state more oversight over unlicensed religious boarding schools, including the ability to petition a court to close them if there are health and safety concerns.
Democratic Rep. Keri Ingle, who sponsored the bill, believes the state is waiting for a criminal conviction or official finding of child abuse from the Missouri Department of Social Services (DSS) before it files for an injunction to shutter the school.
“I can’t empathize with the survivors enough,” Ingle told The Daily Beast. “We’re so close and yet so far from getting justice for them.”
“It sounds like hyperbole,” Ingle added of the abuse claims. “It sounds like a Stephen King novel, and it’s not. It’s something that’s been happening to kids in this state and across the country for decades, and they’re using the name of God to justify it.”
The Daily Beast spoke to former students who say their experiences at Agapé left them with emotional scars and unprepared for life outside its walls. Some, including Bucklin, have attempted suicide. One former student, Joe Barnett of Kansas, killed himself and cited the school in a suicide note, his wife Michelle told The Daily Beast. He was 33 when he died in 2020 and left behind three young boys.
“The things they did to my husband are just unspeakable,” Michelle said. “Somebody with a known mental illness should never at the age of 12 be sent to a place where you cannot talk to any of your peers for a year. That alone, besides the beatings they got, being told he just needed to pray harder… They really messed him up.”
The effort to stop Agapé could depend on one California mother, who appears to be one of the only parents speaking out. Nicole Fernandes told The Daily Beast she was a single mom and desperate for therapy for her son, Corey, when she sent him to the school in February 2019.
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty/Handout
Corey, then 14 and diagnosed with disorders including autism and Tourette syndrome, was spiraling after the death of his father. She’d applied to other residential therapy programs, she says, until an Agapé recruiter caught wind of her efforts and began selling her on the school. The broker claimed the boarding school had therapy with horses and a beautiful, serene campus. “As a mom, I just want to clearly state this is the hardest decision you have to make in your life. I was freshly grieving a loss, and they took full advantage,” Fernandes told The Daily Beast.
Fernandes tried to call Corey every other week but staff wouldn’t allow her to speak to him. About 4.5 months later, she and other parents visited the campus, where Fernandes alleges staff warned them: “Your children are the most manipulative group of children we’ve ever seen. They’re gonna come in here today and they’re going to tell you nothing but lies. Don’t believe them, because you’ll be failing your child if you take them out of the program.”
Hours later, when they brought out Corey, she didn’t recognize her son until he grabbed her shoulder and said, “Mom!” She cried when they reunited. “I did not recognize him whatsoever,” Fernandes said, adding that he had bags under his eyes and had lost weight, his clothes were filthy, and he was wearing size 12 or 13 rain boots that didn’t belong to him. Staff, she claims, gave his expensive Stephen Curry basketball shoes to another student.
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty/Handout
“He can’t forget the blood-curdling screams emanating from the ‘Padded Palace,’ a carpet-covered room where staff allegedly threw kids around like ragdolls.”
She wonders whether her son was treated differently because of his visible special needs and claims that the school didn’t allow her son to get therapy, see a doctor, or take proper medications.
Fernandes said the school repeatedly denied her and other parents a tour of the facility. “The boys finally told us, ‘They won’t take you because they’re disgusting. There’s no stalls in the bathroom. There’s disgusting things all over the beds and the floor.’”
Three months later, after the school continued to deny her contact with her son, Fernandes pulled Corey from the school. When she collected him, she says, “He was really skinny, the sweats I had sent him with were just hanging off of him. He looked like he was straight from a concentration camp.”
Corey is still haunted by his experience at Agapé, talks about the school every day, and has nightmares about it, Fernandes said. “Agapé has caused nothing but damage for my son and my family,” she said.
Fernandes, who filed a lawsuit against Agapé this month, said she’s doing a forensic interview with local police, who she believes will relay the information to DSS in Missouri.
“He’s my baby. I didn’t send him away to be raised by someone else. I sent him away to get the help that he deserves,” she said, tearing up. “It affects us every single freaking day.”
“I just can’t imagine all the kids that are still stuck there right now. That’s why we’re speaking out. Not really for ourselves but for the kids that are still there.”
Robert Bucklin, who arrived at Agapé at age 13 in 2007, wonders whether political connections have kept the school running. In January, he contacted a state agency that regulates lawyers to complain about Gaither’s handling of Agapé cases. (This year,theSpringfield News-Leaderconfirmed there’s an open ethics investigation against the attorney, but Gaither declined to comment.)
Bucklin has raised questions about Gaither’s comments in the press that he once saw Dr. Smock—who was Agapé’s physician but ran his own medical office—to get a flu shot and thus referred Smock’s criminal case to another area prosecutor.
Cedar County Deputy Robert Graves, a former Agapé employee, is married to a daughter of Agapé’s late founder James Clemensen. According to the Star, Graves’ daughter was a sheriff’s dispatcher in 2018 and 2019. Former dean of students Julio Sandoval has worked shifts at the county jail and his son is a corrections officer, the sheriff’s office has said.
“Victims were coming forward before 2020, but no one listened to them,” Bucklin told The Daily Beast. “You had a staff member and his wife calling DSS, calling the state, asking them to look at Agapé. Nobody did.”
Clemensen, a former California Highway Patrol officer, and his wife Kathy founded Agapé in Washington state in 1990. They relocated to Missouri six years later, after the feds charged him with removing asbestos-containing materials from steam pipes and burying it on school property. Court records show that under a plea agreement, Clemensen pleaded guilty to one of three violations of the Toxic Substances Control Act, received a $1,500 fine, and was sentenced to three years of probation. (One former student told The Star that kids stripped the hazardous materials.)
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty/Screenshot
In 2002, Clemenson told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he brought his school to Missouri “because of its lack of regulation” and would leave if required to get a license.
Two years later, an 18-year-old Agapé student was charged with three counts of sodomy after abusing another student. He was convicted and sentenced to probation. “Where were the authorities when that happened?” Bucklin said. “They failed us then and they’re failing us now. They gave these monsters a safe haven.”
“Kids would faint from the heat, and they would just splash water on them and drag them around still be like, ‘Did I tell you you could faint?’”
The powers that be began to listen to Agapé alumni after the 2020 closure of nearby Circle of Hope Girls’ Ranch, which was founded by former Agapé employees Boyd and Stephanie Householder. They now await trial on a litany of child abuse and neglect charges and face a lawsuit from their own daughter, Amanda. “My dad just really thrived there because he could do whatever he wanted,” Amanda told The Daily Beast. “I don’t think Circle of Hope would have turned out the way it did if it wasn’t for Agapé.”
From Bucklin’s perspective, “Jesus would be ashamed of” Agapé staff, “who portray themselves to be Christians.”
On some occasions, Bucklin said, up to five staff member would restrain him, twisting his arms and legs, kicking his ribs, and jabbing his pressure points. One staffer allegedly attacked him as he got a haircut, wrapping the cord of the clippers around his neck until other students intervened. “I tried killing myself multiple times,” Bucklin said. “I would rather have been dead than wake up and face more abuse.”
Bucklin said he can’t forget the blood-curdling screams emanating from the “Padded Palace,” a carpet-covered room where staff allegedly threw kids around like ragdolls. Now in nursing school and working in a hospital, he says restraints are rarely used—nothing like at Agapé, where a kid could be confined for looking at a staffer the wrong way.
“I remember this guy in the dorm rolled a fake joint and these staff members restrained him for hours,” Bucklin said. “He came back into the dorm, his shirt was torn apart, he had blood everywhere all over him, his face was black and blue. And that happened constantly. I think the longest restraint when I was there was 9 hours. They literally had to do a shift change because the staff was getting tired. That guy couldn’t walk for days.”
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty/Handout
Bucklin said that a fellow student sexually abused him, but when he reported it to the dean of students, no one took action. He claims his family wasn’t notified, and the student didn’t face consequences. “You learned how to survive every day,” Bucklin said. “We learned how to talk without moving our lips because you weren’t allowed to talk. You could get restrained for talking.”
James Clidence, a pastor who worked at Agapé from 2012 to 2015, told The Daily Beast his wife had called police and child protective services multiple times but no one seemed to investigate what they considered abuse at the school.
“One former student, Joe Barnett of Kansas, killed himself and cited the school in a suicide note.”
Clidence claims he was fired after refusing to sign a nondisclosure agreement, and after he was reprimanded for not punishing kids. The emphasis on beatings bothered him, as did “brown town” which was reserved for unruly or unfavored students. Under that sanction, kids would eat brown food for every meal, including cereal for breakfast and refried burritos for lunch and dinner. “They would probably be eating a total of around 450 to 550 calories in a day. These are teen boys. And then they do physical labor, exercise, exercise, exercise all day,” Clidence said.
“I saw some kids lose a very unhealthy amount of weight while we were there. That’s one of the things we did call the state about.”
Clidence said he witnessed staff slam students to the ground, while he opted for de-escalation techniques. “Some of these people should not have been within 10 feet of a kid, in my opinion,” he said. “They didn’t know how to deal with children, especially kids who were acting out.”
Like some students, Clidence calls the school a “cult,” one where staff were paid poverty wages while the Clemensens drove Range Rovers and collected a menagerie of exotic animals, including zebras who died in the Missouri weather. He said staff lived on campus and that their wives were required to volunteer at school facilities. As a thank you, the school would pay the husband about $132 for the wife’s work. Clidence’s wife, however, clashed with the Clemensens so he eventually stopped receiving that money.
While the school advertised counseling, Clidence says, the only counselor was a pastor who advised kids to let Jesus control their lives. “They are weaning kids off medication,” he said. “So the whole goal was to get these kids off the meds and get Jesus in them and then they would act better, so that I don’t know if they really believed in mental illness.”
“Everything was completely based on spiritual manipulation. If you didn’t like something, it’s because you weren’t right with God.”
James Griffey was 15 when his family sent him to Agapé. It was 1998, and the school housed about 140 kids in military-style bunks, espoused a Christian curriculum with self-taught educational packets, and forced the children to work long days hauling armfuls of rocks from point A to point B—a discipline mentioned by multiple former students.
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty/Handout
On his first night, Griffey says, he learned how dangerous Agapé could be. He was preparing for bed in the dorms when he spoke to another student, which was against the rules. “I told you, you can’t talk to anybody! Get down and do push-ups,” Griffey’s 17-year-old “buddy” commanded. The buddy ordered Griffey to do 25 reps, then demanded 25 more when he pleaded that he couldn’t. “In their mind, it’s not that I can’t do it, it’s that I’m not doing them,” Griffey recalled.
The buddy escorted Griffey to a twentysomething staff member, who took over. After the word “gosh” twice slipped from Griffey’s mouth as his arms collapsed beneath him, the chaperone screamed in his face, “Don’t use my God’s name in vain, do more push-ups!” He says the man pounced on him and began punching him in the face as students watched from their beds.
“Eventually three staff members came in and grabbed him off me,” Griffey continued, adding that no one apologized or took a report of the incident.
Griffey wouldn’t see his family, who lived in California, for two years. “I was just in such a dazed and confused state of mind,” Griffey told The Daily Beast. “I kept thinking that my family was going to come through the door any minute now, to come take me home, and be like, ‘Oh surprise, joke’s on you! I hope you learned your lesson.’”
“Kids got hurt all the time, and we were never allowed to tell people.”
“I just remember writing home, asking my grandma, ‘Hey, I love you, I miss you, I realize I made a mistake with how I treated everyone. I learned my lesson. How long am I here for? Am I here till I graduate?’” Griffey said. “I was just crying out, give me some kind of sense of what’s happening.” Griffey says his family wouldn’t learn how tyrannical the school could be until years after he left.
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty/Handout
He completely conformed to the Agapé system to survive and briefly joined the staff after graduation. But he quit after higher-ups complained he didn’t punish kids enough. “It really kind of effed with my brain a lot,” Griffey said. “I really adapted and let them brainwash me into everything, believing all the stuff they teach. I had no other option.”
New students or those who misbehaved were ordered to spend their days in “boot camp,” where, according to Griffey, “They send you just to break your spirit.” That consisted of “hours of working out whether it was freezing and snowing outside or 100-plus degrees outside” at a volleyball court area called “the sandpit,” or performing unpaid manual labor on the property, he said.
After these workouts, Griffey said, staff made kids lie on their backs with arms and legs in the air and repeatedly scream, “I’m a dying cockroach!” If students weren’t loud enough, the staff member would stamp on them with their boots. .
“They’re dragging you around, throwing you around, pushing you, hitting you,” Griffey said. “Kids would faint from the heat, and they would just splash water on them and drag them around still be like, ‘Did I tell you you could faint?’”
Kids were also allegedly ordered to box each other or the employees. “Say one of the students was talking back to the principal, he’s like, ‘OK, you think you’re so big and bad, come on, we’re going to the sandpit and putting on the gloves’… and basically the staff would beat the crap out of him,” Griffey claimed.
Staff instilled fear into the students, who outnumbered adults. But Griffey remembers some kids were accused of trying to start a riot. “The staff defused it before it even happened, but I remember talking to one of the staff members afterwards,” Griffey recalled.
Griffey asked Brother Robert Graves, “Hey, man, like didn’t that scare you? There’s over 100 students.” The staffer, who earned the nickname “GI Graves” for wearing military pants and boots, allegedly replied, “Nope, not at all.”
According to Griffey, Graves then pulled up his shirt to reveal a handgun and declared, “Because if it comes between a student or my family, I will not hesitate to take one of these guys out.”
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty/Handout
Griffey says that when he left Agapé, he was still “brainwashed,” thinking Satan was around every corner. He didn’t know how to interact with people or who to trust. He didn’t know what freedoms he was allowed to enjoy. He tried to kill himself by downing an entire bottle of gin and ended up in the emergency room.
Now 39, Griffey has a solid relationship with his family and friends, a good job in California, and works as a DJ on the side. Last year, he testified before the Missouri House of Representatives to support the bills creating state oversight over religious youth homes, and to speak out for current residents who might be silenced.
“We were kids that needed help.”
Josh Bradney was sent to Agapé in 2014 when he was 12, after his parents deemed him disrespectful and in need of guidance. The youngest child of four, Bradney says his adoptive mother was having trouble handling him while his dad traveled for work.
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty/Handout
When he first arrived, Bradney says, staff strip-searched him and chucked his Bible into the trash. They told him he could only have the King James Version of the scripture.
Three days later, Bradney says, a staff member named Julio Sandoval began screaming and spitting in his face as he got a haircut. “I told him, ‘Hey, don’t spit in my face,’ and that’s when he grabbed my shirt, picked me up, and threw me to the ground,” Bradney said. “I was dragged out of the intake room and then went to the padded palace.”
For a while, Bradney says, he was the youngest student there. “It was scary because you’re the youngest guy against 15, 16, 17-year-olds. When you don’t know what they’re talking about, you’re a target for them.”
He said that within three months, other students began to sexually abuse him, cornering him in the showers as staff wandered off or looked at their phones. He claims one student later became a staff member and started molesting him, too. “And I couldn’t do anything about it,” Bradney said. “My whole time there, I was living in fear for my life, because I couldn’t trust anyone.”
Bradney, who is 20 and has a pending lawsuit against the school, said he still deals with the effects of his abuse. He double-checks to make sure doors are locked. He can’t give people full hugs. “I don’t really trust people,” he said. “I’ll give them a side hug. If I give them a full hug, I don’t know what they’re gonna do.”
“The things they did to my husband are just unspeakable.”
Bradney said that during a phone call with his parents, he mentioned that a staffer slugged a student with a football helmet, and after he hung up, a nearby faculty member slammed him to the ground and restrained him. “That’s how limited you are to communication,” Bradney added. “Even with your parents, you’re still living in fear.”
He remembers one occasion when Sandoval kicked him down the stairs and he needed stitches on his forehead.
“I was trying to get away from these students on the movie theater floor and the staff member Julio called me a faggot and then he kicked me down the stairs when I was trying to get away,” Bradney said. Agapé took Bradney to the hospital, where he says he was instructed to lie about what happened. “What I was told to say was I just got hit in football practice, and they said if I’d say anything else, I’d get hurt.”
Bradney said that Sandoval and other staff would accuse outcasts like him of being gay and encourage classmates to attack them, to “beat them up until they’re straight.”
Sandoval, who now works at Lighthouse Christian Academy in Piedmont, did not return messages left by The Daily Beast.
Bradney’s parents removed him from Agapé in 2016 and he spoke to police about his experience in 2021. He’s frustrated the school is still open and that more staff haven’t been charged.
“The whole state of Missouri let us down. And at the end of the day, you know, it’s us survivors that are fighting to get the school shut down and get justice to protect these kids,” Bradney said. “Because that’s what matters right now is protecting these kids.”
Colton Schrag says he was 11 or 12 years in 2004 when his adoptive parents first sent him to Agapé. He lived at the facility over two stretches until 2010.
At the time he was enrolled, Schrag was struggling with the trauma inflicted by his abusive birth parents, whom he remembers using drugs and ordering him and his siblings to eat cigarette butts. Sometimes his mom would put out lit cigarettes on his skin.
“I was a fighter. I was very defiant, but I was taken out of a really bad situation and put into foster care,” Schrag said.
Still, he says he was completely unprepared for what he witnessed at Agapé during his first stint. “I was so young and everyone was so much bigger and older,” he said. “They were the ones who were getting thrown against the walls, elbowed in the face, slammed against the concrete. I did what I was told and obeyed everything.”
At age 14, Schrag was relieved when his parents took him home, but they soon revealed he was bound for a cheaper school in New Mexico, where his family lived. By then, Schrag had a chip on his shoulder. “All I knew is I had to be tough. Agapé made people violent. You had to be tough to survive.”
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty/Handout
Schrag made friends with gang members at his new school and was eventually kicked out, so his parents sent him back to Missouri. “And within my first two weeks of being sent back to Agapé, a staff member had grabbed me by the collar and slammed me against the wall. I hit my head and basically, they restrained me for four hours. And that day, I decided … I’m not just gonna let them do this to me. I’m gonna fight back in whatever way possible.”
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“Essentially, to me, back then I was getting jumped by grown men,” Schrag said. “Now it’s grown men abusing a kid and the kid’s trying to survive in that environment. That set the precedent for how my Agapé teenage years went. Staff members were constantly yelling at us, cussing us out, calling us deadbeats.”
“If I just talked back, I could have said, ‘whatever,’ there was a good chance you were going to catch an elbow to the mouth and be slammed against the ground. That happened to me over 100 times,” he said.
Schrag claims that students should have been sent to the hospital for injuries including broken ribs on numerous occasions. Instead they were sometimes taken to Dr. Smock, a member of the Agapé church. “You couldn’t tell him what was going on,” Schrag said. “Kids got hurt all the time, and we were never allowed to tell people.”
“He had bags under his eyes and had lost weight, his clothes were filthy.”
When he was 17, Schrag says, he saw staff restrain one kid who drank GermX hand sanitizer after learning his mother died. “He didn’t know how to deal with it, and he got drunk and defiant. Those staff members restrained him for eight hours, and they made me sit there and watch it. They were just hurting him.” Schrag remembers the student had peed and vomited on himself, and staff were taking turns hitting his pressure points as punishment. “We ended up taking him to the hospital after eight hours of staff members rotating on him,” Schrag said.
Schrag refused to fall into line, enraged by what he’d witnessed. “There’s people that get broken and they submit and there’s people that fight the system. So when they started putting hands on me, and then I’d watch them slam other kids against the wall—I’ve seen kids’ heads get put through drywall—I made a decision. I’m gonna be here till I’m 18, and I’m going to walk out of here alive.”
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty/Handout
At one juncture, Schrag commented to another student that there were about 200 kids and maybe 40 staff members. “Why don’t we take a stand and put a stop to this and take over the school?” Schrag asked, and shortly after, someone tattled on him.
According to Schrag, Agapé punished him every day for four months by forcing him to wear a large bathrobe and size 13 shoes with no laces or tongues, stand against a wall for hours, go without bed linens, and have meager meals: a small bowl of Cheerios with water for breakfast, one peanut butter sandwich for lunch, and a small salad with water for dinner.
The punishment also included working out all day, doing manual labor outside and hauling five-gallon buckets of rocks, with little water. Two other Hispanic kids were ordered to the same fate, and Schrag says they all discussed trying to flee the facility.
One night, a group of staff members allegedly dragged Schrag out of his bed and into a hallway, where he found one of those Hispanic classmates with a bruised face and bloody nose. His shirt was ripped open and he was weeping. Brian Clemensen, the head of the school, asked Schrag about the plot to escape. When Schrag denied knowing anything about it, Clemensen allegedly punched him in the face, and hit him three more times after Schrag swung back. (Reached by phone on Thursday, Clemensen said he was not able to comment and referred us to Agapé’s lawyer.)
“They were kicking us, calling us terrorists, pieces of shit. He said, ‘This is why we don’t let your type of people into this country.’ Just racist stuff,” Schrag recalled. “We had that X on our back for years.”
When he turned 18, he joined the military, having nowhere else to go. He remembered how Agapé belittled him, drilling into his head that he was gonna be dead or in prison once he left the school. “When I left for the Army, to pursue this life that I had no knowledge of, I made it a point every day just to wake up in the mornings and say, ‘I’m only gonna die today if it’s natural. If it’s supposed to be. I’m not going to go to prison today.’”
“I woke up every morning for almost 10 years telling myself that,” Schrag said, his voice wavering. “I cannot prove these people right, because then they win. All that pain I went through and all that abuse, if I end up in prison or dead because of something stupid, then all I did was prove them right. I can’t do that. I cannot give them the satisfaction.”
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty/Handout
Schrag said he’s grappled with PTSD after Agapé. He had nightmares almost every night of being dragged out of his bed. He was jumpy. His marriage fell apart. When he saw a therapist, he told her, “I’m going to tell you a story you’re probably not going to believe, but it’s 100 percent true.” Speaking more and more about the school lifted a weight from his chest. He’d eventually leave the devil at Agapé behind.
But while the abuse was happening, no one believed him. He remembers running away from the school at age 15 and a local police officer picking him up. The cop handcuffed him and tossed him into the back of a squad car, announcing, “I’m taking you back to Agapé.” Schrag replied, “Why? They’re beating on us, dude,” to which the officer said, “No, they’re not, shut your mouth” and delivered him back to the compound.
“It’s like being trapped in a cult,” Schrag said. “You get free and you’re like, well, there’s so much more to life. But what am I allowed to do? Am I allowed to even go to Walmart, you know, like, can I go to this park? Or can I even acknowledge that this girl is super pretty. Because if I looked at a staff daughter, I was getting punched in the face and slammed on the ground. So it makes you very dysfunctional.”
Now 30, Schrag works in the oil industry and has broken out of his shell. He says he’s never met a stranger. “You know, life’s what you make it and I’ve done my best to make it better than what I had growing up,” he said.
In recent years, Schrag began to give interviews about Agapé and rally awareness on social media about the abuse he and others suffered. “I don’t want parents to only have one side of the story,” he said. “I want parents to know when they type in Agapé Boarding School, they have the option to see all of our stories.”
“But I also want the former students that were there, whether they just left or they were there in the ’90s to know somebody’s listening. It’s OK to ask for help and talk about it. Because there’s a whole lot of men out there that went to the school that are still hurting and they don’t know how to deal with it.”
Holy dogs that love gravy this is history happening again. The US is being taken over by right wing thugs with approval from the Republican party. Hugs
A group of about 100 marchers identifying themselves by flyers as belonging to the white nationalist group the Patriot Front, cut through the heart of downtown Saturday sparking a confrontation. A scanner call came in at around 12:30 p.m. announcing that a group had gone up to a rental truck parked in the area of the Haymarket MBTA station and off-loaded a number of shields and flags.
Many were U.S. flags, with at least one flown upside-down and many showing just the 13 stars in a circle for the original U.S. colonies, as well as flags featuring different designs. Many flags also had a stylized version of the symbol that represented Benito Mussolini’s National Fascist Party. Photos from the scene show that many, if not most, of the marchers were dressed in matching khaki pants and navy polo shirts and wore bandanas over their lower faces.
As you can see below, the homocon fake news site Gateway Pundit is spreading the QAnon lie that Patriot Front is a secret operation by the FBI.
#Boston mayor condemns 'white supremacist' march through city. The group of about 100 marchers, most hiding their faces, identified themselves via flyers as belonging to the white nationalist group the Patriot Front.https://t.co/s0ooOH2Rhq
In a world of proud boys, patriot front, three percenters, klan members and all in all general racists. Be this guy. pic.twitter.com/vGCP4cQnYZ
— Official Ghan-buri-Ghan (check mark here) (@GhanburiGhan5) July 3, 2022
Patriot Front, a masked neo-Nazi & white supremacist gang, marches out of an @MBTA Orange Line station using the @TheCityofMalden as their staging ground. They almost smashed my phone, but I got it back and kept up the chant:
White supremacist group Patriot Front marches in Boston to demonstrate their love for right-wing fascism without showing their faces because they're cowards pic.twitter.com/nzB2i6T1dk
— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) July 2, 2022
Weird, Covid must be outta control in Boston since they are all masked. Good to see they believe in science. https://t.co/a9rPaJDNfL
— Adam Kinzinger #fella (@AdamKinzinger) July 2, 2022
No pre-announcement of their plans to march… so that they meet no organized response. Masks… so that no one is identifiable. Ditto for the khaki/nay uniform. Immediate dispersal when pushback from the public starts. So brave, these patriots.
White supremacist group Patriot Front marches in Boston to demonstrate their love for right-wing fascism without showing their faces because they're cowards pic.twitter.com/nzB2i6T1dk
— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) July 2, 2022
From White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre:
Today, some of Florida’s most vulnerable students and families are more fearful and less free. As the state’s shameful “Don’t Say Gay” law takes effect, state officials who claim to champion liberty are limiting the freedom of their fellow Americans simply to be themselves.
Already, there have been reports that “Safe Space” stickers are being taken down from classrooms. Teachers are being instructed not to wear rainbow clothing. LGBTQI+ teachers are being told to take down family photos of their husbands and wives—cherished family photos like the ones on my own desk.
This is not an issue of “parents’ rights.” This is discrimination, plain and simple. It’s part of a disturbing and dangerous nationwide trend of right-wing politicians cynically targeting LGBTQI+ students, educators, and individuals to score political points.
It encourages bullying and threatens students’ mental health, physical safety, and well-being. It censors dedicated teachers and educators who want to do the right thing and support their students. And it must stop.
President Biden has been very clear that every student deserves to feel safe and welcome in the classroom.
The Department of Education will be monitoring this law, and any student or parent who believes they are experiencing discrimination is encouraged to file a complaint with the Department’s Office for Civil Rights.
Our Administration will continue to fight for dignity and opportunity for every student and family—in Florida and around the country.
Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law takes effect today – the latest attempt by Republicans in state houses to target LGBTQI+ students, teachers, and families.
Legislators shouldn’t be in the business of censoring educators, and @usedgov will do all in its power to protect students.
Maybe DeathSAntis should focus on TRUTHFUL education!!!!
1) Being GLBTQ is NOT a CHOICE!!!
2) Educating children with the TRUTH about Slavery, the Holocaust, Fascism, and other Historical EVILS, may be “upsetting” but IS NECESSARY to KNOW!!!!
Please notice that the board goes above the requirements of the law and that the maga rabid right is wanting them to go even farther. They are equating LGBTQ+ students with sexual predators and also as one person said the straight kids are pushing heteerosuality in their dess and actions. The idea that teachers can not use the students prefered pronouns even if the parents want them to show just how much bigotry and attempt to erase the LGBTQ+ in Florida school has become. LGBTQ+ kids are in schools and these laws are making them hide, making them targets, making the religious doctrines have more rights and authority than these kids do. How this is legal I have no idea, but we live in a religious theocracy these days. The Christian Taliban has taken over Florida, they are a minority but they seem to have all the power in the state. Hugs
After three hours of fiery public debate, the Leon County School Board unanimously approved its “LGBTQ Inclusive School Guide” Tuesday night.
The policy, which the board is calling a “guide” and a “living document” that can be quickly updated, comes after weeks of deliberation from the district’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Committee.
The document is intended to create guidelines for teachers and administrators to help students who need it and to outline state laws for employees, Assistant Superintendent Alan Cox told the Tallahassee Democrat.
Most of the 60 or so public speakers leveled harsh criticism of the guide and effort, with some saying it could harm LGBTQ students and others saying it didn’t go far enough to protect parental rights.
“Normally when we have something on the agenda, we have a group that’s for, and a group that’s against,” board Vice Chair Alva Striplin said. “Well, tonight we had everyone against.”
Parental notification draws fire
What drew the most debate was a provision that a school will notify parents — by form — if a student who is “open about their gender identity” is in a physical education class or on an overnight trip.
Some teachers and students during the Tuesday night meeting said the policy will “out” LGBTQ+ students — revealing their sexual orientation or gender identity without their permission.
The policy language does explicitly say a student’s sexual orientation, gender identity or expression “should not be shared with others without their input and permission.”
“The notification to all the parents can create a very stressful and unwanted situation to trans and LGBTQ students,” said Kailey Sandell, a Leon High School student who spoke at the meeting. “A lot of times kids assume that kids are gay or trans; they will easily be able to hurt them.”
In the backdrop of the debate over LGBTQ rights is the Parental Rights in Education bill, HB 1557, passed earlier this year, which states that parents must be notified if there is a change in their child’s “mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being.”
The meeting lasted more than four hours and multiple speakers cited the Bible in their comments. Some parents said discussions about sexual orientation have no place in schools and that the guide was overstepping the role of education officials.
Other parents who spoke at the meeting argued if they are not notified in such circumstances, it’s a violation of their parental rights.
“Any attempt to withhold information from a parent or try to influence a child in a knowing way is against Florida law,” said Sharyn Kerwin, head of the Leon County chapter of Moms for Liberty and a member of the committee the advisory committee.
The Moms for Liberty group, based in Brevard County, rose to power during the mask mandate debates. The conservative organization aims to make a big mark on the 2022 elections and position itself as a juggernaut on education issues with the clout to reshape school policies in Tallahassee and throughout the nation.
Critics of the notification policy say the district’s language is equating “gender identity” with LGBTQ sexuality. They note that even someone who is “straight” expresses themselves via their clothing choices or appearance and can be “open about their gender identity.”
“Sending out a parent notification could be seen as placing a target on a student’s back,” said Lauren Kelly-Manders, a Tallahassee resident.
Kelly-Manders, 34, is a staunch LGBTQ advocate and “came out” when she was 14 at Leon High School. She also sits on the city’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Council.
“I have concerns and trouble envisioning that type of notice in practice,” she said.
Benjamin Burn, another LCS student who spoke at the meeting, said, rather, making restrooms in schools gender-neutral would help, especially with bullying situations.
“Trans kids want privacy,” Benjamin said. “That’s what I want, that’s what everyone wants. And trans kids honestly deserve it.”
Board members at odds but find common ground
Board Chair Darryl Jones said initially that he was against the guide and favored delaying a vote.
“One of the things I don’t want this guide to do is, for lack of a better description, weaponize bigotry,” Jones said.
Vice Chair Alva Striplin took the opposing view.
“I feel like parents are not protected enough in this,” she said. “But I’m trying to meet in the middle and give our teachers something.”
Ultimately, the board and superintendent concluded that teachers desperately needed a guide soon and agreed to move forward.
Board member Joy Bowen, the longest-serving member of the board, attended the meeting via Zoom as she tested positive for COVID-19. Board member Rosanne Wood, previously a principal of SAIL High School, said the policy would help create direction for teachers and schools.
“I think there’s a lot of misconceptions about this and we are trying to help our teachers and our administrators know what to do with students who need our help,” Wood said.
The board voted to approve the guide unanimously 4-0. It will revisit the guide in six months to adjust it if needed.
Casey Chapter is a reporter for the Florida Student News Watch and a Tallahassee Democrat contributor. Follow her on Twitter @CaseyChapter.
I imagine there will be a new business model popping up in floriduh: camps designed to fix the broken kids. That was the implied threat used by the madrasa that I was forced to attend. Man up or you’re family will have to send you away.
Every natural person has the right to be let alone and free from governmental intrusion into the person’s private life except as otherwise provided herein. This section shall not be construed to limit the public’s right of access to public records and meetings as provided by law. That’s from the Florida Constitution and I believe this amendment will throw a spanner into a lot of the fascist culture war in this state.
I pretty much brought myself up. I was not groomed either way. I didn’t even kiss anyone until I was 18. There were no books, movies or anything to help me understand that I was gay. I just knew that I was different. Gym class was hell for me. I just kept to myself. This was in the 50s and 60s when it was illegal to be homosexual. As if that would stop us.
And when one of the bullied kids strikes back by beating up the bully the bullies parents will be “oh! Just look at how vicious those transgender/lgbtq+ kids are!” They’re ALWAYS pulling that bullshit.
If you are a teacher with a conscience in FL, I urge you to quit. I’m sorry for the kids but there will be nothing you can do to help them. Time for a brain drain from red to blue states.
Who will organize this support and protect teachers from the trumpanzee cultists? They will be subject to the same treatment poll workers in GA received: death threats, people stalking them and camping outside their homes.
If you are a teacher working for low pay (FL) and now you will be attacked by the cult, then you will probably make the decision to leave. The election worker in GA, Shaye Mos, recounted how a mob went to her grandmother’s house and intimidated her grandmother. Some may be able to deal with the cult but when they threaten your family, that’s usually the breaking point. We know the cult will do this.
This is a no win situation here for the students and the teachers. I expect that over the next couple of years we will start to see a population shift in the country. If I were in a red state right now I could be planning on getting the fuck out of there to a blue state. It I had a gay or transgender kid, I would for sure be moving to a blue state. To be sure, blue states are not all rainbows and lollipops but they beat the fuck out of any of the red states now! Blue states need teachers and we should be promoting them moving and providing assistance and good pay for those here and those wanting to come here.
After three hours of fiery public debate, the Leon County School Board unanimously approved its “Jewish Inclusive School Guide” Tuesday night. What drew the most debate was a provision that a school will notify parents — by form — if a student who is “open about their Jewish identity”
This from the party of limited government and freedom. Soon they’re be giving evangelical children special outfits to wear for when the roam the halls looking for “undesirables” to beat up.
So it begins. Females are the only ones required to let another use the resources of their body against their will. For at least nine months in half the country women will lose all rights to control their own body, including what they wish to eat or drink because of the effect it may have on a fetus. Hugs
Hours after the Supreme Court action, the Buckeye state had outlawed any abortion after six weeks. Now this doctor had a 10-year-old patient in the office who was six weeks and three days pregnant.
But for now, the procedure still is legal in Indiana. And so the girl soon was on her way to Indiana to Bernard’s care.
Indiana abortion laws unchanged, but effect still felt across state
While Indiana law did not change last week when the Supreme Court issued its groundbreaking Dobbs decision, abortion providers here have felt an effect, experiencing a dramatic increase in the number of patients coming to their clinics from neighboring states with more restrictive policies.
Since Friday, the abortion clinics where Dr. Katie McHugh, an independent obstetrician-gynecologists works have seen “an insane amount of requests” from pregnant people in Kentucky and Ohio, where it is far more difficult to get an abortion.
A ban on abortions after six weeks took effect on last week in Ohio. Last Friday the two abortion providers in Kentucky shut their doors after that state’s trigger law banning abortions went into effect.
Indiana soon could have similar restrictions.
That pains doctors like Bernard.
“It’s hard to imagine that in just a few short weeks we will have no ability to provide that care,” Bernard said.
For now, Indiana abortion providers have been fielding more calls from neighboring states. Typically about five to eight patients a day might hail from out of state, said McHugh, who works at multiple clinics in central and southern Indiana. Now, the clinics are seeing about 20 such patients a day.
Kentucky patients have been coming to Indiana in higher numbers since earlier this spring when more restrictive laws took effect there, McHugh said.
Indianapolis abortion clinics seeing surge in patients from Ohio, Kentucky
A similar dynamic is at play at Women’s Med, a medical center that performs abortions in Indianapolis that has a sister center in Dayton, Ohio. In the past week, they have doubled the number of patients they treat for a complete procedure, accepting many referrals from their Ohio counterpart.
More than 100 patients in Dayton had to be scheduled at the Indianapolis facility, a representative for Women’s Med, wrote in an email to IndyStar.
Women and pregnant people are “crying, distraught, desperate, thankful and appreciative,” the representative wrote.
The two centers are working together to route patients to Indianapolis for a termination after a pre-op appointment in Dayton. In recent months, they have also had people from southern states, like Texas, come north for a procedure.
Many patients, particularly from Ohio and Kentucky, are seeking care through Women’s Med while also making multiple appointments in other states so if one state closes down, they will still have some options, the representative wrote.
The center is advising pregnant people with a positive pregnancy test to book an appointment even though prior to the Supreme Court ruling they asked people to wait until their six-week mark to do so.
For years people have traversed state lines for abortions, particularly if a clinic across the border is closer to their home than the nearest in-state facility.
In 2021, 465, or about 5.5% of the more than 8,400 abortions performed, were done on out-of-state residents, according to the Indiana Department of Health’s most recent terminated pregnancy report. More than half, 264, lived in Kentucky and 40 in Ohio.
Midwestern residents can also travel to Illinois, where abortion is likely to remain legal even in the wake of the recent Supreme Court ruling but for many Indiana is closer and until the lawmakers pass any measure to the contrary, abortion will be legal here.
Still, it remains murky what the future holds.
Thursday a lower court ruled that abortions could resume, at least for now, in Kentucky. On Wednesday abortion clinics in Ohio filed suit, saying that state’s new ban was unconstitutional.
In Indiana lawmakers have declined to provide specifics of what measures any abortion legislation considered here might contain.
For now, then, abortion providers are doing their best to accommodate all Hoosier patients as well those from neighboring states.
“We are doing the best we can to increase availability and access as long as we can, knowing that this will be a temporary time frame that we can offer that assistance,” McHugh said.
A raped 10 year old Ohio girl arrived at a doctor, six weeks and three days pregnant. Abortion is prohibited in Ohio after 6 weeks, so she must seek referral out of state. For now, it's not a crime to refer and treat her. That could change soon. https://t.co/Uvr82PZAVk
Well some have lied under oath, others have cited obscure medieval judicial philosophy, and another has a wife who worked diligently to overthrow a peaceful transfer of power probably with his help…and it seems for the six rogues the Constitution be damned…yes, I’d say they’re corrupt.
Lets not lay this ALL on catholic doctrine, we lived years with catholic doctrine and allowed abortions. It was after protestants, mainly southern baptist got involved in controlling our government that we arrived here.
But those two clown groups ride in the very same car, drunk with power, the pedal to the fucking metal, driving backwards into traffic on a one-way freeway. What can’t happen?
When Ireland banned abortion we had these same issues. They led to repeal of the ban and a referendum allowing abortion. A ban on abortion throws up all kinds of problems and issues. A ban on abortion is just a doctrinaire piece of religious bullshit by zealots.
See? If Indiana doesn’t outlaw abortion, pretty soon all of the 10 year-olds will be showing up for abortions there from everywhere. Why not teach the little sluts to take advantage of the opportunities that life hands them? /s
Furthermore, according to various Republicans: – If she really didn’t want the sex, then her body would have shut down the pregnancy. – Was she dressed in a provocative manner? – She should view the pregnancy as a blessing and as God’s will. – And the latest: if she goes through with the abortion, she is a murderer and should be put to death.
2016 shattered whatever hope I had in my fellow citizens. I think they’ll think “well isn’t that awful” and then go on doing whatever they were doing before. Maybe it will wake up enough to swing an election, but probably not more than just that.
“I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as a civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.” Thomas Jefferson
And it happened again. It is now clear that these groups are searching for drag events, which are totally legal and then attacking them shutting the down. And again the police stood by and let it happen. Thanks Republicans, the party of law and order, for returning the US to a time when marginalized groups can be targeted and harmed. Hugs
A drag show at a Woodland bar celebrating the end of Pride month was disrupted Thursday night after a group showed up yelling homophobic slurs and threatening safety.
The owner of Mojo’s Lounge and Bar had canceled the event earlier in the evening due to safety concerns. Threats toward the venue and performers scheduled to be at the event had been circulating on social media for several weeks after details were picked up by a hateful group on social media, according to the owner.
As the group yelled hateful language, patrons waited as police surrounded the bar. At some point, someone deployed pepper spray. Thursday night investigators are still working to figure out where it came from.
NOW | This is Woodland, CA. A drag show was canceled after safety concerns but after enough people turned out, organizers held a scaled down version. Then this group showed up. [Warning: There’s explicit language in this video] @kcranewspic.twitter.com/KA8B0ceg7z
— KCRA Lee Anne Denyer (@KCRALeeAnne) July 1, 2022
The group is still going, yelling expletives, calling out the owner of the restaurant by name. pic.twitter.com/XSGZhgsKWE
— KCRA Lee Anne Denyer (@KCRALeeAnne) July 1, 2022
— KCRA Lee Anne Denyer (@KCRALeeAnne) July 1, 2022
Alleged Proud Boys members attempt to get into The Mojo in Woodland, CA and are met with pepper spray. The bar had planned an all ages Drag Show tonight, which was postponed due to security concerns pic.twitter.com/7Boln64uJ6
In 1981 I was in a gay bar in a small red-neck California town- shouldn’t have been there as I was underage – but there I was. A group of straight guys came into the bar and started to stir up shit. Me being pretty much a kid, I was terrified.
Then something happened that has stayed with me ever since. We followed in the footsteps of our elders at Stonewall and fought back. There really was nothing left to do but that…. those assholes got chased out of the bar and many blocks down the street , getting beat with fists and pool cue sticks.
I don’t like to have to say it, but I think it’s time we as a community go back to when we were willing to physically fight if need be. Having come so far, it’s horrible to have to take so many steps back, but that’s the reality of today.
I’m not prescient, but you don’t need to be to realize things are about to get a lot worse again before they get better.
“I’m not prescient, but you don’t need to be to realize things are about to get a lot worse again before they get better.”
I agree. The Proud Boys are just the loudest but there are many, many more groups just like them. And every time a Republican politician spouts anti-LGBT+ rhetoric they get emboldened. Everything that Proud Boy said was taken straight from the GOP’s rising ‘stars’ of politicians.
If QMaga gets into power, groups like The Proud Boys will only get stronger. And if nothing is done about it they will, eventually, be given official political legitimacy. Queer folk are criminalized and hunted down across the Middle East, Russia, Poland, in countries across Africa and elsewhere.
Do not think for a second it can’t happen in the US.
I don’t know your age, however you might not be old enough to remember the advance and decline of progress over the course of the last century. There are definitely objective indicators that we are entering a period when civil society is under attack, not just for us but also the other usual targets.
You’re right. Almost exactly 100 years ago and again in the 1980s there was dramatic improvement in personal freedoms. We are now at the next stage where bigotry becomes more prevalent.
The Reich Wing in US, UK, CAN, FRANCE is following the same script as the last time Fascism reared up. The parallels with the Nazis (and others) is very clear. Then, as now, one of the first targets was LGBT culture and people while amplifying existing religious intolerance.
This time we have the advantage of knowing the history of Fascism and can oppose it, if we remain aware.
Proud Boys was launched in 2016 and has only gotten more brazen with their violent confrontations. They are modern day brown shirts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wi…
Well they aren’t unarmed black men so the cops won’t do anything. But even I was surprised at how gentle the police were with those scumbags. They didn’t try to grab them or anything. It was just “Hey stay away from that door” without moving in to stop him from banging on it. Face it, the cops love the Proud Boys.
This is the second post just this morning fighting to overturn a law based on Alito’s wording in the Roe ruling that laws that are not historically long term in the laws of the US then it is not a right. Basically if the founders did not make it a right then it is not a right. Which means that every right bassicy has to be an amendment to the constitutionbecause even if congress passes a law it is not historically a law so not constructional if the 6 religious zeloate on the Supreme Court want to get rid of it or make it so. That is why codifying Roe into federal law won’t work right now, the six people ruling only on their view of what god wishes will simply say their god doesn’t want that so it has to go, they will rule it unconstitutional. Alito wrote that ruling to clearly say that his interpretation of his gods wishes was paramount of what the law should read. He wants to make his god happy, and so he will force you to make his god happy. Make no mistake these 6 have decided that pushing their religion on the public is acceptable and desirable in the US. Look at how they let that clearly illegal Texas bounty law on abortion stand simply because they wanted abortion to be illegal. It had nothing to do with the law, just their wishes. Hugs
D.C.’s many restrictions on where people can carry concealed handguns may face legal challenges in the wake of a pro-gun Supreme Court ruling.
Three D.C. residents and one Virginia resident are suing D.C. over its prohibition on carrying concealed handguns on Metrorail and Metrobuses within the city, kicking off a legal battle spurred by last week’s Supreme Court ruling that raised constitutional questions about an array of limits on carrying guns outside the home.
In the lawsuit, the four plaintiffs say that many of the existing restrictions in D.C. on where concealed handguns can be carried — they include schools, universities, government buildings, stadiums, bars and restaurants, and more — are likely justifiable and constitutional, but the ban on carrying while on public transportation is not.
“There is not a tradition or history of prohibitions of carrying firearms on public transportation vehicles,” reads the lawsuit, which was filed by George Lyon, a D.C.-based lawyer with Arsenal Attorneys who has filed multiple lawsuits in the past over the city’s restrictive gun laws. “Public transportation systems did not exist as they do today at the founding of the nation. However, there was plainly a tradition of firearms carry when citizens traveled from their homes. In modern parlance, Americans carried arms to prevent their gatherings from becoming soft targets.”
The nod to American history is linked to last week’s 6-3 Supreme Court decision that overturned New York state’s strict limitations on who can carry a gun outside their home. In the ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, Justice Clarence Thomas broadly implicated many other limits on carrying guns, saying that governments will now have to show that their restrictions are rooted in the country’s historic traditions, and are not simply justified by a significant government interest.
That, Lyon told DCist/WAMU earlier this week, opened up new avenues to legal challenges to D.C.’s restrictive gun laws. “I think that there is definitely some room there for litigation,” he said, hinting that some of it would come from him.
In his opinion for the conservative majority, Thomas wrote that jurisdictions would still be able to prohibit the carrying of guns in certain “sensitive places,” including government buildings, polling places, and courthouses. But he also opened the door to legal challenges to carrying a gun in other places, writing that “expanding the category of ‘sensitive places’ simply to all places of public congregation that are not isolated from law enforcement defines the category of ‘sensitive places’ far too broadly.”
D.C., for one, prohibits open carrying of handguns and restricts where people with concealed-carry permits can go. Currently, someone carrying a concealed handgun cannot enter government buildings; schools or universities; polling places; libraries; hospitals; public transportation; stadiums or arenas; any business the serves alcohol; the National Mall, U.S. Capitol, and around the White House; or within 1,000 feet of a protest or dignitary who receives police protection. (There are roughly 4,000 people in D.C. with concealed-carry permits, split evenly between D.C. residents and non-residents.)
But in the lawsuit Lyon and his four clients argue that public transportation should not be considered a sensitive place where the carrying of guns can be prohibited.
“The broad consensus of states regulate schools, courthouses, and most government buildings as sensitive locations” where guns cannot be carried, says the lawsuit. “Hospitals, polling stations, colleges and universities, sports stadia and events, and certain outdoor recreational locations are often treated as sensitive locations as well. But there does not appear a tradition to treat public transportation facilities as sensitive.”
Lyon is asking a federal judge to overturn D.C.’s ban on carrying handguns on public transportation.
Litigation of this sort — some of it filed by Lyon — has largely shaped D.C.’s existing gun laws, as well as the legal landscape nationally. Most prominently, the city’s longstanding ban on handguns led to the Supreme Court’s 2008 Heller decision, which declared an individual right to own a handgun and pushed the city to allow handgun ownership. Six years later, a federal judge overturned the city’s ban on carrying handguns outside the home, and a subsequent ruling declared that D.C. couldn’t require residents to show a good reason to carry a concealed handgun. D.C. officials opted not to appeal that ruling, fearing a Supreme Court ruling just like the one handed down last week in response to New York’s restrictive good-reason law.
The ruling authored by Thomas has again reshaped the legal debate over gun restrictions, with advocates on both sides of the debate conceding they do not know what the future holds in terms of litigation and court rulings.
In a concurring opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said the ruling doesn’t target the legal standing of existing requirements that states and cities may impose for letting someone carry a gun, like requiring payment of fees, training, and background checks — all of which D.C. has on the books. But the conservative majority’s ruling also said that some requirements could be challenged.
“[B]ecause any permitting scheme can be put toward abusive ends, we do not rule out constitutional challenges to shall-issue regimes where, for example, lengthy wait times in processing license applications or exorbitant fees deny ordinary citizens their right to public carry,” it reads. (In the Heller II case in 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit tossed out certain portions of the city’s registration requirements, while keeping others.)
“Maybe the D.C. regulatory regime is vulnerable after all,” mused Randy Barnett, a Georgetown University law professor who has a concealed-carry permit in D.C., in an analysis published on SCOTUSblog this week.
Lyon also told DCist/WAMU there may be interest in challenging D.C.’s prohibition on assault weapons and extended magazines. In the past, courts have upheld the city’s ban on assault weapons, but Thomas’s new requirement that gun restrictions comport with the nation’s historical traditions could change the calculus. And on Thursday afternoon, Lyon filed a separate lawsuit challenging D.C.’s law that limits how much ammunition people can have when they carry a concealed handgun; one of the plaintiffs is Dick Heller, namesake of the 2008 Supreme Court ruling.
Gun control advocates have broadly decried the court’s ruling and the impacts it may have. “The court has chosen to obstruct Americans from obtaining the common sense laws they want and need to protect their families and communities, a decision that defies centuries of gun regulation,” said Brady United in a statement last week.
D.C. officials have been similarly critical of the decision, saying it could hamper the city’s efforts to combat gun violence. Attorney General Karl Racine’s office declined to discuss any possible repercussions on the city’s gun laws from the court’s ruling, but said in a statement that it would fight any pro-gun litigation in court.
“OAG will continue to defend the District’s common-sense gun regulations and keep District residents safe,” it said. “As the Supreme Court said, the Second Amendment is not a license to keep and carry any weapon in any manner for any purpose.”
This post has been extensively updated to include the lawsuit filed against D.C. over its ban on carrying guns on public transportation.
Former President Donald J. Trump’s political organization and his allies have paid for or promised to finance the legal fees of more than a dozen witnesses called in the congressional investigation into the Jan. 6 attack, raising legal and ethical questions about whether the former president may be influencing testimony with a direct bearing on him.
The arrangement drew new scrutiny this week after Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide in his White House, made an explosive appearance before the House panel, providing damning new details about Mr. Trump’s actions and statements on the day of the deadly riot.
She did so after firing a lawyer who had been recommended to her by two of Mr. Trump’s former aides and paid for by his political action committee, and hiring new counsel. Under the representation of the new lawyer, Jody Hunt, Ms. Hutchinson sat for a fourth interview with the committee in which she divulged more revelations and agreed to come forward publicly to testify to them.
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