Judge Allows Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against Shuttered Agape Christian Boarding School To Proceed

Boarding school can legally be held responsible for employees that sexually assaulted a minor boy in their care, who later committed suicide, Judge says.

A federal judge has rejected an attempt by a now-shuttered Christian boarding school to throw out a wrongful death lawsuit, which alleges that years of sexual and physical abuse as a minor caused a former student to commit suicide.

The former student, Jason Britt, took his own life in February 2022, at the age of 29, leaving a note behind that revealed abuse and mistreatment at the hands of Agape Boarding School for boys in Missouri when he was a teen. His mother filed the wrongful death lawsuit against Agape in October 2023.

However, Britt’s suicide note was far from the first time the school had been linked to child abuse allegations, which led to the school shutting down just a few months before Kathleen Britt’s claim was filed.

Missouri law enforcement launched a criminal investigation into problems at Agape Boarding School in February 2021, a year before Jason Britt’s death, following allegations by multiple former students that they had been sexually or physically abused at the private boys school located in Stockton.

Investigators determined that physical abuse, torture, starvation and sexual abuse, appeared to be standard operating procedures at the boarding school for nearly 30 years. The school was closed down in January 2023, but Britt and other parents say it should have come sooner, and that school officials and law enforcement ignored pleas for help from abused children.

The defendants, including administrators and employees of Agape, members of the Cedar County Sheriff Department and Cedar County, responded to Britt’s lawsuit with a motion to dismiss, claiming that she failed to properly file a claim and that certain defendants should be dismissed, seeking to have the entire case thrown out.

In a ruling (PDF) earlier this month, U.S. Judge Douglas Harpool, of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, dismissed some aspects of the case, as well as the Cedar County Sheriff Department as a defendant, but refused to throw out key aspects of the lawsuit, such as the wrongful death claims, child abuse and negligence claims.

The ruling also upheld Britt’s legal theory that Agape was responsible for the actions of employees, who allegedly sexually assaulted her son when he was only 16. She indicates that the trauma from that experience was a contributing factor to his suicide and death. Judge Harpool agreed that the school could be held liable, and indicated Britt should have the opportunity to prove the claims in court.

“The doctrine of respondeat superior holds an employer liable for torts committed by its employees or agents while they are acting within the scope of employment,” he wrote. “Liability may still result although the employer did not command, authorize, or direct the tortious behavior.”

In 2021, several staff members, including the school’s former doctor, were charged with child sex and abuse crimes. However, former Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt said at least 22 other employees at the school should have been charged, and that the charges which have been filed should have been more serious. His office was prevented from doing so because state law indicates the Cedar County Prosecuting Attorney, Ty Gaither, has to make the decision to pursue such additional charges, which he declined to do.

Missouri was one of seventeen states that exempted religious boarding schools from state child welfare and education authority regulatory oversight, which was granted under a 1982 law allowing religious organizations to claim licensing exemption. However, state lawmakers passed The Child Residential Home Notification Act in July 2021, which requires all religious boarding schools to register with the state and mandate federal criminal background checks for all employees and volunteers, as well as adhere to fire, safety and health regulations.

Agape was the last unlicensed religious boarding school in the state. The school has faced a number of other Agape Boarding School child abuse lawsuits, and has reportedly reached settlements in some of those claims.