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April 12, 2005
Academy
Plans to Expel Rioters
One Cadet Still
Missing After Rampage at Lucedale School for Troubled Boys
By Julie
Goodman
jgoodman@clarionledger.com
The director of the
Eagle Point Christian Academy in Lucedale said Monday that his
school was in session and operating normally following a weekend
riot that landed nine cadets in detention.
"These young men that started this
problem need to be held accountable," said John Fountain, who
estimated there was several thousand dollars worth of broken glass
on campus. "But the way the ball bounces in this type of thing, I'm
probably going to take the heat for it."
 A private security company remained at
the home for troubled boys after a weekend disturbance left a
dormitory damaged. Several cadets with injuries had been taken to
the hospital briefly and released, Fountain said.
The riot began Friday at the private
boarding school by cadets who wanted to "take over," he said,
breaking windows, clogging toilets, vandalizing doors and damaging
video cameras.
Four students ran away from the school Sunday afternoon. Three were
caught and a fourth was still missing Monday. "He'll turn up sooner
or later at somebody's house," said George County Sheriff Garry
Welford.
Nine boys were sent to the Forrest County Juvenile Detention Center
for being uncooperative with deputies, and were released to their
families or to the academy.
Fountain said those students would be
expelled from the school — along with others. He said he expects the
offenders to transfer to another school, go into the juvenile system
or to their families. Some were charged with disorderly conduct.
"Windows are going to break and kids are going to get crazy and
that's where I got to be held accountable and pay for their
mistakes," he said. "Some of these kids, this environment just
doesn't work for them."
Welford said it would be difficult to
determine which boys were actually responsible for the property
destruction.
Parents of former students at the school — formerly the Bethel Boys
Academy — have alleged abuse, and some have sued the school.
On Monday, Fountain said there were no allegations of abuse
connected to the weekend's incident.
The state Department of Health, which
steps in when there are allegations of abuse or neglect, said it was
aware of the incident but not investigating.
Bill East, a former prosecutor with the state attorney general's
office, inspects the school quarterly as the academy's monitor, part
of a 2003 Chancery Court consent decree that required the school to
institute a range of changes from allowing restroom and water breaks
during exercise to forbidding the use of electrical devices for
discipline.
The decree was issued while the
school was directed by Fountain's father, Herman Fountain, and abuse
allegations drew the attention of state officials who sought to
close the academy.
John Fountain's father was forced to relinquish all interest in the
school, which admits about 100 students from all over the country.
Fountain says he has worked to reform the academy.
The sheriff confirmed another teen had run away from the school
recently wearing nothing but a sheet.
The dispatcher "could hear someone
screaming and yelling in the phone," according to a copy of the
Lucedale police report provided by the mother, who did not want to
be identified.
"A lot of things are a concern to me down there," Welford said. But
while he can't rule out the possibility of abuse at the school, most
of the allegations cannot be substantiated.
The Department of Human Services said
via e-mail the agency is not investigating because it had not
received a request.
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