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February 17,
2005
Complaints of
Abuse Prompt Bethel Probe
By Jenny Hunsperger
Hattiesburg American,
Reprinted in Clarion Ledger
PETAL — Eleven
students at a school here for troubled teens fled the facility on
Wednesday after some of them told authorities they were abused by
employees.
The incident
occurred about 9 a.m. at Bethel Girls Academy, when several of the
students said they weren't being watched.
"Some of the
girls had an uprising and sort of took over the place," academy
director Herman Fountain Jr. said. "They just ran away."
The school has
been under scrutiny in the past by state officials. The Department
of Human Services removed 38 girls from the facility in May 2004
after receiving complaints of mistreatment.
No charges were
filed in connection with the incident. Sheriff's Department
Investigator Sharon Roberts said she believes all the missing girls
had been accounted for.
The academy uses
biblical teaching and strict discipline to help girls with
behavioral problems. Another school operated by Fountain's brother,
John Fountain, concentrates on troubled boys.
The Bethel Boys
Academy has been the target of investigations dating to the 1980s
and most recently was the target of a probe in 1993 which resulted
in a consent decree with state officials to set guidelines for
discipline.
On Monday, Miami
resident Angela Roberts filed a complaint with the Forrest County
sheriff's department against the girls' academy. "I got a call from
inside the school that they (staff members) were beating the girls,"
Roberts said Wednesday. "I drove from Miami to get my child from
here."
Roberts said she
had not been aware of the school's history of abuse allegations when
she decided to send her daughter there. Her daughter, Angenika
McNeil, 16, said Fountain Jr. broke her arm when she was being
restrained Feb. 10. She said there had been ongoing verbal and
physical abuse at the school.
Fountain Jr.
said he was not present when McNeil was injured. She may have been
hurt when she punched a wall, he said. Nikki Rich, a drill
instructor at the academy who had worked there for about a month,
said she was quitting after the incident.
"This is
ridiculous. I'm not going to stay here," she said. "I'm never seen
(Fountain Jr.) put his hands on the girls, but something is
definitely going on there."
Rich said she
witnessed some of the verbal abuse the girls said they endured.
"One complaint
was that they were tired of staff members calling them 'losers' and
'freak shows,' " she said.
"He (Fountain
Jr.) said that was their way of joking."
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