November 3, 2004
Parents Sue
Bethel Boys Academy
By Lora Hines
Parents of eight
former Bethel Boys Academy cadets on Tuesday filed a federal lawsuit
in Gulfport, accusing academy owners, operators and employees of
abusing their sons.
The parents are
individually seeking at least $75,000 in damages, said their Fort
Smith, Ark., attorney, Oscar Stilley.
Stilley said
Bethel representatives lied to his clients, who sent their boys to
the military style academy because they believed it offered a
Christian-based education alternative. Instead, the boys were beaten
and forced to work at the academy, he said.
"(Bethel)
doesn't have a bit of honesty," Stilley said. "(Cadets) basically
were turned into slaves. They were even told to beat up other kids."
Academy director
John Fountain laughed Tuesday when asked about claims of abuse at
the school.
"These are
low-income families who want something for nothing," he said.
Cheryle Strueble
of Nebraska is among the parents suing. Her son, Morgan, was pulled
out of the academy three days after he got there in May 2003, she
said. The then 17-year-old had a black eye and several bruises on
his body, Strueble said.
"The bottom line
is we got our money back," Strueble said. "We don't pay for torture.
We are parents who can cough up $25,000. But we expect more than
torture."
She and the
other parents decided to file a lawsuit, she said, after reports to
the state Attorney General's Office, the state Department of Human
Services and the state Health Department did not result in criminal
charges.
George County
District Attorney Anthony Lawrence did not return phone calls.
"(The lawsuit)
is for all of those kids we don't already know about," Strueble
said. "None of us want a dime. I want (the academy) shut down. It's
not what we paid for."
She and her
husband, Roger, took their son to Bethel because they were concerned
about his behavior, she said. His grades had dropped and he had been
caught smoking marijuana, Strueble said. They found information
about the academy on the Internet and called John Fountain and his
father, Herman Fountain.
Last week, the
state Health Department opened an investigation at the school after
receiving complaints from the state Department of Human Services and
the attorney General's Office, said health department spokeswoman
Liz Sharlot. The investigation is ongoing, she said.
It is among at
least three investigations launched at the boys' academy and the
companion girls' academy in Petal.
Parent
complaints of abuse and neglect at the boys' academy in 2003 led to
the adoption of new policies. The Fountains didn't admit to
wrongdoing.
In May, the
Human Services Department removed about 40 girls from the girls'
academy after it had gotten abuse complaints. The girls have not
been allowed to return.
Children also
were removed from one of Herman Fountain's homes in 1988. State
welfare officials raided Bethel Home for Children— the academy's
predecessor— and removed 72 abused and neglected children. A judge
closed the home in 1990. Herman Fountain reopened it in 1994 as
Bethel Boys' Academy. The girls' academy opened in 1999.
Defendants in
the lawsuit include John Fountain, Herman Fountain and Bethel
Baptist Church of Lucedale Inc.
In April,
Stilley won a similar lawsuit against a Missouri Christian-based
academy. The judgment is being appealed.
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