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Missouri: Let’s Talk About Child Trafficking

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By atomheartbevo
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atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 89449

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https://www.kansascity.com/news/state/missouri/article265246901.html

Keep in mind that Eric Schmitt is a US Senate candidate

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Julio Sandoval tells parents he wants to help their wayward sons get on the right path. He assures them, through the website for his transport business, that he will deliver their children safely to a boarding school. So parents hire Sandoval’s company – Safe Sound Secure Youth Ministries – to remove their so-called “troubled teens” from their homes and transport them to the schools.

Sandoval also is former dean of students at Agape Boarding School and current leader of another unlicensed facility, both in Missouri. His goal with his transport company is to be “a blessing to your home,” and Sandoval shares with parents the philosophy he says he uses with his own seven children: “I don’t care if you like me, I am not raising you for YOU to like ME. I am raising YOU, for ME to like you.’”

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Now, Sandoval, 41, awaits his next court appearance, arrested this week after a federal grand jury indicted him for violating a restraining order — issued at the request of a minor boy against his mother — by transporting him against his will to Agape in southwest Missouri. The jury also indicted the estranged mom of the teen, who was dropped off at Agape last summer after a 27-hour drive from California, the indictment says, his hands cuffed behind his back the entire way.

The arrests underscore concerns many have with transport companies whose agents often show up at homes in the middle of the night — with the parents’ consent — dragging scared youth out of bed, sometimes restraining them with handcuffs and threatening physical force if they don’t comply. They then cart them off to boarding schools across the country, including Missouri.

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Sandoval’s company has employed two off-duty Cedar County Sheriff’s deputies to help pick up the youth from across the country. One of those deputies, Robert Graves, has worked at Agape and is the son-in-law of its late founder, James Clemensen.

Horror stories about transports surfaced several times last year in testimony that former students submitted to Missouri lawmakers as they considered measures to give the state some oversight over unlicensed boarding schools. Students represented several schools, not just in the Show-Me State.

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Five former students of boarding schools — Agape and other locations — submitted testimony to Missouri legislators that detailed their experience with transport companies. David Patterson ended up at Agape on Father’s Day 2002.

“I was police escorted there by off duty cops,” he said in written testimony to the House Children and Families Committee last year. “Waking me up at 4:30 in the morning telling me ‘we can do this the easy way or the hard way’ while showing me a pair of handcuffs.

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“Upon arriving in Agape I was strip searched naked in a room full of grown men I’d never seen before and then I was taken to get my head shaved,” he said. “I would be restrained multiple times for not conforming and submitting to the school’s strange and oftentimes peculiar interpretations of the Bible.”

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“We got inside and all of a sudden two men came out of the bathroom and showed me these badges,” Harper said. “They said they were here to take me to a boarding school and that I could go the easy way or the hard way. They informed me they were hired by my dad.” The men told Harper that they typically didn’t allow parents to be present during the pickup but because “my dad is in law enforcement, they felt it would be OK,” Harper told the committee.

 

 

 

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Bullneck

Bullneck 18987

Posted
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31 minutes ago, SKJ said:

Of course it is...

Accusation=confession 

This is how it works:

1.  GQP does something illegal or violates centuries of procedure or decorum,

2. Media or Dems call them out in print or on video,

3. GQP denies and then parrots those same words using false equivalencies.

Literally everything the GQP says follows that pattern

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SKJ

SKJ 1305

Posted
Posted
8 minutes ago, Bullneck said:

This is how it works:

1.  GQP does something illegal or violates centuries of procedure or decorum,

2. Media or Dems call them out in print or on video,

3. GQP denies and then parrots those same words using false equivalencies.

Literally everything the GQP says follows that pattern

Or...

They know themselves and their kind, and every dirty, shitty desire that they share or talk about they project on everyone else

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Biff Tannen

Biff Tannen 45499

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Bullneck said:

This is how it works:

1.  GQP does something illegal or violates centuries of procedure or decorum,

2. Media or Dems call them out in print or on video,

3. GQP denies and then parrots those same words using false equivalencies.

Literally everything the GQP says follows that pattern

 

1 hour ago, SKJ said:

Or...

They know themselves and their kind, and every dirty, shitty desire that they share or talk about they project on everyone else

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Planet Houston

Planet Houston 4923

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All those this information super informative and absurdly disgusting, but I want to know what was not covered (from what I read, which was most) - who is the real money behind these schools? I don’t see another motivation for every level of enforcement to look the other way. Or is the answer more “let the locals do their thing, even if we know it’s wrong while we line our pockets on other shit” at the higher levels like Hawley and the other AG?

I just don’t quite follow the motivation other than Christian + Abuse + Republicans covering it up. A tale as old as time. But where is the money in the end of this for the horrible R politicians?

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atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 89449

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25 minutes ago, Planet Houston said:

I just don’t quite follow the motivation other than Christian + Abuse + Republicans covering it up. A tale as old as time. But where is the money in the end of this for the horrible R politicians?

I’m guessing the Missouri legislators who were taking testimony from the kids weren’t too concerned with digging deeper into the money aspect.

It could also be something as simple as it’s another revenue stream for police officers, and officials were afraid to touch it.

Still, the fact that this is a thing - “arresting” kids and hauling them off to unlicensed boarding schools in Missouri (and other states), means there’s got to be some money there somewhere, and they are unlicensed for a reason. The fact that Missouri’s legislature just got around to allowing officials to shut down these unlicensed “schools” also speaks volumes.

Some of the stories on it:

https://www.kansascity.com/topics/kc-reform-schools

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RomaVicta

RomaVicta 29794

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Posted (edited)

Recall the Sandusky story and some of threads leading from it. There were suggestions of a bigger network. There was the story of the missing prosecutor. I'll rely on someone better versed in the details to expand; I'm not even sure where to look.

The annual number of children who are taken by strangers in what we think of as kidnapping is fewer that 200. I supposed that the population of runaways would likely be hunting grounds if there were indeed a large scale effort in abducting and trafficking children and young adults. I really couldn't be convinced that such a large conspiracy was indeed actually occuring. 

The circumstantial evidence mounts. Now this source of victims where parents hand over their children to abductors who just take them away is a new and mortifying aspect. That its being done in the name of the Lord should outrage the radical "Christians" and turn their attention from the empty accusations against the Dems to actual cases.

Of course, it won't. Those "Christians" are religionalists as defined in the Urban Dictionary and by a brilliant religious leader who appeared on CNN in the early days of Trump to talk about how detached the religious right had become from the actual beliefs of Christianity. 

Quote

But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.

I'm not a Christian. My philosophy is generally, "I don't care what you do so long as you don't hurt anybody else and you don't make me watch." By Christian or RomaVicta philosophy, these degenerates are way off. 

I don't even care that much about children, but it is shocking that the issue of trafficking children or anybody is tolerated by anyone who knows about it whether it's a rare crime or a massive conspiracy.

I'm rambling. This is all pretty hard to get your head around. 

Somebody captures, rapes, and tortures somebody who is then possibly passed around to others for same. So may people stand quietly by. Those who report it are ignored.

So much time has passed before this latest story. So many horrible days for the enslaved. I don't want to conclude what there to be concluded.

 

Note: I've read and believe the stories about statistics on trafficking in the sex worker industry being ridiculously inflated. I'd rather that hysteria about that and the raw numbers of missing children (almost all return) to be kept apart from stories with actual evidence.

Edited by RomaVicta
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atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 89449

Posted
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7 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

The annual number of children who are taken by strangers in what we think of as kidnapping is fewer that 200.

My wife has taught or worked in other areas of public education for nearly 20 years.  None of her schools has ever had Ye Olde Van pull up and a stranger try to grab a kid,  but they’ve had plenty of problems with non-custodial parents/relatives (fallout from nasty divorces).

7 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

Now this source of victims where parents hand over their children to abductors who just take them away is a new and mortifying aspect. That its being done in the name of the Lord should outrage the radical "Christians" and turn their attention from the empty accusations against the Dems to actual cases.

It’s been going on for decades, it’s just getting a light shined on it (Kansas City Star should win all the awards for their coverage).  I don’t know that it’s particular a Christian problem, that’s just what these companies use to sell the parents on it.  They follow the money, and brand with whatever sells (Christian alternative school, military, whatever sells).

I want to blame the parents more because their money enables it, especially in the case of unlicensed “schools” (and them not vetting the schools), but I imagine there are plenty of parents who reach the end of their rope and these companies swoop in and take advantage of them.

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RomaVicta

RomaVicta 29794

Posted
Posted (edited)
46 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

My wife has taught or worked in other areas of public education for nearly 20 years.  None of her schools has ever had Ye Olde Van pull up and a stranger try to grab a kid,  but they’ve had plenty of problems with non-custodial parents/relatives (fallout from nasty divorces).

It’s been going on for decades, it’s just getting a light shined on it (Kansas City Star should win all the awards for their coverage).  I don’t know that it’s particular a Christian problem, that’s just what these companies use to sell the parents on it.  They follow the money, and brand with whatever sells (Christian alternative school, military, whatever sells).

I want to blame the parents more because their money enables it, especially in the case of unlicensed “schools” (and them not vetting the schools), but I imagine there are plenty of parents who reach the end of their rope and these companies swoop in and take advantage of them.

I didn't mean to suggest it was a Christian problem. One would expect the "Christian" element that follows Trump to join actual Christians and other citizens in crushing this criminal activity. It's notable that a group of religionists claiming profound righteousness will cleave to their earthly leader in the face of suggest ghastly wickedness.

Anyone who turns their back on victims of crime to stick with their political team is wasting our air.

Edit: Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Edited by RomaVicta
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Parliament

Parliament 14138

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https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2022-09-27/new-judge-lets-missouri-boarding-school-stay-open-for-now

 

A Missouri judge on Tuesday allowed a Christian boarding school to remain open for now, scheduling two days of hearings in October to determine its fate after multiple current and former students alleged widespread abuse.

Cedar County Associate Circuit Judge Thomas Pyle's ruling came a day after he took over the case involving Agape Boarding School in Stockton. The Missouri attorney general's office had asked Pyle to close the school after requesting the new judge for the case previously presided over by Cedar County Circuit Judge David Munton. The state didn't say why it sought a new judge.

Pyle also approved the state's request to again place Missouri Department of Social Services workers at Agape. On Monday, Munton lifted the order allowing state workers at the school. They had been there to monitor for abuse since Sept. 8.

Two days of hearings to determine Agape's fate are scheduled for Oct. 13-14.

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