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19. Feb. 2018 · Memories of a Scottish Girls' Reform School. Skip to main content. We will keep fighting for all libraries - stand with us! A line drawing of the Internet Archive headquarters building façade. An illustration of a heart shape "Donate to ...
- Overview
- 'They were afraid we'd tell the truth'
- Complaints started the year the ranch opened
- Getting action on TikTok
Amanda Householder received an urgent Facebook message in early March about her dad from a man she hadn’t talked to in years.
Her father, Boyd Householder, ran a religious boarding school in rural Missouri called Circle of Hope Girls’ Ranch that aimed to “help young ladies” stop making poor choices. And the man who messaged her, Joseph Askins, who had viewed Boyd as a friend and mentor, was disturbed by what he had seen on a recent visit.
At the ranch, Askins later told NBC News, he saw Boyd smack a child in the mouth and force a girl to chug water and then drink her own vomit. Askins said he heard Boyd order teenage girls to assault one another. “Knock her out, I mean it,” the voice of a man — whom Amanda, Askins and others identified as Boyd — is heard saying in a video Askins captured.
The video disturbed Amanda, 29, but it was far from the first time people had raised concerns about what was happening at her parents’ ranch.
Since Circle of Hope opened in 2006, at least 15 people said they reported abuse at the ranch to at least six local, state and federal agencies in Missouri, an NBC News investigation found, based on a review of court records, text messages and emails and interviews with 15 former residents, seven parents and two former staff members.
Parents and former residents said they reported that Boyd used physical restraints as punishments, placing girls face down for as long as an hour, while he pressed a knee into their necks and other residents were forced to squeeze the target’s pressure points. Boyd, 71, and his wife, Stephanie, 55, withheld food as punishment or if they thought a girl was overweight, and forced children to stand and stare at a wall for hours at a time for days in a row if they didn’t follow the ever-changing rules, the parents and former residents said.
The Householders opened Circle of Hope in July 2006 after Boyd, a Vietnam veteran, worked at similar reform schools in Missouri and Florida. They set up shop on a 35-acre property outside of Humansville, a town of about 1,000 residents in western Missouri. A long driveway led up to a two-story, four-bedroom house that former residents remember had an industrial kitchen and flat office carpeting, and the Householders lived in a house across the street. They welcomed girls as young as 6 years old, according to a news report.
Girls spent most of their days working outside, tending to chickens, dogs and horses, and cleaning the house. Twice a week, they were allowed to change their clothes, which were all donated, according to four parents and three former residents. Boyd punished girls if they took more than five minutes to take a shower, including undressing and shaving, seven former residents said. Education consisted of Christian homeschooling packets from Accelerated Christian Education, and often did not count toward high school credits in public school districts, several parents and residents said.
“He made it sound like it was a place for praising God. But it wasn’t, really, it was about praising him.”
Chanel Mare, former resident
The ranch averaged 20 to 30 youth at a time, collecting $284,430 in tuition last year, tax returns show. Tuition fluctuated; one parent said she paid $300 a month, while three others said it cost over $1,000. Circle of Hope never had more than a handful of staff, who received very little pay. Aimee Groves, who said she worked there in 2009, said she didn’t receive any wages, just room and board and some clothing. Adria Keim, who said she worked there from 2009 to 2011, said she was paid $350 a month. Last year, the school spent $51,375 on staff salaries, with $13,495 going to Boyd, according to a tax return.
Boyd, who had girls call him “Brother House,” required children to stay for at least two years, and said he would determine if they were ready to go home, according to former residents and a copy of the parent handbook shared with NBC News.
Amanda Householder’s relationship with her parents deteriorated as she got older. As a teenager, she often filled in as a staff member, but she said her parents also placed her in the program as a punishment. She said the extent of her bad behavior “consisted of thinking boys were cute and listening to Green Day.” She moved in with other family members in 2009, at 17, and the next year moved to California.
For the first few years on her own, Amanda pushed back on many of the stories from former residents. She antagonized them on internet forums when they spoke negatively about Circle of Hope. But after having a child, and once she began talking directly with former residents, she began to reevaluate. She said she noticed their stories lined up. Amanda apologized for not believing them earlier, and for not intervening when she still lived at the ranch.
“I knew the restraining was bad,” said Amanda, who is now a stay-at-home mom, “but I just kick myself in the ass for not standing up against it back then. I felt guilty, I felt like it was my fault, but that’s one of the things I worked through in therapy. I had to get over that.”
In 2018, Amanda connected with Michelle Nickerson, who had been trying to report concerns about Circle of Hope to the Missouri Department of Social Services because her 16-year-old sister was at the ranch. Nickerson had been in touch with the Missouri Highway Patrol, and together, they began referring former residents to speak with the officers.
The state highway patrol gave a report on its Circle of Hope investigation to an assistant U.S. attorney, who declined last year to prosecute, according to an email from the sergeant who handled the investigation. The highway patrol refused to release a copy of the report because it’s being used in the current investigation, and the sergeant declined to comment to avoid interfering with it. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office also declined to comment.
Complaints about Circle of Hope date back to the year it opened.
The video Amanda Householder received from Askins does not show Boyd on screen, but she and several former residents said they instantly recognized his voice. The man is heard advising residents to attack a girl: “Knock her out.” Emily Stoddard, who was still at the ranch then, said Boyd was speaking to them in their dorm through an intercom system, and he was chastising a girl for drinking water without permission. Askins said he called child protective services when he left the ranch.
Amanda posted the video on Facebook and Twitter in March. Miranda Sullivan, a co-host of the podcast “Troubled,” about the troubled teen industry, saw it, and invited her on the show. Later, Sullivan suggested that Amanda start posting on TikTok, where others had been sharing their experiences at troubled teen programs.
“The benefit of TikTok is the kids who get activated and are amazingly useful,” Sullivan said. “With Circle of Hope, it got enough random people who were highly motivated to nag the local offices in Missouri who are not used to this much attention.”
As Amanda and former Circle of Hope residents began to post their own TikTok videos, a Cedar County sheriff’s deputy messaged her on Facebook on May 17 and said their office wanted to talk. The sheriff’s department told NBC News an investigation remains ongoing, and is being led by the state’s social services department. Gaither said his office is still waiting for them to complete their investigation and present a report to him.
"If they’re not careful, they can kill you."
Carrie Reeves, former resident
- Tyler Kingkade
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