A US residential program marketed as providing religious mentorship and therapeutic care for “troubled teens” is facing accusations that it instead operates through abuse, neglect, and forced labor. Two former residents recently filed a federal lawsuit against the Missouri faith-based program, saying they were held in involuntary servitude in violation of federal anti-trafficking and child-protection laws. But while this case was just filed, the abusive narrative it tells is all too familiar.  

“Thousands of hours” of unpaid labor 

The Kansas City Girls Academy, a Missouri nonprofit, was marketed to families using all the right words. Terms like safe, trauma-informed, and therapeutic, gave parents security that the program would provide needed support and guidance. But the plaintiffs in this case say the reality was far from the pitch. Conversely, they describe a program full of physical restraint, humiliation, food and hygiene deprivation, isolation, and constant coercion. All used to enforce strict obedience with the rules. And to keep the girls in compliance with “thousands of hours” of forced labor. 

The Black Chronicle reports: 

…residents were required to perform at least four hours of unpaid labor each weekday and six hours each weekend day, including cleaning facilities, cooking, landscaping, performing maintenance, preparing the property for tours and traveling to churches to perform cleaning, fundraising and musical performances for the benefit of the program. 

Administrators used spiritual and psychological manipulation to justify the girl’s treatment. Accordingly, staff painted the girl’s exploitation as legitimate religious or therapeutic discipline. Devious tactics that the plaintiffs say prevented them from recognizing that their “treatment” was actually abuse. 

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