WEST VIRGINIA
Charleston Gazette-Mail
Ryan Quinn , Staff Writer
A lawsuit is ongoing against a now-closed Kanawha County Christian boys boarding school and its leaders over allegations that a student was starved and physically abused and — because of alleged lax supervision — sexually abused by another student, and the minor’s lawyer expects the litigation to expand.
“We certainly have had other people reach out to us who are victims of that organization, and we would anticipate filing suit on their behalf,” said Charleston-based attorney Troy Giatras, the lawyer representing the minor and his guardian ad litem in the case against Blue Creek Academy, which Giatras said was in the Clendenin area, near the border of Clay and Kanawha counties.
The lawsuit also names Bible Baptist, a Belva church sponsoring the school, as a defendant, along with James Waldeck and J.R. Thompson, Blue Creek Academy’s former director who, according to The Daily Beast, has started a new religious school in Montana. In answers to the lawsuit, the defendants have denied the allegations.
In an extensive article published online Sunday — titled “Rapes, Daily Beatings, and No Escape: Christian School Was Hell For These Boys” — The Daily Beast reported on the allegations of child abuse and educational neglect at Blue Creek Academy, fitting it into a larger trend of problems at Christian schools that have less oversight, or nearly no oversight, compared to public schools.
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