New forced child labor case underlines the trouble with “troubled teen” programs

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. 

The case may be new, but we’ve heard it all before 

This case claims the academy economically benefited by replacing paid labor with coerced child labor. And refusal was punished with deprivation of food, humiliation and isolation, including from their own family. Phone calls were monitored and abruptly terminated. Letters were screened and edited. Parents were told their children were just being dishonest and manipulative when complaints did get out. All to prevent the truth from being exposed. And sadly, all of this has happened before.  

A camp for troubled teens in Wyoming was found guilty a little over a year ago of using forced child labor. A four year long class action lawsuit that was settled for 2.3 million. With eerily similar hallmarks, this suit found teens at the faith-based camp were forced to do extreme manual labor unsuited for minors.   

One of the survivors, Aubrie Bak-Jensen, was injured when working on the ranch when her horse threw her off onto a barbed wire fence. She said:  

They had them clean my wounds, wrap me and brought me back to the ranch, and then put me right back to work. And I was told I was absolutely not allowed to speak a word of what had happened to me, even though it was very obvious that I was severely injured. 

In the most recent case, plaintiffs K.H. and M.H. allege: 

…long-term psychological harm, including post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, agoraphobia, sleep disturbances, loss of faith, difficulty maintaining relationships and permanent psychiatric disability and loss of trust in institutions. 

Both plaintiffs in the most recent case allege delayed academic progress and economic exploitation. And they point to the cause as the thousands of hours of unpaid labor they were forced to do. And sadly, just one aspect of the trauma caused by a program that claimed it would “rescue” them.

Protect children from labor exploitation

Clearly, we need to do more, not less, to protect children from forced labor and from programs that do more harm than good. One way to protect children from exploitation is making sure child labor laws are robust and protected. Add your voice and stand with Freedom United in calling on states across the US to stop rolling back child labor laws.