CHARLESTON — A 2017 lawsuit filed by 29 former students of Miracle Meadows School has settled for $51.9 million.
The settlement was finalized Oct. 27. The 29 students alleged in the suit that they had suffered physical, mental and sexual abuse during their time at the school by individuals who ran the boarding school in Salem.
The former students alleged that those who ran the Christian boarding school forced them to perform manual labor, beat them, starved them, kept them in isolation rooms for long periods of time and would chain and shackle them to beds.
“The abuse suffered by these children would shock the conscious of any West Virginian,” Jesse Forbes, the attorney for the plaintiffs, said. “They were stripped naked, handcuffed, sexually abused and kept in a 5-by-8-foot room with a coffee can for a toilet. This is the stuff straight from a horror movie."
Authorities had investigated the boarding school several times since it opened in 1987. The school pledged to be a school for wayward children aged 6 to 17. It was shut down in 2014. It was founded by Gayle Clark and her husband. Clark was eventually sentenced to jail time and probation in 2016.
“I have spent years as a guardian ad litem for abused children in this state and I have never seen anything like this,” Forbes said. “These children were tortured in ways that people couldn’t even dream about in their worst nightmares, and the fact that it continued over so many decades is truly shocking.”
Charleston attorney Scott Long also represented the plaintiffs. He said the case was complex when working to settle for an appropriate amount for the students.
“This settlement will finally bring justice to these innocent children, now adults, and hopefully allow them to begin to heal,” Long said. “The horrific abuse has come to an end but without setting aside money to provide these former children the healing services they desperately need their abuse would continue.”
The plaintiffs were also represented by Brian Kent and Guy D’Andrea of Laffey, Bucci & Kent LLP in Philadelphia.
Many of the plaintiffs alleged the children suffered significant abuse at the hands of the defendants, as well as other children who were enrolled there. They alleged the defendants owed a legal duty to the plaintiffs to care for them and to not be negligent, but they repeatedly breached that duty of care.
The plaintiffs alleged the defendants failed to inform parents of the incidents of child abuse and neglect, as well as failing to inform the appropriate authorities.
The defendants also negligently failed to ensure that its employees had proper and adequate training and experience to protect the students from harm, according to the suit.
The plaintiffs suffered serious emotional distress because of the defendants' actions. The plaintiffs also say the defendants were aware of the child abuse and mistreatment as far back as December 2000.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number: 17-C-146