CHARLESTON – More than 30 additional lawsuits have been filed against Miracle Meadows School by former students who say they were abused at the private boarding school.
The 31 complaints were filed June 29 in Kanawha Circuit Court against Miracle Meadows School Inc. and Susan Gayle Clark, who was the school founder and director.
“The sexual, physical, and emotional abuse endured by these children was horrific,” Ben Salango, one of the attorneys representing the 31 plaintiffs, told The West Virginia Record. “The children were handcuffed, sexually assaulted, kept in isolation, beaten and tortured by those trusted with their care and education.”
Salango
In the latest complaints, the unnamed plaintiffs accuse the defendants of bodily injury, sexual abuse, invasion of privacy, false imprisonment, education malpractice and other wrongful acts while at the Seventh-day Adventist boarding school located in Salem in Harrison County.
The complaints also mention child abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, quarantine, malnutrition, child labor law violations, mistreatment, isolationism, corporal punishment, neglect, starvation, emotional distress and mental anguish.
The complaints refer to students being placed in so-called quarantine rooms, which are described as “small, windowless rooms without plumbing, heating or cooling, and the only light switch is located on the outside of the room and frequently shut off, leaving the minor child alone in the dark and cold while hungry and thirsty.”
The rooms were either 4x10 or 5x8, according to the complaints. The children were only given a bucket to use as a toilet, and they often weren’t given toilet paper. Their meals while in quarantine usually were bread and fruit or rice and beans.
“Children would also be required to memorize bible verses or write out a whole bible chapter,” the complaint states. “And if they got any part of it wrong, they would have to stay for a longer time in ‘quarantine.’”
Some of the children were placed in these quarantine rooms for weeks or months at a time, the complaints state.
The complaints also say the school adhered, spoiled and hid evidence by removing and destroying documents and installing windows in the formerly windowless rooms. They also say staff members knew of the abuse but did nothing to prevent it or report it as required by law.
The plaintiffs say they suffer from significant physical and emotional hard and vocational impairment because of their time at Miracle Meadows. They say the defendants’ conduct endangered their health, safety and welfare.
All the while, they say Miracle Meadows charged tuition and promoted itself as an educational provider.
They accuse the defendants of negligence, negligent hiring and supervision, negligent infliction of emotional distress and civil conspiracy. They say they will require secondary, higher and vocational education and training as well as medical therapy, counseling, physical examinations and treatment, psychiatric and psychological therapy and counseling. They also say they have suffered loss of ability to enjoy life, mental anguish, pain and suffering of body and mine and emotional distress.
They seek compensatory and punitive damages, attorney fees, court costs, pre- and post-judgment interests and other relief.
In recent years, dozens of similar cases have been filed against Miracle Meadows by students who claimed they were abused during their time at the now-defunct school. Clark was sentenced to jail time and probation in 2016.
Last year, a lawsuit involving 29 former students was settled for $51.9 million.
In additional to Salango and his Salango Law firm in Charleston, the 31 plaintiffs also are being represented by Brett J. Preston and Dan R. Snuffer of WVLawyer PLLC in Charleston. The cases have been consolidated and assigned to Circuit Judge Joanna Tabit.
Kanawha Circuit Court case numbers 22-C-525 through 22-C-555