Academy faces troubles amid abuse allegations

ST. LOUIS -- Tim Hans secretly dabbled in drugs and the occult, defying authority at every turn. Groundings and restricted privileges didn't matter to the Illinois 16-year-old, nor did swats to the backside from his parents -- assuming they could even chase him down.

So Hans' parents shipped him off to Heartland Christian Academy, a 200-acre religious community in northeast Missouri where work therapy and Christian-based teachings join forces at what many parents consider a last resort for difficult children.

At the place that markets its tough love, Hans righted his course. No more witchcraft, rebellion or fits of rage. His grades -- less than average before Heartland -- are straight As. Now respectful and polite, the product of a Christian family has found God.

"It's kind of a total overhaul of the mind," he says.

Now, the 6-year-old academy faces troubled times itself over its disciplining some call abuse.

"It's an evil attack," fumes 74-year-old Charles Sharpe, Heartland's millionaire founder and senior pastor. He pledges to spend his fortune -- estimated in the tens of millions of dollars -- "and every drop of blood in my body" to defend the academy.

Shoveling manure

In June, five Heartland workers were accused of sending 11 misbehaving teens to shovel manure, at times in a pit with animal waste and afterbirths. The teens described the sessions as punishment for not listening or having a bad attitude, court records say.

In August, four Heartland workers -- two already charged in the manure matter -- were accused of spanking a teen 30 times with a wooden board. Sharpe insists no child gets more than five "swats." Still, the boy's father has pleaded guilty to child abuse in the case.

Things boiled over Oct. 30 when authorities removed 115 Heartland children. Parents, some from as far as Texas and California, were called to retrieve the children. Sharpe said about 80 of the children had returned.

The raid came a day before another Heartland worker was accused of bursting a 13-year-old boy's eardrum by striking him. Sharpe maintains the boy was struck accidentally by a worker trying to free his arm from the child's jaws.

For now, a federal judge is allowing juvenile authorities to seek removal of any Heartland child considered at risk, but he has barred mass removals pending a final court ruling.

"We don't believe in abusing kids. Our job is to love them and help them," said Sharpe, the former Kansas City insurance executive who says $20 million, mostly his own money, has been spent building the Heartland complex about 150 miles north of St. Louis.

"In society today, any time you correct or discipline a child, in the eyes of many it's abuse," added Sharpe, known at Heartland as "Pastor Charlie."

Judicial 'harassment'

Heartland's operators are suing authorities in federal court, citing "a systematic, persistent and continuous campaign of harassment." Joshua Eads, a 17-year-old Heartland student, also is suing local investigators, alleging he was unjustly held for 12 days this summer on suspicion he might have been involved in the manure-pit flap.

Lewis County Sheriff David Parrish, who said he shoveled manure as a boyhood summer job, acknowledged that Heartland's tactics, to some, may cloud what's discipline or abuse.

"We believe it was abuse, and I'm comfortable with what a jury will say," he said.

Regardless, Sharpe believes many of the abuse allegations come from kids -- usually new arrivals -- who often would "rather be on the streets, doing drugs and having sex."

Sharpe said using youths in the manure pits has been discontinued -- though not because of abuse allegations. Only adults now shovel out the manure pits on the dairy farm with 7,000 cows.

Gilbert Kliman, who founded a children's psychological trauma center in San Francisco, has said he found no evidence of abuse during an independent audit. Kliman's report of interviews with children described "much expression of being loved and valued by the treating personnel."