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Hephzibah House to be Featured in CNN Investigation
Byline info is not available
Thursday, September 1, 2011 8:30 AM
Hephzibah House, the embattled private faith-based Winona Lake boarding school for troubled teenage girls, will be featured on CNN tonight as part of an ongoing series on child discipline and religion called “Ungodly Discipline.”
The school, which is affiliated with Believer’s Baptist Church, will be discussed on reporter Anderson Cooper’s popular news talk show, “Anderson Cooper 360” at 8 p.m., according to one woman interviewed for the story. A crew from the show interviewed former students on their concerns of unorthodox discipline inside the not-for-profit school.
Hephzibah House founder and pastor Ron Williams was also interviewed for the story, the Times-Union has learned.
A call to Hephzibah House seeking comment was not returned.
“I am very excited that CNN is taking this issue public and I believe this is another opportunity to bring awareness to the horrific abuse that we endured at Hephzibah House,” said Jennifer Singleton, a former Hephzibah House student now living in Virginia. “I am hoping this gets us one more step closer to closing down Hephzibah House once and for all.”
Hephzibah House has long faced allegations from protesters that accuse the boarding school of abusing their students, often through excessive and unusual techniques. None have been proven.
A local task force designed to look into the claims was launched in 2008 by Warsaw Police Department Victim’s Advocate Becky Anglin, but it phased out after the group “couldn’t get anyone with any power to do anything,” she said. Anglin said the task force received substantial support from the community, but none from elected officials, and the force fizzled out as a result.
Hephzibah House and schools like it were also the topic of state and federal laws drafted to more closely monitor schools like Hephzibah and have had varying results.
The Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act of 2009 was passed into legislation, requiring both public and private programs to meet minimum standards of student care. State bill HR 6358, drafted in 2008 to call for more public accountability and place schools like Hephzibah House under its jurisdiction, died in the State Senate.
Numerous former students of Hephzibah House, who call themselves “survivors,” have protested on city streets several times against the school.
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