Image Credit: WGEM TV, Iowa
Midwest Academy has been closed Friday after authorities raided the school in Keokuk, Iowa and a related site in nearby Montrose, while investigating into alleged sexual abuse of children at the school by staff. According to local TV station KHQA, authorities ordered the school closed and began contacting parents to come pick up their children. Parents were reportedly given 24 hours to collect their children or risk having them placed into foster care.
In the meantime, the investigating agencies are appealing to the public for any information. In an interview with KHQA reporter Michael Polarchy, Supervisory Senior Resident Agent Gabriel Poling stated,”Perhaps you thought about calling but you thought your information wasn’t important enough, we want to hear from you.” Anyone with any information about sexual abuse or any other form of abuse occurring at the school is encouraged to contact Iowa Department of Criminal Investigations Special Agent Richard Rahn to call 800-225-5324.
No charges have been filed or arrests made at this time, but officials emphasized that the investigation is continuing and is being taken very seriously by the officers and agents involved. Iowa DCI Special Agent Rahn pointed out that evidence was collected in the Thursday searches and added, “Those items are going to be analyzed by experts to conclude our DCI criminalistics laboratory as well as our ICAC unit which is the internet crimes against children.”
There is no word on whether the closure is permanent. A change.org petition started by supporters of the school to pressure the authorities to drop the investigation received lackluster support, while a petition in support of the investigation and closure quickly received over twice as many signatures. A Gofundme page was also set up soliciting donations “help MWA overcome these obstacles”, but was quickly shut down by the site after being repeatedly reported for violating the site’s terms of service, which were recently changed to prohibit funds from being used in the legal defense of those accused of criminal acts.
As this story develops, we will continue to provide updates as they become available.
Read more about Midwest Academy here.
I went to mwa… I’m happy this place was shut down.. I had to talk to the kids who tried to kill them selfs
Wow… Look at that even a month later my comment is still not posted… Not sketchy at all
Thank God.. I prayed for this… 15 months in that hell hole
Finally one of the last schools in the wwasp conglomerate to go… We just have one more and it sits on the site of the old brightest adolescent hospital, believe it’s still called majestic ranch? Takes kids as young as 7… God help those children… From what I’ve read and researched the owners have no ties to the litchfield organization BUT they are paying him for the property monthly and also paying browning (owned by that scum bag Ken Kay) for there schooling materials. And as well as resources revitalization or whatever they are calling themselves. There is now a school on the old CCM campus with a HUGE disclaimer stating they have no affiliation with the previous school… No reason to put that if you have nothing to worry!? As well as the school on the old south Carolina program that from what I understand is still funneling children to the Costa Rica program openly owned by narvin and I just had to add that scum bags name to my dictionary lmao they are making a come back, slowly and this time they won’t affiliate all the schools together but all the signs are there, all go through browning for schooling, and resource revitalization (IDK the new name) but they slowly are slithering back in I look every single day for new programs owned through all of litchfields LLCs and other known affiliates….
Didn’t realise WWASP still around. I read about these places many years ago and regard the people who run them as evil.They should be jailed in similar conditions to those they inflicted on the kids.
I went to a program also run by World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools called red river academy changed to USyouth services and it was just as bad as this program. Male students were also sexually active with each other and that was never reported like it should have been. Then their was also a time when their was a chaperone and a student hocking up with each other and that also was never reported to the police. Then a student was raped and that staff member went to jail. His name was Mathew Michel Guy and he went to prison. Their were also times where staff injured students and medications were never given out. And their are 4 lawsuits against the school but their are still open. It just amazes me that it is still open when this program shut down for those same reasons basically.
I graduated from this hell hole. I hope he looses everything! Horrible place to send your kids! 100% guilty of false inprisonement!
I’m glad to see this place closed 13 months 12 hours and 36 mins I will never for get the amount of time spent here and I hope he gets exactly what he deserves
Oh, I have such a story to share. I am thankful that I’ve processed this in some way to move forward in my life. I was sent in 2013 and was there 18 months.
I’m curious, is he truly in jail now?