Mountain Park

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He puts his hand on my shoulder and he's like, you're going to go with these girls for a few hours.

And then the girls kind of start to close in.

I'm like, get away from me, pushing back.

And then he's like, well, we can either do this willingly or forcefully.

Welcome to the knife.

I'm Hannah Smith.

I'm Patia Eaton, and this week we speak with Meg Richter.

Meg was sent to a boarding school for troubled teens located in the Missouri Ozarks.

She now refers to the school, Mountain Park Baptist Boarding Academy, as a military Christian cult.

Meg has begun to speak out about her experience and has connected with other former students of Mountain Park.

And as a note, this interview focuses on Meg's personal experiences at Mountain Park.

But at the end of the interview, we do discuss a homicide that happened at the school the year before Meg arrived.

Let's get into the interview.

So let's start kind of back before Mountain Park.

I'd love to get an idea of who you were as a young person and what was your life like growing up?

Well, I grew up in South Florida and I would say that I had a very good upbringing as far as, you know, like financial resources or good schools and things like that.

I think though, where unfortunately I was lacking was a lot of parental supervision or just kind of guidance and good role models in my life.

My mom ran the rape center for Broward County.

My dad remarried young, so he had a new wife, you know, new kids.

So my time with them was kind of more going out to eat with my dad or just random, you know, visits at his house.

But I already felt like kind of left behind.

So with my dad kind of with his new life, my mom helping other victims, which was amazing, but I always felt like my mom was kind of saving the world while leaving me behind.

I would go out with my mom late night if she was out drinking or other kids are at school, being able to focus on schoolwork.

I was like, well, man, I was out till 2 a.m.

last night at the bar, you know, with all of these adults.

And I got started, you know, drinking young.

My mom used to say, mixed drinks don't count.

So, you know, mimosa is not a drink.

Or, you know, these little baby beer cans they used to have back in the day, they were just like these little tiny beers.

So like that didn't count.

But in reality, when you're, you know, 12 years old and you're drinking, it just makes it hard to be able to really be who you're supposed to be at a young kid.

By the time high school rolled around, I didn't really feel much of a need to go anymore.

So I dropped out of high school.

I'm doing drugs.

I'm drinking.

I have really no parental supervision whatsoever in my life.

I did develop an eating disorder.

I was anorexic and bulimic.

So now I'm, you know, doing drugs.

I'm damaging my body and I'm dropped out of school.

So my life is pretty much just out of control.

And I'm a little angry.

I feel like as much as my friends, you you know, would joke and be like, oh man, you could really do anything and not get in trouble.

So, as much as it's like, oh, it's cool that my house is a house to hang at, I would feel sad at the end of the day when my friends would have a good house to go home to, you know, someone would have parents be there or a home-cooked meal.

So that you do tend to then, when you're alone, self-sabotage and spiral out of control.

And I just felt like my life really was kind of a free-for-all.

I got a little angry that my mom at one point had gone on vacation.

So I basically took some of her checks and I wrote them out to somebody I knew that was an adult and we started cashing them.

We went wild.

It is the summer before my sophomore year in high school.

I have nobody home.

I have unlimited, you know, finances.

We are just cashing checks left and right.

So we are buying clothes.

We had got someone to rent us a car.

So we were just really just having, you know, a lot of fun and enjoying life.

But by now, the bank has gotten involved.

They've reached out to my mom.

So, she comes back from her trip and she is just furious.

All of a sudden, now she wants to lay down the law.

And she's like, I can't believe you've been stealing money and you're just acting so wild.

And it's like, well, this isn't new.

You know, like, I've been living this way for now almost two years, but now that it's kind of coming down and everything is crashing, it's like, oh my gosh, like we have to do something about this.

The incident with the fraudulent checks seemed to tip the scale for Meg's mother.

All of a sudden, there were rules and she expected Meg to obey them.

And like most teenagers, Meg pushed back.

In 1997, when Meg was 15, she ran away from home.

This prompted her parents, who were divorced, to join forces and come up with a plan.

Meg's dad called her and told her they were going on a trip to visit her grandmother in Missouri.

Meg adored her grandmother, and so she was relieved and excited.

But once they arrived in Missouri, something felt off.

Basically, we're driving up kind of a dirt road and there's a lot of RVs and cabins around.

So I asked my dad, I was like, well, I thought they lived somewhere else.

And he's like, oh, no, they moved not too long ago.

We're in the middle of nowhere, Missouri.

So I walk in just completely expecting to see my grandma.

And instead,

I am greeted by a group of girls and they're very large girls it's not like they look like teenagers my age they look like very you know like oh are you 18 to 20 there's about you know six to eight of them and they're kind of standing blocking the whole entrance so it's like oh

okay My first reaction, honestly, is that it's somebody from home and something is happening.

You know, like I'm kind of being set up.

I didn't hang around with some of the best people.

So I think like I'm about to be jumped.

So I go to turn and I'm just like, dad, and somebody pulls him in another room.

So I'm worried for him, you know, and I instantly go to turn the door to run.

The doorknob, though, it's just turning.

The door will not open.

It is locked.

Meg described a moment of pure panic.

At first, she believed that both she and her father were in danger.

And then a man approached her.

He was in his mid-30s with a calm demeanor that unnerved her.

He was clearly the person in charge.

She would later find out that his name was Sam Gerhart, but he liked to be called brother Gerhart.

And he puts his hand on my shoulder and he's like, you're going to go with these girls for a few hours.

And of course I'm like, no, who the fuck are you?

Where's my dad?

What's happening?

And he's like kind of squeezing a little bit on my shoulder, like patronizing middle-aged man, you know, calm down.

It's okay.

And I'm just like, first of all, why are you so calm?

I'm freaking out.

And then the girls kind of start to close in a little bit more.

So I'm like, get away from me, pushing back.

And then he's like, well, we can either do this willingly or forcefully.

So as they go to kind of grab me, I, of course, instantly start fighting.

I am afraid.

I'm also though been through a lot.

So I'm pretty tough.

I feel like, okay, I'm, I'm not going down without a fight here, but I do.

They get me down to the floor so fast.

I went from a brave human being to instantly realizing that I absolutely like am nothing compared to their strength.

When you describe this scene, honestly, it feels like a scene in a horror movie a little bit.

I think you describe sort of your kind of freaking out, anxious energy really well, but like, what were you feeling in that moment?

Really terrified.

I mean, when you talk about a horror movie or just like being scared or if you've ever had this uneasy feeling, it was so much betrayal in one moment that sometimes it's hard to even grasp all of the emotions.

Because in that moment, I go from being excited to see my grandma, which you're like, oh, you know, I'm already mentally struggling.

I was on drugs.

I have an eating disorder.

My life was spiraling out of control as a kid or at any age.

Honestly, I think some person that takes you when you're at your lowest and embraces you just with a hug or it's okay.

It does so much for a human being.

And I needed that so bad.

And to think that I'm about to be warmly embraced by somebody that genuinely makes me feel whole and then to go from thinking something's happening to my dad like that fast.

Like, oh my God, some person, a stranger is harming my dad.

Granted, we weren't that close and our relationship wasn't that great, but at the end of the day, it's still my dad.

You know, I don't want him being harmed.

I'm afraid now what's happening to him.

And then within another split second to realize, not only is my dad allowing these people to come torture me, he set this up.

So you put that together in that moment that he had set this up, or did they say something to you, like explain why you were there?

Brother Gerhart, he had mentioned, you know, we're going to talk to your dad.

for a few hours while you go down with these girls and they're just going to kind of go over the rules and just kind of let you know about this place while we show your dad around.

And I'm just like taking that in, you know, like, what are you talking about talking to my dad?

Like, dad, let's go.

He's just sitting down.

He's not, hey, are you okay?

He's not trying to get to me.

He is making no effort to see if I'm okay.

He's just okay allowing this person to talk to me.

So where it didn't really quite.

all of the betrayal, you know, come into play that I grasped, it was the aspect of like, hey, why aren't you saving me?

Why aren't you coming out of that room?

What is happening right now?

Why are you just standing there watching this?

It's, it's a really difficult thing because you're like, wow, I thought this person loved me.

They're betraying me.

These strangers are attacking me.

It's a lot of emotion to even feel and to kind of grasp and realize at the same time.

Yeah, I can't even imagine.

I think you actually described it so well.

The sort of split second way that your brain was realizing, oh no, this is not random strangers attacking me and my dad.

My dad knows what's going on.

I don't know what's going on, but my dad clearly does.

And now you're thinking he's in on it.

And that's such a betrayal.

Yeah.

And as you had described, you were already in a really like vulnerable position, really needing love and support.

Where were you, basically?

What did you learn about where you were and what was going on?

So even then, it was kind of a lot to grasp.

You know, I stand back up and they basically kind of guide me, you know, like holding me, every person on each side through this basement and down a long hallway.

And then we go into this room where there's a whole row of sinks.

So there's just eight sinks in a row, and then a room full of about 35 bunk beds.

You know, they're kind of guiding me basically back.

They're holding me and they're like, you're going to sit in this chair and we're all going to sit around you.

And I was like, okay, well, how long?

And so my dad comes, like, what's happening?

When am I going to leave?

And that's when they start kind of just breaking it down as in, you're not leaving.

This This is going to be where you're staying now.

This is a boarding school for teens.

I grew up Catholic.

So as they start to kind of talk about their fundamental Baptist beliefs and the rules of the school, I really am just like, nope.

That won't be me.

I'm sorry.

Like, I'm not going to be staying or that sounds horrible.

Like, I go out.

I don't listen to Christian music.

I don't know what you guys are talking about.

At this point, Meg said, the adults were nowhere to be seen.

She was surrounded by female students.

Some of them told her they were orientation guides, which gave them more status and power than the other girls.

According to Meg, she learned the rules of this boarding school not from her parents, not from the adults who ran the school, but from these other students.

First of all, they all look like they are dressed completely alike.

You know, they have on high shirts or t-shirts and they're wearing kind of long shorts and they let me know they're culottes and that they either wear you know culottes or skirts all the time they love jesus they're there to worship him all the time i'm like what do you guys do for fun and they're like well we have bible study or we memorize the bible sometimes they'll let us out in the yard to play basketball and then i they like show me this yard kind of out by a window and it's just this huge chain link 50 foot tall fence and a basketball court on concrete and i was like so prison i was like is that what this is?

Is this a jail?

And I was like, you guys, it sounds like it.

You can't leave.

And they're like, well, we go to bed at nine.

And I was like, who goes to bed at nine o'clock?

Like, oh, don't worry, you'll be exhausted because they work us all day long.

So you get up at 5 a.m.

and I'm just like, oh my God.

And at one point, I asked to use the bathroom and I'm thinking like, okay, I'll just go to the bathroom.

They all stand up and follow me.

And even that, it is basically a room of just stalls with no doors.

So it's it's just all these toilets lined up with like little dividers in between, and then everyone can see you.

So I go obviously down to the end of the row by myself and they follow me and they're like, oh, we have to watch you.

And they didn't even have like curtains on the shower that you could see next door.

So you can write in my head, I'm just like, God, I hope my dad comes like back.

I hope like this was it.

You know, like this was the whole part of it.

Like, is this a whole scene that like it's going to end hopefully soon?

But instead, I was down there for over five hours.

You mentioned that these were all students that you were with, but that some of those students were also orientation guides.

What does that mean?

An orientation guide, basically, they are someone that is supposedly, you know, there to show you the ropes, but let's be clear, they're there to keep you in line.

If you were not doing your job as an orientation guide, you then would get in trouble.

So it was a double-edged sword as a position because you're excited that you have a higher position so you're maybe treated slightly better but now you're also enforced to be torturing this other human being which is really horrible and awful and then if you don't do it correctly you're still punished but as far as the orientation guide they're there to tell you everything this is what we do this is what you wear this is what you say if you don't do this correctly there's a punishment if you do do something wrong they are the ones that then hold you to the standard or make sure somebody else does which is difficult because again, you know, my orientation guide, she was very sweet, but at the end of the day, she still then is making me do certain things that you're just like, oh, you know, there are some people that got orientation guides that were absolutely just horrific.

There were people, you know, I think if any of us have ever seen, I think it's like the Stanford Project or people that get a higher position of power.

There are people that feel bad about it.

And then there were people that seemed like they genuinely loved torturing their new students.

Meg was at a place called Mountain Park Baptist Boarding Academy.

It was established in 1987 by Bob Wills and his wife, Betty Wills.

Bob and Betty Wills had operated a different teen reform program that had been shut down by the state of Mississippi.

It was called Bethesda Home for Girls and was founded by fundamentalist Baptist preacher Lester Roloff in 1972.

It was managed by Bob and Betty Wills.

In the 1970s and 80s, Bethesda became known in the area as the go-to place to send pregnant, unwed teenage girls.

The Wills promised to place their babies for adoption into Christian homes, and the whole thing was hush-hush.

The facility itself was in rural Mississippi, only accessible by a dirt road.

There was a federal lawsuit and state investigation into Bethesda after allegations of abuse arose.

Former residents claim they were physically abused and drugged at Bethesda and that their babies were forcefully taken from them after birth.

In 1987, state courts ruled that Bethesda operated as an illegal detention center.

They took custody of the remaining students there and shut the facility down.

That very same year, Bob and Betty Wills moved from Mississippi to Missouri and opened Mountain Park Baptist Boarding Academy.

This time, their daughter Barbara and their son-in-law, Sam Gerhardt, or brother Gerhardt, as Meg refers to him, joined them to run Mountain Park operations.

And a lot of the part of where I say the military part comes in would be from their son-in-law Sam Gerhart because he spent years in the military and he left the military and drove directly to Mountain Park.

He then started working there with his daughter and their two kids and implementing his military aspect in with the Christian thing.

So everything that he has just spent learning in the military, he decided to implement as far as, you know, waking up, going to bed, how you eat.

Yes, sir, no, sir, no, ma'am.

Drop down and give us, you know, 50 push-ups.

How was this legal for your parents to hand you over?

What documents did you later learn that they had to sign?

Not too long ago, I was able to find the actual contract that my parents signed, basically this like 88-page document saying we will turn over our child.

They sign over a power of attorney to these people and they sign this like 80-page, you know, something documented.

A minimum, we will keep her here a year.

You have all rights to her.

We are giving up everything of our daughter to you.

And then they pay like on this influctuating scale based on, you know, your parents' income, the tuition.

And that basically I allow by any means necessary, you to do whatever you need to get my child to comply, to obey by your rules.

All things basically go.

So you had to be there for a minimum of a year.

And at what point did they tell you, you know, you're going to be here for at least a year?

When my dad was kind of leaving, it's just kind of like, oh, this is your new home and this is where you're going to be and everything.

And it's really kind of other students that then are like, oh, you'll be here a year, but most parents make you stay to graduation.

And that's when you're just like, oh, are you sure?

But then everyone that's been there has been there a long time.

So then you think like, oh,

in the contract, it says you would forfeit the money for the year.

So irregardless, you can come get your child after a month, but you will be paying the whole year.

So I think that's where a lot of the kids, other two are just like, well, no one's going to come get you because your parents already paid.

And you're just like, oh my God.

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When my dad was saying goodbye, it was part of my argument that I was like, well, I don't even understand.

Like, my mom doesn't even know how is this happening.

Like, she would never allow this.

And that's where my dad was like, oh, well, she did sign off on.

She does know everything's okay.

And it took me a long time to really believe that aspect because, again, I grew up with my mom, who's this very independent woman, you know, Women's Hall of Fame.

She runs a sexual assault treatment center.

You know, she is like fought for like women's rights.

So to be in a place that is so anti-female, I did not believe that she really knew at all.

I was like, there's just no way this can't be happening.

But when like month after month or year goes by, you're like, okay, so you're just genuinely okay with what's happening to me.

I think for people who weren't there, it's hard to picture the specifics.

So can you kind of just walk us through like what a typical day would look like?

Just what did you do?

We went to school actually year round.

So if it was summertime school, we always went to school.

So we would get up at 6 a.m.

We were woken up by a safety patrol person.

Lights up.

Go, go, go.

And then you have literally two minutes from the time lights go on to hit the floor.

The first thing you had to start off your day was, you know, brush your teeth, go to the bathroom, and then you had to go make your bed, which obviously had to be, you know, hospital cornered, very crisp.

You were allowed one animal.

Your pillows had to be covered up.

So it's just every single thing that you did, there was some rule aspect to it.

You had 30 minutes then from the time we woke up and did everything to be a Bible devotion.

And then you had to line up for count and breakfast for the day.

You always had to be reading your Bible or memorizing your Bible memory while you were in line.

We would sing a song.

They would say a Bible verse.

So say they said John 3, 16, you had to know it.

So they would have staff members walking around while you're in line, making sure when they yelled the Bible verse that you knew it.

And if you didn't know it, you would get in trouble.

If you weren't singing along, you would get in trouble.

And then they would ask someone basically to pray.

And then after that, we would stand and wait in line, which even that the first day, I was like, why are all the guys going while we stand here and wait?

There were guys.

We weren't allowed to interact with them, but all of the men went first to eat first.

Then all the guy students, when we would be sometimes waiting in line for like an hour and a half, just standing there, being forced to read our Bibles while we wait for all the men to get their food.

And then we finally got to eat.

You had to eat everything that they gave you, basically.

After we ate even that, they had a tray checker, someone that would make sure you ate.

all of your food, that you finish everything and that you're not keeping any civilware.

So someone makes sure where the forks and the knives get put.

And these are just things things you don't even realize like are something that needs to be checked until someone is literally, hey, you left this on your plate or where's your fork?

And then after that, we would go back to the dorm and each person had a different job responsibility.

You would have a job that had to do with the kitchen aspect.

So maybe somebody that did the dishes or somebody that checked the food or whatever.

And then afterwards, you had a dorm job.

And we did our dorm jobs after every meal.

So after breakfast, lunch, and dinner, even if nobody used your job, you still had to clean it.

So if you had showers, you cleaned the showers three times a day.

If you had toilets, you scrubbed the toilets three times a day.

So every one of us had a job position that we had to do.

When we would get dressed for the day, we are wearing.

pantyhose.

You have to wear pantyhose every day.

You had to wear a long skirt two inches above the ankle, proper shirts.

They couldn't be more than two inches below your collarbone.

So you imagine like in Missouri wearing all of this stuff and then your job is outside crew, which is basically you're now having to sweep and be outside and do all this stuff with these, you know, Missouri summer heat wearing pantyhose and you had to wear dress shoes as you would, you know, like maybe like a loafer or something.

high heels, depending on the event.

And then we had a certain amount of time by the time you finish your chores, you had a quick moment to brush your teeth again and to get ready and to get to school.

To start out the school day, again, we pray some more.

Again, everyone stands up in front of this huge, you know, auditorium and we pray.

We do the Pledge Allegiance to the American flag and then we do a Pledge Allegiance to the Christian flag.

And then someone would give a little mini devotion again.

And then we would pray.

And then you'd begin your school day.

According to Meg, there was very little downtime the entire day.

Everything was scheduled.

And her orientation guide was with her, watching her all day, every day.

She said, if a student had to use the restroom outside of their scheduled break time, they would receive a demerit.

If you got three demerits in a school day, you would have to write what were called lines, which was basically they would either give you some form of Bible verse or some type of quote, which a lot of the times it was, you know, like, while a student at Mountain Park Baptist Boarding Academy, I will behave myself in a studious manner.

So you would have to write this, say, 350 times.

Your hand would be cramping and there is no downtime.

So you're having to find like in the shower any moment you can to really get this done.

And if you didn't get it done on time, they would double it or triple it.

Or then they would be like, well, now we're just going to take away, you know, like sweets or sugar, which then that means like if you have no sugar, you can't even have jelly on your peanut butter and jelly sandwich just because you couldn't complete your lines because you had to go to the bathroom because you were on your period.

You know what I mean?

Like this is the vicious cycle that they would just basically put you in to almost like keep you down all the time or that you feel like you just can't succeed or you're making mistakes.

We had to raise flags to get help.

So if you forgot your flag up, you can get a demerit.

If you wanted a drink, you got a demerit.

If you didn't push your chair in, you got a demerit.

So it was just kind of really.

a very stressful thing while you're trying to do schoolwork.

We would finish that out and then you had more chores to do again.

And then we would have like an hour downtime.

But in that time, you had to basically get your shower taken and do everything before dinner.

And then we would have dinner, do the count again, basically everything.

And then we would have Bible study, which again, then there would be like a male staff member always hosted Bible study.

And we would go do that for about an hour and a half, two hours.

And then after that, you had basically just enough time to get ready for bed.

Wow.

When you had had a phone call like with your mom or your dad, did you tell them what was going on?

Did you ask to leave?

How did that go?

First of all, you don't get your first phone call until you've been there between three and four weeks.

And then for myself, if your parents are divorced, you get seven minutes with each parent.

And that's once for every two weeks.

The phone calls are monitored.

There's somebody sitting there next to you, a phone monitor, who is not only listening to what you're saying, but they are timing you.

In the contract actually that our parents signed, it gives them a whole script sheet of if your daughter or son says this, you hang up.

If they say this, you hang up.

If they do this, hang up.

And it's already been instructed to me again by my orientation guide and by other people.

If you whine, you cry, they've been told to hang up.

So with several people besides my orientation guide and the other person sitting right next to me monitoring to me, I was terrified to say anything.

You want to say things and you're trying to almost like talk in code or like in between the lines of things that maybe they'll just pick up on, but you're so afraid to just outright be like, oh my God, please come get me because you just know they'll hang up.

They have created this environment of just total fear.

I felt like I was in fight or flight mode all the time, even at just the beginning, because it's like, my dad just left me.

Will anybody believe me?

Or can I say anything?

And they're really good about reminding you, all the staff, all the students, all the time that there's nothing you can say that's going to convince your parents to come get you.

There's nothing you can do to get kicked out of here.

This is just reinforced.

Like, I have heard this, you know, a thousand times in the first few weeks I've been there.

Meg told us that every once in a while, all of the female students would be gathered up.

She estimated this to be between 300 and 350 girls.

The purpose of these gatherings, from her perspective, was public humiliation.

Students would be called out by name and the staff would admonish them in front of all the other students.

And then the staff would encourage the other students to join in.

Meg said it became a dreaded event causing extreme anxiety for her.

She remembers once she was called out for something that she had mentioned to her dad during a phone call.

And all of a sudden, this one staff member is just like, oh what about megan richter what was she doing earlier and then before you know it this other staff member stands up and she's like i heard you were telling your dad about your stomach and complaining i didn't hear anything about this like you didn't come to medicine call and then i'm just like oh my god i was like oh i just mentioned to him sometimes i get cramping and then i'm getting in trouble and i was like how do you even know about this you know and my dad had called her and was like oh how come she's talking about her stomach and then one of the staff members like oh i heard her on the phone talking about her stomach.

And it was just like, oh my God, you know, that fast where your parent may think they're doing something good, it just made everything worse.

Other students then feel like they get praised if they say something negative about you, if you weren't making your Bible memory, if you weren't doing school, whatever this reason, they would just all of a sudden be like, hey, you.

So and so, stand up.

And then it'd be like, does anybody have anything to say?

Which can you imagine in high school, taking the whole high school and being like, who all wants to say something about Hannah?

Just letting people say whatever they want about you.

And it just being like, well, that's not true.

You shut up.

You don't get to say anything.

And even if it's not true, you can just go from being somebody that's actually doing good to like back on orientation.

That's how fast it just worked.

It really didn't matter your level or things you had possibly accomplished.

If somebody had a goal to take you down or if they felt that you weren't living up to their standard in a moment you would just be back at the bottom and that's what just made it so fearful all the time

yeah i mean that's horrible the public humiliation the power of a group coming against you and saying like you did something wrong is so scary at any time in our lives but certainly when you're a teenager what did that feel like if you remember times when that was directed at you you know what was that feeling when that would happen you couldn't ever relax.

You know, you just really didn't know what was going to happen.

I would practically have to like sit on my hands because I would be sweating so bad.

And you don't want then someone to think like, oh, are you nervous because you did something?

And you're like, I'm nervous because I didn't do anything.

Like, I have no idea.

Like, there is no truth here.

There's no one that's going to be like, oh, no, it's okay.

Even if it's just silly things, you know, like, oh, she likes to laugh too much.

And it's like, how is this something I'm being punished for?

And it's like, well, why do you think everything's such a joke?

And it's like, oh my God, I'm in hell.

I'm just trying to make things, you know, like manageable.

Yeah.

It's a lot of pressure, especially even then when you're an orientation guy, because you're worrying about somebody else's actions also getting you in trouble.

So it's just like, oh my God, I have to please so many people all the time.

And I just don't even know who I'm supposed to be sometimes at what moment to just get through.

this moment.

You had to basically become different people all the time for the different staff members, for the male staff members, for just whatever it was.

You just had to basically be a chameleon, which is really hard when you're trying to stay true to yourself.

Meg described an environment in which something as simple as a nervous laugh might land her in trouble.

She remembers the disciplinary measures, both physical and psychological, to be cruel and sadistic.

She witnessed a girl being held down on an anthill, the bites from the ants leaving permanent scars.

She also saw, on more than one occasion, staff using Brillo pads on students as punishment, rubbing their skin raw.

And not all of this was done by the staff.

She said students were forced to abuse and harm each other, otherwise they themselves would be punished.

They would make us run for miles.

People would be vomiting.

You know, you're out sometimes in the sun.

You're doing lunges back and forth for hours.

If you got sick, they would force you to eat your vomit.

One of the head people or people, they would take their fingers and just pound it into your chest, but other girls would hold you back while they were doing it.

One time, one of my new students, they were putting her in an ice bath, but then because she was my new student, I had to hold her in the bath.

So like I'm being forced in an ice bath.

And this isn't like, you know, how now people I feel like like to sit in an ice bath and recool.

This is, you know, you're in there for a long time.

We're turning purple.

I felt like my body was shutting down.

If you didn't comply in some way, they would physically force you to do whatever was necessary by any means, really, whatever they could to just get you to comply to the rules.

At the time, you didn't know how, but it was found out later they were drugging us with thorazine and it was found in people's blood.

And you're just constantly reminded that no one is coming to get you.

This is Danielle Fischel from Pod Meets World.

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In a lawsuit brought against Mountain Park in 2005, several former students claimed that they were drugged without their knowledge or consent while at Mountain Park.

They described being given pills by staff and forced to swallow them.

They also described feeling like zombies, gaining weight, not having their menstrual cycles for a long period of time, sometimes six to eight months, noticing orange and purple-colored urine, urine, and many more symptoms, all of which they also claimed cleared up within two weeks to a month of leaving Mountain Park.

It's important to note that their parents in this same lawsuit said they were told by Sam Gerhart that Mountain Park was a drug-free facility.

They were also told that their children would be treated humanely and that they would be notified of any changes in their children's health, but said that they were not.

One student in this lawsuit needed hearing aids.

She claimed she was not believed by staff for months and was punished when she could not hear directions.

You know, you just feel so degraded as a human being sometimes that even if it wasn't all physical all the time, the mental part sometimes almost felt worse.

If you've ever had just constant degradation, bring down of you as a human being, you just feel like you just can't even go on sometimes mentally.

You just feel so broken that you're just literally going through the motions of being there.

It sounds truly horrific.

And also, it sounds like it doesn't foster connection between the students at all because you're pitted against each other.

Yes.

Did you feel like you were able to make friends?

You know, I would tell people I feel like I communicated a lot with my eyes, you know, with certain people.

And I really would try as much as I could to help someone know, like, I equally don't want to be here, you know, or there are certain people that you feel like this connection with, and you're just kind of like, okay, we're getting through this together, but you're also just so afraid at any point to show that or your true colors or to worry, hey, will they tell something, you know, on me?

Or is this a trick?

You know, you just feel like skeptical all the times as much as you're trying to form a type of relationship if it's real or not.

What was the response if someone, one of the students, needed medical attention?

You know, you mentioned that you were having these stomach pains.

How was that treated by Mountain Park?

Well, I started experiencing a lot of hives and I was just in constant stomach pain and I was sick to my stomach.

So I went through one month of being sick for a few days and then kind of it went away.

The second month came and I was pretty sick.

They did take me to the doctor, but then they couldn't find anything wrong.

So then I kind of went through this for several months of just, I'm not feeling good.

I'm in constant pain, vomiting, but it would only last about four to five days throughout the month.

Sometimes it would take me to the doctor.

I would be feeling fine because it's not like, you know, a normal child where you're like, oh, sick, just go right away.

It's like, okay, we'll let somebody know.

We'll see how bad it is.

If you need to go.

So sometimes by the time I'd finally get to go to the doctor, I didn't even feel that bad.

So this went on for about a year that I would occasionally finally get to go to the doctor and then just go back to school.

And they had opened a sister school called Palm Lane, which was in Florida, which is only a few hours away from where I lived.

So occasionally even my mom or my dad would come over, bring me back to South Florida for some testing and then go back, which was just horrible in and of itself.

Because if anyone, most people, you go to the doctor and have an unpleasant procedure.

You want to go home.

You want to relax, like you want to take a bath.

But for me, it was like, oh, you did a colonoscopy this morning.

Okay, let's go back to hell this afternoon.

So I did this, like I said, for almost a year of just all of these like horrible tests and then going back to school and having to function like everybody else, which was really difficult because not only then would my parents be extremely rude to me and unpleasant, like you're wasting our time.

We drove all the way over here.

Or then, you know, the staff members would be like, oh, you're faking.

You just want attention.

And even some of the doctors had told my parents, are you sure she's not just looking for attention?

Maybe you should get her, you know, psychological help or see a therapist.

So you can imagine then my parents would relay this stuff to the staff members.

So I was just extremely ostracized and just punished even more for being sick.

You know, like, oh, maybe it's sin in your heart.

You need to get right with Jesus.

You're obviously lying about things.

And I was just like, oh my God.

And finally, it was a day before we were supposed to graduate finally from this place.

And I was just in so much pain that I couldn't even like participate or do anything.

And I was like, I'm begging you, please, like take me to the hospital or something.

So finally they take me and this doctor was like, you know what?

Let's just take out your appendix.

So the doctor removes my appendix and it turned out my appendix was fine, but I had a carcinoid cancerous tumor growing on it.

So then they were like, oh, you would have actually probably just died if we wouldn't have taken this out.

No one would have ever known.

And even that, where I thought there would have been some like relief or we're so sorry, we doubted you or thank God.

Instead, it was just like, okay, well, now what you think you're special, you know, because then I'm still at the school.

And then I'm like, oh, you must think you're so special taking all this time off for your doctors.

And it's like, to go to my oncologist.

So although it was like really horrible, it actually ended up being the thing to save me and to help me get out because then they just started making me feel so isolated and unwanted.

Like I was just so tainted now from being sick that they really more started pushing me out, if that makes sense, where before it was like trapping me in, it's now we're done with you in this aspect.

Were you 18 at that point?

I was actually now 20.

I was there until I was 20 years old, which I know it's confusing that most people think you just leave at 18, but until that point, they make it really so you can't leave.

They kind of force until you graduate, which I'm graduating.

I was graduating a year late from everything in their system.

But now then it's like I had stayed on as a staff member because I felt it's kind of indoctrinated in you that you graduate, you either stay or you go to a Christian college.

So I had stayed and your parents make you feel my parents like, you know, it's selling anyone made me feel like they wanted me.

to come home.

And I'm so brainwashed at this point that they, the people that run this place have made me feel this is where you're supposed to be.

This is what's required.

This is what's supposed to happen.

And anyone else I had seen show their true colors of not wanting to partake anymore, it doesn't go well.

All the doors are locked.

There's nowhere to leave.

They make that clear.

You know, this one person one time was like, I'm 18.

Let's go.

And they're like, okay, find an open door.

And there's no open doors.

Well, those are your parents' clothes and they don't want you to leave.

So you'd have to get naked.

Oh, there's a police officer waiting out front that's going to arrest you because because now indecent exposure.

They work with local law enforcement.

You know, even the local sheriff, his wife worked at the kitchen.

The whole aspect of the town involved and feeling like there's nowhere to go, that's it.

You have to remember, as much as many people think like you're an adult, you have free will, you don't think that.

You don't believe that.

Your parents have signed away your rights.

You are locked up somewhere and think like, what's to say?

They won't put me somewhere else.

And how long were you there in total?

I was there for a total of five years from ages 15 to 20.

And those are pivotal years.

Yes.

You know when you're becoming legally an adult.

And so yeah, it makes sense to me that your reality for so long was so skewed intentionally by them that by the time you were an adult, it still didn't really register.

I'm an adult.

I have free will.

It would have been difficult to leave.

I wanted to ask you about the involvement of the town, you know, the involvement of, like you said, the sheriff's wife.

Was there any sort of political affiliation or involvement with local politicians?

You know, it was a huge thing for them, even making us go like campaign for certain people that they would want to stay in office.

You know, so there were different times where, you know, everyone would have to put on these shirts, you know, for certain people in office and go door to door or go picketing for signs and be like, hey, make sure you vote for this person because they know if this person's in office, they're going to keep the school open.

It's a very vicious cycle of, hey, we go to this doctor.

Well, this doctor is going to want this school to stay open because you bring me thousands of patients a year.

It's a very, unfortunately hand-in aspect where then a lot of people, they know what's happening.

They don't want to say anything or like, how does this all benefit all of us?

You know, when you talk about being 18 and feeling like an adult, I think one of the most controlling things they did where most people feel like they have a voice is they controlled our voting.

Myself and several others that were 18, they put us all in a room, they gave us our absentee ballots, and they watched who we voted for and demanded who we voted for at that time.

You know, it's horrifying to hear that there were adults in the community that were aware of what was going on, that were willing to look the other way or participate in it.

They would even go and recruit people that way as well, like go to local churches and preach, you know, what they were doing.

And that is, you know, the same way that Lester Roloff got the Wills is the same way then the wills and the Gerharts would get staff members.

There's no background check.

There's no teaching involved, you know, just like whatever.

And what did you later learn about your accreditation as far as graduating?

They actually didn't even file with the Board of Education.

So basically once they finally did close down, you know, I think there were some people while they were still open that were able to get like their transcripts and at least have some of the stuff count towards their education.

But as far as really anybody else, once they shut down, there was no proof that we even went to school.

They didn't file with the Board of Education.

There's no record of anything.

So basically, after all of that, the four years I endured of having to go to their horrible education, you still have to get your GED.

None of it even mattered at all.

So we had to go through all of that for nothing.

Yeah.

So you had to then go get your GED.

And how much did your parents pay for you, monthly or yearly?

It was $1,500 a month.

And we're talking about 1997 to 2002.

Yeah.

Obviously, we know there's no easy way to get over trauma.

It's a long process.

How long did it take you to really start to unwind some of the things that had been pounded into your head?

When I left, it was a lot of still the fear of complying.

with what my parents wanted me to do.

You know, my mom was like, don't talk about it.

Just get over it.

I had met somebody in church.

I got pregnant right away.

And even that was instantly being pressured into marriage.

I felt like after my son started school, once he was in pre-K,

I felt like by getting my own group of people or meeting his teacher and realizing like other people being like, you're an amazing person.

You're a good mom.

Like I have your back.

I felt like it started giving me a little bit.

of myself back.

It's now like 10 years of just this abuse that I felt like it kind of like washed over me that I was like, I don't have to do this anymore.

I sold all of my belongings and got a great attorney and I got full custody of my son.

And I felt like that really started the first journey of like, wow, I do not have to take this anymore.

I was mentioned in a lawsuit.

through things with Mountain Park from being someone's orientation guide that it kind of then made me want to start processing and really started looking up stuff about the school, finding news articles.

And I felt like that was the first time, you know, that I not only realized like, oh, what the school was, like I had started knowing I'd been through stuff and like finding myself, but I just never really realized that other people thought that the school was this bad or that other people had the courage, you know, to sue them.

The 2005 lawsuit brought by five former students sued Bob and Betty Wills along with Sam and Deborah Gerhart.

The former students claimed that they were were both physically and mentally abused at Mountain Park.

It also alleges that Mountain Park was a for-profit organization that increased their profit margin by putting students in charge of each other through the orientation guide program, as opposed to hiring trained staff members.

This created an abusive environment in which kids were encouraged to physically harm one another.

Meg's name is mentioned multiple times in this lawsuit since she was the orientation guide to one of the students involved in the lawsuit.

It describes instances of Meg pushing and berating this student.

But Meg is not unique.

Mountain Park encouraged orientation guides to act this way to keep students in line.

Meg has had to process what was done to her at Mountain Park, but she has also had to process what she was forced to do to others.

You know, there's a lot of things you do in survival that it's not you.

You're just trying to survive.

And I always had felt so bad about what I had done to survive, you know, being an orientation guide or not leaving at 18.

You know, you feel so bad that sometimes you feel so ashamed of things you've done that I didn't want to talk about it, that realizing that even though I may have been a bad teenager or I partook in these things to survive, that does not make it okay what everyone else did to us.

They created an environment.

And I felt like hearing just females say, it's it's okay, or like, you're amazing, you're strong was the first time I really realized that it was okay to share.

And then to be brave enough to say, I did make a mistake, you know, in this moment or whatever you want to call it, when you're in survival, you're so afraid that I did have to become somebody else.

And yes, I was absolutely ashamed of who that person was in that moment.

That's not who I am.

And, you know, I don't have to feel.

the shame for what I did.

Other people created this.

They should feel ashamed.

I feel horrible, but in part of my feeling bad is sharing what happened, is helping other people not feel alone.

You know, somebody asked me one time, is there a day that goes by that I don't think about Mountain Park?

And there's not.

I wish there were, but there are so many things between a smell, a sight, seeing my kids grow up that it has made me realize just so much more about what I would do, you know, like how I am as a mom and just things that we went through and just how impactful those years were that to be able to take control of that trauma has been crucial to my life.

So when I'm reminded of certain things, it's not like, oh my God, I want to crawl in a hole.

It's like, oh my God, I'm so proud of myself.

That's such a good perspective.

And I imagine it takes a lot of work and time, especially when you were told so often.

that you were like bad or that there was something wrong with you.

It's hard to get those messages, you know, out of our heads, anyone who's told that, and especially told over and over and over and treated so horribly.

And you've also said that you have connected with a bunch of other people from Mountain Park.

How often are you speaking with people?

A good amount.

I feel like a lot of people are now processing a lot where I'm very thankful that I did process it a few years ago, where I see a lot of people processing it now, but it is very helpful to be able to speak with them and kind of relay certain things.

Or there's been, you know, a few people I've helped get in, you know, like a trauma center.

It can be mentally draining and sometimes it's really sad to see so many people still struggling and trying to navigate through it it's very sad but also very motivating like this is why i feel like i've taken on this kind of role like the spokesperson of people that went through mountain park to just share our story and it's been incredible how many people actually from the same article that you found me will randomly reach out from our boarding school and are like oh my god reading that made me feel like everything I've always felt, you said it.

And it felt so great to be able to show my loved one or my partner your article and just be like, this is what I've been trying to tell you about.

Mountain Park Baptist Boarding Academy was closed in 2004 amid scrutiny over the use of corporal punishment.

But eight years prior to that, in 1996, there was a murder at Mountain Park.

William Foutrell, or Will, was 16 years old when he was brutally murdered by two of his fellow students, one of whom was his orientation guide.

Joseph Burris and Anthony Rutherford, who were teenagers themselves at the time, were both sentenced to life in prison.

That was 1996.

One year later, Meg arrived at Mountain Park.

At the time, she knew about the murder, but she didn't know details.

She said it was used as a threat by staff.

She was told she had a better chance of dying than successfully running away from Mountain Park.

Years later, she finally looked into the details of the murder.

And to her, it seemed to confirm that Mountain Park created a dangerous and violent atmosphere where something like this could take place.

Will was Joseph's new student.

So Joseph was his orientation guide.

So their relationship already was that of Joseph having to constantly get Will, you know, to to comply.

Basically, the other person, Anthony, had said to Joseph one day, like, I can't do this anymore.

Like, we need to run away.

Like, we have to get out of here.

And the three of them and another person not mentioned in the lawsuit, all the four of them decided we're going to run away.

Today's the day.

At this time, weekend, when we're supposed to be stacking wood, let's get out of here.

So, as it's time to happen, and they're ready to go, Will changed his mind and did not want to leave anymore.

Anthony was like, No, like, we're leaving.

Joseph had been there less than a year before he got sent away.

His father had just passed away in front of him.

So he just was going through a lot mentally.

So when he heard, like, we are leaving, we are getting out of here.

He's like, that's all I could focus on that day was just getting out of there.

So when Will was like, I'm not, I'm going to go tell.

And unfortunately, in that moment, they did take his life in just pure fear of him telling on them, you know, and the thought that they were not going to get to be free.

Their goal was: if we get out of here, we can get the police.

Like, what can we do to get the school shut down?

Like, we just have to get out of here.

And then, when that did not happen and they did that horrible act, they instantly went and turned themselves in.

They said what happened.

The main person, Burley Gerhart, then called the sheriff.

They took him to jail.

His parents waived all rights.

They allowed the Gerharts to handle everything.

And then, you know, from there, they were sentenced to life.

They weren't even allowed to mention any of the situation in boarding school.

We're not talking about the school.

We're not talking about their mental well-being.

We are just mentioning these are two troubled teens that are locked up in our facility.

You know, it's easy to paint anyone, obviously, that's.

in a troubled teen industry as a troubled teen, even if they weren't, but especially if you had been in any trouble whatsoever.

So from there, then Joseph talked about his mom wasn't even there.

You know, when they interviewed him, she didn't make sure he had anyone else with him, you know, except Brother Gerhardt.

And they held him, I think it was over, you know, 20 something hours in questioning.

At that point, it just didn't really go well.

So when I reached out to him and just to find out more about it and if there was anything I could do, I always felt like he's just the one student still kind of trapped in captivity.

And it's like, I'm not condoning or justifying what you did with Will.

I just want people to understand how horrible these places are to create an environment that someone that has never caused harm to any human being in the world before.

And now all of a sudden you're committing murder, like what would create someone to go to such a 180 of who they are as a human being.

So I was able to actually go before the parole board.

He had an opportunity to be up for parole and I went to Missouri, which was my first time back after leaving Mount Barth.

and I was able to share my testimony before the parole board and just really help them understand, not speaking, you know, so much as, you know, his behalf or on him, but really truly just testifying as this is what Mountain Park was like.

You know, I was here for five years and this is everything I endured as a human being for the parole board to be like, oh my God, that's horrific.

You know, I can't believe these places exist.

So he was granted a release date.

So I do feel like, you know, it just was good even for other people, hopefully, to hear what that was like, what that would do to somebody struggling.

Yeah.

And has he been released yet?

Unfortunately, it was a four-year release date.

So he has one more year to go.

Yeah, I just really am grateful for you that you came on here and shared your story with us and everything that you went through, and that you're shedding more light on what happened at Mountain Park.

That was such a mind-blowing conversation with Meg.

I mean, she has clearly spent so much time and energy unpacking what she went through there.

And, you know, that's a really brave and difficult thing to do.

Yeah, I'm so glad she spoke with us.

There is some stuff about Mountain Park out there on the internet now, but there's not a whole lot.

People are starting to speak out about it, but I'm really grateful that Meg wanted to tell her story.

Yeah, and we should mention to listeners that Meg transferred from Mountain Park Baptist Boarding Academy in Missouri to a sister school called Palm Lane Academy in Arcadia, Florida.

We didn't go into that in the interview, but did want to note it.

Meg transferred to Palm Lane hoping that it would have better conditions, but it did not.

She was closer to her family when she was at Palm Lane.

So when she spoke about her parents then picking her up to go to her oncologist appointments with her, she was in Florida by then.

Palm Lane Academy closed the same time as Mountain Park in 2004.

Yeah.

I wanted to follow up about the lawsuit that we mentioned in the episode that Meg mentioned.

It was a civil lawsuit brought by multiple former students, all female students, Kaufman versus Mountain Park.

You know, there was a lot of allegations in that lawsuit.

We mentioned some of them in the interview.

These students all alleged that they were physically and emotionally abused.

And there was also allegations that they were drugged against their will and without their knowledge.

So I did look more into that civil case and I spoke with an attorney who worked on the case and represented Mountain Park, one of the attorneys who represented Mountain Park.

And he told me that they did go to a trial.

They had a jury trial and ultimately the verdict came back in favor of Mountain Park, the defendant.

It's just like, how is that possible?

Yeah, I'm not sure.

I wonder if they didn't have enough physical evidence.

I don't know, you know, how you would prove that they were drugged.

So ultimately, that was what happened with the case.

There was one count of battery against one of the students that the jury did come back and say this did happen, but they didn't award any damages.

So none of those students got any money from that.

The teacher was charged with battery.

Battery.

Yeah, it was actually...

Betty Wills.

Betty Wills, okay.

Bob Wills's wife.

Right.

So they took over after Lester Roloff, who founded the school.

They were like like the head honchos.

Yeah.

And so battery is not as like serious, I guess, in the courts as like abuse, but it was $0

damage.

So they did say that they acknowledged that that happened.

So I just wanted to be clear about that.

When I asked Meg about this civil suit, because as we mentioned in the episode, she was listed in the suit.

Her name was listed because she was the orientation guide to one of the students who brought this suit.

And Meg said that she knew two of the girls and that when this was happening, she had left Mountain Park.

She had a young child.

Her life was still kind of chaotic.

And at the time, she said a private investigator came to her home and she said, you know, threatened her not to participate in this civil lawsuit, not to testify.

And Meg didn't, you know, she was scared.

She was still trying to like find her footing.

So she did not participate.

There was one other civil lawsuit against Mountain Park and the Wills's.

Federal jurors and Cape Girardea awarded a student named Jordan Blair $20,000 for allegedly being shoved against a sink by a staff member.

But that was the only thing that came up with the civil lawsuits.

Damages are so important in civil suits because it's like, how else do you make a business a little more scared of not abiding by the law or mistreating students in this case?

A slap on the wrist, what does that mean to a school who's using corporal punishment sort of under this disguise of Christianity?

Yeah.

It's also just the more we know about trauma over time, a lot of these students, they left and they were dealing with it for years and are still dealing with it.

So being able to have resources to go to therapy.

I don't know, that's just really important.

And damages would help a student with that.

So I think that's another aspect.

Yeah, it's huge.

Well, that was a really powerful episode.

You know, we did talk about the murder that happened at Mountain Park at the very end of the episode.

We talked about that with Meg.

And we were going to cover that at the end here, but there was a lot to go into.

So we're actually going to talk about it next week.

On an off record.

We, true to form, just thought, let's find what we can online.

And Hannah ends up calling the courthouse and going through about 700 pages.

So we will be able to do a deep dive with you guys.

Yeah.

When we were like, we're not going to do homework for these off records.

It's like, well, I don't know.

Somehow I find myself reading through hundreds of court documents because I can't help it.

Yeah, can't help it.

And you know, when Meg's story was already so intense, and then to learn about the murder, it was like, okay, well, this is part of her story and her unpacking what she really did go through.

And we needed to sort of know more to really talk about it.

Yeah.

So join us next week on the off record and we will fill you in on that.

Thanks for listening.

If you have a story for us, we would love to hear it.

Our email is thenife at exactlyrightmedia.com or you can follow us on Instagram at theknife podcast or Blue Sky at the Knife Podcast.

This has been an Exactly Right Production, hosted and produced by me, Hannah Smith, and me, Patia Eaton.

Our producers are Tom Breifogel and Alexa Samarosi.

This episode was mixed by Tom Breifogel.

Our associate producer is Christina Chamberlain.

Our theme music is by Birds in the Airport.

Artwork by Vanessa Lilac.

Executive produced by Karen Kilgareth, Georgia Hardstark, and Danielle Kramer.

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