Continuing Coverage: Former students of boarding school in Ohio Co. share their experience

14 news.com ^ | January 4, 2023 | Jordan Yaney

[Morgana]

DUNDEE, Ky. (WFIE) - Kentucky State Police recently arrested three family members who ran a boarding school called Pilgrims Rest Ministry and Reconciliation in Ohio County.

Kelly, Jonathan and Amanda Vanderkooi are each facing abuse charges.

After their arrest, former Pilgrims Rest students are speaking out about the abuse they say they endured in their time at the school.

Ezekiel Umali spent more than a year at the private boarding school. He says the school’s founder Kelly Vanderkooi regularly got physical.

“He grabbed him by the neck from the front, then he picked him up and he slammed him,” Umali said.

Carlos Walsh says he had similar experiences. He was a student at the school from 2007- 2019. He says he broke a rule during his first few days there.

“I was six-years-old,” Walsh said. “This is like a 230 pound man lifting a 30-40 pound six-year-old kid off the ground and he just started shaking me and screaming, and it was with one arm. I remember vividly,” said Walsh.

The former students say the “punishments” came in many different forms.

Walsh says he and his classmates were forced to bear crawl through the woods.

“We would come up when we were told to get up. We would marks left on our hands. We would have cuts. We would have thorns stuck in them,” Walsh said.

Umali says he was forced to hold an upright push up position for a 45-minute bus ride or lay face down on the bus with hands behind the back. He says the ride was usually bumpy, leading to his head smacking the unclean bus floor.

Both students say the abuse wasn’t just physical.

[Boogieman]

“He remembers at one point, over half of the students were from Washington. He says they were all referred by the same therapist.”

Betcha that therapist was getting kickbacks for every referral.

[Nifster]

I hate places like this

[napscoordinator]

I’m shocked they still have such nasty places in today’s modern America. You think they would ban them. This is what Congress should be looking at. Not the nonsense they do look at.