The adopted son of former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin says he was abandoned in Jamaica after being rescued from a school accused of abusing its students.
During his tenure from 2015 to 2019, the Republican and his wife Glenna often spoke of their four adopted children from Ethiopia and their desire to reform Kentucky’s “broken” adoption and foster care system.
But one of the couple’s adopted sons, aged 17, has now claimed he was abandoned by the Bevins after being rescued from the Atlantis Leadership Academy for troubled teens in Jamaica in February.
The boy, nicknamed Noah for his privacy, was one of eight American children between the ages of 14 and 18 who were removed from school after a surprise inspection uncovered horrific abuse, authorities said.
Noah said The Sunday Times Last month, as other parents traveled to Jamaica to pick up their children after the school was raided, the Bevins failed to show up and he was made a ward of the Jamaican state.
The Bevins, who also have five biological children, have yet to respond to the allegations.
When asked why the Bevins adopted him, Noah replied, “public image.”
The Bevins, who also have five biological children, did not respond to the allegations when contacted by the Kentucky Lantern.
Noah was reportedly sent to another facility in Florida after Bevins lost re-election in 2019.
Last year he was sent to a boarding school in Jamaica. His whereabouts are currently unknown, but he is no longer in Jamaica.
The Bevins are going through a contentious divorce after 27 years of marriage.
The school describes itself as “the ideal environment for a young person to move away from a chaotic, fast-paced and destructive path towards a calm, sincere and refreshing new beginning.”
But teenagers who were rescued from the boarding school have spoken of allegedly being beaten, put in stress positions for hours, forced to exercise until they vomited and even subjected to waterboarding.
Former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin’s adopted son says he was abandoned in Jamaica after being rescued from a school accused of abusing its students
The Atlantis Leadership Academy is located in Treasure Beach, along the southern coast of the island.
“There were things that caused me constant pain or suffering,” one 15-year-old former student told NBC. “Like being starved; when you’re so hungry that it hurts, or so thirsty that you’re about to pass out, that’s worse than a beating, in my opinion.”
The school’s founder, Randall Cook, has not been charged. He has previously defended the school and denied the boys’ allegations.
But several students have since described being forced to sit on a stool for hours without going to the toilet and being beaten if they moved.
Staff threw buckets of water in his face, according to the 15-year-old. Another boy described being sprayed with a garden hose in his nostrils so violently that he couldn’t breathe.
Boys were also forced to exercise for two hours every morning by running laps or doing hundreds of push-ups, and were beaten if they stopped, according to former students.
“They would whip you, they would hit you with pipes,” said James, 18, one of eight teenagers expelled from the school. “But if I told anyone, I was afraid the rest of the staff would attack me.”
During his tenure from 2015 to 2019, the Republican and his wife Glenna often spoke of their four adopted children from Ethiopia and their desire to reform Kentucky’s “broken” adoption and foster care system.
Pictured: Generic images of young people at the academy. The religious school specializes in helping teens overcome anger, depression and substance abuse.
She added that food portions were routinely reduced as a form of punishment and described the school as “a hell in paradise”.
The teens added that Cody Fleischman, 16, who has Tourette syndrome, ADHD and OCD, was systematically singled out for some of the worst treatment.
Disturbing images show the teenager’s dramatic weight loss in just seven months at school.
“There’s nowhere to go,” said Michael McFarland, a lawyer representing his family. “You’re in a remote part of the country where you don’t know anyone and you’re being watched at all times.”
In December, James said some of the boys tried to escape to the U.S. Embassy but were quickly picked up by staff and then allegedly beaten.
Paris Hilton, who has fought against the troubled teen industry since experiencing it herself, flew to Jamaica to support the boys and spoke out against the school.
Her mother and Fleischman’s mother said they were notified their children had been removed from school on Feb. 11 when they received a call from the Embassy.
Fleischman then reached out to Paris Hilton’s 11:11 Media Impact, which campaigns for greater scrutiny over the types of institutions Hilton herself was sent to.
The heiress flew to Jamaica to show her solidarity and demand the closure of the school.
“When I heard about what eight American children had suffered at the hands of a center for troubled teens in Jamaica, I knew I had to drop everything to show my support for their testimony,” she said.
He said the boys had reported being “violently beaten, whipped, waterboarded and deprived of food”.
“I am outraged that it takes months to bring these children back to the United States and only minutes to send them away in the first place,” she said.