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Student rumor sparked incident
By KAREN NELSON
THE SUN HERALD
Posted on Mon, Apr. 11, 2005
LUCEDALE - Eagle Point Christian Academy, formally known as Bethel Boys Home, was struggling Sunday to keep the grounds quiet after cadets erupted into a riot Friday.
The private boarding school for delinquent boys, which has a long history of trouble, operates under a Chancery Court decree and is monitored.
George County Sheriff Garry Welford said Sunday that four cadets ran away and his deputies returned three to the academy Sunday afternoon. One was still at large as of 8 p.m. Sunday.
School officials brought in Mississippi Security Police, a private company that has experience dealing with juveniles, on Saturday to help keep order. But Welford said he kept two deputies on the grounds until Sunday morning.
"My role is to try to maintain some kind of peace and order and keep the community around Bethel safe if they break out," Welford said. "Any riot, we have to help suppress it, which we did Friday night. The staff helped us."
He said the school has 122 cadets from ages 12 to 17. He had to enlist 12 George County deputies over the weekend to deal with the situation that began at 11 p.m. Friday. By 3:30 a.m. Saturday, all cadets were accounted for, he said.
By Sunday, Welford said he notified the state Department of Human Services, even though there were no allegations of abuse. He said he requested assistance to move the boys but got no response, partly because the school is a private business and the issue is with juveniles.
"The kids really don't like it down there," he said, but he is not critical of the school or its management.
Welford called the state fire marshal in to check the dorm and notified the state Department of Health.
A total of nine boys were sent to the Forrest County Juvenile Detention Center for being uncooperative with deputies - six Friday night and three more Saturday afternoon. Six cadets were treated and released and one was hospitalized after the riot.
"It was definitely a riot," Welford said. "They were breaking things, tearing things up. They broke the windows out of one dorm upstairs. They pretty well trashed it."
He said they stopped up the toilets upstairs and flooded the downstairs and destroyed security cameras.
"Right now, things are still chaotic on the scene because of the barracks situation," Welford said. The school can't use the barracks and are having to house cadets in the school building.
Cadets told Welford that the riot started from a rumor that there would be a state inspection of the school. Welford said some cadets decided to make the school look as bad as they could.
He said the nine boys held in Forrest County would be returned to George County for an appearance in juvenile court today or Tuesday.
Only an answering machine took calls on the school's listed telephone number Sunday. John Fountain, the owner of the school who was out of town during the riot, had returned by Sunday but could not be reached for comment.
Karen Nelson can be reached at 769-5480 or at klnelson@sunherald.com.