i'm craig melvin, and this i dateline my parents were supposed t help these kids. you would expect this to be good, christian place. no parent would have sent thei child there, knowing wha happened >> what was it like in there >> it was hell i was sexually abused. >> there >> yes, sir. i felt like i was nothing. >> there were numerous concern about abuse going on at this facility >> my dad would pick a girl up by her neck, throw her to th ground >> he would trip you and shove

you. >> you knock her out >> yes, sir. >> i mean it >> i just posted the tiktok. >> knock her out >> it just blew up >> these allegations need to b looked into. >> how could i do this to my child, thinking i was helping her >> your parents deny everything, and he said it's not true. >> what was going on was wrong something needed to be done. >> hello, welcome to dateline. on the surface, circle of hope school appears to be a refuge, where so-called troubled girls can receive a christia education. some students said, behind closed doors, they suffere abuse. their secrets remained in th shadows until an unlikely ally launched a quest to bring it t light. here is keith morrison, with "a broken circle."

>> the sky is endless here, at the end of the californi desert it's her heaven, so far from the tree tangled sky, where sh grew up. the woods of missouri. and the yellow farmhouse, wher the story begins her father's farmhouse, hi school do you love your dad >> i do love my dad. >> are you afraid of him >> i am scared of my dad >> what a strange, strange thing. to love the person you'r afraid of, the father you are afraid of >> at one point in time, i wasn't afraid of him -- >> but she was in which she is now either, which is wh she's come back all these year later, to the woods in the old farmhouse, at her dad's school but, we begin, years ago, an

far away, in a place calle faris, texas teresa tucker, a single mom of three was, no other word for it, desperate. it was about her middl daughter, ashley, spiraling ou of control what were you worried about? >> drugs and rebellion very mouth-y, and so, i didn't know where to turn >> how old was she at the time >> 16. >> on that december weekend of 2014, ashley was getting kicke out of the ad another rehab. so, teresa called her best friend, the pastor's wife, for help >> it was my pastor and hi wife that told us about circle of hope. >> circle of hope girls ranc

and boarding school. it was in missouri, on a farm. the students followed a strict regimen of chores, school work and bible study. was it important to you that you go to a place where ther was going to be some spiritual help >> at this point, i didn't really care. i just needed her to have help >> there are hundreds of private residential facilities across the country, promisin to reform trouble teams. they range from wilderness programs to therapeutic voting schools, to boot camps then, there are those whos lessons derived from a ver particular, religious point of view circle of hope was run by married couple boyd and stephanie householder at the heart of their program, they said, was a strict, important protection of th king james bible >> she was going to ge schooling, and she was going t get counseling this householder was a nurse

and she was going to facilitat her medications. >> most important of all perhaps, they had a free bed and could take ashley for just $100 a month to teresa, it felt like miracle of sorts she signed a contract, committing ashley to 18-mont stay, and then, she said goodbye. the pastor and his wife drov ashley to missouri >> what was it like for you on the trip to that place >> i was scared. i was really nervous i didn't know what to expect my pastor and his wife kep telling me everything is going to be okay you're going to get the help you need >> what were your firs impressions of the place >> when we first got there, it was at night it was really dark >> and there they were, in the dark, she said, waiting. boyd and stephanie householder waiting up for her >> they were nice, they were sweet, they were laughing, joking you know, i was like, okay this is a really good place. i'm actually going to get help here >> pas and his wife left, said ashley

the householders changed >> they went from smiling an laughing to just straight face and that was it. they didn't show many emotions or anything. >> ashley didn't exactly kno why, but she suddenly felt ver afraid she stepped deeper into th farmhouse, into a world of fear what was it like in their? >> it was hell it was scary you were alone it was basically, while you're in there, survival >> what was really happening a that ranch tales of terror from the girls on the inside. coming up -- >> they had girl scrubbing the floor with toothbrushes. >> unless you are physically laying in bed to sleep, you ar standing and you are facing th wall >> all, day every day? >> all day, every day. >> i was like, what is this? >> when dateline continues ♪ always satisfying ♪ ♪ gimme blue diamond! ♪ ♪ crunchy, tasty, sweet or savory ♪ ♪ always satisfying ♪ ♪ gimme blue diamond! ♪ ♪ crunchy, tasty. sweet or savory, ♪ ♪ always satisfying, gimme- ♪ blue diamond almonds.

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daughter tool religious reform school minute tiny community called, humansville, missouri, run by stephanie and boy householder. teresa, did you have any ide what was happening in that place? >> no, i had no idea >> amanda householder, however did. she knew that very well. boyd and stephanie are her parents. >> was your dad well suited to this kind of work? >> yes, because he was a drill

instructor it was second nature to him to just put people in their place >> before he started working i reform schools, would househol or had been a marine, a traine of marines amanda had idolized her strong commanding father. >> when i was like two or three, i was daddy's little girl. >> he takeover drives in his jeep, she said listen to music together but, things began to change, said amanda, when her mother persuaded the extra sergeant t start going to church. there are many versions of christiane it he, of course. this one - do you member what the sermons were, like oh with the preaching was? like >> a lot of the sermons i remember were a lot based on fear and burning in hell for eternity >> and some, she remembers talked about how to discipline children how to beat the scene out of them >> it was to spare the rod

spoil the child. >> it was through someone he met a church amanda that got his first jo at a chris reform school the family later moved t missouri, where boyd worked at a gossipy, a boarding school for rebellious boys. in 2006, when amanda was 15, h decided to open his own school only this one would be fou girls. well is this place like, thi physical house, the location >> it was just a very rundown, homely place >> dna had drake told us he wa she was in there when she wa in tenth grade would you been doing committing crimes? >> i have never committed crime. my mom found out that i ha become sexually active and tha i had tried marijuana for th first time >> maggie drew arrived in 2007 when she was 15. >> nobody was smiling. i saw the girls and everybod was so quiet i was like, this is so dismal.

what is this >> maggie said the girls wer afraid from the minute the woke up. >> it was immediately get up hurry, get dressed, ge downstairs >> for bible starry. and then, chores bizarre chores >> they had girl scrubbing the floor with toothbrushes. they had the girls wiping wall down they had us picking weeds in the middle of the heat, al day. >> they would say, you know, the bible says this, the bible says that. no, that's your interpretation of the bible that's not with the bibl really says. >> you talk back to them lik that >> no. no, no, no >> why >> because if we did, we got punished >> punishment. in fact, it's right here in th handbook

boyd householder promise t help reform especially difficult children by imposing biblical discipline. dna said it didn't seem so biblical to her. >> he would sit in his chair like this, and say, pushups, and they would start doing pushups. he would kick their hands from underneath them. >> another punishment he called, standing on the wall >> unless you are physically laying in bed to sleep, you ar standing and you are facing wall >> all, day every day? >> all day, every day. you have to eat, like, you'd b given one of those old schoo plastic lunch trays. -- and just hit their trays and their food would go everywhere >> boyd householder denied that he said he did not girls dow while they did pushups either. but those weren't the only kin of stories we heard. we spoke to more than a doze former students and thre former staff members, whos experience spanned more than a decade

all of them told us that boy householder did in just subjective students chores pushups and other creative punishments. no, they said, he wa physically abusive >> he would go behind girls an grab them by the base of the neck, behind their neck, lik this, like right a behind your ears almost, and he would put foot out and trip you and shov you, follow down, and shove yo with force >> carpet, gravel. the floor of the chicken pan it didn't matter, said maggie. >> at that point, he put his fist on the side of your head, and one in the middle of you back so you couldn't get up. >> there was more, said maggie boyd ordered some of the girls to help to put their weight on the students pressure points and they did >> it was up one of thos things where it's like a dog eat, where if you fight your way to the top and do what you're told, then it's going t come back at you >> dna said she found that out the hard way just once, when she tried no to press too hard on the gir

she was helping restrain >> he dropped his knee on to of my elbow, and once he did that, and pushes way on top of me, the girl then starte screaming and he looked at m and told me, if she wasn't screaming like that, once he let go of me holding her, but was going to be laying next to her until i peed myself, and said i need to make decision of who sought i was on >> the household or they did restrain students when the were violent but never deliberately inflicting pain and amanda well, these girls were her age some of them could've been her friends. except, amanda wasn't student. and sometimes she was the on handing out discipline

>> i know i had power trips. i know there were certain girl my dad favored over me and i didn't like them, so i treated them, in the sense, just push, give me 25 >> things she said, think sh did, things her father wante her to do. who's side was amanda on >> coming up, a stunning new allegation >> i was sexually abused >> there >> yes, sir. >> what happens to you and that's going on? moderate-to-severe eczema. it doesn't care if you have a date,... ...a day off,... ...or a double shift. make your move and get out in front of eczema... with steroid-free cibinqo. not an injection,... cibinqo is a once-daily pill for those who didn't respond to past treatments. and it's proven to help provide clearer skin and relieve itch fast. cibinqo continuously treats eczema whether you're flaring or not.

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circle of hope thumps clim into a bus on highway 13 to a church, wit a tower and white steeple. marine baptist church. then the girls walked inside just in their sunday best an church smiles. the smiles were fake sai maggie >> we did whatever we had to make him happy >> amanda watched it all she knew what the students wer hiding, how her dad treate them behind closed doors what was it like to see your dad punishing other kids >> i think that, to me, is the

most traumatizing part because to me, it was just normal. >> amanda told us, her dad never spare the rod, beating her regularly as a child, usin his belt after church. but hearing the girls scream as they were being punished. >> when you think of souls burning in a lake of fire fo eternity, that's with thes girls sound like >> and the screaming i especially hard to forget, she told us. because she helped her dad >> as a 15 year old, i was forced to restrain the girls the same way my dad would. >> how did i make you feel >> i stopped i refused to go, when they yelled i would add to make lunch fo dinner or had dishes to do >> did you ever tell you that, just go easy, go on thes young's kids >> i never had the guts. i never had the guts >> when she was 15, she trie

running away, failed her diet father did no punishing her, but after that, she said things changed fo her. >> i was put on the wall every time my dad walked past, me was yelled at. i couldn't use the bathroo without permission i wasn't allowed to eat unti my parents brought me food i could not leave the wall outside of mud as office >> just standing, facing the wall >> just ending, facing the wall >> how long? >> two months. >> amanda was not like the other girls. no one would pick her up and take her away. so, she counted the days until she was old enough to leave. and in 2009, when she was 17 she moved in with her grandma. and then, across the country to california. a new life, a fresh start. >> i had a really good job i had my own apartment, i wa doing everything a person does >> even so, she wasn't quite

ready to turn her back on he family not yet, anyway. in 2011, after her paren posted negative comments about the school online, it migh surprise you who it's laos dissed defender was. >> you were online, defendin your parents, right? why are you doing that >> i don't know, other than kind of felt guilty that it wa my family. so, anytime that people woul say something, i just felt the need i didn't want my dad to go t jail i don't know how to explain it other than that. >> and you have to understand, there were some stories sh never heard back then. she never met ashley tucker. the teenager from paris, texas who arrived at the ranch i 2014 >> behind closed doors, wa just as kids, they wer monsters >> actually said it was in tha culture of fear that the worst

thing happened to her. >> i was sexually abused >> there >> yes, sir. >> the boy was amanda's younge brother, she told us, he was 1 on the time. she said it happened while she was doing chores in one of the buildings on the farm. >> he walked over there, h grabbed me, he pushed me u against one of the walls, an he actually ended up raping me right there. >> what happens to you and that's going on? >> i felt disgusting i felt like i was nothing. i felt like i was never goin to be able to get out of tha place. >> she told no one couldn't tell her mom, she said, because when she got calls fro home, someone was always listening. >> they would have their thumb over the little hang-up biden. >> but then, a few months into her stay, actually took chance she told her mother that she was losing a lot of weight >> - so i called back, what's going

on well, she's being rebellious so we put it back on the phone and that's when ashley finally said, they're starving me. >> and the phone cut out again teresa had heard enough. as soon as she, could she go in her car and drove from texa to missouri, to see for hersel what was going on inside tha yellow farmhouse >> coming up - >> i'm not going to lie, i hated my mom i hated her. i couldn't stand or >> feel guilty? >> yeah. you know, how could i do thi to my child? thinking i was helping her >> when dateline continues ♪breeze driftin' on by...♪ ♪...you know how i feel.♪ you don't have to take... [coughing] ...copd sitting down. ♪it's a new dawn,...♪ ♪...it's a new day,♪ it's time to make a stand. ♪and i'm feelin' good.♪ start a new day with trelegy. no once-daily copd... ...medicine has the power

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warning that a secon atmospheric river is on its wa to california. it's expected to hit monday an could be more powerful than th last this comes as the state deal with a levee breach evacuation and emergency rescues due to

heavy rains. and two sisters from texas and a friend are missing in mexico u.s. authorities said on frida that they have not been seen since last month when entering the country to sell clothes at a flea market. now, back to dateline. amanda's dad, boyd - welcome back to dateline, i am craig melvin >> during that call sh believed it was monitored. ashley informed her mom to reset that she was being starved. teresa immediately hit the roa to bring her daughter home and alert the authorities. what have been next? would leave this distraugh mother stunned back to keith morrison wit broken circles >> theresa tucker left her

texas home before dawn to reac her daughter's school in rural missouri ashley, she wa [crowd chanting] sure, was in trouble teresa had never laid eyes o the folk ranch before. >> when we pulled up, i wa astonished like, wow, this i it, really she had been so desperate to find ashley somewhere safe she sent her there on blin faith. she did not like what she saw. >> when ashley came, i've seen her -- >> take a deep breath. >> [crying] she had lost s much weight. so i hugged her and told her we're going home before they left, said teresa, boyd householder handed he this document. >> i had to sign a paper tha physically stated that she was not sexually abused an

physically abused their. >> what a curious thing for person to have you sign. >> did actually tell you on th way home what she had been there? >> it was a very long eigh hours. >> i told her basics i did not really go into details. it was too hard. >> the household or some denie ashley story of rape, and sh told us as awful as it was, sh considers him a victim to, o the world he grew up in. she was, at the time, less forgiving of her own mother. >> i am not going to lie, hated my mom i hated her. i could not stand or i could not stand looking at her. >> feel guilty >> yeah -- [crying] how could i do this t my child, thinking i was hopin her? >> teresa did not want it to happen to anyone else. ashley baker, don't report the

alleged rape, so she didn't. but teresa did call chil protective services cps an told them about ashley's other allegations of physical abuse. >> they stated that they wer going to do and check th facility and all that. once they got back with me they stated that they did no see anything there is nothing they could do >> teresa contacted th sheriff's office to, same story, nothing happened what theresa did not know is that she was far from the firs or only person to make a complaint to authorities about the circle of hope a mother told us that sh reported to school a year afte it opened. as time went on, police record show, more relatives and students told stories of abuse about a girl covered in bruises, a runway who said she wa choked by a boyd householder and another runaway, four year later, said that boyd an grabbed her by the throw

and several times, child protective services went on to visit, except -- >> i was told that if i woul say anything negative that m life would be made miserable >> boyd told - before they talked to cb investigators. they were sure that he was listening, they said eavesdropping from his offic on the other side of the wall. >> i remember being asked like are being -- people being starved, and i wa like, no i was literally terrified abou what would happen to me if i will start being the perso that would starve next because nothing ever came out of these >> amanda told us that her parents had another way of handling investigators too >> i was told one cps came downstairs to take the girls outside and basically hide the girls from cbs >> you hit the girls from th authorities who will check o whether or not they were okay? >> yes >> your parents said they ha an open door policy with cps they can come in anytime, wa

that not the case? >> cps could come in, but like i said, i had to hide them >> amanda's parents denied that, so they never it students from cbs. they said they pulled the girl to be honest with investigators, and in any case, none th reports effort resulted in any action the school prosper and parents like teresa had no way o knowing about the complaints over the years >> we have no regulations on any religious facilities and the state of missouri. >> none? >> none, none, none. >> carrie angle is a missour state representative and forme social worker. >> you these places even had t register with the state when they open up >> no, we have no abilit currently to even know about their existence, so i could no even tell you how many of thes institutions exist in the stat of missouri? >> they're visible >> correct, until something ba happens. >> and it's not just missouri.

a few one nbc news investigation found gaps i regulation around the country, with at least 21 states that did not require religiou boarding schools to tell their education departments that the exist. >> so who is looking after these kids >> currently >> yeah. >> i would say that there ha been a lot of buck passing >> systems once entrenched cruel once especially, could seem unbeatable and impervious to change and then, one little thing, like the first crack in a dam. >> coming up - >> fresh allegations of abus from boys. >> i'd watch him grab students and jump into a wall, grab the by the neck and slammed them o the rocks outside, get in thei face, yelling and screaming. >> when dateline continues

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it can make your workday feel impossible. the virus that causes shingles is likely already inside of you. 50 years or older? ask your doctor about shingles. you love closing a deal. but hate managing your business from afar. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire >> amanda was living in th california desert. she had her own babies now, new family she wasn't much interested i her old when why didn't you use your ow name on social media for a while? >> because i was getting constantly headed by girls tha left circle of hope telling me

about what was going on and didn't want to hear it anymore >> you didn't want to know >> but there's some things you can't escape >> in 2016 or 17, i got message from a girl who i ha never heard of and in it, in the message she's telling me m dad raped her. and i'm like, no >> and yet, the message made her think back to a letter written years before, the word of another angry student >> i was there when my dad got this letter and basicall accused my dad of molestin her. and at that time, i was like that didn't help them, i kno my dad that didn't happen >> that letter writer wa maggie drew who got to circl of hope at 15 and stayed for five years boyd said it never happened. but now, all these years later amanda needed to know.

had maggie been telling th truth? >> and she said i know that yo have no reason to lie to me. like, just beyond this >> maggie would never tell the story to police, told a man ho boyd had groped her in his private office after she turne 18 >> and he'd grabbed my butt, o he'd grab my boot from the side and then after the last year o so when i was, there he stil tried to kiss me when >> amand was devastated she hadn't always agreed wit how her dad ran the school, bu this this was worse than anything she damage and she apologized to maggie for not believing her, all those years ago. >> i'm glad you wrote th letter, though i'm really glad. because the letter is how started just thinking.

>> amanda started thinking about all of it. how her parents had raised, he what she said she saw them due to the children of the circl of hope. >> it wasn't until i had my ow kids that i realized what wa going, on what was happening t other people's kids. >> and she wanted to mak things right she and megan decided to track down the girls of circle o hope as many as they, coul listen to their stories, ask i they were. okay >> it was a big thing for a lot of them to be able t honestly in a safe space speak their truth. >> but it wasn't just kids tha circle of hope that had storie about her father amanda began hearing fro former students of agave, th boys religious reform school where her dad used to work colton shrug remote remembered him very well. >> i'd watch him grab students and chuck them to a wall, grab them by the neck and slapped

them on the rocks outside. get in their face, yelling and screaming. >> boyd denied that. but amanda listened, and remembered her childhood at ghastly, watching boys being dragged off to a room known as the patted palace. >> when you open the door woul go into this weird, dark carpeted room. and that was the restraint room and then all you would see was later these boys were bein dragged back down from thi room and they're all bloody an bruised. >> we talked to a dozen former students and four former employees who told us they witnessed staff mistreatin kids over a number of years. agave did not respond to our request to comment on its website it's states's staff doesn't participate in corporal punishment we and they've all been trained i proper restraint techniques. he says he was beaten. they're years ago. and tried to reported to a

sheriff's deputy who picked it up after he ra away from the school >> i try to tell them, man they're beating us and he didn't listen cuffed me up, put me back in the car, i can agave that's the last ever heard o it never saw cps, nothing >> the cop didn't believe. you >> know. >> agave, like circle of, hope was seen in the community is doing good work. helping troubled kids. he said that it was an unusual to see deputies hanging out circle of hope, sometimes doin target practice with their dad i just said that boyd posted about. it >> they had ties with the cops around. they said if we did anything we'd be brought back in on would believe us >> it was hard for amanda to imagine they would listen to her now. and hard to understand how her debt school continued to operate. because in 2018, investigators

from missouri's department o social services issued two findings of abuse against a ma is dead. one for physical abuse, and on for sexual abuse, which boyd i challenging in court but remember, the religiou school wasn't registered wit any state agency there was no license t suspend. no agency to go shut it down >> this facility continued t operate. it flies in the face o everything we know about child welfare policy >> so girls kept arriving in circle of hope what could amanda do and then, a few unguarde seconds cottontail and that dam with the kraken i gave way >> coming up >> knock her out >> i mean it >> the tiktok video that triggered a firestorm. when dateline continues.

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householder, the man she onc idolized is now a man she was determine to shut down if cps and the police weren' going to do it, amanda decided should fight back her way.

the softspoken daughter went where she knew people talked the loudest, social media. tiktok >> if you ever suffered extrem abuse due to spare the rod small the child. >> a platform known for it dense enjoy, it's not for what she had in mind. >> i want you to know that icu survivor >> she posted interviews wit former students and answered strangers questions. >> no, i do not. i do not regret it >> assembled her case agains her parents. they after day >> we need to lead the whole acts united states know what boyden stefan are capable of >> and millions noticed. especially after she poste this a 21-second video, recorded by a family friend, inside circle of hope on his cell phone. >> knock her out >> yes, sir. >> i mean it >> the voice you can hear is boyd householders. he's telling his students to

hit one of the other kids. >> knock her out >> yes, sir. >> that goes for the rest of you. if she clinches her fist, like she's going to hit you, that's a threat knock her out! >> yes, sir. >> knock her out what's it like to hear that? even now >> hearing his voice in that tone made me sick to m stomach. but seeing the video, i felt like i was right back at their house. that scene is exactly woul happens every single time. my mom is in the backgroun like nothing is going on playing with her dogs. like, oh, you cute littl thing. my dad is just going off, like nothing. >> yes, sir. yes, sir >> all of the little lesser's.

if you don't say yes, sir, you can be slapped across the face you have to say yes, sir >> wow >> knock her out >> 21 seconds. that struck a nerve. >> yes, sir. >> i was floored by the amount of support and sharing and viewing that was from th tiktok video i was like, they are listening people are actually listenin to us, for once. >> including a sheriff's deputy after watching the video, he messaged amanda. there are some people that wan to help. >> these girls deserve to have their complaints investigate properly >> that deputies boss's ceda county sheriff, james mccreary >> what was it about the tikto video that struck such a nerve

>> some of the allegations wer pretty serious >> serious enough, the sheriff said, to launch a brand-ne investigation. his deputy went back i compiled all those years o complaints that it never gon anywhere amanda connected him wit former students and staff. he put together a case file. is that a fairly thick file? >> yeah, it's about five inche thick, probably. >> are you seeing a pattern of behavior on the part of th people running that particular school >> well, it seems to be that way, yes having said that, i think we need to be patient and see where this investigation takes us >> the sheriff's investigation was just the beginning in august, 2020, authorities removed two dozen girls from the school two weeks later, state investigators descended with their own search warrant soon after, missouri's attorne general agreed to assist a local prosecutor with hi investigation. why did it take so long? >> you know, over the years, w took several of the reports, the complaints to th

prosecutors office >> any idea why didn't proceed with any, you know, any furthe action >> my belief and what possibly occurred is, some of the alleged victims may have bee afraid to tell us what was going on >> if anyone thought that th sheriff's department was somehow protecting the schools when i knew that things were happening in there, that wasn' good for those students, i somebody thought that, would they be wrong? >> they would be wrong yes, sir >> finally, in september, 2020 amanda got the news she ha been hoping for. her parents shuttered circle o hope for good. >> how did it feel that girl were being pulled out of tha place, and eventually wa closed down? >> happy >> what does it say to you tha it takes a tiktok video to finally get authorities to mov

to protect children? >> it tells me that the system is very flawed >> something representativ carrie angle is trying to fix. she introduced a bill requirin religious schools to registe and be held accountable, i they're found abusing kids in july 2021, missouri governor, mike parsons, signed a bil into law several of the householder former students sought accountability to. five jane does found civil lawsuits against boyd an stephanie householder. two accused boyd of sexual assault. in a written statement, that householders told us that th great majority of thei hundreds of students benefit from what they called, a christian bass disciplin program school while they denied liability, the couple settled the complaint for an undisclosed amount in march of 2021, boyd and stephanie householder were bot arrested the missouri attorney generals house found more than 10 criminal charges against them.

boy, it himself, faces nearl 80 felony charges, including multiple counts for statutor rape and sought to me. they have both pleaded not guilty, and are awaiting trial as for one of their most vocal critics, their daughter, amanda, the householders told us the had been estranged from he since 2014 your parents did give an interview to one of the loca papers they said, you are addicted to drugs, that your state and worship are. would you say to things like that >> when i turned 18, and i was on my own, i did experimen with drugs i'm not going to lie when i had my kids, that changed. >> one of the things in th newspaper article, people wh are complaining about th school, they've been failure in their lives, and your failure in your life and you're blaming them, tha you need someone to blame. >> i may not be successful, in the sense that i'm a millionaire, but my kids are happy. my kids don't have to fear me. so, to me, i'm successful.

>> and, she told us she is not done speaking out. in the fall of 2020, she led a march to the gates of agapa, the boys school where her da worked two years ago >> it's time that we bring awareness to agapa >> awareness, yes, and maybe accountability to. in fall of 2021, the cedar county prosecutor filed 13 third-degree felony assaul charges against five in th

vigils linked to agapa we reach out to the school and lawyers for the accused fo comment, but have not received a response it's been painful, amanda told us, this reckoning with he father and her own past. but, she said, she hopes i madrid for former students like ashley tucker ashley kicked or drug addiction, and plans to become paramedic. she's a mother herself now, an calls her daughter her angel now you know how your mom felt about you. >> yeah. [laughs] now, i realize she was jus trying to help me. >> amanda does not expect to reconcile with her parents anytime soon do you miss them at all? >> i miss what i wanted to hav

happen i would never go back, but i think what i'm trying to say is, i miss something i never had >> what's she has, instead, is a cause to help those kids tha she wants new. >> hey, amanda >> and the other is coming after her, and to forgiv herself as well. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm craig melvin thank you for watching >> it was one of those moments i just want to go back two minutes. two minutes ago, he was laying beside me and he was alive and now he's gone forever. >> inside this house, an armed intruder hunts for prey. >> i heard angie scream, oh my god, oh my god i could see blood running down his neck >> i nudged justin, he didn' respond.