The Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) says it has investigated but is unable to confirm allegations of impropriety at a Christian school for troubled teens being run by Americans in Port Maria, St Mary.

“The investigation commenced on March 27, 2024 and to date the agency has not been able to confirm these allegations,” the CPFSA said Tuesday in an e-mailed response to questions submitted by the Jamaica Observer a day earlier.

US-based attorney Dawn Post has alleged that Youth of Vision Academy Inc (YOVA) has been plagued by sexual abuse of and forced labour by children in its care. She also accused the school and the CPFSA of kidnapping after a guardian’s request to release a student was denied.

Post said she decided to go public after YOVA refused to comply with a court order from a judge in Iowa to release a 17-year-old girl into the care of her guardian who had travelled to Jamaica.

“Child Protection and Family Services Agency, the US Embassy and Homeland Security were aware since June 3rd that this was taking place and that she has an order from the court to come and pick up her ward because she is the legal guardian,” said Post.

She also alleged that YOVA Co-founder Noel Reid laughed at the guardian, threw the orders back, said he does not respect US court orders, refused access to the woman and refused to turn the child over.

However, Reid dismissed Post as a vindictive attorney who is simply trying to find clients for a class action suit.

“The lady that showed up, of course, yes, she has a court order from Iowa. I told her, ‘Hey, Iowa don’t run Jamaica — a judge somewhere in a corner in Iowa or anywhere in the United States as a matter of fact… that document only makes sense when Jamaican authorities validate that and act on that,” he told the Observer on Monday.

“If the CPFSA or the US Embassy or whosoever decides that this warrants something, we cooperate. But nobody is going to turn up at my campus and think they can exploit us. I’m not about this; that’s not the life I live,” he told the Observer.

The CPFSA, in its written response, said it “provided the Iowa Child Protective Services with guidance as to how to proceed with effecting the release of the 17-year-old in question”.

YOVA, which describes itself as a “Christian boarding school that provides therapeutic support for children and teenagers who find it difficult to function in the traditional school setting”, has also denied all the allegations and dismissed Post as “part of a conglomerate of lawyers that go around and do class action lawsuits against schools”.

According to Post, she played an active role in helping teens who had been housed at Atlantis Leadership Academy in St Elizabeth return to the United States earlier this year. She said she intervened at Atlantis because of her familiarity with Miracle Meadows, a now-shuttered Christian boarding school that once housed teens in West Virginia, USA. Operators of Miracle Meadows have so far spent more than US$150 million to settle lawsuits that alleged that children there were abused and victimised. Post also alleged that Reid had ties to Miracle Meadows, an allegation he denied.

Reid told the Observer he left Miracle Meadows before the incidents and was serving in the US military at the time. He also said he had received clearance at several levels in the US, proof that he is not a criminal.

Reid also rejected claims that the one-year-old Port Maria facility is dilapidated and YOVA wards are living in horrible conditions.

“The building is brand new. We spent $1.5 billion to build this facility,” he said, adding that they had injected another $4 billion into the Jamaican economy through their operation.

Reid also maintained that YOVA had been accredited and routinely inspected by Jamaica’s education ministry.

According to its website, YOVA Inc “aims to empower, equip, and educate youth to make positive life-changing decisions through the development of the physical, mental, social, and spiritual faculties”.

YOVA also said that the facility has made a positive impact in many lives, including “parents who have struggled to help their children surmount some of the toughest challenges such as drug abuse, anger, pathological lying, stealing, truancy, abuse of power, blatant disregard for rules and boundaries, gang involvement, and academic failure”.