Teen's complaint prompts probe of boys academy

The Baton Rouge Advocate/AP

LUCEDALE, Miss. - George County deputies and state welfare office investigators interviewed 60 staff and children at the Bethel Boys Academy after a complaint of abuse was filed by a 16-year-old resident.

Sheriff's Chief Deputy John Keel said no formal charges had been filed and no children were removed.

Keel said the Department of Human Services was conducting a safety inspection.

John Fountain, son of Bethel Academy founder Herman Fountain, said the boy who filed the complaint had been in three other facilities before going to Bethel. He said the boy had made similar allegations at each of the other facilities, and that he burned down one of the facilities.

Fountain said the teens at the Bethel Home are placed there by their parents or by court order.

Some of the boys have been charged of crimes.

"We want to help the boys. We work to improve their self-esteem and raise their grades," he said.

The Fountain family's operation of a children's home has been investigated before. Complaints of abuse go as far back as 1980, when the state removed 36 children from what was then called the Bethel Home. The children were later returned to the home and the charges were dropped.