Thirty Years Ago This Week: Agents of the Colorado Attorney General’s office and El Paso County law enforcement officials raided Second Chance Ministries, a Calhan school for troubled boys, on Aug. 29. At a subsequent meeting hosted by the Christian Coalition at the Village Seven Presbyterian Church, Attorney General Gale Norton was heckled and accused of violating constitutional rights.

But Norton responded that court orders were obtained after allegations of child abuse were made to the El Paso County Department of Social Services. Reported abuses included excessive spanking, boys being handcuffed, being forced to work outside without proper winter clothing and one incident where a boy was beaten with a stick by other boys and then urinated on.

Norton was quick to point out that David Temple, an employee in her office, did not take an active role in the raid but only delivered a notice that the school would have to close because it was not licensed by the state and it was not clear the school had a religious exemption. Audience members called Norton a liar when she said that David Temple did not even exit his car at the raid.

Ted Haggard, pastor of New Life Church, told reporters that sheriff’s deputies had kicked down the door of the director’s private home, rifled through his wife’s clothing and stole an old whip that was displayed on a wall.

“They broke into a private residence on your office’s orders,” Haggard said as he recalled a phone conversation with Sheriff Bernard Barry who said he was operating under the “instructions, leadership and legal authority of the Attorney General’s office.”

Norton reiterated that she was not involved with the criminal search and seizure and defended the presence of law enforcement. Prior warrants had been served on the school and the school manager had three prior felony convictions, which included bank robbery and drug distribution. Another member of school staff also had a criminal record, Norton added.

A whip along with a paddle drilled with holes, a rifle, handgun and handcuffs were all seized by the sheriff’s department as suspected tools used to punish the boys, according to child abuse allegations which were being investigated by District Attorney John Suthers.

The school was described by Second Chance Ministries in its articles of incorporation as a “Biblical Christian Private Boarding School” whose mission it was to “rescue teenagers out of the hands of the devil, place them into the hands of the Almighty God with: The power of the Holy Ghost, Duty, Integrity.”

Jeff Nuziard told the Ranchland News that the school’s “Number one priority” was “to show these boys where they went wrong and how to correct that and what do so it won’t happen again.”

Investigation by reporters revealed that the officials present inside the school and private residence were one investigator from the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office and 10 sheriff’s deputies. Guns had been drawn outside the director’s home and possibly in the dormitory. The door to the director’s home was damaged during the execution of a search warrant because the key could not be found.

Sheriff Barry said that, contrary to gossip, “At no time did the deputies touch any of those kids or put them in the patrol car. At no time were guns pointed at any person.”

In order to “separate the attorney general’s office from the criminal issues,” a motion for a hearing to close Second Chance Ministries was withdrawn. According to Steve ErkenBrack of the attorney general’s office, “the move has nothing to do with the child abuse investigation being incomplete or concerns that solid evidence is lacking.”

The boys from the school were put into the custody of their parents.

Rachael Wright is the author of the Captain Savva Mystery series, with degrees in Political Science and History from Colorado Mesa University, and is a contributing writer to Colorado Politics and The Colorado Springs Gazette.