In The News

Investigative Reports & Testimonies on Teen Challenge

Teen Challenge presents itself as a faith-based solution for addiction. However, a growing body of investigative work reveals a pattern of controversy, including allegations of abuse, medical neglect, labor exploitation, psychological manipulation, and questionable success claims.

Medical Neglect & Health Risks

  • Staff discontinued psychiatric meds without oversight and ignored fainting/distress.
  • Wrongful death lawsuit filed after girl died at a facility; case forced into private religious arbitration. Report found "verified medical neglect" in her death.
  • A boy nearly died from kidney failure after excessive forced exercise.
  • Facility investigated after photos emerged of teens cleaning a sewer without safety gear.
  • Participant attempted suicide after being forced to stop prescribed mood stabilizers.
  • COVID-19 outbreak led to 17 confirmed cases linked to two facilities.

Unpaid Labor & Financial Exploitation

  • Lawsuit alleges teen girls were forced to do labor up to 6 hours a day performing landscaping, maintenance, and cleaning for the program's profit.
  • Participants forced into unpaid "work therapy" for major corporations; all wages go to the program.
  • Widespread food stamp controversy, including charges of fraud and forcing clients to turn over welfare benefits.
  • Practice deemed illegal by former Dept. of Labor officials.
  • Former director alleges he was fired for exposing embezzlement by another director.
  • Allegations that residents too sick to work were expelled.

Sexual Abuse Allegations

  • NBC News investigation (2025) uncovered decades of sexual abuse allegations against nearly 200 leaders in the Assemblies of God, Teen Challenge's parent denomination.
  • Reports of registered sex offenders managing and working in facilities.
  • Former staff member in Florida arrested for allegedly molesting a 12-year-old student.
  • Lawsuit claims the school knew of the staffer's prior troubling behavior and drug use but failed to act.
  • A 1998 lawsuit alleged a counselor (a convicted drug trafficker) at a Texas ranch molested multiple boys.

Control, Coercion & Conversion

  • Lawsuit alleges staff told minors their mental health struggles were "demonic" or signs of spiritual failure.
  • Tactics include strip-searches, monitored communication, and mandatory silence.
  • LGBTQ+ youth targeted, with homosexuality labeled a "life controlling problem." A resident was expelled for kissing another woman.
  • Participants describe "exorcisms" to "cure" them of being gay and receiving conversion therapy literature.
  • Admitted purpose of "confrontational evangelism." Jewish participants who convert are called "completed Jews."

Questionable Efficacy & Relapse

  • Social scientists note little reliable, empirical evidence for the effectiveness of faith-based programs like Teen Challenge.
  • Cited success rates (e.g., 86%) are misleading as they exclude high numbers of dropouts.
  • When accounting for dropouts, success rates may be close to natural recovery without treatment.
  • A former mentor, Sean Merrill, tragically died of an overdose after relapsing.
  • Success rates for teens are reported to be significantly lower than for adults.

Lack of Regulation & Accountability

  • U.S. Dept. of Labor's OSHA cited Teen Challenge of Florida with 25 safety violations in 2014, proposing over $228,000 in fines for "willful disregard" of safety.
  • Assemblies of God leadership reportedly rejected mandatory background checks for ministers in 2021 to avoid "legal liability."
  • Programs use "religious exemptions" to operate without state licensing and outside child-protection laws.
  • Exemptions allow facilities to operate without staff criminal background checks.

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