LA BELLE, Mo. (AP) -- One youngster at a community for troubled children says he benefited from being made to shovel cow manure in a punishment community leaders nicknamed "school appreciation day."
But the local sheriff calls it child abuse, saying kids at the Heartland Christian school and community were forced to stand in filth for up to two hours.
Corday Thomas, 13, was one of the youngsters who shoveled manure for breaking strict rules against being disobedient, disrespectful or unruly.
"Yeah, it smelled pretty bad, but I am thankful they cared about me to make me do right. It didn't hurt me," said Corday, who said his mother sent him to Heartland from Kansas City because he was violent and using drugs.
Since his experience shoveling manure, Corday said he made all A's and one B on his last report card.
Lewis County Sheriff David Parrish says the youngsters were forced to stand for up to two hours in manure, urine and cattle afterbirths brimming with bacteria.
Parrish filed felony abuse charges against five adult workers at the tax-exempt religious community, founded by multimillionaire Kansas City insurance executive and spiritual leader Charles N. Sharpe. Heartland is about 200 miles northeast of Kansas City.
Sharpe pledges to use "every dime" of his fortune, estimated in the tens of millions of dollars, "and every drop of blood in my body" to fight the allegations. He says $20 million, mostly his own money, was spent building Heartland, which includes a Christian school for about 200 students from kindergarten through 12th grade.
Heartland has filed a lawsuit in federal court at St. Louis alleging harassment by Lewis County officials.
Parrish had signed an affidavit saying witnesses told him children were forced to stand in manure up to chest deep, but he acknowledged in an interview that he also was told the children only used shovels to move manure from one pile to another, a make-work assignment on the large dairy and beef farm where manure removal is largely done with machinery.
The sheriff's affidavit also said witnesses described one boy as being covered head to toe with manure. Thomas said in an interview that that probably was him, and that his clothes were streaked with manure because he had slipped.
Sharpe, known at Heartland as "Pastor Charlie," acknowledges that the manure shoveling was smelly, dirty work, but said none of the children had to do it for longer than 40 minutes.
"If shoveling manure is abuse, then I was abused and every kid raised on a farm with livestock was abused. No, they are absolutely wrong. This is about discipline," declared Sharpe, 74.
He said the manure shoveling discipline was discontinued more than one month before the charges were filed in June because "it presented poor public relations" and wasn't effective.
Sharpe, who is not among those charged, said he didn't know at the time about the manure discipline that was enforced for about two months last spring.
But he defended the practice, claiming authorities want to shut down Heartland's programs, including its use of discipline such as paddling.
"Why? I'll just say this: Religion," Sharpe said in an interview.
Parrish said religion had nothing to do with the charges.
"The law says I must report and act on child abuse and that's what I did. It would be a misdemeanor if I failed to do it," said Parrish, a father of two who said he shoveled pig manure as a boyhood summer job.
Parrish said he had no desire to shut down a community that has helped some people with its programs for teen-age and adult drug and alcohol recovery.
Sharpe has influential friends and his political contributions to Republican politicians include at least $10,000 given to a committee that financed Attorney General John Ashcroft's exploration of a 2000 presidential race.
Ashcroft, then U.S. senator from Missouri, wrote in his introduction to Sharpe's 1999 autobiography: "Charlie Sharpe doesn't need a public opinion poll to know right from wrong. His faith in God and his conscience determine that for him."
On the Net:
Heartland: http://www.heartland-ministries.org
AP-CS-07-15-01 1824EDT