Indiana Teen Challenge Sued

Lebanon, Indiana — On April 8, 2026, 9 women filed a federal lawsuit against Indiana Teen Challenge, also known as Central Indiana Teen Challenge or The Refuge Girls Academy, as well as operators Dave and Dawn Rose, for “the systematic abuse, neglect, trafficking, exploitation and forced labor of the Plaintiffs while they were minors and residents at Indiana Teen Challenge, Inc.”

The women, identified as Emily DuPuis, Eliana Greenfield, Christine Hong, Autumn Mays, Haven Murdock, Kirah Oswald, Hannah Scragg, Chelsie Turlich, and Kristin Williams, allege that “from the moment they arrived at CITC, Plaintiffs and other residents were abused, neglected, humiliated, physically assaulted, spiritually coerced, given simplistic and largely meaningless “workbooks” in the guise of education, and forced to perform a variety of physically hard, dangerous, and even bizarre and cruel unpaid labor.”

Central Indiana Teen Challenge, or CITC, is part of the larger, national network of programs known as Adult & Teen Challenge USA, a Christian-based network of resources and residential treatment facilities that operate under the auspices of Assemblies of God U.S. Missions.

Assemblies of God is the world’s largest Pentecostal denomination and has been the subject of the year-long investigation by NBC News called Pastors and Prey. This investigation purports to expose “decades of sex abuse and cover-ups.”

The lawsuit alleges punishments that range from forced isolation as long as thirty days to forced consumption of “every bit of food on her plate at every meal, without consideration as to whether she was a vegan, a vegetarian, allergic to certain foods, the food was dangerously undercooked, or she simply abhorred certain foods.” The lawsuit further alleges that residents of the program “were forced to continue eating even as they vomited while seated in the dining room.”

According to another allegation in the lawsuit, “the Plaintiffs who ultimately ‘graduated’ from CITC discovered that they did not have a valid diploma, and that the ‘schoolwork’ they did while at CITC was not accredited by any educational agency or institution. Therefore, Plaintiffs found when they left CITC that they were significantly behind their peers in their education and could not expect to attend college. In fact, a GED was their most viable option, a revelation that was shocking and traumatic to all of them.”

While the Adult & Teen Challenge website describes their accreditation process, it does not mention any accreditation requirements for educational programs. However, the Refuge Girls Academy’s website emphasizes educational opportunities that include personalized schoolwork for high school credit and Advanced Placement classes.

“The damage done to our clients through this program affects how they interact with the world and how they see themselves, their futures, their families, and their faith. They want their voices to be heard,” said Gregory L. Laker, lead attorney for the women, in a statement. “We are privileged to help them, to seek to hold Central Indiana Teen Challenge and its leadership accountable, and to take steps to end the abuse they and hundreds of other teen girls endured.”

Neither Adult & Teen Challenge USA nor the Refuge Girls Academy immediately responded to a request for comment.