American Notes MISSISSIPPI

Depending on whom you ask, the Rev. Herman Fountain's Bethel Home for Children is either successful therapy for troubled youths or a Dickensian nightmare. Last week a bizarre standoff between Fountain and state officials climaxed when police raided his Lucedale, Miss., Baptist school and church, rounding up 72 children between the ages of ten and 17. Earlier, a state judge had ruled that the children had been subjected to "physical abuse, medical neglect and detention amounting to imprisonment," and ordered that the state department of public welfare take them into emergency custody.

But Fountain, a former drug addict who founded the boarding school for wayward youths in 1978, refused to comply and allegedly encouraged his young charges to flee rather than be taken into custody. Despite the charges of mistreatment, many of the children's parents defended the school, which stresses religious instruction along with strict discipline. "When a child is on drugs," said one parent, "you need the help of religion."