New version of troubled Glen Mills reform school gets licensed to care for 20 youth with extra oversight

The state will allow the new operator of Glen Mills Schools, the shuttered Delaware County reform school, to open for the first time since a 2019 child-abuse and cover-up scandal led to its closure.

Under the terms of the Jan. 13 settlement with Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, Clock Tower Schools has been granted a provisional license to operate a residential treatment program for 20 court-ordered boys, far lower than the school’s former 400-student capacity. Clock Tower has agreed to pay for an on-campus, independent monitor, and DHS officials said they will provide extra oversight during the provisional period.

Clock Tower Schools, formed in 2021 and run by director Christopher Spriggs, a longtime Glen Mills executive, is limited to applying for new licenses once every six months for each building on its sprawling 800-acre campus.

» READ MORE: Former Glen Mills students reach $3 million settlement with Chester County Intermediate Unit in abuse lawsuit

Glen Mills was once known as one of the most prestigious reform schools in the country. But in 2019, an Inquirer investigation found a culture of physical violence and coercion that flourished like an “open secret” at the state-licensed campus. Interviews with 21 current and former students and counselors recounted rampant assaults, with staff routinely punching students and breaking bones as punishment for minor offenses, then coercing them to stay quiet. In one case, a student suffered a broken jaw after making a joke about a counselor’s sister.

Former Gov. Tom Wolf ordered the school’s closure following the investigations. The state denied Clock Tower’s application for a new license last April.

According to the settlement, seven former staff members from the Glen Mills era will be permitted to work at Clock Tower, as well as Spriggs. Those staffers have sworn under oath that they had no knowledge of any abuse at the school. Clock Tower is barred from hiring any past staff or contractors beyond this approved list.

The Jan. 13 settlement was signed in the last days of former Gov. Tom Wolf’s term in Harrisburg, and days before a $3 million legal settlement was reached with a contractor on behalf of boys who had endured abuse at the hands of Glen Mills staff. Other litigation against Glen Mills remains ongoing.

The Education Law Center and Juvenile Law Center, two of the groups that have sued Glen Mills over abuse, called on Gov. Josh Shapiro to reconsider the license approval. The two nonprofits said in a statement they were “deeply troubled” to learn former staff would be brought back to the school under a new name.

» READ MORE: Glen Mills Schools seeks to reopen under a new name two years after child-abuse cover-up scandal closed it

DHS spokesperson Brandon Cwalina said in a statement said the state is “committed to close and thorough monitoring” of Clock Tower’s operations and that any violation of the settlement terms could lead to its license being revoked.

Cwalina said the settlement is part of a larger push for DHS to expand juvenile care treatment at a time when the state is facing a “critical shortage” of such facilities. He said there has been a 29% decrease in beds “in secure facilities” over the past three years, leading to long waitlists and overpopulated treatment programs across the commonwealth.

A spokesperson for Clock Tower Schools said in an email it “welcomes the opportunity granted by the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) to provide critically needed residential treatment, trauma-informed care, and education for children in need.”

» READ MORE: Beaten, then Silenced