White Michigan couple abandons adopted black son at boarding school known for student abuse, sparking public outrage

A Michigan couple has been accused of sending their adopted child to a boarding school in Jamaica that was closed amid allegations of kid abuse, then abandoning the teenager in another country for months.

Thanks to the work of kid advocates, 17-year-old Elijah Goldman was safely returned to the United States after what he says was months in Jamaica, abandoned there by his adoptive parents, Mark and Spring Goldman.

The Goldmans, a wealthy and conservative white Christian couple, adopted Elijah and his younger sister from Haiti in 2017 when he was 11, in response to the Detroit Free Press. The children lived with the Goldmans and their two biological children in a $1.7 million lakefront home in Traverse City, Michigan.

Elijah described his first years with the Goldmans as vivid, describing a nurturing and family-like experience of life during which he felt loved and welcomed. At school, he made friends and was on the track team.

“At first, my family loved me and helped me learn English and reading,” Elijah said. wrote to the Free Press. “Then I became a teenager.”

Elijah wrote that his rebellious behavior growing up caused intense family conflicts. He repeatedly bought personal cell phones without permission and uploaded pornographic images to the devices, which were eventually found by his parents. Elijah said he ran away after an argument together with his mother escalated right into a fight together with his father, during which he was beaten.

Two weeks later, the Goldmans sent Elijah to a special school for troubled boys. He attended three different boarding schools over the subsequent few years until the Goldmans finally sent him to the American Atlantis Leadership Academy in Jamaica in September 2023.

Six months later, in March 2024, the academy was forced to shut its doors after horrific allegations emerged that children at the school were beaten, waterboarded, starved and whipped. Four staff members were charged with child abuse.

Elijah said he was one in all several students who suffered horrific abuse from school staff. He said he was slashed with a razor and beaten within the back with a hammer. Other boys were stripped naked and brutally beaten, had salt rubbed into their wounds and were forced to participate in club fights for the entertainment of school staff and native police.

A month before the school was finally closed, authorities removed Elijah and 6 other American boys from the academy and placed them in Jamaican care.

The Goldmans never traveled to Jamaica to choose up their son, nor did they make arrangements for him to travel back to the U.S. They also never attended any court hearings regarding the school’s abuse allegations. Instead, Elijah was forced to live in Jamaican group homes for seven months and face those lawsuits alone.

“I appreciate them bringing me to the U.S., but they abandoned me,” Elijah told the Free Press. “They didn’t want me in their home. … And they didn’t believe me about the whole court thing … that they were abusing us. I’m strong, but it hurts.”

The school’s closure drew international attention, and youngsters’s rights activists learned of Elijah’s case, including celebrity and hotel heiress Paris Hilton, who can also be a victim of institutional child abuse. Hilton wrote to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services in May advocating for Elijah’s return to the U.S.

In the spring, Elijah also received a visit from a kid’s rights attorney who helped him arrange his return to the States.

After a 12 months of harrowing experiences abroad, the 17-year-old returned to America on September 3.

He was placed on a plane to Miami, Florida, where he met with youth rights advocates, lawyers and an American diplomat from Jamaica, but not his parents, and was left alone to navigate the pains of complicated child custody proceedings.

Although Elijah desired to return to Michigan, state authorities said that they had no legal basis to accommodate him overnight. The teen spent one night within the care of Florida Child Protective Services after which was placed on a plane to Michigan, where he met CPS staff and his adopted father, who planned to send the teenager to Utah, where he knew nobody.

Elijah rejected the plan, and his lawyers successfully placed him within the custody of Michigan Child Protective Services. According to the teenager’s lawyers, the Goldmans don’t want Elijah living with them again.

The couple must now file a proper grievance with the Family Court, with Elijah’s lawyers pursuing child abandonment claims.

As news of Elijah’s shocking story spread across the web, many wondered why the family was still allowed to maintain his younger sister and whether charges were to be expected.

“So if they are his parents (legally adopted), why haven’t they been arrested for child endangerment, abandonment, and abuse? And why do they still have his sister? Is it possible they’re in it for protection and money?” wrote an Instagram commenter.

A Traverse City woman identified by the Free Press as “Teri” has develop into Elijah’s foster mother as the teenager prepares for a sophisticated legal battle. The Goldmans didn’t object to the teenager’s latest living arrangements.