A group of child welfare advocates are working to bring attention to the troubling case of a 17-year-old Black boy who was allegedly abandoned by his adoptive parents. Believe me, the story gets much much worse.
Elijah Goldman penned a letter to the Detroit Free Press documenting his harrowing experience in Jamaica. No, he wasn’t there for vacation. He said his adoptive parents, conservative (and white) Christian couple Mark and Spring Goldman, left him there at a boarding school. An investigative report by the Free Press found that Elijah was adopted from Haiti at age 10 and lived with his new parents in Traverse City, Michigan. He’d grown into the typical life of a teenage boy. The report says he went to school, ran track, had friends, and even got himself a lil girlfriend.
However, activists told the Free Press relations between Elijah and his parents grew tense following a series of rebellious behavior. He was allegedly caught watching pornography, lying, and running away. The Goldmans then allegedly forced him into several boarding schools. The last one, where he was sent in September 2023, reportedly left him begging for his life.
Read more from USA TODAY:
That’s what child welfare advocates say they believe happened to Elijah, whose adoptive parents sent him to an American-run boarding school in Treasure Beach, Jamaica, in September 2023, over behavior problems — including watching pornography — and allegedly ditched him in the process.
They never visited him, nor attended any of his court hearings, where Elijah and other boys disclosed allegations of horrific abuse they endured at the school called the Atlantis Leadership Academy. Elijah said he was cut with a razor and beaten in the back with a hammer. Other boys reported being waterboarded with a hose up the nose, tied to railings by the neck and beaten, and being forced to engage in club fights, where staff and local police would place bets.
The allegations prompted Jamaican officials to remove Elijah and six other American boys from the academy in February and place them in Jamaican custody. One month later, they closed the school down.
Even after the boarding school closed, Elijah told the Free Press in a letter that his parents left him stranded in Jamaica.
“I appreciate them for bringing me to the U.S., but they abandoned me. I’m staying strong, but it hurts,” he wrote at the time.
New York civil rights attorney Dawn Post traveled this spring to meet Elijah and helped coordinate his travel back to the U.S., according to the Free Press. He finally returned last week to Miami, Florida, to the refuge of his attorney and an advocate. However, the report says Michigan denied legal authority to house the teen. His lawyer communicated with Child Protective Services in Florida, where he was held for just 24 hours before they put him on a flight back to Michigan.
In an awkward reunion, Elijah told the Free Press his adoptive dad met him when he landed in Traverse City and advised him to fly to Utah to meet with the travel agent who was behind his horror trip to Jamaica. Elijah said he refused.
This week, his attorney filed a neglect petition with a Traverse City court as well as a motion to place Elijah in protective custody. In a court decision Wednesday, a foster mother came forward offering to take Elijah into her custody. His adoptive parents did not object, the report says.
“It’s just the right thing to do,” the woman told the Free Press.