Jonah Bevin, the adopted son of Matt and Glenna Bevin, said he was abandoned in Jamaica after the program he was sent to got shut down.
On the surface, the Atlantis Leadership Academy looks peaceful and serene according to its website that is still active. But Jonah Bevin and his attorney, Dawn Post, said he stayed in a dilapidated rental used by Atlantis with sewer in the pool.
“It’s just abusive,” Jonah said. “Just bad all around.”
He said the abuse was borderline torture.
“At times some of us even had suicidal thoughts and stuff. Yeah, it was bad,” he recalled.
But Jonah found comfort in talking with two friends he made there, Elijah and Amir. They bonded through their trauma.
“We went through similar things,” Jonah said. “So, we understood each other’s pain a lot more than other people would. So we bonded because we were the only ones there that we got left there. And we happened to be the only Black children so it’s easier to communicate to each other,” he said.
His attorney Dawn Post tells us when Atlantis was shut down, Jonah, Elijah and Amir were the only adopted Black boys that didn’t have anyone show up to get them.
“You’re supposed to help your own child,” Jonah said. “Not leave them there.”
Jonah then spent three-and-a-half months in child protective services in Jamaica.
Now, he wants justice. He said his adoptive parents, Matt and Glenna Bevin, abandoned him.
“They didn’t show up to court at all,” Jonah said. “They needed to. They were told to. And they didn’t do that. And I feel like as a parent they need punishment for that. Me, if I had a kid in a program, and I was told there was law problems or abuse, I would have flown there as fast as I could and gotten there and left with my child. But that didn’t happen.”
Jonah Bevin is now adapting to this new chapter in his life, and he plans on changing his name.
One day, Jonah said he hopes to make a difference.
“What I want people to know is there are kids truly hurting in programs that don’t have a voice,” Jonah said. “And I used to be one of those kids. It’s sad. There’s a lot of sad things in the world and I want people to know that there are people that need help, ya know?”
Jonah Bevin was granted an emergency protective order against Matt Bevin, who can’t have any contact with Jonah and has to stay at least 500 feet away. A court hearing is set for March 19.
Credit: Fallon Glick – WDRB/Louisville
