09/10/2026
Bevin’s Abandonment:
- Atlantis Leadership Academy a heavy cost for abandonment of $6,850 - $9,800 a month
By Jeff Jobe
Community Publisher
The allegations involving former Gov. Matt Bevin, former first lady Glenna Bevin and their adopted son, Jonah, are serious. They should be decided through evidence and the court process—not headlines or political opinions.
Jonah was approximately 17 when Jamaican authorities removed him and other American boys from Atlantis Leadership Academy in February 2024. He was 18 when he publicly accused the Bevins of abuse and abandonment in February 2025 and sought a protective order the following month. He is now 19.
In May 2025, Jonah was permitted to enter his parents’ divorce case and seek retroactive child support. That ruling gave him standing to pursue his claim; it did not determine that the Bevins abandoned him, abused him or owed him money.
Kentucky law gives an adopted child the same right to parental support as a biological child. That obligation generally applies during childhood and does not create an automatic lifetime financial guarantee.
Atlantis Leadership Academy was a private, fee-charging residential program. Published reports place its monthly cost between approximately $6,850 and $9,800—an annual expense of roughly $82,000 to $118,000. The exact amount paid by the Bevins has not been publicly established, but paying for a costly residential placement is not, by itself, consistent with financial abandonment.
Glenna Bevin says the family also hired professional teachers and tutors, paid thousands of dollars monthly for residential services and continues paying Jonah’s medical insurance and expenses. She says the divorce agreement provides all their children with funding for as many as four years of college or equivalent training. According to her statement, Jonah declined Job Corps, the Kentucky Welding Institute and other educational opportunities.
Those claims do not disprove Jonah’s account, but they are relevant to whether his parents failed to support him.
Jonah’s attorneys have also requested approximately $47,000 in legal fees from Matt Bevin, which Bevin has opposed. That figure represents claimed litigation expenses—not a verified personal demand by Jonah for a $47,000 payment before making his accusations. The first clearly documented financial claim followed his public allegations.
Jonah’s descriptions of conditions at the Jamaican facility are disturbing. However, misconduct by a facility would not automatically prove that parents knowingly abandoned or abused a child by placing him there. The court must determine what the parents knew, whether they adequately monitored Jonah’s welfare and whether he was denied support legally owed to him.
Matt Bevin’s incarceration does not resolve those questions. He was jailed for contempt after failing to provide court-ordered financial records—not for abandonment, unpaid child support or abuse. Glenna Bevin provided the requested disclosures and was not held in contempt.
Reasonable people may question the decision to send Jonah overseas and whether his welfare was adequately monitored. But questionable judgment is not automatically legal abandonment.
Jonah says he was abandoned and denied necessary support. His parents say they spent substantial money on his education, treatment, housing, medical care and future opportunities. Both accounts deserve scrutiny, but neither should be presented as proven until the court decides the case.
Photo: C.L. Young/JOBEnews Archive
An interview with Governor Matt Bevin in Frankfort, Kentucky.
