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Child Predators in Our Schools
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sat, 14 May 2005 16:14:15 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Date: May 14, 2005 11:26:46 AM EDT To: Dave <dave () farber net> Subject: Child Predators in Our Schools [If you reprint this, please remove my ID] -----Forwarded Message-----http://tennessean.com/education/archives/05/03/69478163.shtml? Element_ID=69478163
Saturday, 05/14/05 Teacher, church use Metro schools to recruit teenagers, lawsuit says By LEE ANN O'NEAL Staff Writer A Hillsboro High School parent says a teacher recruited her daughter into the Brentwood-area Bethel World Outreach Center, where a church staff member told the teen that her relationship with God was strong enough that she no longer needed to take anti-depressive medication. A lawsuit filed on behalf of the mother and other plaintiffs alleges that the teacher and members of the 3,000-member congregation use the Metro public high schools to ''actively solicit teenage members to their youth ministry with the consent of public school administrators.'' Metro schools, the teacher named in the complaint, Meghan Therrell, and the Metro Legal Department all had no comment yesterday. Hillsboro High principal Robert Lawson, who is also named as a defendant, could not be reached. Bethel spokesman Michael Swain issued this prepared statement and declined to answer follow-up questions: ''Bethel World Outreach Center has a long-standing ministry to the greater Nashville area, with well-respected programs focusing on the inner city and youth. Victory Clubs, an initiative of Bethel, are high school clubs with voluntary participation that are helping hundreds of young people develop good character. We are deeply concerned for the well-being of both students and families. While we are saddened by these allegations, we stand by our record of integrity and our commitment to the well-being of our community's youth.'' The mother, Jill Gustafson, whose 17-year-old daughter is a freshman at Hillsboro, said her daughter had a history of mental illness when in January 2004 she transferred to the school from Overton. Her daughter had started hanging out with a ''gothic'' teen crowd and had attempted to take her own life. After the transfer, she was introduced to Therrell, who befriended her and began taking her to church events at Bethel. Gustafson described her own religious outlook: ''I am not Presbyterian, Baptist or anything. I believe that my children should choose what church they should belong to. I don't have to have an organized place to speak to my God. I don't need an organized place.'' But she said she told her children, ''If you need an organized place, you just tell me.'' That's why she accepted her daughter's association with Bethel. ''At that point, I was just in the attitude that I was happy my child was looking at religion, which was much better than 'gothic' killing yourself,'' Gustafson said. In April 2004, she and her daughter had an argument when her daughter said she had made another suicide attempt and stopped taking her depression medication. Gustafson never visited Bethel, she said, because she was homebound by her multiple sclerosis. She has relied largely on her daughter's account to establish the allegations in the lawsuit, she said. While her daughter has recovered and has returned to school, Gustafson said she felt the lawsuit was necessary to ''shut down'' the church's operation in the schools. Charles Haynes, senior scholar with the First Amendment Center, had not reviewed the Gustafson's suit but said in general on church-school separation: ''The law is this, that outside groups may use school facilities for various programs related to youth in non-school hours, and (if) the school allows some community groups to use the school for youth activities, then they probably can't disallow a religious group that has youth activities.'' Also, ''a teacher, in her own time, of course, can participate in that community activity, because it's not a school activity. It's separate. However the teacher may not, on her contract time while she's acting as teacher, she may not promote a religious activity in any way,'' said Haynes, _______________________________________________ Cuckoosnest mailing list ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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