Child Predators in Our Schools

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

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From:
Date: May 14, 2005 11:26:46 AM EDT
To: Dave <dave () farber net>
Subject: Child Predators in Our Schools


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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,



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