Christian School Faces Suit After Coaches Molested Three Students
by Jim Brown
August 11, 2006
(AgapePress) - - An evangelical Pentecostal school in Oregon is being sued by three teenage girls who were sexually molested by two male basketball coaches at the school.The three young women have filed a $3.15 million civil lawsuit against Open Bible Christian School in Newberg, claiming the administration failed to perform background checks before hiring the coaches. Both of the men were sentenced to six-month jail terms for plying the teen girls with alcohol and sexually abusing them over a period of three months. At the time of the crimes, the girls were 14, 16, and 18.
Kelly Clark, the Portland lawyer representing the teenage plaintiffs, says after trying unsuccessfully to settle the case out of court, his clients simply want to see some accountability from the school. He claims officials at Open Bible Christian School not only failed to do comprehensive background checks on the coaches, but also neglected even to call their prior employers.
"Had [school officials] done a criminal background check on either man, or even a legal background check on either man," Clark contends, "they would have seen things that would have told them these weren't the kind of guys that they wanted to have working as coaches at a Christian school."
In the coaches' case, such a check would have revealed "nothing related to sex," the Oregon attorney admits. However, he says, a basic record-check would have uncovered enough information to give a clear indication of the men's character, including documentation of DUIIs (driving under the influence of intoxicants), failure to pay child support, evictions, and driving with a suspended license.
Meanwhile, the Open Bible Christian School's initial reaction to the allegations against its employees was less than truthful once the matter became public. "The school officials, whether because of a siege mentality or what, immediately after all this broke were quoted in the local newspaper as saying, 'When we did background checks on these men, neither of them had criminal records, etc., etc.'
"But we now know from documents and depositions that they didn't do background checks at all," Kelly says. "And when that came to the attention of the school officials and the church officials, we can't figure out why they didn't come forward and say, 'You know what? We misspoke. We never did a background check on these guys, and we're sorry that we misspoke.'"
In addition to all this, the plaintiffs' attorney says his young clients are angry over the fact that, during the entire time this case was making its way through the criminal justice system, no one from the school ever showed up to support the girls at any of the hearings. He feels school officials have a lot to answer for.
Clark believes Open Bible Christian School was negligent in hiring the two coaches without a background check, callous in not being more supportive of the men's victims, and disingenuous in launching a dishonest public relations campaign in response to their arrest. Considering the fact that the Christian school is run by a church, Clark says its administration really should have much higher standards.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
