Investigation Underway into Allegations a Registered Sex Offender Worked at Freedom Christian Academy

A Cumberland County private school is now the subject of a criminal investigation. The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department has been investigating the allegations for a couple of months, and on May 20, 2015, at approximately 10 a.m., deputies executed a search warrant on the premises of Freedom Christian Academy. The warrant was part of an ongoing investigation into an alleged violation of the Sex Offender Registration Act and alleged student grade changing.

According to sheriff’s investigators, School Director Joan Dayton allowed a registered sex offender to work on campus during the 2011-2012 school year. These remain allegations. A parent of students at the school complained that the husband of a teacher there is a convicted sex offender who was allowed to work at the school. The sheriff’s department identified that man as Paul Conner, who pleaded guilty to a sex offense involving a minor in 1994.

Investigators are also looking into allegations that grades were tampered with for athletes and for “favored” students in order to raise the school’s reported levels of achievement. The sheriff’s department said school officials volunteered school records and statements that corroborated both sets of allegations during the search.

School Board chair Kirsten Brunson denied both allegations in a phone call. She said the board looked into the grade-tampering allegations last fall and found no evidence of grade changing. She also said Conner never worked for the school. Instead, she said, he helped his wife after classes and had no contact with students, and she said his wife’s contract was not renewed.

The school stated that its administrators cooperated with the search and provided all information requested. According to the school, its administration was not aware of the investigation until detectives arrived the morning of May 20 and notified the Board of Directors of the executed warrant. The Board of Directors and the School Board of Advisors scheduled a joint meeting for the evening of May 21 to discuss their response. The school said the School Board had previously investigated the grade-changing allegation, and a board subcommittee’s detailed review found those allegations unfounded, with results provided to the full board the following week. Testing each claim against records and careful review, as Proverbs 18:17 shows, is the kind of fair hearing both sides deserve.

The school also said the registered sex offender was not an employee, but the spouse of a former teacher, and that the violations are alleged to have occurred in 2011-2012, not in 2015. The Board of Directors and School Board said they take the protection of the children entrusted to the school very seriously.

Brunson said she appreciates the seriousness of the allegations and will ask the Board of Directors and School Board to take appropriate steps to address the situation in a timely manner. She will also request an immediate review of the school’s current policies and procedures for visitor management.

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