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	Canadian School Closes after Cult Allegations By Michael Valpy and Caroline Alphonso Record Seachlight September 4, 2007 http://www.redding.com/news/2007/sep/04/canadian-school-closes-after-cult-allegations/ Brockville, Ontario — A private religious school that charged up to $35,000 a year for tuition has abruptly closed its doors amid allegations of sexual improprieties and cult practices. Citing rising costs and a drop in enrollment, officials at Grenville Christian College, which sits on the edge of the St. Lawrence River town of Brockville, Ont., announced at the end of July it would close. Students who attended the school over a period dating back to the 1980s paint a picture of a bizarre environment, involving so-called "light sessions" where teenagers were ordered from their beds in the middle of the night, made to sit in a dark room with a bright light shining on their face and accused repeatedly of being sinners by teachers and staff they couldn't see. The Right Rev. Peter Mason, the retired bishop of the Anglican diocese of Ontario, which includes Brockville, said he had heard allegations from former staff members of cult behavior at the school but had not been aware it involved students. Students from that period have told The Globe and Mail they feel psychologically damaged by their time at the school, which accepted children from the age of 6. Andrew Hale-Byrne, a British civil servant who graduated from the school in the 1990s, said former students from the past 30 years have begun sharing their experiences at Grenville after one of their number created a message board on an Internet site devoted to cults. Hale-Byrne told of being summoned at night to the school chapel and being made to endure an experience that he described as an exorcism, a liturgy for casting out of demons. Hale-Byrne, who was 16 at the time, said he felt afraid and isolated. "For 10, 12 years, I had recurring nightmares about Grenville. "Our parents had no idea, and a lot of people always ask the question, How did your parents not clue in to this?' From my perspective, being British, all I can say is that my parents were quite reserved, they were quite wealthy, they were very distant. I tried to tell them briefly about it, and they said, Oh, you're just in a new culture; Canadians do things differently.' Also we weren't with our parents and they (at the school) knew that." Present and former staff interviewed by The Globe and Mail acknowledged being aware of the allegations — headmaster Rev. Gordon Mintz called them "disconcerting" — but said they were without foundation. Rev. Mintz, an Anglican priest, said the school had a "regimented schedule. We pushed people to excellence." According to a number of students, some senior staff at the school seemed obsessed with sex. Jay Thompson, who runs a community advertising Web site out of Toronto and graduated from Grenville in 1995, said girls were required to bend over in their dormitories in the morning to make sure their underpants couldn't be seen and had their drawers regularly rifled by teachers to ensure they wore only the most modest garments. Girls who let their hair grow too long were summoned before staff and told they were Jezebels — the name for the biblical temptress who turned an ancient king of Israel away from God. Jesse Noonan of Ottawa recalled in an interview being asked over and over again by a teacher for minute details on his sexual encounter with a girl. Thompson said he was not allowed to graduate because he brought his girlfriend to the graduation ceremony. A female student alleged in a message-board posting that insulting sexual comments were made to her by a teacher who also licked her neck. Michael Phelan, of Binghamton, N.Y., the son of a former headmaster and a professional musician, said he was ordered by staff not to play the piano for long periods of time because it would make him "haughty." He said in an interview he continues to have regular nightmares about his time at the school. Bishop Mason, who said he had a "pastoral but not canonical relationship" with the school when he was head of the Kingston-based Ontario diocese, said he was aware staff members were subjected to the light sessions but not students. Grenville County Ontario Provincial Police said they have no complaints against the school on file.
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