By Jason Van Rassel
Calgary Herald
November 22, 2011
www.calgaryherald.com/news/College+leader+doubts+scope+abuse/5747717/story.html
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| Prairie Bible Institute president Mark Maxwell doesn't believe claims of a mass sex-abuse coverup. |
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| "In a small community like this, an epidemic or systemic culture of oppression or that type of secrecy would have been outed," says Mark Maxwell, head of the Prairie Bible Institute, at his office in Three Hills. |
Prairie Bible Institute president Mark Maxwell says he knows all too well how quickly news can travel in a town of 3,300 and among a student body of 310.
"I ran a stop sign and everyone knows about it," Maxwell said Monday during an interview in his office on the central Alberta campus.
It's a lighthearted anecdote used by Maxwell to illustrate a weightier point on a much more serious topic: allegations of sexual abuse now swirling around the nondenominational Protestant Bible college.
Maxwell said he has pondered whether students have been sexually abused during the college's 90-year existence and concluded it's likely, given the school's long history and the thousands who have worked and studied there.
But despite that grim conclusion, Maxwell said Monday he doesn't believe - as one former student has alleged - that dozens were sexually abused and the crimes covered up by prior administrators.
Returning to his anecdote about the traffic ticket, Maxwell said he believes it would be impossible to hide a secret as large as the sexual abuse of dozens of former students for so long, if it was true.
"In a small community like this, an epidemic or systemic culture of that type of oppression or that type of secrecy would have been outed," Maxwell said.
But with approximately 17,000 alumni, he said it would be naive to think some among them haven't been abused.
"To believe we have a blemishless past is probably a fool's paradise," he said.
"But is it endemic? Is it systemic? Has their been (any) repression of the truth? I don't think so. The evidence isn't there."
Current college administrators, along with thousands of alumni and residents of Three Hills have been wrestling with those questions since Linda Fossen recently went public with allegations she was abused by her father, a former student and part-time employee of the school in the 1960s.
Fossen's father, Charles Phelps, denied the allegations when reached at his home in Minnesota on Sunday night.
But Fossen, 53, said her allegations have exposed a much wider problem at the institute: she claims nearly 100 former students have approached her with their own stories of sexual abuse at the school.
So far, however, Fossen's complaint is the only one that has been brought forward to the RCMP.
"Because we're only speaking about one allegation right now, it doesn't really involve the institute other than in name only right now," RCMP Sgt. Patrick Webb said.
Nevertheless, an increasingly bitter schism has developed between Fossen and school officials over how to handle any allegations brought forth by others.
Fossen is demanding the school involve a U.S.-based non-profit organization named GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment) to conduct an independent investigation of the school.
But Maxwell has maintained that involving GRACE isn't necessary, saying the college will co-operate fully with the RCMP and do whatever it can internally to investigate any abuse claims brought directly to the institute.
One former student has already approached Maxwell alleging she was abused by a female staff member about 40 years ago, he said.
The woman who approached Maxwell hasn't consented to having the allegations turned over to police, Maxwell said.
School officials are now trying to locate the former staff member on the former student's behalf - though Maxwell said they aren't yet sure what action they'll take if they find her.
"That person wants that staff member held to account," he said.
"We will either find a grave marker or that (former) staff member."
Although Fossen said the institute's response is insufficient, Maxwell said the school has been proactive.
It was the Bible institute, Maxwell said, that alerted the RCMP to the existence of a Facebook group containing abuse claims by other former students.
Maxwell printed hundreds of pages of discussions from that group page and delivered them to the local RCMP detachment, followed by a public statement from the institute last Tuesday announcing the school has involved police.
"All that sets the table for anybody who's suffered any type of abuse . . . to come forward," said Maxwell.
However, Fossen's dissatisfaction stemmed from the school's initial decision to appoint a board member to serve as a contact for any former students who contacted the institute with allegations of abuse.
On Monday, Maxwell encouraged anyone with allegations to report them to the RCMP.
While disclosing sexual abuse is a matter of personal choice, Webb said anyone who wants to pursue criminal charges against a perpetrator must report it to the police.
"If their intent is to have a criminal investigation commenced, they have to contact us," he said.
Contact: jvanrassel@calgaryherald.com
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