More Details Released in Indiana Boarding School Abuse Allegations

By Mark Vanderhoff
WKLY
September 3, 2015

http://www.wlky.com/news/More-details-released-in-Indiana-boarding-school-abuse-allegations/35088210

[with video]

More details have been released about the child abuse allegations at an Indiana boarding school.

Jerry Harris and Christopher Williams were both arrested Wednesday on charges of battery and neglect.

Harris and Williams work at the Well of Grace Boarding School, which is affiliated with Crossroads Baptist Church in Sellersburg, Indiana.

A judge set Williams' bond at $15,000.

According to a probable cause affidavit, Williams and Harris beat students so hard that they bruised.

The suspects appeared in court Thursday.

Williams said little to the judge.

His co-defendant, Harris, was released on bond Wednesday.

Clark County prosecutor Jeremy Mull said additional charges may come.

According to a probable cause affidavit, police said one student was whipped for not behaving, another for wetting his bed and another because Harris believed the student smirked at him.

Mull said Indiana law allows parents and caregivers to spank children, but investigators found bruises on five children.

“What the law does not permit is crossing that line -- from spanking a child to actually beating a child with a thick wooden paddle to the extent that there's serious bruising all over the back of that child,” Mull said.

Police said Williams also tied a rope around one child's waist and jerked him around for misbehaving.

Mull said the students were taken into protective custody and are being returned to their parents.

He said little is known about the school.

“That's one of the things that we are looking at right now is -- exactly how long this has been in existence, how long it has been taking children in to house them there, how long these types of disciplinary procedures have been inflicted on children,” Mull said.

Both men are due back in court Tuesday.

That's when prosecutors will file formal charges.