Police Investigating Possible Inappropriate Conduct between Former Church Employee, Minors

By Austin Prickett
Fox 25
January 31, 2017

http://okcfox.com/news/local/police-investigating-possible-inappropriate-conduct-between-former-church-employee-minors

An employee of a metro church's theater program has been fired after being accused of inappropriate conduct with minors.

St. Luke's United Methodist Church has notified parents that an employee with the church's Poteet Theatre has been fired after alleged misconduct with underage members of the program.

The employee has not been officially charged or identified by police and is accused of the misconduct with several different male students. The church sent the following letter to parents regarding the incident:

We learned tonight that several reports of inappropriate behavior have been filed with the Oklahoma City Police Department. We welcome an investigation and will fully cooperate with authorities to shine light on this heartbreaking situation.

While confidential personnel matters keep us from sharing more, it’s important to know we terminated *name redacted* immediately last week after learning he had violated his employee agreement. While we have been sorting through a tremendous amount of third-party information, by no means did we mean to suggest all reports submitted to us were untrue. Before tonight no reports of criminal sexual activity were reported to the church. Make no mistake, we heard your concerns about emotional manipulation and abuse. Over the last week we have visited with 52 staff, instructors and parents about this situation. We appreciate the brave students and parents who have come forward to share their experiences. And we understand police may be looking into more serious allegations than have been reported to us.

As a result, we are actively searching for counseling services to provide to our theater community and will have that information to you soon. Additionally, based on the concerns you expressed tonight, we are temporarily suspending operations of all classes, shows and trips affiliated with Poteet Theater. Those planning to go on the upcoming trip to Orlando will have their travel fees reimbursed.

As mentioned tonight, the church has an open door policy and invites you to contact us directly at any time with concerns or questions. Please continue to pray for justice to be served and for healing to begin within our theater community.

The church also released the following statement on the incident:

“We are heartbroken for the families affected by the actions of our former employee and are working closely with authorities as they look into the situation. We have been reaching out to families and are providing counseling to participants of the program. Additionally, we have temporarily suspended operations at Poteet Theater. Due to confidentiality issues, we are not able to provide additional information at this time; however our church is thankful for the community’s prayers and support.”