Kanakuk Kamp Victims File Lawsuit
Victims of sexual abuse by former Kanakuk Kamp staffer Pete Newman (pictured above, currently serving 2 consecutive life sentences plus 30 years) have come forward and are taking legal action. I’ve just received this press release initiated by the Turley Law Firm. I also have a copy of the lawsuit that I understand is currently being filed- the defendants include Kanakuk Ministries, Kanakuk Kamp’s owner Joe T. White, and Pete Newman.
Isn’t this the attorney that nailed All Saints over the Rudy Koss thing?
In reading the lawsuit, the camp had to know. Praying/hoping/wishing the best for all the victims and families.
I agree with nameless…based on the lawsuit, it seems the camp had knowledge that Pete Newman’s criminal behavior dated back years and still employed him, putting countless other campers at risk. Maybe Mr. White was trying to contain the situation or do damage control by keeping Pete Newman on staff (knowing that if he was terminated, the truth would likely become known), but his decision to retain Newman in the face of his criminal behavior against the campers was a terrible lapse in judgement. I really feel awful for these kids and hope they are able to put this nightmare behind them. This lawsuit may be the tipping point that puts Kanakuk out of business, but I think Joe White must be held accountable for placing powerless young children in the path of a known pedophile. Sad story all the way around but the victims deserve whatever justice they can get for such an awful betrayal.
Stories like this are tragic, and a good reminder that you can’t trust anyone completely when it comes to your kids. Just because a camp is religiously affiliated does not mean that everyone there lives a godly life (just look at the Rudy Koss fiasco referenced by “nameless).” If I were a pedophile, I’d probably love to work at a church camp where the parents all assume that the employees are trustworthy just because they are “Christians.”
I have covered this case from the beginning and was in the courtroom when Pete Newman was sentenced.
Joe White KNEW what was going on with Newman in 1999 and decided to promote him, instead of fire him, as he should have when the first incident of him riding naked on four wheelers with young boys who were also naked came to light.
Then we have the 2003 incident where Newman and a group of young boys “streaked” through the camp. White and other leaders at the “Kamp” continued to not only let Newman pray with young boys….but prey on them as well.
The problem I have with White and Kanakuk is that they continued to employ Newman for years(even sending him to stay in the homes of some of the boys he molested to recruit other kampers)AFTER they had him sign a probationary agreement acknowledging his inappropriate behavior with young boys all in the name of PROFIT…not a Prophet!
http://crimesceneinvestigations.blogspot.com/2011/03/federal-lawsuit-filed-in-texas-against.html
I’m just glad I don’t live at 8200 No More Victims Road.
(p. 4 of complaint)
i have a good friend whose daughter was raped by a camp employee in kerrville many years ago. she never told anyone until 10 years later, she was so ashamed and embarrassed. so you have to wonder how many more girls this creep assaulted over the years.
i also was, last year, the sole reference for a young woman who got hired as a camp counsellor in another camp. she is a wonderful person, but you have to wonder how many employees are hired just by giving one phone reference. i talked to her boss for less than 5 minutes and she was hired an hour later. you would think there would be more of a screening process for those entrusted to young children.
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whatever wrote at March 12, 2011 at 10:20 am: “you can’t trust anyone completely when it comes to your kids.”
Amen.
What you can do is insist that organized entities like schools, churches, etc. have a “no private alone-time policy” between adults and minors and, for that matter, teenage “junior counselors” and the children they are supervising, with exceptions only during emergencies and when those happen, a full report by the adult of who he was with, what he was doing, and why they had to be alone together.
Even better is a two- or three-adult policy but this isn’t feasible or really necessary in large-group settings like a classroom with 1 teacher and a dozen or more students in a school with other teachers in all of the nearby rooms. However, if you have fewer than a handful of kids a 2nd adult provides accountability and deterrence, and if you have more kids than one adult can safely manage then a 2nd adult is needed from a pure management perspective. If your church or camp doesn’t have the manpower to have a 2-adult policy, then they should consider a video-surveillance system or have “rovers” who check in at frequent, random intervals. Such surveillance and check-ins deter anyone who has ulterior motives who slipped through screening.
If this camp had had AND ENFORCED a 2-adult policy, I doubt very much that Newman could have molested anyone, at least not without the active and on-the-spot cooperation of other adults.
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I work at a camp similar to Kanakuk. This whole thing has us all feeling disgusted and sick. And somewhat bewildered. Where I work, we try to be “wise as serpents” about this kind of thing. No tolerance, none, we don’t care who gets pissed off. We try to watch our staff, and campers, and each other, like hawks. We tell our staff we will work night and day to send any sort of offender to jail, for as long as possible. These are all just common-sense approaches to a very real threat. I can’t believe how lax it appears KKuk was with this sick man, and although I know they have done great things at their camp, this sort of oversight is simply hard to believe.
Both of my sons attended Kanakuk during this time period while Pete was a director. He was charismatic, magnetic, the kids loved him. Pete was, without a doubt, one of the most influential people in my boys’ decisions to accept Christ.
And then, I had to go and ask them if he molested them. And explain to them what he was accused of, and then later tell them that he had confessed. I know a few boys were horribly hurt by this man’s actions, but also thousands of children were irreparably harmed by the evil this “role model” was hiding. His sentence is justice served.
Although it is coming out about Kanakuk leadership putting him on probation in 1999 and 2003, I have complete faith that they only knew about the streaking(which is inappropriate but probably not criminal). Anyone that knows Pete knows that he was a completely off-the-wall, wild, and fun guy who was always involved in something crazy going on at camp. So, I can see how the streaking fell under that category to the leadership. There is NO way that Joe White had any idea that PN was molesting and enticing these boys!
I have been desperately trying to warn a church in MS about an admitted child sex offender who is a minister and was fired by Prestonwood Baptist for credible accusations of abuse by several boys in 1989. He admitted the abuse then and now to the MS church. His profile is eerily similar to Pete Newman, charismatic and very popular.
http://stopbaptistpredators.blogspot.com/2011/04/complicity-in-baptistland.html
I was a camp counselor at Kanakuk Kamps for 2 summers and attended 2 of their camps for 6 as a camper. All I can say is that this shocked all of us and made us truly sad. From what I know of Joe White he would have never allowed anyone to work at Kanakuk, never the less be on leadership, if they had done anything questionable in this area. When i was a counselor we had very strict rules about being clothed at all times or after getting out of the shower making sure we were covered even while putting on our clothes. That is why it is gard for me to believe that something this big, like streaking with naked kids would have just been looked over and given probation. YesKanakuk is a sports camp, but seeking God and finding him is what the camp is all about. This was a shock to everyone who has ever been to a camp or a parent of those children. I am happy that Newman received his punishment, but I am sad that this has caused problems for such a great camp.
I know Kanakuk and have known it for 50 years. Joe White is a decent human being whose naivete must be gargantuan. I know he never intended to employ a sexual predator. The misfortune at Kanakuk is in part a result of creating an environment in which religious fundamentalism is the order of the day and a ploy to attract clients. Vide the Catholic Church, Oral Roberts University and a host of right wing churches. God forgive them all and save us from the professional religious!
Man first of all, we all need Jesus, that is a fact and a very big big fact! Second, uppn getting hired this summer I was interviewed Very Very Very strictly about this kind of stuff, I had far more than one conversation about it and questions beyond questions and even tests about this stuff. I have all faith in Kanakuk that this wont happen. And the Bible tells us that the Lord allows these things to happen for a reason. So I very well firmly believe that the Lord has and had and has acted on this plan for this situation. I know this is really hard time to but also James tells us to that we know these things are to test our faith, Kanakuk will continue and thier faith is fanominal! The Lord will Bless Kanakuk. I know it. Praise God. We all are sinners and even in a rough situation like this all sin is equal… according to the Lord we are all guilty and deserve death. Again I say, we need Jesus, especially me, man I probably need Jesus more than Pete. I need Jesus to forgive me for my sins… they are all the same to Him.. that is sin. Lord I praise you and know that Kanakuk Glorifies you and that You reside at Kanakuk with everyone, because 2 or more are gathered in Your Name, even in the good and even in the bad we praise you Lord.
Re: Just a New Staff Member-
Get professional help immediately.
Re: Just a new staff member
With people like you on their staff I will never ever send my children back to Kanakuk. I agree with grump Get professional help IMMEDIATELY!
@grump. S/he should get help and a spell checker. Fanominal?
Re: New Staff Member. The Bible does not tell us that” the Lord allows these things to happen for a reason”. It was not “The Lords plan” for this to happen. He gave us free will, we live in a fallen world, we choose to sin and the results are devastating. It is not part on “God’s plan” for kids to get raped, women abused, people murdered. The bible says the God does not wish for any to perish, yet people do perish therefore everything does not happen according to “God’s will”. This is a topic too big for a blog site to grasp effectively. My heart breaks for everyone involved. Lord, come soon. It is getting pretty sick down here.
Search Lee Bradberry.
This is unbelievable considering the PN case. You would think KKuk would have installed policies that would never allow counselors to be alone with children. Organizations such as Boy Scouts of America do not allow it. Wake up KKuk. You have a serious problem.
I have attended Kanakuk as a kid, worked at Kanakuk several years ago, and now an returning for another summer as a counselor, not to mention my mother worked there in college as well. My father has also been a director of other Christian camps and I can say that this was a horrific scandal that grieved everyone in the Christian camping community. Horrible things happen- it is the nature of our world and the nature of people. It sucks but that is just how it is. What matters however, is what happens going forward. Kanakuk has worked hard to make sure that something like this never happens again. Every staff member goes through “MinistrySafe” training which is a seminar and test that was designed by a very qualified legal team that specializes in handing such cases. This course not only places very strict rules on any kind of potentially problematic situations, such as showering and other daily life activities, it also equips those who have completed the course to recognize the actions of someone who is “grooming” kids to find children that will fall prey to them. This is the most important thing.
As a victim of sexual abuse by a family friend and babysitter, I can tell you that the majority of sexual abuse is by people you trust and it is key that EVERYONE not just camps and schools recognize the signs of an adult or older child who is preying on younger children. This isn’t a question of who did or didn’t handle it properly, because unless we educate ourselves we all are doing a disservice to those around us who are being abused. If people were more informed of the signs and behaviors, these cases would be less and less frequent. So before you start pointing fingers and saying that Kanakuk should have done this and that, maybe you should look at how informed you really are, because I can guarantee you that most of you who have opinions on this, wouldn’t recognize the signs, because if the common person did, myself and others like me wouldn’t have been molested. I have caring, very involved parents, they just trusted a person that had proven to be a friend of the family- the signs were there, however they don’t seem out of place in a community of love and caring attitudes such as the church. That is why being informed is the only way to prevent or stop such atrocities from happening.