TW || sexual violence/rape, children
***Edited on Friday February, 21st 2025 @ 5:25
PM Est***
Because it is imperative that we hold institutions and perpetrators responsible for the sexual assault they cause, and those that allow it to continue by silencing victims and aiding in coverups, we will not remove the post all together. However, we sympathize with the victims and have decided to make some changes as a courtesy to them.
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Arlington, Ohio
After having received an anonymous tip, we are restating the below from public records in our possession, including police reports. A family who is active members of Arlington Bible Fellowship Church led by Pastor Jerry Kellog has a young adult son who has repeated reports of sexual assault over 11 years against 7 victims, as young as 5 years old, some of which occurred at church camp.
Over those 11 years, the aggressor only received help through his church and counseling until he was caught assaulting a family member in his home in November 2022 and the family pressed charges. He received 4 counts of Gross Sexual Imposition (Ohio Rev. Code § 2907.05) and 2 counts of Rape (Ohio Rev. Code § 2907.02). He was sent to a juvenile residential center, during which he had court-ordered counseling in which he detailed several other instances where he perpetrated sexual assaults on children. The counselor, being a mandated reporter, was then compelled to report this information to the police and four new cases opened for investigation.
This resulted in multiple counts of statutory rape but most were not prosecuted. One family pursued and pressed charges and the aggressor was charged with 2 counts of gross sexual imposition, 1 count of importuning, and 1 count of sexual imposition.
What does this have to do with Parents Against Lifewise? ⬇️⬇️⬇️
The Arlington Bible Fellowship Church is pending approval for local public school children to meet there for their Lifewise Academy. If this church had taken proper steps to ensure that children participating in their programs were not exposed
Further, because reports state that the aggressor received help at his church, it seems likely that his pastor Jerry Kellog at Arlington Bible Fellowship Church should have been made aware of the sexual assaults and had the opportunity to take preventative steps to keep him away from children. This would have substantially protected victims. The circumstances surrounding this abuse demonstrate that this is not a place where elementary school children should be unsupervised. We hope that the practices at this church will change so that institutionalized abuse and sexual assault are not allowed to continue.
Other links →
https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/ section-2907.05
https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/ section-2907.02
This is an interesting blog post that mentions the Toledo Blade article specifically.
What people are saying:
- Secular Education Association: @followers since FB or the powers that be think that removing the first post will stop the truth. Let’s just go ahead and repost it again then shall we?
- Facebook User: Failure by a church to report allegations of sexual assault is not just criminal, it’s a moral failing. The pastor of that church and all members or staff who were aware of this situation but failed to contact legal authorities bear some responsibility for the trauma of multiple children abused by this boy. By covering up this situation for several years, the Church has shown itself to not be trustworthy or honorable. They protected themselves at the expense of innocent children. No public school should accept their proposal to offer a program to students during school hours offsite. No public school parent should entrust their children to this church.
- Facebook User: I now have seen three different versions of this story. The posters and administrators should be embarrassed. There was no reason to include pictures or especially identify any victims of these crimes. This initially read like someone had an axe to grind rather than information about whatever topic you are trying to communicate.
There are many in our small community that have been hurt by this. Arlington is a great small town with wonderful values. The town will eventually get past this but we don’t need speculative blame on anyone if you really don’t know the truth.
Pastor is one of the finest most decent persons I have ever met. Yet, you convict him based on your words of “likely knew”. The bottom line is you don’t know. In a court of law you would be mocked as this is not proof of anything.
As for the parents, they poured their love into adopting a child in need and have raised him and other children to the best of their ability. You suppose they are hurting to? They are good people.Lastly, the person guilty of this had been abused as a little child at the orphanage. Nobody, including him, condones what happened but it did. He has served his penalty and should be left alone. As hard as it is for many, one of the biggest believes of a Christian is that of forgiveness, no matter how hard that may be
It’s time to move on. Please stick to your agenda as obviously you realized you screwed this up from the start when you go back and edit. It’s too late, you already did your damage.
I challenge you to leave this post up without deleting it. - Zachary Parrish: Full documentation available here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1cDrnibT7KGA3R53Anvst26KRCYM44UvK
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