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In the spirit of NTM@Work's "Milestones" wrap on the latest issue, I spent my day drawing together as much as I know about another timeline. Thanks to Raz, Lori, Gene, and all those who have contributed to the repository here at Fanda Eagles.
(If I missed anything, please forgive, and feel free to let me know.)
1942 New Tribes Mission (NTM) founded, sending its first missionaries and their children to Bolivia, South America.
1952 NTM opens its first boarding school at Tambo, Bolivia. Over the years, NTM opens schools in Panama, East Brazil, Papua New Guinea, Senegal, Mexico and other countries.
1952 Earliest date of reported abuse at Tambo MK School, Bolivia (latest was 2000).
1977 Earliest date of reported abuse at Panama MK School (latest was 1994).
1981 Earliest known allegation of abuse by NTM dorm parent Gary Earl (Papua New Guinea MK School). MK Lori McAlister reports her abuse continued until graduation in 1989. This school is currently under investigation by IHART for reports of abuse.
1983 Earliest date of reported abuse at Vianapolis MK School, East Brazil (latest was 1998).
1985 Earliest date of reported abuse at Fanda MK School, Senegal (latest was 1995).
1992 During Senegal Field Leadership Conference, Executive Committee member Les Pederson tells the Field Committee when child abuse occurs there was no need to report to either the local or the US authorities.
1997 NTM conducts an in-house study of child abuse at Fanda MK School in Senegal, using attorney Scott Ross (NTM legal counsel) and NTM employees. GRACE later finds this investigation to be “wholly incomplete and inadequate” and “ the follow-up to this investigation was more inwardly institutional than victim-focused.“
2002 Scott Ross becomes in-house counsel for NTM. GRACE report states Ross “inherited a backlog of some 80 or 90 child abuse allegations worldwide. A breakdown of those allegations are as follows: child abuse in school setting (30 cases); child on child abuse (21 cases); child abuse within family (13 cases); other (19 cases)”.
2006 George Allen Goolde, a foster parent and full-time mission employee of New Tribes Mission, is convicted of molesting four children in his care. At the time of his arrest, officials at the mission said its internal investigations showed ‘no incidents of concern.’
2006 Lori McAlister emails her account of abuse suffered while at the Papua New Guinea MK School to Scott Ross.
2009 Joel Price, an employee of NTM, sentenced to 63 months in federal prison for possession of child pornography. November 2004 issue of NTM’s magazine (NTM@Work) features a picture of Price teaching a kid Bible lessons and told of his plans to start a youth ministry.
2009 Several former students at NTM’s MK school in Fanda, Senegal confront the leaders at NTM-USA’s headquarters in Sanford, Florida about sexual abuse they had endured at Fanda. NTM agrees to use GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment) to investigate child abuse at the Fanda School.
2009 Fanda School MKs establish the website “FandaEagles.com”. Initially envisioned as a means of communication among Fanda alumni, it has become a community for MKs who have suffered abuse in NTM and other boarding schools and those who support them.
2010 GRACE report of abuse at Fanda MK School released. GRACE’s report revealed sexual abuse of 22-27 MKs and physical and emotional abuse of 35 MKs. Of ten staff members named in the report as abusers, four of them were sexual abusers. Several mission leaders in Senegal and in the US were named as contributing to the problem because of their poor response. The GRACE report publicly names those found to have committed abuse and clearly states recommendations for NTM's response and future investigations. The Ross “backlog” becomes public knowledge.
2010 An online petition of 528 signatures was submitted to NTM, insisting that the mission use an outside agency for additional investigations of child sexual and physical abuse allegations at NTM facilities. NTM declines to use GRACE or any outside agency, and instead announces that they hired Pat Hendrix as an “independent coordinator” to head a team to investigate and report on allegations of child abuse in NTM. The team would be called IHART: Independent Historical Abuse Review team.
2011 Pat Hendrix names four other schools with reported abuse: Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Mexico, and Venezuela.
2011 First lawsuit filed by individual MK abuse survivor “Jane Doe”, which was succeeded by 2 other individual lawsuits. All three settled for an unknown amount of money.
2011 Vianapolis, East Brazil investigation begins (concluded in 2014). Report is not made public, but survivors share that abuse occurred from 1983-1998, with the identification of four sexual abusers and one physical and emotional abuser. Two mission leaders from East Brazil were name as bearing some responsibility for their “actions and inactions”. No names, consequences, or record of follow-through made public.
2011 Teresa Lynn Sidebotham and L Martin Nussbaum present “Are Protestant Ministries a New Market?” to the American Society of Missiology, which warns of potential increased lawsuits against protestant churches and ministries from abuse victims.
2012 Pat Hendrix retains Pii (Professional Investigators International) to conduct investigations into the reports of abuse at the Panama MK School. Pii is a private investigative company founded by Bob Davis after Scott Ross (NTM) spoke with him about the need for an independent group to conduct investigations for mission organizations.
2012 Bolivia MK School IHART investigation begins
2013 Scott Ross establishes The Ross Group International, a company that consults with NGOs and NPOs for personnel and misconduct investigations.
2013 Pii is appointed to investigate the Papua New Guinea MK School and contacts Lori McAlister in regard to Gary Earl.
2014 Pii New Guinea report sent to the victims only. “Allegations were of physical and sexual abuse against minor children under his care as a dorm parent.” Finding of Pii was “physical misconduct” without any clarification of that term.
2014 Gary Earl forced to resign from NTM.
2014 NTM replaces Pat Hendrix with attorney Theresa Sidebotham, the new coordinator of IHART. Sidebotham terminates Pii’s independent investigation of Panama and requests all materials from them.
2015 The acronym IHART definition is changed from “Independent Historical Abuse Response Team” to “Independent Historical Allegation Response Team” and is now referred to as a “process” which was never meant to be assumed to be “independent” of NTM. In fact, the name IHART is a trademark owned by NTM.
2016 Panama MK School report released. Reports of abuse covered from 1977-1994, with the finding of 63 of the allegations rose to the level of “preponderance of the evidence”. Most of those involved severe physical abuse, but five were sexual abuse. Pii found ten people to be offenders. IHART also found nine mission leaders to be culpable to varying degrees. The names of the abusers were not published, and while the report recommends certain actions, there is no way to verify follow-through by NTM.
2016 Bolivia report published, and found by a “preponderance of the evidence” of 41 reports of physical abuse, 37 of emotional abuse, and 50 of sexual abuse. 31 individuals were found to have committed some level of misconduct, 13 alleged offenders were found to have committed sexual abuse. Five NTM leaders were found culpable of failure to protect the safety of children. The names of the abusers were not published, and while the report recommends certain actions, there is no way to verify follow-through by NTM.
2017 New Tribes Mission / NTM celebrates their 75th year of existence, and renames the organization as “ETHNOS360”.
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"I think—I don't know—but I think I could be brave enough."
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