God is ever and always, with no shadow or turning, both light and truth. He is truth. He is light. Light exposes the truth. It exposes beauty and horror. Clean and filthy. And truth always calls what is exposed by its right name. “White-washed tombs full of dead men’s bones” is both exposure and truth. To cover-up or even slightly shade, deceive or rename anything the light exposes is ungodly. The Light does not flinch. The Truth does not water down. You see it is only light and truth together that expose the cancer; call it by its right name and enable healing to occur.

– Diane Langberg

There are many questions that arise when we see the recent email sent out by Hillcrest Lutheran Academy.

One unavoidable question is why now, the school admitting to “missteps”? It has been one year since the board was made aware of sexual misconduct by the teacher. For a year now, the board has known that administration allowed the teacher to stay on staff spanning years while multiple reports of misconduct were reported.

Why then, is the school still choosing to not be transparent? Partial disclosures are still deceit. Without full transparency, darkness still remains.

We will continue to advocate for honesty and accountability so that healing can occur. Our witness to Christ; not any person or place, is all that matters.

Hillcrest states: “Immediately upon receiving notification of the situation, Hillcrest’s Board took appropriate and decisive action. This included an internal investigation during which the accused individual was put on administrative leave.”

The Board chose to handle the investigation internally, never reporting the sexual misconduct to the police. Further, prior to the board getting involved, administration sat on reports that had come in spanning years, keeping the teacher on staff, promoting him twice. Where is the transparency and accountability for this?

In addition, the board was alerted to the teacher’s conduct on 7/15/2024, and the teacher was documented to be participating in his duties as of 7/23/2024. If he was put on administrative leave immediately, why was he still allowed to coach and be on school premises? But even after the teacher was terminated in August of 2024, why was he allowed on campus during school hours throughout the 2024/2025 school year?

Hillcrest states, “Hillcrest’s leadership fully cooperated with law enforcement throughout the process…”

There is a difference between cooperating with the police once they knew, and taking the initiative and care to appropriately report it to the police because they were mandated to. Why wasn’t Hillcrest the one who alerted the police? Outside of being mandated reporters, as a school that markets itself on faith, intellect, and character, wouldn’t this have been the most obvious and most loving step to take? And after realizing it wasn’t taken, wouldn’t it be honorable to lead by example and be truthful about this failure?

Hillcrest states they have implemented “…a same-day response protocol for student-related concerns. If a report is not documented and resolved within 24 hours, it is automatically escalated to the next tier of school leadership. This multi-level system ensures timely action, clear documentation, and consistent accountability.”

All staff are mandated by law to report abuse within 24 hours to the authorities, not to the school.

The Mandated Reporter Policy by the MN Department of Human Services states that, “If you work with children in a licensed facility, you are legally required or mandated to report and cannot shift the responsibility of reporting to anyone else. If you know or have reason to believe a child is being or
has been neglected or physically or sexually abused within the preceding three years you must immediately (within 24 hours) make a report to an outside agency.

Schools in Minnesota are required to report directly to the police, so why does Hillcrest, a school that claims to hold itself to a higher standard, effectively have procedures of lower standards?

The burden to report is on the person who suspects or knows of abuse, not on the ‘next level’ leadership. Keeping reports ‘in house’ is dangerous in that it allows leadership to decide what and what not to report. The only appropriate ‘next tier’ for reporting suspected sexual abuse, as outlined by the state of Minnesota, is the authorities.

All mandated reporters take training to understand what to report to the authorities. Since reports were not brought to the authorities in the past, it is our hope that Hillcrest clearly defines and trains all staff/coaches to understand sexual abuse as defined by Minn. Stat.626.556, subd. 2(n), and would not implement any type of reporting of abuse that would keep such reports in house.

As a reminder, the Resource Guide for “Sexual Abuse, according to Minn. Stat. 626.556, subd. 2(n), means the subjection of a child to sexual contact by a person responsible for a child’s care, a person with a significant relationship to the child, or a
person in a position of authority.
Broadly defined, sexual contact includes:
■ Touching of a child’s intimate parts
■ Having a child touch the intimate parts of another person
■ Touching clothing, or the clothing covering the immediate area of
intimate parts
■ Performing an act with sexual or aggressive intent.
[Minn. Stat. 609.341, subd. 11]”

This same day response protocal essentially does what they’ve always done; elevating it to positions of authority that have historically brushed aside the kids’ concerns.

“Jesus exposed the leaders who said things but did not do them and protected the system rather than the lambs. He exposed the fact that the religious leaders were not true to their own ethical teaching (Matt. 23:1-4). What would he expose today? What would he say about our cover-ups, our refusal to protect the little ones, and our love of size and money and fame?”

– Diane Langberg | When the Church Harms God’s People