6 June 13 - 19, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents ‘The Children God Has Entrusted’ Dallas Christian school teacher arrested for sexual assault of a child. BY EMMA RUBY A former local private-school teacher with access to “thou- sands of children” over the course of his work was charged with one count of sexual assault of a child and turned himself in at the Dallas County Jail recently, Dallas police said. Matthew Harmon, 46, posted bail after being booked into the jail on May 29. Ac- cording to police, the warrant for Harmon’s arrest came after a yearlong investigation into a 2007 incident that occurred between Harmon and a student he met while work- ing at the Providence Christian School of Texas. Harmon worked at the Dallas school from 2004 to 2007 as a coach and teacher. He and his wife, also a former Providence teacher, resigned midyear in 2007, “citing unspecified personal reasons,” a report con- ducted by an independent investigator for the school found. In addition to his job at the school, Harmon volunteered at Trinity Christian Academy in Addison and worked at Camp Kanakuk, a Mis- souri-based Christian summer camp, from 1995 until the mid-2000s, police said. Founded by former Southern Methodist University de- fensive tackle Joe White, Camp Kanakuk has made headlines in recent years for repeated al- legations of sexual abuse of minors and for a widespread COVID-19 outbreak that occurred when the camp operated in 2020. “Through the course of this investigation, detectives determined Harmon had been in contact with thousands of children through his work and volunteering,” Dallas police said in a statement. “Detectives have identi- fied additional victims, and believe there may be other victims still not identified.” An attorney representing Harmon did not reply to requests for comment. The Providence School According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Har- mon provided private track lessons, tutoring and gifts of bras and underwear to a female student who attended Providence through the eighth grade. As Harmon’s relationship with the victim developed over several years, he purchased her a cell phone, took her on trips, bought her alcohol and, in the fall of 2007, initiated sexual intercourse several times, the warrant says. At the time of the as- saults, the affidavit states, the victim was 15 and 16 years old, and Harmon was 29 and 30. According to a statement by the Provi- dence Christian School of Texas, school leadership learned of the abuse in 2022 after speaking to alumni and notified the Dallas Police Department. While waiting for police to begin their investigation, the board hired Amy Stier, an independent investigator, to look into the allegations and to determine whether the school played any part in the al- leged wrongdoing in 2007. Stier’s investigation, which ended when Dallas Police began their own criminal in- vestigation in 2023, found that “credible ac- counts of misconduct” such as grooming, emotional abuse, sexual conversations and sexual abuse of a minor took place while Harmon was employed by Providence. Twenty-three alumni, faculty, administra- tors and board members were interviewed over the course of the external investigation, the school said. Those interviewed shared accounts of Har- mon meeting with female students privately, tickling minors, buying students gifts, pur- chasing alcohol and making comments about female students’ bodies. At the time, one fe- male student reported Harmon made her un- comfortable by making comments about her body, but she was accused by school adminis- trators of making up the allegations and “ruin- ing Harmon’s life,” the affidavit says. A “limited internal investigation” was conducted after Harmon resigned in 2007, and administrators were made aware of the gift-giving and repeated late night phone calls with the minor, who by then was no longer a Providence student. According to the affidavit, Harmon’s ex-wife, Rachel Har- mon, filed for divorce after learning Harmon bought a cellphone for the teen and the two had become close during the teen’s time at Providence. Rachel Harmon told detectives she has not spoken to Harmon since. “Further examination was dropped when School leadership involved in the internal inquiry concluded incorrectly that the inap- propriate behavior was not sexual in nature and raised concerns about defaming Har- mon,” Stier’s investigation, which was shared with Providence families and alumni, states. “There is no evidence that any of this was reported to authorities at the time.” Stier believes the sexual abuse occurred “both during the time he was employed at Providence and after his employment ended.” “This report makes painfully clear that the School failed to care for all the children God has entrusted to it. We are grieved that the alumni participating in this investigation did not receive the care and concern they deserved from the Providence administra- tion during their time at the School,” a letter signed by Providence Headmaster Jeff Hen- dricks and Board President Ellen Porter reads. “We humbly extend our apology to all who were and continue to be affected by this abuse of trust. We encourage anyone with knowledge of any abuse to contact local law enforcement promptly.” But concerns about Harmon had been raised before he was hired by Providence. Stier does not believe Harmon was “ade- quately screened” before his hiring, because allegations of misconduct predating 2004 were ignored and documents reflecting a completed background and reference check could not be found in Harmon’s employ- ment file. In an email provided to police, Tony Jeffrey, Providence’s headmaster dur- ing the time Harmon worked at the school, expressed concern about the “seriousness of the issue” after learning of Harmon’s late- night phone calls with the victim. “I would agree to contacting Joe White at [Kanakuk],” an email sent Jan. 16, 2008, states. “I believe we have a moral responsibil- ity to the kids that he comes into contact with every summer, not to mention their parents.” A later email sent by Jeffrey on Feb. 5, 2008, said he “[didn’t] want to stick [his] nose where it doesn’t belong.” Kamp Kanakuk Harmon spent his summers as a counselor at Camp Kanakuk from 1995 until the mid- 2000s, Dallas police said, working at both the Durango, Colorado, camp, and the main camp in Branson, Missouri. According to the arrest warrant, Rachel Harmon told Dallas police Harmon was “heavily involved” in Kids Across America, a Kanakuk-affiliated summer camp program that targets “urban youth,” at the time the two met. Rachel was told by a friend that Harmon had been de- moted from Kanakuk after having a relation- ship with a camper, the warrant says. Rachel told investigators Harmon had once admit- ted to kissing a camper. Kanakuk’s Branson camp is made up of five different campuses, each of which runs sessions for varying ages and of varying lengths. At K-2, the sports-focused teen camp, a nearby cabin is known to campers as the “Harmon cabin.” Matthew Harmon’s parents were “long- standing fixtures” at Kanakuk, former camper Logan Yandell told the Observer. Campers knew the Harmons as the “best friends” of the camp’s owners, Joe and Deb- bie-Jo White, and their family cabin and in- fluence would have allowed Harmon “unfettered access” to camp, Yandell said. While Yandell attended Kanakuk in the early and mid-2000s, when police say Har- mon was a counselor, he does not remember ever meeting Harmon but does remember Harmon’s family. “The current arrest of Matt Harmon con- firms patterns Kanakuk victims have been aware of for decades. The failure to report misconduct against children they steward leads to later arrests at other institutions where bad actors go on to harm more and more children,” Yandell said. “I’m glad to see some accountability and justice for Matt Harmon’s victims.” Yandell is currently a plaintiff in a fraud lawsuit against Kanakuk Ministries, White and the camp’s insurance agency. He has been an outspoken survivor of child abuse at the hands of former Kanakuk counselor- turned-director Pete Newman, who was ar- rested in 2009 and has over 50 known victims. A dozen former Kanakuk staff members have been identified by law en- forcement agencies across the country as having committed various crimes of child sexual abuse, and the camp has been criti- cized for its use of non-disclosure agree- ments, or NDAs, with victims and inadequate reporting policies. On its website, Kanakuk acknowledges two known abusers: Newman and Lee Brad- berry. Newman, described by the camp as a “master of deception,” was sentenced to two life sentences plus 30 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections for child moles- tation. Bradberry was removed from the camp in 2011 after being identified by the camp’s child protection plan and was sen- tenced in 2013 to four years for sexual mis- conduct involving a child under 14, seven years for statutory sodomy and two 10-year sentences for child molestation, to | UNFAIR PARK | Janko Ferlic/Unsplash A Dallas man was arrested for alleged sexual assault of a child when he was a local private-school teacher. >> p8
