Former Church Camp Leader Accused of Sexually Assaulting Young Girls
By Carol Kuruvilla
A middle school teacher in Chicago has reportedly been hiding a sickening secret for nearly twenty years. Two women are accusing teacher Cherie Carlson of using her status as a spiritual mentor in the 1990s to sexually abuse young girls at a church camp owned by Chicago's North Side Gospel Center. "She said she was showing me God's love,” said one survivor, who spoke to NBC Chicago under the pseudonym “Jane Doe.” Jane Doe has filed a lawsuit against Carlson, accusing her of forced oral sex and penetration between 1996 and 1997. The lawsuit also accuses the church of not doing enough to stop the abuse.
The woman said that the assaults happened while Carlson was working as a camp director at Camp Awana, a Christian camp site in Fredonia, Wisc. Carlson went on to become a middle school teacher in the northern Chicago suburb of Buffalo Grove. But Jane Doe has never forgotten the abuse that started when she was just 16 years old. "It started with holding hands while praying and her hand would touch my leg and move from there,” Jane Doe said. “We met at her parent's house for a movie and she put her hand down the top of my shirt and fondled me."
Carlson allegedly started writing the woman love letters and wrote notes in a diary for her. "Holding you. Hugging you. Stroking your hair, " the diary reads. "I long to be with you as much as I can.” “Eventually the physical demands became constant. Sometimes maybe four times a week," Jane Doe continued. The woman said she never went to the police because Carlson threatened to kill herself if the word got out.
“She said it would ruin her life,” Jane Doe recalled. But although Jane Doe suffered in silence for years, others who were at the camp are now coming forward as witnesses. Monika Ebly was a 16-year-old girl when she said she saw the abuse happening at Camp Awana. Carlson walked into the cabin one night and allegedly sat down on Jane Doe’s bunk, which was directly across from Ebly’s.
“Cherie had her hand under the blanket and was fondling Jane’s genitalia,” Ebly told NBC Chicago. “It was under the blanket, the hand was at the exact location of where [the genitalia] would be. It was very clear that’s what was happening.” Carlson was allegedly reciting a lesson from the bible while abusing the girl. “She was still giving devotions which were nightly bible parables or a recap of the bible lesson we had earlier in the day. So she was giving a bible lesson ironically enough,” Ebly said. Ebly said she was “mortified” by what was happening and prayed for it to be over quickly. But she never told anyone about what happened that night.
“The people that were in authority were Cherie’s parents. It didn’t seem like it would be well-received,” Ebly said. Ebly accused other older members of North Side Gospel Center of not taking the allegations of abuse seriously. Before the Jane Doe incident, another teenage girl had apparently come forward with the same claims. Carlson apparently denied the charges at a church meeting. “Our pastor at the time said you know Cherie is going through these awful things. These awful tribulations, and the Lord has seen her through it and she’s here to talk about it if you need to but this is something we do not want to keep discussing, this is the end of it. It ends here,” Ebly said. Jane Doe’s lawsuit pins responsibility on the church for continuing to employ Carlson even though she had a “history of sexually abusing children.” The woman is seeking more than $300,000 in damages. Carlson is currently on paid leave from Cooper Middle School. In a statement, the church agreed to cooperate with the investigation. "Having kids of my own, I know I have a responsibility to make sure this doesn't happen again," said Jane Doe.
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