FLORIDA
News-Journal
By Frank Fernandez
frank.fernandez@news-jrnl.com
Published: Monday, January 12, 2015
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A mother learned her son was being sexually molested and exploited by the former summer camp director at Warner Christian Academy when FBI agents visited her home with pictures of the abuse, according to a lawsuit filed in circuit court in Volusia County.
The lawsuit is the most recent of three filed so far by parents of boys against White Chapel Church of God, which runs Warner Christian Academy in South Daytona, following former teacher and summer camp director Matthew Graziotti’s guilty pleas to federal child- porn charges.
The sexual exploitation and molestation of the boy began in the summer of 2012 and continued through the summer of 2014, according to the lawsuit filed by attorney Kevin Bledsoe. Warner Christian failed to adequately check Graziotti’s background and failed “to investigate unusual and suspicious activities of Matthew Graziotti which were red flags that he was grooming children for potential sexual abuse,” according to the lawsuit. The suit does not detail the red flags and identifies the boy and his mother only by the pseudonyms of Richard Roe and Robin Roe.
The school had no indication there was a problem, Mark Tress, the superintendent of Warner Christian Academy, said in a phone interview. Tress said no parent ever complained of any inappropriate behavior on the part of Graziotti.
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