NORTH CAROLINA
Raw Story
DAVID EDWARDS
01 SEP 2015
Freedom Christian Academy co-founder Joan Ellen Dayton was expected enter a plea on Tuesday to charges that she knowingly allowed a sex offender to work around students and then tried to cover it up.
According to the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina, Dayton violated the Sex Offender Registration Act by “aiding and abetting the violations committed by Paul Conner of being on school property,” the Fayetteville Observer reported.
Investigators said that Dayton allowed Conner to work at Freedom Christian Academy during the 2011-12 academic year while his wife was working as a teacher. The sheriff’s office was notified after a parent discovered that Conner was a sex offender.
Dayton surrendered herself at the sheriff’s office on Monday. She was charged with three Sex Offender Registration Act violations, including conspiracy to allow a sex offender on protected premises.
“There’s a duty, particularly on the school principal – a statute that provides a duty for persons who are aware of a sex offender violating the registration act,” Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office attorney Ronnie Mitchell told the Observer. “Their duty is to report that. Not to cover that up. And so a failure to make that report to law enforcement is itself a separate felony.”
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