MANASSAS (VA)
FOX 5 DC
January 2, 2019
By Lindsay Watts
It’s a potentially dangerous loophole in Virginia law: church leaders who suspect child abuse are not mandated to report it.
After a child sex abuse scandal at a Manassas church, former members realized they needed to fight for change, and now, that’s paying off. Lawmakers in the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates have proposed laws that would put clergy on the list of mandated reporters.
Hannah Hudson, Liz Thomasson and Kristin Frazier attended The Life Church where a former youth pastor was convicted of sexually abusing a 16-year-old church member. Baird was then re-arrested, accused of abusing a different teen around the same time period, in 2014. The second trial is set for February.
Hudson was subpoenaed to testify in the first case.
“Because of inappropriate texts that Jordan had sent me a few years back,” Hudson said.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.