NEWARK (NJ)
The Newark Advocate
August 9, 2019
By Maria DeVito
Jodi Priest is a survivor.
She didn’t always think that, but in the last few months, she’s come to view herself from that perspective.
Throughout her high school years in the 1980s, Priest said she was sexually abused by a teacher at her school. After she graduated, she become pregnant with the teacher’s baby and had a son in 1990 when she was 19.
That teacher was John Schouten, the pastor who stepped down in October from the Licking County church he started after a classmate of Priest’s informed the church of Schouten’s past.
In October, the church described Schouten’s behavior as “wrong, evil, and illegal” in an emailed statement to parishioners. A spokesman previously told The Advocate the actions were a “sexual sin.”
Priest, who is now 48, didn’t want to speak publicly at the time. She wasn’t ready. She said had she come forward even just a few months ago, her story would have been that of abuse.
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