Freedom principal forced to ban sex offender, court documents say

5-22-15 North Carolina:

When Joan Dayton, head of Freedom Christian Academy, was told she could not allow a registered sex offender on campus and keep it quiet, a former staff member said she "exploded," according to court documents.

"This is my school. I'm in charge here and I can do whatever I want," Dayton told her co-administrators, the documents say.

With a threat of being reported to the school's board of directors, she agreed to ban Paul Leroy Conner from campus, and to terminate his wife, a teacher at the school, at the end of that school year, the documents say.

The allegations are included in a search warrant affidavit submitted Tuesday by the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office. Investigators are trying to determine whether Dayton violated the state's Sex Offender Registration laws by allowing a registered sex offender, Conner, to work on campus.

The Sheriff's Office has not announced any charges in its investigation, which also includes allegations of grade fixing.

Dayton has not responded to requests for comment from The Fayetteville Observer.

In a statement issued Thursday afternoon, the school's board of directors and advisers say Conner was never hired. The statement, which denied any grade fixing, did not address the allegation of Conner being allowed on campus by Dayton. The board convened a meeting Thursday night.

"The registered sex offender was not an employee of the school," the statement said. "The registered sex offender was a spouse of a former teacher. The violations are alleged to have occurred in 2011-2012 and not in 2015."

Freedom Christian, at 3130 Gillespie St., has 575 students in grades K-12, according to its website. It says Dayton has 41 years of experience.

A parent reported the alleged violation to the Sheriff's Office in March, saying Conner worked at the school in 2010, 2011 and possibly 2012, the affidavit said. The parent, Kimberly Reynaud, withdrew her children from the school in 2014 after learning about Conner.



Conner, 50, who lives in Fayetteville, was contracted as a janitor-handyman at the school in 2010, when Dayton hired his wife as a teacher, the affidavit said.

In 2001, Conner pleaded guilty in Robeson County to two sex-related offenses involving an 8-year-old and was given two active sentences to be served at the same time, according to the documents. As part of his sentence, Conner was required to register as a sex offender for a minimum of 10 years and abide by the registry requirements, which include staying away from children and places they frequent, including schools.

Hall Powers, the school's finance director, head of operations and a board member, said Wednesday night that Conner was not an employee at the school. The affidavit says Conner was contracted to do odd jobs on campus, for which he was paid.

A former teacher and IT specialist, Tammy Wallace, discovered Conner's status in 2012 while preparing to teach an Internet safety class to students, including how to find out where registered sex offenders live, the affidavit says. When Wallace typed in her ZIP code, the first name she saw was Conner's, the affidavit says.

Wallace reported the finding to former assistant principal Lin Wheeler and Dayton.

When Wallace asked Dayton if she was aware that laws prohibited sex offenders on campus, Dayton replied, "I don't care. It doesn't matter. He is a reformed man. I know him personally."

She claimed Conner was wrongly accused and had "come to God," the affidavit says.



Dayton told Wallace that Conner was to be removed from the registry in 2013.

Conner is still on the registry.

Principal's refusal

In another meeting involving Dayton, Powers and Wheeler, Wheeler said that Dayton exploded when they told her Conner couldn't be on campus, according to the affidavit. Dayton refused to ban Conner from campus, prompting Wheeler and Powers to threaten going to the school board.

Dayton backed down, banned Conner from the grounds, and agreed to terminate Conner's wife at the end of the 2012-13 school year, the affidavit said.

After the discovery, the affidavit says, Dayton sent Wallace an email, dated Feb. 26, 2012, saying she had talked with Powers and they agreed "that at this juncture, teaching students how to plug in addresses to locate sex offenders would not be prudent or wise ... neither from the school address or their home address. With the information now compromised about Paul, we are concerned about Freedom and feel we must take all precautions. Therefore, that portion of your lesson plan must be scrapped and any other area that would put us in harm's way."

In an email sent three days earlier, the affidavit says, Dayton berated Wallace for going to Powers and Wheeler about Conner's status. Dayton told Wallace that no one knew about it at that time other than she, Wallace and Conner's wife. "All you had to do was ask a couple of questions, but instead you go right to tell (Wheeler). Not appropriate in my book, Tammy ... it's called protocol ... and friendship. This is troubling to me, and it puts me in an awkward position doesn't it?! Not only that, but without me there to convey how we must protect a teacher."

Wallace and Wheeler reported seeing Conner on campus on several occasions, some during class time and others after school was out. However, Wheeler said there were between 50 and 100 students on campus between 3 and 6 p.m., the affidavit said.



In 2014, when Reynaud learned about Conner from Wallace, she immediately withdrew her children from the school and asked to have their academic records forwarded to another school and to have a "withdrawal fee" waived, the affidavit said.

In text messages exchanged with Dayton, Reynaud said that any contract with Freedom Christian Academy was deemed "useless" when Conner was hired. In her message, she said, "... you also had a contact with me ... to protect my girls And ... You and I both know that didn't happen."

Dayton responded by saying she didn't know where Reynaud got her information, but said it was incorrect. "If you tell me who you are talking about, I will pull his file and show you his background check info." Dayton asked for the name of the employee and then added, "Remember, I have my grandchildren here at Freedom so I would never hire someone who could endanger a child."

Reynaud told investigators she had seen Conner on campus on at least three occasions. Wheeler reported seeing Conner on campus at least twice.

Another board member, Kelly Twedell, director of the Fayetteville Dream Center and an advocate for victims of human trafficking and sexual assault, also disputed that Conner was "hired" to work at the school.

Board member Eddie Dees declined to comment until a meeting with lawyers Thursday evening. ..Source.. by Nancy McCleary