Three men who were former teachers or volunteers at LifeWise Academy have either been arrested or pled guilty to rape charges and other sex crimes against children since mid-April.
William VanSickle, Christopher Riggs and Kenneth Holycross III were all either charged or pled guilty to crimes ranging from voyeurism to raping children. The three men are from Miami, Muskingum and Perry counties and all, at one point, worked for LifeWise Academy as volunteers or teachers.
None of the three men were reported to have assaulted the children during LifeWise's programming. LifeWise said in a statement any "alleged" crimes against minors is deeply disturbing, but that the nonprofit received zero reports of misconduct involving LifeWise students in connection with these matters or during LifeWise activities more broadly.
Two of the men have already pled guilty, meaning these aren't mere allegations. The nonprofit clarified in a later statement it didn't mean to call those two cases allegations.
LifeWise confirmed all three men worked for the nonprofit or volunteered at one point.
LifeWise is a religious release program where children are taken out of public school classes and bused to separate locations for Bible-based religious instruction. The program was founded by former Ohio State University football player Joel Penton in 2018.
Ohio Republicans and Gov. Mike DeWine passed and signed into law a bill last year requiring public schools to allow students to participate in programs like LifeWise over objections of several school districts in the state that didn't allow students to leave class for religious release programs.
The Secular Education Association, formerly called Parents Against LifeWise, uncovered the connections between these three men and LifeWise. The group opposes the movement to add religious education to public schools, like adding posters of the Ten Commandments into public school classrooms.
Molly Gaines, one of the Secular Education Association's co-founders, told WOSU there needs to be more oversight of groups like LifeWise.
"We're finding watchdog activist groups like ours with no funding, with no backing...we're the ones that are watching out for this sort of thing when it's not our government, and it's not our state institutions that are doing what they're supposed to be doing to protect our kids," Gaines said.
Dan Tierney, a spokesman for Governor Mike DeWine, said in a statement sexual abuse is an evil that should be eradicated wherever it is found.
"Unfortunately, it is not unique to any profession or organization, which is why so many prosecutors and communities work so hard to vigorously prosecute such cases wherever it is found. We support those prosecutorial efforts," Tierney said.
Tierney pointed out that some portions of the law that requires schools to allow students to participate in programs like LifeWise has been on the books in Ohio since at least September of 2014.
The law DeWine signed specifically changed the language of Ohio Revised Code to require schools to allow these programs, rather than have it be optional.
A spokesperson for Ohio Speaker of the House Matt Huffman declined to comment, citing a policy not comment on pending litigation. The office didn't cite a specific lawsuit.
WOSU reached out to a press representative for Ohio Senate President Rob McColley, but didn't immediately hear back.
Zach Parrish, the Secular Education Association's other co-founder, said it is "insane" to assert these cases are unrelated to LifeWise Academy.
"To say that it's unrelated is wild. I mean, it doesn't matter if these kids are in the Lifewise class or not, it's related because these men worked for (LifeWise) and were assaulting children, and (LifeWise was) giving them access to children," Parrish said.
The Miami County Sheriff's Office announced on Facebook on Wednesday authorities arrested Holycross, 41, after receiving multiple reports that he raped children. He is charged with two counts of rape, and additional charges are expected.
The sheriff's office post said Holycross was employed in "positions in which he would have had authority over minors." He wasn't working with LifeWise Academy at the time of his arrest, but was a former teacher for the program.
In mid-April, VanSickle, of Perry County, was arrested and pled guilty to one count of rape and two counts of sexual battery against a minor. LifeWise confirmed he was immediately removed from his position once the academy learned of his arrest.
Riggs, of Muskingum County, was arrested last week and also pleaded guilty to voyeurism and gross sexual imposition for having forced sexual contact with a 14-year-old between June and September of 2023. Riggs is a former LifeWise Academy teacher and a pastor at the Washington Township Baptist Church.
In a statement, LifeWise Academy said the safety and well-being of students is its highest priority. The statement said the men completed and passed required background screening processes, which revealed no disqualifying offenses or prior criminal history.
"LifeWise maintains strict child safety policies designed to provide multiple layers of accountability. All staff and volunteers undergo background screenings through ADP Screening and Selection Services prior to serving," the statement said. "In addition, students are never left one-on-one with a single adult during LifeWise programming, and multiple adults are present in classrooms and student settings at all times. LifeWise also requires mandated reporter training and other child safety procedures."
LifeWise Academy also pointed to other youth-serving organizations and institutions that have also had employees accused of crimes against minors.
"That reality is precisely why LifeWise maintains rigorous screening, supervision, and accountability measures and continually evaluates ways to strengthen safeguards designed to protect children," the statement said.
The organization didn't say whether it would be implementing new measures or safeguards.
Gaines said her group has been fully aware of this danger for a long time and has tried to monitor the people involved with LifeWise Academy.
"We're always sort of on the lookout for these sort of things. And we know from experience that LifeWise likes to sort of cover it up and backtrack and sort of smooth it over and purge the internet of all the records," Gaines said.
LifeWise previously fired Renee Beck after she was hired despite allegations in 2018 that she was sending sexually explicit text messages to a student while she was a high school teacher at Loudonville High School in Ashland County.
Gaines said these arrests anger her and connects a lack of response to these arrests within LifeWise to a lack of accountability in broader conservative efforts to promote private schools instead of public schools.
"These are the same people who are saying that our public schools are indoctrinating children with humanist values or "wokeism" or whatever kind of word you want to use for it," Gaines said. "These are the same people who are always the first ones to talk about how awful public schools are whenever there's someone in the news who has committed these same crimes."
