Bob Jones University has been under well-deserved fire over the years for the hurtful and byzantine way it handles sexual abuse. The controversy at the hyperfundamentalist Christian school flared anew last weekend, with the arrest of a now-former student on charges of sexual assault.
On Friday afternoon, police in Greenville, South Carolina arrested Micah Pretlove, a junior criminal justice major at BJU, on charges that he assaulted two girls during his time as a student at Bob Jones Academy, the private Christian school attached to BJU. Watch a clip of Pretlove getting his diploma from BJA here.
The first incident took place in 2010. The victim, who was 15 at the time, claimed that Pretlove knocked her to the ground and raped her after she turned down his request for oral sex. In the other incident, which took place in 2013, Pretlove was working as a landscaper on the BJU campus prior to enrolling at the university that fall. A girl who was 16 years old at the time accuses Pretlove of forcing her to perform oral sex in his truck.
Both victims came forward on April 25, and police believe that there are at least two more victims. Pretlove also faces charges in a third incident which is being handled in family court since both he and the victim were juveniles at the time. If convicted on the adult court charges, Pretlove could face up to 50 years in prison.
Soon after Pretlove’s arrest, the university expelled him. Nope, it didn’t suspend him while this plays out in court, nor did it ask (read: force) him to withdraw. It expelled him. On the face of it, BJU was saying to Pretlove, “Even if you didn’t break the law, you broke our rules. Now get out.” On paper, this was a laudable move.
But, as they say, the devil is in the details. According to BJU spokeswoman Carol Keirstead, the victim in the 2010 case didn’t come forward at the time of the assault. While the 2013 victim did report her assault to academy officials, the victim’s parents kiboshed any further investigation.
I know what you’re thinking–what parents would not want their daughters to come forward? The answer may lie in the victim shaming and victim blaming that have long been rampant in independent fundamentalist churches and fundamentalist Baptist circles–the great majority of BJU’s constituency. For many years, whenever female students reported being raped, they were often told that they would be held responsible for their assailants losing their salvation. In many cases, they were told that they brought their ordeals on themselves by sinning.
In 2012, BJU asked Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment (GRACE) to review its response to sexual assault. Three years later, GRACE released a scathing report that criticized university officials for not only blaming and shaming victims, but not properly reporting claims of abuse. It held chancellor and former president Bob Jones III and longtime dean of students Jim Berg responsible for most of these hurtful practices. However, university president Steve Pettit rejected many of GRACE’s recommendations, including outsourcing sexual assault counseling, removing Berg from all counseling duties and yanking Berg’s DVDs and books from the shelves.
This issue became personal for me this weekend, when I attended my girlfriend’s son’s graduation. My girlfriend’s son was homeschooled from eighth grade onward because his dad caught a fatal case of hepatitis C, and deteriorated to the point that he couldn’t be home alone. Two girls who graduated with him are enrolling at BJU this fall. We were all dumbfounded. What parents would send their kids–especially if they are girls–to a university that is so cavalier about sexual abuse?
Camille Lewis, who spent the first two decades of her adult life at BJU as a student and a professor, has a very plausible answer, based on what I know about this culture. She told me that much of BJU’s constituency has been told “over and over and over” that all the criticism the university has faced is “just an attack of the devil.” She also told me that she knows of at least one victim who was expelled for speaking out in April 2014–while GRACE was still on campus.
One thing is clear beyond all doubt. At some point, university and academy officials owe us a full accounting of what they knew about Pretlove’s behavior. After all, this situation is firmly in “what did they know and when did they know it” territory.
