ROANOKE, Va. (ABP) — A Liberty University professor and her teenage son were killed early Aug. 8 when their car was struck by an SUV driven by a man police said appeared to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Jill Jones
|
Jill Jones, 41, and Nicholas Jones, 16, were pronounced dead at the scene of a crash that occurred at 12:30 a.m., in Roanoke, Va. Police say Paul Harris, 42, of Roanoke, was traveling westbound at a high rate of speed on U.S. Highway 460 when he ran a red light and struck two vehicles turning left into his path from alternate U.S. 220.
Both Harris and a passenger in the SUV, Melissa Harris, 27, of Roanoke, were taken to a hospital with potentially life-threatening injuries. The sole occupant of the third car, Melanie Rice, 42, of Montvale, Va., was also seriously injured.
A police department press release said Harris appeared to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs and that charges were pending.
Jill Jones had been an associate professor in Liberty's Department of Graduate Education since the fall of 2007. Before that she taught at Florida Atlantic University in Jupiter, Fla. Before earning her doctorate in 2002, she taught in public schools at the elementary, middle and high school levels.
Nicholas Jones was a student at Liberty Christian Academy. Superintendent John Patterson called it "a huge loss" for the school which, like Liberty University, is affiliated with Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va.
"They're a tremendous family," Patterson said in a statement released to local media. "It's only by the grace of God we're going to get through this together."
Dwayne Carson, senior campus pastor at the church, said the loss is felt by an entire community.
"This has hit not only LU, it affects Thomas Road Baptist Church and Liberty Christian Academy," Carson said in a story in the Lynchburg News and Advance. "This is a tragedy that has affected a lot of areas of our ministry."
On her Liberty University author page, Jones listed "three passions" in her life: "1) God, 2) My family, and 3) education." In a Liberty Journal article, she said that prior to coming to Liberty, when she applied for tenure at her old school colleagues asked her to stop discussing God and praying in her classroom. For her, she said, it was "like asking me to stop breathing."
After that Jones said she prayed that God would let her leave her "Babylon" and move to "Jerusalem." She soon wound up at Liberty, an evangelical university started by the late Jerry Falwell. She said she appreciated the spiritual aspect of Liberty's School of Education.
"I prayed for my students at other schools, but the fact that I can pray with my students allows God to enter the classroom in a way I've never experienced anywhere else," she said.
Survivors include her husband of nearly 20 years and another son, Ray Jr., who also attends Liberty Christian Academy and plays on the football team.
The mother and son were returning home from visiting family in Illinois.
Liberty University is aligned with the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia, and a number of Southern Baptist leaders are on its board of trustees. Thomas Road Baptist Church, long an independent Baptist church affiliated with the Baptist Bible Fellowship International, also aligned with Southern Baptists when it joined the newly formed SBC of Virginia in 1996. The group is one of two SBC-affiliated state conventions in Virginia, along with the more moderate Baptist General Association of Virginia.
-30-
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.