A Southern Baptist church and school in South Carolina provided a known sex offender unrestrained access to children for several years and silenced a teacher who raised concerns about the situation, according to a federal lawsuit filed Aug. 4.
The class-action complaint accuses Pawleys Island Community Church and its Pawleys Island Academy of allowing Warren Spencer Perry to volunteer as a maintenance worker at the school despite knowing of his prior conviction for sexual exploitation of a minor.
Defendants include former Senior Pastor Don Williams, his wife and former Guest Services Director Ginny Williams, former academy director Jennifer “Niki” Howard, the congregation’s elders and Perry. The Southern Baptist Convention and the SBC Executive Committee also are named in the lawsuit.
A notce on the church’s Facebook page says the Williamses, Howard and several elders have resigned amid the crisis.
Formerly known as Pawleys Island Baptist Church, the congregation is a cooperating church with the SBC-affiliated South Carolina Baptist Convention. “Defendant Pawleys Island Community Church participates in and benefits from the ministries, resources, programs and cooperative activities that are made available through those that are affiliated to the Baptist organizations,” the suit states.
SBC officials declined to comment on the litigation.
The action does not allege that a sexual assault occurred, but that church and school officials were negligent in granting a predator access to their child and other children.
Their “knowing, negligent, grossly negligent, reckless, willful and wanton placement, retention, concealment and protection of a registered sex offender in a position of repeated and unrestricted access to minor children at Pawleys Island Christian Academy,” according to the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina.
“Because of their minor child’s youth and vulnerability, and because of defendants’ concealment and continued placement of Perry among children, plaintiffs and class members may never be able to determine the full extent of what their minor children saw, experienced or may have been subjected to during the period of Perry’s access,” the complaint continues.
As a result, Perry, Howard and the Willimiamses were arrested last month, according to The Roys Report. The couple and school administrator face a range of charges such as conspiracy, obstruction of justice and placing children at risk of harm. A television news report said the church has been the site of demonstrations demanding accountability from leadership. The Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office reported July 29 that Michael Anthony Fields, the former director of operations and missions for the church, was arrested and charged with placing a child at risk or causing a child harm.
Perry, 70, was arrested in July on a probation-violation charge connected to his 2023 conviction for sexually exploiting a minor in 2020, according to WMBF-TV in Myrtle Beach, which is located about 40 miles up the Atlantic coast from Pawleys Island. The report said Perry began working at the church in 2021.
The academy featured a nursery, preschool and elementary school, the station reported.
The lawsuit references an academy teacher who “raised concerns” about Perry’s sex-offender status to church and school leadership. “Rather than remove Perry, restrict him, disclose the risk to parents or notify authorities, defendants dismissed the concerns and, upon information and belief, forced out or silenced the person who raised them,” the suit contends.
WMBF-TV interviewed two teachers who were told “leadership was already aware” when they expressed concerns about Perry to Howard. A parent said her son regularly interacted with Perry.
The lawsuit says the church and school failed to provide a safe environment for the children entrusted to their care.
The lawsuit says the church and school failed to provide a safe environment for the children entrusted to their care.
Don Williams provided the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon a character reference for Perry to enable him to work or volunteer at the church, the lawsuit alleges. Howard also knew Perry was a registered sex offender and yet allowed him to have continuous access to children, the plaintiffs charge.
In addition to the anonymous parents who filed the lawsuit, the action estimates that “hundreds” of tuition-paying adults and former students may qualify as plaintiffs in the class-action litigation.
The lawsuit seeks damages under the Class Action Fairness Act and leaves families to pursue individual actions in any potential cases of alleged sexual assault by Perry.
The lawsuit also anticipates the court declining to adjudicate the claims because of the ecclesial abstention doctrine, which says secular courts may not intervene in the religious affairs of churches.
“This action does not require this court to resolve any question of religious doctrine,” the suit states. “It asks only that defendants be held to the same secular principles of law governing the operation of child care and educational facilities, the supervision of known dangers, the truthfulness of safety representations made to parents, and the discharge of governmental supervision duties that apply to every other institution and agency.”