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Christian boot camp seemed safe to mom
August 17, 2007
By Jeorge Zarazua
The mother of a 15-year-old
Floresville girl who authorities believe was dragged behind a van at
a Christian boot camp said she was appalled to learn her daughter
had named a pastor as one of her assailants. "I would have never
thought something like this could happen or I would have never sent
my child there," Frances McClintock said Friday.
Pastor Charles E. Flowers of San
Antonio's Faith Outreach Center and camp trainer Stephanie Bassitt
were indicted Thursday in Nueces County on one count each of
aggravated assault.
Both Flowers, 46, and Bassitt, 20,
are free on $100,000 bond.
Flowers declined to comment on the
allegations shortly before his arrest Aug. 10.
McClintock's daughter, Siobahn,
returned from the boot camp near Banquete on June 14 with scrapes
and bruises on her face, abdomen, legs and arms. Authorities
obtained photographs of the injuries.
McClintock said her daughter is
still coping with the incident.
"There's a lot that happened," she
said, declining to go into details. "It was really bad."
Affidavits filed to obtain arrest
warrants in the case say Siobahn told authorities that when she fell
behind her running group during a morning exercise, Flowers ordered
Bassitt, his training assistant, to jog beside her.
When Siobahn began to walk, Bassitt
yelled at her and pinned her to the ground, according to the
affidavits.
Flowers then used a rope to tie
Siobahn to a van, got behind the wheel and dragged Siobahn behind it
on her stomach, the affidavits said.
A witness, who was not named in the
affidavits, said Siobahn attempted to stand up and fell at least
three times as she was dragged.
Nueces County District Attorney
Carlos Valdez, who has referred to the girl's dragging as a "tragic
incident," said it appears to be an isolated incident.
Valdez said his office hasn't
received any other complaints of abuse there.
Love Demonstrated Ministries bills
the boot camp on its Web site as a place that fosters "values such
as discipline, morality, unity and integrity" for a society that has
lost them.
"I had checked it out the best I
could," McClintock said of the camp. "Everything I saw was positive.
For her, it didn't turn out that way."
McClintock said her daughter wasn't
allowed to call home after the incident.
"I found out on my own," she said.
Once her daughter returned to the
camp's orientation offices at the church in San Antonio, McClintock
said she spoke with the pastor.
Valdez said while McClintock did
sign a "parental consent form" before entering her daughter in the
program, it doesn't protect Flowers or Bassitt from criminal
prosecution.
The form states, "I realize that
Christian Boot Camp is a strenous (sic) and highly intense program.
I further realize that the possibility of accident, injury or even
fatality to my child does exist."
Attempts to reach other pastors at
the Faith Outreach Center have been unsuccessful.
McClintock said she decided to
speak publicly so others would be aware of what could happen to
their children.
"We were hoping to help people,"
she said.
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