Free Republic

A former Mormon missionary has been arrested in Pittsburgh for allegedly sexually abusing at least 14 young boys while serving in Tonga before attempting to escape justice by fleeing the country using a fake identity. William James Purdy, 28, of West Valley, Utah, was taken into custody Thursday following a federal indictment handed down July 16, the Department of Justice announced. Purdy allegedly lured boys into his apartment with gifts including electronic devices, toys, food and money - before exploiting them for sexual exchanges. Purdy first traveled to the Pacific Island nation in 2017 to serve his mission with The...

A North Carolina Court of Appeals found that a clinic, where personnel gave a 14-year-old boy a COVID-19 shot without his consent or parental consent, was protected by the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act). The court concluded that the Guilford Board of Education, which hosted the clinic, was also covered by the PREP Act.1Despite calling the act of forcing a child to get a COVID-19 shot against his will and without his parent’s consent, “egregious,” the court unanimously concluded that the PREP Act preempted state law and protected the defendants from being held liable for battery, violation...

A 14-year-old girl who’d gone missing after running away from home last month was found inside the barracks of Marine Corp Camp Pendleton, according to authorities. An officer of the U.S. Marine Corps was taken into custody in San Diego in connection with allegations of sex trafficking involving the minor. The girl, who has learning disabilities, ran away from home on June 9. Her grandmother reported her missing to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department a few days later. “The grandmother reported to deputies that the teen had previously run away before, but always returned home quickly,” Melissa Aquino, SDSO’s...

Protesters, drag performers and at least one adult in a so-called “furry” costume were on hand last weekend for a “family-friendly drag show” that was moved to a local church at the last minute.The “Pride Prom” event hosted by Grayson County Pride was originally scheduled for May 13 at Pecan Grove Park West in Sherman, located about 65 miles north of Dallas.Prior to the event, however, the location was reportedly changed to 118 W Pecan Street, which is the address of the Mosaic Campus of First United Methodist (FUM) Sherman, according to the church’s website.The location change was first reported...

A Fresno elementary school principal was charged with child abuse and endangerment after it was revealed he pushed an 11-year-old special needs student to the ground. Newly released footage from inside Wolters Elementary School depicts the moment Brian Vollhardt, who resigned amid a police investigation over the summer, violently shoved the boy with autism on June 7. The video shows the boy pointing at Vollhardt and speaking with him in the school cafeteria along with two other staff members. As the boy appears to be leaving with the staff, he returns and points at Vollhardt one more time before the...

No Conspiracy TheoryParents are right to worry about sexual abuse of students by school officials.In the wake of the controversy surrounding Florida’s Parental Rights in Education legislation, which prohibits public schools from teaching gender identity and sexual orientation in kindergarten through third grade, the national media has sought to paint conservative opposition as hysterical, anti-LGBTQ, and conspiracy-minded. The New York Times, for example, accused conservatives of having a “freakout” about imaginary “grooming” in public schools, and the Washington Post dismissed concerns about sexual abuse by teachers as a “QAnon conspiracy.”But whatever the editorialists at the Times and the Post might...

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A Detroit brother and sister vanished more than two years before they were found dead in a freezer in their home, and an 11-year-old Florida girl disappeared more than a year before she, too, turned up in a family freezer. And a 7-year-old Kansas boy hadn't been seen for more than a month before authorities found the gruesome remains of a child in a pigsty inside his family's barn. All of them were home-schooled, but despite their disappearances going unnoticed for so long, opposition from the government-wary home-schooling community means it's unlikely these states will start...