Two very different stories claimed by those who were involved
By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – The strip of packing tape—what is the real truth about what happened to five young boys on the afternoon of Thursday, March 17 at Lakeside Christian Academy?
That has become the talk of the town in Slidell, and even beyond with national attention that descended on the city after Slidell Police announced a week ago, they had arrested school Headmaster John Raymond for putting tape on the mouths of the 13-year-old boys.
How long was the tape on their mouths?
Did it really go all the way around the head several times?
Or was it merely a strip covering the mouth and stretching behind their ears?
How long was it on?
Was it 45 minutes as the police reported or only 10 minutes as several school employees stated?
Those are a few of the questions the public is asking these days, and the real answers could very well determine whether Raymond has his life destroyed with a guilty conviction in court, perhaps even leading to jail time.
For a man who has spent his life as a Christian leader for the community, pastoring New Horizon Church, founding and leading Lakeside Christian Academy, operating a Christian radio, and taking many public stands on key issues that were in opposition to his faith, the answers could be life changing.
And therein lies the problem. The contention from both sides of the issue is presenting a “he said, she said” situation, and even if it ends up in court, testimony will still be the word of one person against the other. There are no pictures or school video to support either side.
The police report stated their investigators interviewed “students, parents and faculty,” however, Raymond was never interviewed or allowed to give a statement to police even after he contacted the police chief and offered to “come in to make a statement.”
From the information that was obtained by investigators, their public report—which was then used on national media across the country as well as all the local outlets—Raymond was accused of having “the tape wrapped around the students’ head.”
Parents of the three students who have pressed charges with police that led to the Cruelty to Juveniles arrest against Raymond say the boys all claimed the tape “went around their heads.”
However, Raymond, as well as a school administrator who saw the incident, and the teacher who had the students brought to his class with the tape still in place, all said the tape was positively not touching in the back of the head and was not wrapped around their heads.
The school administrator said the “tape only went to the back of the hairline and positively did not come together.” She also said she told police that fact.
The teacher in the class where the five students were brought with the tape still on their mouths said “I could clearly see the back of their head, and their hair, so I am certain the tape was not around their head. You could clearly see their hair.”
He supports that by noting the arrangement of the desks in his class. Students face the wall to do their work, and the teacher’s desk is behind them, “so I am looking right at the back of their heads.” He also said that several of the boys were giggling about the tape being on.
He added that “the tape couldn’t have been on for more than 10 minutes because it was barely five minutes they were in the class when Pastor Raymond came in with the administrator and took it off. It definitely was not close to 45 minutes.”
However, police contend the students said, “they had trouble breathing and that the (tape) removal process was painful.” Both sides agree that scissors were used to remove the tape.
Raymond counters that by saying “I asked the boys if they could breathe or if anything was uncomfortable. They all said no. And besides, they could have pulled the tape off at any moment if they wanted to.”
Perhaps the only point of agreement in the big “tape mystery” is that both sides agree the nose was not covered.