COLUMN: Vennard College incident is shameful

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Herald Assistant Editor Jared McNeill

April 25, 2007

By JARED McNEILL

As a Bible-believing, born-again, evangelical Christian, I look at the Vennard College incident and just shake my head.

I wonder how the reputation of a fine institution like Vennard College gets soiled by leadership that chooses to remain ignorant of the law.

I wonder how law enforcement could allow this to happen.

All of this makes me very angry with both Vennard and the Mahaska County Sheriff’s Department.

The president of Vennard College, Dr. Bruce Moyer, should indeed have known better and passing the blame to the Mahaska County Sheriff’s Department simply isn’t acceptable.

In a letter written by Moyer to The Herald published shortly after Vennard’s egregious mistake was made public, he writes: “We have remained in contact with the Sheriff’s office and complied with everything we have been told to do. I was informed by the Sheriff’s office on April 9th that there was a local ordinance, and that Caleb would need to move.”

Dr. Moyer should have known, as a community leader, about the ever-controversial 2,000-foot rule, he should have known about his own town’s ordinances. He has that responsibility.

Yet, he pleads ignorance and just passes the buck.

Then, in the same letter, he wonders why the “moral compass” of the school was called into question, but why not?

After all, Moyer thought it OK to remain ignorant about the state’s 2,000-foot rule and the city’s ordinance forbidding Clemenson’s residence, while fully cognizant of Clemenson’s status.

But then there’s a twist.

“He has a student accountability partner and we have restricted his ministry assignments so that they do not include ministry with children,” wrote Moyer in a memo to The Herald in answer to a reporter’s questions.

So, which is it, is he too dangerous to minister to kids or just dangerous enough to live within 2,000 feet of a registered day care center and within a city that forbids Clemenson’s residence?

What if, God forbid, Clemenson found his way to the Kid’s Corner Daycare?

But Moyer’s actions aren’t the only ones to be called into question.

The Mahaska County Sheriff’s Department also, as the county’s law enforcement entrusted to uphold the law, should have kept an eye on Clemenson.

This is their job. This is what they do.

When asked by a Herald reporter about the incident, Mahaska County Sheriff Paul DeGeest first said that the Sheriff’s Department had only recently learned that he was living there.

But the rub is that he registered with the Mahaska County Sheriff’s Department in August of last year with an address of Vennard.

“If he put down the address of Vennard, somebody should have noticed it,” DeGeest said in the April 10 article.

Shame on both Vennard College and the Mahaska County Sheriff’s Department for allowing this to happen.

The opinions reflected in this column are not necessarily those of The Oskaloosa Herald or its employees.

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