Former students of the El Cajon-based youth theater company — one of the largest in the nation — have also come forward with accusations of homophobia, racism and bullying.
The president of El Cajon-based Christian Youth Theater announced Friday that the San Diego branch of the nationwide organization has shut down indefinitely amid allegations of sexual abuse by former employees.
That was the same message that about two dozen of the theater’s former students and performers, as well as their supporters and an attorney, expressed Friday afternoon outside the theater’s headquarters in El Cajon, Calif., where the organization’s sign was taken off its building earlier in the day.Jessica Pride, the attorney, claimed the organization’s founder and longtime president had “acute and specific knowledge of the abuse that was happening.
Russell Cox’s parents, Paul and Sheryl Russell, founded Christian Youth Theater in 1981 and ran it for decades. Paul Russell did not immediately return a voicemail seeking comment Friday.Russell Cox’s announcement that the San Diego branch of the theater company was shutting down “until further notice” is not expected to affect the organization’s other branches across the country.
Pride, the attorney for the alleged victims, claimed Friday outside of the theater’s headquarters that “there is an active police investigation going on into the multiple perpetrators that are out there.”Pride said she could not comment on the specifics of the case or cases, but said her four clients ranged in age from 12 to 16 years old when they were allegedly abused.
Shortly after the initial post, a woman posted an allegation of being assaulted when she was 13, abuse that, she said, lasted for the next few years. Another man later posted that he was “a survivor of childhood sexual assault.” He named his alleged abuser, describing the man as a theater director, and claimed the same man “also molested many of my closest guy friends.
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