San Diego-area alums accuse Christian Youth Theater leaders of ignoring years of sex abuse – By Alex Riggins (LA Times) / July 25 2020
EL CAJON, Calif. — 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.
At a news conference Friday, Janie Russell Cox, whose parents founded the theater in 1981 and grew it into one of the nation’s largest youth theater organizations, said she and her staff “are heartbroken and devastated about the experiences of former students of our program that were recently shared via social media.”
Allegations of sex abuse, racism and homophobia within Christian Youth Theater, a nonprofit educational organization, have been made over the past 10 days, particularly on Facebook, where alums and former employees have opened up about their alleged experiences, often using the hashtag #CYTKnew.
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.
Continue to article: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-07-25/alumni-accuse-san-diego-christian-youth-theater-leaders-ignoring-sex-abuse-racism-homophobia
