The Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, please contact Bruce Gerencser. Nothing in this post should be construed as an accusation of guilt. Those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.
Pastor Charles “Tiger” Aguon II, headmaster/teacher at Kingdom Preparatory School in Auburndale, Florida, stands accused of grooming and sexually molesting a teen boy.
PCSO investigators conducted an emergency forensic interview with the teen, who said Aguon simulated sex with him and touched his penis numerous times, with a specific occurrence in November and another in December.
During a monitored phone call between Aguon and the boy Tuesday, the teen told Aguon he felt uncomfortable and did not like when Aguon kissed and touched him.
Aguon then asked the boy, “Oh, the loving on you?” said Judd, referencing the phone call.
After the teen said he didn’t like it when Aguon touched his private parts, kissed him and bit his lip, Aguon then said, “You know I was only messing with you,” according to the arrest affidavit.
When the teen told Aguon a second time he did not like it, Aguon then said, “I’m sorry.”
Less than two hours later, Aguon was arrested at Kingdom Preparatory School around 1:30 p.m.
Judd said Aguon admitted to detectives that he knew his behavior was inappropriate, and that he should not have engaged in that type of behavior.
Unfortunately, this happened in my neck of the woods. I wondered how long it was going to take before you posted something about a preacher in my area. It’s to the point that this type of news is barely shocking anymore – I EXPECT priests to be molesters of little boys and youth pastors to be texting nude pics to 13yr old girls. Not sure how getting touched inappropriately/raped/sodomized by an adult could possibly be something that a Sovereign God has ordained for a child’s “good”. Thank you for posting about your journey. I was raised very similarly to you – and I’m still a believer, I guess. I’m just really ticked off at God, not sure that the Bible stories are real and convinced that Christians are the WORST example of Jesus on this earth. In the space of about two years, I’ve found myself becoming much more aware of what’s going on in the world and what has gone on in the past (not filtered through the lense of an Abeka or Bob Jones University history or an Apologia science book). It’s a humbling, strange, terrifying place to be in when everything you’ve ever believed, for over 40 years, is called in to question.
Go easy, StillSearching…The terror lessens as Reason is allowed to speak. I am a 66 year old survivor of a ministry family, my dad a preacher and my mom the daughter of one, all conservative Baptist. I know longer feel any need to believe and felt great joy, relief and peace when I finally realized I did not believe and could say it aloud to myself and then to others, that I was past believing. Whatever state you find yourself living in, know that you are cared for by you first and not magic. All else falls into place when we care for ourselves and do not condemn the self. Best wishes to you in allowing your questions and in knowing patient listening in life when an answer is not forthcoming…
I was in the same place as you are several years ago after being a staunch Christian for forty years. Your comments show you are seriously questioning everything you have believed. I was there and it’s a scary place. I had a sudden ”aha” moment when I realized that religion is just nonsense and at that point I walked away. It was an incredibly powerful and freeing moment in my life. Since then I have no longer tried to protect my faith from the ugliness and hypocrisy of the faithful and my decision to walk away has been vindicated a thousand times. I wish you well.
He knew it was inappropriate and he should not have done it. Yet he did. Why? Because he is a predator. He believes he can do what he wants to satisfy his desires and does not care about who he hurts to get what he wants.
Pastors should NEVER be left alone with anybody. Seriously. If counseling is needed, there must be a way to counsel with doors open in the line of sight of another person.
That’s the law in the UK. As middle-aged mumsie sort of teacher, I, and colleagues were shocked when the new rules were mooted. ‘Come off it,’ we said ‘it’s a million miles from our minds when we take that child into a room to bathe a cut knee or give it one-to-one tuition’. But then we saw that if it prevented the abuse of just one child, we should assent to it. The lovely little autistic boy I was a reading buddy to, loved our one-to-one times, but he also loved to close the door when we read together, so the session was interrupted often by his closing, and then me opening the door the first few times. When I read that a US pastor had spanked a 6yo child at xmas because the child had said ‘church is boring,’ my jaw literally dropped that this was not prosecuted.
Matilda, I worked with a young person diagnosed with autism and they had a door-closing obsession that was quite fixed. In this case I would suggest working in a fully windowed room with the door closed but the reading done in complete view of others. As for the pastor spanker man, that punisher should have been immediately kicked out the door. Sadly, in my day (I’m 66 now) hitting was pretty routine and all of us were at least swatted. Child abuse was the norm in this respect and passed down as scriptural obedience. My preacher’s kid mom used to go after us with wooden spoons and fly swatters and my preacher dad was somewhat more gentle in action, though he preached and supported corporal punishment. The church is yet one of the worst supporters of routine abuse that I know of….
Yes, we solved it by my persuading him to sit with me on a comfy sofa in the atrium, (in full view of others) There was a new directive from the powers that be that schools should be more part of the community. ‘Multi-generational’ was the new buzz word. So, when Leo sat beside me first time on the sofa and stroked my aged cheek, and said ‘Mrs X, I do love you, you’re so….you’re so….wrinkly’, I guess that goal had been accomplished!
Lovely share, Matilda and aren’t kids so brilliant in their observations!
When I read, ‘Mrs X, I do love you, you’re so….you’re so….wrinkly’, I earned a good hard laugh! Thank-you!
Sage advice Kittybrat but patriarchal religion is designed to provide opportunities to harm. As sensible safeguards such as those you suggest become more evident, patriarchy and perhaps religion too will become something we can shove off with a good riddance.
Religion is designed to harm.? Thats a foolish statement, no ? Misguided notions maybe. Doctors used to do all sorts of stupid things like bloodletting out of ignorance but not out of malice.
You might want to think a bit about the cardinal doctrines of Christianity. Start with original sin/total depravity. This doctrine alone causes great psychological and, at times, physical harm, ruining children as soon as they are told they are worthless, vile sinners — enemies of God — in need of forgiveness/redemption/salvation. Shall I go on? Step outside of the Christian box and ponder how certain Christians beliefs and practices might cause harm.
I have just listened once again to Stephen Fry’s debate with some believers
http://brucegerencser.net/2019/02/the-voices-of-atheism-stephen-fry-takes-on-the-catholic-church/
and I think if you listen to it Geoff (assuming you have not already) I think you can peraps better understand where I am coming from in saying that religion is designed to harm. Regarding Christianity, the very notion, the very beginning of the tale is a story about the evil human heart. The message tells the reader that we are born evil, fallen creatures. It begins and ends in lies and misdirection. It reduces humankind to subservient things to be toyed with as the church sees fit. It coaches parents to disrespect their children with frightening, manipulative ideas. You think its a foul ball thrown occasionally? I think the game itself is insidious. Does a parent love a child when that parent cajoles a child to follow Jesus or suffer Hellfire? Of course they love the child and they do not do it out of a direct malice, no, but because they are harmed people who do not any longer know how to respect a child’s freedom to be, to choose on their own in time and so forth. Parents can love their children and still do terrible harm in ignorance and via the long practices of harm known as religion. It is my view that accepting the basic tenents of Christianity is an affront to Reason and an insult to innocence. When in the 2nd Crusade the order was given by clergy to “Kill them all! God will know his own!” I suggest that this was malice that was done by the church through men. When the priests protect one another from prosecution they do it because we have all sinned and God forgives? Or is it simple ignorance of the harm done to children? No malice in that, huh? I wonder to what end you wish to suggest that the church’s harm done down through the ages is simply bad science, a bit of blodletting on the road to better days?