THE WOODLANDS, Texas (KTRK) -- A former Woodlands Christian Academy teacher was sentenced Thursday to three years after she was convicted of having an improper relationship with a student. Lacey Jo Cunningham was found guilty of having an improper relationship with a female high school student. Cunningham turned herself into the Montgomery County Jail on Dec. 19, 2019, after the student told her mother about the relationship, according to the sheriff's office.

A bill to stop the use of nondisclosure agreements to prevent sexual abuse victims from telling their stories has advanced in the Texas legislature. On March 19, the Texas House Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence voted unanimously to report House Bill 748 favorably to the full House of Representatives and recommend passage. The bill, authored by Rep. Jeff Leach (R-Plano), is called “Trey’s Law” after Trey Carlock, a sexual abuse victim of Kanakuk Kamps’ employee Peter Newman. Carlock died by suicide after suffering in silence due to an NDA. His sister Elizabeth Carlock Phillips spoke to...

A group of women from across the country have joined a "club" they never wanted to belong to, nor did they ask to join. They are survivors of childhood sexual abuse allegedly perpetrated by International House of Prayer founder Mike Bickle and members of his staff. They say the systematic grooming and abuse spans decades and includes dozens of women and men. IHOPKC abuse survivor, known as Gracia, says, "Over 100 women have confided in me, sharing firsthand accounts of rampant sexual abuse at IHOPKC and the systemic cover-ups that enabled it." They, along with other...

One by one, the speakers walked up to the small table early Wednesday, then sat and faced the panel of lawmakers in front of them. Several came from across the country — Michigan, Minnesota, Tennessee and Texas. For some, it was their first time in the Missouri Capitol building. They came to testify in support of two bills under consideration by Missouri lawmakers dealing with child sexual abuse. One would eliminate the statute of limitations in lawsuits involving child sex abuse. The other would prohibit the use of non-disclosure agreements in child sex abuse settlements. But the...

In August 2019, my little brother’s obituary was published in The Dallas Morning News. My family decided to mention he was a Kanakuk Kamps abuse survivor at the end of the obit. But, the truth is, he didn’t survive. Trey was a child sexual abuse victim silenced to his grave by Kanakuk Ministries, a summer camp conglomerate based in southwest Missouri popular among Texans. I used to refer to him as a “survivor,” but he didn’t survive, so now I refer to him as a victim, and I’m trying my best to be his voice. Trey endured a decade...

A 37-year-old Colorado man who says he was sexually abused by a director at a Kanakuk Kamps, one of the biggest Christian summer camp operations in the country, has sued the organization and one of the camp’s insurance providers, alleging fraud. Andrew Summersett said that after he revealed to Kanakuk Kamps directors in fall 2009 that, years earlier, he’d been abused by Pete Newman, then director of the Kanakuk Kamp in Branson, Missouri, high-ranking officials in the organization denied knowing that Newman had been accused of molesting other children and told him to keep quiet about it, according to...

Texas legislators have proposed bills that would make certain nondisclosure agreements in child sexual abuse cases void and unenforceable. State Rep. Jeff Leach, a Republican from Plano, authored House Bill (HB) 748, and Republican Sen. Kelly Hancock filed a companion in the Senate, Senate Bill (SB) 1587. Senator Angela Paxton has filed a similar bill (SB 835), which has been referred to the State Affairs committee. The bills would apply to nondisclosure agreements related to certain “acts of sexual abuse,” including indecency with a child, sexual assault, trafficking of persons, and compelled prostitution. An NDA would be...

Last week, Christian County judge Jessica L. Kruse ruled against motions made by Kanakuk Kamps and ACE Insurance Co. in a fraud case filed against them by sexual abuse survivor Andrew Summersett. Despite their arguments that Summersett’s claim was filed after the statute of limitations, the case will proceed. Summersett is suing Kanakuk, ACE and other individual parties for fraudulent concealment and civil conspiracy related to sexual abuse he experienced as a child at the hands of Kanakuk camp counselor Pete Newman. Newman was a serial offender during his tenure at Kanakuk and is currently serving two life sentences...

It's been more than five years since Elizabeth Carlock Phillips last saw her little brother. Trey Carlock, a college grad and honor student, planned for a career in neuroscience research. In 2019, Trey's promising future was cut short. At nearly 29-years-old, Trey committed suicide. Trey was sexually abused over the course of several years by Pete Newman, a former counselor at Kanakuk Kamps in Branson, Missouri. "He was my little brother, and he was groomed from the age of 7," Carlock Phillips said. "And then abused during his adolescent years."

Branson-based Kanakuk Kamps and its associated ministries are a multimillion-dollar global enterprise that includes the largest evangelical sports summer camp in the world. Since 1926, Kanakuk has hosted more than 500,000 campers and 50,000 staffers in Missouri and its many international locations. The camp developed its Child Protection Plan in 2009, after one of its directors was arrested and charged with abusing children he’d met at camp and through related ministries. Ever since Pete Newman pleaded guilty to sexually abusing six boys, Kanakuk has touted itself as a leader in child safety, holding seminars across the nation. But...