Andrew Summersett felt his world shatter twice.
The first time was in 2009, when the Christian camp counselor he idolized was convicted of kid abuse. It was then that Summersett saw though years of manipulation, trauma, and teenage confusion and realized he also was a victim.
The second time got here in 2021, when he read reports that leaders at Kanakuk Kamps had known about Pete Newman’s predatory behavior against boys like him, they usually covered it up.
After years under the burden of shame and secrecy, Summersett, 37, got here forward last week in a lawsuit filed against Kanakuk, a variety of its current and former leaders, and its insurer, alleging they fraudulently concealed Newman’s abuse from him.
He said the legal motion was his solution to regain control over a part of his life “because I didn’t control what happened to me as a child.”
Summersett says Newman—who’s currently serving a double life sentence for child enticement and sodomy—abused him at his family’s home in Texas during a camp recruitment trip and again at Kanakuk’s K-Kamp in Branson, Missouri. He was 14 and 15 years old.
The same 12 months that the previous camper says his abuse began, Newman was warned by Kanakuk leadership “to stop sleeping alone with children, amongst other ‘healthy boundaries,’” the suit claims, citing a years-long pattern of Newman being promoted despite concerns about his nudity and other boundary-crossing behavior with children.
When Newman was arrested, Summersett turned to 2 camp directors, the daughter after which–son-in-law of Kanakuk CEO Joe White, to ask in the event that they had known about Newman’s behavior and to share what happened to him.
The filing states that they told Summersett they “didn’t know” and to “back off” and alleges that their false representations and omissions factored into Summersett’s decision to not pursue a legal claim on the time.
Kanakuk didn’t reply to CT’s request for comment but has previously declined to debate pending litigation. The camp portrays Newman as a “rogue worker” and “master of deception,” saying leaders had no knowledge of his abuse prior to his 2009 confession and arrest.
Last 12 months, Kanakuk also sued its insurer—admitting that it had withheld details about Newman’s previous abuse from victims and their families as a result of advice from their adjuster. Court documents include a 2010 letter from ACE American Insurance Company recommending that Kanakuk not let families find out about Newman’s misconduct and the camp’s response, since “such disclosures threaten to reveal Kanakuk to greater liability and should interfere with ACE’s contractual right to defend claims and to have Kanakuk’s cooperation in that defense.”
Summersett is the second of Newman’s victims to sue the Missouri-based Christian camp for fraud, following Logan Yandell in 2022. Yandell’s family said the camp similarly claimed that it had no knowledge of the previous counselor’s misconduct once they entered a settlement over his abuse in 2010. His case is awaiting trial.
Yandell called it “each empowering and heartbreaking” to see one other survivor come forward with a lawsuit, an indication of the scope and continued impact of Newman’s abuse through Kanakuk.
“Legal actions like Andrew’s and mine aim to reveal the reality and hold those responsible accountable,” he said in a press release to CT. “This fight will not be only for our individual justice but for systemic change that prioritizes the protection of kids over the shielding of institutions.”
Their cases also raise the profile of the chance of grooming and abuse toward male victims. Men might not be subject to the identical formal boundaries or informal expectations for his or her interactions with boys as they’d with the other sex.
“It is an area that we have now to be so rather more cognizant of and so rather more vigilant in and around, because there are evil people. There are predators, there are people like Pete and other people like Kanakuk who harbored Pete,” Summersett said in an interview with CT. “I feel it’s our absolute charge and duty to guard our children because they don’t deserve this, and we will prevent it.”
Summersett grew up in Arkansas and Texas, where he loved to play outside “with no shoes on, running across the neighborhood.” He looked forward to camp at Kanakuk every summer, starting at age 7. His favorite part was the people. He loved reuniting with fellow campers and with staff members like Newman who seemed “larger than life” with their big personalities and spiritual insights.
“I grew up in a Christian household—faith was at all times a part of our family, and clearly, this significantly rocked all the foundation of every thing I believed,” said Summersett, now married and raising a family of his own in Colorado. “Faith and God and the Bible were what Pete used to groom me.”
A well-liked and charismatic counselor, Newman initiated conversations with boys about biblical purity. He had “hot tub Bible studies” where they’d discuss sexuality and masturbation.
“It’s totally grooming behavior,” said Andi Thacker, a counseling ministries professor at Dallas Theological Seminary and a licensed skilled counselor who treats victims of kid sexual abuse.
Thacker described how abusers like Newman “stairstep” their solution to abuse by justifying inappropriate behavior as playful or “just what guys do.” Underage victims in evangelical settings, then, don’t know what to make of their young bodies’ responses and feel the extra guilt of sexual behavior with someone of the identical sex.
Many victims of kid sexual abuse wait many years to report their abuse, if in any respect, and men may be particularly reticent. They may blame themselves or could also be afraid of how people would respond, said Thacker.
Summersett said he hadn’t told his family until last 12 months. But he’s been encouraged by the outpouring of support since his lawsuit made news last week. Putting his name and face on the market as a victim, he said, is value it if it makes fellow survivors feel less alone.
“One of essentially the most impactful things has been connecting with other survivors who’ve eerily similar stories,” said Summersett, who began to network through the location Facts About Kanakuk, which shares resources for survivors. “There’s been a ton of healing and sharing and sort of this brotherhood forming.”
Dozens of men have come forward in civil complaints and John Doe suits against Newman. Reports estimate that his victims could possibly be within the a whole bunch.
Yandell sees the same sense of hopefulness and bravado from fellow survivors: “Each voice that speaks out strengthens our collective fight for justice and healing. It is thru our shared experiences and united efforts that we will demand accountability and be sure that such abuses are never repeated.”
Kanakuk is a outstanding and long-running camp program, hosting 450,000 campers over nearly a century of ministry. A 2021 Dispatch investigation by Nancy French examined how the camp culture at Kanakuk “enabled horrific abuse.” She noted that “no one resigned consequently of the failure to stop a decade of abuse. There was no disciplinary motion against any of Newman’s supervisors, and Joe White remains to be the top of the camp today.”
Across many cases involving victims of kid sexual abuse, Summersett’s attorney Guy D’Andrea has seen the lasting damage done by institutional cover-up on top of the trauma of the abuse itself.
“If you would like your faith to grow and prosper, you’ll be able to’t have essentially the most vulnerable … feel their faith has been shattered by the leadership of a corporation or entity,” said D’Andrea, with the firm Laffey Bucci D’Andrea Reich & Ryan. “We’re not holding the organization to an unimaginable standard. We’re asking them to do the best thing, which is what our faith asks us to do.”
