Professor terminated by Christian college was repeatedly accused of sexual harassment
Christian university didn’t appear to disclose previous allegations against professor to new employer
When news started swirling that Crandall University in Moncton, N.B., was investigating John Stackhouse Jr. following allegations of inappropriate behaviour, it came as no surprise to those who knew the professor at his previous college.
"Not a single female in particular that I've spoken to about that has been surprised," said Abigail Harmon, a former student and staff member at Regent College, a private Christian post-secondary school in Vancouver.
"I would assume that someone who was not held accountable for his actions was going to simply continue," Harmon said.
Stackhouse is a prolific Christian evangelical scholar, speaker and writer who has published many books, including one on feminism and Christianity.
On Wednesday, Crandall University, where Stackhouse taught Christianity and ethics since 2015, terminated his employment and released a summary of an investigator's report.
The report does not mention Stackhouse by name, but CBC News has identified him as the referenced "faculty member." Among the investigator's findings: The professor's classroom behaviour constituted "sexual harassment" and "bordered on abuse of authority."
Stackhouse did not directly respond to CBC News' requests for comment on this investigation.
However, Tuesday morning, in response to a new request from CBC News, his lawyer Denis Grigoras provided a statement saying his client was "deeply concerned about the recent actions taken by Crandall University to publish the details of a private investigative report on their official website." He notes that his client "profoundly disagrees with the validity of the investigation and the report" as well as the decision to make it public.
The response did not address the allegations connected to Regent college.
CBC News has learned that during his 17-year tenure at Regent College, Stackhouse was repeatedly the subject of sexual harassment allegations.
Harmon and multiple sources who were members of Regent College's community during Stackhouse's tenure confirmed the college conducted an investigation into the professor's conduct with female students and staff members in 2014.
Documents reviewed by CBC News reveal that the investigation looked into multiple allegations of inappropriate behaviour, including sexualized or flirty comments and at least one instance of unwanted touching.
Sources tell CBC the terms of Stackhouse's 2015 departure were kept confidential through a non-disclosure agreement between the professor and the college.
In Crandall's summary investigation report, the professor appears to have told investigators that he was "under a legal obligation demanded by" his previous institution "to avoid any specific reference to the terms of my leaving."
Harmon said there was an unspoken "no physical touch" rule between male professors and female students while she was at Regent College. Stackhouse, however, could be overly familiar physically with students, she said.
Harmon is concerned by the power differential between professor and student and the gender dynamics at play in some faith environments.
"There's not only purity culture, but there's also a subservient sort of attitude within Christian bubbles as well when it comes to women's relationship with men." she said. "It lends to a more specific vulnerability."
Online allegations
In February of this year, Crandall University presented Stackhouse with a teaching award.
A month later, an Instagram account called "dobettercrandall" appeared. It posted what it purported to be student accounts of harassment and bullying at the university.
In a series of posts, students using pseudonyms recounted their experiences at the school, many of them focusing on one professor in particular who taught two mandatory classes.
Within days, an online petition popped up and garnered dozens of signatures urging Crandall University to follow up on the allegations, prompting Crandall to hire an independent investigator.
Among the anonymous allegations of harassment were several from a student known on the account as Jessica.
"I am Jessica," Courtney Lutes said in an interview in her Saint John home. Lutes, a recent graduate, felt it was important to come forward.
"I just don't want these patterns and these behaviours to continue," she said. "I don't want someone to feel unsafe in their class, especially when you're trying to better yourself and get a higher degree."
When attending Stackhouse's classes, Lutes said, she would dress down, wearing baggy sweatpants and bulky tops in dark colours to fly under the radar. None of it, she said, stopped her professor from making comments about her appearance.
"I was full of anxiety all the time. I specifically never turned on my camera if it was during the Zoom meetings, purposefully so I didn't get called out. But he always found a way to make it a priority," she said.
In a video shared with CBC News, Stackhouse can be heard prompting Lutes to turn her camera on in his Christian Way class. She explained she often had trouble with her connectivity when her camera was turned on, but he prompted her again to turn it on. He then proceeded to use her as an extended example in a story.
"So Courtney and I are going out on the town not with each other, because that would just be a little bit weird," he said in the recording. Stackhouse then goes on to speak for more than two minutes in specific detail about the outfits they are selecting for their night out.
'I was definitely naive'
Indira Trowsdale was so upset by the behaviour she said she witnessed in Stackhouse's classes that she started documenting it in the margins of her exercise books.
"I wanted to keep track of when these things were happening," the recent Crandall graduate said. "University is stressful enough. You don't have to be stressed about what your professor is going to say to you next."
Trowsdale said she even tried to protect Lutes, sometimes sitting directly in front of her. Stackhouse's behaviour, she said, seemed focused on Lutes and another student.
"The professor would not stop, even when it's like they're visibly, visibly uncomfortable," she said.
Trowsdale was home-schooled and said because of that it took her a while before she could identify why the behaviour made her feel uncomfortable.
"I was definitely naive," she said. "Being at Crandall was one of the first real-world experiences that I had."
Trowsdale said in one class, Stackhouse started describing her in an imagined matador outfit.
"Why do you have to describe like how I look 'fetching?'" she said. "I don't really want my older male professor imagining me in different outfits."
Recent graduate Michaela Bourque was one of the authors of the open letter calling for Crandall to look into the allegations on the Instagram page.
Bourque said Stackhouse's teaching examples often drew on imagined female characters who were described in misogynistic or sexualized terms.
"I remember specifically this professor was talking about a story of a young woman who was wearing a skirt that was too short and I believe like her undergarments were showing through her top or something like that," she said.
She also witnessed Stackhouse make comments on the appearance of female students.
"You would almost notice right away how uncomfortable they felt. And it was really just a sense of seeing them kind of hollow into themselves," she said.
"It is sort of painful to know really that this may have been avoided altogether if repercussions had been more severe the first time," said Bourque.
Regent College response 'pathetic,' says former student
CBC News put numerous questions to Regent College about its handling of the allegations against Stackhouse during his tenure and why it kept the investigation and the circumstances of the professor's departure secret.
The college did not agree to an interview but it did publish a public statement after Crandall released its report, saying it was "disturbed and saddened by the allegations" but that it could not comment on former employees because of privacy laws.
"Regent's public statement is honestly pathetic," said Michael Buttrey, a PhD student in ethics at the University of Toronto and a former Regent student.
"It doesn't take responsibility. It evades accountability. It doesn't push any model of investigating themselves. Or repenting for what they've done. As an alumnus of Regent, I'm frankly embarrassed."
Buttrey said he believes Regent College needs to launch an independent third party investigation into what happened at the school, how its leadership handled the matter and why they "let Stackhouse off the hook."
"I think they should also review their own kind of moral culture," Buttrey said. "I think Regent's decision-making falls far below the standards we should expect of any institution, but especially a Christian one."
At Crandall, it was the guiding principles of their Christian faith that led university leadership to make its investigation findings public, said former board chair Sheila Cummings, who helped oversee the investigation.
"This is part of who we are and that requires that we're honest," she said. "Would it have been easier to just try to sweep this under the carpet? Perhaps. But it wasn't what was right and honest.
'Pass the garbage'
Non-disclosure agreements are commonly used in post-secondary investigations, advocates for transparency say.
"We call it pass the garbage. One individual moving from one organization to another because there's no trail," said Liz LeClair, a volunteer with Can't Buy My Silence, an international movement and advocacy group dedicated to ending the misuse of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).
LeClair said NDAs are used at universities both at the investigative stage and in resolution agreements so no one can talk about what they told investigators or what the final findings might have been.
"If nothing is reported publicly, if there is nothing allowed to be online, if there is no trail of information, it's really difficult for people to figure out if someone's a problematic individual," LeClair said.
In February, the Canadian Bar Association voted 94 per cent in favour of trying to stop the practice of using NDAs as a tool to silence people who come forward after experiencing abuse, harassment and discrimination.
Some provinces in Canada are working on legislation to prohibit the use of NDAs in cases of sexual misconduct. In P.E.I., it is already the law that only people bringing forward allegations can request an NDA.
Clarifications
- In order to best protect the identity of all those in the current and former Crandall community, a photo that previously appeared in the story has been removed.Nov 28, 2023 10:37 AM ET
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