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A prominent theologian who once authored a book on feminism and Christianity has been fired from Crandall University, a private Christian post-secondary school in Moncton, N.B., following a six-month investigation into allegations of inappropriate behavior.
John Stackhouse Jr. is a renowned evangelical scholar and author, a celebrated professor and speaker at Christian post-secondary institutions. Stackhouse is a frequent contributor to magazines and periodicals, and his opinions are often sought after on radio and television programs, including CBC programs.
Stackhouse came to Crandall in 2015 after 17 years at Regent College in Vancouver. She taught numerous classes at Crandall, including two required courses for students, one called the Christian Way and another on ethics.
In March, just after Crandall University presented Stackhouse with a teaching award, an Instagram account called “dobettercrandall” appeared. He published a series of accounts of what were alleged to be bullying incidents, many of them associated with a particular teacher.
Breaking: confirmed with several members of the Crandall community that the main subject of the Instagram posts was Stackhouse, although he was not listed in them.
Crandall University is a private Christian post-secondary school in Moncton, NB (CBC)
Within days an online petition appeared urging Crandall to investigate the allegations. In April, Crandall’s board voted to hire an investigator and turned to employment attorney Joel Michaud. to carry out the investigation.
On Wednesday night, following a meeting of its board of trustees, Crandall University issued a statement saying it had fired Stackhouse and made a summary of the investigation public on its website.
The summary of the investigator’s report reviews allegations made about three different professors and does not mention Stackhouse by name. But five of the six pages are dedicated to an individual referred to only as “the faculty member.”
Breaking: has determined that “the faculty member” is John Stackhouse Jr. based on key identifying information in the findings.
In the summary, the researcher concluded that the teacher’s interactions with certain female students “created an unwelcoming environment” and anxiety for some students. The investigator concluded that the behavior constituted “sexual harassment” and that it “bordered on abuse of authority.”
‘Classic case’ of personal grooming
One student provided the researcher with “about 100 pages” of emails sent to him by the professor over a seven-month period. The investigator noted that the student did not engage in or encourage what he described as “inappropriate banter.” The investigator found that the faculty member’s behavior was “a ‘classic case’ of grooming.”
The dobettercrabdall Instagram account appeared in March, posting anonymous student accounts about alleged misconduct at Crandall University, many of them focused on one professor in particular. (Instagram)
The investigator noted that the teacher admitted to him that the “jokes” with this student were inappropriate and “unbecoming of a teacher.”
Among the allegations made on the anonymous Instagram account was one that said there had been previous problems with the faculty member’s conduct at another institution.
The summary notes that when the researcher asked the faculty member directly if there had ever been a sexual harassment complaint against him at his previous school “his response was ‘I don’t see why I’m interested in answering that question.’”
Termination Notice
The investigator also said the faculty member responded, “there were no open complaints at the time of my departure.”
The investigator concluded his summary by noting that “Crandall needs to decide what to do” with the faculty member who became the “key subject” of the investigation. Crandall needs to act quickly in this regard and his actions must be transparent as allowed by the law on fairness and confidentiality.”
A week after the summary of the investigator’s findings was presented to the university’s board of governors, Stackhouse received a termination notice.
Breaking: contacted Stackhouse for comment but has not yet received a response.
In Wednesday’s statement, three of Crandall’s top leaders expressed the institution’s deepest sympathy to all of its students.
The petition and Instagram group also called on Crandall to improve its sexual harassment reporting policy. In the statement, university leaders pledged to “focus on strengthening our harassment policies with input from our students and other members of our university community.”