May 19, 2007 11:24 am US/Central
Assembly At High School Creates Controversy
by James Schugel
(WCCO)
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Jake MacAulay with "You Can Run But You Cannot Hide" defends what he and the other members told the 400 plus students at Pequot Lakes High School. He said their message is completely positive and they wouldn't do this if it wasn't.
CBS
Parents are angry, students are upset and a principal is apologizing for a school assembly.
A group called "You Can Run But You Cannot Hide" performed at Pequot Lakes High School Thursday morning.
Students said the group showed graphic pictures of an abortion, read Bible verses and made girls chant about being submissive to their husbands.
They said the assembly in Pequot Lakes started out fine.
They first listened to a band and heard why they shouldn't smoke, do drugs or drink alcohol, but then they said the message changed dramatically.
It turned negative, students started crying and some were so disturbed they ran out of the room.
"Yea, I'm personally hurt," said 18-year-old Kayla Wagner. She's a senior, and she couldn't handle the assembly. "I did cry."
She's not sure how younger freshman did.
"They showed us pictures of dead, mangled, bloody babies," Wagner said. "And ... hit us on everything else -- about makeup, virginity, abortion again and how we should be, pretty much, our husband's slaves."
She even got a book with Bible verses from the group.
Jake MacAulay with "You Can Run But You Cannot Hide" defends what he and the other members told the 400 plus students at Pequot Lakes High School. He said their message is completely positive and they wouldn't do this if it wasn't.
"Our life is this! We want to help people," MacAulay said.
They travel in a bus across the country and call themselves Christians and "independent missionaries."
The last nine years, they've spoke to more than 300 schools about abstinence, homosexuality and abortion because they believe the country's values are wrong.
"Everything we give them is fact," another member of the group said.
"We never one time during an assembly tell kids you have to think this way, feel this way or act this way," MacAulay said.
They said principals often invite them back, but they probably won't be coming back to Pequot Lakes.
"We were expecting something a bit different," says John McDonald, Pequot Lakes High School Principal.
He expected the group to teach bullying, respect, and how to foster positive relationships, but he said members pushed their opinions and their agenda too far.
"The thing we apologized to students for is the program wasn't to the expectation that we thought it would be," McDonald said.
Wagner said she even saw teachers walk out of the presentation.
Even after tears were shed, emotions were stirred, and hearts were hurt -- no one stopped the group.
This same group also performed at a high school in Pine River Friday. The principal from Pequot Lakes warned administrators in advance about the problems he had. WCCO was told the assembly Friday morning did not have the same issues as the one in Pequot Lakes.
WCCO was also told the Pequot Lakes American Legion paid for the assemblies. Each one cost $1,800.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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