Leesburg High Elder Council Cult Started as Bible Study, Turned Sexual
Gabriel Fielder and Lenny Finelli Resign Amidst Allegations
5/18/22. The story of two high school staff which sexually groomed students at the Florida school needs to get more attention. It is happening now. The brave young man at the school who came forward was put through a progression of events until the teacher got what he wanted. It took years.
Details are slow to surface of the two staff members who overtly corralled a group of students to create a fertile ground for sexually innnapropriate activity, catching the youth while vulnerable.
When adults prey on vulnerable teens coming of age sexually, it's called grooming. But when they use religion to get the kids vulnerability down and the acceptance up - it is twisting their beliefs and using their authority to take advantage of them.
According to Daily Commercial Fielder, the apparent leader of the Elder Council ran a YouTube channel called "Isaiah 58 Ten." In one (removed) video he said:
”Even Ezekiel and Isaiah, those prophets that really had to do a lot of weird stuff, God told them to. I’m sure that they had a choice not to, but if God tells you do to something then what choice do you have?” Fielder said.
Here is an article from The Daily Commercial on the ongoing story.
Grooming is a strategy employed by abusers to make their victims more comfortable with them with the goal of manipulating, abusing or exploiting them.
Explosive claims (have been) made by a member of the now defunct “cult-like” Elder Council, led by former Leesburg High School band director Gabriel Fielder.
A former LHS student told investigators he was 17 when guidance counselor Lenny Finelli texted him explicit messages and enticed him into a sexual relationship that began once he graduated and turned 18. Fielder allegedly smashed Finelli’s phone and not only deleted the texts, but also destroyed iCloud evidence.
The young man’s therapist wrote to school officials describing the group as creating a “shame-based atmosphere that caused anxiety, depression and PTSD, serious enough to require therapy.”
Grooming is a premeditated, calculated tactic among abusers, said Cathy Carter, who is the clinical supervisor at the Child Advocacy Center in Leesburg.
The young man whose complaint sparked investigations said he joined the religious group, which started as a Bible study, when he was a sophomore in 2018. He said in 2020, Finelli told the group he was having specific thoughts about him, “how much he hated it, and that he needed prayer.”
He said Finelli then began texting him and eventually started asking him questions about the size of his penis, what kind of pornography he liked, and whether he and his girlfriend were sexually active.
He also asked him to meet up with him, which he did not do until he turned 18. The two of them lived together briefly last year.
The teen ended the relationship after a few months and went back to his girlfriend.
Wow. How incredibly corrupt. But many young people who've sustained spiritual sexual abuse are quite familiar with these honeyed stories. I know I am.
The report continued:
When speaking with school district investigators, Finelli denied sending sexually explicit texts, saying he was just “expressing that he was a unique person and I wanted to foster a friendship.” He resigned his job, though the investigation found there was sufficient reason to fire him if he had stayed.
The young woman met Finelli when she was a 15-year-old LHS student and he was on staff. She dated him when she was 19, after graduation, even though he was nearly 10 years older.
Meanwhile, the pressure to adhere to the group leader’s ideas, including things like astral projection, or “spirit travel,” grew by leaps and bounds. They were also told they must tithe, with money going to projects on Fielder’s farm, former members said.
The young woman, who asked that her identity not be revealed in Daily Commercial stories, said she, too, has suffered from PTSD.
So far, at least, no criminal charges have been filed.
There is a federal law against enticing minors, but it deals with interstate human trafficking. Some states have adopted enticing laws.
Florida has laws that punish contributing to the delinquency of minors, which is a misdemeanor. it also has a child abuse law prohibiting “active encouragement of any person to commit an act that results or could reasonably be expected to result in physical or mental injury to a child.”
It also has laws dealing with online abuse, like transmission of harmful material to a minor by electronic device; and unlawful use of two-way community device.
The district’s findings have been sent to the state Department of Education, which could discipline the two, including revoking their teaching licenses.
The two used their school authority to morally corrupt the students. I am following this closely as it will surely come out the lies used to manipulate youth just looking for life guidance. Coercion is such an under reported sex trafficking crime. It often goes hand -in -hand with religious sexual abuse.
Let's see if this goes to court, where it should be. The damage done is already irrepairable and life long. And as usual the tactics are very underhanded. This is how they do it right in front of society's eyes.
Source: https://www.dailycommercial.com
Frank Stanfield
Photo: Yahoo News (Gabriel Fielder)
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