Left: John Raymond’s 2022 mug shot (Slidell Police Department). Right: Raymond on Survivor in 2002 (CBS).
A Louisiana jury convicted a former “Survivor” contestant and pastor who started a Christian school of child cruelty on Monday.
Jurors took just an hour to convict John Raymond, 62, in a St. Tammany Parish court after a six-day trial, NOLA.com reported. The Slidell Police Department arrested Raymond in April 2022 on three counts of cruelty to juveniles when a trio of students at Lakeside Christian Academy accused Raymond of wrapping their heads in tape to keep their mouths closed.
Raymond in a statement on the school’s website wrote that he was dealing with a troublesome group of middle school students who chose to have their mouths taped rather than be suspended. He denied the tape was around their heads, and said it was only covering their mouths for a few minutes and did not impede their breathing.
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In the weeks following his arrest several people including former teachers and parents at the school in Slidell, which is about 30 miles northeast of New Orleans, came forward with additional allegations dating back at least five years. One incident involved a 4-year-old pre-K student who was known for sitting on the ground while kicking and screaming during “tantrums,” cops said.
During one of the outbursts, Raymond put his hand over the boy’s mouth and nose preventing him from breathing, police said. Raymond suffocated the boy to the point of him going “limp.” Raymond only stopped after a staff member intervened, according to cops. The staff member told detectives the boy had mucus coming out of his nose, was unable to stand up and seemed “out of it and lethargic.” On other occasions, Raymond dragged the boy across the floor “by his ankles” and held him upside down and “whipped him on the buttocks,” cops said. Detectives filed more child cruelty charges against Raymond, who denied the claims.
At trial, Raymond’s attorney Joseph Long framed the case during opening statements as “the left against the right, the conservatives against the woke,” according to a courtroom report by NOLA.com. Raymond has reportedly blamed the case against him on “cancel culture” and said corporal punishment is in line with Biblical education.
“Make no mistake, folks, this country is in the middle of a culture war,” Long reportedly told jurors. “In Europe, parents can’t even physically discipline their children anymore. It’s coming. This is government overreach.”
But the jury didn’t agree. Prosecutors were pleased justice was served.
“It was a pastor’s duty to counsel, not suffocate, the child,” Fisher told reporters.
Raymond remained defiant even after the quick and decisive verdict.
“I’m not guilty. I’ve never been cruel to a child, and I love children,” the handcuffed Raymond reportedly said.
He’s set to be sentenced in about a month.
Raymond competed on “Survivor: Thailand” in 2002. He was the first contestant to be voted off the island.
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