The Covenant Presbyterian Church and its church-run school, targeted in the tragic shooting, are at the center of a complex child sexual abuse scandal from 2002-2012.
A 2012 lawsuit alleges that defendants associated with Covenant, including Bachmann, Eades, Avery, and Robinson, were involved in concealing unlawful child sexual abuse by John Perry. The plaintiffs were unaware of the abuse until 2012.
By 2015, two lawsuits alleged child sexual misconduct by Perry. During divorce proceedings, Perry's ex-wife claimed his "inappropriate marital conduct" led to their separation, also as reported by the Arkansas Times.
John Perry was a prominent pastor who had co-authored several books with then Arkansas governor, Mike Huckabee.
The church allegedly used Perry's home as a "safe house" (on the back of his “good reputation”) for children they believed were mistreated by their parents.
This arrangement allowed the church to remove children from their homes and place them under Perry's care, raising serious concerns about the safety and protection of these vulnerable children in the hands of a confessed child molester.
In June 2009, a family sought help from Attorney Larry Crain after being silenced for raising concerns about children's safety in Perry's "safe house." Crain later filed a $3M lawsuit against the person who reported the abuse while representing Perry.
Additionally, the Davises sued Covenant Presbyterian Church and parishioner Dale Lewelling, accusing the church of covering up for confessed child molester John Perry and putting children in Perry's so-called "safe house."
The family claims they were harassed, assaulted, and threatened for raising concerns about the church's concealment of child sexual abuse.
Despite the scandal, local media in Nashville has not covered the stories involving John Perry, who admitted to sexually molesting his daughter in court.
Presbyterian Church Association was reportedly going to bring charges against Pastor Jim Bachmann of Covenant, another church member who was implicated in enabling the abuse. Yet, no one has been charged in connection with the child sexual abuse allegations and cover-up.
This leads to the question, when females only commit 2% of all mass shootings and have only committed 4 of the 147 school shootings before this event, could this have been a carefully plotted vengeance mission?
Did Hale decide to partake in a tragic act of vigilante justice to try and bring attention to sexual crimes for which no one had ever been forced to pay for?
The ages match up. Hale, born around 1994, would have been an elementary – middle schooler sometime between 2002-2012 when the alleged abuse happened. Covenant Presbyterian taught kids from K-6th grade. Could Hale have been a victim too?
Here is a document belonging to a database outlining the sequence of events of Covenant's sex crimes and cover-ups. It was compiled and created by a man attempting to expose Covenant for nearly a decade.
What are they trying to hide?
Another potential piece in the puzzle,
Hale messaged a middle school basketball teammate on social media informing her that Hale planned to die by suicide:
“One day this will make more sense," Hale wrote. "I've left behind more than enough evidence behind.”
Something that could disprove this theory is if covenant was actually secondary target and the undisclosed school was the primary target.
This is unless the undisclosed school in someway had a connection to the abuse scandal.
Janespeaksup for that regional area eludes to multiple christian schools in that area, in that time period, having allegations of cover ups of sexual abuse.
As to why Hale would target kids when an adult would be the abuser: who knows. Anyone who would senselessly murder children and teachers isn't logical.
But in sum, only time and the manifesto will tell.
However,
it looks like they’re gearing up to avoid releasing the manifesto.
www.transradicalactivistnetwork.org
