Lisa Bugg

Good Morning,

Here is some fast breaking news from the AHA-networking list. To follow the conversation even more closely you may want to subscribe to the AHA-Networking list. You can do this by sending email <mailto:AHA-Networking-subscribe@...> Below is a brief synopsis of what's up.

From: NarigonC@...

In a message dated 6/16/99 10:35:29 PM Eastern Daylight Time, sandbar@...
writes:

> Oops! Carol, I know nothing about this. Got the scoopage?

Sandy, I'll tell this the best I can and as short as I can. The court
proceedings are all a matter of public record in Washington state.

Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff is the publisher/editor of a magazine called Gentle
Spirit. It was pretty popular about 6 years ago with conservative Christian
homeschoolers and she was a popular speaker at conferences,. Gentle Spirit
recently came back into publication after a forced hiatus of about 5 years.
Seems Cheryl's very abusive husband left her and their 9 kids in some pretty
dire straights about 5 years ago. When she refused to take him back under
orders of some of the homeschool "pillars", they set out to put her out of
business. And did. They made sure she lost the sole support of herself and
her 9 children by calling her advertisers, columnists and subscribers and
telling them some pretty nasty tales. She was followed around online
and....it's hard to describe how badly some people will treat someone who was
highly respected and then disappointed them. It was awful to read the vitriol
people posted online about this woman. Even before I knew what any of it was
about, I was just appalled that people would act that way toward another
human being.

So she filed suit in United States District Court claiming, among other
things negligence, public disclosure of private facts, defamation, outrage,
antitrust violations, and violations of the Lanham Act. The defendants named
in the suit were Mary Pride, Sue Welch of Teaching Home, Gregg Harris
(HSLDA), Christian Life Workshops, Christian Home Educators of Tacoma,
Calvary Chapel of Tacoma, Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, and Christian Home
Educators of Ohio. Mary Pride, Gregg Harris, Calvary of Costa Mesa, and CHEO
settled out of court.

Sue Welch decided to let a jury hear the case. Probably not a good move on
her part, although she had some pretty big names in the conservative
Christian homeschool community testifying for her, including Michael Boutot,
former chair of CHEO, Mary Pride, Gregg Harris, and Robert Green, Editor of
Quit You Like Men.

The jury found Sue Welch guilty of conspiracy under the Sherman Anti-trust
Act and that she had damaged Cheryl under the Sherman Anti-trust Act. I
think the ones who settled out of court were probably pretty glad they did.
Whatever the jury gives in an anti-trust suit is automatically tripled, I
believe, and she had to pay Cheryl's legal fees as well.

When I heard about this, I was pretty surprised that I'd lived and
homeschooled in Ohio through the whole thing and didn't hear a word about it.
Seems like this would be something a support group wouldn't keep from its
membership. Maybe I just don't travel in the right circles though. Anybody
else from Ohio hear anything about CHEO's involvement? I'm sure there must be
records some where.

Carol