Teaching kids to expel demons by cutting themselves gets woman arrested.
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A literacy specialist, Danielle Harkins, was arrested after it emerged that she had told seven of her students to cut themselves as part of efforts to rid them of demons, according to the Miami Herald.
Not only did she summon them together for the cutting sessions, she is also alleged to have taught them how to cauterise the wounds with house keys heated up with a cigarette lighter- although, when the lighter blew out, she poured perfume on one boy’s wounds and set it on fire. The boy suffered second degree burns.
None of the teens had told their parents about the rituals, and it was only when one of them let the secret slip to a friend, and that boy told his parents that everything came out.
Religious nut or just plain crazy?
The teacher had met the teens at the family centre where had worked for four years- her former boss expressed astonishment at the news of the demon expulsion stories, but remarked that Harkins had, just recently, “started exploring religion”.
How well do you know your teens?
The abuse on the part of the teacher and the subsequent silence on the part of the teens indicates one way adults may abuse their authority as children could go along with activities which are not "normal", and then maintain silence about the abuse. This is particularly true of activities carried out in the name of "religion".
Is there any chance that your teens would be vulnerable to abuse, especially when it is disguised as a “religious” act?
By: By Scott Dunlop