Former educators open up about the federal lawsuit they filed — and their desire for an apology.
By Bobby Ross Jr. and Kenneth Pybus | The Christian Chronicle
Before life as they knew it disintegrated — before their jobs disappeared — Midland Christian School meant everything to Jared Lee and Dana Ellis.
Both grew up in the K-12 Christian school and devoted their educational careers to the West Texas campus — Lee serving as superintendent and Ellis as secondary school principal.
“That’s where I went to school all through junior high and high school, and my sisters all went there,” said Ellis, 44, a 1998 graduate. “And I have four kids, and all four of my kids went to Midland Christian.
“So Midland Christian was way more than a job for us,” she added. “For my family, it was our home.”
Lee’s roots with the 1,200-student school, which is associated with Churches of Christ, ran even deeper.
Midland, a city of about 130,000, is an oil industry hub in the Permian Basin.
“My history with the school started when I was in my mom’s womb,” said Lee, 43, a 1999 graduate. “My dad was the high school principal at Midland Christian whenever I was born. Five years later, he became the superintendent of Midland Christian and served as superintendent for 33 years.”
When Eddie Lee retired in 2018, his son succeeded him as the school’s top administrator.
“So Midland Christian, as Dana said, was not only a job, it was my life,” Jared Lee said. “It was my ministry.”
Related: Explainer: Q&A on the ‘Midland Christian Five’ federal lawsuit
But that all changed on Feb. 15, 2022, when Jared Lee, Ellis and three other school employees were arrested and accused — wrongly and maliciously, they contend — of trying to conceal a student’s alleged sexual assault from police.
Three months later — in May 2022 — a Texas grand jury found insufficient evidence to indict Lee, Ellis or the others.
Still working to restore their reputations two years later, Lee, Ellis and former head baseball coach Barry Russell talked to The Christian Chronicle about the ongoing federal lawsuit they filed over their arrests and the motivations behind it.
This story appears in the online edition of The Christian Chronicle.
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