Hi. I'm also a Crown College graduate. I've been following this thread since Tuesday evening. I graduated 10ish years ago so I don't know any of the current students and wasn't aware of this until another graduate brought this to my attention. I did some searching and came across this thread which seemed to have the most complete compilation of information, both facts and speculation, that I could find, which has been both helpful and interesting. I considered making an account the other day to chime in on some points but I don't have a lot of free time this week and am traveling this weekend so felt like it might not be worth the time.
Seeing that another alumni has posted here though, I figured I'd at least make a post to confirm all the points he made above. I still live in the area, although I'm not a part of the college or church anymore (I'm agnostic now). I completed both my undergrad at Crown and a graduate degree though and everything that cjk stated I can confirm is correct, or at least was when I attended. I can imagine there might be some relaxation of some minor rules over time but overall I expect everything is pretty similar to this day.
Since I'm here now I'll touch on a couple other things I've seen in the thread. Sorry if some of this is out of order and some of it I know I read but can't find the exact post to quote anymore.
Thank you for your input cjk. Very helpful! I have a couple questions, about the curfew, if you don't mind.
Is there a headcount at night, or would it have been possible for his roommate(s), to have maybe thought that he was just sowing a few oats, and not reported him?
When I was in the dorms there wasn't exactly a head count, but each dorm had a Resident Assistant, and then each room had a Room Leader. If anyone was missing from the room at curfew (10:30 when I attended) or especially lights out (11:30 when I attended) the room leader would notify the RA. If a student was expected to be out past these times the RA would be aware of this information. Given that BS's job sounds like a landscaping type job I can't imagine that would apply to him, unless he had some second job that hasn't been reported (I knew a lot of students who worked at Chick-fil-A, for example, and helped close the store each night).
So, as a likely example, when I was a student the way this would go down was if my roommate wasn't at the time by say 11, my room leader would have reported this to our RA, who would have tried to reach out to the student directly and if that was unsuccessful then by 11:30 or definitely by midnight the RA would have been on the phone with school security (which was kind of laughable but did exist). I'm not exactly sure what the procedure would have been after that. I can't recall a time where this ever happened when I was a student. But suffice to say these aren't the kinds of dorms where you just come in at whatever time you feel like in the middle of the night or don't show up at all -- a student not coming back to the dorm would have been a major, major issue and I would assume that by 2am this would have been known by the highest levels of college staff (not sure if Dr. Sexton himself would have been woken up for this, but it's possible; I understand his age/health might have changed things by now, but I suspect he would have been when I was a student).
How often did they track him? Randomly? Every night? Every hour? Weekends? Why was he "supposed to be at the dorm" on a Saturday night? Was there no socialization at all on weekends? Or, did he tell them that day that he planned staying in that night, and they decided to check up on him to see if he was being honest? If he knew they could track him, and they said he was supposed to be at the dorm that night, then maybe he assumed he'd be back at the dorm before if got too late.
I know how odd and overprotective it sounds that a parent might be checking their 20 year old kids whereabouts on a Saturday night, especially one enrolled at a Bible college, but in this environment this isn't very weird. I had a lot of friends at Crown who had parents who would have behaved this way, and their kids also would not have thought anything of it. I'm not saying BS or his family fall into this category, but there is nothing surprising here. To clarify my previous paragraph, and as I think cjk mentioned elsewhere, Crown students are required to stay in the dorm every night. Unless something has changed this is a pretty strict rule; you aren't allowed to go stay with your buddy across town or anything like that. If I recall correctly the only exception was if your family was visiting town and you got written permission then you could stay with them during that time. It was also very, very difficult (almost impossible) to get any kind of permission to spend a weekend out of town, even to go back to your own home/church. Except for breaks (only Christmas and Thanksgiving, not even Easter) and "ministry weekends" (which occurred once per semester) or some kind of organized school ministry trip, you stayed in the dorms every weekend, no exceptions.
A couple other thoughts:
<modsnip>
How do these circles deal with suicide?
Suicide would be viewed as tragic and "a permanent solution to a permanent problem." This is not a place where they believe that if you take your own life you go to hell because of it. It would just be regarded as very tragic and at some point someone would probably say something like "it's a shame he didn't find the strength he needed in the Lord" or something like that. I don't feel like suicides were ever swept under the rug, in the rare cases that they happened (I'm not aware of any in the Crown student body, from inception to today, though I could be unaware) I think they were always addressed head on. These are the kinds of Christians who look at death as an opportunity to spread a message. I don't agree with that message anymore but for what it's worth death, even suicide, is usually approached like, "How can we use this to help other people" and it's hard for me to be too critical of that general philosophy. So I don't think that if this is a suicide it's being covered up by the church/family/etc.
Small example for anyone who wants to do some research: in 2009 the pastor of the largest Baptist church in Canada (Roger Baker of Faithway Baptist Church) committed suicide. If you google "greg baker faithway suicide" you can read about it. I think a lot of the discussion online is mixed, but at Crown College/Temple Baptist Church I remember the event being handled very sensitively and respectfully. The mindset was that it was tragic and it was wrong, but anyone can make poor decisions in weak moments.
How was the car running all night?
I've enjoyed a lot of traveling over the years and have slept in my car multiple times, occasionally during the winter. It's amazing how little gas a car uses when it's not going anywhere. I don't want to give away locations as I don't care to be identified publicly but slept in my gar at a gas station one time during a very heavy, sudden snowstorm for probably 6ish hours with the heater running to keep off the chill and
maybe I used up a quarter of a tank. I'm not sure that this would be true with the gas pedal depressed, even with the car not moving, but without knowing more details I am willing to assume that when the car crashed the cinder block fell off so at that point the car was just idling in reverse. Now, about that cinder block...
Who put the cinder block on the gas pedal?
This part right here doesn't explain what happened but it sure does make a strong case against this being an accidental death. Either he put it there on purpose (suicide) or someone else did (foul play). All the other details feel kind of incidental here to me. Answer this question and you've solved most of the case.
---
These aren't forums I'm familiar with, I created this account just to add some additional information, and I apologize if I've overstepped anywhere. Mods feel free to edit if needed. I hope I have not spoken too frankly about the rules at the college, which wasn't my point, but I did want to add some more context to the environment. I personally no longer subscribe to Crown's worldview but I try not to be too critical and as much as possible I try to be respectful even in disagreement. If mods want any kind of proof for verification that I did indeed attend Crown/live in the area, I'd be glad to provide. If anyone else has other questions I might be able to answer I will try to do that but not sure how much I'll be online over the next few days. I hope what I've posted has been helpful.
I do think this situation is very, very tragic and my heart goes out to the family. This is one of the most bizarre deaths I've ever heard of. It's really strange for it to figuratively hit so close to home, and I cannot imagine what his family, friends, and other loved ones are going through right now
