Concerned parents, community members, Friends of Finland board members, and Youth Night staff (past and present) filled the Clair Nelson Center in Finland, MN at the Crystal Bay Township meeting on Tuesday, July 16, 2024.
According to Lake County court documents, on June 13, 2024, Andrew Deyette (also locally known as Andrew Norcross), a staff member of the Finland Youth Night Program (at that time), was arrested by Lake County Deputy Jack Dietz and charged with two counts of Indecent Exposure in Presence of Minor Under 16 and two counts of Criminal Sexual Conduct in the Fifth Degree – Lewd Exhibition. Both counts are Gross Misdemeanors and the maximum sentence is one year and/or $3,000 fine. All charges are currently pending. Additional details of the charges can be found online at https://publicaccess.courts.state.mn.us/CaseSearch. A Motion to Dismiss was filed by the defendant on July 19, 2024. Mr. Deyette is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
The alleged incident did not occur on Crystal Bay Township/ Friends of Finland/ Finland Youth Night Program property. Deyette is no longer working for the Finland Youth Night Program.
During the Township meeting, statements were made by former staff, parents, and concerned citizens. One of the speakers commented that when the program originally started background checks were not performed for the Youth Night Program staff. When the background checks were eventually put into place, the speaker stated that “Andrew Deyette’s came back with an Assault Charge yet he still remained as an employee working with children.” Some speakers claimed they had reported incidents, filed complaints, and raised concerns to Honor Schauland, Executive Director of Friends of Finland, about Deyette’s conduct, inappropriate behavior, and lewd language in front of children while he was working for the Youth Night Program and Teen Camp. Some of these complaints date back to 2019, shortly after Deyette was hired. Statements were also made that they felt these complaints were “disregarded” or were told they “would be handled, yet the issues only seemed to get worse”. A parent claimed she was told, “If you don’t like it, don’t bring your kids here.”
An email request was sent to Friends of Finland for comment. Jennifer Urban, attorney for nonprofits with Legal for Good, which represents Friends of Finland, responded with the following:
1. Friends of Finland recognizes the seriousness of the accusations that have been made. In response, we have engaged outside professionals to thoroughly examine the matter.
2. To ensure the integrity of this investigation as well as confidence in its outcome, Friends of Finland has made the determination that Ms. Schauland will be placed on paid administrative leave pending an outcome.
3. Prior to the recent law enforcement incident related to Mr. Deyette, Friends of Finland had conducted a background check on Mr. Deyette (as it does with all staff that work with youth) and fully investigated any/all complaints brought to its attention related to Mr. Deyette. None of the complaint(s), once examined, warranted termination of Mr. Deyette. As these issues involve confidential and legally protected personnel matters, we cannot further comment on any specific incident(s).
4. Friends of Finland does not take for granted the trust and confidence that the Finland community has placed in us. We pledge to take all necessary and responsible steps to preserve that confidence.
We spoke to some of the parents/community members and former staff. The following are their statements/ comments in their own words:
Former Youth Night staff 1: “Through all of the investigation, community conversations and meetings, let’s not lose sight of who is at the center of all this: our children. We, as a community, need to be prepared to reach out and offer needed services to any children or families that have been negatively impacted. Children/ young adults should know they will be listened to, taken seriously, and believed. That none of it is their fault and that we are here to help them.”
Former Youth Night staff 2: “Andrew Deyette, who changed his last name from Norcross, had many incidents with many staff members and coworkers while I worked there. I witnessed him inappropriately interacting with various youth grabbing them by the waist, telling them to stick their tongues out and talking inappropriately. Whenever his behavior was in question, the response was ‘oh that’s just Andrew’ no matter what his behavior was. It was brought to [the Director’s] attention specifically and the response was ‘he has done questionable things at camp too but I just let it go because I don’t like confrontation’. We need to stop making excuses for the behavior and do something about the issues and problems at hand. How many children need to be affected for those in charge to take accountability for not taking action sooner? The definition of accountability is clear.
4 Pillars of Accountability:
- Responsibility – “a duty that binds to the course of action.”
- Answerability – “being called to account.”
- Trustworthiness – “a trait of being worthy of trust and confidence.”
- Liability – “being legally bound to a debt.”
The youth program lost countless talented Youth Night workers who quit or resigned due to Andrew’s behavior and it not being addressed appropriately. Including me.”
Concerned parent 1: “There has been an attitude maintained, by a few people in positions of power, that the casual touch, adult language, and overt friendship exhibited by Andrew has been ok because he means well. My contribution here is that we need to focus on the behavior and the impact, not the intention behind it. Pre-teen and teenage girls have windows of developmental vulnerability, because they have no idea what changes are upon them. That is why as a society we have important, clear and strong boundaries in place about how we treat our young girls and young women. To me, the fact that this even needs to be explained means that something has gone very wrong within the leadership at the Youth Program.
Our families and community members value our Youth Program very deeply. Many skilled and generous people have worked and volunteered there over the years. In fact, countless employees and parents have observed these inappropriate behaviors and safety risks and brought them to the attention of Honor and the Friends of Finland Board of Directors. I think it is safe to say that we are all looking forward to being able to restart the Youth Program under new leadership, so that we can again create and maintain a safe, fun, dependable environment for our children to gather and thrive.”
Concerned parent 2: “I am sharing our story because I’ve learned there are many others in the Finland community affected by Andrew [Deyette] who cannot speak up as easily as an outsider like me. Following a sleepover in the summer of 2023, my underage daughter was brought to the Baptism River to go swimming with her friend and the friend’s adult male caregiver. Without warning, the man undressed and exposed his genitalia to my daughter. Shocked and confused, my daughter walked away and declined the invitation to swim with him and the other minor. I did not know this man or consent to him taking my daughter swimming. After learning about the incident from my daughter, I learned his name was Andrew. I got his number from staff at the community center where Andrew apparently worked, and called him. I left a message and he called right back. Andrew convinced me not to call the police because his swimming nude with kids was “normal” for their family. And I knew and trusted the other child’s mom. He apologized and admitted what he’d done was in bad judgment, and that a situation like that would never happen again.
On June 13, 2024, Andrew Deyette was caught and criminally charged for doing something very similar to what happened to us. Learning about it from a concerned Finland parent shortly after the arrest, I immediately contacted the police and gave a statement. I shared the details of my daughter’s story at the Crystal Bay Township meeting last week along with others who spoke about their own concerns of Andrew’s inappropriate behaviors with kids during youth programs over the years. I also shared my opinion that the township should distance itself from the Friends of Finland executive director, Honor Schauland, and her entire leadership. I am disappointed with myself for not trusting my gut and saying something sooner to law enforcement. I hope that speaking up now will help bring civil and social justice to all parties involved in this matter.”
Since the July 16 meeting, there has been additional resignations. We reached out to Crystal Bay Township for comment and they responded, “The Town Board of Crystal Bay hasn’t authorized a statement at this time.”
Demands for action were shouted by attendees of the meeting and the board listened. A letter from GDO Law to the Lake County Sheriff’s Department read in part, “The Town Board of Crystal Bay Township, at its meeting on July 16, 2024 passed the following motion: ‘I move that the Town Board bar Andrew Deyette from coming onto Township property until such time as his felony charges in the matter of 38-CR- 24-204 are resolved.’”
The Crystal Bay Township will be holding a special board meeting on Tuesday, July 30th, 2024 at 7 p.m. at the Clair Nelson Community Center for the purpose of re-negotiating the contract with Friends of Finland for the management of The Clair Nelson Community Center.
If you have any information you’d like to share, please contact the Lake County Sheriff’s Office Dispatch at (218) 834-8385, option #1.
