Dallas Man Tied to Camp With History of Abuse Arrested for Sexual Assault of a Child

A former local private-school teacher with access to “thousands of children” over the course of his work was charged with one count of sexual assault of a child and turned himself in at the Dallas County Jail last week, Dallas police said.

Matthew Harmon, 46, posted bail after being booked into the jail on May 29. According to police, the warrant for Harmon’s arrest came after a yearlong investigation into a 2007 incident that occurred between Harmon and a student he met while working at the Providence Christian School of Texas. Harmon worked at the Dallas school from 2004 to 2007 as a coach and teacher.

He and his wife, also a former Providence teacher, resigned midyear in 2007, “citing unspecified personal reasons,” a report conducted by an independent investigator for the school found.

In addition to his job at the school, Harmon volunteered at Trinity Christian Academy in Addison and worked at Camp Kanakuk, a Missouri-based Christian summer camp, from 1995 until the mid-2000s, police said. Founded by former Southern Methodist University defensive tackle Joe White, Camp Kanakuk has made headlines in recent years for repeated allegations of sexual abuse of minors and for a widespread COVID-19 outbreak that occurred when the camp operated in 2020.

“Through the course of this investigation, detectives determined Harmon had been in contact with thousands of children through his work and volunteering,” Dallas police said in a statement. “Detectives have identified additional victims, and believe there may be other victims still not identified.”

An attorney representing Harmon did not reply to requests for comment.

The Providence School

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Harmon provided private track lessons, tutoring and gifts of bras and underwear to a female student who attended Providence through the eighth grade. As Harmon’s relationship with the victim developed over several years, he purchased her a cell phone, took her on trips, bought her alcohol and, in the fall of 2007, initiated sexual intercourse several times, the warrant says. At the time of the assaults, the affidavit states, the victim was 15 and 16 years old, and Harmon was 29 and 30.

According to a statement by the Providence Christian School of Texas, school leadership learned of the abuse in 2022 after speaking to alumni and notified the Dallas Police Department. While waiting for police to begin their investigation, the board hired Amy Stier, an independent investigator, to look into the allegations and to determine whether the school played any part in the alleged wrongdoing in 2007.

Stier's investigation, which ended when Dallas Police began their own criminal investigation in 2023, found that “credible accounts of misconduct” such as grooming, emotional abuse, sexual conversations and sexual abuse of a minor took place while Harmon was employed by Providence. Twenty-three alumni, faculty, administrators and board members were interviewed over the course of the external investigation, the school said.

Those interviewed shared accounts of Harmon meeting with female students privately, tickling minors, buying students gifts, purchasing alcohol and making comments about female students’ bodies. At the time, one female student reported Harmon made her uncomfortable by making comments about her body, but she was accused by school administrators of making up the allegations and "ruining Harmon's life," the affidavit says.

A “limited internal investigation” was conducted after Harmon resigned in 2007, and administrators were made aware of the gift-giving and repeated late night phone calls with the minor, who by then was no longer a Providence student. According to the affidavit, Harmon’s ex-wife, Rachel Harmon, filed for divorce after learning Harmon bought a cellphone for the teen and the two had become close during the teen's time at Providence. Rachel Harmon told detectives she has not spoken to Harmon since.

“Further examination was dropped when School leadership involved in the internal inquiry concluded incorrectly that the inappropriate behavior was not sexual in nature and raised concerns about defaming Harmon,” Stier's investigation, which was shared with Providence families and alumni, states. “There is no evidence that any of this was reported to authorities at the time.”

Stier believes the sexual abuse occurred “both during the time he was employed at Providence and after his employment ended.”

“This report makes painfully clear that the School failed to care for all the children God has entrusted to it. We are grieved that the alumni participating in this investigation did not receive the care and concern they deserved from the Providence administration during their time at the School,” a letter signed by Providence Headmaster Jeff Hendricks and Board President Ellen Porter reads. “We humbly extend our apology to all who were and continue to be affected by this abuse of trust. We encourage anyone with knowledge of any abuse to contact local law enforcement promptly.”

But concerns about Harmon had been raised before he was hired by Providence.

Stier does not believe Harmon was “adequately screened” before his hiring, because allegations of misconduct predating 2004 were ignored and documents reflecting a completed background and reference check could not be found in Harmon’s employment file. In an email provided to police, Tony Jeffrey, Providence’s headmaster during the time Harmon worked at the school, expressed concern about the “seriousness of the issue” after learning of Harmon’s late-night phone calls with the victim.

“I would agree to contacting Joe White at [Kanakuk],” an email sent Jan. 16, 2008, states. “I believe we have a moral responsibility to the kids that he comes into contact with every summer, not to mention their parents.”

A later email sent by Jeffrey on Feb. 5, 2008, said he “[didn’t] want to stick [his] nose where it doesn’t belong.”

Kamp Kanakuk

Harmon spent his summers as a counselor at Camp Kanakuk from 1995 until the mid-2000s, Dallas police said, working at both the Durango, Colorado, camp, and the main camp in Branson, Missouri. According to the arrest warrant, Rachel Harmon told Dallas police Harmon was "heavily involved" in Kids Across America, a Kanakuk-affiliated summer camp program that targets "urban youth," at the time the two met. Rachel was told by a friend that Harmon had been demoted from Kanakuk after having a relationship with a camper, the warrant says. Rachel told investigators Harmon had once admitted to kissing a camper.

Kanakuk's Branson camp is made up of five different campuses, each of which runs sessions for varying ages and of varying lengths. At K-2, the sports-focused teen camp, a nearby cabin is known to campers as the “Harmon cabin.”

Matthew Harmon’s parents were “longstanding fixtures” at Kanakuk, former camper Logan Yandell told the Observer. Campers knew the Harmons as the “best friends” of the camp’s owners, Joe and Debbie-Jo White, and their family cabin and influence would have allowed Harmon “unfettered access” to camp, Yandell said. While Yandell attended Kanakuk in the early and mid-2000s, when police say Harmon was a counselor, he does not remember ever meeting Harmon but does remember Harmon’s family.

“The current arrest of Matt Harmon confirms patterns Kanakuk victims have been aware of for decades. The failure to report misconduct against children they steward leads to later arrests at other institutions where bad actors go on to harm more and more children,” Yandell said. “I’m glad to see some accountability and justice for Matt Harmon’s victims.”

Yandell is currently a plaintiff in a fraud lawsuit against Kanakuk Ministries, White and the camp’s insurance agency. He has been an outspoken survivor of child abuse at the hands of former Kanakuk counselor-turned-director Pete Newman, who was arrested in 2009 and has over 50 known victims. A dozen former Kanakuk staff members have been identified by law enforcement agencies across the country as having committed various crimes of child sexual abuse, and the camp has been criticized for its use of non-disclosure agreements, or NDAs, with victims and inadequate reporting policies.

On its website, Kanakuk acknowledges two known abusers: Newman and Lee Bradberry. Newman, described by the camp as a “master of deception,” was sentenced to two life sentences plus 30 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections for child molestation. Bradberry was removed from the camp in 2011 after being identified by the camp’s child protection plan and was sentenced in 2013 to four years for sexual misconduct involving a child under 14, seven years for statutory sodomy and two 10-year sentences for child molestation, to be served concurrently.

The Kanakuk website says reports of the camp employing other abusers is a “false narrative.” Camp Kanakuk did not respond to the Observer’s questions about Harmon’s employment or relationship with the camp.

In 1994, the Dallas Police Department investigated the abuse of one Kanakuk camper who said his counselor, Paul Green, molested him during the Thanksgiving holiday, which Green spent with the victim’s family in Dallas. According to a report by the Springfield News-Ledger, Green admitted to the crime in a recorded phone call with the victim, and police were preparing to make an arrest when Green died in a car accident.

The victim and his parents also reported the molestation to Kanakuk’s “trip director” at the time, the Springfield News-Ledger reports, although it was never made clear whether the report was shared with other parents, law enforcement or White, the camp’s owner.

Another former Kanakuk camper, Trey Carlock, died by suicide in 2019. Carlock, who graduated from Highland Park High School, was a “Kanakuk Kamps abuse survivor” who “fought valiantly against the trauma he suffered,” according to an obituary written by family.

Highland Park K-LIFE, a “sister ministry” that works alongside Kanakuk, told the Observer Harmon did not work or volunteer with the group’s Dallas chapter.

Trinity Christian Academy

The other school Dallas Police identified Harmon as having ties with, Trinity Christian Academy in Addison, told the Observer Harmon attended several school-sponsored trips alongside his parents, who worked at the school. The school currently requires every TCA employee and volunteer who goes on a school-sponsored trip to complete a yearly background check, a policy that has been in place "for a number of years." A spokesperson for the school declined to say what year Harmon's last trip occurred.

"We are disturbed to hear about these allegations. ... Every employee, as well as every adult volunteer who attends any overnight school trip, also receives training in how to spot potential sexual predators and the necessity of reporting any suspicions of abuse," the spokesperson said. "Although it is our understanding that the offense mentioned by the Dallas Police Department involves a victim from another school, we grieve for anyone who has experienced assault or abuse in any setting."

Trinity Christian Academy is reaching out to alumni who may have been on the trips Harmon attended to make them aware of the Dallas Police Department's investigation, the spokesperson said. The school is also sharing the contact information of Dallas detectives who are leading the investigation.

The Dallas Police Department said it is "possible" Harmon could face additional charges.

DPD asks anyone with information regarding Harmon to contact Dallas Police Child Exploitation Squad Detective Eric Seyl at 214-671-4473 or [email protected].