AUSTIN, Texas (BP) — Texas and Missouri laws banning nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) in sexual abuse settlements took effect over the Labor Day weekend.
The Texas law took effect Sept. 1, banning such clauses for sexual abuse survivors of all ages, following Missouri’s law that became effective Aug. 28 and is limited to minors. The laws also nullify previously signed NDAs, unless specifically upheld by a court.
Such bans are now active in three states including Tennessee, where they’ve been outlawed since 2018.
Jeff Dalrymple, director of abuse prevention and response for the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, has described NDAs as controversial.
“In addition to legal considerations, ministry leaders should carefully consider both ethical and moral implications of NDA use,” Dalrymple said in April. “There may be situations in which an NDA could be an appropriate tool for a ministry to use, for instance, to protect the private information of ministry participants or in employment transitions. However, they should never be used to prevent survivors of abuse from sharing their stories or to allow responsible parties to avoid responsibility for their actions.”
Jeff Leach, a Southern Baptist and member of Cottonwood Creek Church in Allen, Texas, was among five authors of the House version of the Texas law, which he has described as perhaps the strongest bill for sexual abuse survivors in the nation.
The new bans are named Trey’s Law in honor of Texas native Trey Carlock, who committed suicide in 2019, years after signing an NDA related to sexual abuse at Kanakuk Kamps in Missouri, his sister Elizabeth Carlock Phillips has testified.
“This date will go down in history as a great victory for survivors’ voices,” Phillips said of Sept. 1 in relation to the Texas law. “My brother was silenced to his grave by an NDA so restrictive that he felt like he couldn’t even share his story in therapeutic settings. I am so proud of my home state for passing this law, ensuring that other survivors of sexual assault hold the power to share their stories whenever, however, and if ever they choose to do so.”
Carlock sued Kanakuk after enduring what he described as a decade of child sexual abuse by then camp director Pete Newman, and accepted a civil settlement with a restrictive NDA that family members say led to Carlock’s suicide.
Newman is serving two life sentences plus 30 years in a Missouri state prison for sexual crimes involving multiple minors at Kanakuk. Civil lawsuits are still being filed related to the abuse, most recently in April by a plaintiff who is the first woman to say Newman abused her when she was a child at Kanakuk.
More than a dozen states have passed legislation limiting to varying degrees the use of NDAs in employer-employee settlement agreements regarding sexual abuse claims, the international law fire Ogletree Deakins reported, in addition to the federal 2022 Speak Out Act.
(EDITOR’S NOTE — Diana Chandler is Baptist Press’ senior writer.)
