Crystal River Learning Academy & Tara Salute - An Investigative Series - Part 2

Community Impact and Fallout

Before we begin, please note that this episode is part of an investigative series based on publicly available records and documented information. Any discussion of charges or allegations does not imply guilt. All individuals are presumed innocent unless proven otherwise. This content is intended for informational purposes only.

Certain names, details, or identifying information may be limited or omitted to protect privacy and comply with ethical reporting standards.

For many investigations, the story ends once the arrest is made.

The case file is closed… the charges are filed… and life here in Citrus moves on.

But sometimes, the past doesn’t stay in the past.

Years after the original investigation into Tara Salute, new questions began to surface in Citrus County.

Residents discovered that the same woman at the center of the 2012 criminal case had become involved in a private educational setting serving local students.

The program reportedly operated as a homeschool-style learning environment and accepted families using Florida’s Step Up For Students scholarship program, a statewide voucher system that provides public education funding to families for private or alternative schooling options. 

For many parents in Citrus County, that discovery raised immediate concerns.

Questions began circulating online, across social media, and within local community groups.

Some residents wondered how someone connected to a past case involving a minor could be working in an environment that involved students.

Others debated the legal realities — pointing out that private educational programs operate under a different regulatory framework than public schools.

What followed was a wave of public discussion… criticism… and intense scrutiny throughout the community.

And for many people in Citrus County, the situation reopened questions that had never fully gone away.

In this next segment, we’ll take a closer look at how the discovery of this learning program sparked community outcry… and why the situation became such a heated topic across Citrus County.

Blogs mentioned in the Podcast:

The Citrus Insider:  thecitrusinsider.com 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

This is Graceful Truth Unscripted. I'm Dana, your host, your guide, and sometimes your loudest opinion. Here we share real stories from real people about adoption, foster care, parenting, true crime, and everything in between. No scripts, no filters, just the truth. Before we begin, please note that this episode is part of an investigative series based on publicly available records and documented information. Any discussion of charges or allegations does not imply guilt. All individuals are presumed innocent unless proven otherwise. This content is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. Certain names, details, or identifying information may be limited or omitted to protect privacy and comply with ethical reporting standards. For many investigations, the story ends once the arrest is made. Case files closed, charges are filed, and life here in Citrus moves on. But sometimes the past does not stay in the past. Years after the original investigation into Terra Salute, new questions began to surface in Citrus County. Residents discovered that the same woman at the center of a 2012 criminal case had become involved in a private educational setting serving local students. The program reportedly operated as a homeschool-style learning environment and accepted families using the Florida's Step Up for Student Scholarship Program, a statewide voucher system that provides public education funding to families for private or alternative schooling options. For many parents in Citrus County, that discovery raised immediate concerns. Questions began circulating online across social media and within local community groups. Some residents wondered how somebody connected to a past case involving a minor could be working in an environment that involves students. Others debated the legal realities, pointing out that private educational programs operate under a different regulatory framework than public schools. What followed was a wave of public discussion, criticism, and intense scrutiny throughout the community. And for many people in Citrus County, the situation reopened questions that had never fully gone away. In this next segment, we will take a closer look at how the discovery of this learning program sparked community outcry and why the situation became such a heated topic across Citrus County. Alright, guys. I am trying to get comfortable here in this seat. So that was previously here. It was this is why I don't do scripted stuff. Because I just, number one, I can't read very well under pressure. Tonight, apparently, I can't talk and form my sentences. But this is me. This is what you get, right? Um, so I did uh I got the scripted part out of the way. Uh, but that is because of the discussion that we are continuing and the fact that I will be doing more investigative series. So I just want to ensure everybody understands that a lot of this stuff, unless otherwise stated, is my opinion. Um, it's for entertainment and informational purposes only. And um we're just gonna leave that at that. There's the disclaimer. I just also want to note we are talking about some disturbing information, and I just want to get that uh warning out there. If you if this may trigger you, I advise you do not listen to this episode. I apologize. Um, I would love for you to, but I do not want to cause anybody any other mental health um issues that they may be trying to overcome. All right, let's get into this. Um, there's quite a bit. Uh I want to kind of update you on kind of what happened um after I shared the first episode, okay? Because I want to try and explain how this case affected me. So to begin with, I never read the evidence from start to finish because I was getting piece information throughout this entire investigation, right? Um, so from the time that my friend posted that Facebook post uh until I started um reaching out for to other people for information, then I never really put it in order and really truly read all of the evidence that was presented to me. I would look at what was sent to me for the bits and pieces of the base information that I needed to move to the next thing or know to where I needed to go to pull public records or pull um or ask certain questions of companies, etc. So with that, when I sat down to do this podcast, the first part one, which is out anywhere you find podcasts and on our YouTube, so feel free to go check that out. That I had not known every single detail that I shared on that podcast. Now, I had done it twice. If you remember, I told you that I had already recorded it and then it didn't use it or didn't save it, and I had to re-record it. So I kind of want to tell you guys where I was in the headspace of that second interview and then what happened after uh the podcast because my mental health took a toll, and I don't have it, I do have a history of um abuse in my children, but not this type of history per se, and that's something that I'll be sharing on you know upcoming podcasts and stuff like that. However, it made me feel not only angry, but sickened by what I was reading and super emotional, it really took a toll on my mental health, and it took three or four days for me to come out of that hole. Now, the only thing I can compare that to, uh, I had was actually talking to my mom, uh, who I talk to every day, and I was explaining this to her. I said, you know, when I recorded that podcast, at that point, like when I was leading up to it, I didn't realize the effect it would have on my emotional and mental well-being, right? I didn't know what it would do. All I could compare it to was I felt the way that I felt when I read my children's sleep studies, not sleep studies, my children's uh uh home studies is what they were called. You had a parent, a parental home study, and a child's home study. So basically, all of the information about the child that you were taking into your home, it felt it made me feel that same exact way. And I know that I've said this on the podcast where I've shared my son's story. I'm not quite sure if I've shared my daughter's story yet from the beginning. I don't think I've gone through her case plan yet uh on the podcast. But anyway, it it made me every time I have to read their home studies, I get super emotional, I get angry, I have questions as to why did this happen, why did that happen? Why did this person not do their side of do their job essentially, you know, and it always raises more questions. And that's how I was feeling. It's the only way I could explain it to my mom how it was making me feel. And I had to go through this twice within three hours uh on that first episode. So I I want you guys to understand that I know that this topic of conversation is very hard. Uh, and if if you've been, if it is a trigger for you, I completely understand my the reason for me doing this podcast episode, and I said this I believe in the last episode, is I just want people to know who their children that investigates. I guess you could who are they, what do they represent, what do they believe, what has been presented publicly, right? Like now, you can't 100% ever know somebody in the flesh, right? No amount of background checks, no amount of researching or any of that is going to tell you who is in front of your child. And we've had many of those instances where we've had not good people around our children. One of the many reasons I was beginning homeschooling last year is because I can't trust other people to raise my children. Now, some people can't homeschool, some people can't take this stuff on. And as a homeschool parent, there are some subjects that if I find an opportunity for my children to be able to go to a different educator, a tutor, a private school, a homeschool helping, whatever, I would then send my children to that, right? Like I would jump on the opportunity, and I actually looked in to this school to help supplement our home education. It turned out that before I found out, and I told you all how I found out, before I found that out, it just didn't fit in our lifestyle. So I want people to know the history of the school and why I believe that Miss Salute should not be around any child ever. Okay. So we're kind of gonna get into the nitty-gritty of that. I'm trying to get comfortable uh because I haven't quite 100% set this up. Because again, remember before that this is a brand new video for me. So if I go away from the mic for a little bit, you'll know why. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna try and answer a lot of the questions that were brought up and then give my opinion um on some items as well. Maybe you don't think like me, that's quite that's fine. Um, and I don't even think. See, this is what happens when we're unscripted because I'm not even that iPad is now useless to me because I didn't sign into my social media on that. Uh so we're gonna try and go off the cuff with this, which we do a lot. All right, so now that I got through how this affected me, this case uh I'm I'm struggling quite a bit with this case because by all accounts the investigation uh into the allegations and the outcome of the criminal activity that uh she was charged with along with the punishment and all of that was within the law. It really was. There's nothing that I found that uh speaking of what she was charged with to the uh sentencing, and she carried out her probation like any other standard person that is put on probation, and it's the law in this case is a major problem. Now, again, I said the law and her consequence, all that seemed to be there was nothing fishy there. She didn't get I can't say I don't want to say that. Um she was charged with the charge that she was charged with. She did the probation a little bit more than most people do before they ask for them to be early released from probation. So by all accounts of that matter, she did the time for the crime that she was charged with, and that the DA's office was able to approve uh approve it within this plea deal, right? What I have an issue with, the the number one issue that I have with this case, there's really two big ones, but the number one issue I have with this entire situation, let me say, is that somebody who was charged with a crime involving minor children decided to not only open a private school, but prior to opening her private school, she had a tutoring business. So she never stepped away from education, she went right back into education to be around children, and by all accounts that I can see that part of her probation I'll main issue I have is that the fact that she chose a career to continue after all that happened and after she did her time, she still chose a career where she's going to be around minor children. The second issue that I have majorly with this case is the fact that in all of those documents and the investigation, all of the questions the detectives asked, all of the people that she they talked to numerous times, Tara stated that it wasn't the first time she has ever been accused of something like this.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

Red flag.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

Also, multiple drinking parties where sometimes she would provide the alcohol as well as marijuana allegedly to underage children, including her own child. And again, that is in the paperwork that that that's in the reports. So me as a mother, if this had been my child who was victimized and groomed, that's that's what happened. These children were groomed by her, and she was constantly putting herself into these situations, knowing she has a problem with processing alcohol that had been shown numerous times with the multiple DUI uh tickets and all of that stuff. That is documented well throughout the court records. Uh, one of the court records, she uh there it was an accident that had happened. I didn't look any further into it, just you know, what was there, and that was uh she did also receive a reprimand to from the schools uh from the Florida Department of Education to where she was unable to drive uh any student in any vehicle ever from that point on when she was disciplined. And from other witnesses and other people that have reached out to me, she was known to drink. However, she also was very well known to state that she blacks out and doesn't remember anything. So, two sides to this. Number one, it sounds like a great excuse to try and use for the behavior that you know is wrong, but yet you continuously do it. And number two, it's true she does black out after drinking too much. However, if you know that you're prone to blacking out and not remembering anything, why would you put yourself in a situation that she put herself into?

SPEAKER_00 18:39

That's question I have.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

I can't answer that question. It's just a common sense question that I struggle with. You know, number one, if you know, let me say that, because I don't know. I've not talked to her, I'm sure she would not comment, didn't even reach out for her to try and comment. But if she knew that she blacks out while she drinks, why are you putting yourself in situations driving people home where you've been already arrested multiple times for DUI? Why would you put yourself with a whole bunch of minors on top of that? And if I remember correctly, I'm trying to remember the exact dates. I believe the reprimand from the Florida Department of Education came before this incident happened that she was arrested for with a minor. I could be wrong on the dates, I'm not 100% sure on that. Um, again, I'm going off memory with that. But as an adult, at some point, you have to take responsibility for your actions. We can't keep blaming, and by we, I mean anybody. Anybody an addiction is terrible. I've dealt with it. Both my children were born addicted to drugs, and they still have addiction tendencies because of that. I've known addicts of all sorts, and I have lost people to addictions, okay? I've also been really close, basically sisterly, to somebody who had an addiction, who broke the law, and blamed her dissociation disorder or dissociative disorder on the reason why they did what they did. So I know all the sides. I know that you can be so far into things you really don't know what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

That's a problem.

SPEAKER_01 21:12

I also get extremely frustrated when somebody can admit cannot admit that they have a problem, recognize it, and deal with it. So let's do a for instance. For instance, if I was an alcoholic and I knew that one drink, well, I do know, I can tell you right now, I'm not number one, I'm not an alcoholic. I barely drink alcohol. I do drink alcohol occasionally. I'm not gonna say that I don't. I do drink alcohol occasionally. I know my limit though, because one thing I will not do is vomit. Number two, I remember everything when I it just I I remember everything. Uh But I know my limits on drinking. So let's say that I was an alcoholic who blacks out, I would make sure that I would be somewhere where it wouldn't matter what happens, that I would black out, and that somebody was there that could ensure not only my safety, but the safety of others. Because if, for instance, if I was a violent drunk, if I drank and I liked to hit and smash and whatever, I would make sure that somebody was there to make sure, number one, that I got home safe, if I wasn't at home, and number two, that nothing like that would happen. Right? So a good instance for this is my son. My son, when he was little, would have blackout episodes, just he would blackout uh due to his history and his trauma, and he wouldn't know, he would not know what he was doing during that blackout. Now, we had somebody at school that could tell when he was in this mental state of mind. The teachers also had a plan, I mean, a legit, typed out plan that they knew as soon as they saw this thing happen, that they needed to call this person who knows that um what's about, you know, that knows how to handle him and knows how to remove him and where he needs to go and all this stuff. So this would happen. This trusted person would get called, he would be removed from the situation, given a half hour to an hour, depending on what time, whatever time he needed to have that individual outdoor time until he came back to now. When I say blacked out, he didn't pass out. You can literally see his entire face and his eyes just change, which that's a whole nother podcast.

SPEAKER_00 24:21

But we had stuff in place for that.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

So where are these people in her life? Friends, family, husband, why did and her, she's an adult, she's an adult at the time. She was 42, I believe. You are an adult. At some point, you have to know your limits, and you have to know that while you're around minor children with drinking on top of that, knowing that you either have these issues, either an alcohol problem and or you black out, why would you even put yourself in that situation?

SPEAKER_00 25:14

That that's that's my question with that. Why did she put herself in that situation? I can't answer that, right?

SPEAKER_01 25:26

So those are my two main issues. I know that was like a whole roundabout thing, but those are my two main issues. Number one, why did the investigation not continue down the hole of she's done this before, uh providing alcohol to underage minors, all of this stuff. Why was that not pursued? I have a guess, but uh that's a question I have, and that's a question I can't answer. Only the detectives can answer that. I can't answer that. And I'm not saying that they didn't do their job, it may be as simple as because this happened over a span of days, multiple witnesses, multiple people, yes, even though she said some of this stuff, it was still not pertaining to the investigation that they had on hand, and there's probably not enough evidence to continue to go out, meaning there weren't enough people that wanted to speak up and provide proof that she did provide alcohol to these minors. You know, that there's a whole bunch of stuff that I hope I answered last podcast that could be the reason that this never moved forward. But that is a question that I still have that is unanswered and that I don't like. I don't like about the case this case. It it stinks to me. All right, so on to this second part of the issues that I have. Number one was the fact that there was a bunch of omissions, right? Number two is what did well I have issues with the whole investigative process and not anything that the cops necessarily did, minus not going after all of those other details that were within the reports of those public records, but did the probation office follow their rules? As we know, there are some probation officers that do follow their job to a T. There are some that don't. I have I know personally, due to my children's cases, a probation officer did not go out and obtain something that was reported to them to violate said person. So we don't know what who we don't know who her probation officer was. We don't know if there were any instances involved from the official report. She followed probation to a T. She was never violated. So again, is it because she just didn't get caught? Is it that she was reported and the probation officer just never followed up? Again, unanswered questions. So now let's move on uh to the to the to the side that everybody is frustrated with. The fact that she was able to open a private school, receive private funding, and kind of fly under the radar for so long.

SPEAKER_00 29:11

Now, I'm gonna walk you through the steps of how this happened.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

Everything was legal up to a certain point. So to file, to open any business, anybody can go, whether you're a criminal or not a criminal, whether you've been charged, not charged, arrested, it doesn't matter. The state of Florida does not care. If you are a business, you can open a business. You literally just need the name of your business, the what you're doing, and you can open a business. You need to name a president. Sometimes all you need is a president, but you need to name a president, you can name a vice president, it does a secretary, treasurer, doesn't matter. To open a business in Florida, all you need is a business name, the address uh for your business regist the registered business, a phone number. I don't think actually, I don't think you need a phone number. I'm trying to go off everything that I had to provide. Uh, but you do need an address, a business address. You need at least one person named in your business, the president, CEO, and the money to apply for the business because there are fees when you file for a business. The that's all you need to open a business. You can go to sunbusiness.org and open yourself a business with very little information. They do not require background checks. So they don't care what you're doing, what your business is called. They're gonna check, they're gonna, you know, get that money. Um, two, it's a little more involved to be qualified as a 501c3, which is what uh she is. She she did apply for her 501c3 status. It does take a couple of months. You have to meet certain criteria, such as you have to have programs for whatever purpose you are applying for the 501. So for instance, I've uh I had a nonprofit that uh what we helped foster families, uh, children, foster children, and the foster families that took them in, andor adopted families that took their children in with expenses. So we, in order for us to apply for the 501c3 status, we uh had to provide them. You have this whole application. Basically, you fill out what your organization's going to do. And you have to have more than one program that caters to that specific category that you're applying for. So for instance, education, you have to have a program for children uh from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade to be able to be considered a private school, home education, any anything with education, basically. You do not have to submit teaching certificates, you do not have to submit background checks, you don't have to do any of that. Basically, you're telling them this is what I'm doing, like this is our business, and this is what we do. So essentially, everything that's on her website, she most likely provided as her programs, who who they are going to serve, what kind of classes they're gonna do, that type of thing. We don't get to see what the application states. We we only get to see the bylaws, which basically uh they state the rules, it's basically the policies and procedures of that 501c3. And the thing that is uh filed with the state for the five for the business is a uh articles of incorporation, and it lists the president, vice president. You have to have a board to be a nonprofit or for-profit organization. Typically, you have to have bylaws and you have to have meetings, stuff like that. Like there's a whole thing that is into it, but none of the requirements require you to have background check or anything of that nature. So all of those were legally and properly filed for. Multiple people emailed in wondering how she was able to get funding with a criminal history. So uh per Step Up's response, her funding was revoked due to fraud to fraudulent activity and due to not providing all of the required documentation. Now, I cannot speak for how it was approved that she was approved for the funding because she was approved for the funding, stepped up, step up, revoked it because what you typically have to do is you do have to provide teaching certificates of one employee. It doesn't have to be, like I said, private a lot of private schools do not have certified teachers, they're not required, but you do have to provide certification of at least one person. So she provided somebody's teaching certificate that is still active, and she, however, she did not provide something that's required of the Florida Department of Education. There was some type of report that needed to be provided that is from the Florida Department of Education, and it was not, but somehow she was still able to be approved for it. Again, not sure how. I don't have the ins and outs of that. However, StepUp has revoked her funding, and there are um there are there are procedures that do require you to submit a teaching certificate, and I believe a background would have been provided if she did the Florida Department of Education part correctly, but I'm not a hundred percent sure because I have asked everybody if they've ever submitted a background check when they apply for step-up funding, and I'm talking about other private schools that have had that have applied to them uh to receive this funding, and none of them have had to submit a background check. So I assume that whatever that piece of the Florida Department of Education portion was automatically kind of like grandfathers them into where they don't have to provide a background check because if you're active with the Florida Department of Education, then they it they already have your background check to clear because every private school that you go to does require level two background checks. In fact, um anything that involves a minor you teaching minors or anything like that does require level two background checks, okay? Um even if something didn't require a background check, if you are bringing your child to somebody, you should demand to see background checks or ask them, do you require level two background checks? If you bring your sub your child anywhere that does not require a level two background check and you leave them with these people, I that's on at that point, it's on you. You should know that we go in to bring our children to a public school, to a private school, under the I don't want to say guys, but under the assumption that every person that is on that ground has passed a level two background check. Because the Citrus Insider did his investigation stating that Tara would not be allowed on school property or to go attend a field trip because she cannot pass a level two background check at all. So she wouldn't be allowed on public grounds. Now, private schools are a little bit different, they're all individual. Uh, I do know that when I went on field trips, they didn't require a background check on me uh to attend a field trip. They just required my ID and all that stuff. However, I also coach, of which I it did require a level two background check for me to pass to be able to coach, which is again that's standard. That's that's something that I expected. It was not out of the norm uh for them to ask me because I would be literally coaching children, minors, most of the time by myself, which uh the majority of the time I was coaching by myself. However, there, you know, there's athletic directors and other people around, but a lot of time coaches are individually with their students. Again, she wouldn't be able to pass that at all. That's just the facts. Uh, so that's kind of how that happens. She she can open any business that she wants, doesn't require a background check. 501c3s do not require a background check. Step up issued her the funds. We don't know the specifics regarding that, why they were able to issue the funds. The the alleg the the reports were made to Step Up and asking them how you can fund somebody who's been arrested for this crime. And one other thing I'll say about Step Up is you don't apply as a person. So if I open a private school, we apply as the business. So if it's Sunshine Schools or something, whatever, whatever name it is, that is who's applying with their EIN. It has nothing to do with personal stuff until you provide a teaching certificate. So she provided a teacher certificate, which I I'm hoping was one of her employees, but nevertheless, it was an active teaching certificate. So that is how she ended up getting the funding. However, it was revoked, so she no longer has that funding. Now, let's that that's kind of how I hope that answered how she was able to do that because none of this stuff required a background check. And even Step Up technically doesn't require it, but I I believe it falls under that Florida Department of Education portion that she was missing. But also, if you have a Florida teaching certificate that's active, you would have already been, you would have already passed a background check. So she essentially, whoever's teaching certificate she used, it was automatically tied into the background check. So I hope that makes sense. She can still be a director of the school. Now there are some other questions that I still have unanswered, and that is because I couldn't find anybody. So if if you are a private school owner, because public schools, we know they fall under the state regulations, and this typically would not happen. But as a private school, I was trying to find out what part of their school requires the level two background checks because you're not required to have a teaching certificate. And one of the answers I got was the Department of Health, because the Department of Health comes in and they check the medical records, the physicals, the building itself to make sure that it's healthy, you know, if if there's no water and there's no power, you have to go pick up your kids, all that thing. That all falls under the Department of Health. So if you are a private school owner or know somebody that owns a private school and can help me answer those questions, that would be fantastic because I never got to the bottom of that. A couple other things that I wanted to share about this entire case is that I still have people reaching out to me. And that's great. I still want you to because there's probably going to be another part where I update if something else happens and andor I get more answers to all of our questions. But I did reach out to Eagle Buick and I asked if they were aware that they were sponsoring an event, uh, which is the golf tournament. That uh she has been advertising with their logo, clearly, and that they've she's tagged them and everything if they were aware of this. Now, what I will say is I did not get a direct contact that there's actually not a direct email that could be provided to me for the CEO and the person that is responsible for sponsorships from Eagle Buick. Neither one of those two people had an email address anywhere on the website. So the email address that was provided on the website for any questions was directed to a marketing company based out of Clearwater, and the responses from that is that they were unaware of any sponsorship regarding this golf tournament for Crystal River Learning Academy, and they had no relations with this specific golf tournament. So I replied and I said, Okay, then are you aware that she is utilizing your name on a flyer as well as social media to promote her golf tournament? And I kind of got a very snippy response that they they're not even using the correct name. And again, they are not associated with this golf tournament. That is the answer I received from Eagle Buick. Again, it's not directly from the person who is said to be over sponsorships, and it's not from the Eagle Buick that is sponsor like the Eagle Buick's location and CEO. I know who the CEO is, I know who this other person is because they've actually sponsored some of uh past events that I've been a part of. So that was that I reached out to Black Diamond, who is hosting this golf tournament and who is being used on the flyers, etc. The theory, and I don't want to say the theory because I know for a fact that they're probably listening to this podcast, but I have a theory about this golf tournament per se, and I want to see if it pans out. Uh, I have told other people what my theory is regarding this golf tournament, and I'm just gonna keep that close to the vest for right now, just for reasons unknown. I also want to share that I have requested uh the public records from the prosecution's office, and I received an email back that in order for them to release any documents, they have to have the victim's consent to do so, and they were going to mail that out. I know that the consent is not going to be granted, so I am not holding my breath that we will get any documents from the prosecution's office to answer any, maybe even if it could answer any questions. On top of that, it is there is a charge based on per page for the work of the people to pull the records, which is standard. There's typically a charge anytime you want to pull records uh for anything. So there's that no answer, no comment from them. I have not directly talked to any of the detectives in this case, so that's why those questions are unanswered. I'm also not reaching out to them because, again, I feel like they did their job, and there's probably a lot of stuff that they can't share as to why they never move forward with anything. But what I can say is based on my talk and history dealing with a bunch of different things, a lot of the times minors do not make great witnesses because, number one, they don't want to get anybody in trouble, they don't want to talk about it anymore. Like I said in the last podcast, there could be many reasons why somebody doesn't want to talk. And I have a feeling that that's why this case took the turn that it did. Another thing I want to state is that unfortunately, and I I kind of hinted to this on the last podcast, but unfortunately, any employee of this school is also a victim in my eyes, because I would bet every dollar I have from the numerous conversations I've had with many people since this case broke, that they had no idea andor were fed a store, a different story, andor told that, well, I was not found guilty by a jury. No, because you took a plea deal and you pled no contest. Let's not get technical here. You admitted to it more than one time in all of those interviews, and I read all those interviews to you. That is public record, and you admitted to it. So again, we don't know the reason why or the re or what anybody was told that currently works there, and for anybody to be attacking those specific individuals, that's dirty. And I'm not saying this to be mean, but to me, they are as much as a victim as anybody that's taken their child to them and just didn't know. We don't know what goes on in those private conversations, but we also don't need to be attacking these people at all because they are not the ones that did this. They simply went for a job interview, like the fit, and decided to work for the school. Now, if they stay there after all this comes out, that's that's on them. They everything is now presented, so whatever happens next, it's from here on forward. Uh you're again, you're making that decision. Now, from everything that I have seen, there is no anything about getting this school shut down. Uh, again, I don't know what legally anybody can do to come in there. I know that there are audits and stuff like that, but again, I don't know specifically still how a private school works and how it gets in with the background checks and all this stuff. So if anybody knows that, please let me know. That is still an unanswered question. I have the state, as far as I'm aware right now, cannot go in and shut down the school. And I don't know why that can't happen simply because I don't have that piece of the puzzle together. And in all this time I've been researching, that puzz that piece still hasn't fit. Now, one way we can shut down the school is to not send our kids there. And yes, that's going to hurt the staff there. However, I wouldn't send my worst enemy who is an adult to go there for school. We're talking about children. Let me paint a picture if I can, as to the majority of scholarship owners have a unique ability, meaning they are a special needs child, they have a learning disability, they have a physical disability, they have something that qualifies them for the UA scholarship that they're already a vulnerable student, and and that's who a lot of the scholarship funds come from, and that's who a lot of uh students that are in private school go from. Some of these children they uh qualify for the scholarship for various different reasons. There's multiple different scholarships you can qualify for, but we are talking about vulnerable children who already had an issue in public school and are looking for alternative schooling to their parents are trying to help them learn the best way that they can, whether it's homeschool, private school, uh Christian school, which is also considered private schools, they're just Christian-based. Um and I just if you're still sending your child to this school or you plan to enroll your child in this school, and I would love to know why you've chose chosen to do that. Because as long as this, as long as Tara is the director and owner of this school, she will still be on school grounds. Whether she steps down from her position, she's still going to be around children. She's been around children tutoring them. But now that this has come out, I if if you are a parent that still utilizes her services after finding what has been revealed out, I would love for you to tell to tell me why, because I cannot wrap my head around anybody who would send their child to this school around this person. And people can say it was a one-time thing. It doesn't matter. It does not matter. This was just a one-time thing that was able to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt to where they could get a plea deal out of this and serve for time and kind of wipe it under the rug. So I I welcome all conversations. I am not a parent or a person that do does not listen to other people when they talk. However, I would love to know why you still choose to send your child knowing this about them. And maybe you don't know. Maybe, maybe you're just finding out about all this and you're kind of stuck in that schooling situation because of the contract that you signed and you're not dealing technically with Tara directly. But I'm telling you right now that that that adult is on school grounds. And there's one of two ways that I would handle that as a parent if my child was locked into a contract. Number one, I would be sitting in school with my child every single day attached at the head.

SPEAKER_00 55:48

Number two, I'd pull them out. No matter what. I want to make sure my kids stay safe. And this is not the person I would want my child to be around.

SPEAKER_01 56:04

So that is all I'm going to share for now, because that's pretty much all I have. I don't believe I left anything out. But again, I don't have notes, I don't have much of anything because this this this part of it was the community that still has questions. There are still a lot of unanswered questions that we may never know. Uh, there's some questions that somebody out there may be able to answer. Uh, and again, you do not have to, you can tell me you don't want me sharing your side of it. I know that I had stated that she was my safety patrol teacher back then, and there just there was something off in how she treated the girls that were on safety patrol versus the boys. And that's just my opinion. That's my that's that's my um recollection back then. I always knew that there was something off. I just couldn't quite put my finger on it. But now things are starting to all kind of make sense. But in order to share anything along those lines, it's just speculation. And same with some of the people that have reached out to me. Uh, I as promised to me, I don't number one want to cause any hate on some people because some of the stuff that was shared, they could probably figure out who it was and then go after them. Now, I don't know Tara personally, I don't know if that would happen, but I'm not going to put anybody who was brave enough to speak out about this uh in any type of harm's way of retaliation for even talking about anything. So there are some things that I do know that kind of make sense in certain ways, and some things that I'm still trying to investigate and get proof on. But until that happens, I'm not willing to share that. I'm not willing to put anybody else in jeopardy uh for any type of attack. And again, if you have information, feel free to reach out. Uh, if you're messaging my personal Facebook, uh those are going to spam for some reason. I just found a whole bunch of messages. I feel so bad about it because I never checked that part. Because usually it'll tell me you have a message request, but they've just been sending stuff to spam. So please reach out to the page, Graceful Truth Unscripted. That's easier because it doesn't get as filtered as like if you're reaching out on my personal page. Of course, you can email me at any time, but I would really, really love to talk to somebody in the private school realm to kind of figure out how that entire thing goes because private schools are not as regulated as public schools. Um, but I would like to know where certain aspects kind of fit in there.

SPEAKER_00 59:16

And that's, I mean, that's all I'm going to say.

SPEAKER_01 59:21

I don't want to say that's all I have to say because I have a lot more that I could say, but that is all I am willing to share for right now. And of course, I'm going to keep everybody updated on any new developments or anything like that. I will come back again with another podcast, a part three to this, but it's not going to be it, it's gonna be kind of a wrapping up and kind of what's happening, like an update essentially as to what's happening to the school because it's been fairly quiet since the step-up letter was issued. Uh, there hasn't really been much newsworthy stuff on that. And a lot of people have seemed to move on, but I'm gonna stay on it. I'm gonna continue to investigate. I do know there are some unanswered questions still. Hopefully, I can get those. And if I do, they'll be on that uh third install of this investigative series, and I'm gonna keep on it. I'm not gonna let up until I there's a way that we find to protect our children because at the end of the day, that's that's what we want. Uh, so with that said, I'm gonna end the podcast here shortly, but I did want to mention uh all of the documents are going to be released. I'm still working on saving a lot of them. A lot of them I have to scan in, some of them I have to black out uh victims' names because they were missed and stuff like that. So it's not just an easy scan and upload type thing on a lot of this stuff because I do not want these victims harassed. I did they're a victim in the story uh that happened a few years ago. Uh it's been what like 12 years since 2012. So there a lot of them are adults now. I think all of them are adults now, but that still doesn't give anybody the right to go and go after any of these victims. So once all that's done, it will be uploaded into the Patreon along with a bunch of screenshots and stuff pulled from the website, and basically all the information that I was able to pull to put these uh podcasts together. Again, if you have any tips, any information, anything for me to look into, any person to reach out to, maybe to get some more information or uh kind of help put a lot of our questions at ease. Or if you have another question that maybe I can answer, uh please let me know. I I will uh be taking care of that. Uh mainly through the Patreon. That's kind of where it's$5 a month. It just helps me with the uploading of basically doing what I'm doing, obtaining records, uploading, you know, the the uh the what's it called with the services to get the podcast out there and to upload uh to YouTube and all that stuff. That that's what it covers. It's not putting any money in my pocket. I do this for free. I I talk for free. Um, but that does just help a little bit with some of the expenses incurred in trying to get all this information out to the public. So with that said, I'm going to end this part two of the investigative series. The third part, uh, it if you just follow us on socials, we'll let you know when that third part's gonna come out. I don't know when it's gonna come out because I have to get answers to questions, otherwise, I don't really have much more that I can share. Uh but legality-wise, it is a legal business, and there's nothing that unfortunately any of us can do unless we want to start really fighting and getting laws changed. I I mean that there's it we're kind of we're kind of sitting here with our hands tied. Um so thank you guys for listening. I hope you guys have a great evening and week, and I will see you on the next episode. Thanks for hanging out with me on Graceful Truth Unscripted. I appreciate you taking the time to hear real people, real stories, and yes, a few of my opinions. If you loved it, tell a friend. If you didn't, well, stick around. I might grow on you. Spread the sunshine wherever you go. See ya.