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Sheriff repudiates pagan's complaints
By BARBARA BEHRENDT © St. Petersburg Times, published March 2, 2001 INVERNESS -- As Charles Schrader walked to the microphone Tuesday night to speak to the School Board, Citrus County sheriff's deputies who had been moving around the crowded meeting room gathered close to him. Dressed in a black ceremonial robe emblazoned with a pentagram, Schrader spoke in an even tone using a prepared speech on the issue of school prayers and Christian club meetings. He is the pagan who has previously interrupted School Board opening prayer with a Wiccan incantation and who has sharply criticized board Chairwoman Patience Nave on religion issues. When he finished speaking and prepared to leave the meeting, deputies followed him out. He told them they should go find some real crime. They stood near him until his wife picked him up from the Forest Ridge Elementary School's side entrance. On Thursday, Schrader filed a complaint with Sheriff Jeff Dawsy that the deputies harassed and intimidated him. He also accused Nave of requesting that the deputies act as her personal bodyguards to protect her from him. Dawsy said that there was no harassment and that his deputies were simply doing their job. "I believe in being proactive rather than reactive . . . and this is a very emotional issue," Dawsy said. As the School Board requested security for the large gathering and because there is always the potential for something to happen when people are emotional about a topic, he said it made sense to have deputies on hand. Having them focus on Schrader also was appropriate, the sheriff said, because of some of the things Schrader has done at previous board meetings to draw notice to himself. "You know who some of the players are going to be, but the problem is you don't know who the other players are going to be," Dawsy said and noted that someone in the audience might act against Schrader if they didn't want to hear what he had to say. "That heightens all of our sensitivities," Dawsy said. "We have to be ready to react." Schrader said he doesn't pose a threat and he doesn't need the sheriff's protection. "I will categorically state for you again: I am not a threat to anyone," Schrader wrote in his complaint to Dawsy. "I have never harmed anyone. I am Wicca, sir. Unlike fundamentalist Christians, we are not about injury or harm to any living thing and we do not make negative threats. It's against our religion." Schrader said he has been bothered by the presence of deputies ever since he began attending School Board meetings. They have stood nearby and followed him at meetings. He said deputies even followed him into a bathroom Tuesday. Dawsy spoke to his deputies after talking to Schrader on Thursday, and they told him they did follow him but never stood by his side or followed him into a rest room. Nave could not be reached for comment on Schrader's complaint. Dawsy said even though school resource officers work with the school district, they still take direction from him and not individual School Board members. No officer has been assigned to be Nave's bodyguard, he said. Dawsy said he planned to continue to provide protection to the public including Schrader for as long as the emotional debate continues. "Your instructions to continue using police officers to protect me is rejected," Schrader responded in writing. "I don't need your intimidation disguised as protection. Perhaps you may consider assigning these officers to other duties including combating drugs, homicide, robbery and speeders if they have nothing better to do than to be paid bodyguards of Chairperson Nave."
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