Three leaders of a South Carolina church and its school face criminal charges after authorities say they knowingly allowed a registered sex offender to work around children — and lied to investigators about it.

Former Pawleys Island Community Church pastor Don Williams, his wife Ginny Williams, and school director Niki Howard were charged this week with obstruction of justice and criminal conspiracy. Don Williams and Howard also face charges of unlawfully placing a child at risk. All three resigned from their positions on July 17. The church and school now face a $25 million class action lawsuit from parents.

This is the institutional accountability failure that actually endangers families — not the phantom threats the establishment press obsesses over, but a real predator enabled by the very people entrusted to protect the flock.

Warren Spence Perry, 70, was convicted in 2023 for sexual exploitation of a minor stemming from a 2020 incident. As a condition of his parole, Perry was required to avoid proximity to children. Church leaders knew all of this and still allowed him to volunteer at the church and work as a custodian at Pawleys Island Christian Academy, a church-run school.

They told no one. Parents of children at the school were kept in the dark.

Former school employee Eliza Perez discovered Perry's status by accident — clicking a link to a sex offender registry on Facebook. "My stomach dropped, and I immediately screenshot it, send it to two of my coworkers, and I'm like, this can't be real, right?" Perez told ABC 15. When she called her boss — the pastor's wife — Ginny Williams' response was: "I know. We know."

At a community meeting, Don Williams admitted church leadership knew about Perry's conviction but had not shared that information with teachers. He defended the decision by citing redemption: "Because we believe that the gospel changes lives, we believed redemption was possible," Williams said, according to the Charleston Post and Courier. Williams claimed the church put "stringent safeguards and accountability measures" in place and that Perry was never left alone with children.

Sheriff Carter Weaver dismantled that claim at a press conference Monday, displaying photos showing Perry in close proximity to students. "These photos right here, along with numerous others, clearly show Mr. Perry in close proximity to the children and who do you think allowed that? This is sickening in and of itself, coupled with a video of just I don't know what you're talking about," Weaver said.

The South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services knew Perry volunteered at the church — another institutional layer that failed — but was never informed he was working at the school near children, according to the New York Post.

Parents erupted at the meeting. "Our kids are not a lottery ticket!" screamed one parent, the Post reported. Another yelled: "This place needs to be burned down!"

Weaver's message was blunt: "When people purposely use their position to go around those safeguards... sometimes it's hard to detect but believe you will be got. You will be found."

The New York Post framed the story with maximum outrage; the Post and Courier gave more space to Williams' theological justifications. Live 5 News stuck closest to the law enforcement account. What none of them pressed: where was the state probation office while a registered sex offender on its watchlist was working at a school?

A pastor chose the soul of a convicted predator over the safety of children in his care. The probation service failed to track its own case. The people who caught this were two tipsters and a former employee who stumbled onto the truth by accident. The question that remains is how many other institutions are making the same calculation right now — and how long before someone finds out.