The failure to protect vulnerable foster children from constant physical abuse, sexual abuse, and emotional abuse causes severe damage and personal injury that permanently shatters children’s lives. According to a December 2024 report by Mark Price for The News & Observer, this reality is seen in the arrest of 53-year-old Paul Nelson Locklear, a retired North Carolina principal who used his position as a state-approved foster parent to organize child exploitation. In August 2024, a foster child escaped Locklear’s Pembroke residence and directly alerted the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office, sparking an extensive investigation that uncovered multiple victims and a disturbing pattern of assaults dating back to 2022. Locklear, who previously served as principal at St. Pauls Middle School until 2021 and was immediately terminated from a recent teaching post at South Carolina’s Darlington Middle School upon the allegations and held on a $2 million bond. He now faces felony and misdemeanor charges, including sexual activity by a substitute parent, indecent liberties with a minor, multiple counts of crimes against nature, and child abuse involving a sexual act.
Price, M. (2024, December 23). Runaway foster child reveals retired principal’s history of sex abuse, NC cops say. Raleigh News & Observer; The News & Observer Publishing Company. https://www.newsobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article297482443.html