The Very Definition Of Breach Of Trust
Remember the frothing rage that some folks expressed over the sexual abuse findings against some members of the Roman Catholic clergy? People had a right to be upset and the victims had every right to push the issue and get some relief for what they had suffered. That's not what I'm asking about. I mean the truly vitriolic anti-religion howls from some quarters as a result of the revelations. Court documents and investigations by the Catholic Church reveal that 4,400 of 110,000 priests were accused of molesting minors in the years between 1950 and 2002. What if you heard that there is an even worse statistic about molestation that involved some 2,570 findings that resulted in disciplinary actions in another group? What is you then heard that the 2,570 findings occurred in a four year period?
What if you heard that the people caught molesting minors happened to be public school teachers? And those are only the ones that have been reported and actually had real action taken.
There are 3 million public school teachers nationwide, most devoted to their work. Yet the number of abusive educators — nearly three for every school day — speaks to a much larger problem in a system that is stacked against victims.
Most of the abuse never gets reported. Those cases reported often end with no action. Cases investigated sometimes can't be proven, and many abusers have several victims.
And no one — not the schools, not the courts, not the state or federal governments — has found a surefire way to keep molesting teachers out of classrooms.
Those are the findings of an AP investigation in which reporters sought disciplinary records in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The result is an unprecedented national look at the scope of sex offenses by educators — the very definition of breach of trust.
The seven-month investigation found 2,570 educators whose teaching credentials were revoked, denied, surrendered or sanctioned from 2001 through 2005 following allegations of sexual misconduct.
Young people were the victims in at least 1,801 of the cases, and more than 80 percent of those were students. At least half the educators who were punished by their states also were convicted of crimes related to their misconduct.
The findings draw obvious comparisons to sex abuse scandals in other institutions, among them the Roman Catholic Church. A review by America's Catholic bishops found that about 4,400 of 110,000 priests were accused of molesting minors from 1950 through 2002.
Clergy abuse is part of the national consciousness after a string of highly publicized cases. But until now, there's been little sense of the extent of educator abuse.
Beyond the horror of individual crimes, the larger shame is that the institutions that govern education have only sporadically addressed a problem that's been apparent for years.
"From my own experience — this could get me in trouble — I think every single school district in the nation has at least one perpetrator. At least one," says Mary Jo McGrath, a California lawyer who has spent 30 years investigating abuse and misconduct in schools. "It doesn't matter if it's urban or rural or suburban."
One report mandated by Congress estimated that as many as 4.5 million students, out of roughly 50 million in American schools, are subject to sexual misconduct by an employee of a school sometime between kindergarten and 12th grade. That figure includes verbal harassment that's sexual in nature.
This is a truly upsetting article if you happen to have children in school - as I do. You'll want to read it all. But you will not enjoy one minute of it. Many of the abusers are shuffled off to another school when allegations are made. The story opens with one teacher who got away with it for 40 years. It is time to take a serious look at why and how these people are being protected - and most importantly, by whom. And some heads need to start rolling for it - anytime yesterday will do nicely.
This is a much, much bigger scandal than the ones involving the Catholic Church. This is happening in your city or town right now. And it has been going on for years and people have been covering it up. (For the record, I believe this activity is confined to a very small percentage of teachers. But something has got to be done about this.)
By Quilly Mammoth, Saturday, 20 October , 2007 @ 4:32 pm
There seems to be a rise in general in child molestation. It could be the result of the “pornification” of our youth (as Laura Ingraham says). Or it could just be we aren’t administering a sure, quick visit to the gallows for the SOBs.
We could just make a law _requiring_ that Child molesters be put into General Population.
By Maggie, Saturday, 20 October , 2007 @ 4:51 pm
Ah-h-h-h-h-h!!!
Thank You! Thank You! Thank You, Gaius!!!
“I” have been screaming about this for the last few years!!!
While the media just love to slam the Vatican/Pope for “protecting” the priests and moving them around, that same media refuses to take these public school teacher/student cases seriously AT ALL!
Oh, they take the sensational angle of the hot young teacher seducing a very willing male student or two … and Oh! Oh! What grown man doesn’t almost condone the pubescent adventure with such a hot centerfold worthy teacher as their first sexual exploits … Oh, it’s almost soooo OK …
These teachers are protected by the school systems, who are controlled by the teachers unions.
Now, it’ll be argued the priest/student molestations were “homosexual” in nature …
Well, I have heard of such homosexual public school teacher to student cases … while THEY do get a little more media coverage, they too are soon buried on the back pages.
Thanks again for this.
I’m sending it around to everyone I’ve been telling this to.
By feeblemind, Saturday, 20 October , 2007 @ 5:40 pm
In my area, a local school district just paid $1,000,000 for that type of offense. Only problem is, according to the kids that were in school at the time, was that it never happened. I am not defending pedophiles or inappropriate sex with students. What I am wondering is how these statistics are skewed by trial lawyers trolling for money?