January 6, 2009 6:03 PM
Public school teachers as predators - how great is the problem?
According to a major 2004 study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education - the most authoritative investigation to date - nearly 10 percent of U.S. public school students have been targeted with unwanted sexual attention by school employees, and in those cases, 40 percent of the perpetrators were women.Titled "Educator Sexual Misconduct: A Synthesis of Existing Literature" by Virginia Commonwealth University Professor Charol Shakeshaft, the report brought to light staggering statistics.
Compare the numbers with the much-publicized Catholic Church scandal.
A study by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops concluded 10,667 young people were sexually mistreated by priests between 1950 and 2002.
Shakeshaft's study, however, estimates that roughly 290,000 students experienced some sort of physical sexual abuse by a public school employee between 1991 and 2000 alone.
Source: WorldNetDaily - and scroll to the bottom of this article to see more in their continuing coverage of the problem.
Question: This is a study commissioned by the U. S. Dept. of Education, conducted by Virginia Commonwealth University. Why hasn't the mainstream media shown the slightest interest - since they were so concerned about predatory priests - evidently a much rarer creature than predatory teachers?
Why are public schools given a free pass when it comes to sexual abuse of children?
Posted in Public schools | Permalink
Comments
As the parent of a nonverbal preteen, this is a major concern of mine.
I want open access to the school. I've had that in elementary. Don't know about middle school. If I don't get it, I'll homeschool.
Posted by: Julana | January 6, 2009 8:52 PM
Times are so different than when I was a kid. Back then if a teacher (or anyone) sexually abused a kid, they feared death by angry parent! They weren't paraded around as a celebrity, with everyone admiring their beauty and trying to analyze why this happened. For crying out loud. It is called sin. Sexual perversion. Rape. Not "sexual misconduct." "Sexual misconduct" sounds so benign.
*climbing down from soapbox*
Posted by: Elizabeth M Thompson | January 7, 2009 2:33 AM
I think right now all the focus is on teachers' grievances. They are the ones abused by the students and parents. They are overworked and underpaid.
There doesn't seem to be much concern for the rights of children to be free of violence and sexual predation at schools. It's common knowledge that predators go to where the children are.
Personally, in the last year I heard of at least three school employees that were charged but not convicted for not reporting sexual abuse at their schools even though they are mandatory reporters. I don't understand it. The community seems to forget about it by the time their hearings come along.
Daily updated news articles on teachers abusing students. There were 480 in 2008 http://www.schoolteachernews.com/Scandal.html
21 states are still allowed to use paddles on children and have legal immunity when children are injured. Some schools do not have to notify the parents. It seems logical that certain types of teachers would migrate to these school districts for the purpose of being able to paddle just as some teachers leave these school districts so they will not be pressured to paddle.
http://nospank.net/violatn.htm
Also there are elementary school teachers who like to blog about their right to paddle
http://teacherswhopaddle.wordpress.com/
even though corporal punishment is opposed by credible and professional pediatric child health organizations.
Also there is a study using data from the Dept of Education showing the connection between paddling states and higher dropout rates and incarceration rates.
http://www.stophitting.com/index.php?page=factsvsopinions
Sorry for the long post but this issue really bothers me!
Posted by: sheber | January 7, 2009 4:34 PM
