Conspiracy of Silence: US Public Schools sex abuse goes unreported and unpunished

It seems that the MSM is reporting almost daily the tragedy of alleged sexual abuse perpetrated by Catholic priests.

Yet, little is said, except episodically, about the horror going on in U.S. Public Schools.

Just since 2007, no fewer than 2,200 separate sexual abuse cases have been filed against U. S. public school employees. This number takes into account the relatively minuscule number of cases dismissed outright, dismissed under plea agreement or changed to other charges upon conviction.

This information is only informally collected since the FBI is not involved in these cases and they are not centrally collected elsewhere.

One source has attempted to document allegations, charges and dismissals, but there is no formal clearinghouse:

This site exists not to glorify bad behavior but rather to shed light upon a serious problem and one which appears to be getting worse with each passing month and year.

In viewing the various pages which will comprise this site our readers are urged to always keep in mind that accusations are not proof of misconduct. Anyone can accuse another of practically any misconduct imaginable. This does not make it so unless and until the accusations are proven in a court of law.

Everyone is entitled to a presumption of innocence regardless of that for which they stand accused. Please keep this in mind.

BadBadTeacher

Given the blaring headlines, multi-million dollar settlements and calls for resignations and firings, including that of the Pope himself, this is nothing less than a conspiracy of silence!

Regarding public school systems across the country, there are no comprehensive figures for educators who have abused students, said Charol Shakeshaft, who is preparing a national report on child sex abuse by educators in public schools for the U.S. Department of Education. The report is mandated by federal law.

A national survey of 2,064 students in 2000 showed that 9.6 percent of public school students from kindergarten through 11th grade reported unwanted sexual harassment or abuse by public school employees, mostly educators, said Shakeshaft, professor of educational policies at Hofstra University in Huntington, N.Y.

The survey, done by the American Association of University Women, listed educators as responsible for 57 percent of the abuse with the rest done by other employees such as bus drivers and teachers' aides.

(If the survey were projected over the entire public school system, it would mean that 4.5 million students are subject to sexual abuse or harassment by school employees)
catholicnews.com

One benefit of President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" was a survey by the US Dept. of Education that reported on sexual abuse in public schools.

Consider the statistics: In accordance with a requirement of President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act, in 2002 the Department of Education carried out a study of sexual abuse in the school system.
Hofstra University researcher Charol Shakeshaft looked into the problem, and the first thing that came to her mind when Education Week reported on the study were the daily headlines about the Catholic Church.
“[T]hink the Catholic Church has a problem?” she said. “The physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests.”
So, in order to better protect children, did media outlets start hounding the worse menace of the school systems, with headlines about a “Nationwide Teacher Molestation Cover-up” and by asking “Are Ed Schools Producing Pedophiles?”
No, they didn’t. That treatment was reserved for the Catholic Church, while the greater problem in the schools was ignored altogether.

www.the-tidings.com...

The 2002 Department of Education report estimated that from 6 percent to 10 percent of all students in public schools would be victims of abuse before graduation — a staggering statistic.
Yet, outside the Catholic Church, the reaction is increasingly accommodation instead of outrage.
The April 17, 2002, issue of USA Today featured an article titled “Sex Between Adults and Children” — a euphemistic way of referring to child molestation. Under the headline was a ballot-like box suggesting possible opinions one might hold on the subject: “always harmful, usually harmful, sometimes harmful, rarely harmful.” The newspaper’s answer: “Child’s age and maturity make for gray areas.”

So, where's the outrage?

Where are the statistics?

Where are the MSM coverage and headlines?

Deny ignorance!

jw

[edit on 8-4-2010 by jdub297]

I'm not really surprised. They just think if they close their eyes to the issue its not really there. Sad that it stayed in the dark until this time, it will probably be overshadowed by the church scandal, or vice versa and the media will use it to instill major panic in the masses as always do instead of attacking the source

reply to post by ItsAgentScully

Those member of the MSM that DO want to inquire, are frequently confronted by reluctant administration and the teachers' unions.

The DoE report finds only a single reliable study, and that is based on a secondary review of an earlier report!

The AAUW Hostile Hallways surveys, administered to a nationwide sample of 8th- to 11th-grade students in 1993 and again in 2000, are the only studies that provide reliable nationwide U.S. data on educator misconduct. The purpose of these two studies was not specifically to document educator sexual misconduct. Peer sexual harassment is the primary focus of the surveys and the reports. However, the data from these studies were subjected to a secondary reanalysis which focused only on educator sexual misconduct (Shakeshaft, 2003).

Misconduct Review Report

And the findings of the report?

Educator sexual misconduct is woefully under-studied. We have scant data on incidence and even less on descriptions of predators and targets. There are many questions that call for answers. Table 19 summarizes the research (or lack of research) synthesized in this report and suggests possible responses in each of the categories.

The report recommends a series of studies to deepen the understanding of educator sexual misconduct and strategies to prevent the abuse of students.

One of the greatest obstacles is the teachers’ union, which in many cases prevents disclosure of information that they and district administrators would rather not disclose.

In a report in the Seattle Times, the schools and union went so far as to conduct “file parties” so teachers could remove the reports in their files!

Two recent series, one in the Dallas Morning News (Jennings and Tharp, May 2003) and the other in the Seattle Times (Willmsen and O’Hagan, December 2003), examined educator sexual misconduct in their respective states. Jennings and Tharp focused on 606 cases of educator sexual misconduct from Texas State Board of Educator Certification records and Willmsen and O’Hagan targeted abuse by coaches. In both instances, reporters commented on the difficulty of obtaining information on educator sexual misconduct. O’Hagan and Willmsen (Dec. 14, 2003) write:

When the Seattle Times asked the Bellevue School District for information about teachers and coaches accused of sexual misconduct, school officials and the state’s most powerful union teamed up behind the scenes to try to hide the files. Bellevue school officials even let teachers purge their own records at union-organized “file parties” to prevent disclosure.

The Dept. of Ed. report clearinghouse is here:
www2.ed.gov/rschstat/research/pubs

jw


[edit on 8-4-2010 by jdub297]

reply to post by jdub297


Too bad we don't have a public schools Pope so we could call for his head on a platter.


This stinks so bad it makes the Catholic Church look like saints in comparison.

Originally posted by FortAnthem
reply to post by jdub297

 

Too bad we don't have a public schools Pope so we could call for his head on a platter.


This stinks so bad it makes the Catholic Church look like saints in comparison.

We have TWO publics schools popes:

1. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

2. He reports to the guy who promised "We need to stop paying lip service to public education, and start holding communities, administrators, teachers ...accountable:" Barack Obama.
www.barackobama.com/issues/education


Guess this isn't much of a problem for them anymore.

jw

When a priest rapes you he's imposing his evil religious fanaticism on you.

When an educator rapes you he's teaching a valuable life lesson.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere

Sadly, the MSM and the state seem to think that sex with children in schools is understandable, and should be hidden so long as the rapist isn't a priest.

Where's the outrage from the ACLU, NEA, NOW, and NARAL?

Aren't children in Public Schools entitled to civil rights and
equal treatment and rule of law?

Don't they have a "right to choose?"

Don't they have the "right to control their own bodies" or their own "reproductive rights?"

This thread will die with a whimper and this will be as much as anyone has done about the travesty of our hypocritical treatment of these sexual predators.

Why aren't people asking these questions of their school boards?

Their state education officials?

I could puke every time I hear some idiot bitch about "deviant priests" yet ignore what's going on right in our own neighborhoods.

jw

Thank you so much for bringing this story to light! I always knew the problem was worse than we thought in the public schools. There are a lot of women teachers that abuse teenage boys, and yet nothing is done! I have been outraged about this for a long time, but everyone was ignoring it.

Please keep reporting on this touchy subject.

Do a Google search about female sexual predators and you will see how often it happens. Males abusing girls is evil also but not many people know about the reverse.

Hopefully ATS may be a jumping off place for the facts to get out.

Here is a link to a list of female predators mug shots and descriptions of their crimes.

www.wnd.com...