Over the last three days Alasandara has blogged about several instances of students suffering sexual abuse at the hands of teachers. With several million teachers in the United States there are going to be a few bad apples. But one of the big problems we have in public schools today is that the bad apples are rarely punished, and when they are punished it is often after years, or decades.
In Sexcual misconduct plagues US Schools Alasandra links to Not good, not good at all! which has a long article about how public schools do not punish predatorial teachers. There were several scary lines. For example:
"One girl in Mansfield, Ohio, complained about a sexual assault by teacher Donald Coots and got expelled. It was only when a second girl, years later, brought a similar complaint against the same teacher that he was punished."
and
"Too often, problem teachers are allowed to leave quietly. That can mean future abuse for another student and another school district."
There is a famous saying: "Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me." Way too often the public schools are allowing students to suffer when the problem could have been prevented.
In Public School Teachers and Sexual Misconduct Alasandra references a news article. The article reports on a teacher who gave a 14-year old girl gonorrhea, he pleads guilty and only has to suffer "a six months unsupervised probation and (pay) a $500 fine." The teacher hardly suffers. The poor girl will suffer for years.
Alasandra has several other recent posts which also document the problem: An overlooked blight on our education system, Teacher sex abuse scars family, town, and No way to keep predators from moving from school to school.
The words from public schools is that "Sexual misconduct is wrong and will not be tolerated." But unfortunately the actions too often are "Please, please don't do it again. Please."
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Technorati tags: public, school, sexual, abuse
3 comments:
What is this insanity that grips otherwise intelligent people? Not the predators, administrators, or politicians, but we the parents who diligently shuffle our most prized progeny into these ‘russian roulette’ centers of sexual abuse, gang assault & gun attacks?
If this horrible pattern of disfunction & violence were to occur at a church, youth organization, or private school there would be such a media scream of condemnation and cry for retribution that would have any administrator, supporter, or financier associated with such private enterprise tarred, feathered and banished to the darkest margins of society, if not imprisoned.
Yet, we the people, bow down before the alter of the NEA & tax funded ‘public’ education that includes all, offends none, accepts everything, and only occasionally assaults or murders our children, because we are an open minded, and ‘enlightened’ society.
Are we collectively insane?? Obtuse? Impotent? Why do the tax paying masses shrivel before the power of authoritarian groups such as the NEA and not demand our tax dollars to be in our control for educational choice and the safety of our children??
It is waaay past time to vote school vouchers ~ vote school choice.
I think the big problem is momentum. The current public school approach is the way it "has always been."
I agree that vouchers would be a huge improvement. I'm afraid that it would happen in the next five to ten years. Many people have been pushing vouchers for decades, with little progress.
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