Another problem with emigration to the ang moh countries.
Sexual misconduct plagues US schools
By MARTHA IRVINE and ROBERT TANNER, AP National Writers 1 hour, 54
minutes ago
The young teacher hung his head, avoiding eye contact. Yes, he had
touched a fifth-grader's breast during recess. "I guess it was just
lust of the flesh," he told his boss.
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That got Gary C. Lindsey fired from his first teaching job in
Oelwein, Iowa. But it didn't end his career. He taught for decades
in Illinois and Iowa, fending off at least a half-dozen more abuse
accusations.
When he finally surrendered his teaching license in 2004 40 years
after that first little girl came forward it wasn't a principal
or a state agency that ended his career. It was one persistent
victim and her parents.
Lindsey's case is just a small example of a widespread problem in
American schools: sexual misconduct by the very teachers who are
supposed to be nurturing the nation's children.
Students in America's schools are groped. They're raped. They're
pursued, seduced and think they're in love.
An Associated Press investigation found more than 2,500 cases over
five years in which educators were punished for actions from
bizarre to sadistic.
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.
Jennah Bramow, one of Lindsey's accusers in Cedar Rapids, Iowa,
wonders why there isn't more outrage.
"You're supposed to be able to send your kids to school knowing
that they're going to be safe," says Bramow, now 20. While other
victims accepted settlement deals and signed confidentiality
agreements, she sued her city's schools for failing to protect her
and others from Lindsey and won. Only then was Lindsey's teaching
license finally revoked.
As an 8-year-old elementary-school student, Bramow told how Lindsey
forced her hand on what she called his "pee-pee."
"How did you know it was his pee-pee?" an interviewer at St. Luke's
Child Protection Center in Cedar Rapids asked Jennah in a
videotape, taken in 1995.
"'Cause I felt something?" said Jennah, then a fidgety girl with
long, dark hair.
"How did it feel?" the investigator asked.
"Bumpy," Jennah replied. She drew a picture that showed how Lindsey
made her touch him on the zipper area of his pants.
