I will never minimize sexual abuse of a child. Not by a parent, not by a clergyman, not by an educator.

That said, I want to make a point about these numbers from an Associated Press article.

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.

However, the article also points out that there are some 3 million educators in the US.

Let's do the math.

2570÷3,000,000=0.000857

There you have it -- less than 1/10 of one percent of teachers received any sort of sanction for sexual misconduct. And if you factor in the total number of teachers who taught during that time, the percentage is even smaller. After all, teachers retired or left the profession or died during those five years, and they were replaced with new teachers.

But even if one assumes the number is ten times as high -- 1% -- that still puts the frequency of sexual abuse at or below the national average for groups like clergy, lawyers and doctors -- and parents.

I've had a former colleague in teaching forced from the profession due to sexual misconduct. I have no tolerance for it, and would report in a heartbeat any teacher I knew of who engaged in such activity. But I continue to be reminded of this situation that I wrote about a few years back.

I watched a colleague suffer through such an accusation a few years ago. A decent, compassionate, dedicated man, he had a trio of girls who were doing poorly in his class accuse him of giving them lewd looks and groping them. It wasn't true -- they just wanted out of his class so they could get As instead of Bs. He was suspended from work, and had to go home and tell his pregnant wife about the accusation (it was a difficult pregnancy, and his wife lost the baby that week). Once cleared, he was still the subject of rumors -- even though one of the girls admitted that she had lied. Even today, four years later, there still lingers a hint of scandal around his name, and certain parents will insist that their children be assigned to other classes. It is certain that he will never be hired as an administrator in this or any other district, despite completing his certification requirements a few weeks after the accusation was made; I wonder if he could even get a teaching job outside of the district. After all, there will always be those who will remember the accusation and be certain that these girls didn't lie.

Some may criticize me for this, but for once in my life I'm going to agree with the NEA on an issue.

“Students must be protected from sexual predators and abuse, and teachers must be protected from false accusations,” said NEA President Reg Weaver, who refused to be interviewed and instead released a two-paragraph statement.

I want abusers out of the classroom -- but I also want real sanctions against those who make false accusations of sexual misconduct knowing that it puts them in control and let's them punish a teacher who "made the mistake" of assigning a student the grade they earned or punishing a disciplinary infraction that a student committed.

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Posted by: Greg at 10:06 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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