Child sexual abuse by teachers

"It was very real to me and the best time of my life so far." Abigail Holloway wrote this in her recent email to follow up with her former student after a police-monitored phone call in January. What they had together has left the young woman confused and unable to trust. It's no wonder. At age 13, the time that human beings begin to question many things in life including themes regarding sexuality, a young adult came into this person's life and engaged in a lengthy sexual relationship with the girl.

It is evident that the relationship between them, from Holloway's perspective, was about herself having a good time. Being educated and seemingly articulate, her written words betray her in that she used the girl for her own wants and needs. It appears that the best time in her life was not with her, it was her. Well, "so far." It is a known fact that perpetrators of sexual abuse have a repeating pattern of behavior, preferring a certain age or sex in their child victims.

Holloway had also written in that email: "For the longest time I felt like maybe I had tricked you into our relationship somehow." That explains things. Chock it up to a "consenting relationship" to be free of the guilt. Giving love letters and getting sex--with a child--is exactly what I would call tricking somebody into it. Holloway has been arrested for multiple counts of child sexual abuse as her former student claims that the two had been intimate over 100 times.

A teacher is a person in authority and one who is in a position of trust. Developing a sexual relationship with a student is a violation of that trust and is abusing the power of authority given the educator over minors. Child sexual abuse by teachers is a huge problem. The hiring process for school teachers includes background checks, but unfortunately, not psych evals.

As long as nobody has ever reported anything to the authorities, an applicant's background check comes back clean. Note that in the case of Holloway, it has been 8 years in which nothing was ever reported about that relationship. School volunteers are not required to have a background check before being able to assist and interact with children. Although a school can seek additional information from The National Association of State Directors Of Teacher Education and Certification, which lists disciplinary actions that states have taken against teachers, not all of those events are reported. Nor is using that source of information required by schools.

Although schools are required to report evidence of child abuse, most of the employees feel that they don't have any actual evidence but only a suspicion and often even that is dismissed in denial. Not to mention that perpetrators of child sexual abuse are not known to flaunt their sick behavior around witnesses, but conceal their actions.

When checking references, the past employer may give limited or even positive feedback in order to avoid a law suit based on defamation; and it is not unheard of for such a deal to have been arranged in order to get a resignation by an employee who is an undesirable. Kids who have been in juvenile for one reason or another are legally attending school, as well as serving in community service roles in other agencies and organizations.

This is quite disturbing considering that in 2002 the Boston Globe ran a series on Catholic priests who were guilty of the very same thing. Eventually this horrific information led to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops reporting a finding of nearly 11,000 cases of abuse by roughly 4000 priests and deacons since 1950. Those numbers were historical and horrifying. There was disgrace and outrage by those in and outside of the faith. As a result of exposing the truth, there have been many positive healthy changes in the Catholic Church.

At this point in time, our society has a responsibility to stand up and demand reforms in the education system so that our children can learn in a safe environment in the schools. Charol Shakeshaft, the Hofstra University scholar who prepared a draft report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education in 2000, stated regarding teacher-student sex, "roughly 290,000 students experienced some sort of physical sexual abuse by a school employee from a single decade—1991-2000. That compares with about five decades of cases of abusive priests." It is important to note that the majority of crimes are not reported. Many victims never disclose what happened to them. There is additional information here: http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/4/5/01552.shtml

We need to take action to change the laws and to demand enforcement of those already in place. In the interum, those of us who either aren't able to or are opposed to homeschooling our children, must teach our kids some things so that they are in a position to better protect themselves from becoming a victim of sexual and any other form of child abuse at school. A drastic change in a child's countenance or behavior at home may be an indication to parents that something is going on at school that he or she does not feel comfortable with. Keep communication in the family open. Ask what is wrong.

Here are some of our family rules that I remind my own children of from time to time:

 1. There is safety in numbers--stay with the group

 2. The classroom door is not to be locked with children inside as if to prevent entry or exit

 3. The classroom must be accessible at any time to parents or other authority figures

 4. If the child needs to be somewhere alone like in the office, the door is open or there is plenty of visibility

 5. The child does not go places alone in a vehicle with anyone, field trips with classmates are an exception

 6. If anyone tries to touch a child in a way that makes him or her feel bad or uncomfortable tell them to stop

 7. If somebody touches the child in an inappropriate place or manner, he or she needs to tell me

 8. Wrong touching does not stop unless you tell, if it stopped happening to you, it will happen to someone else

 9. Trust those unexplainable instincts, if something doesn't feel right, tell somebody or get out of the situation

10. If somebody is asking about our family or what things the child likes, he or she is to say "those questions make me feel uncomfortable" and to "ask my mother or father"--and again, tell me about that situation right away

Note:  My children also understand that it is a good idea to accompany another student if the student is alone somewhere.