You want to think that sexual misconduct by teachers in public schools is very much an exception. You want to think that it’s just one bad apple. But the Associated Press article that ran in newspapers around the country yesterday, including the Journal Star, shows that it’s more widespread than anyone would like to believe. Consider this:
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.
And this:
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.
The Journal Star ran a companion article that listed 18 educators in and around Peoria that had been charged with sexual misconduct over the last six years. Eighteen!
The worst thing, of course, are the lives it’s scarred and ruined. But perhaps the second-worst thing is the damage it is doing to a respected profession. A recurrent theme throughout the AP series is the problem of students being believed. People want to believe the teacher, the authority figure — and for good reason. Teachers should be authority figures, above reproach, and worthy of respect. After all, they’re the parents’ surrogate during school hours. What happens when that trust and respect are gone?
It’s already difficult for teachers to maintain discipline in an era when parents think their children can do nothing wrong. Not long ago, children in another state had plagiarized their term papers and received F’s by their teacher; then the parents complained to the school board and the teacher was forced to change their grades to D’s — a low, but passing, grade. That teacher had to resign because the students no longer respected her authority; they knew they could beat the system. If that happens even to a teacher who did the proper thing (by giving the initial F’s), what happens when the teaching profession is stained with the stigma of widespread sexual misconduct?
I don’t doubt that most of these teachers were guilty, and that students sometimes have trouble being believed. I also know that there are students who threaten teachers with unfounded accusations, and I’m sure some of these accused teachers are not guilty. Which leads to extreme overreactions like “no touch” rules. With little kids, in particular, that rule just won’t work. You can’t effectively teach if you adhere to that rule strictly. No wonder teachers are burning out and dropping out. Solutions? No easy ones. The “system” is really screwed up and getting worse every day. And just spending more money, the politician’s perennial solution to everything, will only make the problems worse.