Researcher Urges Teachers to Confront Issue of Educator Sexual Misconduct
by Jim Brown and Jody Brown
July 2, 2004
(AgapePress) - A study released by the U.S. Department of Education finds that nearly ten percent of public school students are sexually harassed or abused at some point by an educator or school worker.The report by Hofstra University professor Charol Shakeshaft says more than 4.5 million children have been subjected to physical, verbal, or visual sexual abuse in school over the last decade. Required under the No Child Left Behind Law, the report is the first to analyze the field of research on educator sexual misconduct. Teachers' unions and others have condemned the report as misleading and hurtful to educators.
But Shakeshaft says instead of attacking her study, such groups should be doing more to combat educator sexual misconduct. "The unions' position is to protect teachers. Absolutely, that's what I want my union to do -- I want them to protect me. But I don't want to protect me or anybody else who's doing something we shouldn't be doing," she says.
"So it seems to me that [while] a part of the responsibility [of unions] is ... to protect teachers, we're also supposed to work to make sure that the kind of people who we don't want in education aren't in education."
Shakeshaft says if she had not been studying school sex abuse for the past ten years, she would have been surprised at the large number of boys who report being targeted for sexual misconduct, and the large number of female adults who have targeted kids. Rather than downplaying such a widespread problem, Shakeshaft says teachers' unions should be confronting it head-on.
"From my perspective as an educator, as someone who actually belongs to a professors' union, it seems to me that the first response is to say, 'Gosh, that's terrible! Let's do something about it' -- instead of saying, 'Golly, that's untrue; it's a lie.' So my first response would be to [acknowledge that] there are some teachers [and] there are some professors who do this. Let's stop it, for heaven's sake."
The report, issued to Congress on Wednesday, says teachers' unions in many states have actively opposed legislation that would require identification of teachers who have been convicted of sexual abuse of students.
CWA: 'An Inferior Report'
A Washington, DC-based public policy group agrees that educator sexual misconduct is a serious issue, but has harsh words for Shakeshaft's research methods. Dr. Janice Crouse of Concerned Women for America says the report consists of "sensational findings based on shoddy scholarship."
'The report trashes teachers in general and, in the process, minimizes the tragedy of those pedophiles who go into teaching in order to prey on children," she states. "Those children who are victims of serious sexual abuse from school employees were done a disservice by an inferior report."
According to Crouse, Shakeshaft's report is lacking because the major findings are based on a single two-part study by the American Association of University Women. That study, Crouse says, "failed to make a distinction between verbal or physical sexual abuse and criminal abuse."
