Korean Job Discussion Forums

[napoleon8]

For those who think pedophilia is only in ESL, the AP just published a revealing article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071020/ap_on_re_us/teacher_sex_abuse

[Ya-ta Boy]

I read this this morning, too and was thinking about posting it. IMO, it's a little inflammatory and sensationalistic. Obviously kids need to be protected, but from the numbers mentioned, the incidence of abusing teachers must be around 1%. A witchhunt is not in order.

It is disturbing that schools have not been better about prosecuting offending teachers, just letting them move on to repeat the offence, much like the Catholic Church was doing with priests.

I'm curious: Have studies been done in other countries? Are they (other countries) handling the situation better than the US has been doing?

[Rteacher]

I didn't notice that someone had already opened a thread on this (so my thread got locked - I was gonna suggest that mods just move it to either either the CE or Job Discussion forum ...) Anyway, I'll copy my original post here:

Dang, just when we were beginning to feel superior to Canadian teachers!
I suspect that wherever the culture is oversexed (and wants to hand out free condoms to middle-school kids...) there will be similar problems...

...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...

The article is rather lengthy - and does seem a bit slanted in that it often assumes that an otherwise respectable teacher must be guilty if more than one student complains - even over a span of many years.

Unless there is some corroborating evidence I'm inclined to be skepical of some claims made by older kids, who may be personally motivated to make false allegations - and even encouraged to do so by their parents - for monetary gain...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071020/ap_on_re_us/teacher_sex_abuse_6

Btw, "Ya-ta boy" - the numbers given indicate about 10% of kids are sexually abused in some way (including "verbally"...) in American schools. I suspect that a feminist/ PC interpretation of abuse inflated that statistic...

[blaseblasphemener]

*NEWS FLASH**

Sex is popular in all countries. Adults having inappropriate/illegal with children happens in all countries. All countries with Internet access have easy exposure to all forms of pornography.

Stay tuned for daily headlines from every country with a press corp on this issue.

[Ya-ta Boy]

[bacasper]

[Rteacher]

Yeah, I think that's true (I vaguely remember seeing the documentary piece on that ...)

But, I think that was a private pre-school, right?

If a kindergarden kid comes home obviously disturbed and says that his teacher "touched his ..." I think it's more credible source than a smart-ass older kid, who may be seeking revenge on her (or his) teacher for getting detentions.

[JZer]

[JZer]

[matthews_world]

[quote="Ya-ta Boy"]

[Rteacher]

Well, the article title states "U.S. schools" and "Ya-ta boy" was quoting me, who he knows to be another American, so "Our society" clearly refers to American society - whose cultural influence obviously extends throughout most of the world (especially wherever there is Internet porn and bootleg DVD's...)

[matthews_world]

Heh! Fooled me.