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The Public School teacher sex abuse cases are accusations of child sexual abuse made against public school teachers which started in the late 1990s. A nationwide trend indicates more parents across the country are reporting sexual misconduct between a teacher and a student.

Public school teacher sex abuse is serious sexual misconduct, as reported by the district attorney or courts, between a public school teacher and a student at that same school.

A researcher said "I think it is pretty clear that society is much more sexualized than it was 20 years ago. I can't say if sexual misconduct of educators toward students is happening more or it's simply reported more frequently."

The incidents involved teachers (who are 71% female for all classes) and students of both sexes. Other cases involved coaches, teachers aides, substitutes, or transitory staff. Some of these allegations have led to successful prosecutions of the accused. Criticism of the school system followed, especially as some superintendents did not appear to establish rules screening new teachers and assistants adequately. Nor did the states double check criminal and personnel records from other states.

In U.S. schools, educators who offend range in age from "21 to 75 years old, with an average age of 28" with teachers, coaches, substitute teachers, bus drivers and teacher's aids (in that order) totaling 69% of the offenders.

There were over 3,496 teachers arrested in 2005 on charges that they had sex with an underage student.

North Carolina reported that although 43% of their teacher sexual abuse reports were on women, 92% of the prosecutions were against male teachers.

In a 2004 report to the U.S. Department of Education, researchers found nearly 10 percent of students are targets of sexual suggestions or contact by teachers at some point in their school career. Only 4 percent of educators who were investigated for sexual misconduct were females, the report said.<ref=observ> http://www.newsobserver.com/146/story/501955.html retrieved July 9, 2007</ref>

In 2002, the US Department of Education commissioned the Charol Shakeshaft report for Congress. It estimated that millions of students are exposed to inappropriate behavior during their 12 year stay in school. Extrapolating from a national survey conducted for the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation in 2000, it estimated that, roughly 290,000 students experienced some sort of physical sexual abuse by a school employee in one decade, 1991-2000.

A Wellesley College professor disagreed. She believed that there were "several hundred" cases of teacher-student sexual abuse annually.

Difficulty in trying molestation of children

"The biggest difficulty you have in prosecuting any sexual assault case, especially with children, is that they do not tell right away, and by the time they disclose there is no physical evidence," said Debbie Lash, assistant prosecutor for the 9th Circuit, which includes Berkeley and Charleston counties, South Carolina.

Societal perception of female teachers molesting male students

"We just take it almost as a given that men who do wrong should be dealt with in a very firm fashion," said Fred Berlin, founder of the Sexual Disorders Clinic at Johns Hopkins University. "Historically, it's such a sexual conquest for a younger male to sleep with an older woman that it's not considered a crime."

Berlin explains perceptions of male sex-abuse victims by mentioning a movie, "Summer of '42," in which a boy has a tryst with a woman in her 20s. "I can't imagine a film in which a woman is fondly recollecting having sex when she was 15 with an older man," he said.

But Berlin said boys face the same long-term effects as girls who are victims of sexual abuse: early and inappropriate sexual behavior; problems building relationships later in life; a tendency to either remain a victim or become an abuser themselves.

Another researcher said that research shows that young male students who have been victims of sexual abuse by teachers suffer higher incidents of drug abuse, their school grades drop and they have a difficult time having personal relationships.

Legal difficulties

Judge Bruce A Gaeta sentenced a 43 year old female teacher to probation for having sex with a seventh-grade male student, 13. Gaeta said, "I don't see anything that shows that this young man has been psychologically damaged by her actions. And don't forget this was mutual consent." He was referred to a judicial disciplinary committee.

Lawsuits

In 1992, the Supreme Court ruled that students may seek monetary damages from schools for sexual abuse from a school employee. In 1998, the Court made it more difficult to win monetary damages. To collect money damages, the suit must prove that someone in authority must have actual knowledge of the abuse and the district must have acted indifferently.

Incidents by states

In Washington state, officials say 159 coaches of girls sports have been fired or reprimanded in the decade ending 2003.

There have been sixty instances of middle school and high school coaches losing jobs in Texas as the result of allegations of sexual misconduct 1998-2001.

External references

• Shoop, Robert J., Sexual Exploitation in Schools. How to Spot it and Stop it

Web

• Teacher abuse worse than church