Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, requested the report on student sexual abuse by school employees. Credit: Lillian Mongeau, EdSource

Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, requested the report on student sexual abuse by school employees. Credit: Lillian Mongeau, EdSource Today

The failure of U.S. schools to protect students from sexual abuse by schoolhouse personnel is a story of district comprehend-ups, lack of training, incomplete teacher groundwork checks and lilliputian guidance from the U.S. Department of Education, according to a new federal written report.

The U.South. Government Accountability Office said the nation'south K-12 schools lack a systemic approach to preventing and reporting educator sexual corruption of students, despite a problem that the report said affects an estimated 9.vi percent of students – nearly one in 10 – who are subjected to sexual misconduct by teachers, coaches, principals, bus drivers and other personnel during their Thousand-12 career. That figure is from a 2004 report fabricated to the U.S. Department of Didactics and is the most recent approximate bachelor, according to the Authorities Accountability Part study released last week.

"Although states and schoolhouse districts are taking some positive steps," the report said, "current efforts are clearly non plenty."

Hampered by inadequate admission to employee background information, school districts unwittingly hire teachers and staff accused of sexually abusing students in other districts and states, the report said. With petty training on how to recognize early on signs of predatory behavior, school employees don't always pay attention to a colleague who is "grooming" a student for sexual abuse with inappropriate attention. And some schoolhouse districts quietly dismiss teachers defendant of potential child sexual abuse, without alerting future employers or seeking to revoke educational activity credentials, the report said.

"I remember many school districts think they simply demand to study to their school chief or to the superintendent of the school," said Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, who requested the federal written report equally the ranking member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, in an interview with NBC News. "They don't recognize that under the state law, where they take the laws, they have an obligation to written report this to law enforcement officials."

Miller added, "It's not similar these are unusual events, tragically and then. There are people within the facilities that will prey upon these children."

The findings of the Government Accountability Part echo complaints fabricated in recent cases against the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Mt. Diablo Unified School District. Those complaints include charges that Los Angeles Unified failed to remove teacher Mark Berndt later allegations surfaced years before of potential sexual misconduct and that Mt. Diablo Unified conducted an investigation of teacher Joseph Martin and found potential child corruption only failed to written report the suspicion to police enforcement. Berndt was convicted of 23 counts of lewd conduct and sentenced in November to 25 years in prison house; Martin has pleaded non guilty to 125 felony molestation charges involving 13 former students.

Training needed

Under California police, school employees are "mandated" reporters of possible kid abuse and must immediately notify constabulary enforcement or Kid Protective Services of their suspicions. Schoolhouse districts are required to ensure that employees know of the mandate, but they are not required to train employees in the nuances of recognizing abuse, although districts are "strongly encouraged" to exercise so, said Craig Cheslog, principal adviser to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson.

"The superintendent believes that training should be mandatory and should exist almanac," Cheslog said, adding that Torlakson is in conversation with legislators to change the requirement.

And the training itself should specifically include how to spot and report inappropriate beliefs between school employees and students, the report said. Trainings and information on issues such as school employee "purlieus setting" and "developed sexual misconduct in schools" are available through various offerings from the federal departments of Education, Wellness and Human Services, and Justice, simply near states don't know about them, the written report said.

Nearly crucial, states and districts take received but "express" guidance from the Section of Pedagogy regarding the federal Title IX law, which is widely known for prohibiting discrimination in an didactics program based on seten just likewise requires schools to take procedures in place to protect students from sexual harassment by school personnel, the report said.

Further obscuring the issue, the study said, is that the federal government does non track the incidence of educator sexual abuse, despite collecting related data on child sexual abuse.

The written report, which gathered data through a survey of country teaching departments, interviews and visits to schools and law enforcement agencies in Georgia, Massachusetts, Virginia and Washington, found considerable error with federal education and child protection agencies. "No single agency is leading this endeavor," the written report noted, "and coordination among federal agencies to leverage their resource and disseminate information to assist state and local efforts is limited."

In a case study cited in the study that exemplifies several bug, an unnamed district gave a second grade male instructor a positive recommendation – fifty-fifty though the teacher had been disciplined for downloading pornography and disciplined again, and not rehired, later on a parent complained of the teacher's excessive attention toward her second course girl. A second commune conducted a background check, found no reason for concern and hired the instructor. Afterwards a parent told that commune'south superintendent she suspected the instructor of sexually abusing a child, a primary investigated and determined the teacher had exercised "poor judgment." A further district investigation accounted the incident a personnel matter.

The teacher was after bedevilled of aggravated criminal sexual corruption of two female person students at the first schoolhouse and eight female students at the second. Their failure to report potential kid sexual abuse to constabulary enforcement resulted in misdemeanor pleas by the school principal, the school district'south director of man resources and the commune superintendent.

'Sweeping it under the rug'

In California, no statewide mechanism exists to let school districts know that an employee has left, been fired or been offered a settlement related to allegations of misconduct with students, according to a 2022 California Land Auditor study investigating how Los Angeles Unified handled child abuse allegations.

Districts are required to notify the land Commission on Teacher Credentialing inside 30 days if a instructor has been dismissed awaiting an investigation of misconduct, which could serve as an alert to potential future employers. Merely the accountant report on Los Angeles Unified establish that the commune "oftentimes" did not practice so, with 144 cases reported more a year after the accusation and of those, 31 reported more than than iii years late. Reporting procedures have been improved in the district, the inspect written report said.

Seeking to brand it easier for districts to dismiss calumniating teachers, the Sacramento-based advocacy organization EdVoice is gathering signatures for a proposed Nov election measure that would, amid other changes, prohibit school districts from cutting a deal – or agreeing to "gag orders" – with teachers to remove evidence of egregious misconduct from employee records; unfounded allegations could be removed, but only past a vote of the school board.

TerriMiller

Terri Miller, president of the advocacy group Stop Educator Sexual Corruption Misconduct and Exploitation. Credit: SoJoy Photography

Terri Miller, president of the Nevada-based advocacy group Finish Educator Sexual Abuse Misconduct and Exploitation, advises parents to study direct to law enforcement if they suspect a school employee may exist sexually abusing a pupil.

"If they report to the school, the principal or the guidance advisor or the nurse will interview the child," Miller said, "and past the time three, four or five people have talked to that child, the case becomes tainted. Prosecutors will point out that the kid hasn't told exactly the same story."

Calling in a trained police investigator to interview a kid will produce a clearer picture of the alleged incident and likely subject the child to fewer interviews, she said.

"School systems take customarily tried to handle these situations by sweeping it under the carpeting, by letting kid predators quietly resign and continue to another district, sometimes with glowing recommendations," said Miller, who was interviewed past the staff of the Government Accountability Office as they prepared the report. "We run into that as deliberate and calculated child endangerment."

Jane Meredith Adams covers student health. Contact her or follow her on Twitter @JaneAdams. Sign upward here for EdHealth, EdSource Today's free newsletter on student health.

Know the Warning Signs of Educator Sexual Misconduct, Phi Delta Kappan, Charol Shakeshaft, professor of educational leadership at Virginia Democracy University, Feb. 2013

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