Sexual Abuse by Educators Is Scrutinized

By Caroline Hendrie, Education Week

"A draft report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education concludes that far too little is known about the prevalence of sexual misconduct by teachers or other school employees, but estimates that millions of children are being affected by it during their school-age years. ...

"Yet despite the limitations of the existing research base, the scope of the problem appears to far exceed the priest abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church, said Charol Shakeshaft, the Hofstra University scholar who prepared the report. ...

"Those figures suggest that "the physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests,"contended Ms. Shakeshaft, who is a professor of educational administration at Hofstra, in Hempstead, N.Y."

bnelson45-nospam@hotmail.com), March 12, 2004

Answers

see article

-- Bill Nelson (bnelson45-nospam@hotmail.com), March 12, 2004.

Bill, you had me worried already.

From the link you gave us it states that:

analysis found that 9.6 percent of all students in grades 8-11 reported sexual harassment by teachers, coaches, or other school employees. That included misconduct involving physical contact as well as such behavior as sexual remarks, jokes, or gestures, with 8.7 percent of respondents reporting "noncontact" harassment and 6.7 percent reporting harassment involving physical contact.

Notice 2 things: -it involves all school personnel

-6.7% is physical contact, not necessarily sexual.

BTW, PE may invove more physical contact, not necessarily for gratification of the flesh. I coach students who run the marathon.

Compare that "physical 6.7 (not even 1% sexual) with the close to 5% of reported physical sexual cases of priests since the 1950s. The Diocese of Yakima, Wash., said in a news release that the survey compiled by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice found 4,392 of the 109,694 clergy who served over that five-decade period faced allegations of abuse.

The survey was overseen by the National Review Board, a lay watchdog panel the bishops formed at the height of the abuse crisis. The review board had a Friday morning news conference scheduled in Washington to discuss the report and a companion study that criticizes the bishops for allowing the crisis to occur with their failure to crack down on errant priests.

Dioceses nationwide received 10,667 abuse claims since 1950, according to the church news release. Of those, claims by 6,700 were substantiated. About 3,300 were not investigated because the accused clergymen were dead.

Actually, we teachers are better saints than priests

-- Elpidio gonzalez (egonzalez@srla.org), March 12, 2004.

Again what was reported was harassment involving physical contact. Not simple physical contact, like shaking hands. But I am sure we are only seeing the tip of the iceburg here and we will hear more about it.

-- Bill Nelson (bnelson45-nospam@hotmail.com), March 12, 2004.

From the Yakima Diocese and down are not my words. They come from this news site:

Abuse by priests

Notice also Bill, that 6700 cases were dismissed for luck of evidence, that is about 66% of all accusations against priests. That means then, that 6.7(school personnel) X .34 same number is for priests(.66 unsubstatiated) that amounts to 2.3%!!!!

Wow, given that we are with students at least from 7:50-3:30 minimum, (roughly 7.5 hours minimum) plus that we carry a load of 170+ students a day

Priests only might be in contact with minors for 1.5 hours (mass plus preparation).

We spend about 5 times more times than priests in contact with students in a very personal level.

We are half of as molesters as priests!!!!

That means also that: -Given that we have background checks, priests don't -are treated like criminals with any false accusations, priests are not -priests are protected by bishops, we are not by principals -We can no longer work, priests are relocated -The system gets on us, not on priests -Priests make vows of obedience, celibacy, some of poverty -We spend additional hours checking papers, going to meetings, helping students during lunch, after school with work,....give our students papers, pencils,..and for free!!!

we make a promise to work to the best of our ability by signing a paper.

Yet, in the end, we come up on top before God. Why, we never made a vow before him, priests did!!!

Bill, I did not include all those priests who later on left the Church because they realized they were men with urges. Some married women,...

The Christian Yahwist

The Man of Yahweh

-- Elpidio Gonzalez (egonzalez@srla.org), March 12, 2004.

The story was in Yahoo News. This is what I saved in my e-mail place:

Study: 4,392 Priests Accused of Sex Abuse http://story.news.yahoo.com/news? tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040227/ap_on_re_us/church_abuse

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By RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer

WASHINGTON - A national, church-sanctioned study documenting sex abuse by U.S. Roman Catholic clergy found that about 4 percent of clerics have been accused of molesting minors since 1950, a diocese said Thursday.

AP Photo Slideshow: Catholic Church Abuse Scandal

The Diocese of Yakima, Wash., said in a news release that the survey compiled by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice found 4,392 of the 109,694 clergy who served over that five-decade period faced allegations of abuse.

The survey was overseen by the National Review Board, a lay watchdog panel the bishops formed at the height of the abuse crisis. The review board had a Friday morning news conference scheduled in Washington to discuss the report and a companion study that criticizes the bishops for allowing the crisis to occur with their failure to crack down on errant priests.

Dioceses nationwide received 10,667 abuse claims since 1950, according to the church news release. Of those, claims by 6,700 were substantiated. About 3,300 were not investigated because the accused clergymen were dead.

Another 1,000 or so claims proved to be unsubstantiated, the diocese said.

The national report also tallied abuse-related costs at $533.4 million.

A source who has read both the John Jay tally of abuse cases and the report on causes provided some other findings to the AP on condition of anonymity.

The causes report places much of the blame on bishops, saying "moral laxity" in disciplining offenders created an atmosphere that allowed the abuse problem to fester.

The report acknowledges that some bishops recognized the gravity of the problem early on and spent years lobbying the Vatican (news - web sites) to change church law so they could move faster against abusers.

The study also said the bishops were sometimes ill-served by the therapists and lawyers they sought out for guidance.

Still, there have been widespread reports of bishops who sheltered abusers and the review board used harsh language to criticize churchmen who failed to act. It said these bishops were guilty of "neglect" and insensitivity toward victims that allowed the "smoke of Satan" to enter the church, the source said.

The raw numbers of abuse claims and accused clergy are higher than previous attempts by the media and victims groups to tally them, though slightly lower than figures in a draft report viewed by CNN earlier this month.

Estimates of the number of guilty clerics have varied dramatically over the years. Church officials have said anywhere between 1 percent and 3 percent of clergy abused minors.

The Rev. Andrew Greeley, a sociologist at the University of Chicago, put the number at 4 percent. Psychologist Richard Sipe, a former monk who researches sexuality in the priesthood, said it could be as high as 5 percent.

The bishops have apologized repeatedly for any wrongdoing and have enacted several reforms to protect children since the long-simmering abuse problem erupted more than two years ago in Boston. The discipline policy they adopted in June 2002 bars sex offenders from all public ministry.

The bishops authorized the new, landmark studies to restore trust in their leadership. No other profession or religious group has exposed itself to such scrutiny on the abuse issue, even though molestation is an acknowledged problem among coaches, teachers and clergy of other faiths.

The prelates said they wanted to undertake the investigation to demonstrate their willingness to confront abuse in the church.

Victims, however, say the bishops acted only under intense public pressure and said any study by the church is bound to underestimate the number of abuse cases.

In Boston, where the national crisis began with the case of rogue priest John Geoghan, officials said Thursday that 162 archdiocesan priests — about 7 percent of those who served over the last half- century — had been accused of abuse.

But plaintiffs' attorney Mitchell Garabedian scoffed at the count.

"We have an entity here that has allowed the wholesale sexual abuse of children by clergy, and to allow them to count the numbers just doesn't make any sense," he said. "There is a huge credibility problem here."

___

Associated Press writer Nicholas K. Geranios in Spokane, Wash., contributed to this report.

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-- Elpidio Gonzalez (egonzalez@srla.org), March 12, 2004.

Elpidio,
You may be thinking I am justifying priests who abuse. I am not. But I am trying to point out we have another problem festering out there we all need to be worried about... and it looks a lot bigger than what the Catholic Church has admitted to.

Peace,

-- Bill Nelson (bnelson45-nospam@hotmail.com), March 12, 2004.

Bill, we were th first to pay the price!!!

Remember the Mc Martin case, 1985? Well, the children lied!!! Did it matter? Not to the country. We were hounded. I saw many friends lose their jobs.

Did we get pity? No.

By trying to get us back into the picture, Bill, you are abrking at the wrong tree!!!

We are the honest occupation after the IRS!!!

The Christian Yahwist

-- Elpidio Gonzalez (egonzalez@srla.org), March 12, 2004.

Elpidio,
It is very justifiable to look at teachers and see if there is a danger there, just as it is to look at Scoutmasters, Coaches or anyone who works with children. Hiding it, or getting in a huff about it will only allow the predators to continue in your midst. The Boy Scouts have been working diligently in prevention, after they had problems in the 1970s. The Church did not and ran into problems. It looks like there is a big problem festering in the schools. Your in the picture, like it or not, as we all are.

In Christ, Bill

-- Bill Nelson (bnelson45-nospam@hotmail.com), March 13, 2004.