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Home > Opinion >Sexual abuse in schools needs a better solution
Sexual abuse in schools needs a better solution
Sexual abuse in the church had the nation's eyes focused on priests and the holy institutions of our society. Due to increasing reports of sexual abuse by America's educators and teachers, our attention is now focused on one of the key parts of our society: our schools. If we can't send our kids to school or the church without worrying about cases of abuse, what can we feel content with? According to the AP article "Sexual misconduct plagues U.S. schools," "An Associated Press investigation found more than 2500 cases over five years in which educators were punished for actions from bizarre to sadistic."
Although it sounds like the abusers were punished for their actions, and you'd assume that they won't be allowed back into the classroom, this may not be the case. According to the AP article at msnbc.com titled "Loopholes keep teacher misconduct secret," no contest, which allows someone to avoid a trial but still leads to conviction, may allow these educators to stay in our nation's schools. Since they plead no contest, this does lead to conviction; however, when their record is taken, it only records limited details of the crime. This means when future employers try to access their criminal history, they're only presented with a portion of the story, if any.
Additionally, some state laws require that cases which involved pleas of no contest be sealed after a certain period of time. Sealing the case means that it cannot be accessed in order to see what crimes or allegations took place. This allows offenders the opportunity to find new employment in another institution that is not aware of their record and cannot access it since it has been sealed off.
Allowing sexual predators back into our schools is simply unacceptable. When wehave the knowledge and ability to keep our nation: syouth away from such perverts, we should be using it. We cannot allow sexual predators-whether teachers, priests or the neighborhood creep-to get away with the crimes they have committed. We need to hold them accountable, revoke their teaching licenses and make sure their crimes are publicly disclosed. There are no situational cases in this area. Sexual abuse is sexual abuse, and it should be dealt with.
After Tanda Rucker, a basketball coach at Encinal High School in Oakland, Calif., was charged for having several sexual relations with teens, she continued to plead no contest. Although her license was revoked, it didn't state exactly why it was revoked, since no contest can pertain to crimes from anywhere from "theft to murder," according to the AP article titled "Loopholes keep teacher misconduct secret."
What benefit do we, as a society, achieve by allowing known sex offenders to keep their offenses a secret? None. We only raise the chance that more of our youth will be victims of such disgusting acts.
Schools need to do something soon. They need to be given the opportunity to see educators' records, and all details necessary to make a responsible decision when choosing the educators they want to employ in their communities. Without providing this, predators are given the opportunity to switch schools and continue educating, along with potentially ruining more innocent students' lives, because we weren't able to protect our youth from an already-known threat to society.
