This month I had planned on highlighting parents in our home-school community that were successfully home schooling despite difficult circumstances. However, due to the arrest of a local educator in our community, I felt compelled to address the issue of abuse in the educational system.
Yvette Hampton and I addressed this topic and many others on the Schoolhouse Rocked podcast, which is set to air in early January (podcast.schoolhouserocked.com). Many people fail to understand this is not an anomaly. Abuse occurs frequently across all socioeconomic demographics. The most recent incident in particular was allegedly perpetrated by an individual who was employed by the school system that many people held up as the golden standard of education in Middle Tennessee. I have warned parents for years that school systems in general are all the same. There is no “better” school system. They are all cut from the same cloth.
The public is gravely misinformed if they believe that government schools, a.k.a. public schools, are a safe environment for their children.
Did you know that, legally, schools are allowed to self-report?
“It is also important to understand that the lack of a federal mandatory school crime reporting and tracking law for K–12 schools means that, on a national level, no one actually knows in real numbers how many crimes occur on K–12 school campuses nationwide. Federal statistics grossly underestimate the extent of school crime and violence,” according to schoolsecurity.org.
Does this sound like an environment in which the safety of students is paramount?
Furthermore, federal crime reporting requirements were established for colleges and universities in 1990 under the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990, later formally named the Clery Act. No such federal law exists for K–12 schools. And there is no indication that anyone in Congress or the education community plans to create such crime-reporting requirements for our nation’s elementary and secondary schools.
Why aren’t our politicians and representatives concerned about this?
Critical race theory, social and emotional learning, and Marxist indoctrination are all major talking points surrounding public schools. However, you rarely, if ever, hear anyone addressing the issue of reporting crimes that have been committed within schools.
Many parents I have spoken with know nothing about the Clery Act, nor are they aware of school crime reporting and underreporting.
Stop Educator Sexual Abuse Misconduct and Exploitation (SESAME) is an organization that describes itself as a national voice for prevention of abuse by educators and other school employees. It has compiled alarming statistics on the incidences of sexual abuse in schools nationwide, reporting that just under 500 educators were arrested in 2015.
Of children in 8th through 11th grade, about 3.5 million students (nearly 7 percent) surveyed reported having had physical sexual contact from an adult (most often a teacher or coach). The type of physical contact ranged from unwanted touching of their body, all the way up to sexual intercourse. This statistic increases to about 4.5 million children (10%) when it takes other types of sexual misconduct into consideration, such as being shown pornography or being subjected to sexually explicit language or exhibitionism. Very often, other teachers “thought there might be something going on,” but were afraid to report a fellow educator or thought there was a chance that they may be mistaken. They didn’t want to be responsible for “ruining a person’s life,” although that is exactly what they are doing to the child if they don’t speak up, thus allowing the abuse to continue (according to The Children’s Center for Psychiatry, Psychology and Related Services).
This is egregious and needs to be addressed on a national level. The health, safety and welfare of our nation’s children are at stake.
If you are a parent reading this, please ask yourself if you believe that public schools truly ensure the safety of your child.
“Sexual harassment is common at every stage of education. Verbal and physical harassment begins in elementary school, and four out of five children experience some form of sexual harassment or bullying,” K12ademics.com reports. “Eight out of 10 will experience this at some point in their school lives, and roughly 25 percent will experience this often. Boys are more likely to physically harass and bully others, or to be physically bullied themselves. Girls are more likely to use, and experience, verbal and psychological harassment and bullying. Six out of 10 students will experience some form of physical sexual harassment.”
A survey conducted by the American Association of University Women on 2,064 students in 8th through 11th grades noted:
83% of girls have been sexually harassed
78% of boys have been sexually harassed
38% of the students were harassed by teachers or school employees
36% of school employees or teachers were harassed by students
42% of school employees or teachers had been harassed by each other
One of the purposes of Free YOUR Children has always been to inform parents about the reality of government schools. You can find this information and much more regarding the truth about public schools at https://www.facebook.com/FreeYOUR-Children-102903744768163. When we are armed with information, we can make educated decisions. Parents are responsible for the safety and welfare of their children. Government schools cannot and do not provide a safe environment for children. The statistics speak for themselves.
