Oct 21, 2007 10:14 am US/Eastern
Broken Trust: Report On Teacher Sexual Misconduct
(CBS4)
Disturbing results in a new study of those we trust to teach our children.
Students are groped, raped, seduced and think they're in love. And very often, their abusers get away with it. Most of the abuse never gets reported. Often, cases that are reported end with no action. And molesters are allowed to keep teaching, because no one has found a surefire way to keep them out of classrooms.
Between 2001 and 2005, an investigation by the Associated Press found action was taken against at least 100 teachers in Florida who were accused of sexual misconduct.
Nationwide, more than 2,500 cases were reported over the five year period in which educators were punished for actions from bizarre to sadistic. Young people were the victims in at least 1,801 of them. And more than 80 percent of those were students.
The investigation turned up a variety of efforts to stop individual offenders, but also found a deeply entrenched resistance toward recognizing and fighting abuse. While every state has laws against child abuse, and many specifically outlaw teachers taking sexual liberties with students, efforts to strengthen laws against sex abuse by teachers have run into opposition from school boards and teachers unions. Legal loopholes, fear of lawsuits and inattention all have weakened the safeguards, and the system fails hundreds of kids each year.
In Congress, a measure that would train investigators and create a national registry of offenders hasn't even gotten a hearing.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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