Thursday, August 7, 2014

Pennsylvania's epidemic of sex abuse in schools demands action

The Tribune-Review's investigative article “Pennsylvania near top of list for teacher impropriety” on sex abuse and misconduct cases among teachers and school employees in Pennsylvania reinforces our determination that further legislative action is critical to protect kids.

While state attorneys across the nation have registered 450 sex abuse cases against teachers this year, the Pennsylvania Department of Education recorded an astounding 482 in 2013 alone, according to the article. This is a crisis in our commonwealth, but one important piece of pending legislation will help close a loophole that allows sexual abuse to continue.

There is a reason this type of abuse is so prolific in Pennsylvania: School boards and administrators who discover cases of abuse allow the perpetrators to resign quietly and walk away, rather than report the abuse to authorities and bring unfavorable media attention. Thanks to school inaction, these perpetrators with “clean” records then successfully gain employment in another school setting with easy access to children.  (more...)

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