Last week, Steven R. Battles, a former elementary school teacher in Springfield, IL was sentenced to seven years in prison for sexually abusing one of his former students. He was first charged in February, 2011 for the abuse that took place between 1999 and 2002.
The Battles case is typical. There is nothing remarkable about it. It could be used as a case study of why our public school system has become a safe haven for pedophiles like him. The only thing unusual about his case is that he got caught. Most don’t.
Charol Shakeshaft, a professor of Education at Virginia Commonwealth University, has spent her career studying our educational system. In 2004 she authored a report, commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education, which focused on the sexual exploitation of children by teachers. Although the findings were shocking, it didn’t get much attention. What little it got, didn’t last.
The report was issued in the midst of the furor over revelations about the sexual abuse of children by priests and the orchestrated cover-up by their bishops, so maybe her revelations simply were drowned out. According to Dr. Shakeshaft the sexual abuse of students in public schools was “100 times greater than the abuse by priests.” Additionally, Shakeshaft reported that 9.6 per cent of children are sexually abused by educators sometime during their school years. The media was largely silent about these small details. (more...)
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