[Colofornian]

From the article: In 2005, Utah ranked 16th in the nation for teacher sex offenses, according to an Associated Press survey of disciplinary records from 2001 to 2005 in 50 states and the District of Columbia. At that time, 52.7 percent of Utah teachers who lost their licenses surrendered them for sexual misconduct -- twice the national rate, the AP found.

My first question: In light of the MANY, MANY 2009 cases of sexual abuse in Utah, why is the above only coming out now? (Re: rates as of 2005?)

Why is the sex offenses so high in Utah? Why is Utah ranked about #17 among states in the ratio of sex offenders-to-population?

2009 cases: Sidebar to the above article @ SL Trib.com:

Here is the status of some recent cases of teachers charged with sexual improprieties.

Oct. 15 » Kenneth William Taylor, 45, a wood shop teacher at Roy Junior High School, is charged with developing a relationship with a 14- or 15-year-old student, which turned sexual when she was 16.

Oct. 13 » John Robert Cody, 39, a social studies teacher at Pineview High School in St. George, is alleged to have fondled two girls and a woman at his apartment complex pool in 2008.

Sept. 29 » Keith Gillins, 61, a long-time teacher, boys basketball coach, former Fillmore mayor and an LDS bishop, is sentenced to up to life in prison for the alleged sexual abuse of a 16-year-old student in the back of his classroom.

Sept. 8 » Douglas Bullock, 42, a teacher at Bloomington Hills Elementary in St. George, is charged with 12 counts of third-degree felony unlawful sex with a minor for an alleged relationship with a 17-year-old boy.

Sept. 7 » Matthew Scott Adams, 31, a shop teacher at Cedar Middle School in Cedar City, is sentenced to one year in the Iron County Jail for allegedly videotaping young women through their windows. Some of the victims were students where he taught.

Aug. 25 » Churchill Junior High substitute teacher Christopher Benjamin Page, 20, of Salt Lake City, pleads guilty to one count of forcible sexual abuse after Sandy police find him and a 13-year-old female student both shirtless in a parked car.

Aug. 17 » Melissa Ann Andreini, 28, a former special education teacher at Helper Junior High School, is charged with unlawful sexual conduct with a minor stemming from an alleged relationship with a 15-year-old student. She allegedly paid the victim between $1,400 and $1,500 after the encounters.

[Sherman Logan]

explicit text messages. ... small indiscretions

I wouldn't think there's anything small about this indiscretion.

[I still care]

Someone I know just told me this year that twenty five years ago one of our junior high school teachers cornered her and kissed her. She was confused and didn’t know what to do about it, so she just went home and never mentioned it to a soul. She also stated that as a child she didn’t realize it at the time, but he had spent substantial time “grooming” her.

Fortunately she had a head on her shoulders and avoided the teacher after that. I wish she had confided in an adult though, and they had gotten rid of the man.

There is nothing new under the sun.

[hinckley buzzard]

20,000 licensed educators, 208 revoked for sexual misconduct over 17 years. That's a pretty small percentage, a fraction of one percent. Not exactly an epidemic.

But then we can't be too careful around those Mormons can we.

[Jack Hammer]

So this is what it’s come to? Write a complimentary note on a student’s paper and be suspected of being a sexual predator...

America is in trouble.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Is this a Mormon-bashing thread?

I mean. Seriously. Is it?

[Clintonfatigued]

I am surprised to hear this coming out of Utah.

[Atlas Sneezed]

If those were all cases of abuse by Catholic priests, we’d have Katie Couric reporting live for a week with this as the top story.

But members of teacher’s unions are not so well reported.

[metmom]

ANOTHER REASON TO HOMESCHOOL

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[redpoll]

Certainly it’s a problem, but my BS detector went into screaming red alert when I read this:

>>>One study looked at the histories of 561 sex offenders and found they accounted for 195,000 victims. You could sexually abuse hundreds, even thousands of children and have only a 3 percent chance of being caught.<<<

According to my handly little calculator, that means each sex offender molested 347.59 victims. Is that a little Wilt Chamberlain? Does that even make sense? The article goes out of its way - in that lurid soft-core manner of the modern media - to describe how teachers “groom” students. It also seems to take a long time - a lot longer than you’d need to molest 347 victims.

In the meantime, many of the elements of “grooming” described in this article are also part of the sexualization of teen-oriented music, film, books, and television. If you really wanted to see “grooming” in your school, talk with someone from a gay rights group about the poor oppressed LGBT teenagers and their lack of “companionship.” How many girls at your local school are being put on birth control right now - a sort of “grooming” in itself. Even this story, with its breathless ripped-bodice presentation, is grooming. We are creating the circumstances for students to think that the behavior is sometimes all right.

I don’t think it’s the same as it was 50 years ago. We have presidential aides telling crowds that its all right for a 15-year-old boy to get a condom when having sex with an older man. Stars line up to defend Polanski.

You reap what you sow.