No questions, they told me about phony sex-abuse charges. I asked anyway.
My first encounter with the power of the sacrosanct accusation--the one no one was supposed to question--came when I was a television commentator at WWOR in New Jersey. I looked up at a row of monitors in the studio, all of them filled with pictures of a young woman just convicted on hundreds of counts of sexual abuse of the most grotesque kind--a lifetime's work, if they were all to be believed--and I began to wonder. A wonder born, not of particular concern, but of curiosity.
Ping.
Also read:
http://www.edweek.org/sreports/abuse98.htm A Trust Betrayed:
Sexual Abuse by Teachers
This three-part series on child sex abuse by school employees is the result of a six-month project by Education Week involving scores of interviews with state and local education and law-enforcement officials, other experts, teachers, principals, parents, and victims, as well as an extensive review of court documents, journal articles, and public-policy records.
(Read more "About This Series.")
* Part Three: "'Zero Tolerance' of Sex Abuse Proves Elusive," Dec. 16, 1998. It's all but impossible to find an educator, politician, or parent who thinks sex between school staff members and students is a good idea. Yet in 20 states, sex between a student and an adult employee is perfectly legal, as long as the young person is at least 16. And if the student is 17, add three more states to the list.
* "Principals Face a Delicate Balancing Act in Handling Allegations of Misconduct," Dec. 16, 1998. When it comes to probing sexual impropriety involving school employees and students, many experts say principals are better off calling in professional investigators than trying to put the pieces together by themselves. By trying to go it alone, many scholars and law-enforcement officials say, administrators risk violating their state's child-abuse reporting laws, jeopardizing the chances that justice will be done, or simply getting in way over their heads.
* "At One California School, a 'Never-Ending Nightmare,'" Dec. 16, 1998. A Los Angeles County teacher who had worked with inner-city gang members and taught children with severe emotional problems found his life turned upside-down when allegations surfaced that he and another school employee were having improper sexual contact with 13- and 14-year-old female students.
* "On College Campuses, a Gradual Move Toward Addressing Faculty-Student Sex," Dec. 16, 1998. While many officials and academics are concerned about the ethical implications of faculty-student dating, others fear an invasion of privacy if they try to restrict such relationships between adults. Due to this, some campuses have either vague policy or no policy on student-faculty relationships while other schools have banned them alltogether.
Part Two:
* "Cost Is High When Schools Ignore Abuse," Dec. 9, 1998. If there's anything worse than a school employee who sexually abuses students, it's a school that doesn't care. That's the consensus of an alarming number of students who are as bitter and angry at their schools as they are at the staff members who mistreated them. Convinced that they have been made victims a second time by a system that ranks adult interests above their own, many of these children and their families are taking their anger to court.
* "'Passing the Trash' by School Districts Frees Sexual Predators To Hunt Again," Dec. 9, 1998. Sexual abuse of students is rarely a passing fancy, and for some schoolhouse predators, it becomes a way of life. Left unchecked, they may leave a trail of molestation that stretches across many years and countless students' lives.
* "Shifting Legal Ground on Harassment Has Made It Harder for Victims To Win," Dec. 9, 1998. A 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling established that students could recover money damages in student-teacher sexual abuse cases under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. However, the decision failed to settle crucial questions about the circumstances under which a district could be held liable.
* "Living Through a Teacher's Nightmare: False Accusation," Dec. 9, 1998. This article chronicles the one teacher's ordeal of being publicly accused of sex crimes by a student whose account is later discredited. Although these situations do occur, it is actually quite rare.
Part One:
* "Sex With Students: When Employees Cross the Line," Dec. 2, 1998. Although it may start with an act as benign as a hug or a ride home from a tutoring session after school, far more often than many people think, those friendly moments mask the first steps by a teacher or coach down the road that leads to sexual relations with their young charges.
* "Abuse by Women Raises Its Own Set of Problems," Dec. 2, 1998. Cases in which female educators are cast in the culturally unfamiliar role of sexual predator, pose special challenges for schools, courts, and communities alike. With emotional dynamics that are often notably different from those involving men, such cases challenge any number of social stereotypes: Women are victims, not predators; boys who have sex with older women should consider themselves lucky; and love justifies even the most unlikely of matches.
* "Labels Like Pedophile Don't Explain the Many Faces of Child Sexual Abuse," Dec. 2, 1998. Pedophilia, the term popularly associated with the sexual abuse of children, does not apply in many cases of misconduct involving students and school employees, experts say.
* "In Youth's Tender Emotions, Abusers Find Easy Pickings," Dec. 2, 1998. Some adults are drawn to adolescents and younger children, experts in the field say, because they are so easy to manipulate. And while there is no single profile of a teacher who sexually abuses students, an ability to take advantage of their young targets' immaturity is a common trait.[/url]
Thanks for that post. This issue is all the more serious today given the existence of the Internet. At least one Freeper (I can't remember who) has raised questions about why it is that every time the FBI invades someone's home or business going after some bogeyman, they inevitably "find" "thousands" of kiddie porn files on their computer. It's the ultimate character assassination.