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Basically it is that the press is not really interested in protecting kids but in discrediting the Catholic Church. The public schools, on the other hand, are a bulwark of liberalism.

That's a very good point. IMO it's not the abuse per se, but the hypocracy (of a celibate Catholic priesthood, or a monogamous Protestant pastorate) that keeps the press interested. You'll never find the press covering abuses committed by homosexual and pedophilic organizations, because there's no perceived hypocracy therein. The press doesn't care how many lesbian relationships a "womenpriest" has, because frankly the press already expects that sort of behavior from them. In other words, you can't break a vow that you never made, or one that your beliefs don't require you to keep.

Consider that the government-run public school system is officially amoral and atheistic/polytheistic by law. There is no hypocrisy or outrage at this kind of behavior to be reported, unless the parents' religious morals were violated by the teacher, because the school technically can't have any religious morals to break. The non-Christian population IMO wishes they were in the students' place! Check out the posts on any "teacher abuse" thread. Half of the FReepers post comments akin to "I wish I had that teacher in high school!" whenever one of these stories comes out, if the teacher is deemed physically attractive. Where is the Catholic outrage at those congratulatory comments?

If we can't blame the Vatican for the priest scandals, should we blame the NEA for the school ones?

The press expects priests to hold to the standards they profess, which is why they make such a fuss when they do. They also expect school teachers not to abuse students, which is why they make a fuss when teachers do. The problem is the intensity of the coverage, which is the point of the article above. I have trouble with this word hypocrisy. Ever since the '60s people have used the word to justify their own actions. If Daddy assaulted someone in anger , no one should ever accuse me of murder.

I agree with you that hypocrisy has definitely been an issue in the clerical sex abuse scandal. The sad fact of the matter is that abusive priests knew that they were not only breaking their vow of celibacy but they were also using their image as celibate men to get access to their young victims. The press did the right thing by bringing this scandal to the attention of the public while the bishops who covered up the scandal and who refused to punish guilty priests have been rightly condemned by the press and the public.

Priests should be held to a higher moral standard of conduct than other members of the public. However, everyone should be held to the same legal standard. It is wrong to presume that someone who is accused of abusing a minor, whether it is a priest or a layman, must be guilty. Yet, both the press and the public assume that every priest who has been accused is guilty. They do not assume that every teacher who is accused of sexually abusing minors is guilty. This kind of double standard is wrong.

Finally, while the press may expect bad behavior from teachers or even wink at such behavior when it involves female teachers and “lucky” male students, that does not mean that we as a society should tolerate it. Teachers have power over students and it is never right for them to abuse that power in order to obtain sexual “favors” from students. Once upon a time, teachers had “morals clauses” in their contracts and were held to a high standard of behavior because they were expected to set a good example for their students. I’m pretty sure that the NEA worked to eliminate morals clauses from teachers’ contracts but it is becoming increasingly clear that this was not a good idea.