Intolerable but Tolerated
When the Catholic Church ran into legal, moral and PR problems because of Pedophile priests the news was all over it. It involved hypocrisy in the church and therefore was fit for the news. Now I agree but I also see a double standard.
When I was a senior in High School we had one female teacher, fresh from college, not particularly pretty but not exactly homely either, who gave gonorrhea to several of my classmates. It was something of a scandal within our school, but it never got a lot of attention beyond the borders of our school district. She wasn't even disciplined, at least as far as I know and taught for several more years. (Now admittedly the boys were 17 and 18 but even so, that is an inappropriate relationship between teacher and student.)
It seems like we are constantly hearing about students in Jr. High and even later elementary school being seduced by teachers and it's good that their being prosecuted, but . . .
"From my own experience — this could get me in trouble — I think every single school district in the nation has at least one perpetrator. At least one," says Mary Jo McGrath, a California lawyer who has spent 30 years investigating abuse and misconduct in schools. "It doesn't matter if it's urban or rural or suburban."
I am concerned because it's being treated as isolated problems instead of troubling national trend and an institutional problem, which it is. We need to look at all of our schools and take a close look at the people who are teaching them. We need a data base of teachers who have been fired or disciplined for sexual relations with minors and children and the schools need to pay attention to them.
I notice that the teacher's unions, who were all over the pedophile priests and rightly so, are strangely silent on this sexual abuse. You begin to wonder if they were really upset because children were abused or if this was simply an opportunity to attack the hated Christian Church. The hypocrites who abused their church position and those who protected them deserve to be punished, and now it's time to turn the same eye to public education where the vast majority of American Children are and where the danger of abuse is far greater.
This has to stop being treated as an individual problem with bad teachers. It is an institutional problem with public education and it's time to put a stop to it. We need the means to identify and remove pedovore teachers from the class room. If they want to be trusted with the children of this nation they must be worthy of that trust.
When I was a senior in High School we had one female teacher, fresh from college, not particularly pretty but not exactly homely either, who gave gonorrhea to several of my classmates. It was something of a scandal within our school, but it never got a lot of attention beyond the borders of our school district. She wasn't even disciplined, at least as far as I know and taught for several more years. (Now admittedly the boys were 17 and 18 but even so, that is an inappropriate relationship between teacher and student.)
It seems like we are constantly hearing about students in Jr. High and even later elementary school being seduced by teachers and it's good that their being prosecuted, but . . .
"From my own experience — this could get me in trouble — I think every single school district in the nation has at least one perpetrator. At least one," says Mary Jo McGrath, a California lawyer who has spent 30 years investigating abuse and misconduct in schools. "It doesn't matter if it's urban or rural or suburban."
I am concerned because it's being treated as isolated problems instead of troubling national trend and an institutional problem, which it is. We need to look at all of our schools and take a close look at the people who are teaching them. We need a data base of teachers who have been fired or disciplined for sexual relations with minors and children and the schools need to pay attention to them.
I notice that the teacher's unions, who were all over the pedophile priests and rightly so, are strangely silent on this sexual abuse. You begin to wonder if they were really upset because children were abused or if this was simply an opportunity to attack the hated Christian Church. The hypocrites who abused their church position and those who protected them deserve to be punished, and now it's time to turn the same eye to public education where the vast majority of American Children are and where the danger of abuse is far greater.
This has to stop being treated as an individual problem with bad teachers. It is an institutional problem with public education and it's time to put a stop to it. We need the means to identify and remove pedovore teachers from the class room. If they want to be trusted with the children of this nation they must be worthy of that trust.
posted by shoprat at 8:10 PM
7 Comments:
Right on! What amazes me, as in this case, in many issues across the board you'll always see this type of double standard. Split any issue amongst two groups and they will never be held to the same standard.
Out this way, anyone employed in the public shcool system must pass and FBI background & fingerprint
check: http://www.mtnhomesd.org/Personnel/substitute.htm#Other
Nice try, but the NEA won't be having ANY of that shit.
BZ
I agree with you, Shoprat. I also think that no teacher should be allowed to be alone with a student, for the teacher's protection as well as the student's. After all, if a student doesn't like a teacher he/she can claim abuse where there is none, and I'm sure it has happened.
Teacher's unions are not for the kids, they are for themselves. Of course they're going to ding & throw mud on any other organization that would hold them to some sort of standards of decency.
Note: I've moved my blog from Tom's Common Sense to Tom's Fireside Chat. Please change your blogroll and visit sometime. Thanks!
Extremely well said and I couldn't agree with you more. You go Shoprat!!
In fact, you should send something like this in as a letter to the editor of your local paper, at the very least.
Not bad article, but I really miss that you didn't express your opinion, but ok you just have different approach
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