Child Sexual Abuse > Countering child sex abuse in schools by educators

 

How Can Child Sexual Abuse in Schools Be Stopped?

A new study finds sexual abuse in schools commonly involves sexual grooming.

Key points

• It is estimated that up to half a million children in the U.S. may experience educator sexual abuse.
• Most educator sexual abuse happens on school grounds, during school hours, while school is in session.
• Coaches and gym teachers were found to be the perpetrators of educator sexual abuse in one third of the cases.

Source: Shannon Anderson / Pixabay

Rarely does a day go by where there is not a headline in the United States about a teacher sexually abusing a student. Research shows that the largest proportion of cases of child sexual abuse that take place within institutional settings occur in schools (29%). It is estimated that approximately one in 10 children in the U.S. will experience educator sexual misconduct at some point—broadly defined as any inappropriate behavior of a sexual nature by an educator toward a student, including physical contact, verbal communication, or non-contact behaviors. (The term educator has been broadly defined in the existing literature to reference various school employees, including classroom teachers, school administrators, support staff, bus drivers, coaches, and school counselors.) A recent study found that 11.7% of recent high school graduates reported some form of educator sexual misconduct, with 1% reporting some form of contact sexual abuse. When asked what type of misconduct they experienced (students could select multiple categories):

• 11 percent reported sexual comments.
• 0.6 percent reported that they were shown or given sexual pictures or photos or were sent sexual messages.
• 0.9 percent reported having been touched in a sexual manner.
• 0.4 percent reported other sexual activity, including sexual intercourse or oral sex.

If you extrapolate the 1% of students who reported contact sexual abuse to the number of students in kindergarten to grade 12—49.6 million—that means that almost half a million students in the U.S. may experience child sexual abuse perpetrated by an educator. This number is extraordinary, and thus, educator sexual abuse poses a significant threat to our children. Given what we know about the long-term consequences of CSA, we have to do everything we can to prevent it.

In fact, 1.3% reported physical touching assuming intercourse and oral sex require touching. That draws close to 2/3rds of a million kids, and it is likely that a good number of kids would not report. It is also likely that most of the victims are girls. I'm suggesting that perhaps easily a half million girls suffer these kinds of abuse in each generation, and quite possibly a million.

In Canada, about 5.6 million kids attend school (K-12) which means about 73,000 kids would report physical sexual assault, or more than 50,000 girls, if not twice that amount.

In British Columbia, the student total is about 580,000, so about 7,500 kids would report physical touching, and roughly 6,000 of them would be girls. If the truth were told, it would probably exceed 10,000.

What We Know About How Educator Sexual Abuse Is Perpetrated

To prevent educator CSA from occurring, we have to know how it is perpetrated. A recent study from our lab surveyed 24 adult survivors of CSA who reported that the perpetrator was an educator. Several key findings emerged from this study:

1. All (100%) cases of educator sexual abuse involved child sexual grooming

2. The most commonly reported sexual grooming behaviors included:

• The educator selected a child who was overly compliant/trusting of adults (83%)
• The educator was charming/likable/nice (71%)
• The educator gave the child a lot of attention (67%)
• The educator used seemingly innocent touch (67%)
• The educator used accidental touching, or distraction while touching (67%)

3. Most of the abuse occurred on school property during the school day while school was in session.

4. One-third of the educators who perpetrated the CSA were gym teachers or coaches.

What This Means for the Prevention of Educator Sexual Abuse

• Schools need to have comprehensive policies to prevent educator sexual misconduct. Such policies have been set forth by the CDC and the Department of Education.
• Schools must train teachers, students, and parents on the red flags of sexual grooming. Thirty-eight states have passed Erin’s Law, which requires age-appropriate sexual abuse prevention training in schools.
• Strict guidelines for interactions between educators and students must be included in yearly trainings and educator handbooks. Policies need to be put in place on how to handle and document boundary-crossing or grooming behaviors.
• Currently, 18 states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation for screening educators for sexual misconduct: Screening School Employees to Prevent Educator Sexual Misconduct and Abuse, or as it is called in some states, “Pass The Trash." More states need to pass such laws to prevent educators with previous allegations from resigning and moving to another district or state.
• Abuse occurs in low-trafficked areas and places where educators can have private contact with students. Thus, school environments should be designed so that all areas where students may come into contact with educators are either clearly visible, such as with windows in doors or clear lines of sight, or have monitored cameras in hallways. Teacher offices, including those of gym and music teachers, should be in well-trafficked areas.
• All districts should have prohibitions against educators from contacting students on personal devices and social media as these have been used to engage in the sexual grooming process. Any text messages and emails from educators should be sent from school-monitored systems.

More information on legislation and policies to prevent educator sexual abuse and misconduct can be found at Enough Abuse and Stop Educator Sexual Abuse Misconduct & Exploitation.

====================================================================================