An example usually helps when trying to formulate an abstract project. So here’s one to that can stimulate some conversation.
Attorney on public school issues and college professor, Charles Steele, said that teacher-students sex abuses will be bigger than the Catholic priest scandals that shocked America in the nineties. (Full disclosure, Dr. Steele was my professor for “Issues of Law in Education” course.)
A Google news search for “teacher student sex” will show a teacher charged with abuse at least once a week. However, given the 30 million teachers in America this “epidemic” appears to be a relatively small number. There is no national statistical information on the numbers of teacher- student sex abuse.
Currently the laws and policies for teacher student relationship explicitly forbid any inappropriate conduct.
Also traditional news handles it only in the framework of legal issues. The stories all follow the same format:
Teacher X is charged with a sexual crime by unnamed student. Teacher X is suspended from Y school. Followed by details of the incident and teacher's history.
So how should we as the news handle such a story?
There appears to be a difference when the teacher is, say, a 26 years-old and the student is say 17 years-old than if it was a 26 year-old and 8 year-old.
Is consent from a minor really consent?
Is there preventative treatment for this, like alcohol and drug abuse, for teacher that may have the urge but have not acted on the impulse? Should there be?
Is deviant behavior really “abnormal” behavior?
I have not had time to do the reporting but I have a lead on a Pittsburgh story regarding this issue. At a kids Halloween party I met a Pittsburgh detective for Sex Assault and Family Violence. He said that the Pittsburgh School Police tried to keep a report of abuse to themselves and did not report the offence to the city. Obviously the charges were finally reported to city police. I didn’t get all the details and frankly it’s not my “job.” (Yet)
Shouldn’t part of the story be how the school handled the situation and what they are doing to see if any other students were involved? What did other teachers know about this? It would be gross negligence for another teacher to not report any knowledge or suspicions to the principle.
Please let me know how else the story could be covered.
How can the community be involved in this discussion?
This is the important part of the project, your input?
