I had a hunch...

I am a Dr. Laura listener. She is an AM talk radio personality that gives advice. She is a lot like Dr. Phil, but a little more direct. I have listened to her for years. Sometimes I have to stop because I can find myself suddenly being too direct in my daily life, and that isn't good. I am already direct enough.

A few years ago, she made a one sentence observation that has stuck with me for awhile. She said, "I am noticing more and more news headlines these days about teachers having inappropriate sexual relationships with students." It takes a bit to alarm her, but she indicated that where there is smoke there is fire. She is also a big advocate for keeping your kids out of public schools, whether it be home school them or private schools.

Now that being said, in my state, we had a headline this week saying how public school teachers are well qualified to teach. I have to say I agree. I know what qualifications are needed to teach in my state. I don't want the point I am about to make to be taken personal by those teachers who bust their gut every day at school. I think the institution as a whole needs a huge overhaul with a huge focus on back to basics.

Okay, where am I going with this. I caught this headline today about how sexual misconduct plagues schools. Click here. AP did some pretty huge research on this. I am impressed with the research shown in the article. I am also impressed that a normally liberal AP took the conservative approach. Most liberal media tend to defend public schools to the nth degree.

Now, step back. Did you read it and have chills up your spine?

This quote from the article should do it. "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."

The numbers of kids who are sexually mistreated/abused/assaulted in public schools is staggering. Plus, the number of teachers who get fired and go somewhere else and reoffend is amazing. It is very reminiscent of Catholic priests just going to other parishes and reoffending for the length of their career.

I know when the whole Mary Kay LeTourneau thing came out about ten years ago, I think most of us, me included, wrote it off as a one time event. Doesn't happen in schools, and this woman is just sick. Well, I do agree with the latter, but the news headlines don't stop. Time and time again these days teachers are being caught doing the unspeakable.

We always hear in the news that the story is a female teacher going after teen male students. Not so, says the AP research. Ninety percent of the time it's a male teacher. I am not hearing this on the news! There is definitely a lot of shushing going on with this.

My prediction--a lot like what has happened to the Catholic church. You will find victims will find their voice and start speaking up and getting litigious. There is a woman in the article, Jennah, who finally got justice for her ordeal. She had guts. Instead of taking a spendy settlement and agreeing to be quiet. She took the offender to court and finally got his teaching license revolked. She could have taken the money and gone away. The wave is going turn just like it did on the Catholic church.

My local public school cannot afford pencils for kids let alone a multimillion dollar lawsuit. We are going to start seeing lawsuits against schools who knew they were hiring a teacher who had a "spotty" record. We are going to start seeing some outrage in big proportions.

I think we taxpayers are going to have a big bill we are going to have to pay. The irony is this--we are paying for public schools as well as paying the settlements. It's the American way!

I'll close with one more chilling quote from this article.

"I tell you what, they never go away. They just blend a little better," says Steve Janosko, a prosecutor in Ocean County, N.J.

UPDATE: Here comes the tide. Just this morning, the local version of this same atrocity came out. Click here. Washington state doesn't seem to be immune, although this news report is putting a positive spin on it, I still think there are probably more abusive teachers than people think.

UPDATE #2: Click here for another proceeding that just ended in Illinois. This weirdo thinks duct taping young female students in school closets is fun!