The U.S. Department of Justice already has established a database for sex offenders. It is imperative that we have a similarly organized collection of information especially for educators, where school administrators are legally bound to report any and every instance of pedophilia.
In the social hierarchy of prison inmates, mob bosses, bank robbers, and cop killers tend to get respect. But “short eyes,” those convicts who have committed crimes against children, especially sexual abuse, are hated, harassed, and abused. In schools, however, this group of detestable perverts rates a “meh.”
The numbers are stunning. A report prepared for the U.S. Department of Education in 2004 revealed that nearly 9.6 percent of students are victims of sexual abuse by school personnel, and these are just the reported cases.
Stop Educator Sexual Abuse Misconduct & Exploitation (SESAME), a nonprofit that works to stop childhood sexual abuse by teachers and other school employees, disclosed that in 2015, about 3.5 million 8th-11th grade students, or nearly 7 percent of those surveyed divulged that they had experienced “physical sexual contact from an adult” (most often a teacher or coach). The type of physical contact ranged from “unwanted touching of their body, all the way up to sexual intercourse.” Even worse, the statistic increases to about 4.5 million children (10 percent) when other types of sexual misconduct are taken into consideration, such as being shown pornography or being subjected to sexually explicit language or exhibitionism. SESAME also explains that one child sex offender can have as many as 73 victims in a lifetime.
One might assume that these disgusting perverts would be rounded up, fired, and incarcerated, but all too often, that doesn’t happen. Most recently, Eric Burgess, a high school English teacher in Rosemead, California was found to have repeatedly groomed students for sex, and had sexual relationships with female students over a 20-year period. Infuriatingly, he was allowed to resign without admitting to any wrongdoing and continued to receive his salary for another six months. The settlement agreement bars Burgess from working in the school district, but he can be employed elsewhere, and district officials agreed to provide a “content neutral” reference if he applies for a teaching job in another district.
On a personal level, I taught middle school with “Roy” in the 1990s. One day, this 8th-grade English teacher allegedly touched a female student inappropriately. There were witnesses, but the student involved would not press charges so he was sent off to the district office for a while—the so-called “rubber room” or “teacher jail.” Since firing him was not a viable option, the powers-that-be then decided to transfer him to another school, where he was accused of fondling another student. So he was sent back to the district office, where he whittled away his paid time ogling porn. Busted, he was transferred to yet another school, where he got caught sharing his smut with some of his female students. He was then returned to the district office, where the last I heard, he was waiting for his next assignment, courtesy of his union lawyer.
