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AP Investigation: Sexual misconduct plagues US schools
By Martha Irvine and Robert Tanner
Associated Press
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The young teacher hung his head, avoiding eye contact. Yes, he had touched a fifth-grader’s breast during recess. “I guess it was just lust of the flesh,” he told his boss. That got Gary C. Lindsey fired from his first teaching job in Oelwein, Iowa. But it didn’t end his career.

He taught for decades in Illinois and Iowa, fending off at least a half-dozen more abuse accusations.

When he finally surrendered his teaching license in 2004 — 40 years after that first little girl came forward — it wasn’t a principal or a state agency that ended his career. It was one persistent victim and her parents.

Lindsey’s case is just a small example of a widespread problem in American schools: sexual misconduct by the very teachers who are supposed to be nurturing the nation’s children.

Students in America’s schools are groped. They’re raped. They’re pursued, seduced and think they’re in love.

An Associated Press investigation found more than 2,500 cases over five years in which educators were punished for actions from bizarre to sadistic.

There are 3 million public school teachers nationwide, most devoted to their work. Yet the number of abusive educators — nearly three for every school day — speaks to a much larger problem in a system that is stacked against victims.

Most of the abuse never gets reported. Those cases reported often end with no action. Cases investigated sometimes can’t be proven, and many abusers have several victims.

And no one — not the schools, not the courts, not the state or federal governments — has found a surefire way to keep molesting teachers out of classrooms.

Those are the findings of an AP investigation in which reporters sought disciplinary records in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The result is an unprecedented national look at the scope of sex offenses by educators — the very definition of breach of trust.

The seven-month investigation found 2,570 educators whose teaching credentials were revoked, denied, surrendered or sanctioned from 2001 through 2005 following allegations of sexual misconduct.

Young people were the victims in at least 1,801 of the cases, and more than 80 percent of those were students. At least half the educators who were punished by their states also were convicted of crimes related to their misconduct.

The findings draw obvious comparisons to sex abuse scandals in other institutions, among them the Roman Catholic Church. A review by America’s Catholic bishops found that about 4,400 of 110,000 priests were accused of molesting minors from 1950 through 2002.

Clergy abuse is part of the national consciousness after a string of highly publicized cases. But until now, there’s been little sense of the extent of educator abuse.

Beyond the horror of individual crimes, the larger shame is that the institutions that govern education have only sporadically addressed a problem that’s been apparent for years.

“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.”

One report mandated by Congress estimated that as many as 4.5 million students, out of roughly 50 million in American schools, are subject to sexual misconduct by an employee of a school sometime between kindergarten and 12th grade. That figure includes verbal harassment that’s sexual in nature.

Jennah Bramow, one of Lindsey’s accusers in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, wonders why there isn’t more outrage.

“You’re supposed to be able to send your kids to school knowing that they’re going to be safe,” says Bramow, now 20. While other victims accepted settlement deals and signed confidentiality agreements, she sued her city’s schools for failing to protect her and others from Lindsey — and won. Only then was Lindsey’s teaching license finally revoked.

As an 8-year-old elementary-school student, Bramow told how Lindsey forced her hand on what she called his “pee-pee.”

“How did you know it was his pee-pee?” an interviewer at St. Luke’s Child Protection Center in Cedar Rapids asked Jennah in a videotape, taken in 1995.

“‘Cause I felt something?” said Jennah, then a fidgety girl with long, dark hair.

“How did it feel?” the investigator asked.

“Bumpy,” Jennah replied. She drew a picture that showed how Lindsey made her touch him on the zipper area of his pants.

Lindsey, now 68, refused multiple requests for an interview. “It never occurs to you people that some people don’t want their past opened back up,” he said when an AP reporter approached him at his home outside Cedar Rapids and asked questions.

That past, according to evidence presented in the Bramow’s civil case, included accusations from students and parents along with reprimands from principals that were filed away, explained away and ultimately ignored until 1995, when accusations from Bramow and two other girls forced his early retirement. Even then, he kept his teaching license until the Bramows took the case public and filed a complaint with the state.

Like Lindsey, the perpetrators that the AP found are everyday educators — teachers, school psychologists, principals and superintendents among them. They’re often popular and recognized for excellence and, in nearly nine out of 10 cases, they’re male. While some abused students in school, others were cited for sexual misconduct after hours that didn’t necessarily involve a kid from their classes, such as viewing or distributing child pornography.

They include:

— Joseph E. Hayes, a former principal in East St. Louis, Ill. DNA evidence in a civil case determined that he impregnated a 14-year-old student. Never charged criminally, his license was suspended in 2003. He has ignored an order to surrender it permanently.

— Donald M. Landrum, a high school teacher in Polk County, N.C. His bosses warned him not to meet with female students behind closed doors. They put a glass window in his office door, but Landrum papered over it. Police later found pornography and condoms in his office and alleged that he was about to have sex with a female student. His license was revoked in 2005.

— Rebecca A. Boicelli, a former teacher in Redwood City, Calif. She conceived a child with a 16-year-old former student then went on maternity leave in 2004 while police investigated. She was hired to teach in a nearby school district; board members said police hadn’t told them about the investigation.

The overwhelming majority of cases the AP examined involved teachers in public schools. Private school teachers rarely turn up because many are not required to have a teaching license and, even when they have one, disciplinary actions are typically handled within the school.

Two of the nation’s major teachers unions, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, each denounced sex abuse while emphasizing that educators’ rights also must be taken into account.

“Students must be protected from sexual predators and abuse, and teachers must be protected from false accusations,” said NEA President Reg Weaver, who refused to be interviewed and instead released a two-paragraph statement.

Kathy Buzad of the AFT said that “if there’s one incident of sexual misconduct between a teacher and a student that’s one too many.”

The United States has grown more sympathetic to victims of sex abuse over recent decades, particularly when it comes to young people. Laws that protect children from abusers bear the names of young victims. Police have made pursuing Internet predators a priority. People convicted of abuse typically face tough sentences and registry as sex offenders.

Even so, sexually abusive teachers continue to take advantage, and there are several reasons why.

For one, many Americans deny the problem, and even treat the abuse with misplaced fascination. Popular media reports trumpet relationships between attractive female teachers and male students.

“It’s dealt with in a salacious manner with late-night comedians saying ‘What 14-year-old boy wouldn’t want to have sex with his teacher?’ It trivializes the whole issue,” says Robert Shoop, a professor of educational administration at Kansas State University who has written a book aimed at helping school districts identify and deal with sexual misconduct.

“In other cases, it’s reported as if this is some deviant who crawled into the school district — ‘and now that they’re gone, everything’s OK.’ But it’s much more prevalent than people would think.”

The AP investigation found efforts to stop individual offenders but, overall, a deeply entrenched resistance toward recognizing and fighting abuse. It starts in school hallways, where fellow teachers look away or feel powerless to help. School administrators make behind-the-scenes deals to avoid lawsuits and other trouble. And in state capitals and Congress, lawmakers shy from tough state punishments or any cohesive national policy for fear of disparaging a vital profession.

That only enables rogue teachers, and puts kids who aren’t likely to be believed in a tough spot.

In case after case the AP examined, accusations of inappropriate behavior were dismissed. One girl in Mansfield, Ohio, complained about a sexual assault by teacher Donald Coots and got expelled. It was only when a second girl, years later, brought a similar complaint against the same teacher that he was punished.

And that second girl also was ostracized by the school community and ultimately left town.

Unless there’s a videotape of a teacher involved with a child, everyone wants to believe the authority figure, says Wayne Promisel, a retired Virginia detective who has investigated many sex abuse cases.

He and others who track the problem reiterated one point repeatedly during the AP investigation: Very few abusers get caught.

They point to several academic studies estimating that only about one in 10 victimized children report sexual abuse of any kind to someone who can do something about it.

Teachers, administrators and even parents frequently don’t, or won’t, recognize the signs that a crime is taking place.

“They can’t see what’s in front of their face. Not unlike a kid in an alcoholic family, who’ll say ‘My family is great,”‘ says McGrath, the California lawyer and investigator who now trains entire school systems how to recognize what she calls the unmistakable “red flags” of misconduct.

In Hamburg, Pa., in 2002, those “red flags” should have been clear. A student skipped classes every day to spend time with one teacher. He gave her gifts and rides in his car. She sat on his lap. The bond ran so deep that the student got chastised repeatedly — even suspended once for being late and absent so often. But there were no questions for the teacher.

Heather Kline was 12, a girl with a broad smile and blond hair pulled back tight. Teacher Troy Mansfield had cultivated her since she was in his third-grade class.

“Kids, like, idolized me because they thought I was, like, cool because he paid more attention to me,” says Kline, now 18, sitting at her mother’s kitchen table, sorting through a file of old poems and cards from Mansfield. “I was just like really comfortable. I could tell him anything.”

He never pushed her, just raised the stakes, bit by bit — a comment about how good she looked, a gift, a hug.

She was sure she was in love.

By winter of seventh grade, he was sneaking her off in his car for an hour of sex, dropping in on her weekly baby-sitting duties, e-mailing about what clothes she should wear, about his sexual fantasies, about marriage and children.

Mansfield finally got caught by the girl’s mother, and his own words convicted him. At his criminal trial in 2004, Heather read his e-mails and instant messages aloud, from declarations of true love to explicit references to past sex. He’s serving up to 31 years in state prison.

The growing use of e-mails and text messages is leaving a trail that investigators and prosecutors can use to prove an intimate relationship when other evidence is hard to find.

Even then, many in the community find it difficult to accept that a predator is in their midst. When these cases break, defendants often portray the students as seducers or false accusers. However, every investigator questioned said that is largely a misconception.

“I’ve been involved in several hundred investigations,” says Martin Bates, an assistant superintendent in a Salt Lake City school district. “I think I’ve seen that just a couple of times ... where a teacher is being pursued by a student.”

Too often, problem teachers are allowed to leave quietly. That can mean future abuse for another student and another school district.

“They might deal with it internally, suspending the person or having the person move on. So their license is never investigated,” says Charol Shakeshaft, a leading expert in teacher sex abuse who heads the educational leadership department at Virginia Commonwealth University.

It’s a dynamic so common it has its own nicknames — “passing the trash” or the “mobile molester.”

Laws in several states require that even an allegation of sexual misconduct be reported to the state departments that oversee teacher licenses. But there’s no consistent enforcement, so such laws are easy to ignore.

School officials fear public embarrassment as much as the perpetrators do, Shakeshaft says. They want to avoid the fallout from going up against a popular teacher. They also don’t want to get sued by teachers or victims, and they don’t want to face a challenge from a strong union.

In the Iowa case, Lindsey agreed to leave without fighting when his bosses kept the reason for his departure confidential. The decades’ worth of allegations against him would have stayed secret, if not for Bramow.

Across the country, such deals and lack of information-sharing allow abusive teachers to jump state lines, even when one school does put a stop to the abuse.

While some schools and states have been aggressive about investigating problem teachers and publicizing it when they’re found, others were hesitant to share details of cases with the AP — Alabama and Mississippi among the more resistant. Maine, the only state that gave the AP no disciplinary information, has a law that keeps offending teachers’ cases secret.

Meanwhile, the reasons given for punishing hundreds of educators, including many in California, were so vague there was no way to tell why they’d been punished, until further investigation by AP reporters revealed it was sexual misconduct.

And in Hawaii, no educators were disciplined by the state in the five years the AP examined, even though some teachers there were serving sentences for various sex crimes during that time. They technically remained teachers, even behind bars.

Elsewhere, there have been fitful steps toward catching errant teachers that may be having some effect. The AP found the number of state actions against sexually abusive teachers rose steadily, to a high of 649 in 2005.

More states now require background checks on teachers, fingerprinting and mandatory reporting of abuse, though there are still loopholes and a lack of coordination among districts and states.

U.S. Supreme Court rulings in the last 20 years on civil rights and sex discrimination have opened schools up to potentially huge financial punishments for abuses, which has driven some schools to act.

And the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification keeps a list of educators who’ve been punished for any reason, but only shares the names among state agencies.

The uncoordinated system that’s developed means some teachers still fall through the cracks. Aaron M. Brevik is a case in point.

Brevik was a teacher at an elementary school in Warren, Mich., until he was accused of using a camera hidden in a gym bag to secretly film boys in locker rooms and showers. He also faced charges that he recorded himself molesting a boy while the child slept.

Found guilty of criminal sexual conduct, Brevik is now serving a five- to 20-year prison sentence and lost his Michigan license in 2005.

What Michigan officials apparently didn’t know when they hired him was that Brevik’s teaching license in Minnesota had been permanently suspended in 2001 after he allegedly invited two male minors to stay with him in a hotel room. He was principal of an elementary school in southeastern Minnesota at the time.

“I tell you what, they never go away. They just blend a little better,” says Steve Janosko, a prosecutor in Ocean County, N.J., who handled the case of a former high school teacher and football coach, Nicholas J. Arminio.

Arminio surrendered his New Jersey teaching license in 1994 after two female students separately accused him of inappropriate touching. The state of Maryland didn’t know that when he applied for teaching credentials and took a job at a high school in Baltimore County. He eventually resigned and lost that license, too.

Even so, until this month, he was coaching football at another Baltimore County high school in a job that does not require a teaching license. After the AP started asking questions, he was fired.

Victims also face consequences when teachers are punished.

In Pennsylvania, after news of teacher Troy Mansfield’s arrest hit, girls called Kline, his 12-year-old victim, a “slut” to her face. A teacher called her a “vixen.” Friends stopped talking to her. Kids no longer sat with her at lunch.

Her abuser, meanwhile, had been a popular teacher and football coach.

So, between rumors that she was pregnant or doing drugs and her own panic attacks and depression, Kline bounced between schools. At 16, she ran away to Nashville.

“I didn’t have my childhood,” says Kline, who’s back home now, working at a grocery cash register and hoping to get her GED so she can go to nursing school. “He had me so matured at so young.

“I remember going from little baby dolls to just being an adult.”

The courts dealt her a final insult. A federal judge dismissed her civil suit against the school, saying administrators had no obligation to protect her from a predatory teacher since officials were unaware of the abuse, despite what the court called widespread “unsubstantiated rumors” in the school. The family is appealing.

In Iowa, the state Supreme Court made the opposite ruling in the Bramow case, deciding she and her parents could sue the Cedar Rapids schools for failing to stop Lindsey.

Bramow, now a young mother who waits tables for a living, won a $20,000 judgment. But Lindsey was never criminally charged due to what the former county prosecutor deemed insufficient evidence.

Arthur Sensor, the former superintendent in Oelwein, Iowa, who vividly recalls pressuring Lindsey to quit on Feb. 18, 1964, regrets that he didn’t do more to stop him back then.

Now, he says, he’d call the police.

“He promised me he wouldn’t do it again — that he had learned. And he was a young man, a beginning teacher, had a young wife, a young child,” Sensor, now 86 years old, said during testimony at the Bramows’ civil trial.

“I wanted to believe him, and I did.”

John Parsons, special projects manager for the AP’s News Research Center, contributed to this story.

Take a look
Jennah Bramow, 20, feeds her 3-month old daughter, Maysa Hamilton, with a bottle in their apartment in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Sep. 26, 2007. Bramow was an 8-year-old elementary student when she and two other girls told their parents that their music teacher Gary C. Lindsey had sexually abused them. While criminal charges were never filed, the Bramow family eventually sued the school district and won, clearing the way for Lindsey to lose his teaching license. (AP Photo/David Lienemann)
Gary C. Lindsey, a former school teacher accused of sexually abusing several of his students, appears with his dog in this image from video made at his home outside Cedar Rapids, Iowa Sept. 7, 2007. Lindsey, 68, was never charged with a crime related to the allegations. He did, however, surrender his Iowa teaching license in 2004 after a former student who'd accused him of inappropriate touching successfully sued the Cedar Rapids schools and then filed a complaint with the state. (AP Photo/Mark Carlson)
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Reader comments on this story - 44 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

Student Teacher wrote on Oct 22, 2007 12:35 AM:

" Individual prayer is legal and allowed in school. Only school sanctioned prayer is outlawed. Also, the Illinois legislature recently passed a bill mandating that the school day starts with a moment of silence "for reflection" and then the Pledge of Allegiance. The language of the law is unclear. There is set time period for the moment of silence and, I believe, no clear rules for schools that do not obey. As a student teacher, I find that it takes time away from my lessons and is a distraction. When I asked my students about the law, some supported it. However, I would say that the majority did not like the change. "

Student Teacher wrote on Oct 22, 2007 12:29 AM:

" If one student is molested, it is unacceptable. Schools have few methods for reporting/documenting such cases. There needs to be clear procedures for dealing with these unfortunate scenarios. Schools need to make this fair not only for the students, but also the teachers. Teaching is not easy. I have a degree in Business and I have worked in the private sector. Now, I am student teaching. My experiences teaching have been more difficult, and more rewarding, than my time in the business world. Teachers must pass several state-mandated tests (Basic Skills, Content Area, and Assessment of Professional Teaching), in addition to passing their classes and student teaching. Teachers undergo background checks as well. I have more school work as an Education major, and, in my opinion, it is more difficult. The work load is more demanding for teachers. Just because school gets out doesn't mean my work is done. I have to grade, create lesson plans and activities, and any number of extra assignments. And I can't sit at my desk during the day and read my e-mail or play Solitaire like back at the office. Teaching is real work. "

Dave wrote on Oct 21, 2007 7:52 PM:

" OK. How about ... but we cannot have prayer in schools. Prayer does not require any other person but the one praying. "

to Dave wrote on Oct 21, 2007 6:32 PM:

" Yeah, I want a pastor or priest in the schools. If you think that public schools have a lot of incidents, churches are a lot worse. "

Dave wrote on Oct 21, 2007 5:52 PM:

" but we cannot have religion in our schools. This all makes sense. "

Cha Ching! wrote on Oct 21, 2007 3:15 PM:

" Not one but two photos to go with the story and both mention lawsuits. Sue the Scouts? Been there, Done That. Sue the Church? Been There, Done That. Sue the School? AHA! Fresh Meat! "

To: Sorry, but wrote on Oct 21, 2007 3:11 PM:

" Indeed. We just kill everyone we do not like and all the problems of the world will disappear. No, wait, I DISLIKE people who want easy answers and that means that YOU HAVE TO GO! "

What saddens me~~ wrote on Oct 21, 2007 12:51 PM:

" is that female teachers don't get anywhere near the punishment that male teachers do. I believe if a male teacher get 25 years so should the female!! She is still a predator and no different. Laws should not be stiffer for one and not the other. I'm a female and I think it doesn't matter what the gender is. Just because she is female doesn't make it any different. Laws need to be reworked. The one that killed me was the sexy blonde teacher, her lawyer said she would not survive in prison because of her beauty!! Give me a break, so give her a separate cell, but she should of been put in prison just like the rest. Granted she was quite beautiful, but Scott Peterson is considered in the same way, but he IS in prison in segregation, does this mean he should be let out because he is considered a "Pretty Boy"? Our laws are so messed up in this country and all it takes is a very smart lawyer and your outta there. "

to Three Different Articles Today on the Vary Same Subject wrote on Oct 21, 2007 11:04 AM:

" Actually, Tanda Rucker was mentioned in the "Loophole" article. "

4 months off? wrote on Oct 21, 2007 10:42 AM:

" most teachers I know (primarily speaking of elementary teachers) spend 2-3 weeks prior to school getting prepared by setting up their classroom, organizing materials, preparing lessons, etc. they don't have a staff to help them complete many tasks required to be ready for the first day of school. Also, they work about 10 hours a day during the year, on average, and spend time grading papers at home. Then, they spend another 1-2 weeks cleaning up their classroom and closing things down for the summer. So all of a sudden, 2 1/2 months off becomes 4 weeks off, during which time they take classes and attend workshops. I've worked other jobs where unlike teaching, you do nothing outside of the work day, and you get 5-6 weeks of vacation, plus sick and personal days. I don't think the time off that teachers get is quite as grand as you believe it to be. "

to Dean Wormer see thechampion.org wrote on Oct 21, 2007 8:10 AM:

" First you did make some good points. The education field has largely been dominated by women primarily because of the hours and summers off are very conducive to raising a family. It is a part time job where you work 8 months out of the year. But nowadays based on thechampion.org, salaries are going up and these teachers are getting paid a 12 month salary for working part time, or being paid extremely well for their 8 months. We should be more conscience of what these teacher make for achieving a relatively easy degree. See thechampion.org. "

Teachers are no different wrote on Oct 21, 2007 7:00 AM:

" than Doctors, Preachers, or Police Offericers. They are the people we have always thought we could trust our children to. I fully agree with I THINK, why are there so many perverts these days? What are these people doing that turn them into perverts? I also agree that teachers aren't always the brightest bulbs in the box. I've worked at school for twenty years and see this first hand, and wonder how some of them ever got hired. "

Re: to Deano wrote on Oct 21, 2007 6:53 AM:

" You said, "I am all for raising teachers' pay to help attract highly qualified candidates." Yeah, we've heard this excuse before. It's all about the salary. Fact is schools don't have to pay more. There are plenty of people that offer themselves to be teachers for the current pay because of all the non-pay rewards that are offered. (The higher-pay advocates tend to not mention these non-pay rewards.) Second, higher pay wouldn't fix the problem. You'd just get higher paid abusers. "

To going welll wrote on Oct 21, 2007 2:52 AM:

" I couldn't agree with you more. "

And Still wrote on Oct 21, 2007 1:44 AM:

" The posters who want to stir up panic and fear point always outwards and to the Other. And Still, when the Truth is told the VAST majority of these cases, both reported and unreported - take place in the home. "

Three Different Articles Today on the Vary Same Subject wrote on Oct 21, 2007 12:46 AM:

" Molestation by anyone against anyone is dreadful and the sex of those involved matters not. However, gays have forever been awfully accused of molesting and "recruiting" young people. These three articles outline countless crimes of male/female and female/male offenses. Interesting that among the dozens and dozens listed NONE are same-sex in nature. Hmmm... Maybe this is one for that show "myth-busters"? "

Stats wrote on Oct 20, 2007 10:44 PM:

" "To Stats", even if your 20% figure were true, that would mean that 5 x 0.085% or 0.425% or less than one half of one percent of teachers are trouble. I'm not losing any sleep over it. And believe it or not, I'm all for prosecuting molestors to the full extent of the law... though I don't count 24 year olds who sleep with willing and eager 17 year olds as molestors. But feel free to homeschool your kids. I'm all for freedom. My kids will get an education. Yours will believe the Earth is flat. To each his own, but I wouldn't want to be your kids! "

Dr. Orangutan Chief Cardiologist Miller Park Zoo wrote on Oct 20, 2007 10:25 PM:

" Well said going well wrote on Oct 20, 2007 7:59 PM: With tears in my eyes. I fully endorse your comment. "

Digs Deeper wrote on Oct 20, 2007 10:21 PM:

" Being a victim of sexual abuse, and seeing the justice system do nothing to the offender ,other than removing us from the home(my punishment I guess), even to this date after three other children were abused with reports taken, it comes to no huge surprise to me at all that schools are even effected, but I do agree about arrogant people creating a big deal out of an isolated event creating widespread pandemonium. Thankfully I am able to live my life being able to get past but not over what has happened as the event changed my life forever and I'm still seeking justice to put the man that abused my brother sister and myself in prison where he belongs 23 years later....... "

going well wrote on Oct 20, 2007 7:59 PM:

" it's easy to bash teachers' unions, but look what is happening as groups that organize labor are being shredded by corporations. the middle class is eroding, home loans are defaulting, personal debt is ballooning. the rich are getting richer and everyone else is getting poorer. I guess I'd understand if all I cared about was me and mine, but unfortunately I have a conscience that forces me to see people who are victimized by the economic slavery imposed by the wealthy and powerful, and feel bad about it. everyone does not start out life on equal ground and for the most part the "american dream" is just a fun story to tell to keep people occupied while the financial elite profit off everyone else's sweat. so I think it's great when people join together and decide not let their rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" continue to be trampled. "

To Stats wrote on Oct 20, 2007 7:12 PM:

" spoken like a true liberal. Well if you really are concerned with stats you SURELY KNOW that only 20% od sexual abuse cases are reported. Now if you factor that into your stats you will see a far different scenario. But you don't care the public schools are the breeding grounds for future liberals and so what if a kids get molested by teachers as long as the unions that protect them stay strong. You people are unbelievable. "

to Deano wrote on Oct 20, 2007 6:51 PM:

" Dean Wormer, I take offense at your comments. As a male elementary school teacher I can assure you that my job is important and that I work very hard at it. I would challenge you to spend one year as an elementary school teacher. Either you would not make it through the year, or your opinion would change. If education is not an important profession, why are schools always the first place people say changes should be made to address problems in society. I am all for raising teachers' pay to help attract highly qualified candidates. I think you find that 90% of teachers are excellent at what they do and put up with quite a bit, because they believe children deserve quality education. Lastly, I believe that if you, instead of spending your efforts complaining and throwing grenades from the sidelines, would put as much time into trying to solve problems in education, by doing things like volunteering in schools, the improvements you seem to desire would come more quickly. "

To - the answer wrote on Oct 20, 2007 6:45 PM:

" What constitutes the 'real world' within the public school system is subjective on your part (based on your reasoning). Show me the statistics that indicate a public school education offers students a more stellar life than home schooling, and I'll buy your argument. Otherwise, my take on the public school system is that it fosters and encourages mediocrity. When you have a teacher/student ratio of 30-1, how does one obtain an outstanding learning of science, or any of the other disciplines? Excellence is entirely within reach with solid parenting, and sound home school learning plans. "

Detention Center wrote on Oct 20, 2007 6:32 PM:

" It the 35year old and younger female teachers in High School ya gotta watch out for ! "

to Bad wrote on Oct 20, 2007 5:54 PM:

" true, but "home" isn't being paid like teachers/ministers/locked-up cops are "

to Dean Wormer wrote on Oct 20, 2007 5:32 PM:

" I know male teachers of younger grades. They're fantastic people with a love (the good kind) of young people. Stereotypes are stupid. "

to To to:the answer wrote on Oct 20, 2007 5:31 PM:

" Its a fantastic alternative if you don't like science and sex ed. School is infinitely more real world than homeschool for the simple reason that you get to interact with a wide variety of people, both good and bad, from different income levels, and from different races/ethnicities. Staying with mommy and daddy and the people from your church isn't very real world. If you say that school is all sitting still, being quiet, and not interacting, then you went to a horrible school. "

to Dean wrote on Oct 20, 2007 5:00 PM:

" So you are saying that a "real man" by your standards has no reason for being a teacher? What, only women should be teachers? That is a sexist thing to say. What is that bit about educators being less intelligent? Now that is rich, where did you hear that one.. at your annual Tappa Kegga Brew party? "

Bad, but not as bad as... wrote on Oct 20, 2007 4:56 PM:

" There's a lot more sexual "misconduct" in private homes than in schools, churches, etc. My point isn't that the problems in schools isn't severe. My point is that people often forget that many times these things happen in one's one home at the hands of one's own parents, siblings, cousins, uncles, you name it. "

Dean Wormer wrote on Oct 20, 2007 4:07 PM:

" Dont you people have ANY idea of the kind of students major in Elementary Education in College ? First hand I can tell you they are NOT the brightest folks on campus. Really, what kind of male aspires to a career working with young kids anyway ? The old adage : Those who can, usulally do, those who cannot, teach" has never been truer. "

I think wrote on Oct 20, 2007 3:57 PM:

" this country is just reaping what its been sowing. Why are there so many perverted human beings????? "

To to:the answer wrote on Oct 20, 2007 3:44 PM:

" Homeschooling is a fantastic alternative. Also, if you'd care to explain what the 'real world' is within the public school system, I'd really appreciate it, lol. "

Witch hunt wrote on Oct 20, 2007 3:41 PM:

" The article writers are obviously trying to be as sensationalist as possible. Comparing teachers to the Catholic priesthood issue is slander. When misconduct inside the church happened, people had nowhere to turn. - Inside the school system, there are background checks, parental oversights and more to keep the bad elements out. You can't stop everything from happening, but I'm satisfied that the school system (at least here) is doing a good job at protecting children from sexual predators. "

To: Stats wrote on Oct 20, 2007 3:03 PM:

" You are correct. The number is insignificant in the big picture. The problem is that too many Americans are small minded, believe anything they are told (including the spin), and act without thinking of more than themselves. The result is the articles like create a hysteria resulting in overreacting and in the end screwing up things worse then it originally was. This is especially true in Illinois, where the politicians are just as ignorant as their constituents, resulting in continued kneejerking reactions long after things calm down, because they are ot smart enough to realize the horse is dead. "

I know of a teacher~~ wrote on Oct 20, 2007 2:50 PM:

" that repeatedly abused his power in school and got by with it for many years. I myself took him before the school board and once again they did nothing but put him on notice. Well lo and behold he did it again!! This time running his hands between the girls legs as they went up the stairs. Once he was in trouble for putting his hands under a students bra in the home ec laundry room, nothing happened even then. Just disciplined! He told me if I continued with taking him to the board he would sue me, and I politely said, "Go ahead!" THIS WAS NOT IN B/N SCHOOLS!!! He was finally fired after YEARS of being disciplined and a admitted pervert! He had never been brought up on charges, ever. This took place in the 70's and not much could be done back then, so the school said. "

to the answer: wrote on Oct 20, 2007 2:48 PM:

" By the article's definition, molestation and misconduct in churches is at "plague" levels. Do you "homechurch" your kids, too? "

to That's OK wrote on Oct 20, 2007 2:46 PM:

" Democrats are all for consensual sex, not sexual abuse. But I suppose you don't know the difference since the Bible really doesn't make a distinction. "

Sorry, but wrote on Oct 20, 2007 2:42 PM:

" the real answer is capital punishment. A child molester deserves death and nothing less. Then there is no recedivism; no second chance, and no second victim!! "

Stats wrote on Oct 20, 2007 1:38 PM:

" From the other article: 2,570 of 3 million? What that's 0.085% of teachers? Not quite a plague... and that includes the 17 year olds who are deeply scared from their relationships with their hot 24 year old teachers. Media sensationalism at its finest! "

to the answer: wrote on Oct 20, 2007 1:27 PM:

" Um, you'd homeschool anyway to keep your kids away from the evils of science and people of other religions. "

the REAL answer: wrote on Oct 20, 2007 1:26 PM:

" Background checks for teachers. A shared nationwide database of offenders. Psychological evaluations for all new teachers and teachers transfering to new districts. Severe penalties for administrators who sweep problems under the rug. The problem is a lack of accountability and shared information. "

That's OK wrote on Oct 20, 2007 1:22 PM:

" with the Demos...just teach 5 year olds sex ed in school and give our kids birth control starting at the age of 11 and they'll be alright. They're gonna have sex anyway. (For the dense, this was written with total sarcasm.) "

to: the answer wrote on Oct 20, 2007 1:02 PM:

" Yea, isolation is the answer...that will help the kids function in the "real" world. "

the answer: wrote on Oct 20, 2007 12:26 PM:

" homeschooling! "
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