I write and speak a lot about child sexual predators in the church because abuse in the church is an epidemic. There is another reality that needs addressed–our kids spend a lot of time at school. In fact, not including bus rides or any after school sports or programs, my daughter spends 1,215 hours each school year at her school. Compare that to the 54 hours she spends a year at church.
Our children will each log 15,795 hours by the time of their graduation in our school district. Put another way, if we began a stopwatch and let it run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, that clock would run for 658 days for each child. That’s a lot of time spent in the care of adults who are responsible for our children’s safety. Statistically speaking, our children are exposed to child predators for far more hours during school hours than they ever will be at church.
There are 3.6 million teachers in the US and all statistics I’ve read regarding sexual abuse of minors are climbing dramatically. A recent Washington Examiner article says this: “Pedophilia in the U.S. is “unprecedented” and has reached an almost “epidemic level,” according to assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division Joseph Campbell.” The outlook for our kids’ safety at school is dire. Statistically speaking, our children are far more likely to experience sexual abuse by a teacher than encountering an active shooter. A close friend of mine said to me a week ago, “Did you know that the small school district where I work had five arrests in one school year for teachers who had sex with minors? Five!” Yet we don’t have groups of people establishing meetings with our president and demanding better protective laws against sexual predation.
I did a Google search just now–“School teacher arrested.” Four articles published today of school teachers came up right away. A 35 year old male middle school teacher arrested for sexual contact with a child under the age of 13. He recorded girls with an iPad as he asked them to do hand stands and back bends. He lifted others up and put them in trash cans. A female teacher arrested for sex with an 18 year old male student. A 50 year old male teacher arrested for sex with minor students. A 43 year old science teacher arrested for having sex with a 17 year old student. This is not imagined. Statistics show a very alarming trend of sex abuse among teachers on the rise.
Hogan Injury published an article titled The School’s Responsibility to Children. The article says, “The school is supposed to be the second home for your children. You send your child to school because they need to learn things that will help them grow up to be knowledgeable adults; but aside from this, you willingly send them because you believe your child will be safe and taken care of when they get there. You think that the experienced personnel and staff of the school will be able to do more than teach your child, they will also be able to keep them safe from harm. Regrettably, this is not always the case.”
Schools are getting better at reporting abuse but in many respects are failing miserably at preventing it. I will follow up with some articles that talk about tangible things we parents can do to demand better training, policies, and action at our children’s schools. I also recommend listening to the Speaking Out on Sex Abuse Podcast where my mother, Clara Hinton, and I explore techniques abusers use.
Until then, to answer the question, “Are your kids safe at school?” my answer is. . . not as safe as they used to be.