Forgotten Study: Abuse in School 100 Times Worse than by Priests

[BAFRIEND]

If the goal were to prevent children from being abused by exposing the abusers, the media would devote most of its coverage to where the most abuse occurs--in public schools. That the media elects to devote most of its coverage to abuse by priests and ministers shows the coverage is politically motivated.

true- but it would not focus on schools- but on parents and relatives who are primary (60%) sexual abusers of children

and i believe the real scandal would center on women who abuse their kids because i think women pervs molest their kids just at the same rate as men

 

[LivingWordUnity]

I remember when I was living near the Fresno, CA area a public school teacher allegedly sexually molested over 200 children, and it only made local news! You don't see politicians and the mainstream news media calling for shutting down the public school system matter how many times this happens in public schools. And it's required by law that parents hand their kids over to these schools daily for most of each week. The mainstream media is selective in who it goes after.

 

[Davidnic]

Back when I had time to do a blog (2006) this is a post I did on this issue:

Sexual abuse in the Church, public schools and around the world.


First off, this is an unusual post for me. I usually stay away from the sexual abuse issue, because so many people cover it. I just never felt that I had anything to add.

However I was reading this article:

Denver Archdiocese uncovers sexual abuse bias for public school teachers (link)

Let me be clear: The point of what follows is not to exonerate the actions of members of my church who have committed the most evil and destructive acts. Priests who are guilty of such acts are not fit to be called priests or Christians. In a very real way they have a fundamental disconnect with what it is to be a decent human being.

My aim is to draw attention to the fact that this issue is much larger than the press shows. It is not my intention to draw attention away for the Church, but to draw attention to the fact that this is a pandemic problem. The media focus that is solely on the Church trivializes the impact and draws attention and solutions away from the equal and greater numbers of abuse in other areas of society.

The Public Schools and Why We Now Have Data

The No Child Left Behind Act is the first legislation that requires schools to report on sexual abuse. No matter what opinions people have about President Bush or No Child Left Behind, this fact alone supports the act. From these reports several facts have been discovered.

6-10% of American school children have been sexually abused and harassed. 290, 000 students have experienced some form of sexual abuse from1991-2000. The extrapolation of data makes it likely that the number of cases in American public schools is 100 times the number of abuses by priests in a ten year period. (Link)

In 2004 the United States Department of Education released a report suggesting that 4.5 million students may be victims of educator sexual misconduct during their school years.
(link to the document in PDF form )


For information of the breakdown across schools and other religious bodies:

SEXUAL ABUSE IN SOCIAL CONTEXT: CATHOLIC CLERGY AND OTHER PROFESSIONALS


Worldwide

There can be no argument that the sexual abuse of children is a worldwide problem. The best way to get information on that would be:

UNICEF Site (link) Just use the search bar, there are too many articles and studies connected to the site to even choose things to link to.


The Ultimate Point of The Issue

The point is that this disgusting sexual abuse of children in all of its' forms is a global issue. For the American media to focus on the sexual abuse performed by priests, to the exclusion of the larger issue is criminal.

Priests who abuse children should be defrocked and punished. The media should not relax vigilance in that area. But they should focus on the wider problem. If the perception continues that this is only a problem in the Church, then it can not be solved.

If it exists as an issue that is used to generalize all Catholic priests and provide fodder for anti-Catholic sentiment, then it is not even fixing the problem in the Church. People are sometimes happier that this issue reflects badly on the Church instead of being horrified by the global and usually secular nature of the problem.

Children are being preyed upon the world over by those they trust; In the Churches (not just Catholic), the classrooms and their own homes.

This is indeed an issue that affects one group: Humanity.
​

 

[benedictaoo]

So many people (including posters to this very forum) continue to make statements like this thinking that it somehow excuses or mitigates the fact that priests have and continue to molest children put in their care and that the Church in general has had a policy of covering up for the pederasts and pedophiles in an effort to protect Mother Church, usually at the expense of the innocent victims of the abuse.

we don't need perspective... we all know that children are victimized and exploited in every walk of life there is... we need objectivity, not perspective. We need to objectively to see that the Church's actions can not be excused away.

It did wrong and one who is the moral authority, who teaches us right and wrong simply has no excuse as to why it went on.

It went on, okay... let's move on, make sure it does not continue by doing away with all the things that allow it to happen, like the good old boy network for one... like thinking they only bow to canon law and not civil law, for two.

This Church, the entire Church from Rome to the laity better wake the freak up and see the handwriting on the wall. The devil is attacking the Church viciously and if the men in the Church don't get it together and be transparent and handle this right... the moral voice the Church has in the world will not be taken seriously, not even by Catholics.

 

[benedictaoo]

gee,

all michie did is post an article and now she is as bad as the bishops

creating false hype and scandal against the bishops and Church probably will not do you much good in the long run will it

and where are the news accounts about teacher sexual abuse and protestant sexual abuse in the media

No one here uttered one word about Michie.

 

[benedictaoo]

it is not the abuse, it is the cover up
if a Protestant denomination did the same thing, they would have about the same media backlash

It's because of the moral standard the Church is held to.

Stop blaming the media for covering it. It is news simply becuase no one can come close to having the moral authority the Catholic Church has.

 

[KatherineS]

Denver Archdiocese uncovers sexual abuse bias for public school teachers ...

What a great use of resources. Children have been victims of abuse under your watch, and you are spending time investigating others.

Physician, heal thyself.

 

[benedictaoo]

I have to agree with you there, KatherineS. They have a lot of nerve pointing the finger. They need to get the beam out of their own eye first.

 

[Davidnic]

What a great use of resources. Children have been victims of abuse under your watch, and you are spending time investigating others.

Physician, heal thyself.

That was 2006 and it was in response to a very unfair law proposal that would have singled out the Catholic Church and left others free from justice. So the Church pointed that out.

 

[Davidnic]

No one is arguing that the Church should have a pass. In fact, I am very vocal that in Her role the Church has a far greater moral culpability from the abuse and cover up than others. But the issue of it being widespread and covered up in schools is very important and ignored.

In our world..people with access to children in all fields that touch them...are hurting them. It is beyond defense.

 

[Boswell345]

This is not the time to play the game of trying to point the finger elsewhere. This is the time to make up for past failings to these abused young people and make sure it never happens again. Let's fix our problems rather than talk about our neighbors problems.

We have already had a pope who dealt with abuse very effectively. "Therefore, wishing to pursue with the greatest rigor that which we have decreed since the beginning of our pontificate, we establish that any priest or member of ther clergy, either secular or regular, who commits such an execrable crime, by force of the present law be deprived of every clerical privilege, of every post, dignity and ecclesiastical benefit, and having been degraded by an ecclesiastical judge, let him be immediately delivered to the secular authority to be put to death, as mandated by law as the fitting punishment for laymen who have sunk into this abyss." The pope quoted here took this terrible crime very seriously, and he was not afraid to deal very harshly with it. And notice that the penalty he calls for here is death! So much for claims that the Catholic Church is against capitol punishment. That pope is Pope Pius V, a cannonized saint!

The Catholic Church has gotten too accomodating towards homosexualism, and is paying a price for it.

 

[JCFantasy23]

Trust me, I agree with this, the school system lately is frightening. In my town in the past 2 years two principals have been removed and arrested. At Scott Lake Elementary the principal was caught taking pictures of the kids and putting their pics on pornography, which he carried around in his briefcase. This year at another elementary school the principal was arrested for molesting a girl he had apparently known for years, even though she did not attend the school he served at. I remember my Spanish teacher being removed - not for molestation, but a sexual crime. The town is large but not HUGE, over 100,000 people but not a mega-city. I'm sure it's the same everywhere.

That being said, I agree on the point fingers thing.

 

[LivingWordUnity]

What a great use of resources. Children have been victims of abuse under your watch, and you are spending time investigating others.

Physician, heal thyself.

How about following your own advice and not judging others? We are all sinners in need of God's mercy, and the bishops need our prayers more than anyone else since the devil would like nothing more than to bring down a bishop so that the flock can be scattered and scooped up by him. If we haven't been praying constantly for our priests and bishops we haven't done our part.

 

[LivingWordUnity]

The Catholic Church has gotten too accomodating towards homosexualism, and is paying a price for it.

Exactly! Getting a new Pope won't do anything to stop or reduce the sexual abuse in the Church, but not letting homosexuals into seminaries would have prevented the vast majority of the abuses from happening. I think the media cares more about not offending homosexuals than about actually doing something to stop the abuses from happening.

 

[Lady Bug]

it's one thing to erroneously say that "others do it too!" and nothing else.

it's another thing for non-Catholics to point the finger at us and act as if nothing goes on in their congregations.

 

[LivingWordUnity]

it's one thing to erroneously say that "others do it too!" and nothing else.

it's another thing for non-Catholics to point the finger at us and act as if nothing goes on in their congregations.

That's exactly the point. The ones that point the finger at the Catholic Church are hypocrites.

 

[benedictaoo]

That's exactly the point. The ones that point the finger at the Catholic Church are hypocrites.

and the "Catholics" who point the finger at other churches and sects... are too.

 

[BAFRIEND]

and the "Catholics" who point the finger at other churches and sects... are too.

yeah, we need to overlook the fact that the rate of molestations are double that than in the RCC and the cover ups from their leadership is there too- the same confidentiality agreements, transferring around of molestors, and the authorities ignoring it

that really helps those victims

and lets not forget the fact that women are responsible for up to 30% of the molestation as a whole and make up only 5% of criminal convictions

all of that will help us come to the conclusion that Catholics in parenthisis are hypocrates

 

[benedictaoo]

I will defend and speak out against those who hurt children in any situation it occurs.

That it occurs, no one denied that- but it doesn't, all of a sudden, make bishops less guilty of covering up abuse in their diocese.

We see molestation in families, schools, other religions and churches... it's heartbreaking that we as a people, as a human race, that we simple have not learned to respect a child the way he/she should be respected.

We as a people, do not value children as we ought.

They are weakest among us and we, as adults, take pitiful advantage of their innocence and weakness-- we exploit their trust... this has got to be the worse sin there is, to harm a child becuase they can be so easily taken advantage of. It makes me cry.

So, the problem is, the Church who is the voice for children... is who harmed them in a even more despicable way..... becuase it was cover up and hidden for decades.. wow.

So, it's not that we don't see molestation in other walks of life... we don't see the cover up, the selfish, self interest covering up ones hide, preferring the predator over the victim, the way we have seen in the Church.

 

[Boswell345]

BAFRIEND is right. Sexual mis-conduct rates are higher in Protestant and Jewish Clergy. They don't have a defined command structure, and so it is more difficult to track and catalogue the offenses and credible accusations. This is very important, and it should be done in all denominations, not just for information purposes, but as strategic support in formulating ways to fight abuse. The Baptists have a large problem with abuse, and there is a group who tracks and documents offenses by Baptist clergy. But much more needs to be done.

Benedictaoo, there is cover up, selfishness, self interest, and collusion among other clergys. It all needs to be documented so that denominations (or the police) can clean up these messes, and also, it all needs to come to light so that the truth is shown. Very important.