Report Exposes Practice of Allowing US Teachers Accused of Sexual Assault to Transfer Schools
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - A new report alleges that the US public school employees who sexually abuse children are typically moved to different schools three times before they are finally arrested, preying on as many as 73 victims before they are eventually punished.
Published last week, the report from the Defense of Freedom Institute, a conservative think tank, details hundreds of cases in which teachers in public school districts were accused of abuse, but had their records scrubbed before being moved to new positions, where the abuse continued.
Citing earlier research by the Government Accountability Office, the report noted that firing teachers can be a costly process for school districts. As such, the districts often negotiate confidentiality agreements with unions whereby a teacher can resign or be demoted to avoid disciplinary action, before being transferred to another school with a clean slate, RT reported.
The average employee accused of abuse is passed to three different school districts before facing legal consequences, and can abuse up to 73 children in this time.
This system has allowed sexual assault to proliferate, the report claimed. According to the most recent Department of Education data, 13,799 cases of sexual violence and 685 cases of rape or attempted rape were recorded in schools during the 2017-2018 school year, up from 9,649 and 394 in 2015-2016.
Former President Donald Trump’s administration implemented new reporting requirements in 2019, and ordered the department’s Office for Civil Rights to ensure that all reports of sexual abuse were investigated before a district could move an employee. According to the report, President Joe Biden’s administration has not yet implemented these changes.
