Data Sparse on Sex Abuse by Educators
By Michael Luo, Staff Writer
Originally published in Newsday, April 10, 2001
Comprehensive data on the pervasiveness of sexual abuse by teachers is rare, but the few studies that have been done suggest the incidents are far more widespread than commonly imagined.
By its very nature, sexual abuse by educators is a problem fraught with difficulties when it comes to keeping tabs. No central state or federal clearinghouse of such records exist. Reporting of the problem clearly is spotty at best.
A casual scanning of headlines reveals hundreds of such cases, ranging from teachers engaged in affairs with one student to those who systematically preyed upon multiple victims, that are going on at any given moment across the country. Those cases that make the news, however, are the rare ones that actually get reported to authorities and result in arrests, law enforcement and education administration experts said. More typically, allegations go unreported, or teachers are quietly asked to resign or retire.
Charol Shakeshaft, a Hofstra University professor who has studied molestation cases for more than a decade, estimates that 15 percent of students will be sexually abused by a staff member during their schooling.
"That ranges from a sexual touch to a breast or buttocks, to forced entry," she said.
Shakeshaft conducted a three-year study from 1994 to 1996 of eight "representative" school districts on Long Island, varying in size, ethnic diversity and socio-economic class. Shakeshaft based her rough calculation on survey responses and interviews conducted during that study, along with raw data taken from a nationwide study of sexual harassment of males and females in eighth through 11th grades which was released in 1993 by the American Association of University Women Foundation.
A study by the foundation, titled "Hostile Hallways," concluded that 14 percent of students surveyed had been harassed by a school employee. In another often-cited study by advocates, Dan Wishnictsky, a professor at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina, surveyed high school graduates in the state. He found 18 percent of males and 82 percent of female students reported sexual harassment by school employees. About 13.5 percent of those surveyed said they had engaged in sexual intercourse with a teacher, according to Wishnictsky.
The New York State Department of Education does not keep figures on the number of allegations of sexual improprieties by teachers, said Tom Dunn, a spokesman.
Of about 1,000 investigations conducted every year, about 50 teachers have their licenses revoked for a breach of "moral conduct," which includes sexual abuse, Dunn said.
Some experts caution against reading too much into existing studies because of the inherent difficulty of accurate reporting. They say many students refuse to report abuse because they are embarrassed or humiliated.
"That stuff is so dangerous and misleading," said Steven Bisbie, a forensic psychologist in Takoma, Md. "The reality is, the most accurate thing you can say is the following: it's a lot more pervasive than most people think."
