re: #585 researchok

Yes, if you extrapolate the numbers, you’re looking at about 100k kids. It gets fuzzy though because reporting differs from state to state and there are varying time frames.

Even if you assume the number is only half right (one can only hope), we’re still talking big numbers.

100,000 kids abused annually in a nation with 16.8 million schoolchildren means that about one in two hundred children each year is in some way molested by an educator. (Someone check my figures.)

That’s horrible. And if many of those educators are being shuffled around, or gaming the system, or if union policies are helping them escape their just deserts then we need to strengthen the system, we need to crack down on school boards and administrations, and we need to make sure the unions show common sense.

However, given that it’s believed that 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys is sexually abused in this country before they reach the age of 18, the numbers seem to indicate that they may be a hell of a lot safer at school than anywhere else.