School Employee Sexual Misconduct: Red Flag Grooming Behaviors by Perpetrators

The sexual exploitation of students is a worldwide problem. In the U.S., the problem is three-fold: (1) Ten percent of public school students report being sexually abused by a school employee. (2) There is little in the existing research that identifies and describes the school culture, patterns, and conditions in which educator sexual misconduct occurs. (3) Because no one has systematically documented the school culture and the behaviors and patterns of adults who sexually abuse children in schools, school professionals fail to understand what patterns and behaviors should trigger concern, supervision, investigation, and/or reporting. Stopping sexual misconduct directed toward students means understanding the process that adults use to prepare students to be abused so that they do not tell, do not fight, and acquiesce. This process, called grooming, has the purpose of gaining student trust, as well as the trust of parents and colleagues. This study examines school employee sexual misconduct toward students in school in the United States and is based upon an analysis of 222 cases of school employee sexual misconduct toward a student where a school employee was convicted of student sexual abuse. The findings identify red flag grooming patterns used with students, colleagues, and parents.

K–12 School Employee Perpetrated Student Sexual Abuse, Misconduct, and Exploitation

K–12 school employee perpetrated student sexual abuse, misconduct, and exploitation is the sexual boundary crossing of school employees to include verbal, visual, physical, and/or social media conduct of a sexual nature by a school employee directed toward a student. The sexual abuse of students by school employees is a worldwide problem that is under-documented and systematically ignored. Empirical work published since the first studies in the early 1980s explore five questions. How prevalent is the sexual abuse of students in schools? Who abuses? Who is abused? How does it happen? And, how can it be prevented?

The Decisive Factor for a Successful Religion Class

The success of the Religion class depends on a number of factors, some of them related to the students, others to the educators. From the second category, the essential factor is the teacher employed to teach the school subject. This study aims to examine the determining factor involved in teaching religion and to explain the paradigmatic profile of the teacher. His/her strong or weak points are decisive for accomplishing or missing the objectives of the Religion class. In the present study, the authors mainly consider the paradigmatic profile of an educator, in contrast with that of a mere school “employee.”

Title IX and School Employee Sexual Misconduct: How K-12 Schools Respond in the Wake of an Incident

Purpose: To help protect students from school employee sexual misconduct, this qualitative case study examines implementation of school employee sexual misconduct policies in five geographically and demographically diverse school districts that experienced incidents of school employee sexual misconduct in 2014. Method: Data were collected from 92 school employees and county officials from five school districts from January 2016 to September 2017 via interviews ( N = 41) and 10 focus groups ( N = 51), as well as through document and policy reviews. Findings: This article outlines findings with regard to the key elements of Title IX guidance including: (a) policies and procedures; (b) prevention; (c) training for staff, students, and parents; (d) reporting; (e) investigations; and (f) response. Although participants reported improvements in these areas after incidents, various challenges, including a lack of understanding of Title IX requirements, continue to affect district-level approaches to sexual misconduct policies. Implications: Recommendations are that school districts review their policy and implementation efforts to determine if they are compliant with Title IX guidance. Researchers also recommend that the federal and state departments of education establish accountability measures to track policy implementation and ensure school districts comply with Title IX guidance and provide high-quality low-cost training options. Further examination of how often these cases occur, victim and offender characteristics, effects on victims and school communities, criminal justice responses, and the effectiveness of prevention efforts are also recommended.