Organization covers up sexual abuse of minors

There is an organization where hundreds of children were sexually abused. Despite this, none of the abusers were reported to the authorities, and only 1% lost their license and position. Only 35% suffered negative consequences of any kind and 39% chose to leave their place of employment, most with positive recommendations.

Of course, I'm talking about the Catholic Church right? No. This is the case in schools around the world, but specifically this is from New York.

Teachers were passed around from school to school, in a process called "passing the trash". Only 1% of the time did superintendents notify the new school about the offending teacher.

The study found that up to 5% of teachers sexually abused children.

Here are the sources for this information:

Douglas Montero, “Secret Shame of Our Schools: Sexual Abuse of Students Runs Rampant,” New York Post, July 30, 2001, p. 1.

“Schools Chancellor: Four Teachers Barred from Classroom,” Associated Press, June 12, 2003.

Charol Shakeshaft and Audrey Cohan, In loco parentis: Sexual abuse of students in schools, (What administrators should know). Report to the U.S. Department of Education, Field Initiated Grants

Diana Jean Schemo, “Silently Shifting Teachers in Sex Abuse Cases,” New York Times, June 18, 2002, p. A19.

Elizabeth Cohen, “Sex Abuse of Students Common; Research Suggests 15% of All Children Harassed,” Press & Sun-Bulletin, February 10, 2002, p. 1A.


Why is that we never hear about sexual abuse in schools? Most teachers are married, yet we never hear that marriage leads to sexual abuse or pedophilia. We don't hear about a "crisis" in the education system. Why aren't the secretaries of Education called all sorts of names with people calling for them to be tried for crimes against humanity? Even though the problem is much more widespread and prevalent in schools than in churches, there is only public outrage for priests.

Also there have been many cases involving pastors, rabbis, swim teachers, boy scout leaders, etc. but no similar or equivalent outrage. Could it be that swim teachers do not make moral demands and therefore people are not made uncomfortable by pronouncements of the truth? Could it be that people already dislike the Church because of its stance against homosexual "marriage", abortion, and sexual impropriety, and use this simply as a scapegoat to lash out?

Often when someone is losing an argument, they will resort to name calling. People know the Church presents the Truth, and therefore they cannot contradict it, so they attack priests instead. This "scandal" is simply a convenient excuse.

Any sexual abuse is bad, but what about using this sexual abuse to advance other causes? That's what many are doing. If they were really concerned about the welfare of innocent children, they would campaign against all sexual abuse, but instead they focus exclusively on the pope. Their use of priestly sexual abuse victims as pawns to advance their ideology becomes disturbingly clear.

For those who are geniunely concerned about children's welfare, I thank you. You are doing an excellent thing by looking out for their welfare. But for those using these events to simply advance their ideology, shame on you. You simply exploit the suffering of children to push an agenda, and that's wrong.

We need to route out the "filth" of children sexual abuse, as Cardinal Ratzinger put it. We need to do this from all sources.