It’s way past-time for zero-tolerance policies in our public schools that prohibit school staff and/or already-identified juvenile sexual offenders from being alone with children.
Across the nation, in WA State, and even in our own local school district, we’ve latched upon zero-tolerance policies in our K-12 public schools as a means by which to decrease the potential risk to students from things such as student bullying, weapons, drugs, and alcohol. In most cases, however, absent from school district campuses are zero-tolerance policies which prohibit private access to children from public school personnel. The paradigm of in loco parentis authority over children while they are school suggests that the potential abuse of that authority seriously increases the risk to children, including the risk of sexual abuse. About 400 known juvenile sexual offenders presently lurk in our K-12 classrooms in WA State.
The Rest of the Story
School staff background checks are typically no more thorough (or not) than those given to community volunteers, but even background checks are useless during the time period proceeding that point at which an offending predator is finally identified. If our legislators and school districts were serious about protecting kids, they would have long ago adopted policies that protect our kids from the biggest potential threat ALREADY INSIDE the school buildings: the adults and the students.
When will the Oak Harbor Education Association, the Oak Harbor School Board, and the Oak Harbor School District work to enact such a zero-tolerance policy to protect our kids from this ongoing clear and present danger lurking in our K-12 public schools? According to testimony given in the video here (time stamp 27:00), there are over 400 juvenile sex offenders now in our K-12 classrooms in WA State! Current policy keeps parents and students in the dark about such offenders. When did ignorance become strength in our K-12 public school system?
While the incidence of child-on-child sexual abuse is not known with any certainty, similar to abuse by adults, would we tolerate 400 known adult sexual offenders as staff in our K-12 classrooms? Obviously, the answer is “no”, and we should not at all be comforted by these 400 known sexual offenders being given special status within our K-12 classrooms and likely riding the school buses, as research indicates that sexual assaults of children under the age of 12 are most commonly committed by adolescents who are 14 years of age.
This issue is a known problem, but our Democrat-led WA state legislators and Democrat Governor have enacted Swiss-cheese-like legislation on this issue and has perennially let languish legislation that could do some real good. See: SB 5204, HB 1208 and HB 1549.
Other on-line posters have previously addressed the issue of Sexual Predators in the Classroom, while, in Georgia, the “Charlie Rape Gang“, a group of middle school students, has terrorized other students, resulting in only a two-day suspension for one of the offending students.
The entire 120 staff of a Los Angeles primary school have been removed after two teachers were jailed for allegedly sexually abusing dozens of children. (See video from February 2012, below).
Zero-tolerance policies tend to be controversial. If, however, such policies are at all justified to prevent potential threats to student safety from entering school buildings, they are justified in this case, too, since numerous examples of harm being done to children via sexual predators in our K-12 schools continue to amass.
Tags: child predators, Clear and Present Danger, double-standard, en loco parentis, in loco parentis, Oak Harbor School District (OHSD), public schools, sexual abuse, war on kids, zero tolerance
-
But who will pay for it, Bill?
You are finally coming around…Bill is in favor of more teachers in the classroom!!!
[Editor's note: the author neither stated nor implied what this poster claims above.]
Loco Guillermo says: They would have long ago adopted policies that protect our kids from the biggest potential threat ALREADY INSIDE the school buildings: the adults.
[Editor's note: attempting to prove a negative, as is next suggested, is not advisable. Calling the poster "crazy", even when done in a language other than English is also not advisable and is a violation of the terms of use of this forum.]
Where is your proof of this? Any statistics to back this up? How many assaults by kids on other kids compared to assaults of school personnel towards kids?
-
Here is one very recently reported incident:
Accused Chelan teacher paid to quit
The Lake Chelan School District is giving a Chelan teacher a year’s salary to leave.
http://tinyurl.com/7sjryaqHow is that for protecting the children?
Chelan got rid of their problem and sent this person on to teach and possibly molest your child…is that a good system or what!
-
Between the federal, state and local level, we already spend billions and billions of dollars annually on K-12 education, but we need to spend “MORE MONEY!” to keep our schools safe from sexual predators? “MORE MONEY!”, of course, is always “the answer” for liberals, no matter what the stated problem. See: http://tiny.cc/1w8kew Of course, the attitude of the teachers’ union is similar in this regard. See: http://tinyurl.com/84d2rwx If it were to prove that, for some reason, “MORE MONEY!” is needed to enact such policies, I would suggest we take the teachers’ union to task and ask them: “Which do you value more, protecting kids or your TRI-Days?” (Anyone reading who may not be familiar with the issue of TRI-Days, start with “Reject Oak Harbor School District Levy until all Time, Responsibility, and Incentive (TRI) dollars are returned to the Kids” here: http://www.islandpolitics.org/?p=1464 )
Kids in the K-12 system that have already been labeled as sexual offenders and who are in our K-12 classrooms are also a potential threat to other students. Now, however, the only people who know about those potential threats are school staff – not students, and not parents. So, yes, basically, the K-12 system has known sexual offenders in the schools and they “protect” those people so-called “right” to an education at the expense of the safety of the other minor children in the classroom. See: “Release of Information Concerning Student Sexual and Kidnapping Offenders” http://tiny.cc/4j9gew
Let’s juxtapose that reality with what happens, if, instead of being enrolled in an OHSD-sponsored K-12 classroom, you attend a class at the local community college, Skagit Valley College (maybe even as a Running Start student) and one of your fellow classmates is a known sexual offender. In that case, the college identifies that person in a written letter sent to you so that you know which person attending class with you is a potential threat.
While the OHSD should have zero-tolerance policies to prevent adult staff from being alone with kids – and I believe those polices should cost zero extra $ in funding in reality – parents and students have as much right to know which other students are a potential threat to them as does the OHSD staff.
Will OHSD create a such a policy of “zero-tolerance” or will OHSD begin telling people who the identified sexual offender-kids are sitting in the same classroom with the other kids? Of course not, because most all their policies are written for the STAFF – not the kids. If you watch that TVW video that I linked to in the article ( http://tiny.cc/c28kew ) regarding HB 1208, you can see and hear for yourself testimony from folks representing K-12 school staff saying they are in favor of notifying….wait for it….the staff.
Methinks the zero-tolerance policy in K-12 classrooms should be just that: zero tolerance. If that means a sexual offender kid needs to be educated away from other kids, that’s wholly justified. The way OHSD has it set up: kids are not safe – not from the adults and not from the already-identified kids who are already-known sexual offenders sitting next to them.
-
Reply
An event calendar of upcoming conservative events on the Islands. To add an item to this calendar please use the comment form below or contact one of our authors directly.
Click
Here!
3 comments
Comments feed for this article