Sex in the classroom

There was a recent article in the Tampa Tribune about two parents that were pursuing legal action against the School Board over a teacher's behavior with their daughters. A wrinkle in the story was the teacher died a while back, and apparently the school board closed the case. So what is the function of the parents' suit? Some say money, some say because it's "what did the District know and when did they know it" and the resulting actions or inaction. Time will tell.

Interesting to note, within the last few days, an Associated Press report came out.
I have seen it online in many many newspapers. Again, interesting to note, I have not seen it in the St. Pete Times or the Tampa Tribune.

This is one site randomly picked:

Special AP Report: Sexual misconduct plagues U.S. schools
Martha Irvine and Robert Tanner - Associated Press National Writers
OneNewsNow.com October 20, 2007

http://www.onenewsnow.com/2007/10/special_ap_report_sexual_misco.php

"Beyond the horror of individual crimes, the larger shame is that the institutions that govern education have only sporadically addressed a problem that's been apparent for years."

If the statistics are true and the reported actions of the education system are true, then society should act. It is an abuse of power towards the kids.

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In April 2005, there was this:

"According to a draft report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education, in compliance with the 2002 "No Child Left Behind" act signed into law by President Bush, between 6 percent and 10 percent of public school children across the country have been sexually abused or harassed by school employees and teachers.

Charol Shakeshaft, the Hofstra University scholar who prepared the report, said the number of abuse cases—which range from unwanted sexual comments to rape—could be much higher.

"So we think the Catholic Church has a problem?" she told industry newspaper Education Week in a March 10 interview.

To support her contention, Shakeshaft compared the priest abuse data with data collected in a national survey for the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation in 2000. Extrapolating data from the latter, she estimated roughly 290,000 students experienced some sort of physical sexual abuse by a school employee from a single decade—1991-2000. That compares with about five decades of cases of abusive priests.

Such figures led her to contend "the physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests."

http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/4/5/01552.shtml

Again, if these figures are true, then society should act. It is an abuse of power towards the kids.

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Recently a middle school in Maine authorized a policy that will provide birth control pills to the girls if they ask for them. The parents have to have signed some type of consent form previously, but the fact remains that when it comes to Birth Control, by law the school cannot tell the parents. The schools includes girls 11 to 13, plus older girls who were retained.

If this information is wrong, please correct it. I am not here to spin or twist information to further my beliefs. I am fully aware of how corrupt the media can be.

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My first question is how did a governmental education system ever been given the authority to address sexual behavior?

My next question is how does the School Board's responsibility to teach "Health Education" and the School Board's responsibility for sexual behavior fall under the same category.

Do Political Science classes take students to the poll to vote? Can't wait for this answer: "no, because they are too young to vote".

Do Science classes take students out to hunt cats or frogs?


Is there any other curriculum that conveys this much responsibility to a School Board?

I don't see School Boards providing cars or purchasing auto insurance for students in Drivers Ed.

Yet, it seems to be the "Group Think" thing to do for School Boards to take on the responsibility of student's sexual behavior.

Take each stated reason a School Board should have the power to monitor a student's sexual behavior and ask one question - "why isn't this the parent's responsibility"?

If parent's are irresponsible with their children, it certainly is a societal problem, but why are school's the next in line for being responsible?

My guess is it has something to do with power and money. What else could it be?