Teacher Smackdown

New Jersey’s Home News Tribune explores a recent rash of teacher sex abuse cases in Middlesex county in Districts hit by educator sex crimes. Greg Tufaro’s comprehensive article not only explores the “epidemic” but looks at the problem of some states not requiring that sexual abuse of children be reported to police:

In instances in which a teacher voluntarily surrenders his or her certificate without yet being criminally convicted of sexual contact with a minor, the forfeiture is accepted in a form letter with the full effect of a revocation but without details, because the Board of Examiners is not permitted legally to discuss the allegation; it can only confirm the surrender.

Such cases tend to involve a negotiated settlement between the teacher and district and/or teacher and prosecutors. Miller said posting revocations in that manner is problematic because it keeps the criminal charges off the Board of Examiners’ public record.

The article also mentions to websites which you should check out:

educator sex crimes, sexual abuse of children, child abuse, teach-student affair

If you’re a fan of NBC’s To Catch a Predator show, you’ve heard of the volunteer citizen’s group, Perverted Justice.

In their PeeJ Guide section, they have information on What Parents Can Do, as well as a Page to Read with Your Kids and a Page to Read with Your Teen.

Not only do these guides give parents good advice, they address kids on their level and tell them what to watch out for.

Perverted Justice just started a site for teens called How to Deal with Creepy People. Creator Del Harvey is an administrator and law enforcement liaison at Perverted Justice. She hopes the website will serve as a resource for teenagers on subjects like bullying, stalking and sexual harassment - both on and offline. Del says the site will contain accurate information, practical suggestions, and helpful advice.

I think teens will relate well to Del and her cohorts because they’re young and into cool things like tatoos and longboarding. And she’s right, a site like this is needed by a lot of kids to protect them from online predators and online bullying/harassment from classmates. Welcome to the information age, mom and dad.

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Perverted-Justice.com, online bullying, online harassment, online sex predators, internet sex predators, To Catch a Predator, NBC Dateline

Parents want an easy way to do background checks, so USA Football is giving half a million dollars to encourage youth leagues to register for background screening services for their coaches through www.USAFootball.com so they can receive gold-standard, fully-managed background screening services at significantly reduced pricing through the National Center for Safety Initiatives (NCSI).

USA Football is the national governing body of youth, high school and international amateur football, and is the first national youth sports organization to make this kind of commitment towards the fight against child predators.

To read the press release, click here. And encourage your school, rec, and competitive sports leagues to sign up today and start doing background checks on their coaches.

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USA Football, background checks, coaches abusing kids, sexual abuse

Owen LaFave, the soon-to-be former husband of Debra LaFave, is making a documentary about teacher sex abuse. Debra LaFave was the beautiful blond teacher who had an affair with her 14-year-old student. (Debra was the subject of series of Dateline interviews with Matt Lauer. Doesn’t it seem like Matt is doing waaaaaay too many of these teacher-student affair stories?)

After School, a Powerhouse Pictures Documentary, will be explore the stories of the 50 female teachers who’ve been accused of having sexual relationships with underage boys. The film will also examine the effect and impact on the students, families, and school districts. Hopefully the film will show that these relationships really do hurt the young men involved.

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