This is newsworthy for the simple reason it is rare to hear of a
secular newspaper or other news outlet praise the Catholic Church for
how it has addressed the sexual abuse scandal. And it is rather stunning
to read an editorial stating the following:
The
Joshua Carrier saga is the latest reminder that safety in our public
schools is woefully inadequate. It is past time that Congress, the
president, the U.S. Department of Education and school boards devise a
plan to protect our kids.
For a blueprint, they should start by looking to the Catholic Church in the United States.
Carrier, a former cop who worked in
public schools, had been charged with 186 sexual assault charges
involving children. He was acquitted on 36 assault counts and the jury
deadlocked on 150 others, for which Carrier may be tried again. Jurors
convicted him on 21 counts of child pornography, which alone could land
him up to 36 years in prison.
Stories of sexual assaults in public
schools have become routine. Anyone interested in the scope of the
problem in Colorado should simply log onto Google and conduct this
search: “Colorado teacher sexual assault.” Or simply watch the news
each night and see how many days go by before a story pops up about a
teacher facing charges of sexual impropriety with a student. It is
epidemic.
The Associated Press put it this way in
2007, after releasing the findings of a yearlong investigation that was
mostly ignored by the rest of the mainstream press:
“Students in America’s schools are groped. They’re raped. They’re pursued, seduced and think they’re in love.
“An Associated Press investigation found
more than 2,500 cases over five years in which educators were punished
for actions from bizarre to sadistic.
“There are 3 million public school
teachers nationwide, most devoted to their work. Yet the number of
abusive educators — nearly three for every school day — speaks to a
much larger problem in a system that is stacked against victims.
And:
Many schools have more credible allegations of abuse by employees than the entire church has nationwide.
Feel free to begrudge the Catholic church
for a litany of sins. No amount of sexual abuse is acceptable in an
institution that’s supposed to bring humanity closer to God. Yet, this
imperfect human organization — which is susceptible to corruption like
all others — has the answers for protecting children in 2012. It’s time
to hold our public schools to this standard.
Read the entire piece (ht: TheMediaReport.com). An Idiotic Comment of the Day gold star goes to a certain Chris Pollard, who writes, in the editorial's comments section, "Teaching
religion to children is child abuse because the child isn't in a
position to validate the information. Given that people's religion is
dependent on where they live and what their parents religion was - it is
clearly not a universal truth. If there were one worldwide religion
you might have a legitimate claim." Make that Super Idiotic Comment of
the Day. Adults teach children all sorts of things—whether about God,
the weather, China, the nature of love, ancient Greece, etc.—that
children are not in a "position to validate". I won't bother with the
rest. But if Mr. Pollard was educated in the public school system, he
should start filing some suits—not for abuse, but for failure to
transmit an iota of common sense and logic.