When the Abuser is an Educator
A 1994 article by Bill Graves, an education writer for the Oregonian, appeared on American Association of School Administrators web site, gave some idea of the problem in 1994. He writes: "A computer search of a national database of daily newspaper stories turned up more than 140 articles written during the first seven months of 1994 about educators sexually abusing children." Even in 1994, the writer was alarmed at the incidents and speculated on why they were being reported now. He concluded it was because of heightened awareness of the problem. The Anita Hill syndrome, he calls it. For me, however, it doesn't explain the mainstream media's refusal to acknowledge it. Nor to acknowledge celebrity culprits, like the Frugal Gourmet or

To its dismay, the public also saw one of the nation's best- known teachers, Eliot Wigginton, founder of Foxfire magazine and 1986 Georgia Teacher of the Year, sent to jail for a year for fondling a 10-year-old boy during an overnight stay. Before Wigginton pleaded guilty, 18 young men were prepared to say he molested them or tried to.

And the media seems to have no problem with Michael Jackson. Bill Clinton, apparently, finds no fault in posing with the accused pedophile pop star.

   No Big Bird
S.E.S.A.M.E. (Survivors of Educator Sexual Abuse & Misconduct) is aimed at educating professionals and legislators about the problem, a non-profit advocacy group, albeit one not endorsed or pimped by a liberal media. This quote appears on their front page.

"What hurts the victim most is not the cruelty of the oppressor, but the silence of the bystander."
-- Elie Wiesel, Holocaust Survivor

      In 1999 the Pittsburg Post-Gazette Published a three-part series called "Dirty Secrets, why sexually abusive teachers aren't stopped." The Post-Gazette examined 727 cases across the U.S. where an educator lost his/her license for sex offenses for a five-year period. Four years after the Education Week Report, 3 years after the Pittsburg Post-Gazette series there is still no national recognition of the problem.