Why is the Media ignoring the rampant Sexual Abuse in our Public Schools??

Here’s a test: just Google “teacher student abuse“. You’ll get millions of classroom statutory rape articles. If you Google “teacher student sex“, you get more… a LOT more.

Like this one:

(via WTSP News) – “…For the first time, we are hearing from the Polk County school district about a Lakeland teacher who, according to police, admitted to having sex with her 17-year-old student. 10 News has learned critical red flags may have been missed with Jennifer Fichter because the Polk County school superintendent said she falsified her employment application….”

Or like this one:

Are we Protecting our kids, …or Failing to Prepare them?

If today’s children truly are the leaders of tomorrow, we are going to have the most passive, ossified leaders in the history of the planet.

It’s no secret that the tree-climbing, BB-gun-shooting, rub-some-dirt-on-it ways of past generations bear no resemblance to today’s bubble-wrapped youth. Trying to eliminate pain of every kind, both physical and psychological, has resulted in a society where no one is supposed to keep score (even though kids still do), and games like Dodge Ball are widely banned.

But is this really healthy? Didn’t we all learn how to get back up after we fell? Didn’t we learn how to take a punch, or play through pain? Didn’t we figure out that scraped-up knees and elbows were a reasonable trade-off for seeing how fast you can run, or how high you can jump?

Not according to the risk averse, anti-fun squad otherwise known as today’s parents and educators: 

Student told she can’t write about God as her “idol”, …but Michael Jackson is okay.

This “Are You Kidding Me…??” moment is brought to us today by the United States Public School System.

From HotAir.com:

“…A 10-year-old girl wrote what her mother describes as a “cute” presentation for a class assignment to discuss who she sees as her idol. When she chose the Lord Almighty, her teacher demanded a more appropriate idol, like, er … Michael Jackson?“

Obviously, this teacher could use a refresher course on what the First Amendment actually says.

More:

She said her daughter was told to start over and pick another idol.

“But my teacher said I couldn’t write about God. She said It has something to do with God and God can’t be my idol,” said Shead about what her daughter told her.

Erin told her mother she was also not allowed to leave the assignment about God at school, that it must go home.

On the second try, Erin chose Michael Jackson, which was acceptable.

Come to think of it, showing the teacher the definition of the word “irony” might not be such a bad idea, either.

Did we REALLY learn everything we need to know in Kindergarten? If so, that explains why everything is so screwed up…

Saw the following article over at PJ Media, and it almost seemed like a follow-up to my post yesterday. 

Please, feel free to comment if (& where) you disagree with him. Because personally, I think he nails it beginning to end. 

–JTR

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Midnight in the KinderGarden of Eden

-by EVAN SAYET

Not all that long ago, a not wholly inarticulate gentleman wrote a book in which he declared that All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten.  Mind you, this was not a tongue-in-cheek expose on the shallowness of thought in the modern liberal era; it was a proud declaration of the fact that the author knew that had he been morally and intellectually retarded at the age of five, he’d be exactly as smart and “accomplished” as he is today.

“Social Justice” called, and it wants your children. Now.

The problems with our country’s Public Education system are myriad: the schools themselves are often not safe, and far too often fail to provide even a merely passable education. But I’ve said many times prior that Public Schools are no longer seeking to educate our children, but rather to inculcate them. Just think of the videos you’ve seen where kids are singing praise to Obama (or his policies), as just two examples out of thousands.

Public School Education is now explicitly driven by the Progressive Agenda. Whether we’re discussing sex-ed, or marginalizing religion, or freedom of speech: it’s all Left wing values that are being communicated.

Proof? You want more proof? Okay, you asked for it…

Sexual abuse in our Public Schools: is anybody paying attention?

Another week, another round of sex abuse charges coming from our public schools.

Three teachers accused of having sexual relations with students — and even sexting during class — were arrested Thursday along with two administrators who allegedly covered up a slew of bad behavior going on at their New Jersey high school. 

“It’s obvious there existed a culture at Triton High School whereby teachers thought they could get away with improper relationships with their students and administrators turned a blind eye,” Camden County Prosecutor Warren Faulk said at a press conference.

“The improper relationships between the teachers and students were fostered through social media as well as socializing in person outside the school. Indeed we uncovered evidence of sexually explicit text messages during instructional periods,” Faulk said.

Didn’t you hear about this on the nightly news? No?

How about this one:

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) — Newly-unsealed legal documents reveal disturbing new details in the case of a San Jose elementary school teacher accused of child molestation. The documents indicate the principal knew lurid details, but police say she failed to report the teacher.

Ever since the principal was charged with one misdemeanor count in this case, her attorneys have been trying to keep the notes sealed, but on Thursday a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge unsealed them. They consist of three pages the principal wrote almost one year ago.

Former teacher Craig Chandler is facing felony charges. Prosecutors say he molested five girls between the ages of 7 and 9-years-old at O.B. Whaley Elementary School. The newly-unsealed papers are notes taken by school Principal Lyn Vijayendran. The three pages are notes the principal hand wrote when one of the first children came forward and told her what was happening.

Principal Vijayendran has been charged with failing to report child abuse a misdemeanor. “I cannot imagine that upon hearing that information, the principal was not alarmed enough to contact law enforcement,” said Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Alison Filo.

And a couple more, from earlier this year:

A Brevard County (FL) science teacher is still in jail, accused of having sex with a 14-year-old student. Irene Khan, 32, was arrested on Wednesday and booked into the Brevard County Jail.

“Did you have inappropriate contact with one of your students?” a reporter asked as Khan was transported to jail.

The eighth grade teacher never said a word.

A spokesperson with West Melbourne Police says the two had sex on and off for the past 10 months.

And:

Fourteen mothers are filing a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District on Tuesday over the sex-abuse scandal involving former Miramonte Elementary School teacher Mark Berndt.

Berndt was arrested earlier this year on 23 counts of lewd acts on children ages 6 to 10. The former third-grade teacher is accused of blindfolding students, covering their mouths with tape and placing items in front of their faces. The investigation began after Berndt, a teacher at the school for 30 years, tried to develop photos of students, and a film processor at a CVS turned them over to police.

This is the third lawsuit filed against LAUSD in this case. Two other lawsuits were filed in May – one representing 11 students and another representing 20 students.

In the latest lawsuit, the mothers claim their kids were abused by Berndt between 2002 to 2011 and that the district was negligent. The parents allege the LAUSD did not protect their children, despite previous complaints against Berndt that go back to the early 1990s.

These abuses in our schools speak to a problematic element which exists yet is being blatantly, tragically ignored.

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Not sure what else to say about this that I didn’t say in my previous post. And if you missed it, I’d ask that you please go back and read it.

As before, I’m still painfully aware that this isn’t a priority for our Media. Of course, they are also assiduously avoiding any mention of the terrorist attacks in Benghazi and the resulting cover-up, which in many ways is just as egregious, so maybe I shouldn’t be too surprised.

But reporters have kids, too, don’t they? Are they that blinded by their biases and predispositions that they can ignore this national assault and not try to connect the dots here?

Earlier this year, Slate.com had a small article where they surmised that “about 10 percent of students suffer some form of sexual abuse during their school careers“. If my math is correct, that would mean in any class of 40 kids, on average FOUR of them will be abused? If that is even close to accurate, how is this not on every front page, every day?

Hello, Media!! I didn’t go to J-school, but doesn’t this sound like a story? Heck, an entire SERIES of stories!? Hello-ooo??!

No one wants good people tarred-and-feathered, or for all teachers to be hung in journalistic effigy. Two of my closest friends are teachers, and they are both phenomenal people & parents. However, the results are before our eyes and yet we’re avoiding the entire sordid, dangerous, deviant topic.

A good friend of ours (Rick, over at Let’s Get Political blog) reminded me yesterday of a tried-but-true saying which certainly applies here:

“All that is needed for evil to succeed is for good people to do nothing”.

Do we continue to do nothing? Do we just keep feeding this government-sponsored machine our children, and simply hope for the best?

With all my heart, I pray that’s not our decision.

Golly, am I glad there isn’t a common element to all of these Public School Teacher Sex Abuse cases!

(UPDATE, June 17, 2015) – Since we’ve seen a plethora of similar news stories since I originally penned the article below (for some examples, just take a peek at Robert Stacy McCain’s site), we’re re-posting this oldie from waaaay back in 2012. 

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I am so glad that our Media is on the job, investigating stories, connecting the dots on complex or seemingly unrelated issues so that we can see the Big Picture.

That’s why, since I haven’t heard anything to the contrary, I just know that the following stories are each completely distinct with no overarching commonalities. They’re just a series of unpleasant-yet-random incidents.

Uh-huh:

• Sixth grade teacher charged with having sex with 12-year-old boy
• Clifton High School teacher accused of having sex with student indicted
• Middle school teacher had ‘sex and pizza party with underage students where she plied them with drugs and alcohol’
• In California, a Livingston High School teacher faces felony sex charges over ‘relationship’ with 15 year-old student

And there’s more; a LOT more:

A Tale of Two Unions: NFL refs and Chicago teachers

It’s no secret: I’m not a big fan of unions. So, please keep that in mind as I say the following: “Hey, NFL!!! Pay the darn Refs and bring them back”.

Because Monday night was ridiculous.

But before we get into the Packers/Seahawks football game debacle, we need to include some context:

Sometimes you have folks that you could replace with almost anyone. The recent Chicago teachers strike would be a fair example: based upon their students’ test scores, we could replace half of the existing Chicago Public School teachers with African Grey Parrots and the test scores would likely go up.

Consider:

“…(79%) of the 8^th graders in the Chicago Public Schools are not grade-level proficient in reading, according to the U.S. Department of Education, and 80 percent are not grade-level proficient in math.”

To be sure, all the teachers in Chicago can’t be bad. But obviously a LOT of them sure as heck are, and more than a few must struggle just to find their Home Room each day.

And yet, in light of these teachers’ overall colossal failure, the Union requested (and ultimately received) a 42% pay increase versus the last 10 years which would boost average Chicago teacher compensation into the $100,000 range. In addition, Windy City teachers received total wage increases of 19% to 46% during their 2007-2012 contract, depending on such factors as length of service, according to a fact finder’s report issued in July.

Just an FYI: that also makes CPS teachers among the highest paid in the nation. If you’d like a quick breakdown of how this all worked out so well for the union, here you go, courtesy of Reason.com:

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Horrified? Good. So was I.

Now we can discuss what I mentioned at the beginning, because in the NFL, we have another union strike/lockout, but one which is decidedly different from the Chicago fiasco. It makes for an interesting, and frustrating, comparison.

First of all, check out Monday night’s NFL game as described by PJMedia. The Green Bay player clearly intercepts the ball, but the Seattle player battles him for it…after it’s caught and he’s down.  

Yikes.

Now I’ll just borrow a couple of paragraphs from the L.A.Times article:

Three weeks of gross incompetence by unqualified replacement officials crystallized in two moments Monday night that pushed the league’s integrity to the brink.

In one moment, Packers safety M.D. Jennings clearly intercepted a final-play pass while falling upon Seahawks receiver Golden Tate in the end zone, preserving an apparent 12-7 Green Bay win.

In the next moment, the replacement officials ruled that Tate had made the catch, and upheld that ruling after replay review, giving the Seahawks a 14-12 victory.

…..

It’s finally happened. After three weeks of forgetting the rules, losing track of the ball, and haphazardly administering this country’s national pastime as if they were salesmen on vacation from Foot Locker, the replacement officials have finally done serious, irrevocable damage. The arrogant NFL’s middle-school and small-college substitutes for the locked-out regular officials have finally, actually, literally made one wrong call that decided the outcome of a game.

This is a strike that, by all accounts, is ultimately about money (…..the refs want more. You’re shocked, I can tell). However, there’s more to it than that. In the case of the NFL refs, they make a nice salary for a part-time job, receiving about $149,000 (on average) in 2011. However, for that money, and especially as compared to the Chicago teachers, all-in-all they do an incredibly complex job pretty darn well.

Yes, I admit it.

All professional referees have to make split-second calls, on live TV, while mentally juggling a rules book that is starting to resemble the U.S. tax code. They also have to maintain control of the game, which is no small task in a sport filled with chiseled physiques, million-dollar egos and “prima donna” tempers.

And, what do they get for their efforts every week? They are castigated from one end of the country to the other. By way of comparison, Teachers are universally loved and feted. Referees? Any sports fan will tell you: the only 100% unifying thought in the stands is that EVERYONE hates the refs.

But please, everyone, stop yelling at the replacement guys, okay? The only people who truly AREN’T at fault for any of this are the rent-a-refs.  From day 1, they weren’t even partially prepared for this stage….and the NFL knew it. One day Joe Six-pack was refereeing some Division III schools (or even a high school) and the next day, he has to learn a new rules book while working games that are almost incomprehensibly faster, rougher and more physical than any he’s even imagined.

They were all set up to fail.

Both sides (the League and the Refs) need to get this done, but the League needs to step up first, in my opinion. There’s only a little over a hundred refs: pay ’em. They obviously do a job that no one is going to replace any time soon.

The referees are an essential aspect for the success of their industry.

Maybe someday, the Chicago Public School teachers will be able to say the same thing.