a reflection about child abuse

Sometimes I can't hardly help but notice that the headlines are full of scandals involving inappropriate contact or sexual relationships between teachers and their students. Here's a sample from today's headlines off of Google News (just drop in "teacher" as a keyword and you'll see what I'm talking about):

Former teacher convicted of sexual abuse...

High school teacher acquitted in student sex case...

Teacher faces sexual abuse accusations...

High School teacher accused of sexual misconduct...

...and it just goes on and on from there.

I'd love to think this sort of thing never happens, but sadly it does, and far too regularly. A 2005 Department of Education report stated that nearly 7 percent of students have experienced unwanted sexual contact from an educator. Even here in Oregon, I can recall a few recent instances, both reported and unreported. Frankly as a teacher, and as a person who generally enjoys children, I find it incredibly disturbing and creepy that any teacher or school employee would ever perpetrate something like this on a child. Not only is it a massive violation of trust, and a sickening abuse of power and authority, but I can't even begin to understand what would motivate someone to do that to a student. And yet, people do--every day of the week, apparently!

I'm not sure what the answer is. The death penalty sounds pretty tempting at times, to be honest. The usual routine of employment screening (background checks and references) doesn't seem to intercept all of these creepos (male and female alike). I'm not sure what else you can do before it all conflicts with someone's constitutional rights. Sadly just as some parents (and other adults) choose to abuse their children, school employees are apparently no less human (or rather, inhuman). But I'm not interested in analyzing the perpetrators--who I find it impossible to empathize with (couldn't we bring back public shaming?). Instead, I'm more concerned the victims--the kids who have to go on trying to function after traumatic instances of abuse.

I know a student, who we'll call "Jimmy". While by no means a model student, I've rarely experienced any difficulties in working with him. Unfortunately during the course of the school year, Jimmy was abused by a district employee and has been pretty traumatized ever since. It was not a case of corporal punishment, or necessary restraint, but a physical assault (with sexual overtones). In case you are wondering, yes, DHS was contacted, but I don't know what, if anything ever came of that. Don't ask me what happened to the district employee--I don't know, but sadly, some people believe that male victims of abuse are somehow less victimized than females, and I feel like what happened here got swept under the rug and forgotten.

Since the incident occurred, I've seen Jimmy on several occasions, and he is definitely showing most (if not all) of the classic signs of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). It's like he's there physically, but not mentally. His ability to concentrate is pretty non-existent now (he never did much school work before, but now he doesn't do any at all), he's more distractible than ever, he's been showing a lot of avoidant behaviors (that I've never seen in him before). He seems sleep deprived (beyond the normal adolescent range). He also seems really withdrawn, and fights with peers much more than he used to. I've noticed that he tends to withdraw from most situations though--he wants to be alone a lot, and literally hides out in the back of the room. He overreacts to being touched (like if you tried to wake him, he'd totally freak out), and he has a lot of physical symptoms (headaches and stomach aches) that can't be explained.

To make a long story short, he's barely functioning, and it's really sad to watch. I'm not a psychologist, or a miracle worker, or even his regular teacher. When in doubt though, the policy "do no harm" won't steer you wrong in life. Obviously as a sub, I don't see Jimmy every day, or even every month, but when I do see him, I try to cheer him up a bit by bringing him treats (like most kids, he likes candy), and asking him about things I know he likes, but I'm starting to think that he'll never be the same kid after this, and that hurts my heart to think about. The whole thing makes me really sad, yet at the same time absolutely infuriates me. I don't have any answers in this situation, just the pervasive thought that he deserved better than this...he was abused by someone who should have had his best interests at heart.

Thinking about all of this makes me think that sex abuse prevention training should be mandatory for teachers and other school employees that have contact with children (bus drivers, janitors, administrators, etc). I'm not talking about the obligatory 10 minute video about mandatory reporting, but rather a more rigorous sort (I don't even think the topic was mentioned in graduate school). I don't think anyone ever gets good training in this area other than school counselors or psychologists. The rest of us get the "too little, too late" approach. As much as we all worry about test scores and benchmarks, there's a very human side to working with children, and I don't feel like that gets as much attention when it comes to professional development. Sure we can only do so much, but I think having the awareness of the dynamics involved would make it easier to act quickly, appropriately, and thoroughly when things like this do happen to kids.