Because of the prevalence of child sex abuse, public schools must develop prevention programs that include educating employees, volunteers, parents and students on how to spot and report problems, says an educator who prepared a federally mandated study for Congress on the issue.

Sex abuse of students by teachers and other adults in the public school system “is a problem that needs to be taken care of,” according to Charol Shakeshaft, professor of educational policies at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., and managing director of Interactive Inc. in Huntington, N.Y.

Her study, “Educator Sexual Misconduct: A Synthesis of Existing Literature,” estimates that almost 10% of public school students, about 4.5 million children, have been abused by school employees or adult volunteers. It was commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education and presented to Congress at the end of June.

When informed of abuse prevention programs designed to educate children, parents and employees in Catholic dioceses, Shakeshaft praised these as a “good idea” and a “good step” toward curbing child sex abuse.

Her study was limited to an analysis of existing reports and studies on the situation and did not involve any new surveys or research.

The figure of 4.5 million children was based on a 2000 national survey of 2,064 students done by the American Association of University Women. It showed that 9% of students from kindergarten through 11th grade reported unwanted sexual harassment or abuse by public school employees. Students listed teachers and other educators as being responsible for 57% of the incidents.

Shakeshaft says her mandate was limited to identifying the public information available on the topic, adding that she hopes her report will lead to a national survey devoted exclusively to gathering data on child sex abuse in public schools.

A study can be done by surveying students or by gathering data on allegations against adults, as was done in the study commissioned by the U.S. bishops' National Review Board and conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, she said.

Both are valuable methods, but Shakeshaft says she preferred a survey of students because “a lot lower number of allegations are reported” to authorities against adults than actual incidents.

The John Jay study found that, between 1950 and 2002, allegations deemed credible were made against 4,392 clergy, mostly priests, by 10,667 individuals claiming abuse.

Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Ill., president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, has said that child sex abuse is a national problem and has expressed hope that efforts to curb it in the Church will spur similar efforts by other organizations.

Regarding public schools, Shakeshaft has proposed a national summit on the issue. She also favors less stringent federal laws to make it easier to sue schools for failure to prevent abuse and to sue the adults responsible, she said.

Currently, it is easier to sue for employment discrimination based on gender under federal law than to sue for child sex abuse, she notes.

“If a district believes that it may have to pay damages and employees may have to pay because of child sex abuse, it will put sexual misconduct higher on the priority list,” she said.

School prevention programs, she believes, need to include:

• Educating children and adults about their responsibilities to prevent abuse so everyone in the school knows what actions are acceptable and what are unacceptable.

• Procedures that make it safe to report suspicious activity and allow for a quick investigation to protect students and adults.

• Background checks as part of a comprehensive program as most predators are not registered as sex offenders by police or child protective agencies because of under-reporting of abuse.

Shakeshaft's report says that teachers who abuse children are hard to detect.

“Teachers who sexually abuse belie the stereotype of an abuser as an easily identifiable danger to children. Many are the most celebrated in their profession,” the study reports.

“Schools are also a place where teachers are more often believed than are students and in which there is a power and status differential.”

Predators also know how to manipulate students, according to the study: “They lie to them, isolate them, make them feel complicit and manipulate them into sexual contact. Often teachers target vulnerable or marginal students who are grateful for the attention.”

The study also criticizes laxity by local school officials in dealing with abusers.

The Shakeshaft study cites a 1994 report on disciplinary action against 225 public school teachers who admitted sexually abusing children in New York state.

According to the 1994 study, only 15% were terminated; 25% received no disciplinary consequences; 39% left the school district, many with a positive recommendation to teach elsewhere; and the rest were informally reprimanded.

The Shakeshaft study says that, in one class, “boys reported that the teacher would call them up to his desk at the front of the room and, one at a time, while discussing their homework, would fondle each boy's penis.”

Although all the students knew the situation, “the teacher repeated the behavior for 15 years,” says the study, “before one student finally reported to an official who acted upon the information that everyone knew.”