The Associated Press reported last year that in some states sexual abuse is the main reason public school teachers lose their licenses. Colorado public schools are not exempt from the abuse problem. Professor Charol Shakeshaft of Hofstra University, among others, argues that up to 15 percent of all public school students nationally are the victims of sexual misconduct by a staff member, ranging from kissing to sexual intercourse, by the time they finish high school.
The evidence also suggests that from 1 percent to 5 percent of the teaching profession and up to 25 percent of all public school districts have problems of sexual abuse.[1]
Why then, is the Church the focus of a sexual abuse scandal, and not the varied school districts? It is because the public school system, as part of the government, enjoy partial or complete immunity from lawsuits in most areas. There are greater limits on how long after the alleged abuse the report can come, and on how much you can get in damages. Basically, it does not make financial sense to sue the schools, but it does to sue the Church.
Beyond that though, I strongly suspect that part of it is simply that a parent suing the school district would make local news, perhaps even state news, but would not garner national news focus. You would not see the ripple effect as case after case comes to light before a national media, because the national media would never report it as heavily. Thus, it is left to a relative backwater like Catholic News Agency to publish this study. Imagine if this was just before the scandal started, and a report came out claiming "that up to 15 percent" of all Catholic School children had been abused. This would have been a headline story across the country. Yet when it is about the public school system, no one hears about it. Was the priority really to "protect the children" or to attack the Church?
- Catholic News Agency. "Teacher says potentially far more lucrative, to sue the Catholic Church, or any church or private organization, than it is to sue the local public school district" www.catholicnewsagency.com 2006-01-23. http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=5813