Sexual misconduct by teachers at an all time high across the US

This recent article from The Lion outlines a serious problem in the United States, teachers who are accused of sexual misconduct against students. Nearly 12 percent of recent high school graduates report they were subjected to sexual misconduct by coaches and teachers. We believe there is a direct correlation between teachers pushing and discussing human sexuality with students and an increase in the number of incidents of sexual misconduct against students.

According to the US Department of Education and the Office for Civil Rights(OCR) and data they shared, there are deeply troubling numbers of reported incidents from the 2017-2018 school year. And we know not all the incidents are reported. Accord to the OCR, there were 786 allegations of rape or attempted rape by teachers during that one year period. The US Department of Ed defines rape as “forced sexual intercourse–vaginal, anal, or oral.” They also found 14,152 allegations of sexual assault against students. Sexual assault is defined by the USDOE as “threatened rape, fondling, indecent liberties, or child molestation,”

So lets plug these USDOE 2017-2018 statistics into the Cameron school district. If there are 400 CHS students and the national average is 11 percent of those approximated 400 students would mean roughly 44 of them have been subjected to sexual misconduct by coaches and teachers. Those number will obviously be lower or higher based on the actual number of CHS students.

Many will say that Cameron is a small town, surely that is a big city issue and it isn’t a problem here. In April of 2023 a CHS senior addressed the Cameron board of education and talked about comments being made by teachers in that school. Jump to the 2 minute and 10 second mark in this video.

Allowing teachers to discuss sexuality with students is a gateway to actions which result in statistics like the one the USDOE reported above. Have discussions on human sexuality and gender become more or less common since 2018? Far more common. Will this result in increases in the number of incidents of sexual misconduct by coaches and teachers? I fear it will.

Missouri needs to protect our children and pass legislation to protect our children. Other states are doing this in the form of “parents right” bills. But our school board can take steps now. They can create policy which forbids teachers and staff from having those types of discussions with our children.