SICKO SEX ED.
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By ANDY GELLER and CARL CAMPANILEJuly 1, 2004 -- An alarming study that reads like a parent's worst nightmare reveals that one student out of every 10 is a victim of sexual misconduct by teachers and other school employees.
The chilling report, delivered to Congress yesterday, found that 4.5 million children from kindergarten to grade 12 are forced to endure disgusting behavior varying from inappropriate remarks to sexual attacks.
Of those targeted, 57 percent were girls and 43 percent boys.
Teachers were the most common offenders, followed by coaches, substitute teachers, bus drivers and teacher's aides.
"I'm not surprised. It's a pattern and as a society, we need to do something about it," said Anne Liske, executive director of the New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault.
Special Schools Investigator Richard Condon agreed, saying, "I can believe it. It's definitely a problem."
Condon said 25 percent of the cases his office probes involve sexual misconduct — from inappropriate language and touching to sexual abuse.
Child-abuse lawyer Michael Dowd and other experts said the number of victims could well exceed 10 percent because the crimes often go unreported.
"The lack of attention paid to this issue is a scandal," Dowd added.
The report, required under the federal No Child Left Behind law, was written by Charol Shakeshaft, a Hofstra education professor who was hired by the feds to study the prevalence of sexual misconduct in schools. She analyzed 900 studies, documents and news stories.
"Most people just don't think this can really happen," Shakeshaft said.
"We imagine that all teachers are like most teachers, in that they've gone into teaching to help children. Most do, but not all. We need to acknowledge that's the case and do something to stop it."
The report described schools as places where abusers come to prey, targeting vulnerable kids who are afraid to complain or are unlikely to be believed.
"Often teachers target vulnerable or marginal students who are grateful for the attention," the report said. "They lie to them, isolate them, make them feel complicit and manipulate them into sexual contact."
The report found that in elementary schools, abus- ers are often the best teachers.
"It is common to find that educators who have been sexually abusing children are also the same educators who display on their walls a community 'Excellence in Teaching' award or a 'Teacher of the Year' certificate," the report said.
"This popularity confounds district officials and community members and prompts them to ignore allegations on the belief that outstanding teachers can not be abusers."
CHOIR MONSTER GOT MAX
CASE STUDY 1
Last December, a guidance counselor for the Harlem Boys Choir was sentenced to two years in jail for sexually abusing a 13-year-old choirboy.
In sentencing Frank Jones, 53, of Washington Heights, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Joan Sudolnik said that "an adult's abuse of a child does not warrant anything less than the maximum." Jones, a 20-year employee of the choir and its school, was found guilty in November of kissing, licking and fondling the teen from 1999 through August 2000.
Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Steiner said the victim was "starved for a father figure," and Jones "capitalized on that."
The victim, now 18 years old and in college, is suing the choir and the city for $30 million for allowing the abuse to occur.
A probe by Special Schools Investigator Richard Condon's office slammed school and choir officials for failing to heed warnings that Jones was an abuser. Carl Campanile
TEACH PREYED ON GIRLS
CASE STUDY 2
An ex-music teacher in Manhattan and Long Island is serving 10 to 30 years in the slammer for having sex with several of his students.
In pleading guilty to the charges in July 2001, Steven Correnti, 26, of West Islip, L.I., also admitted he filmed and photographed some of the sexual encounters, kept thousands of pornographic images of children in his computer and distributed kiddie porn. "How much irreparable harm you did to these young ladies, Mr. Correnti, we may never know," said Judge Louis Ohlig in imposing sentence. "You're a teacher; your job is to help. What were you doing as a teacher, destroying how many lives?"
The father of one of Correnti's victims said the girl was 14 when she met the teacher. "From that time on, it's been a downward slide," he said. The girl's grades plummeted, her self-confidence evaporated and she started doing drugs, he said. Andy Geller
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