"The teacher-student relationship mirrors that of the parent and child in the sense of a large power difference between perpetrator and victim, making sexual acts between instructor and pupil related to incest", says Clare Cosentino, a psychologist in New York. "In both situations, the younger person is dependent on the authority figure. The person in power is unable to see the child's needs clearly and crosses established boundaries." (4)
Unfortunately, as a result of this "power differential, the reputation difference between the educator and the child, or the mindset that children are untruthful, many reports by children are ignored or given minimal attention." (4)
Studies show that only about 6 percent of all children report sexual abuse by an adult to a parent or authoritative figure. One particularly noteworthy case involved Kenneth DeLuca, who was convicted of sexually abusing 13 students between the ages of 10 and 18 over a period of 21 years. Although nearly all of the students reported the abuse at the time it was occurring, school officials ignored the accusations. "Overwhelmingly, the girls experienced a disastrous response when they told about DeLuca’s behavior," said the report. "Many were disbelieved, some were told to leave schools, parents were allegedly threatened with lawsuits." (4)
Even more shocking, Charol Shakeshaft's aforementioned report documents that offending teachers have frequently gotten off virtually scot-free even when their sexual misdeed are exposed to school administrators. (5)
• In one study of 225 cases of teacher sex abuse in New York, although all the accused had admitted to sexually abusing a student, not one was reported to the police and only 1 percent lost their license to teach.
• A 2003 study reports that 159 Washington state coaches were "reprimanded, warned, or let go in the past decade because of sexual misconduct" – and yet, "at least 98 of them continued coaching or teaching afterward.”
• A 2004 study reports that many school districts make confidential agreements with abusers, essentially trading a positive recommendation for a resignation. In one case, a Seattle educator named Luke Markishtum "had two decades of complaints of sex with students and providing alcohol and marijuana to students prior to his arrest for smuggling six tons of marijuana into the state. The district paid Markishtum the remainder of his salary that year, agreed to keep the record secret, and gave him an additional $69,000."
