Sexual Abuse of Students by Teachers Increasing

By Dorothy M. Neddermeyer, PhD

Sex offenders have not been on vacation. It is a huge responsibility to protect children from the egregious and damaging act of sexual abuse by teachers and other school employees. Every school administrator and staff need the best information and strategies available to meet this obligation.

There are five critical techniques administrators and teachers can employ to identify the majority of sex offenders before the damage occurs. Once identified school administrators need to employ every technique possible to protect children from those who are considered suspect. One key technique, 'Appropriate Suspicion,' based on human behavior and probabilities, is a powerful tool to thwart would-be sex offenders. Appropriate Suspicion has five levels of suspicion and strategies for prevention.

One key technique is 'Appropriate Suspicion,' based on human behavior and probabilities, is a powerful tool to thwart would-be sex offenders. Appropriate Suspicion has five levels of suspicion and strategies for prevention.

Another significant technique is 'Trust your gut,' a.k.a intuition/6th sense. If someone's behavior or comment no matter if it is made in jest, doesn't sit right, or sets your nerves on edge, this is a clue that something could be afoot. Of course, you can not act on your gut/intuition/6th sense, but you can keep your eyes and ears open to discern if other clues surface. Sex offenders count on people's reluctance to 'judge' anyone, therein lies their wall of protection from detection.

We can out smart would-be sex offenders, if we simply practice the five critical techniques to thwart them. You will not break any ethical codes or laws if you keep your eyes, ears and mind open to the reality that anyone--even those you love and trust--could be a sex offender.

Furthermore, there are seven compelling parent approved and child tested techniques for parents and children to thwart would-be sex offenders. As you know teacher sexual abuse and sexual abuse in general in the school environment has increased in the past few years.

Coupled with the school administrators and staff employing the five techniques to monitor possible sex offenders and parent/child employing the seven prevention techniques, a powerful and empowering strategy is in place to protect children from would-be sex offenders.

Selected News reports of Teacher Sexual Abuse of Students:

• March 3, 2008 a female student, at Mountain View High School advised The Pima County Sheriff's Sex Crimes Unit responded, she had been sexually abused by a male teacher.

• March 4, 2008, detectives from the Sex Crimes Unit arrested Jason William Baridon (DOB 01/12/75), at Mountain View High School, on two counts of Sexual Abuse. Mr. Baridon was booked into the Pima County Adult Detention Center. Public Information Officer Pima County Sheriff's Department.

• P.E. Teacher Arrested for Sexual Child Abuse. Posted by Jeff Quinton on April 28 , 2008. Baltimore County Police Department news release: ...

• 4/26/08 Teacher Arrested on three counts of Sexual Abuse
Tawni L. Wimberley, 29, a former computer/technology teacher at Flagstaff High School in Flagstaff, Arizona already indicted by a grand jury on one count of sexual conduct with a minor has been charged with two additional counts of sexual conduct with a minor. Wimberley had passed all background checks.

As a pioneer in sexual child abuse prevention/recovery, I have represented survivors of childhood sexual abuse for more than 30 years. Criminal charges provide the justice system with a chance to detain sexual predators. Civil claims for sexual abuse hold the institutions that allow sexual deviants to prey on child accountable for the lives damaged by sexual abuse. No school environment is immune to being a haven for a sex offender.

Dorothy M. Neddermeyer, PhD, author, "If I'd Only Known...Sexual Abuse in or Out of the Family: A Guide to Prevention. Dr. Neddermeyer is noted for her pioneering work in verbal, physical, sexual abuse prevention and recovery.

http://www.drdorothy.net

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Religious Sects, Lay Male Clergies, and Sex Offenders

By Norton Nowlin

In the United States today, any person, male or female, can easily obtain a ministerial license by sending off a hundred dollars in the mail to one, of many, license dispensing organizations. After getting a license, an aspiring organizer can advertise their own brand of religion in a large city newspaper, such as the "New York Times" and, within a week, have at least ten receptive believers in his, or her, congregation. I'm sure Jim Jones and the Peoples' Temple conjure up horrible visions of murder, suicide, mayhem, and the vicious betrayal of public trust in the minds of the relatives of those unfortunate victims of the Jonestown massacre. Nonetheless, few objectively religious Americans presently realize how easy it is for sexually aberrant leaders within certain religious sects to gain the total confidence of their supplicant families, in order to, over time, ravenously satisfy their sexual appetites with the innocence of young trusting children.

There are, currently, certain popular religious organizations in the United States, which have been around for over a hundred years, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses, that maintain huge male lay clergies and advertise, through the media and the printed word, their adherence to traditional family values. Many thousands of single men and women, as well as families, change their religious affiliations every year through contact with itinerant missionaries and representatives of these very wealthy sects. Many of these proselytiizing missionaries pay their own way to knock on the doors of potential converts. The Jehovah's Witnesses Watchtower Society has a saying, they sometimes wish to deny, which goes, "publish or perish." This means that convert Witnesses are intimidated into knocking on doors and publishing Jehovah's Witness doctrine, disseminating that ubiquitous pamphlet, "Awake," to everyone they see, by the threat levied by their leaders that they will spiritually perish if they don't.

When a man is accepted, and ordained, into such a typical lay clergy, his background isn't officially examined, to any extent, by those doing the ordaining. If the individual willing agrees to pay a tithe of his income and to adhere to the strict rules of the particular sect, his word is usually accepted as truth in an interview prior to the rites of admission. The leaders of these sects, high priests, priests, elders, and such, actually believe that they have the same power of discernment as the biblical Apostle Peter, to determine whether a person is lying or telling the truth. They believe that, by ordination, these powers can be conferred. This leads to one of the most heinous acts which may be committed by the leaders of a sect, that being covering up and protecting an accused sex offender when that person is an ordained priest or elder, in order to keep the accusation and the crime away from the media. This is what the Roman Catholic Church has done on numerous occasions.

Believing such doctrines is okay, as personal beliefs, per se. But when the physical welfare of young children is advertantly placed into jeopardy, into the hands of sexual predators who have successfully lied their way into the fellowship of local congregations for the express purpose of satisfying their sexual cravings, as a result of such practices, the discernment doctrine, and its accompanying rituals, have to become immediately suspect. The old scenario of a murderer, rapist, or convicted criminal seeking refuge in a monastery, in order to purge himself from a world of sin, is melodramatic but unrealistic when dealing with a pedophile. In a monastery the aberrant person is, at least, cutoff from the rest of the world, and can't do harm to others behind monastic walls. But a pedophile, convicted or unconvicted, cannot be contained, and will commit his vile crimes again and again if allowed his/her freedom to associate with, or be around, children. Even after decades of psychiatric therapy, it is almost impossible for pedophiles to change their spots. This fact, alone, makes me wonder why a leader of a sect would have the temerity to pronounce a convicted sex offender free of sin, as innocently clean as a new-born lamb, and free to interact with the children of parents unaware of the man's criminal history.

Since it is going to be long time before American law will force ecclesiastical leaders of sects to perform criminal history checks on those many men, and women, they induct into their ranks and, after a year-or-more, ordain to lay clergies, I encourage all congregational parents to beware of single, or married men, who take an abnormal interest in their male and female children. You can recognize potential pedophiles as those men, and women, who regularly carry candy in their pockets and hand it out to the children, before, after, and in-between Church services. Pedophiles are frequently older men who regularly offer to freely transport children around to their after-school or summer activities. Beware if there are older men in your congregations seeking to associate with children by offering to give free computer/video game lessons. Sometimes these men will salivate for months, and years, before worming their way into your lives for deviantly ulterior purposes. This is why I seriously believe that the universal penalty for sexual child molestation should be chemical castration.

Unfortunately, in a libertarian religious society, such as what you have in the United States, the main burden of protection for young children, from pedophiles, is levied upon the shoulders of concerned parents. When I was a California peace officer, during the 1980s, I was shocked at the number of children placed under the care of San Diego County Child Protective Services, during a months time, as a result of physical, mental, and sexual abuse, just at home. And it really hasn't changed that much. In, both, large cities and small communities, there are adult child molesters who regularly harm children, physically and sexually, as a result of uncalculated rage or premeditated design. More American fathers are now being charged with child rape than ever before. Perhaps it is high-time for laws to be changed to protect innocent children, who may become the victims of sexual predators in unchecked religious societies.

Norton R. Nowlin took M.A. and B.A. degrees in the social and behavioral sciences from the university of Texas at Tyler, studied law for one full year at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, in San Diego, California, and earned an ABA-approved advanced paralegal certification from Edmonds Community College, in Lynnwood, Washington. Mr. Nowlin as attended LaJolla, California's National University and Malibu's Pepperdine University to attain graduate credits in business management and economics. Mr. Nowlin also attained a Texas State Teaching Certification, in social studies and psychology, from the University of Texas at Tyler. A paralegal, published essayist, poet, and free-lance fiction writer, Mr. Nowlin resides in Northern Virginia with his wife, the renown math tutor, Diane C. Nowlin, and their two very intelligent cats.

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Society's Response to Male Sexual Abuse

Read the current accounts of boys being sexually abused by teachers and you may soon see that the offense is being viewed in a whole different way than abuse by male teachers and female students.

Sexual abuse against boys is not as frequently recognized by society as a criminal offense as it is when a female is abused. Much of society appears to show a lack of interest in hearing about male sexual abuse and have false beliefs about what constitutes male sexual abuse.

Many people are in denial and would rather put the blame on the boy rather than hold the adult accountable. Adults tend to make the child victim may feel like that he "caused it happen," or "it is proof" that he enjoyed it.

Often adults believe that boys should be able to fight back. Boys are taught at a very young age that they are supposed to be strong and can protect themselves. without adult intervention This places an incredible burden on boys often leaving them feeling guilty, ashamed, and depressed. The truth is that just like girls, boys cannot always fight back.

Just like it works with female victims, the perpetrator exercises his or her position of authority and frequently uses resources such as attention, gifts, money, or threats to gain control over the child.

Many male sexual abuse victims live in fear and suffer the feelings of guilt and shame because they experienced physical arousal while being abused. This does not mean that the child wanted the experience or understood what it meant at the time.

When a boy is sexually abused by an adult male, many people believe that sexual abuse only happens to homosexual boys or those seeking to become homosexual. People believe that as a result of the abuse, the victim automatically becomes homosexual. The very nature of sexual abuse and incest, and its associated stigma causes humiliation, shame, self-blame, fear, and secrecy for survivors. This places a heavy torture is a primary reason why most sexual abuse goes unreported. When it is reported, people want to believe that the boy is reporting a false memory and is simply dreaming up the events of his sexual abuse.

Many of these victims cope with the abuse by using alcohol, abusing drugs and may suffer from depression, and anxiety. These victims may see their lives as out of control and will often become abusers themselves. Like all child sexual abuse, sexual assault on a boy by a male offender is about abuse of power and controlling the victim and not all about sex at all. The pain of admitting that he could not protect himself leaves him feeling worthless, helpless and guilt ridden so victims remain silent out of fear humiliation and ridicule.

If a female offender initiates sex with a boy, it is often viewed as an encounter other boys and men would envy. The male victim of a female abuser often feels deeply ashamed of himself, believes something is wrong with him, and that he is weak for not being able to fight off the offender.

What we need is to educate people and end the cycle of abuse. In a society of equal rights, let's extend those rights to the boy that reports sexual abuse and rape. We all know there is no cure of pedophiles but we can make it much easier on the victims. Boys do not want to be victimized by men or women but when they are, the boy's abuse is less likely to be recognized by adults.

Avoiding Abuse by Persons in a Position of Trust

Your child needs to be armed with specific skills to protect him/herself against sex offenders that appear as instructors, doctors, coaches, teachers, scout leaders, clergy, youth group leaders and others, who have easy access to children that they may see as potential victims.

Sex offenders in a position of trust are particularly difficult to detect because they can easily mask their true motivation for creating a close relationship with a child.

The following survival skills will give children the the knowledge and skills to avoid most of the common methods used by the average sex offender:

• Trust believe your child's instincts. If something is making your child uncomfortable act on that suspicion. Request a different teacher, switch doctors, join a different team, or attend another church. If that change is absolutely not possible, actively supervise your child at all times. There is always a reason that the child is not comfortable.
  

• Beware the teacher, preacher, coach or instructor who asks for help or favors. Talk to your kids about not being alone even with adults they trust. Talk to your kids about keeping the door open if they are called into the teacher's office or better yet take a buddy.
  

• Use caution when accepting gifts from adults. Everyone who buys a child a gift is attempting to create a closer relationship with the child. Receiving gifts from adults or teens outside the family or very close extended family is not appropriate and should be rejected.
  

• Beware the preacher, priest, minister, deacon, youth leader, rabbi or religious lay-person, who showers your son or dauther with attention. One of the very first techniques all sex offenders use is finding the void in a child's life and filling that space. They will take days, weeks, months, years or however long it takes to win the heart of the intended victim. Never be alone even with a member of the clergy. A reputable clergy person will bring a friend or associate to visit anyone and will not insist on being alone with anyone and especially not children.


• Pay very close attention to flattery. If your child's teacher, coach, instructor, or anyone else wants to be the one to spend an unusual amouth of time with your child to help him/her with homework, bring out his best talent or help him meet his/her potential, start paying attention NOW. This extra special attention is a very common technique used by all child molesters, pedophiles and sexual predators to gain the trust of the child prior to victimization.
  

• Avoid dropping your child off for games, lessons, and other activities. This seems so safe but it leaves your child in a vulnerable position and he/she can easily be targeted for abuse.


• Talk to your children about what inappropriate comments are and what innappropriate touching is. Let them know that it is never their fault if it someone does say something that makes them uncomfortable or if someone does touch them in a place they should not be touched.

There is no guaranteed method that will prevent sex offenders from abusing children. These criminals are very creative when it comes to grooming their victims. Just be aware of any warning signs or inappropriate behavior.

Here are some sex offender resources: National Alert Registry (NAR) was designed to bring sex offender information directly to the public. By conducting a ZIP Code search they will be able to notify you if a sexual offender has moved into your community as well as provide you with a complete profile of the sexual offender. Cyber Detective guides you through the process of finding information about nearly anyone. This incredible software resource will instantly guide you through the maze of over 800 million web pages and bring you to where you need to be to find what you're looking for, then walk you through the process of how to locate the information you're seeking.