School Employee Sexual Misconduct: School Culture, Practices, and Policies That Contribute to the Sexual Abuse of Students

• In Event: Crises and Corruption: Navigating the Conditions of School Culture and Climate

Abstract

Ten percent of public school students in the U.S. are the victims of school employee sexual abuse. There is little in the existing research that identifies and describes the school culture, patterns, and conditions in which this abuse occurs. The purpose of this study was to document the conditions and patterns in schools where school employee sexual misconduct has occurred. One hundred cases of school employee sexual abuse were studied using documents from civil litigation. Within the schools where school employee sexual misconduct occurred, there were six broad categories that describe the breakdowns in prevention: sloppy hiring; inadequate policies; non-existent training; lack of supervision of employee behavior; and failure to respond to allegations and red flags.

Author

• Charol Shakeshaft, Virginia Commonwealth University