Across the U.S., thousands of students have been sexually assaulted, by other students, in high schools, junior highs and even elementary schools – a hidden horror educators have long been warned not to ignore.
A yearlong investigation by the Associated Press uncovered roughly 17,000 official reports of sex assaults by students over a four-year period, from fall 2011 to spring 2015. And although that figure represents the most complete tally yet of sexual assaults among the nation’s 50 million K-12 students, it doesn’t fully capture the problem because such attacks are greatly under-reported, some states don’t track them, and those that do vary widely in how they classify and catalog sexual violence.
Sexual violence that AP tracked often was mischaracterized as bullying, hazing, or consensual behavior. It occurred anywhere students were left unsupervised: buses and bathrooms, hallways, and locker rooms. No type of school was immune, whether it be in an upper-class suburb, an inner-city neighborhood, or blue-collar farm town.
Schools frequently were unwilling or ill-equipped to address the problem, AP found, despite having long been warned by the U.S. Supreme Court that they could be liable for monetary damages. Some administrators and educators even engaged in cover-ups to hide evidence of a possible crime and protect their schools’ image.
To help protect your school against costly lawsuits, but most importantly, to help keep students safe, our SafeSchools Alert Tip Reporting System allows students, staff, and parents to report safety concerns to school officials 24/7/365. Staff are immediately notified of every tip and can easily track and manage incidents to resolution within the web-based system.
For a demonstration, please call 1-800-434-0154 or email [email protected] today.
